“Laughter is an instant vacation”

Hello there! So this past year has been a great year for me, and hopefully for you too. I’ve learned so much, from ESLR’s to how to write, and I hope I have improved in all areas.  In these next three paragraphs, I’m going to show you how I improved in three out of five ESLR’s. This might even show you how great of a teacher you were, if at the end you feel like I have come a long way.

Being a self-directed learner may sound easy, but it actually isn’t. I had the misjudgment that it was and I thought “oh this is going to be the easiest one to accomplish, because all you have to do is know that you’re learning for yourself and to do homework.” But as this year has gone by, I have realized something very different from what I have expected. In the beginning of the year I made a t-shirt for the Lord of the Flies project. This made me more confident and made me feel that I could do what I wanted to, just as long as I wanted it enough. Before this year, I knew that I had an idealist’s mind and not a logistics’. As I made the t-shirt, I thought about what the final result would come out as and I wasn’t so sure I wanted to make a t-shirt anymore. Even though I was creative, I knew I wasn’t artistic. I really wanted to be able to draw, so I decided to do my best and draw my way through this, and I was so glad that I had, because I found a new talent in me. No, not drawing, it was being able to do what I wanted to even if I wasn’t good at it. This may not sound like a great accomplishment to you, but to me, it was one of the greatest accomplishments I have accomplished. Throughout the poetry quarter, I also found a new side to myself and realized a totally different way that I could express myself. It felt good to know that I had more than one passageway to expressing my feelings. I also became more organized, especially after I lost my study guide for a class, so I guess it was a good thing that I lost that, otherwise I wouldn’t have learned from it. I think that others have noticed this change in me too. On the night of the dinner dance graduation, I received an award for ‘student most likely to write a self help book on organization.’ I thought this was funny, because I did not feel like I was an organized person. On the way home from the graduation, I thought about why I was given that award. Then it hit me, maybe the teachers don’t think I’m organized, and that’s why I have to write a book on it! I never came to the conclusion whether that was a good thing or not, but in the end, I realized that it doesn’t matter what others think, well it does, it’s just not enough to make me change my mind about how much I improved.

Another ESLR that I believe has shown my improvement was the Effective Communicator. I guess I was never a good speaker in large audiences, and I don’t have the ability to give a message in a creative way. As I have realized that I can’t do those things, I don’t see myself ever having to do that, because when I grow up I don’t want to be a lawyer or anything, so I guess that’s okay. In this English class though, we had to write essays! Sure, I’ve written essays before, but none of them had any feeling that I had really shown. But this past year, I had to write essays that had voice and still be informative. At first, I didn’t really like the sound of having to do that, but it’s not actually that bad, because you get to be yourself and tell the reader whatever you wanted them to know. By now, I think that I have improved in the area of writing and speaking to convey ideas and information. Another way that showed I improved was in the poetry unit, again. After I found a new way to show my feelings, I felt that I had learned a whole new language.

So an involved citizen is a person who tries to help others in the world, like donating to charities and building shelters for the homeless. But we, as children, don’t really believe we can change the world. We think that if you were a billionaire, then you could help a country or two and make them more civilized. This brings me to the topic in Lord of the Flies: who are the civilized people? We are not sure, but we will always believe it’s ourselves. We think that we are the best and that we can rule the world because we have money and nice clothes and computers. But this is not the way life works. People can enjoy life in a way that’s different from ours, and we don’t have to try to change it. Also, maybe we should help the people that have are drowning and starving, not the ones that are poor and are living on limited supplies. They already have food, water, and shelter, not very good or enough of it, but they’re still living and able to walk. There are others out there who don’t have anything but near death chances. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that we (children) can change the world, little by little. We can start here, at this school, as much as you might not think it needs help, it does. There are lots of things going on in the school that shouldn’t be, and no one is even bothering to stop it. All they are trying to stop is the grades falling so that they get a good record on the lists of international schools in Malaysia. I’m not criticizing anyone, because if I was in charge of this school, I’m pretty sure that a good record would be the main concern. So right now, many people in the school are helping others in need, which leads to more kindness spread throughout the school. If you think about it, kindness is kind of contagious, in a way. I believe that I have already helped a few people in my grade, which has made us better friends, and that leads to more love for everybody else, so it’s a win-win situation. Another reason that shows that I improved involves everybody in this school. Some people believe that certain races are all bad and no good can come out of them. They will always have bad things to say about others that they are usually jealous of or don’t understand their point of view. So, by attending this school I have been able to meet people of all race (well, maybe less than half, but that’s more than I know) , and that is a great accomplishment alone.

