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As I was reading through the article, I noticed that some animals are getting extinct, and the zoos in United States are trying to save  the species from getting extinct. As the title of the article had mentioned, “To save some species, zoos must let others die”. In my opinion, I think that this idea is immoral.

“zoo officials have concluded that they must winnow species in their care and devote more resources to a chosen few.”

Every animals are important, I don’t think it is a good idea to save a few out of a bunch, because animals are just like humans, every animals should have the rights to live in a safety zone, filled with care and love. The zookeepers should try to save all the animals and insects, instead of choosing which animals are the most crucial to save, because every animals are crucial.

““We as a society have to decide if it is going to be ethically and morally appropriate to simply display animals for entertainment purposes,” said Dr. Steven L. Monfort.

I disagree with Dr.Steven L.Monfort, I don’t understand how displaying animals in the zoo is entertainment purpose. Children travel to the zoo to learn more about animals, not only for entertainment.

Who’s responsible for this situation? I think that everyone are responsible for this situation because since we eat animals, we eat insects, it requires the people to hunt more animals to serve our needs. Some people hunt wild animals to sell for money, which is causing the extinction of wild animals. Until these actions stop, then animals and insects will be able to live in a safety zone where there’s no killing and hunting, no eating wild animals, and more importantly, animals will feel protective and comfortable living with their species, and not running for their lives, suffering days by days watching out for hunters that’ll hunt them down.

Ronald Trinh

Humanities 8

Year End Reflection

June 6th, 2012

My Growth For The Past Few Years

As Middle School is coming to an end, I started to realize that I’ve changed the way I think and the way I look at things. More importantly, I’ve improved the way I learn, and how I organize my time to get my homework done on time. Looking back at myself when I was a sixth grader, I can feel that I’ve improved on my writing skills, reading skills, speaking and listening skills, and my thoughts have also grew more mature.

At the beginning of the year, I started out lazily, I thought that eighth grade will just be the same as seventh grade, which means that you don’t have to study in order to get a good grade. But as the year went on, I started to realize that there’s no points in getting good grades. I thought that what’s the point of learning when all you care about is your grades, grades don’t show anything, they don’t show who you are. So I told myself to work harder, because I’m here to learn, I’m not here to achieve good grades for my parents. Because of these reasons,  I push myself to work harder, pay more attention in class, and ask questions when I don’t understand the assignment. My writing skills have also improved by a little. I learned how to write a long essay with a thesis statement. Compare from the beginning of the year, my conventions skills improved by a little, I make less grammar mistakes than I did at the beginning of the year. My favorite writing piece in eighth grade is the Research Writing. Although it is one of the most challenging piece of writing  I’ve ever had, but this piece of writing taught me how to properly parenthetical cite the quotes and the researches. It also taught me how to write a thesis statement, and improved my essay-writing skills. Even though I’ve improved a lot in my writing skills, I’m still not used to the writing process. I never brainstorm and outlines in my writing, I just write whatever’s in my head, and then revise it later, this is why I write very slow, and most of the times my ideas are not organized.

My reading experience this year has been the greatest reading experience in Middle School. I really enjoy doing novels study where a whole class read the same book and we can discuss about a confusing part or a best part of the book in literature circle. This helps me to understand more about the book that I’m reading, which helps me to enjoy the book even more. The challenging thing about reading for me is the speed. I’m a slow reader, a really slow reader. When we were reading My Brother Sam is Dead, I have to spend two hours everyday to read, while other people only need thirty minutes to finish thirty pages of reading. Reading helps me to improved my vocabularies as well as my conventions skills, these are the reasons why I should read more. My goal for next year reading is to read more than ten books within a year, to improve my reading skills as well as my writing skills, because my humanities teacher told me that we can write a lot better when we read a lot of books, and yes, I really want to improve on my writing skills because they are still too weak.

