Semester 1 Reflection Zeitgeist

This is my reflection of my first semester of 6th grade. This year has been AMAZING! I hope you enjoy my video. :)

Learning Profile E

Each person has their own unique identity and trademark. Everyone is created the same way, but function and think differently. No person is the same as another. We were able to embrace this fact when we completed a test to see what Learning Profile we had. There were various Learning Profiles that are based on how you do on the test. This test discovers what your learning style is and how you process information. People were grouped into categories that centered around their way of learning. This test gave me an insight to how I learn and how I could preform better. According to my Learning Profile test I am Learning Profile E.

"Learns best by analyzing and communicating (either verbal or written), the details of information. These learners will benefit by being a part of a cooperative learning group that has the freedom to talk and learn."

I learn best when someone explains through verbal or written communication. I understand verbal/written information, for I am able to process it more efficiently. I am quite aided, because most of the assignments my teacher gives us are on written/online documents or sites. This is comfortable for me, because if I misunderstand the instruction or want to recall the it I can always refer to it, easily. A discussions will assist me, for I am able to gain a better understanding with varied aspects and opinions. If I have doubts, I can clarify these in a verbal discussion and thus enhancing my learning. Verbal and written communication are critical to my learning.

"Under stress or new learning may have difficulty seeing, hearing and remembering the details."

I agree with this, because usually when I am under pressure I start to forget what I need to know and often make silly mistakes. Even if I know the facts, say for a test, I tend to stress out and suddenly I cannot remember the essential. I learn best when I am not under pressure and am calm and relaxed. I need to improve on being at ease for if I do so I will succeed. I can accomplish this task of improvement by calming myself before a test and preparing the days before. This way I will know the crucial facts and also be able to remember these facts, for I will not be stressed. I am a perfectionist and have the desire to have everything just right. Though being a perfectionist empowers me to work hard and put the utmost effort into everything I do, it can also lead to stress.

There are certain ways that I prefer to learn, though they may differ from other people's preferences. I want my teacher to know that I am serious about my work and always do my best. My grades are important to me and I value having good grades, because if I earn high grades then I feel rewarded and satisfied and that my completion of various assignments have been appreciated. Often if I do not have good grades, I work hard to improve them. I believe I am a hard worker and want to succeed. No matter what I will aim for accomplishment and never falter in my task to achieve high grades.

This Learning Profile test will aid students and teachers. When students complete this test they are able to identify how they learn and how their learning skills can improve. They can work to develop their weaknesses and maintain their strengths in learning. Though the downside of this test is it may not be accurate to what the student thinks of him/herself. This test is a wonderful opportunity to discover what is the best way for you to learn and how you can improve on your learning skills.

This is my Learning Profile!

Working Together Is Success

A collaborative Lit. Circle enables us to work together. One of the main benefits of working in a partnership for Literature Circles is that the work is divided equally between the two partners . This way there is a decreased workload for both people and more time to focus on making your half of the Lit. Circle the best it can possibly be. A partner can also give you feedback, allowing to edit and revise your work, so you do not have silly mistakes to weigh down your grade. A cooperative partner listens to your ideas and contributes their own. They do not mind if one idea may be dismissed for another. Even though the work is less, you should not slack off, because if one person does not do their work it will affect their own and their partner's grade. When working with my partner I realized that we finished the Lit. Circle very early and before the due date. Usually it would have took longer for me, alone, to be done with the whole Lit. Circle. Since we completed early, we were able to check our work and spotted errors that we had not seen before. I think collaborative Literature Circles have various advantaged benefits.

Though doing a partnership Literature Circle has its benefits, it also has its difficulties. The problems that my partner and I encountered were minor, but nonetheless situations that we had to overcome. There was a moment where we both had run out of ideas and were not doing much work, but soon enough we snapped out of it and worked vigorously to finish the Lit. Circle. An obstacle that we faced was we both picked the same passage. We searched the book for a different passage and eventually found one. I found that working with a partner, though with a few challenges, was a stress-free experience. I realized there is no I in teamwork and that two heads are better than one. 