This has been the greatest English class I have ever been in, because you, Mr. Raisdana, have made this class that not only is about academics in English, but rather a class about life. ESLR’s aren’t the most exciting things to write about, but I hope that you have found this more interesting than usual ESLR essays. I have tried my best to not make this boring and make it bring back memories that have been left in the distance.

����������� Snow White was a girl, the daughter of the King, but when her mom died, her dad remarried a cruel, vain, and vicious woman, who became the new queen. By saying this, it shows that stepmothers are always cruel and evil, even in other fairy tales such as Cinderella. Since the stepmother was jealous of what Snow White had, she maid her dress in rags and work as a servant. This shows that stepmothers are scared of the girl being better than they are, so they make her work and not have a happy-go-lucky life. This is just like Cinderella. Even as cruel as her stepmother is, Snow White always seems to like cleaning up and scrubbing floors, even when she is not told to do so. This seems unrealistic and makes Snow White too much of a goody-goody, just like in Cinderella. As the Queen has her magic mirror that never lies, the Queen realizes that Snow White is �fairest of them all�, so she creates an evil plan to kill her. She has her huntsman kill Snow White in the forest, but then the huntsman is a good person and decides not to kill her, but brings a heart back to the queen, which was actually a small animal�s heart. But while Snow White is in the forest, she meets little forest animal friends, who comfort her with friendliness. Just like in Cinderella, she has animal friends instead of human friends that can talk and help her solve all her problems. The animals lead her to a little house that looks inviting, and Snow White goes in, to discover that it�s a mess. Then she scrubs the floor and tidies up the whole house. But why would anyone go into a stranger�s house and clean up for them? And as if that�s not enough, she decides to make them soup, because she thinks that whoever lives there will be hungry when they come home. The strangers that come home are the 7 dwarfs, who soon become her friends. This tells people that if you go into someone�s house, you might become their friend, and they won�t get mad at you entering without permission! The queen finds out that Snow White isn�t dead, so she goes to find her and disguises as an old beggar that gives her an apple, though Snow White doesn�t know that it�s poisonous. So she falls to the ground, under a spell after just one bite. This tells people not to listen or talk to old beggars, or even beggars at all. In the end, her dwarf friends find a prince that comes along and gives her a magic kiss, that breaks the spell and lets her live. So the Prince is the hero and he saves the day. And just like Cinderella, you need a man, a rich and handsome man, to live and be happy. Also, this shows that her dad doesn�t care for her at all, because he doesn�t do anything about her daughter being gone for a long time, and doesn�t bother searching for her.

In the third quarter in Mr. Raisdana’s class, we created poetry. We started off by asking who liked poetry and was interested in learning about it to who disliked it and had no interest about it. I was one of those people in between. Mr. Raisdana was very confident and said that by the time we were done with this unit, we would’ve all went up the scale, not necessarily to loving poetry, but liking it. Throughout the poetry unit, we learned vocabulary and types of poems that we could write. Almost every day in class, we would read poems by a famous poet, analyze it as a class, and then write one of our own poems similar to the one we read. Lastly, we were assigned a project: to make a poetry book containing our own poems. This was probably the best part in the whole poetry unit because it made it feel like a great accomplishment and adding creativity to the book made it even more personal. Throughout this journal, I will tell you how I accomplished each ESLR and what I didn’t accomplish.

By being a self-directed learner, I accepted responsibility for my own learning. I also took creative risks in developing untried ideas for the poetry book. Almost everyone else bound their book together by holding it together through holes, but I decided to try something untried and just put a ribbon through the middle without holes, which looked much simpler. Also, my book was all paper; it was kind of like a collage of paper with different shapes, sizes, and colors for each page. I think that looked good and it made it more personal because the paper is all very brightly colored and it’s all over the place, but still neat, in a way. If I were to do this again, I would definitely have started a bit earlier, even though I started a few days after it was assigned. At the end, I felt rushed but confident I could finish, so I continued making everything very neat and placing everything carefully. If I had organized all the poems, pictures, and paper where I wanted them to go first, it would’ve been much easier and more efficient. I believe demonstrating competency in goal setting, time management, and organizational skills was the best used to help make and write the book, participate in poetry night, and complete the teen life project. This is because I set goals to finish before the deadline for the teen life project and the book, and have it be really good quality. I believe I did a good job of completing these two projects. I think I did an outstanding job of being a self-directed learner while making and writing the book, participating in poetry night, and completing the teen life project. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being poor, and 10 being outstanding, I would give myself a 9.