How have you developed as a speaker? At the beginning of the year, when the first time I heard about AOW discussion, I was really worried, because I’m a shy person and I’m always nervous every time I talk in front of many people. But then after a few AOW discussions, I got more comfortable with it, and after many of them, I don’t feel nervous anymore, and the shyness inside my head went away. When I present in front of the class for a project, I’m struggling with eye contacts, instead of memorizing what I have to say, I kept reading from the notes that I printed on a piece of paper, and kept focusing on the notes. Sometimes, because of nervousness, my face turns red, and I started to speak really fast. Although I’ve improved my speaking skills a lot compared to the beginning of the year, I still have a lot of work to work on, especially speaking in front of the crowd, I have to learn how to keep calm, and relax while I’m presenting, instead of worrying about results, which make me even more nervous. As a listener, I’ve developed good listening habits. I listen to others when they are sharing their opinions, and then speak my opinions when they are finished talking. During literature circle discussion, I listened to my groupmates, and if I have any questions, I wait until they finish talking, then I ask my question. I think that listening skills are important, according to Turkish Proverb, “If speaking is silver, then listening is gold.” Which I agree, because I think that listening to other people’s opinions will help you learn more, and will help you to understand more than speaking up your own opinions.

As the year went on, I realized that I’ve improved my learning habits, as I’ve mentioned in paragraph one. I realized that I’m in school to learn, not to achieve good grades for my parents, because good grades don’t show anything, they don’t show people who you are. Yes, I understand that many people think that having good grades show that you are a good student. But in my opinion, what really shows people what you’ve learned in school is not about the grades, it’s about how you apply your learning to your real life. So because of the reasons above, I tried to work harder, study harder, and push myself more. I tried to organize my time better, but I didn’t do so well on organizing. After school, I usually go home and sleep for three hours. When I wake up, it’s dinner time. So I eat dinner for thirty minutes, and get started with my homework. While doing homework, I usually turn on Facebook, and Skype, and start chatting. Which cost me another two – three hours on social networks. Then I try to focus on my homework again. This is why I always sleep at one – two o’clock in the morning. The activity that i enjoyed the most this year is the Human Rights project. This project helps me to understand more about the world around me, and it inspires me to help the people who are suffering days by days because of child labor, women’s rights, genocide, human trafficking, poverty, etc.

Looking back, I’m really appreciated for the works that I’ve done over the past few years of Middle School, especially in eighth grade. Because of the purpose of learning, I tried to work harder, study harder, and push myself more. And this is why I’ve improved a lot since the beginning of the year. Although I didn’t succeed what I’ve planned to, I’m still glad that I’ve put efforts into my work, and that is all I need, efforts in learning, because learning is beautiful.

-Middle School Memories-

All Rights Reserved by By Subah G

Time passes quickly,
Leaving us with only memories,
As Middle School is coming to an end,
I started to realized that I’ve changed.

When I first came to SSIS,
I was a completely different person,
I was very innocent,
And stood up every time I speak,
Also crossed my arms every time I’m asking for permission.

I remember the first day of school,
When I didn’t know how to use the schedule sheet,
I entered the wrong class,
But when the teacher took attendance,
And my name wasn’t on the list,
I still didn’t raise my hand,
But instead I kept quiet,
Because, to be honest,
I didn’t know what’s going on.

Moving up to seventh grade,
I started to change,
I didn’t pay attention in class,
And sometimes I was mean to others,
I remember in Humanities class,
When Lihao and I were too hyperactive,
Ms.McKinnon forced us to sit in front of the class,
Next to her desk,
And the table was named “Dream Team”.

Eighth grade was full of memories,
I remember the WWW trip,
Unchan was my roommate,
At night around twelve o’clock,
He woke me up because he couldn’t sleep,
We talked about love and he taught me how to get a girlfriend,
Then we played monopoly until one in the morning.

My behavior also changed as I get older,
I started to focus on studying more than playing,
I act kindly to others,
And always try to show a positive attitude.

