CLOSE THE SOA!

 The School of the Americas has in fact been a very controversial topic for the past couple of years. I believe that the US should not be able to this organization which trains people to follow the practice of coup d'etat. This organization has had graduates that have done horrible things to innocent civilians. As i read through the website of the SOA watch, an independent organization that seeks to close the SOA, i stumbled upon many cases of terrible acts done by graduates of this school. My heart sunk deeper when i saw that one of the countries in which they have done a lot of damage is my native country, Colombia. These people have been responsible for the lives of so many Colombians that were innocent and probably lived a happy life. It is inhumane to teach people to abuse the human rights of other countries, specially Latin American countries where most of the graduates are actually from. So i ask myself, should this be allowed? definitely not! The SOA should be closed so that human rights can be practiced and the lives of many innocent people aren't at stake anymore.

Sources : http://www.soaw.org/

Blogging !

             

This quarter my favorite class has been US history honors with my wonderful teacher Mr.Meechin. One oft he most fun aspects of the class so far has been our weekly assignments that were done through blogging. I really like this way of homework doing and i definitely agree with it. I believe that this system of homework doing and learning is very beneficiary in many ways both for the students and the instructor.

Students are the ones who enjoy this the most. For most of the students in our class this is a new method of doing homework and to many people, like me, it is very enjoyable and reasonable. Through blogging i believe that my learning has increased a whole lot. It makes me want to do my work every week while i am trying something new at the same time, in this case that would be blogging. Blogging gives students a chance to express how they feel about the topic assigned and create a voice for themselves in this international audience. Something that i find fascinating is that we are writing these topic blogs and they are out there for the whole world to see, and we really cant imagine who might read them!

Our topics are always fun and they are fairly easy. I like them because there isn't really a right or wrong answer, it is just your opinion expressed to everyone out there. I think that it is nothing challenging since we aren't writing an essay so there really isn't any reason for it to get boring but instead get more interesting as you progress and start getting a hang of it. Another thing is we are teenagers living in 2010 so off course we are all so technologically advanced so for this type of assignment to be given to us results as something fun and rather interesting. Blogging has also become one of the most used methods of Internet communication for greater audiences out there and for us students to be able to start a blog of our own and really make it personal and have it out there is a great achievement and development that can lead to many new things!

Now for instructors such as mine who assign such homework it has advantages too. First of all they already mark the difference by assigning things that they now aren't going to be boring for their students and therefor will be more interested and actually do their work and learn from it. Also i believe it must be really fun to be able to read all these different ideas and responses that come from the students. Its definitely not boring for them because once again there is no wrong or right answer so it must be interesting to see how people think differently and respond to different ideas in such a mixed manner.

So i absolutely 100 percent agree with the use of the blogging assessment system in our class. It is something new that i had  never seen before and i definitely like it, a lot! It makes me want to do my work and really enjoy it. Writing my opinions and putting them out there for my instructor and really the whole world to me gives me a feeling of happiness inside because it is something new and way out of the ordinary. I am for sure looking forward to the rest of the year and the many more blogging assessments we are going to get with the many different topics we still have to come!

Does it make a difference?

Was my learning different when blogging, as compared to writing just in pen and paper? Yes! it definitely was. It made me want to do my posts every week and look forward to doing so. This is definitely something new and the topics related to what we talked about every week. So i was learning and at the same time having fun doing my homework. I think that blogging making it funner absolutely made more things stay in my head and made me think more. Whereas when i am assigned other assignments in other classes it was like a repetitive thing and that got really boring and not as interesting to make me learn!

my favorite :)

I have really enjoyed all my blogs this quarter. But my definite favorite has been the Oregon trail one! I had lots of fun when preparing to write this blog. We had to play the actual game which was very fun since i had never played it before. Playing the game was very interesting and i actually learned from it. I think that having such fun assignments makes students want to participate and o all their work!

The American Dream

   Immigrants coming into Ellis Island must have a had been feeling a roller coaster of emotions! First of all i can imagine they had a really bad mix up of feelings. Sad because they were leaving their homes but happy because they were coming to a new world where they had opportunities. They must have felt weird and scared as well because of all the test they were being submitted to and because they really had no idea what was waiting for them. My family being first generation Americans themselves i know from stories that they felt very optimistic themselves about the new live that was waiting for them here. So i can definitely imagine and relate to the different feelings and experiences that these immigrants coming to the United States through Ellis island.

Music soothes the soul!

   A song such as "The song of the shirt" by Thomas Hood is definitely not a song that i would choose as my main choice. As i was reading the lyrics of the song i pictured everything in my head as it was being told, and woah is that not a pretty picture. Life for the textile factory workers during this time must have been something close to "hell". The song practically talks about what work was like. From what is said i infer that it must have been pretty heavy work and that they were abused to the edge. They had no other choice but to work this hard and practically be overly abused. They must have lived very hard and harsh lives which maybe ended because of their exhaustion. And to think that there is still many places overseas that still have this same treatment and working for conditions for workers. Would you like to be in that position? i know i wouldn't!

"A cowboy is a man with guts and a horse"

"Ehhaaa! "  When we think of cowboys we think of a guy in a horse, with a lasso, a big funny hat, up on a horse, and maybe smoking tobacco. But is this really what cowboys were all about? Actually, no. That's only what we think they were because that's how they are portrayed on TV and in Hollywood. Big shot guys who have power and live in southern towns with big horses and big guns! But cowboys weren't about this at all. They were normal hard working people who     had it hard just like anybody else.

Cowboys were all about their own culture. They worked within their own towns, helped each other and dressed to suit their work. Their clothing was made so that it was practical for them and functional for while they worked. The basic wardrobe of the men in the cowboy culture were long sleeved cotton or wool shirts and simple work pants. Sometimes they also wore vests that had pockets so that they could carry small items, since neither their pants or shirts had small pockets or any pockets at all. Hats and kerchiefs, which are what we always link to cowboys, were crucial in their attire since they had many uses. To protect their feet the cowboys used high lathered boots. Cowboys also had tools to work. But  their most important piece of equipment was off course their horse. They were practically a cowboys best friend. They were used to travel long distances and most important to herd all day.

A cowboys job was to herd, or manage cattle all day. At the beginning of each day the cowboys were given their daily work every morning by the range boss. The range boss was like a manger to their work. He was the one who managed all the cowboys and made sure that everything was getting done how it was supposed to be done. There were four seasonal phases to a cowboys year. In each phase the had different tasks that suited whichever season it was. These four phases were: the spring roundup, the tail drive, the fall roundup, and winter work. This basically became a cycle for cowboys as they grew up. The most work was done during the spring and fall roundups.

Since cowboys worked so hard throughout the year they also gave themselves to relax and have fun in their own way. At the end of each of their hard working days they would all meet up and enjoyed activities such as playing games and cards and singing and dancing around bonfires as well, but the thing that was most enjoyed by them was the telling and listening of stories. Other forms of recreation throughout the years included rodeos, which their horses were involved in and the wild west shows. These were part of their culture and mean a whole lot to them.

Cowboys lived in cottage-like houses with lots of land around, these were called ranches. They were often big and grand-like and decorated with stones and many colors all around. The ranches were big enough to held their herd and to nourish and train their horses as well. Most of the times ranches were big and opened space. they had one or two random trees here and there, which aided them as shade when they were out working.

So as you can see cowboys were not at all what Hollywood portrays them as. They were hard working people who had big families and responsibilities as priorities. They did not just go around in their horses with big guns and lassos being heroes all the time. They had priorities and were ordinary people just like we are today. So next time you think about cowboys remember that they were people just like us and that they shouldn't be taken for granted.