Having a partner for Literature Circle was interesting, for I was able to gain a better understanding of the novel. My partner opened my mind to new possibilities and additional information and we were able to  write this on our Lit. Circle, making it a mixture of unique thoughts and ideas. Some of her thoughts were so contrasting from mine, that first I had the conception that they were wrong, but once I thought logically I realized that they made sense. This will aid me when I do an individual Lit. Circle for my mind will try to think of other views on the story. I completed a Lit. Circle, with my partner, on a set of chapters in the story, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi. One of my conclusions concentrated on the negative: it was Charlotte's fault that Zachariah and Mr. Cranick died. My partner, however, had the idea that it was not completely Charlotte's fault, for it was Captain Jaggery that was the one who was killing innocent people directly. I discovered that I agreed with this, also, but I had never really thought about it. 

Collaborative Literature Circle is a benefitial opportunity to work together and understand the story, thoroughly. With obstacles included, Collaborative Lit. Circles, I believe, are easier. In life you will need to cooperate with different people and this is a way for us to practice this, so we have improved collaboration and communication skills. I enjoy the less stress and the feeling of having a job accomplished before the day it is due. The ability to work in team will prove valuable when I work in a job later in life. The synergy of us two working together made this Literature Circle successful.

http://www.westmeadltd.com/Profile/profile.htm

http://www.trainingtouch.com/?p=193

http://www.ideashelper.com/

Literature Circle Charlotte Doyle Reflection

In sharing knowledge comes the power of understanding. A Literature Circle is an efficient way to share your ideas, thoughts, and predictions. Everyone has individual understanding and viewpoints of a book, so to get another's thoughts on the book is interesting. During my Literature Circle discussion we talked about the book, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi, which is an exciting and mysterious book that prefers to give the slightest hints of what is to happen in the future. This magnificent book has many hidden meanings, complex characters, and heart-stopping moments around each corner. Avi has portrayed this novel from the standpoint of a girl named Charlotte, who faces intense moments, without knowing the truth of everything she sees. Each of my group members gave me inferences and thoughts on the book that were dissimilar from my own. I was awed by how differently our minds think, but that was the beauty of the Lit. Circle discussions. 

My understanding of the book was elevated a step higher by the other's comments. Before the discussion, I had the idea that Zachariah was a bad person and nothing else, but afterwards they shed light on an idea that I did not think of: he could also be trying to help Charlotte when he offers her the knife and be a reliable, kind person. I started to understand the hidden meaning of the author's words and that some answers we need to look and ask for. Understanding of the true effect the ship and its crew has had on Charlotte came to me. Charlotte will have to live with the crew and adapt to their way of life,  even though it will be tough because she comes from a higher class society. With the help of the others, I was able to gain a clearer understanding and a mind that Reasoned Critically for each page. I felt that if we Collaborated Constructively then we can understand the novel, thoroughly.

It was fascinating to see that people in my group had similar questions about the story and together we were able to get answers using evidence from the story and our combined thinking. Individual thoughts and opinions brought new questions to the surface, each begging to be answered. We found out that many of our interests were identical, for we picked the same passages. To hear each other's answers to questions was a great experience for we were able to discover that there was information that we could have added to our Lit. Circle Assignment and that we could improve upon these faults in the next Lit. Circle Assignment. We were all able to connect with each other through our similar questions and favorite passages, proving that although minds can think differently, they can also think alike.

Everyone was jittery with excitement of what might happen next to Charlotte. We spent some time speaking of our predictions. There are so many predictions you can make, but you must review the story's words before creating any. My group members kept enlightening me with predictions that I never even thought of like maybe Charlotte murders Zachariah or maybe Charlotte is really a murderer and is not framed after all. All of us could not wait to read more of the story. Each page unraveled another question to answer, another mystery to solve, another piece of the puzzle to put together. The other's predictions seemed to open a door to numerous other thoughts.

Literature Circles bring forward varied opinions, multiple ideas, understanding, and predictions and this opens our minds to ideas and observations that we did not notice before. Each new thought from a fresh mind is like a undiscovered pathway that we can tread. Distinctive, personalized ideas and opinions is what make our world so advanced. A collaborated activity is important for it serves as a way to communicate with other people effectively. Lit. Circle enables all of us to work together with people who each have contrasting backgrounds and minds and come together as a group. These discussions give us the opportunity to see what other people think and appreciate the fact that we are all not the same and have unique ideas and concepts. As the story starts to make us increasingly puzzled the need for Lit. Circle Discussions becomes greater.