Three weeks left to be the King of Middle School,
And I will soon move up to High School,
I will never forget these memories,
The memories that will last for my whole life time.

This week article is about illegal logging in Cambodia. While a Cambodian forest activist  named Chut Wutty was investing about this illegal logging issue, he and a military police officer were shot by the people from the companies who were trying to cut trees down, and were trying to deforest the forest. So my question is, why did the people from the companies fired at Mr.Chut? Well, this question could have many answers then. But in my opinion, one of the reason why the people from the companies fired at Mr.Chut Wutty was because they wanted to stop Mr.Chut Wutty from stopping them cutting the trees, because they know that if Mr.Chut Wutty found out the companies that are cutting the trees, then he’ll report it and the companies won’t be able to collect incomes anymore, because trees are their only resources.

“You can hear chain saws going everywhere,” Mr. Young said. “It’s pretty devastating to see the scale of the deforestation. It’s happening all over the country.”

I think that this is a big environmental issue, and it needs to be stop. The government of the country should do something to stop the people from deforestation, illegal logging, because it is damaging the environment, and we also need oxygen to breath, if people keep cutting down trees, our planet will soon filled up with carbon dioxide.

“The government would say this is a protected land, and he’d say ‘Yeah, the chain saws are louder than the law,’ ” Mr. Young said. “He was dangerous to the ruling elite, and to the international companies — he was the most capable and the most organized.”

What surprises me the most was the quote above. The government told the people that the land was protected, and they lied. They let the companies enter the land to do illegal logging, and this is a shame. As a government, they are the one who suppose to protect their lands, protect the environment to make a better world, but they did the other way around. Another question that I’m very curious to know the answer is ‘Did the companies payed the government money to let them enter the forest and do illegal logging?’ Because if the companies didn’t pay the government “tips”, then why would the government let them enter the forest and do illegal logging to collect incomes for themselves.

Link to the original article.

All Rights Reserved by T E E X

“There are an alarming number of deformities in sea creatures: mutated shrimp, fish with sores and lesions, eyeless crabs and more”

As I read the article, I noticed that the BP company were dumping oil out to the water (ocean), where seafood was fished. The scientist used chemicals to clean up the oil, but because the chemicals were to powerful, it is terrible for the environment and worse for humans. This is what also caused the seafood to be deformed.

“The dispersants used to clean up the oil spill are known to be toxic to humans. Symptoms of exposure include “headaches, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pains, chest pains, respiratory system damage, skin sensitization, hypertension, central nervous system depression, neurotoxic effects, cardiac arrhythmia and cardiovascular damage.”

My question is, what if we accidently ate a shrimp that was deformed? What will happen to us? I also connect this article to Ms.Isley’s story about her family. She mentioned that her family used to play in a pond, or a river that contains toxic water. This caused her family to have cancer because of the toxic oil that the companies around the place dumped out. So I think that the government should do something to help the creatures in the water to be safe, and we’ll have seafood to eat.

 ”the company who created this mess in the first place, refuse to take the blame, saying the seafood in the Gulf is “as safe now as it was before the accident.”

I think that the companies should be responsible for what they had caused. However, they refused to take the blame. To me they are just too immoral.

“because that is exactly what happens when someone spills oil and sprays dispersants on it. People who live here know better than to swim in or eat what comes out of our waters.”

It’s a good thing that the people who live here know that the water are toxic and the seafood are mostly deformed. They can prevent from swimming in the water, or eat every shrimps, fishes, or crabs that they caught, because maybe the seafood that they caught were deformed. And it’ll be very dangerous to their lives if they ate seafood that are deformed. I hope that the government will do something to stop this problem, so the creatures under the water will be safe and we’ll also have seafood to eat.