By being an academic achiever, I demonstrated the ability to work both independently and collaboratively during this poetry unit. When I was working on the book, I was doing it independently and creating it all from my own personal ideas and thoughts, whereas when I was working on the teen life project, I had to interact with others over the internet to get work done. We cooperated well and we could get our work done. On the day of the poetry night, we had a lot of planning and organizing to do, so everyone was assigned jobs and we all worked hard for the time we had. In the end, we had to piece all of the work together which resulted in a fantastic poetry night enjoyable for the whole family. I definitely demonstrated technological literacy and the use of technology as a tool for the efficient and creative completion of a project for the teen life project because we did not get a chance to talk to these people in person, so we had to communicated through comments on the internet. I finished my part of the project well, which proves that I had technological ability, though next time I would have liked to communicate through other ways other than just commenting (ex: email or msn) because I feel that it would be nice to have other things to work with when the learnerblogs site is down. Also for the book, I had to type up poems and print them out to put in my book, and I made different parts of the poems different fonts, which matched the mood at the time. I think I did an admirable job of being an academic achiever, and I would give myself 8 out of 10.

I was a critical thinker because I solved problems using a variety of strategies. When I started the book, I realized that I didn’t know how I was going to bind it, and then I decided to punch holes and tie it together with ribbon. But when it came time to bind it, there were too many pages in the book to hole punch, so I decided to not punch holes and instead tie it through with ribbon. This was a creative and efficient way of binding the book, and also, no one else thought of that. I also gathered, analyzed and processed information from a variety of sources during the teen life project when I posted my ideas and thoughts about what I think the project should have in it. I asked the other people in my group what they thought the poems that I wrote should be like, and what mood they should have in them. Next time, I would’ve asked them to ask me anything about my opinions on how they should do there part. This would’ve allowed more conversation between people. I think I did a worthy job of being a critical thinker, and I would give myself 8 out of 10.

By being an involved citizen, I demonstrated care and concern for the environment. When I made my book, I cut out pictures from magazines instead of printing them off of the internet. Also, I used scraps of leftover paper to decorate and enhance the pages in my book so that I wouldn’t have to throw them away. Next time, I would’ve told people to bring more garbage bags because there was only one, which was obviously not going to be enough. I also interacted respectfully with people of diverse cultures during the teen life project, where I had to talk and work together with people from all over the world. I showed this also during poetry night, where I was in charge of a booth for a while. I talked to parents and showed them how to write poems from a picture, which was quite interesting. I think I did magnificent job of being an involved citizen, and I would give myself 9 out of 10.

Lastly, I was an effective communicator by demonstrating my creative talents to convey ideas when I made my poetry book. I made the book very personal and anyone who knew me well would think so too. I made my book look like a scrapbook because I make scrapbooks and a picture and a caption shows a lot, and in this case the caption would be the poem. Also during the teen life project, I created a poem for the topic ‘air and water pollution’, and I made it sarcastic which is like the way I talk to some people. The idea was to get the main point across but still make it so that it was fun to read. I listened respectfully and asked questions to facilitate understanding and achieve insight during the teen life project. I asked my team members what they thought I should do and told me any ideas they had. A few of them were quite good, which resulted in the final product of my part of the project. Also during the poetry night, I listened and answered any questions the parents had at the booths. For the poetry book, I accepted my teacher’s comments on the poems and changed them. I think I did a great job of being an effective communicator, and I would give myself 8 out of 10.

Overall, I think I did a great job showing how I was being each ESLR. There is obviously more room for improvement, as the notes above say, so I will try to improve to the best of my ability. I think I did a pretty job completing the 6 levels of bloom’s taxonomy, but there’s still room for improvement.

