Is Molly the hero?

Is Molly the hero? Yes, I think she is because she rescues her sister and cousin from Mr. Neville. A hero is someone who rescues others using courage. Molly did this in the movie, so she shows herself to be a hero. She shows courage when she convinces her cousin to go, as her cousin says it is nice there and they should stay.

I learn best when:

I learn best when I am sitting at the back of the right side of the room, where I can get up and move around without disturbing other students. It will help me if there are visual metaphors or kinesthetic ways of taking the lesson in, as I struggle with auditory learning. I sometimes like to move my hands around to concentrate.

I need to:

Move my hands a lot or doodle. I sometimes change position in my seat a lot during class, instead of standing up and walking around like my profile says would benefit me.

The strategies that would help me learn:

• Sitting at the back right
• Doing lazy 8's or double doodles
• Having visual or kinesthetic lessons.

4. I would like my teachers to know this about me.....

I am a very kinesthetic and visual learner, so I want to be able to move a lot and see good visual examples of things we are learning about. I struggle with auditory learning, so lessons where I can only listen and not participate physically or visually make it difficult for me to take in information. I would also prefer to sit at the back of the room because I am most comfortable there, and it is in my profile that I learn best from there.

Leonardo, The Renaissance Man

Why was Leonardo da Vinci classified as a true Renaissance man? Leonardo da Vinci was classified as a Renaissance man because he practiced many of the new arts of the renaissance. He was a painter, sculptor, musician, architect, scientist, anatomist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, and much more. Leonardo redesigned the ideas of the renaissance and truly brought Florence out of the Medieval ages. He painted fantastic paintings, such as Mona Lisa. He attempted to build a flying machine to bring humans to the sky. Leonardo da Vinci thought beyond the borders of those around him and represented almost everything the Renaissance was. Because of the way Leonardo practiced the crafts only started in the Renaissance, and practiced them well, he was the Renaissance man.

The Sniper

The Sniper is my favorite short story because it shows the terrible truth about a civil war that I had never heard of. The Sniper tells the story of a man who unknowingly kills his brother. Before reading about the story I didn’t know about the Irish Republican Army and thought that the IRA was the true government and that the Free Staters were a rebellious group. I assumed that the “Free” part in Free Staters was rebellious and that the Republic in the IRA was governmental. Learning about the horrible civil war was interesting, but I hope that wars like this wont happen again.

Peers

I believe in peers. I believe in challenges in learning. I believe that a peer is not only someone who is in the same grade or profession, a peer is someone who is your equal in a subject, ranging from algebra to training for a marathon. A peer is someone who, knowingly or not, pushes you to do better than you are doing, by doing so themselves.

In school students are occasionally assigned to partners or groups for projects, which takes away the possibility for students to choose who they work well with. Although this can be defended by stating that many students are off-task when they work with their friends, many students' friends are their peers in their subjects, challenging each other to do better than the other. I believe that teachers should give their students the chance to use their responsibility to choose partners or groups they would work well in, although they should still assign them occasionally, so that students learn that they will not always get to work with who they want to.

I remember that when I was in fourth grade my good friend and I were in the same class. We had gifted programs together and were well matched in sports, too. In math class our teacher would give us a sheet with thirty multiplication and division problems on each side and see how many we could do in thirty seconds. My friend and I sat together and when I saw that he was a few questions ahead it pushed me to work faster and concentrate. I doubt he noticed that he was the one who pushed me to do well in academics, but I have him to thank for going from average grades in third grade to A’s in fourth. In gifted math we would work across the table from each other while we worked on logic puzzles, and told each other what part we were on and how close we were to finishing. This is my definition of a peer, someone that you can compete with, knowing that you will improve. I believe that peers of equal ability can push someone farther than they think is possible. This I believe.

The Battle of Hastings Game

In this game, you choose to play either Harold Godwinson, king of England, or Duke William of Normandy. If you choose Harold you have the following choice:
1. Form a shield wall on the ridge and let the Normans come to you.
2. Charge down the hill in the hope of surprising the Normans and sweep them from the field.
Then if you choose either one you get 2 more choices, one of which is the correct one you can win with. There is only one way for either William or Harold to win.
I enjoyed this game because it follows the way it historically happened for William, and the way Harold might have been able to win. I also liked this game because it showed a graphic of the soldiers moving to follow your command.
During this game I learned that when you are a leader of an army/ country, you have to make difficult choices that could result in the winning of territory, or the death of your own men.
During the battle of Hastings, Duke William of Normandy led his army against an exhausted English army, who had just recently marched 190 miles from the great north of England to defeat Harold Hadrada and Tostig from taking over England. Now he faces them as they are in an exhausted position. He defeated them using his archers back up forces while his cavalry and infantry hold them from being attacked. He eventually won, and became the King of England.
This game is a valuable learning experience because it teaches you that Harold might have been able to win, and that battles require leaders taking a lot of difficult choices to lead their army to success.

The Boy In The Striped Pajamas

We should study it because it helps us learn about the past mistakes recently in the world, it teaches us that so recently, there was so much evil. If we forget the past we might repeat it in the present. Here's an interesting quote from http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/#rescue_resistance "The Holocaust is not only a story of destruction and loss; it is a story of an apathetic world and a few rare individuals of extraordinary courage. In remembering those who took a determined stand against Nazism, we honor the memory of those who perished, and are reminded that individuals do have the power, and choice, to make a difference in the fight against oppression."