All Rights Reserved by 4jorge

As I read through this article about Project Glass. I noticed that Google is showing off a pair of spectacles that interacts with what you’re seeing, including many other programs such as camera, day planner, turn-by-turn navigation system, and more. I have been wearing glasses for about 2 years. It is very uncomfortable and I hate it. I wish if the Project glass has include the prescriptions so I could wear the Project Glass instead of the normal glasses, which would be so much better.

“New York Times’ Nick Bilton has said that Google employees will be testing these things in public this summer and that the first-generation Google glasses could be released by the end of the year.”

Since the Google employees will be testing these things in public this summer, they must be working in progress right now. I’m looking forward to see the final product of the Project Glass. One of the thing that surprised me was about the voice-controlled and view-controlled on the Project glass. I think that the view and voice controlled will be very helpful for the people who doesn’t have hands or their fingers are too big to press the phone buttons, this voice-controlled and view-controlled will make their lives easier.

“For now, we’re not sure whether the Project Glass unit will be a standalone device or whether it will need to communicate with an internet-connected device.” 

I hope that the Project Glass will be a standalone device because then it’ll be unique and special, differently than other devices which connects with Bluetooth. And the reason why I’m interest about this Project Glass is because I thought that this device is a standalone device, which can totally replace for my cellphone. I’ll be very disappointed if it requires the user to connect with a smartphone, because then I would rather use my normal cellphone than spending money on this device.

Link to the original article

Annotated Link

For the fourth quarter, I would like to set a goal to myself to keep myself organize. My goal for this fourth quarter is to spend thirty minutes every night  reviewing for Algebra. I didn’t do well on Algebra in the third quarter, so I must spend time every night reviewing the notes that I’ve took, identify my weakness, and ask questions. This helps me to improving my understanding, and leads to a better assessment score.  In order to do this, I have to organize my time better, and do my work for quality, not quantities.

In order to arrest Kony

We really need your help

As a community

We’ll battle for our freedom.

We need to stop child labor

As well as the sex slaves.

We need to rescue

The subjugated kids

From our enemy, Joseph Kony.

As a big community

We beseech for your love,

To stop this violence

And to create a peaceful world,

We have to arrest Kony

In order to arrest Kony

We have to make him visible

And in order to make him visible,

We must spread the news,

To stop him from abducting children

And to regain our liberty.

Joseph Kony is like a sinful coward,

A terrorist with full of disloyalty,

disrespectful, and betray;

Using peace-talks to re-form armies

Then re-murder, again and again.

Our time is extenuate,

2012 is the year,

When we must end Kony’s destiny

And bring his crimes to the lights

There will be a big ceremony,

If Kony was captured.

And the abducted children,

will return home with solace.

The End

All Rights Reserved by sunspotstef

As I watch the video about Joseph Kony, I noticed that child soldiers are existing in Uganda, Africa, and this problem must be stop. As you all know, the only way to stop child soldiers and sex slaves is to arrest Kony. And the only way we can arrest Kony is we have to make Kony visible. I was surprised that 99% people on this planet doesn’t know who Kony is, because if they knew, Koney would have been stop long time ago. I cannot imagine when he forces the children to kill their own parents, and this is not just for a few children, it’s been over thirty thousands of them, and Jacob is one of them. Really? Kill your own parents? I feel really bad for Jacob, I think that he’s right, if I’m Jacob, I would rather die than staying on this planet and getting treat like an animal. I would rather die and meet my brother on heaven than staying here suffering for years.

“If the US government doesn’t believe that  the people care about arresting Kony, the mission will be cancel. In order for the people to care, they have to know, and they’ll only know, if Kony’s name is everywhere.” Jason Russell.

