Semester Reflection
Being in Global Ed this year has allowed me to learn many things. One of the things that I learned is that it is sometimes better to listen to a story read aloud than to read it by yourself.

Of the stories that we listened to, I personally thought that “The Man in the Well” was the more interesting of the two. If you had to read this story in a text it may have seemed like just another one of those stories your teacher makes you read so you can get some lesson out of it you will never use again. Listening to it allowed me to almost feel as if I was in the story. The voice of the storyteller and the odd, somewhat tribal music which played in the background added an almost spiritual and calming effect to the story which not only allowed me to understand it better. It also made me enjoy the story better because having something read to you in my mind has an odd calming effect.

Another thing that I learned this semester was that there was genocide in Rwanda. Before this year all that I would have thought of if you said the word Rwanda would probably have been “Some poor country in Africa on the brink of starvation witan outbreak of malaria” or something along those lines. Now I know otherwise. It was interesting (for me at least) to learn about something that I had absolutely no background knowledge on whatsoever and to take the place of a group of people in the problem and to view it from their perspective. It really opened my eyes once more and more of the details started to come out. I have learned from this that just because a country is in Africa doesn’t mean it is poor and disease ridden. It could have problems similar to the Europeans (Holocaust: genocide of the Jews) or could still just be that small poor country.

Learning how to find a credible source this year is another thing that I have learned. Last year I was what you may call a Wikiaholic. I went to Wikipedia to try to get information on everything, whether I was doing research in the computer lad at school or for a project on my own at home. I have realized that since anyone can change the information given on Wikipedia, it is not a fit site go to for a source as some of the information could be edited by people who don’t have know any information on the topic. Sites like BBC.com or UN.com are more reliable as they are government run sites and give the best information because the government doesn’t not want the wrong information pushed on us (unless you’re talking about something like a Jason Bourne). For our Rwandan research project I think I used one article from the BBC and another one from TIME.com. There are many better sites than Wikipedia to go to find information for the topics I am given and I will use them more in the years to come.

For the next thing that I have learned and taken a liking to this year, I’m going to jump on the topic of blogging. I had heard about blogging but never actually tried it for myself. I now know that it is an effective and interesting way to learn, communicate with your classmates and to do assignments on. My mom had helped me a bit with my first couple blogs as she has been doing this kind of stuff for a while, then she taught me a variety of other tricks such as phlogging. Phlogging is this way for you to call a special account you set up, say what you want to be on your blog, and then if you go to your account you can imbed the call into your blog and with the audio with come a transcript of the words you say. How cool!

While we were learning about Australia we watched a movie, Rabbit Proof Fence. Before this year I knew nothing of the Aboriginal people’s situation over in Australia and how they were treated amongst the rest of the population. This movie showed the tale of three Aboriginal girls who were taken from their village by Australian officials. The girls were brought to a camp run by nuns, and they were taught the ways of the English who were on Australia against their will. Having watch a movie on this rather than have read a book on it gave me a better understanding of the topic because it allowed me to get a real visual of real events that were happening to these people rather than me try to picture their situation and put in the details as I think the story conveys them, not as they truly could have been. I think that is better for me as I am the type of person who does not like to have facts jumbled around and not straight. I like to have everything set up straight forward and with right information.

No British, Good Deal

If I had to be a native from the colonies of South Africa, Rwanda, Australia, and the United States I would pick the United States for several reasons. One of those reasons is because the natives in the United States got to have interactions with the French before the British came so they were able to experience the better side of European society. The French came to the United States in the 1600’s but not for colonization purposes, they had come to trade the native s for their furs so they could bring them back to France and make a profit off of them when they were sold into fashion.
The French had come to this land not with the idea of empire and conquering all that stand in their way, but with the idea to make friends with the native people of the land so they may be able to swindle them more easily out of their precious furs. This idea did work as the fur trade was quite prosperous as well as there was many cross marriages between the French fur traders/explorers and the women of the Native American tribes. The Native Americans also got a good impression of European way of life when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Even though the Pilgrims were British and the Brits were the ones that had acted the harshest towards the natives, the Pilgrims were not bad at all. They had escaped England to seek out religious freedom and a land where they could practice without worry. They had landed at Plymouth with little food and the temperatures were starting to drop as the cold New England winter began to move in. Sickness overwhelmed the adult population of Pilgrims on board the Mayflower leaving the children of the ship the ones who were forced to get food for themselves and their ill parents and to take care of those who were not well.
Many had died after that winter but the colony of Plymouth trudged onward. Later that fall a native by the name of Squanto came to the Pilgrims offering them help by teaching them how to farm better and hunt better leaving them a bit more time to worry on gathering food and spending more time on constructing their settlement. The Pilgrims then celebrated their appreciation for what the natives had done with the feast that would go on to become Thanksgiving.
We all know that story but it just proves my point. Even if there was disease there were still no hostile forces pushing the natives off their land. So I have come to the conclusion that it would have been the best situation to have been a native living in the United States during colonization as long as the British Empire was not there.

Spartan Glory

Stevenson Swimming

It was the day before Thanksgiving and we had no school. Most kids would have been asleep or just about waking up at 9 am but I was diving in a pool at that time. Today was my first day of swim practice as a member of Stevenson's team. The coach had told us to do a 500 (20 laps) kicking on your back every 3rd length. I jumped in and woke up immediately as the cold water rushed over my face and through my hair.
After warm up we started on another set. I do not remember what set it was but I do remember that I tried as hard as I could on it to make a good first impression on the coach. This plan was not a good one because it caused me to get tired faster than I would have if I had just swam the set like I was supposed to. So for the rest of practice I swam the sets as they were given. If they were fast I swam fast, if they were slow I went slow.
The coach told us to get out at 11 am and told us we could go home. I went into the locker room, found a shower, and turned the warm water setting all the way up. The warm water seemed to calm me down a bit and to relax my muscles after what seemed to be one of the hardest workouts of my entire life. I left the shower, went over to my locker, dried off, and got my real clothes back on. I was ready to go home and enjoy a nice hot home cooked meal.
I was able to snag a ride home from one of the upperclassmen on the team. I walked in the front door of my house and I was asked right away how it went. I explained to my parents what some of the sets we did were and that I thought that workout were some of the hardest 2 hours of my life. My dad being a swimmer in high school was understanding of what was in store for me up along the road.
I ate something after my conversation with my parents than I basically relaxed the rest of the day. I had Thanksgiving and all the good food that come with it to look forward to tomorrow so that was good. I was now a true Stevenson Spartan and would have to repeat what I had just done that morning every day until the end of February.