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.

Rwanda Debate

Debate Time

I thought that this discussion opened my eyes to what the real situation in Rwanda was. All the arguments, accusations, and conflicting view points made this a very fun activity. I personally represented Juvenal Habyarimana and have read many articles on him. I think that he was truly a leader of a majority pressured by his public and rebel groups to take sides. Other groups in the discussion think otherwise about Mr. Habyarimana though.Among these are Mike B and his Rwandan Patriotic Front who believe that Juvenal was a ruthless dictator and was determined on riding the world of Tutsis. The group that represents Paul Kagame also believes that we were set straight on killing the Tutsi minority of Rwanda. Brent Bookmen (along with myself) had to stand up for Mr. Habyarimana and try to convince all of the groups (and the moderator) that the man we were representing was a true leader and was simply pressured into doing what he had done by Paul Kagame and The Rwandan Patriotic Front.

This has shown me how a real official debate may take place and I hope to take place in another one. I thought that it was an interesting way to learn about a topic that was a real global tragedy as if we were the ones to decide what the overall outcome of the situation would be.

Juvenal Habyarimana and the Rwandan Genocide

An Outspoken Leader
In character, Juvenal Habyarimana was a great leader. He had grown up being oppressed by Tutsis under Belgium rule and was simply returning the favor. Later in his presidency, he began to lose power and became scared that Tutsi revolutionaries (led by Paul Kagame) in Uganda were going to overthrow his administration just like they had to the president of Uganda. Habyarimana later let Tutsi refugees that he had originally oppressed return to Rwanda freely to try to settle the score with the Tutsis. He was later shot down by Paul Kagame and his rebel group (or by Hutu extremists as some believe) in April of ’94. He was trying to become untied as a country but he was shot down and killed for it.
Out of character, I believe that Kagame and Habyarimana were both equally responsible for starting this. Habyarimana for using segregation to try to get revenge on the Tutsis for segregating against him as a child and for brainwashing people who would later become the interahamwe to o out and kill their Tutsi neighbors. I now blame Kagame for overreacting and killing Habyarimana. If he hadn’t shot down that plane, his people would have lived in segregation and not have been murdered.

The Individual is Not Dead

The Individual is Not Dead


The point the Emerson was trying to get across in "The American Scholar" dosen't hold true today.



Emersons argument is shot down today with just one word. Parents. Parents do both their job( if they have one), care for their children, and care for their parents(If they need the care). Emerson says that " The priest becomes a form; the attorney astatue book; the mechanic a machine; the sailor the rope of the ship", this is not true today becasue in this terrible economy, people may hold more than one job, so their lives are ivolved in two things and not just consumed by a singular task. This is not what Emerson says because he says that the thinker can be only the thinker and not the farmer, but in todays world, the thinker may need to become the planter to make a bit more money to get by. This way the thinker is now not just the thinker, he is the thinker and the planter.

Even though people now a days are becoming more specialized in what they do, people arent entirley their job. People are also children, citizens, and maybe parents, in addition to their job. The priest now becomes a religious model as well as a priest, the sailor becomes an adventurer as well as a sailor, and the attorney(in some cases) may become a smoth talking slimeball as well as an attorney. This also adds to my point that even though Emerson was a great writter and respected by many, the way things see,ed back at the time he lived have changed into what occurs today.

Mr October

Michael Myers

He sports a white kabuki mask, a blue almost janitor like jumpsuit, and wields a kitchen knife. The first glimpse of Michael Myers that we get in the Halloween series is of him as a child stabbing his older sister to death on a Halloween night. Michael’s parents then send him to a children’s psychiatric hospital because after he killed his sister, he was in trance like state of some sort. Michael is moved to an adult psychiatric ward once he turns 21, but while he is being moved, Myers steals a car and escapes.
Through out the series of movies, Myers is tracked down by Dr. Sam Loomis who was his child psychiatrist at the child’s ward he was at. Loomis eventually came to the conclusion that Myers was nothing than pure evil. Loomis is the one who tracks down Myers at the end of the 1st movie and ends up shooting him six times right as he was about to finish off the heroine of the movie.
Michael Myers is one of those types of characters that I believe is interesting. His age progresses as the movie series goes on, but in the first movie he is 21. He has been in a psychiatric hospital for the past fifteen years because of what led him to kill his older sister when he was six. He picks random victims and isolates them from everyone as he did in the first film by killing off all of the heroine’s friends and cutting their phone lines.
He also never seems to die. I know it is a movie but I think that if a man got stabbed in the chest with a kitchen knife, stabbed in the eye with a wire hanger, got shot six times, and fell off a balcony on the second story of a house that he would be dead. I guess that the feeling that he can never be killed just adds to his horror factor because a)If you assumed he was dead and he wasn’t, you would put your guard down and then be a goner and b)He always seems to disappear, so you will never know where he will strike next.
All in all, Michael Myers has added to the fun that this country has on Halloween by giving us a series of movies to enjoy as well as a character to sleep in fear off as we think back on the films we have just watched.