My Lit. Circle book

http://www.sunprairiepubliclibrary.org/SunPrairiePublicLibrary-HistoricalSurvivalStories.html

This is my group and I discussing our Literature Circle Assignment.
http://www.slide.com/r/Uqwu6Sam5j8xG-BsA1ycZOhYtd-pJc_w?map=2&cy=bb

Reasons For Advancement

History took different paths for different people because of the environment, not due to biological difference among people. I think there is no such thing as a superior race or superior country. The food production, domestication of animals, availability of land, trade, and colonization was the key to a successful civilization. The countries that seem to be developed today are above the the Tropics of Cancer. We can support this argument with examples of various countries like America which is a vast country with a variety of resources that are useful such as a large amount of water and vacant land and in Euro- Asia there is flat land and a variety of natural resources, like oil, that have helped them become technologically and economically better. On the other hand in Papua New Guinea people have tried to domesticate wild, ferocious animals and failed and cannot plant many useful crops on their land.

The countries above the Tropics of Cancer are wealthier than others because of the species of animals that can be domesticated there, like goat, sheep, and cattle. When the people from England defied the British rule and came to America, they brought with them cattle, which turned out to be a very useful resource. In England the abundance of sheep made them dominant in the wool industry. In Middle East oil available makes them a wealthier country. Large land and more crops help growth of population. Successful farming is dependent on dirt that is fertile. This was a conflict for people who did not live in a land that was fertile. Americans grew tobacco, sugar, cotton, rice, sugar cane, and coffee with the use of slave labor, in its vast, fertile and vacant land. European countries grew crops such as potatoes, wheat, and barely. In countries where there is less agricultural land they cannot grow staple crops. For example in Papua New Guinea, the people eat sago for it is plentiful in their land, but has less protein and is not as nutritious as barely and wheat. Advanced culture developed in areas where there was flat, fertile land as in Mesopotamian civilization or any other early civilizations. The location of these countries above the Tropic of Cancer gave rise to many trade routes and made exchanging of goods between different countries easier.

The other reason for these nations to become wealthier was colonization. Colonization increased the pace of advancement of European countries. New land discoveries made by explorers like Columbus added to the wealth and advancement. European countries became powerful from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, because of money, natural resources, and slaves from colonies. England colonized most of America, India, West Indes, and Africa. Slave trade in America led to more production of agricultural goods and market revolution. Also technical advancement and wealth of these nations made it easier for them to colonize other countries and use their natural resources.

In conclusion, civilization developed not because of intelligence but due to chain developments that was made possible by certain conditions. The biological difference was irrelevant to the rise of power from the countries above the Tropics of Cancer. The conditions of the countries from the same region of the top half-hemisphere of the world ensured a better survival and a convenient way of life. My hypothesis is the key to advancement was the geographical location and the abundance of natural resources both animal and plant life, colonization, and slave labour that enabled more productivity and wealth.

The Tropic of Cancer

www.worldsbestbeachtowns.com/bea...-bahamas

Slave Trade

www1.american.edu/ted/slave.htm

Mesopotamian Civilization

history.howstuffworks.com/asian-...amia.htm

He who plants a tree, Plants a hope. ~Lucy Larcom :)

I trudged up the crumbled side-walk, thinking of how refreshing it would be to lay flat on my bed with a bottle of cold water... Cold, cold water...

"Come on guys! We are almost there!" Mrs. Smith exclaimed over the small rustlings that our feet made on the dead leaves of the trees.

Hot Malaysian air was thick around me. The trees made it a little cooler, each time we walked under it's umbrella-like branches, blocking out the sun. Oh, the sun. It was blazing its overpowering rays upon me and I could not think straight. I organized my thoughts and tried to think of the postives. I am doing this for everyone, for nature, for Mother Earth. This will be worth it in the long run. I thought about the park ranger's words and suddenly I realized that this job of planting one mangrove could affect the environment around it immensely.

Each tree should be thought of as a breath of air. If we run out of trees, we run out of good, clean air. The environment depends on these trees. The branches that reach to the sky balance the environment. But say if these trees were cut down, demolished to make buildings and golf courses, then wouldn't the environment be destroyed? Trees serve for many purposes, so what would happen to the Kuala Selangor Nature Park if the over 200 trees there were to be gone? Animals would be killed and the park would be nothing. Keeping these trees is our duty as the most intelligent race in the world.

