Archive for category Grade 8
BP Oil Spill = Seafood Genocide
Posted by William in AOW, Appino, Grade 8, Middle School on May 2, 2012
A few minutes ago I just finished reading an article about the latest BP oil spill that happened lately, at first that I think that it wouldn’t effect the sea life too bad. Because it is only oil and it wouldn’t do much damage because the company who is responsible of the oil spill, will take care of the oil. But after I read the article, it was way worse than what I thought it would be because instead of the seafood dying right away, they become mutated first and then they start to die, slowly! I think this is a terrible disaster because the oil is torturing and killing so many fishes around the area, the oil company should help to clean up the mess they made. Some of the things that comes to my mind is that, what IS inside the oil and how did it mutate the fishes. I learned the answer, it was actually radioactive chemicals that are inside the oil which mutates the fishes killing it in the process.

I know that some of you guys thinks that the fishes will gain super powers making them mutants like in cartoons or comic books. Well, no. The mutations can really mess up the sea life’s body and poison them slowly and making their body deformed. This is what I think is a genocide, because there are so many sea life that is killed or poisoned by the radioactive oil, also because it is almost like mass murder, but to fishes. Whats worse is that the oil company doesn’t want to take responsibility for the oil spill they made, even though they were the only oil company around and they were also kind of caught red handed by the people who were at the beach at the time when the oil spill happened. This act was very irresponsible and childish, because they tried to hide something that everyone saw which is something foolish to do when you are already caught.
The future has arrived!
Posted by William in AOW, Appino, Grade 8, Uncategorized on April 11, 2012
Just a few moments ago I read an article about the Google glasses that have been shown for kind of like a teaser trailer for Google’s up coming product that might be released by the end of this year. This wasn’t the first time I saw the google glasses because I have seen it on another website which doesn’t have anything to do with technology. At first I thought it was a fake like how they said that there will be a play station 4 coming out soon in 2011 but instead nothing came just disappointing hopes, but then I did a little research on Google and other websites and they said that it wasn’t released yet, but it will be released by probably the end of the year. I didn’t believe it, I thought that it must be fake until I saw the Google glasses official page, even thought there wasn’t much information, it was enough information for me to claim that it is a real thing. When I saw the video for the first time, it amazed me because of the multiple features the glasses have. What amazed me most was how it can locate a person’s exact location, it was so amazing that I thought it’s too good to be true. So I started to think about the down sides of the glasses.
One of the down sides was that it could be a huge privacy invasion to some people because the person who have the glasses can know where you are exactly. Another that is a downside was that it could disturb everyday life if you’re walking and suddenly a notification pops out and every time you close it, it pops out again.The worst feature for me is that you can only see with only one eye every time you want to video chat or call up someone. There are also good sides to this invention which is, you can finally video chat or call someone with hands free and just by using your vision. Another thing is that Google glasses could be very expensive and only little would be sold because of the prize. The fact that they’re going to test it in summer in front of people near Google offices makes me want to go to America and spot a person with a Google Glasses and just stare at them for having such an amazing gadget. I think that Google glasses could be the future of communicating to the rest of the world and this might steal the show from apple and other smart phones other than androids. These glasses remind me of another device from a cartoon series where they have these glasses that can help see farther, show the temperature and call other people. Maybe in a couple of years, there won’t be any cellphones anymore because by then we would be using the Google glasses. I hope that I would be able to have one of these in my life, because they look very futuristic and unique for me.
Drop the guns and end the fights!
1 week ago I watched a short movie named Kony 2012, this movie was about a tyrant named Kony which have been kidnapping lots of children so that he can make an army from them. He would sneak to their houses at night and snatch them from their bed right away and bring them to his base which have lots of other kidnapped children that was already made his army. Almost throughout the whole week I kept on thinking about Kony and his crimes against humanity. But most of the time I would be thinking how did he become so heartless that he forces his child army to kill their own parents. At first the whole video left me with a whole bunch of questions such as, I wonder how it feels like to be carrying a gun and killing people just because you’re told to, feels like? They must be in a state of guilt for killing their own parents, some might even think of suicide because they couldn’t take anymore of the killing and also they couldn’t bare the guilt anymore. There are also other ways to get out of the army which is, escaping from the camp,but it is very hard many people that tried to escape were caught and killed, only a few managed to escape out of the camp.
