Matilda Bone

The historical fiction novel, Matilda Bone, by Karen Cushman tells the story of a girl living in the Middle Ages. It explains that life was difficult during this period of history meaning that when when Matilda was moved to a new place, it was hard for her to adapt to the new environment because due to a lack of medical knowledge and unsanitary conditions but too much of her religion.

Before Matilda was moved to Blood Bone Alley by her beloved Father Leufredus, she lived in a manor with religious people who taught her about their religion and Matilda learned a lot from them. When she met Mistress Peg, she didn't like her very much since she wasn't into religion because Peg see no use for prayers in bonesetting. Raised in a religious place, Matilda was really holy at the time and when she was in trouble, she asked the saints in her mind and prayed to God. But over time at Blood Bone Alley with Peg, she learns that her prayers for the sick and wounded wouldn't help her tend and treat the broken bones for she was a bonesetter's student.

During the Middle Ages, hygiene was a problem because people didn't wash and if they did, the materials they used weren't right. So with low hygiene, disease can spread causing death at a young age or getting sick easily just like Blood Bone Alley, a dirty and filth place. And Matilda was not used to that since because she lived in a nice warm and clean home. So when Matilda got abandoned at Blood Bone Alley, she hated her life and begged for Father Leufredus to come back to her.

Medical knowledge was very different from what we have today but I think that Bonesetting is exactly something that resembles some modern broken bone surgeries, forcing a broken bone back in place resting it. Matilda had to assist Peg with these surgeries which at first, she failed at but she did start mastering it. Matilda also had another skill, she was very kind and gentle to other people so when the injured person's morale is down, she talks to them and make them feel much better as well as distracting them from the pain they are in.

This book showed these three ideas clearly throughout the book. And in the story, Matilda for on a journey and by the end she has learned and experience many new things in life. “The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.”- Don Williams, Jr.

Ill Born Fen Rat!

1066 is a middle ages warfare game about when the England was invaded by the Vikings and the Normans. In the game, you can play in story mode, it will tell you the history of 1066 and you get to play in the battles as: the Vikings, who won the battle when they landed in England. Then you play as the Saxons, who fought against the Vikings and won at Stamford Bridge and the last battle was when you played as the Normans and beat the English army. In real life back in 1066, how the Normans won was because of their strategy which was pretending to retreat so the English broke their shield wall to chase the Normans. But then the Normans turn around and killed the English soldiers. I learned many interesting facts and what they armies might have said as taunts on the battlefield. I enjoyed this game because of the videos between the battles which were full of facts and was fun to watch. I think this game should be played before we start the 1066 unit in class.

Web Quest Instructions

Question 1: What is a Genocide? Do you think a major Genocide like the Nazis will happen again in the future? Why?

Instructions: On the homepage, you move your mouse over the cookies and find the word Genocide, when your mouse is on it, a list of things about Genocide will come out underneath it and click on "what is a Genocide?"


Question 2: Who was the museum director who received an award and why? Why do you think the museum director do that?

Instructions: On the homepage, find the featured articles and the first one should say "museum director receives an award" then, click on it. Read the second and third paragraphs.

Question 3: What is a survivor? How do you think the survivors feel when they think about the camps?

Instructions: On the homepage, move your mouse over the cookies then find the word "museum", when your mouse is on it, a list of things will come out underneath it and click on office of survivor affairs. Read the first paragraph.

Question 4: Why do you think that other countries helped the Nazis? What does the video make you feel?

Instructions: On the homepage, move your mouse over the cookies then find the word "Education", when your mouse is on it, a list of things will come out underneath it, and click on students. Next you find the 1939-1945 part and click on "persecution and murder of Jews". Than go down the page until you see a map and click on it. Watch the video.



Question 5: Why do you think before they kill a Jewish boy, they put his murdered family in front of him first?


Instructions: Repeat the steps from question 4 till the third last part, instead of clicking on "persecution and murder of Jews", click on "mobile killing squads (Einsatzgruppen). Then look at the picture at the top of the page and read the writing next to it.



Question 6: What are Killing Centers?


Instructions: Repeat the steps from question 5 till the second last step, instead of clicking on "mobile killing squads", click on "killing centers". Read first paragraph


Question 7: Why do you think the Jews brought hairbrushes with them?

Instructions: Repeat all step from question 6 till the last part, instead of reading the first paragraph, look at the picture at the top and read the text next to it.

Question 8: What's happening in DR Congo?

Instructions: On the homepage, move your mouse over the cookies, and find the word "Genocide", when your mouse is over it, a list should come out underneath it. On the list, find "who is at risk?" and click on it. Last, you click on DR Congo and read.