I didn’t get:

As wicked dew as e’er my mother brushed
With raven’s feather from unwholesome fen
Drop on you both. A southwest blow on you
And blister you all o’er.

Come on, obey.

They nerves are in their infancy again

And have no vigor in them.

I got:

Wherefore did they not

That hour destroy us?

Why didn’t they just kill us that day?

Dost thou forget
from what a torment I did free thee?

Did you forget the torture I freed you from?

What I’m wondering is why Miranda hasn’t asked Prospero about all of this and why she hasn’t found out until now. She has been there since the age of three and I would think that since there’s no one else around, she would know everything.

Original Article

In New York, it’s very hard to find a parking spot, and recently, the first robotic car parking system opened in Chinatown in New York. It’s been pretty successful in a lot of the other places in the world, but not in the United States. In fact, it has been very destructive. In New Jersey, the garage has been known to drop unoccupied cars up to 6 stories! In the beginning of last year, there was a problem that wasn’t repaired for 26 hours, with the cars trapped inside.

But still, the makers of the Chinatown garage are very confident that this time, it would work. They estimated that the garage will fit 67 cars that would only usually fit 24. There isn’t a humanoid robot that goes inside your car and drives it. Instead, the driver stops on a pallet and gets out of the car. Then the pallet is lowered into the inner parts of the garage, and maneuvers it to an empty parking spot. The spots are computer controlled, it’s kind of like an elevator but it can also move sideways.

Inside the garage, there are no humans, but there are attendants to accept cash and explain how this robot works.

Even though these accidents have occurred, the maker assure people that “It is a complete virtual impossibility that damage can occur.”

There are laser and radar sensors to detect if the car fits onto the pallet, then it scans for movement to determine whether the people in the car have left the car or not. When the car is parked on the pallet and ready to go, the driver is told to exit the car and leave the bay, and a door closes behind them before starting to maneuver the car into the garage.

When the driver returns to leave, the underground system retrieves the car, sometimes moving things around but it all works out.

Well, to begin, my name is Catrina and I am 13 years old. I try to be an open minded person, sports are my weakness, and I’ve been told that I have good imagination. I live in an international community, which consists of many different people from different cultures and backgrounds. I think it’s kind of cool actually; you get to see how different people act, speak, and react. Just by going to school with them, I get to know a lot about each of the people in my grade. I actually feel like it’s a community, where I live, since everyone is pretty close together, not physically though. It’s basically the opposite of what it was like where I came from. The grade was not a community at all, and it was really obvious, even to strangers. There were lots of cliques, and everyone was grouped as either popular, basketball/football players, kind of cool but kind of weird, or not cool. There was only one good thing that I could find out of this, which was because your friends chose you over any other cliques, so instead of having a lot of friends who you don’t know really well, you a few really close friends. But there were so many bad things about it, because people who were not popular felt disconnected, like they weren’t even there. I think that it’s great that everyone can get along, and be able to talk to everybody. It’s a really big deal even though people don’t realize it when they categorize people, because their self esteem is affected by this a great deal.

Another I guess you could call “issue” I’m finding interesting is long-distance relationships. But it’s a bit different, because it’s not with a boyfriend or girlfriend, it’s with friends who have moved away from you. Well there’s this one really confusing part to me, why is it that after a few months or years without talking to a really close friend, you have nothing to say to them and you can’t really relate to them anymore? People say, “it’s because you grew apart since you have nothing that you really know about them anymore.” Well sure, you don’t know what’s happened recently in your life, but you were best friends! You had to had something in common, something there is to talk about! Sure, easier said than done, make new friends. But then you have no childhood friends that you still talk to, no friends that you’ve known since you were a child up till now, so you just have really close friends, you move away or they move away, and then you’re done! End of relationship. Yes you email, sure you send a few letters here and there, but what about seeing them at school and having a blast with them at the mall? So maybe you have to live in the same place as them so that you don’t grow apart.

Also, another one of my issues are pollution. Many people drive cars these days, I don’t blame them, but one day, the entire earth will get so polluted that we won’t even be able to live and breathe a normal life. i think people should care more for the enviroment and save natural resources around the world before they run out. for example, here in malaysia, if you buy a box of crackers, they are all individually wrapped, which is kind of useful, but definetly not nessecary. If they just limited stuff like that, a lot of things would be saved.