There are little who escaped but invisible children managed got to meet one of the escapists, his name is Jacob and he was an ex child soldier with his brother. Jacob was able to escape from Kony’s LRA and have a different life but still remembering about the LRA camp where he used to life in. When he and his brother tried to escape his brother was caught by the search team and was killed right on the spot while Jacob was watching. I think that this was a very inhumane way to die and if I was Jacob, I’d scared for life for watching my own brother being killed inhumanely. Even when he have already escaped he is still worried that Kony and his forces would find him and the rest of the escapists and he’ll kill them for escaping. Kony’s reason to fight was “To maintain his power” which means he has no enemies but he is just fighting so that he can still have power. Kony isn’t just a tyrant and a kidnapper but he is also responsible for the death of lots of children. The video described Kony as the “#1 target in the list of criminals in Sweden”
Stop Kony Annotated Link Notes
Revolutionary war vocab project
Posted by William in Grade 8, Middle School, Uncategorized on March 15, 2012
Summary
What did you do? Summarize what you did. Be specific
For this project me and Daniel decided to at first, make a story. But after time goes by we decided to make a short story instead about a vocabulary show because we didn’t had much time left. Our project had many different settings involved which is a little bit random sometimes. Even though we were kind of in a hurry, we managed to get our work done in time before the presentation to the class also we got to have some fun.
Analyze your learning:
What did you do well?
I think what I did well was that I was able to be cooperative with my partner to finish the story together, also we all had equal work time so that not one of us did most of the work. Another thing is that we did well on being creative because even though our settings was random, all of them some how connected to each other so that they are easy to understand and memorable to the readers/audience.
What was challenging?
What was challenging was how we have to suddenly switch the plan from a script to a story, this was challenging because we had to finish on time and have a small story for each of them.
What could you improve? Identify 2-3 areas that you could improve on.
The first thing we could improve on is that we can have a proper plan and organize the time wisely so that we don’t have to switch anything up when the project is almost due.
Learn
What did you learn from this learning activity? (Be specific with examples).
I learned that organizing time is going to be a very important thing through out my years in school and beyond because it is hard to reorganize and restart when it is very close to the due date.
This is my short story that I did with my partner:
Hello everybody and welcome to the Vocabulary Show today! We’re talking about words that come from The Revolutionary War of the United States and the events that lead up to it! The first word today is parliament! This word represents a group of people that create the laws. Here is a dramatization of what the world sounds like when used in a real life situation.
“Hey, Hammuarabi! Hammurabi! We need to make some laws! I will help you! What should they be?” A one of the men who created laws with Hammurabi asked.
“Hmm.. I don’t know… wait I’ve got one! How about an eye for an eye? So if one person takes out the eye of another, the other can take out their eye too, as punishment and also to be fair?” Hammurabi responded.
“Why not? That’s a great law. Let’s tell the rest of the parliament too, to finalize the decision.” The man replied.
This might be a fantasized dramatization, but the British Parliament was present in the Revolutionary War too. The British Parliament created the Stamp Act in 1765 in order to receive taxes from the colonists for using stamps.
Now here is the next word! It is….Repealed! Repealed is to throw out or cancel something. The plot in this story is completely made up, there are no connections to history.
“Hey Hammurabi the eye for an eye isn’t working out so lets repeal it…..” a follower of Hammurabi told him.
“Why dear sir? What has happened?” Hammurabi said in reply.
“Well, there was a major fight in town, and everyone started poking each other’s eyes out. What shall we do? It is still going on!” The man said.
“Oh, that is bad, indeed. Let’s get rid of the law as soon as possible.” Hammurabi said back. Afterwards, the humble and wise Hammurabi got rid of the law, and scribbled it out from his plan, as he was coming up with many laws that were to be engraved in stone.
Roll the next clip please! Our next word is… boycott, which means to stop buying or using something for political reasons. This was what happened before the British collected taxes.