My Second Life

My Swim Team
I remember the first time I walked through that steel gate. I was 8. I walked up on to the pool deck with my suit tied tight and my goggles on my head. A lady walked up to me and said "Hello, my name is Megan. I'll be your coach while you are on this team." I smiled at the lady and then listened to what I was supposed to do.
I jumped into the pool, the cold water jutting a chill down my spine despite the fact that it was a relatively warm summer morning. I came back to the wall on the side of the pool and then pushed and got going on my warm up. This warm up consisted of doing as my coach said" Eight lengths freestyle."
By the time I had finished my warm up, I was exhausted. I knew I had to not show it because the practice was not even fifteen minutes over and everyone else I was swimming with didn’t even show the smallest signs of fatigue. The next 45 minutes I was in the pool was a workout of which I had never experienced before, but it also gave me a feeling, a feeling that I was finally in the right place.
I went through the rest of the practice the best I could then I got out and ran over to my towel. I was immersed in a sudden cloak of warmth as the towel absorbed the water that was dripping off of me. I walked over to my mom and explained to her how I had felt like I had fit in and had a lot of fun.
I am still on that swim team today, and have also started swimming for a more advanced level team. This team holds its practices at the Rec Center.
Through the team I joined that summer, I learned to enjoy the sport and feel how fun the sport can be. Through my practicing at the Rec Center, I have been able to hone my stroke techniques, increase my speed, and have been able to compete in regulation swim meets. I am also going to try out for the swim team here at Stevenson and hopefully be an asset to the team.
In my Six years in the world of swimming I have learned one thing from it. Swimming is not only a sport; it is a way of life.

Swine Flu

Swine Flu

The Plague of the 21st Century

If you get the flu you may get a fever, sore throat, chills and maybe start to vomit. If you get the swine flu you may get some of these symptoms as well just the repercussions may be much worse. According to BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) there has been over 125,000 reported cases of swine flu since its outbreak four months ago and over 700 deaths worldwide.
This disease may turn into a real problem once cooler months start to come because this new flu has spread in about six weeks as wide as influenza had spread in six months. Even with a new vaccine available on the market for use, this disease will have a monstrous effect on the country this flu season because the vaccine may not be available to all.
The BBC has also said that they believe that at least thirty percent of the UK’s population will become infected with the H1N1 this season. the believed outcome is 82.7-82.9 % percent of the people who get it only having mild symptoms but also have a fatality rate of anywhere from 0.1-3.5% with other statistics mixed in.
The groups that are at the highest risk of infection are children bellow the age of five, pregnant women, and the elderly. Hopefully the numbers by the BBC don’t add up because if so then that means around 18,000 infected Brits with 800 to 1000 of them ending up dying from the disease.
On the American side, the country has lost 263 to t is disease (the greatest if any country so far) and has declared a public health emergency. Over two billion dollars of emergency funds will go for purchasing vaccine materials to insure that the impact of the disease this season may not be as bad as it is supposed to be.
The world may not like to face the truth but we are stuck with a major disease on our hands. This will definitely not be as bad as the Black Plague over in Europe, but if we don’t prepare well now, the death toll this season may be greater than we wish it to be. All we can do is get our annual flu shots and if the offer it, the H1N1 shot and also do our best to keep healthy this season. We are basically walking into a wall of water and it is our decision of how much of us are going to get washed away.