In my mind I think of a tree as a guardian and a role model. It unselfishly lends its branches, trunks, and leaves for protection against winds, rains, and floods from reaching the uplands. It also provide safe nursery areas for crustaceans, fishes, and other marine life. The mudflats of Kuala Selangor are home to mudskippers, mud lobsters, and mangrove crabs who wade in its muddy pools. Otters are seen on the water's surfaces. Mangroves are also a source of food for marine life like shrimp. It's roots and branches are shelters for animals. Birds from around the world, like kingfishers, pond herons, bee-eaters, and water cocks migrate and take rest in the mangroves. At the Kuala Selangor Nature Park over 140 species of birds have been spotted, such as the especially rare ones, Nordman Greenshank and Mangrove Pitta. Species of monkeys, such as the Silver Leaf Monkey, are also found across the mangrove trees. Mangroves are important to the ecosystem and the world. Without these Mangroves many animal species would die.

Planting one mangrove, only sacrificing one day of your time, can change the way of life for hundreds of animals that depend on these trees. Keeping these trees alive ensures the survival of animals and the safety of the towns near Selangor River, for they would be flooded without the mangroves. Marine life and wildlife alike of Malaysia and other countries feed here. We should be the warriors for our ecosystem and environment. We should save nature for future generations. We should aid the world when it is at its weakest, because we take the world for granted. Our Earth has always been our resource, our home, and our way of life, so when its in trouble, shouldn't we be there to nurture it? If we work together we can bring the world out of crisis and save millions of lives, just by simple acts of kindness, like planting a mangrove tree.

I took a deep breath and looked at all the mangroves we planted, 80 or so mangrove samplings, so far. Tomorrow another 40 kids would come, endure the torture, complain, ask why we are planting these mangroves, and finally realization will come to them. One day those samplings will be big enough to fulfill its purpose and help the environment around it. One little mangrove sapling can make a huge difference.

Sources

http://www3.leegov.com/dcd/Environmental/Mangroves.htm 

http://hydec.com/ksnp/ 

http://www.wildeyeview.com/places/?p=128

Grey Heron
http://www.maleisure.com/k_selangor.htm

Mudskipper
http://hydec.com/ksnp/ 

Kuala Selangor Nature Park
http://www.wildeyeview.com/places/?p=128 

Silver Leaf Monkey
http://www.wildeyeview.com/places/?p=128

Treat People The Way You Want To Be Treated :)

What do I do?

There I was standing in the middle of the hallway, looking quite dumb with my mouth gaping and my eyes wide. In front of me was a girl my age crying into her hands, her eyes red as fire. I could tell that more than sadness, anger blazed in her heart and that would not go away unless I did something. I wanted to help, but I did not know what to do.

The girl's name was Kathy and she was a shy, quiet girl, who always was kind to everyone. She was always to herself and she had moved to this school a month ago. Her only friend, Mary, was the first friend she met that year and now Mary had hurt her with the words, "You are so totally ugly! No one will ever like you!" Mary had nicknamed Kathy "Ugly Duckling" and when ever Kathy passed by she would say, "Hey, Ugly Duckling!" The whole time Mary was thinking that Kathy did not mind and that it was all a joke. Even when Mary laughed after that, Kathy took it seriously. Was this bullying? The girl had been insulted in a "friendly" way by her only friend in her new school. Now, she was curled up in a ball, wailing, next to her bag. Her best friend did not know how it hurt her, how it pierced through her heart like a bloody arrow... But bullying can be that way: harsh, sad, and the bully oblivious that she is a doing something wrong.

I felt like a dying duck, just staring at her. No one was in the hallway and Kathy was lonely. She glanced up at me with swollen eyes. I knew I should have done something that second, something that would turn this terrible day of hers around. But, it was none of my business, right? What if people who were friends with Mary start to not like me? Mary had a gang of friends, what if Mary and her gang started to bully me on purpose? The bell rang. Suddenly kids were everywhere and Kathy was lost in the crowd. My heart was filled with sadness and for the rest of the week I regretted not helping her that moment, because she would remember that day forever.

