Brutus's Dilemma

If I was Brutus, and had to choose between my best friend and my country, I would choose to save my country and join the conspiracy. Even though Caeser is a good general and popular to the commoners, it doesn't mean that he is a good leader who can make peace and improvement to Rome. And the situation Brutus is in makes it harder for Brutus to choose Caeser over Rome, because he also loves his country and according to Cassius, Caeser will be a bad infuluence to Rome. Brutus doesn't really have the choice because Cassius is making the decisions for Brutus by making him think that many others also agree with him. Brutus thinks that Caeser will do anything he wants to do and not care about other people's suggestions. It's natural for people like Caesar who has power to become selfish and greedy.

Imperialism

Imperialism is when a powerfull country take over smaller country for land, capital and labor. Imperialism began in Europe where the countries are all small. For example, England took over India for cotton and indigo, and Muslim countries for the access to the seas. It was easier for European countries to take over countries such as India and some in Africa where there was no one big community. Also, England and the other European countries were advanced in technology. When other countries would ask for help in governing the country, they would gladly help them and slowly take over the land. That's what happened to Turkey, Persia, and Egypt. But Imperialism wasn't all that bad. It brought some advantages for the poor countries. For example, India could learn some new technology and everyone started speaking in English which now is a great advantage for them. In Turkey, after loosing all the lands, the leaders decided to modernize their country and now Turkey is one of the richest countries.

Leadership

What are the qualities of a good leader? Who are the student leaders in Grade 8? How do they demonstrate the qualities of a good leader?

People who become leaders in a gang or in a school are people who are usually loud, dramatic, bright, handsome or pretty, and makes school interesting. These people do thing that others want to do but cannot do either because they are not allowed or not brave enough. The leader type people are very brave to do things and makes things seem fun. People around these people think that everything they do is "cool". Because school is a dull place where there are strict rules and things to learn. These people make others want to come to school.

End of Quarter 1 Feedback

My goal in the first quarter was to memorize more vocabularies by reading and improve on writing essays. I think I didn't really reach my first quarter goal. I did a really poor job on writing assignments and didn't work hard on them. The vocabularies are always the same in my essays so that proves that I hadn't really worked in learning vocabularies.
What are three specific goals that you have for quarter two in humanities?
For this quarter, I think that I should keep the same goals; improving on writing essays and learning more vocabularies by reading. I should read more educational books. I think that for this quarter, I should read more about the topic at home and improve on researching for more specific informations by using the library books instead of internet.

Reflection on Political Cartoon

What are the main visual elements?

There is a fat, gigantic man standing with a wicked smile with a tag saying “capitalism” and he is holding a thin, small man labeled “labor”. As the fat man shakes the small man, who is struggling to get rid of the fat man’s hand, money falls out from him and it goes in the bag labeled “child labor”. Underneath the cartoon, there's a poem or a poice of writing about the evils of capitalism.

What issue is this political cartoon about?

I think this political cartoon is about capitalism and the author is trying to tell the cons of capitalism. It’s about the way capitalism works for the laborers. It shows that the rich people keep on getting richer while the laborers have to work the hardest and don’t get paid well.

What is the cartoonist’s opinion on this issue?

I think the cartoonist doesn’t like the idea of capitalism and how it works for the poor laborers. The cartoonist thinks that there must be a change in a way capitalism

What evidence in the cartoon leads you to believe that the author feels this way?

You can see that the man labeled “capitalism” is shown big and mean. It shows that the richer man has the power to "use" the people in the labor class. All he needs to do is shake the tiny, helpless laborers to get the money. It shows that capitalism is using the laborers as if they’ve got no rights.

What other techniques could the cartoonist have used to make this cartoon more persuasive?

He could have shown what effects it would have on all of the readers if the way the capitalism works did not change to persudade the reader. He could have shown what was happening to the laborers more.

Quater 1 Goal Reflection

I think I haven't not made much of a progress on improving on essays though I did get many chances to write a lot in humanities. I should be more descriptive and show more than tell. Also I think I should work on making better sentences and using right words for them. I need to work on making my essays sound more like the characters and think deeply about what the characters would think about and what they’d really be like.
I think I did learn some nice vocabularies about industry and economy though I didn’t learn it by reading. But I should still work on descriptive vocabularies. I think I should read more books of different varieties and not only fiction.

1870's Stock Market Reflection

1. Buy Low…Sell High

I think the very first tip that Mr Coyle gave us was the most important. At first I didn't understand what the whole game was about and used half of my money to buy the stock that would have been popular in 1870's. And then as the years passed, the price of the stocks changed as the supplies and demand changed. Sometimes, when the stock price would get really cheap because of some small problems, you would buy it eventhough you would be taking alot of risk. In another words, we became entrepreneurs, people who take risks to earn money. At the end, the stocks that seemed to be unuseful became really expensive and it was a great advantage for the people who had bought alot of stocks when they were cheap. So you should buy stocks when they are cheap and see if you could make profits.