“Hey, here are the goods that you requested. My name is Muddy Boulder, and these are my companions. We didn’t get to really introduce ourselves last time we met.” Greeted Muddy Boulder, along with his companions.
“Ah, if it isn’t Muddy boulder the trader of the Indians! Now I finally know ya name! You’ve been such a great person to trade with, very fair too! Anyway here is your money, C ya next time folks!” John said.
Now, this is what happened after the British started collecting taxes.
“Hey, Muddy Boulder, I need to talk with you for a sec,” John said. “we need to show them British that we won’t pay taxes for trade, so I won’t be able to trade with you for a while. I’m very sorry bout this, making you come all the way here for nothing.”
“Are you kiddin’ me? You’re not gonna ever see me again,” Muddy Boulder replied in anger. “Bah bye, go trade wit someone else!” That was the end of the trade between Muddy Boulder and John, however, these were all for political reasons, and John was not the only one cutting off trades.
Our show now bring you the 4th word and 5th words! The 4th word is patriot. The word Patriot comes from the guy named Pat who was rioting against the government for his country’s rights, and then some citizens that saw him made the word patriot. Just kidding, the word patriot means people who lived in the colonies and fought against British rule. Our fifth word militia represents armies made of normal people who are not paid to do a soldier’s job.
“Alright erry body, we gon get those sons of guns Brits and chase their butts out of them tents!” A fellow citizen in Boston shouted.
“Yes! We gon to be soldiers fo our rights today!” another citizen exclaimed.
“Remember we’re patriots, not some fat head who wants to be controlled by the Brits, NOW LETS GO!” Another one cried. Then, the citizens of Boston rampaged through the city and charged at the British soldiers.
Now, word number 6! this new word will be introduced by Dr. Mudflaps!
Ah, the word representative! I have an example for it! Many years ago, Martin Luther King spoke in public representing all of the African American people in the United States. He was one of the few people that were courageous enough to talk about black rights. He talked about racism, and everything that was thought by every African American; this was why he was a representative of African Americans.
Thank you Dr. Mudflaps! Now, it is time for our 7th word, which is actually a phrase, Sons of Liberty!
During the Boston Massacre, many people protested for their rights, and claimed that the British were taking all their money for their own benefit, by collecting taxes. This is basically what happened:
“You have no rights to take taxes from us for your own benefits! This is OUR territory, not only YOURS!” a colonist cried out. However, the soldiers still remained silent, watching the colonists’ every move waiting for their chance to strike.
“Yeah, we tired of dis movement that y’all controlling! There needs ta be an end to this! Y’all have no right to do this!” Another colonist cried out. “Throw the snowballs! The fight is on people!”
This was how the Boston Massacre started. These people that were rebelling against the British authorities were Sons of Liberty, because they were colonists that protested and didn’t agree on the British leaders’ decisions.
I’m pretty sure y’all know pretty darn well about them colonists! Ha ha! Now, for our next word: propaganda. I will introduce this word myself!
A propaganda is a way of spreading information around for the purpose of helping a cause or a specific person. One example of propaganda in history is the political cartoon, JOIN, or DIE. This was created during colonial times by Benjamin Franklin so that the colonists would unite against British rule.
Our 9th word is protested! As seen in the example of Sons of Liberty, the colonists protested by throwing snowballs at British soldiers that were completely watching over the city of Boston. Protesting is when a group of people or even just one person fight against something. For example, in this situation, the colonists fought for the taxes they had to pay, as they thought it was wrong.
10th word! Actually, it’s another phrase; unalienable right! An unalienable right is basically something that a human has to do, a basic human right, that cannot be taken away by the government. An example of an unalienable right is freedom of speech. A person should be able to speak for themselves; it is not something that the government can take away from a person.
Now, next up is our 11th word! The next word is loyalists. Loyalists are people who supported the British government during the American revolution. These people were the British Parliament or also the British soldiers, because they were fighting for the taxes and supported the British government and helped them. These were the people that made the colonists suffer economically, which caused the colonists to protest in anger.