All through the week I just... did not feel right. Even though I was not the one who insulted Kathy, I was somewhat responsible. In a silent way I was supporting a bully. To this day I remember that moment and I wish I could have sat down with Kathy and watch her face light up with happiness, as I try to cheer her up, or, even better, went and told Mary how Kathy was hurt and that it was not a very nice joke. I could have made a difference, but I stood there selfishly thinking about my well-being, when all I had to do was be a friend to Kathy. From then on, I feel that if I stand up for every kid who is bullied I will be correcting the sin that I did to Kathy and saving a heartbroken kid from being mentally scarred. 

This morning, as I walked down the hallway and watched as kids from around the globe talked and laughed together in satisfying harmony, I thought about what ISKL (International School of Kuala Lumpur), my school, could do to make it more welcoming and happier, so that bullying would not exist. 

We at ISKL can comfort the person being bullied and we could tell the teacher about the bullying. ISKL students could stand up for the person being bullied and, thus, stand up for all those kids being bullied across every school.  ISKL can be the best school and we could be role models to students from ever corner of the world and show them that bullying is a crime and should be ceased, immediately and as soon as it starts. Us, students at ISKL, should treat each other the way we would want to be treated. We as a community can communicate effectively, think creatively, reason critically, collaborate constructively, learn enthusiastically, live ethically, and stop any kind of bullying, big or small, in our school. 

I walked happily into the classroom. I knew we, ISKL, could accomplish this.

STOP BULLYING!
http://www.cknw.com/EndBullying.aspx

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/love-in-time-homeschooling/201003/mean-girls-and-homeschooling-moms

Run Away Horse

Fear and courage are linked with a bridge. To reach courage, the haven of accomplishment, this bridge must be crossed. But crossing this bridge is a hard and painful task. You would have to jump over the holes of failure and disappointment. Courage lies in the smallest things you accomplish and the award for overpowering the tyrant of fear is immense; it is something that you can never take advantage of, never use to hurt anybody, it is something that comes with generosity, honesty, and kindness. And it is a memory for a lifetime that you learn from and never forget about, just when I discovered my courage.

My courage began with fear. I clutched at my mom's warm jacket and kicked at the arms that were trying to grab me.

"I don't want to!" I screeched so high that even the horses looked at me annoyed. The horses... Oh, how they scared me and riding one was just too much for me to take. What if I broke an arm? My friend, who was eight-years old, just like me, used to ride horses, until one bucked her off and she was left with a broken arm, an unpleasant memory, and an unforgiving attitude to all horses. I was afraid and I had come terrified to the grasslands where the Mongolian horses grazed. My parents had said how enjoyable the site-seeing vacation would be and how it would be a wonderful opportunity if I rode a Mongolian horse. But it would be a life scar if I broke something.

"I don't want to!" I screeched again. This time I could almost see the anger in the horses' eyes as they all glared at me.

"You will never get another chance to!" my parents exclaimed.

And before I could argue any longer the Mongolian man had plopped me on the back of a dark brown horse. I shivered in the cold Mongolian winter and studied the horse that I thought held my life. He was not like the rest of the big, brown-eyed horses. His hair was all over the place, his eyes were bright with giddiness, and if I put my hand on his chest I could feel it heaving and his heart racing. He stomped his hooves impatiently on the ground, leaving a deep dent in the mud. What if I fell down and he used those sharp hooves to trample me? My teeth started to chatter and it was not because of the cold.

"My name is Arban and I will be your guide today. Now come, let me show you the beautiful land of Mongolia," he had an accent and unclear English, but I managed to make out what he was saying.

He led the way and slowly, one by one, the horses followed. First my confident, care-free brother, Sunkulp, on a black horse walked behind Arban. Sunkulp was showing off, not even holding the horse's reins, with his hands on the back of his head and a content smile on his face. Sunkulp's eyes looked closed, but I knew that they were really half-open, watching me struggle to sit upright on my horse. I knew once the tour was over he would boast about how balanced he was on his horse and how I was close to falling off. Next my mom followed, giving me a reassuring smile, but even she was not very comfortable on the horse. Then my dad came, looking wildly about taking in all the scenery and turning his head to the different sounds so many times, that by the time my horse started tagging along behind his horse, I was kind of giddy from watching him.

My horse's hooves hit the ground fast and hard. He was moving at a much faster pace and I knew this horse should have been ridden by a trained professional. His eyes darted from side to side, his head swung right to left and back, and his nostrils flared.

