Week 17 Weekly Review: IT'S OVER!

I don't think I have ever been more excited for a semester to be over in my entire life. This course in particular has been so much work with more reading and writing than I have ever had to do in any course at LMC, but it was also one of my favorite courses that I have taken. I really enjoyed the freedom that this class gave us in our writing and also multiple choices of readings. I enjoyed the different types of extra credit assignments like wikipedia trails and growth management assignments. I also really enjoyed reading everyone else work and making comments on them, because so many of you are really smart and have some great ideas, and I learned a lot from you all! Looking back, I can't believe how much work I have accomplished in this class one this semester, and to be honest I am actually kind of proud of myself for keeping up on it and earning an A in the course. I barely squeaked by the threshold for an A, but an A is an Whether its 90% or 100%, so I will take it! Thank you to everyone involved in this course, from the students and their hard work to Ms. H and the cool and different way that she structured the course. I enjoyed our time together, good luck to everyone with their finals and all of their other courses both this semester and in the future! Have a great summer everyone!

Week 17 Take Stock

I have backed up all of my blog posts up until this point, I have caught up on all announcements, and I have double checked that all of my declarations are completed. This is the last time that I will be posting one of these, since I am OFFICIALLY DONE WITH THIS CLASS AFTER MY LAST WEEKLY REVIEW OF THE SEMESTER! WOO-HOO!

Week 17 Growth Mindset

I know that I am supposed to do one of the activities on the blog for Growth Mindset, but I instead just what to discuss the concept and what it means to me one last time this semester. First off I want to say that I think it is awesome that this course teaches us about growth mindset and the power of believing that you can get better at anything you put your mind to. This way of thinking is so important, especially to young students and it blows my mind that I have never heard of it until this semester. It instantly made so much sense to me, because I could see how this idea would have helped me so much throughout my academic journey. I have already shared this but I want to discuss it one more time, throughout elementary and middle school I put pretty much all of my academic focus onto math, since I knew I was already good at it when most other kids weren't, and that is where I could gain gratification and appreciation for doing good work. Because I was so good at this one subject and the others did not come easy to me I decided to just focus on math. Looking back, I wish I could have instilled what I know now about growth mindset into that young man that I was back then, because I should have been focusing more on the things that came difficult to me so that I could know how to overcome obstacles better in every facet of life. Me focusing only on things I could easily do made my life very difficult when I got to AP classes in high school and college courses, because there were going to be a lot of things that I was not good at that I would have to put a lot of focus into, and since I had no practice doing this it made my life much more difficult than it had to be. This is why I think ALL young children should be taught how to put the time and work in to accomplish something that is difficult at a young age. I am lucky that I had good teachers that instilled this kind of thinking in me later in life, because without growth mindset and enjoying things that are hard for me to accomplish I would never accomplish anything. I am so good at my job because I now LOVE learning new things and new ways to accomplish tasks. It is such an important idea, growth mindset, and I would like to thank this course for introducing this thought into my life and giving it a name, I will do my best to share this kind of thinking with my own children at a young age and anyone else who will listen and is receptive to it.

Week 17 Wikipedia Trail: From James Madison Bell to

James Madison Bell

I began my final wikipedia trail with James Madison Bell after reading his powerful poem following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. One thing I found interesting was that he attended the Cincinnati High School for Colored People, which is where he was introduced to the idea of abolitionism.

Abolitionism

From Bell's wiki page I clicked on the link to the page for abolitionism, which is the movement to end slavery. One thing I found interesting in this article was that the last country to abolish slavery was Mauritania in 1981.

Mauritania

Since I had never heard of this country before, I decided to look into this wiki page following the abolition page. Here I learned something interesting, that Mauritania had a military coup in 2005 that actually resulted in no loss of life, and in 2006 there was a 97% vote to make a new constitution which limited the amount of time that a president could serve.

Sunni Islam

I found it interesting that basically 100% of the people in Mauritania are Muslim, specifically Sunni Muslim. I have definitely heard of the Sunni before, but I must admit that I do not know much about the Muslim faith and their different denominations.