If there’s anything else that you want to know, ask me. I’ll get to know you better hopefully.

Anne Frank Project Writeup

We used these symbols: flames, diary, picture of Anne, Jew star of David, blood, Nazi flag, picture of concentration camp, picture of people dying, Boom! The song, and glass shattering. Flames is hope, the diary and the piture of Anne shows the soul of a young girl going through, the Jew Star represents the discrimination against Jews and the Nazi flag describes Hitler. The sounds were shocking, thrilling. On the other hand, there was one that is soothing, soft and melodic. We gathered, analyzed and processed information from a variety of sources, being critical thinkers.

The flames that burn the diary symbolize hope and happiness. When the blood drips onto Anne’s diary, it’s supposed to be like someone dying and their blood is dripping on her diary. When the glass breaks, the sound, is supposed to show that there is violence, and glass is getting broken. The Nazi flag shows that the Nazis were a big part of this, along with everything they did. Just as the Jew’s Star of David was supposed to symbolize the Jews and their role in it. Anne’s diary symbolizes her love for writing, and basically how all this information was found out. All the pictures of the gas chambers showed how the Nazis showed no mercy for Jews and how they just stuffed them all in rooms, making them think that they were going to get a shower, but instead they were getting gassed. At the concentration camps, they shoved a whole bunch of people in one little room.

As I don’t have much taste in music, so Catrina and Ahbi searched through millions and millions of websites to dig out heaps of good songs. At last, they found some really great songs such as boom! by System of a Down & 100 Years by Five for Fighting. Boom! is a fast beat song and its lyrics are suitable to the condition going on through the second world war. While 100 years is a slow peaceful song about being fifteen and wishing about the future. Music is important but there’s more than that to make one perfect, the symbols. We’ve used the fire, blood, the Nazi flag, the Jew star and the Anne’s diary as our symbols. Fire symbolizes hope, blood shows death and helplessness, The Nazi flag represents Adolf Hitler. The Jew star represents the discrimination of Jews. It starts off when glass shattered and blood flows; this indicates the disability of the Jews and how helpless they are. In the end, death is the only option and that’s exactly what they get. The beat is fast and the song is clear which makes understanding an easier job. The beats give one nervousness and frightening thoughts. I’ve look through lots of websites to access information showing that I’m a Academic Achiever.

100 years is a soft and peaceful song played when it’s showing all that has she thought of in the ‘Secret Annexe’. All about her life was expressed through simple but meaningful quotes. The song Boom! is all about being fifteen and thinking about the future which what’s Anne is going through the whole time. This is the chance for the audience to be in Anne’s shoes. This song has the lyrics describing on how war went on; when millions were spent on bombs leaving many starving (4000 hungry children leave us per hour, from starvation, while billions are spent on bombs, creating death showers.). The strongest part of the song is the last part when they sang-Whyyy…must weee…kill ooour own kiiind…? (Why must we kill our own kind?) This goes to show that we’ve been critical thinkers by understanding and use the songs and related it to Anne Frank. I feel very certain that the lyrics of this song is suitable for what’s going on during WWll. Whenever the audience listen to what was sung, they would understand the whole situation and be experiencing the pain and sense the suffering through life in the concentration camps; what it feels like to be treated as animals or maybe be worse. This way, we demonstrated the skills of being Involved Citizen by being aware of Anne’s situation. All this makes the crowd both excited and feels uneasy. It starts off when glass shattered and blood flows; this indicates the disability of the Jews and how helpless they are. In the end, death is the only option and that’s exactly what they get. When the Nazi flag and the Jew star merges, his shows how they are similar and connected to each other. At he end, the diary burns and all the pain she had suffered is now gone and hope is near. By using technology to project all this is a tool of communication, which also falls under being Effective Communicators.

The video starts off with a picture of Anne, this is the first step into the movie creating an impression for the audience. Abhi, as usual, being his creative self, created the entire movie using various sources provided by Catrina and me. Abhi did an amazing job with the movie. In my opinion, the sound effects were truly fascinating as it was accurate to the scenes. Besides that, the images were clear and the fonts were big enough, everything is really smooth.

By doing this project, we demonstrated the ability to work both independently and collaboratively because we worked as a group to finish the project made of independent parts of our work put together. Abhi made the flash movie, while we helped edit parts of it and Catrina and Eugene wrote this write up.