It felt like I was flying. For a few seconds I did not realize what was happening. One moment I was looking at my dad's black horse, the next moment the wind blew in my face and my horse was running away from the guide. He was crossing the grasslands and going off the trail that he was supposed to go on. The Mongolian wilderness that lay in the distance was getting closer and closer with each heartbeat. Tears were dotting my eyes and my head began to hurt. I glanced desperately around, where were my parents? Everything was so blurry and the only sound that I could hear was my own heart beating in my ears. Blood rushed to my face, even when it was so cold.

I could hear shouting far away, "Someone save the girl!" I could tell it was the Mongolian man speaking, for it was coated in a thick accent.

My thoughts were racing and my breath was coming out in rasps. I had to focus, what would stop this horse? The horse tried bucking me off and sweat dripped from my forehead at trying to stay on, as the wilderness seemed to be coming to envelope me into darkness, danger, and the unknown. In my head I was hating this horse with fury. This horse was going to be the cause of me getting lost or hurt and it was all his fault. It was not my fault that he started running, foolishly, into the wilderness when his job was to follow the guide! Now I was stuck in this dreaded mess that this dreaded horse made! What was I supposed to do?

I realized that the heels of my boots were digging into the horse's side and my hands were gripping his hair roughly. Ripping the boots off my legs and letting them crash to the ground and releasing my nails from the horse's hair was enough to make him stop. I gasped as I saw the mark that my boots had left on the horse's skin. It was red and if my feet had been piercing any harder, than the horse would have probably started bleeding. I was very close to injuring him. When I stroked his rough head, he nuzzled the palm of my hand. Courage and realization flooded into me and I was enlightened.

The reason the horse had been going so fast and running away from the guide was because he was in pain, confused, and was trying to get me off. I was hurting it. It was my fault, not the horse's. I had ignorantly blamed the horse just because I had thought it was a dumb animal. I had thought it's job was to follow the guide, but doesn't it have a right to be free, like us? Why does it have to spend its life lugging us around on its back? I pulled at it with reins and tugged at it's hair, when really it was a beautiful animal that deserved to run on its own, when it wanted to. I had thought that this horse was wild and untamed, when in real fact it was just trying to survive, to stop the pain, which was just a natural reaction. I was wrong. The human race is wrong to use these animals for riding when we do not need to. We have cars, trains, and planes, we do not need this transportation. Then what is this joy we get from riding animals? Don't they get rights too? They are living things just like us, they are not inanimate objects, so, why do we treat them that way?

Courage is not only conquering your fear, but learning from it. Courage is the ability to understand something pure that others are scared to. Courage is part of life, because no one is born courageous, you climb to reach that point. Courage is like a path with many milestones that you must face. Courage is worth more than any materialistic prize, because with courage comes knowledge.

I gained courage that day. I had the courage, the open-mindedness, to understand these intelligent animals and see them for who they really are. Animals are not supposed to be used for betterment of human life, they should be treated equally with love. I surpassed my fear and replaced it with a kindness towards all animals. Now, I have joined PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) and have supported numerous campaigns and generous charities for animals. My ignorance that day was the ignorance of our world today, just like my 8-year old friend. We must inform people that not all animals are what we see them as. This discrimination we can diminish. We can give animals the rights that they deserve. We can all be courageous.

Mongolian wilderness
http://www.private-guides.com/guide-in-mongolia/pipi-430/index.php

PETA logo
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/4793514-peta-tells-monks-stop-unchristian-chicken-breeding/image/44150195-peta-logo

This Mongolian horse is much like the one I rode.
http://danny.oz.au/travel/mongolia/khovsgol-lake.html

How did early humans use art to express their prehistoric culture?

Art is not just a mere mark on a cave, or paper, or material, it's a mark on history. It can be anything that depicts your emotions. It could be a piece of writing, a drawing, or a painting. Today we use paper and pencil and blogs on computers to express our feelings. But how did prehistoric people show expression? They had no paper or pencil or computer. All they had was the environment, the plants, the animals, and each other, so they made use of what they had. They used the inner walls of the caves as a canvas and crushed minerals and plants to create colors, which showed that they had a vast knowledge of plants, dyes, colors, wax, oil, charcoal, and composition. They invented crude paint brushes made out of fur, moss, and human hair and made carving tools out of rock. With all these tools prehistoric men and women created sculptures and cave paintings. Even a simple cave painting of a hunting scene can be a glimpse of the past. A basic hand print on a cave wall can determine just how big or small these early humans were and how we evolved and how they used their fingers as tools to do tasks and communicate.Some paintings depict hunting and death scenes which tell us that people, long ago, had an understanding of life and death and had respect for nature and other fellow beings. Dwellings in caves enforce the fact that these humans were adaptable to even the hardest of environment and changes. Over time they became smart and strong and innovative and were able to adjust to different changes, as there brain and physical form developed.
 