Week 17 Reading Notes: The Last Night of the World (Bradbury), Part X

This was a really cool short story to read, and I am glad that I got a chance to check it out as my last reading of the semester. In this story there is a husband a wife, who have two small children. The couple, along with everyone they know has had the same exact mysterious dream that told them the the world was coming to an end, and in their hearts they knew it to be true. The couple discusses what is going to happen, and how they would like to spend their last night alive. They decide that they will not be scared, or run through the streets screaming, or do anything special, but instead they will live this night like any other normal night in their life. They don't tell the children anything, and they calmly eat dinner, clean the dishes, and go to bed just like they always do. The wife even goes back into the kitchen to turn off the water before she goes to sleep, even though it doesn't matter because everything they know and love will be gone the next day, this made them both laugh. I like that no one was afraid of death in this story, because they knew that there was absolutely nothing that they could do to change what was going to happen. They accepted their fate and appreciated the normalcy of their last day on earth.

I'm not sure if it is because I lost my brother from cancer when he was 14 and I was 5, or losing my grandfather that lived with us (and I was very close to) a few years after, but I have always viewed death differently than most people I know. Most people are terrified to die and are so afraid of the unknown that comes with it, but I have never been one of those people. I have realized when I was young that every single person that has ever lived has or will die, so there is really nothing to be afraid of. Whether you die at 14 or 114, you will die and that is the one thing you can be sure of in life. That is not to say that I don't value life, because just how the cold winter makes you really appreciate a warm sunny day, knowing that death will eventually come for you makes you appreciate the limited amount of time you do have on this earth. There is one quote when it comes to death that has always stuck with me since I heard it, and it was from the movie Act of Valor. It is a passage that reads "When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home." This is how I chose to life my life and view the inevitability of death knocking at my door one day, and I think that this short story shares the same feeling.

Week 17 Reading Notes: Poem (Bell), Part B

This is another reading that I am not quite sure how I missed, but makes me glad that we had the opportunity to go back and read the ones we’ve missed this semester. This reading was a poem (as you can probably tell by the title), which was written by James Madison Bell, to be read at the great meeting of colored people in Sacramento following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. This must have been a terrifying time for everyone in the nation, I could not imagine the panick and fear felt by the collective whole after their leader has been shot and killed. Whether it be Lincol, Garfield, McKinley, or Kennedy (the four U.S. presidents who have been assassinated throughout this nation’s history), this poem is very fitting for such a difficult time. The poem begins by talking about how terrible it is that this has happened, but gives some relief to this pain by saying that it is all part of God’s plan, and that it must have happened for a reason. It then goes onto to talk about how the person/people responsible for this are traitors, and how treason must be driven out from this land and treated as harshly as the act itself is. The poem ends by saying that Lincoln’s death will be avenged by making sure that his “noble principles maintain, ‘Till. Every base inhuman falcon is swept from freedom’s broad domain;Until from tower and from turret, From mountain height and prairie wide, One flag shall wave— and freedom’s spirit in peace and love o’er all preside.” (Bell) I think that this is a very powerful poem because of its message of hope and solidarity after such a terrible event in U.S history. It has a really good message that I believe the people, especially African Americans at this point in history, needed to hear and feel. I really enjoyed this poem, and I applaud Bell’s foresight in this moment of great need in this country.

Week 17 Reading Notes: The Coming Night (From The Berkeley Hills) (Ricks), Part A

This poem was beautiful, and I am not quite sure how I missed it when we were originally assigned the reading, but I sure am glad that I got to go back and read it. This poem is all about the view from one of my favorite spots in the entire Bay Area; the Berkeley Hills. Back in high school I would go up to Fish Ranch Road and hangout and look at the view all the time, it is one of the sweetest views in the Bay, with a perfect 180 degree view of Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, the Bay Bridge & the Golden Gate. I am sure that this view was even more beautiful when this poem was written in 1913, before every inch of land was covered with buildings and traffic, and the way that Ricks describes it makes me wish I could have been there. He begins by talking about the wind coming from the bay toward him in the hills: "The western wind moves softly, Waving the tender grass, The trees more staid and lofty, Scarce bend to let it pass." This makes me think of the hills around the Black Diamond Mines that I hike sometimes here in Antioch in the spring time when all of the grass is still alive, and the wind blows the grass all around, it is beautiful. Ricks goes on to talk about the wildlife in the area: "The cattle down the hillside, Move slowly, homeward bent; Cooing doves and mates in pride Breathe out their sweet content...Swallows playing, dot the sky; The world prepares for sleep." The scene that he is describing after this is gorgeous, with the sun setting on the bay creating a breathtaking mixture of colors before darkness falls over the area. I have watched so many sunsets from the Berkeley Hills, so I understand why he was so moved by this scene, I just wish I could have seen it when it was much less crowded like the landscape he is viewing. This was a great poem and I love that I am actually able to connect so personally to what the author is talking about.