After discussing with Catrina (Abhi is away), we decided to give ourselves the grade we deserve. For knowledge, we did a good job on describing the symbols and what they mean. We did a good job on identifying the sounds. We discussed the symbols, images and sounds carefully and did an outstanding job on their meanings; which falls under comprehension. On application, we did an outstanding job on describing the symbols and how it will affect the audience. For analysis, we tried to work hard on comparing but it wasn’t really clear, so I think we only did a good job on it. Last but definitely not least, synthesis, which is based on the movie; Abhi did an amazing job on it and it turn out to an interesting project.

Sam: Red ones, blue ones, and shiny green ones. Whoa! (Drop marbles)

Ashlee: (trips over marbles) whoa! Be more careful next time. (picks up marble and puts it in Sam’s hand) ooh nice marbles where’d you get these??

Sam: I got them for my sixth birthday and played with they since. They was given to I by a very friend special of me.

Ashlee: (starts helping pick up marbles and puts them in his hands)

Sam: oh thank you so much! You are very kind, people don’t usually help I. The girl who gave these to me, lived five blocks away for me. I saw girl all day at school.

Ashlee: where did you live?

Sam: I lived across Robinson elementary school next Tesco.

Ashlee: ooh I know that place!

Sam: I remember this time was I was young, and I went to school and ate chicken and…

Ashlee: corn and chocolate milk with sour cream and onion lays on the side?

Sam: And right before lunch, the little girl, we played…

Ashlee: marbles in the corner of the playground during recess?

Sam: and after school, I went to the girl’s house and told her about…

Ashlee: how your family was getting less money every month even though your mom said you didn’t understand but you really did? How annoying it was that your mom thought you were “just a kid” who couldn’t help?!

Sam: and one day she gets mad me and me walk to the sidewalk, and…

Ashlee: you saw the girl that was your friend all along and told her you were running away from home?

Sam: but the girl stopped me and I went to…

Ashlee: the girl’s house to stay?

Sam: and one day I feel bad for staying at the girl’s house so I leave and after, I went to the park and sit, swung, and slid, and I felt sad that no one cared about me! So I ran home to tell my mom I was sorry for running away. But there was no one there! So I went to the sidewalk and sat and I thought about what I should do. I thought I should find the girl for help, so I walked to the girls house with the white roof and yellow shutters…

Sam: with leaf designs on it. Stone steps to the door and big pot of flower and tree.

Ashlee: with fresh cut lawn every week and a peach tree in the front yard that

Sam: covers whole front house. (squints and looks into the distance)

Ashlee: starting to remember something else?

Sam: yea, I just say something in my past. I remember this one time, after school, my mom didn’t pick me up from school! And so I walked, but there were big bullies so I had to walk quickly. Then when I got home, my mom dragged me into the car and drove as fast as she could. And suddenly she stopped and she said “get out of the car!” so I got out and turned around…

Emotion: pity

Fredrik&Catrina

hey, tell me if you see anything wrong, okay??!!

STEP ONE

The Aztecs originally lived in Atzlan, which is now north west mexico.  A legend said that they decided to relocate because their god, Huitzilopochtli commanded them to go on a journey until they found an swampy island in the middle of Lake Texcoco, with an eagle holding a snake in its beak and perched on a cactus, growing from a rock or cave surrounded by water which was where they should settle. They also left because they were looking for a new home.
They were driven around until their god told them to go build their own. They were very wild people, so they did not fit in so they got driven around from place to place. When they reached their destination, they were to thank their god for his idea with human sacrifices. Another reason why was because they were forced to live on the worst lands in the valley, because they were so wild and nasty. Before they were driven out, they adopted some cultural patterns of that place, and that’s how they are now, a mix of cultures.
STEP TWO
They lived on islands, made by plants and mud. Trees’ roots were anchored into the ground to hold the soil together.

PROS:
They found ways to live, and used their resources and land effectively and efficiently.