Prehistoric art tools

                                                                                

Cave paintings are not just primitive scribbles on cave walls, they have a much deeper meaning. They are snapshots of life before filled with hidden meanings and riddles that we, as the current holders of the future, should solve and make sense out of. Each cave painting was important to the different tribes or groups of prehistoric people and each painting was made precisely by the artist to reflect his thoughts and the culture of his society. There are paintings in France and Spain that represent a hunt scene. Analyzing these paintings help us figure out what tools prehistoric people used to hunt with, what animals they hunted, what their diet was, what animals existed then, and how the prehistoric people worked in groups and communities. Scientists think that back then paintings were said to have special powers and that artists were spiritual beings. Some scientists believe cave paintings were painted to worship or please the gods, so many of the cave paintings looked magical. The paintings in the Ajanta Ellora caves in India depict everyday life, family values, and what clothes and jewelry people wore at that time. We can study the  cave paintings in Ajanta Ellora caves and learn about the men long ago and their life style, beliefs, heroes, and religion. The paintings of the Minoan civilizations on the island of Crete, from the 27th century, show natural disasters such as volcanoes and earthquakes. Egyptian tomb paintings show the different gods that the Egyptians worshiped. Cave sculptures can represent the different tribes or could have been used in traditional celebrations like the clay sculptures in France.

Egyptians gods

Through the ages people have used art to express their feelings and prehistoric people have done this successfully. If they had not painted on the cave walls or sculpted statues out of rock and mud, we would not have had known about the prehistoric history of man, of how they evolved over time into what we are today, or of how they survived without the technology and conveniences that we have now. We would not have known what prehistoric people thought or believed in. We would not have known what animals lived at that time. We would not have known the culture of our ancestors. Without emotion, art, creativity, and culture we would not have come this far today. The prehistoric people through their art have left an everlasting impression, so that mankind can trace back to their ancestors and move forward by learning from the past. 

 

http://www.buddhisminindia.com/ajanta-ellora.html

http://www.millenniumschools.net.au/stannies/?id=2881&month=70

http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Tr-Wa/Underworld.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtuBiWHlOjA

http://isklrewired.blogspot.com/

“History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.”

When archaeologists dig up ancient artifacts, when they run their fingers across an old statue, a clue that there had been Gods and Goddesses long ago, when they wipe off their dusty hands and they haul the broken pottery from the endless pit of time, do they know the full story of the items they are handling? Geographers study the land and find clues from the past, but do they connect the window of the past to the window of the future? Do archaeologist or geographers get a perspective of life that started it all and enable us to accomplish more? Do they watch as the words on the historical sheaves of paper flow into the air and morph in to a tale no one alive has ever heard? Do their fingers move to command, translating old languages that are barely used by the people today, into modern languages, so that the young, eager readers of the future can open their minds to the history of civilization? These were the very fascinating facts that persuaded me to be a historian.

A historian is a multi-dimensional job. A historian has multiple faces:

• A historian is a teacher who answers questions about the past, yet he is a student who questions the past. I believe I could be a good teacher when others are in the amidst of confusion because I have always been able to help people when they were having trouble and I can be a student who creates answers by making mistakes because I learn from the past, like a historian, who learns from studying the past. I can instruct others, but I leave the realization for them to discover. I believe I have the patience and attention span to be a good student.

• A historian is a writer who records the past events and discoveries, yet he is a reader who opens his mind to possibilities and impossibilities. I believe I can be a writer who can preserve memories for the coming future, for I love to write and record my life in a diary and write stories. I unlock new gates that lead to creativity whenever I write. I believe I can be a reader who molds new worlds, but never strays afar from reality because I have a vast imagination and I can read anywhere and anytime.