My Six-Stringed Passion

My Six-Stringed Passion
I was 12 when I got it. All six of its aluminum strings shined as if it had fallen from heaven. It had a bright glossy rosewood finish that you could see your reflection in and a beautiful black nut maple neck. For the first time in my young life, I was in love.
I brought the instrument up stairs and “tried” to play a song. Even though I had never had a single lesson in my life, I felt as if I could play along to about any song. I felt on top of the world at that moment, and nobody could take it away from me. after my delusions of becoming the greatest rock star ever were over I quickly ran back downstairs because I had remembered seeing a small black box by the side of the guitar but was too distracted by the magnificence of the instrument to give it a second glance.
The amplifier had many knobs and buttons on it just waiting to aid in my quest for musical domination. I plugged my guitar into the “magic box” via the cable I located on my second trip downstairs and watched my new instrument come alive. I knew at that moment that this was not just a simple phase of some sort; I had discovered a new lifestyle.
I started lessons about two months later at a small music store about five minutes from my house. When I first walked into the store my mom talked with the man behind the counter and asked about lessons. Eventually the man behind the counter asked me what kind of music I liked. I quietly replied with “rock”, which was the genre that had inspired me to want to play the guitar in the first place.
The man looked at a paper on the counter then started to ask my mom about times that would be good for us. “How about 8 tonight”, the man said.
“That would be just fine”, my mom replied.
The man behind the desk picked up another paper and began to inspect it. While he was doing so another man with an old T-shirt walked up from the back of the store. The two men talked for a moment then the second man began to talk. “Hello”’ he said. “My name is J.T. and by the looks of things, it seems that you and I will be playing guitar together.” I replied with the first word to come to my head, “cool”. I went back to the store later than evening and began my journey into the world of the guitar.
It has been over a year and a half since I walked into that store for the first time on that chilly March afternoon and I have been going back there almost every week to hone my skills on six strings with help from J.T. I will never forget the day that I saw that guitar for the first time or the feeling of walking into the music store and something just feeling right. I will also remember that December 25, 2007 was the starting point of my voyage into the unknown world of six magic strings.

My Life, From A to Z

My Life, From A to Z
A: Adventurous, I am open most of the time to trying and doing new things. If I find that I find that I like some of these new things, I may decide to stick with them. Some of these have become things that have formed who I am as a person. Of these there is first learning how to read music which lead to my interest in guitar and first joining a swim team which I have been on ever sense.

B: The Beatles are one of my favorite music groups of all time. Songs such as "Come Together" and " Let it Be" , I believe are two of the best four minutes of music ever preformed. B is also for bold because I am not afraid to get out there in front of crowd in order to be heard or to get a point across and like connecting with people.

C: I am a big fan of Chinese food, especially from Pan Pan's at 6 mile and Farmington because of its “yummy goodness”!!!


D: I was named after my father who is Brian David and at an early age was given the nickname Dubs. I was given this nickname because my middle name is William and my cousins used to call me D.W.

E: Energetic, I am filled with energy and sometimes can lead people to the brink o insanity. I funnel this energy into skills that I am good at (see letters G and S for more details).

F: I tried football once when I was in 5th and 6th grade, it did not work out so well. I also got a severe fracture in my finger when I was 12 years old that required me to have a cast for about two months.

G: I can play the guitar. My interest in this instrument started in about 7th grade because I thought that it would be cool and interesting to learn. I have now been playing for about a year and a half and can play songs like “Day Tripper” by the Beatles or “Sweet Child of Mine” by Gun’s and Roses.

H: I went to Holmes Middle School. While at Holmes, I was able to get a brief look at what high school may seem like as well as experiencing all the new classes and electives

I: I consider myself to be intelligent. I was in all accelerated classes throughout middle school and if I were not in Global Ed I would be in accelerated Language Arts.

J: I do enjoy some types of jazz music. It helps me to calm down and just relax.

K: I have a nine year old sister, Kate. She was born when I was in Kindergarten and is now in fourth grade. She can get annoying sometimes but what can you do, we’re family.
L: Is for Luck of the Irish because I am 50% Irish. My family throws a huge Saint Patrick’s Day party every year and we all watch college basketball and have fun.

M: I enjoy listening to various types of music. If you were to look at my iPod, you would see that I have everything from the heaviest songs by Slipknot to the smooth, more relaxing music of Frank Sinatra.


N and O: I pride myself in being neat and organized. I believe that this is one of the reasons that I have done so well academically, because my work is on time and I know where to find it.

P: My last name is Ptashnik. This name comes of Russian decent and my family tree stretches back as far as 4 generations before my grandparents, to my knowledge at least.

Q: Another one of my favorite bands is Queen. The amazing vocals of Freddy Mercury and ear shattering guitar of Brian May makes songs like “We Are the Champions” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” pure rock classics.

R: I am of Russian decent as well as Irish. The area of where my family name comes from would be roughly around were current day Moscow would lie. This name dates back a long way in Russian history.

S: I am a competitive swimmer and swim on a very good team. I began swimming for a summer team back when I was eight years old and enjoyed it so much that I rejoined the summer team the next year. After a couple years of summer swimming I decided to get serious about the sport and join a recreational league through the city. I have been on my summer team since I was eight and the recreational team since I was ten.

T: T is for Talkative. I am a very talkative person and love to get into good conversations. I am one of those people that if you moved me facing towards a wall, and I was bored, I may start to talk to the wall to pass the time.

U: is for my favorite book series as a child Captain Underpants. These books were about two kids who hypnotize their school principle into thinking that he had super underwear themed powers and could stop the world from all evil. The books comedic influence is what drew me to them the most.