The 12th word is tariff, which means a tax on goods brought in to the country. An example of this word would be when a trader came from another country; they would be charged a tariff because they would bring goods from another country to trade, so the government would demand a portion of the money that will be earned, for the country. So, every time someone came to trade in Boston, they would have been charged a tariff. For example, John in the other example had gotten angry because the government was starting to charge tariffs, so he and many other traders stopped their trade to show the government that this wasn’t right.
Word number 13 is continental congress. A continental congress is a meeting of chosen representatives from each English colony (during the colonial times) to discuss on a topic, usually relating to war. Many continental congresses were formed in the colonial times, but sometimes the objectives of the congress was not quite clear. They were mostly formed to discuss independence and also peace.
Now it is number 14, and the word is revolution. The word revolution means a complete sudden change of a government. An example would be the American revolution which was a directly clear explanation starting with the title it self. It was when the British government had lost control, and the British colonies started fighting. Since word 14 is quite related to word 15, I will tell you about 15 right now. Word number 15 is grievance, which is a complaint against a ruling government. An example would be when the colonists complained about the British government, and rebelled for the Sugar Act, Stamp Act, and much more unfair tax acts.
The last word but not the least, number 16, is blockade. A blockade is using warships to block the harbor to prevent other ships from leaving the harbor to trade with another country, that needs to be reached by sea. During the colonial times, this prevented many merchants to trade with other merchants, and caused many economical problems for the colonist merchants.
Well, I’ll rap it up here! We hope you enjoyed tonight’s show! We’ll see you next week at the same day, same time! Good night people!
Facebook the spyware?
Posted by William in AOW, Appino, Grade 8, Middle School on February 16, 2012
A day or two ago I was assigned an article to blog about by my teacher and it was about how facebook is only using you so that they can gain information to sell to the government. I think that this might be a way on how to get people who have crossed the copyright law to jail without them knowing they’re being watched the whole time. What I think facebook is doing with the information they know about us is sell them to companies. So they can send advertisements about what you like and things you’re searching for. This article makes me think twice about using facebook because its like they’re monitoring you’re life and gaining data from it, so that one day if they ever need it they can use it against us. This might be another plan from SOPA because with this SOPA can monitor whether you copied something without crediting them the proper rights.
I think this should be stopped because they are selling things that belong to us without our permission, it is almost the same thing as stealing an item, but worst. The data they collect right now can be used as an advantage when you’re in the court, in front of the jury and defending your client. This program is the same like stalker, it knows where you’re going, when you’re going, why you’re going, and how you’re going. I was thinking of deactivating my account but I don’t want to lose contact of my friends from all over the world. Maybe all the social networks are also an attempt to gather information from you, maybe Google wanted to make more money by selling data so they invented Google Plus.
The Most Remarkable Man!
Posted by William in Appino, Grade 8, Middle School on February 7, 2012
I think that William Warraghiyagey or Johnson, was a remarkable man because he was very modest and respected everyone. When William was poor and also a fur trader with the Indians, he never took advantages of the Indians like most of the white fur traders at that time. Even though he lived like a feudal Lord because of being very rich, he never took advantages of anyone. Not only is he kind and modest but he was also fierce in the battlefield. After winning the first war out of two, he was Knighted by the King. Even when he was old and was preparing for war against General Baron, he insisted on leading his own warriors to war instead of having him do it for him. I think almost all of his actions were sensible and the right thing to do.I think that William Johnson is a remarkable man and he deserves the title Sir.

Algebra Stress Level
Posted by William in Elshoff, Grade 8, Middle School on February 5, 2012
I think in Algebra my stress level is about 75% because some of the materials I don’t understand and I didn’t meet the requirement, also my performance is only about 56% because some material I don’t fully understand. I think the reason is because I’m too shy to ask questions with the teacher and maybe if I asked more questions I would be to improve more than before. Also checking back my work is a problem after I’m done with my work, I think organization of time would help a lot because then I would have enough time to check back my work and do my other home works. The graph below explains that the X axis is the amount of stress and the Y axis explains the performance level. This relates because the more stress you have the lesser performance you will reach but when you are between high stress and low stress you will achieve higher performance. This graph can help you know where you are.