As a teenager, I do care about this article because now I know that there are many other teenagers out there who suffering everyday for their lives afraid that they’ll get kidnap and turn into child soldier, or sex slave. To help them, my friends and myself will try to make Kony famous. We’ll try to make Kony visible by putting posters all over the walls, and spread the video (KONY 2012) all over the social networks. Because what he does was he fights to maintain his power, and not for any causes, he has repeatedly used peace-talks to re-arm, and murder, again and again, and this is what makes me mad. I think that Joseph Kony is a coward because he used peace-talks to re-arm, and once he re-arm, he’ll start the war again, and keep kidnapping children into his LRA and turn them into child soldier. This problem has been going on for years, and 2012 is the year that we’ll stop Kony, it’s the time to bring his crime to the light.

“We’ve seen these kids. We’ve heard their cries. This war must end. We will not stop. We will not fear. We will fight war.”

I’m glad that teenagers around the world are fighting against this, they’re not just fighting for themselves, but for the whole world. I was surprised when the Invisible Children team went to the White House to talk to the US government about arresting Kony and helping these children, but the US government refused to involve because they said that it’s simply not an important enough issue to the United State policy. Not an important enough issue? I think that this issue is not only about the African children, but it’s about the whole world, and the US government refused to involve, I was very disappointed. But then as a big community, the Invisible Children and many other teenagers went to the White House to convince the US government, and they agree to involve, I was very happy afterwards. I’m even feel happier when Barack Obama sent a letter to the Invisible Children that he’ll send a US troop to enter the wild jungle to find and arrest Kony because I think that we now have a higher chance to arrest him, and we will arrest him.

“It’s not bad for the youth, it’s bad for the world if we fail. It’s not important just for Uganda people, it’s important for everyone.”

In conclusion, I hope that we’ll be able to arrest Kony in this year 2012, to stop the child soldiers and sex slaves, as well as all the children in the world. I’ll try to spread the video all over the social networks to make Joseph Kony visible, an when he’s visible, his crime will soon be out to the light, he’ll be arrest, and most importantly, the abducted children will return home.

Link to the video (Kony 2012)

All Rights Reserved by zaraki.kenpachi

In my opinion, I think that ESLRs are really important in life because they help us become better people. Saigon South International School is a place where students learn what ESLRs are, and use them in their life. As a teenager, I think that ESLRs help us to develop our characteristics as well as our behaviors. It is a part of my daily life; I tried to show the ESLRs everyday by trying my best to learn and study in class, being respectfully to others, involving in sport activities, helping other when they needed, and showing that I’m confident and ready for anything. In the paragraph below, I’ll explain to you what those four ESLRs represent.

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What ESLRs do you identify with in your life? I think that the best ESLR that identify within my life is Balance in Life. To demonstrate this ESLR, I always try to involve in physical activities and after school sport activities. I play sports every day, and it’s my favorite activity. I think that sports are what develop your strength, your flexibility, and so does Balance in Life. I’m trying to work on the other four Core of Values, for me, I think that all five of them are the same important. They all must be combined to form you a strong characteristic. So I’ll put a lot of effort into this to improve my characteristic as well as my behavior.

In order to incorporate more of the ESLRs into my life, I’ll have to set a goal to myself, and I’ll choose two ESLRs and work on my best to meet my goal. The first ESLRs that I’ll choose is Respect for ALL, I sometimes make my friends mad because of the way I talk, but sometimes I also act very respectfully. My goal for this is to always talk respectfully with my friends. To work towards this goal, I’ll have to try my best to act respectfully, talk respectfully with my friends. The second ESLR that I would like to set a goal to myself this year is Academy Excellence. I think that I need to improve the way I learn and the skills to work individually. My goal for this ESLR is to try to pay fully attention in class. To work towards this goal, I’ll have to pay fully attention in class, ask teacher if I have any question. This would help me to learn and understand the problem more, and it would also help me to improve my skills to work individually.

In conclusion, I think that ESLRs are a very important concepts to develop you into a better person. So I think that everyone should work on these five Core of Values in order to improve themselves, and build themselves into a stronger characteristics, a stronger person. Again, the ESLRs are a part of my daily life; it helps me to be success, and helps me to learn as well as building my characteristic and my behavior, and turning me into a better person.