• A historian is a detective who finishes the story that has forever been a mystery, yet he is an explorer who reaches the ends of the earth in his mind. I believe I can be a detective when there is problem to be solved and when everyone is afraid to step into the vague unsolved situation because in any difficulty I search and do not stop till I find the answer, no matter how distant and hard it is. I can think of different strategies and find the path to my solution. Like a historian I believe I can be explorer because of my adventurous attitude and my thirst for new places and knowledge.

I believe I can be a historian.

A historian at his work. dynamicearthwebquest.com/process.htm

A historian is a teacher, a student, a writer, a reader, a detective and an explorer.
www.thefreedictionary.com/historian

15 years later...

I gasped with a mixture of excitement and surprise. I had finally finished translating the early writings from Greece and now before me was the completed story. All the little facts, that I thought were not important, had been knitted into a quilt of tales. Sifting through the translated papers and then looking out the musty window to see the Parthenon in Athens, Greece I wore an expression of awe, so much had changed. I smiled. I knew that this was the job for me, ever since I was 11 years old.

My fellow co-worker. Ha, ha. Just kidding. It's actually Mark Ritts. www.insmogandthunder.com/historian.html

The Parthenon in Athens, Greece
picsdigger.com/keyword/partheon/

Hey, I'm Sunskruthi!

Hello, hello! I'm Sunskruthi. I am from Arizona, U.S.A, the Grand Canyon State. I am an animal lover and activist. I have a dog, a Lhasa Apso, who is so cute and obedient. He actually understands so many English words and it surprises me how he can fit so many vocabulary words in that little furry head of his. Well, this blog post is about me, so let's get back to me! I love to draw and write poems, novels, and short stories in my free time. Tennis is my favorite sport because I love to swing the racket with the wind in my face. Super supportive parents are for a super smiley girl (me)! I have one big brother in 11th grade, which means I get to embarrass him in front of his friends, since we are on the same campus, now! Just kidding.

My main hobby is reading. You can't catch me without a book on a Friday night. I adore fantasy books because I love how fictitious and impossible it gets, yet the author makes it seem so real. My imagination soars to new heights while reading every new book.

The last three books I have read are:

• The Skeleton Key of the Alex Rider Series by Anthony Horowitz

• Ptolemy's Gate of the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud

• The Alchemyst by Michael Scott (currently reading now)

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

The Skeleton Key is about Alex Rider, a teenage spy in a world of danger and secrecy and it is a very exciting book. Ptolemy's Gate is about a wizard named Nathaniel, who finds himself in the need of the genie, Bartimaeus, once again. The Alchemyst is about Nicholas Flamel, an alchemyst (if you watch Harry Potter he's mentioned in Philosopher's stone), that has finally been found by his enemy, Dr. John Dee in the modern world in California.

The last movie I watched was 'How To Train Your Dragon'. The movie is about a boy named Hiccup (I know it is a funny name), who lives in a world full of dragon-killing vikings. When he finally does knock-out a dragon he does not have the heart to kill it. Thus, begins his research into the world of dragons and his loving friendship with a once known enemy. I know it is kind of an old movie, but I had not watched it, so I watched it on the Singapore Airlines flight to Europe over summer vacation.

Speaking of vacations, my most memorable vacation was in Europe and Turkey this summer. Sure, the trip was busy and hectic, visiting London, France, Italy, Germany, and Greece and seeing the London Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, the Roman Colosseum, the Berlin Wall, and the Athens Acropolis, but the best and concluding part was when we relaxed on a wonderful cruise across the Aegean Sea from Greece to Turkey. Ah, so peaceful watching the sunset and the beautiful Greek Islands.

My academic goal is to excel in all my classes and to not be tardy to classes. This year I'm going to focus on being organized. My social goal is to make friends with people I never even knew, or knew much about.

Here are four adjectives that describe me:

1. Simply Sweet

2. Shockingly Smart

3. Sensitively Serviceable

4. Super Silly

Definition of Sunskruthi: Girl who is almost always, SMILING! :)

Well, I think that's all there is to this blog post. It's a brand new year and, boy, I'm excited! New classes, lockers, teachers, and people! Well, one of those new classes is Humanities and this happens to be my blog for Humanities. I love Humanities because it includes two of my favorite subjects: Language Arts and Social Studies. The teachers are so nice and understanding, especially my class teacher. Enjoy my blog and keep up with my exciting new edition posts! :)

The Grand Canyon in my home state, Arizona!

http://www.astrofoto.ca/stuartheggie/Grand_Canyon/GC_23.html