Equiano’s Passage to America
Then the soldiers dragged me to a hold, the stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerably loathsome, that it was dangerous to remain there for any time, and some of us had been permitted to stay on the deck for the fresh air; but now that the whole ship’s cargo were confined together, it became absolutely packed with slaves captured from each of their own places. The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the hundreds of slaves in the ship, which was so crowded that each and every one of us barely have the space to turn around, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspiration, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable. Some of the slaves I see would pee them selves because there are no bathroom, the human waste made the air even more unpleasant
While laying down on my space I was thinking of home, where they would treat me nicely and I have an open space where I can lay down in. When I almost fell asleep, suddenly one of the sailors poured a bucket full of sea water on me so that I would wake up. I was shocked on the harsh method of waking people up. Then they forced me to sit up, after I sat up they start shoving food in my mouth so that I could eat and stay alive. When I was chewing the food they would make me hurry and swallow the food so that they can shove more in. When I tried to refuse to eat they would strike me so that I would follow orders and eat. Groaning was coming from almost everywhere because they were also being force fed by the sailors. The captured slaves might have think that they’d rather die than eat and keep on being tortured everyday by the sailors.
After a few minutes of force feeding they left the cargo to get back up to the deck for fresh air. Some of the slaves were chocking on their food because they have to much food inside their mouths due to force feeding. While I’m busy chewing on my food in my mouth, my neighbour were choking on his food and almost vomiting. Just when I thought it was over, a few minutes later they forced us to go to the deck. After all of us has arrived to the deck, they made us dance so that we can have some physical activity and also to keep us in shape. Some of us refused to dance and so the sailors took their whips and whipped them so that they will do so even if they’re tired. After almost an hour we head back to the cargo and laid down on the floor, when all of us settled in we were all exhausted from the harsh activities. The next day we woke up from a terrible smell of dead corpses, and so the sailors picked them up and tossed them out of the boat and into the ocean. Day by day more people die because of diseases and hygiene issues, after so much suffering we survived and landed on America.
Work Cited
Discovery Education. “Understanding Slavery.” Discovery Education. N.p., n.d.
Web. 19 Jan. 2012. <http://school.discoveryeducation.com/
schooladventures/slavery/equiano_passage.html>.
Spartacus Educational. “Olaudah Equiano.” Spartacus Educational. N.p., n.d. Web.
19 Jan. 2012. <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Sequiano.htm>.
Wikipedia. “Olaudah Equiano.” Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2012.
Reaction Writing to Olaudah Equiano’s life
Posted by William in Appino, Grade 8, Middle School, Writing on January 16, 2012
After years Equiano bought his freedom and he was finally a freeman, even though he bought his freedom a couple of slave traders still captured him as a slave. Equiano was tied to the mast for the whole night until finally they let him down and set him free. After he was set free Equiano planned to go to England, which he accomplished. In England Equiano wrote an autobiography called ; The life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. His autobiography then became an international best seller.
Slavery, the tormentor of centuries.
Posted by William in Appino, Grade 8, Middle School, Writing on January 11, 2012
When I read the pages about slavery in America back in 16 and 17 centuries I was surprised that they were still using methods of death penalty that weren’t efficient such as hanging or burning at stakes. I learned more unusual things from the article more than the book, because there were more details and a time line in the article. I think that slavery is like hell on earth for the Africans, because everyday they were forced to hard labor without any pay and little food for the day. Most slaves would die because of the harsh condition of their everyday labor and punishments from their master for making simple mistakes. When I saw the diagram of the slave ship I was shocked because there were many people stuffed in rows in the slave ship. I wonder how they feel after months of voyage in the same ship without any stops.
1. What surprised you about this article and this topic from your Colonial Life Exchange Activity? Why – Explain your reasons.
What surprised me was how they would massacre a whole village for a small amount of people and also the amount of people in one ship just scared me because imagine staying there for months. Also another thing that surprised me was the laws and rules the slave masters used in the house hold and most of them included pain or force.