CONS:
Their city was hard to build because they had to use materials that weren’t very sturdy, also the land was marshy, muddy, and stake infested land.
Picture:
The eagle with snake in beak and claw, which the Aztecs had to search for to live there, and they found it in the swampy lake, which is the next picture.
STEP THREE
They worshipped the sun god and Huitzilopochtli. Pyramids were built for sacrificing. The priests were a big part of sacrificing. The Aztecs believed that the gods needed to be fed human hearts so that the sun would be able to rise everyday. In the battles, they had to take prisoners for sacrificing. The priests would then take their hearts out of their bodies and while it was still beating, they would throw the bodies down the steps of the temples.
STEP FOUR

Slaves:
The parents who were poor sold their children as slaves, but usually only for a while. The slaves could buy their freedom back if they had the money.  Slaves that attempted to escape and reached the royal palace successfully were given freedom instantly.

Commoners:
This was most of the population, the people who traded and farmed. They were not necessarily cash crops though, more like they grow the crops and keep it. These people got a piece of land for their entire life. They did not own this land, they just used it.

Nobility:
The highest rank of the Aztecs.

STEP FIVE

Aztecs spoke Nahuatl, but other than that they used writing to communicate, such as glyphs and pictographs/pictograms. These were not actually words like the alphabet, instead the pictures that they drew all had symbolic meanings.
Each of these pictures have a symbolic meaning to them, so when you put a whole bunch of pictures together they become a story.

STEP SIX

The Aztecs made terraces to grow their crops, which is to keep their crops from flooding. They also used the slash and burn method to clear parts of the forest. They made artificial islands made by weaving giant reed mats and covering them with mudded plants, so that the crops could be grown even in the swamp, and the roots of the plants were anchored to the ground.

The Aztecs mainly grew corn, chili peppers, squash, tomatoes, and beans. They traded and exported goods in other parts of the Aztec empire. The Aztecs did not have currency like us, but instead they traded goods for other goods, such as cacao beans.

STEP 7

From the Spanish’s point of view, all they wanted to do was to defeat the Southern American countries to find gold to send back to Spain. Cortes thought that the defeat was fair even though his army was more advanced in weapons. Cuitláhuac was the leader of the Aztecs, and while he led, they became stronger. One day, the Spanish attempted to escape at night to be on the safe side, but they were caught and the Aztecs trapped them in and they fought a long battle. After the Spaniards got driven out, the Spanish had basically lost everything they had to start with, from soldiers and horses, to gold.

STEP8

The Aztecs think that La Malinche is a traitor being an alter-ego of Cortes as he conquered Mexico, even though she saved thousands of Indians by persuading Cortes to negotiate and talk rather than murder.
She was the daughter of a noble Aztec family. When the father died, the mother remarried to a chief and had a son. They decided that the son that they gave birth to, should rule instead of her, so they turned their daughter over to passing traders when she was young, and claimed that she was dead. She ended up as a slave of the military chief of Tabasco. She already leaned Mayan language that was used in Yucatan, and she could understand the language used by Aztecs by the time Cortes arrived. She had no say in joining Cortes, rather she was offered to Cortes by her master, along with 19 other young women. A Spanish priest was Cortes’ translator for Mayan dialects, but the priest could not translate with Indian tribes. So Cortes used Marina to translate from what the Aztec’s said, to Mayan dialect, then the priest translated that to Spanish. But when Cortes talked to the Aztecs, this lengthy process was reversed.
She cared very much for Mexicans and was very obedient to Cortes. In one of the letters, he said “After God we owe this conquest of New Spain to Doña Marina.”, which showed how much he needed her for this conquest. At the end of the conquest, Cortes arranged to have Marina married to a Castilian knight, Don Juan Xamarillo.
Marina had a pretty bad reputation on the Aztecs, but a very good reputation on the Spanish, but this may have shown some people that women are also useful for important things.

Firefighter cancer risk ‘higher’ original article

Firefighters & Topic Researched in the UK and the USA.

My summary:

Firefighters have a much higher cancer risk than most people can imagine, they risk their lives to save other peoples’. Rates of testicular cancer were 100% higher and prostate cancer 28% higher for firefighters, and their analysis of 32 US and European studies stated. The US researchers looked at studies of 110,000 firefighters, which compared cancer rates of other people. The researchers also discovered a 50% increase in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple myeloma.The researchers say that is because firefighters are exposed to many compounds designated as carcinogens, or cancer-causing agents, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer - including benzene, chloroform, soot, styrene and formaldehyde. Researchers are still trying to find a solution to this problem.