V: Eddie Van Halen was one of my biggest influences in learning to play the guitar. His finger tapping solos and exquisite technique make him in my mind, one of the best players to ever pick up six strings.

W: My favorite movie series are the Wayne’s World movies. They are about Wayne Campbell and his friend Garth Algar trying to “party on” and have fun in suburban Chicago in the 1990’s.
X: Is for Xylophone. The xylophone is only one of the many instruments that I can play. I can play the guitar, bass, tenor saxophone, drums, and piano.

Y: I think that I have a very youthful spirit. I can always put in some time to have fun and time to hang out with my friends and just do… whatever.

Z: is for one of my favorite getaways as a small child, the Zoo. The zoo has always fascinated me with its vast collection of exotic animals and detailed information about each of them.

Into the Great Wide Open

Into the Great Wide Open: The First Day of High School
By: David Ptashnik 6th Hour
The darkness is shattered, and my eyes open. The loud chatter of my alarm clock fills my ears, so I roll over to check the time. 5:30 the clock reads. This is way too early to get up in the summer; it must be a school day. I slowly make my way up out of my bedroom and into the hall. I trudge on slowly through the hall as if I was waist deep in mud and I enter the bathroom. I am instantly blinded by the lights that are illuminated after I flip the switch. I hop sluggishly into the shower and let the warm water wake me from a tired haze. I now realize that there is no more summer fun to be had this year because school is officially back in session.
While I’m getting dressed the words of my mother from the previous day circle through my head,” Tomorrow it is back to reality. For the both of us”, she said “for the both of us” because my mother is an Algebra 2 and Geometry teacher at Franklin High School. After getting dressed I make my way downstairs to the kitchen to find something to fill me up for such a long day. I ravage through the pantry and see a box of Raisin Bran that looked rather tasty, so I decide that it will be the very “hardy” breakfast that will keep me going today.
After I am finished with my breakfast I hear my father yelling for me to come to the front hall. Once I get to the front hall, I find that he has called me so that he can take a picture of me and my little sister before the first day of school (which he has done every single year since Kindergarten). He quickly whips out his silver Cannon™ and tells me to pretend that I love my sister and smile for about fifteen seconds and then it will be over. After my picture has been taken, I realize that I still had some time to kill before I have to walk to the corner to get to the bus stop. With my last moments of freedom, I decided to sit down on a chair in my kitchen, listen to some calming Van Halen on my iPod, and just relax and ponder my thoughts.
The time soon came for me to leave for the bus stop and put an end to summer for good. It was still dark out when I left the house and as far as I’m concerned, it was still night. There were around five other students waiting to catch the bus at the same stop. I knew some of them, but some were complete strangers to me, even though we lived in the same subdivision.
When the bus finally came, its engine made my ears wake up and its blinding headlights did about the same thing for my eyes. I walked up the stairs on the bus and took a seat towards the back, put in my iPod and waited for the ride to be over. The bus ride seemed to drag on and on like sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, only being highlighted by the sound of car engines, the bright glare of flashing stop lights, and the smell of waking up to early.
Finally, the bus pulled up into the Stevenson bus loop and came to a stop. The sound of friends seeing friends pounds on my eardrums as I make my way down the small aisle of the bus. I exit the bus and is greeted by a massive building staring me dead right in the face. As I walked up toward the double doors to enter the building I thought to myself… “Summer may be over, but I’ve got to face the truth. This is my home for the next four years, I think that I going to like it here”.

The First Week

The First Week

Over the first couple of days that I spent in this building, I was overwhelmed by the massive size of the building’s interior and also how my classes seemed to be on opposite sides of the building from one another. I would rush from class to class, hoping to make it on time and also hoping that in my rush that I had grabbed the right materials needed for that hour. After my fourth hour, I had lunch which I was originally most nervous about because I wasn't sure if I shared C lunch with any of my friends. Some of my friends ended up having the same lunch as me, so I was relieved to know that I could at least have some fun during the day.
After the first week was over, I thought that I had this high school thing down, and wouldn’t be eaten alive like a wounded seal being circled by hungry sharks. The school seemed to get smaller with every passing day and it almost became easier to navigate the hallways. The only bad thing about my first week of school so far was that I already had a couple of tests and I also had two homework assignments on the first day.
So far, the only issues that I have had with high school are the waking up at 5:50 in the morning. This is almost an hour earlier than last year, but I have to do this in order to get to my bus on time because I am one of the first stops. I barley have time to eat breakfast in the morning and because I have C lunch I am starving by the end of 3rd hour.
So I step into this new world, and I’m going to take it one step at a time.