Question 9: When did the United states government learn about the Nazi's mass killing of Jews in Europe?

Instructions: On the homepage, move your mouse over the cookies, and find the word "research", when your mouse is over the word, a list should come out underneath it. Find "frequently asked questions" on the list. Then, find "When did the United States government learn of the Nazis' systematic attempts to kill all of European Jewry" in the about the holocaust section.

Question 10: Read the liberation of the Nazi camps and write how you feel about the Nazis and the liberation.

Instructions: Repeat the instructions from Question 4, but instead of clicking on "persecution and murder of Jews", click on Liberation. Read the whole article

Power Of the VOID (band homework)

"The (silence) International School of Kuala Lumpur provides (silence) an exceptional education that challenges each (silence) student to develop the attitudes, (silence) skills, knowledge and (silence) understanding to become a highly successful, spirited, socially responsible (silence) global citizen."

I added a silence after "The" because it creates some tension. The void will make the listener think about what the person is going to say. They don't know, it could be a banana or a car and they'll wonder is it good or bad? So tension builds up but the release is when the person tells what it is, which in this case, is a school. All the silences above makes the listener think, but some makes you nervous like the silence after attitudes. Well, it makes me nervous because if I am a parent listening to this, I would be nervous about what the school will make my child develop if like, they are the right stuff or the bad stuff.

Tension can be created in music too, not just in writing. One way of doing it is by putting a gap between the music. The gap is the void and tension is made in it. Image, you are listening to really loud music, then it suddenly stops. Your muscles tighten up and you are like "what the?", you might hold your breath and you might know that the music is coming so you brace yourself for it, that is the tension. Before you know it, the music comes back just as loud, like a wall of sound. The sound hits you, your muscles relax again and you let air just like when someone hits you in the stomach, that is the release.

"If you wait, people will forget your camera and the soul will drift up into view."

Famous photographer Steven McCurry was born in 1950 in Philadelphia. When he was young, he always wanted to be a documentary filmmaker because he wanted to tell the story of the world. But when he graduated from Cum Laude university, he joined a newspaper as a photographer. He realized that photos too, could tell stories and not soon afterwards, McCurry went to India to freelance as a photojournalist. But it's when he crossed the Pakistan border, he's career started. McCurry's photographs are sometimes joyous but sometimes painful because he focuses on the human consequences of war but the photos always show emotion, the soul. He once said "if you wait, people will forget your camera and the soul will drift up into view." I think Steven McCurry's best photo is the all famous Afghan Girl because it tells me my own version of a story and every time I look at it, it bombards me with emotions. I could almost feel myself drowning in the unhappiness and seriousness of the picture. Whenever i try to look around the picture, it's like my eyes forces me to look back at the Afghan Girl's eyes. The picture itself gives me this eerie feeling. I think McCurry is trying to show us the misery of the people in war because the picture doesn't show any signs of joy or freedom. The Afghan Girl's eyes seem to follow you, McCurry did this on purpose because he wanted that effect so he took a close up picture of her face and planted her eyes right in the middle. This photo is one of the many photos where he does a close up on the human face. Maybe this photo can convince the people of Afghanistan to stop fighting each other after they have seen the sadness in the photo and realize that they to, feel the same way the Afghan Girl does after all, pictures are better than words. This is a great picture because it has all the elements, like size, foreground, background, color and the best, it tells humanity too. The photo shows a journey, what the Afghan Girl has been through in her life but we wouldn't know for sure what it was that made her soul look so serious in the picture. I think this photo will last long into the future as a symbol of proverty.

Jason: Is it true?

Jason and the Argonauts is a famous myth, written in 4th century BC by Apollonius. In the myth Jason was the son of the king in Iolcus, but his uncle, Pelias had usurped the throne. But Pelias lived in fear because he was scared of losing what he had taken so unjustly. Pelias kept Jason's father a prisoner and would have murdered Jason at birth, but Jason's mother deceived Pelias by mourning as if Jason had died. Meanwhile Jason was carried to the cave of Chiron the Centaur. Chiron was famous for teaching and helping many great heroes so he taught Jason everything. When Jason became older, Jason set out like a "proper" hero to claim his rightful throne.

He met his uncle and demanded that he to give up the thorn but he refused but he did promise Jason that is he gets the legendary golden fleece. An impossible quest. But that didn't stop Jason. Great heroes couldn't resit to go on this quest so Jason hired and made a crew of them, including the all mighty Hercules who has the strength of a thousand men. Orpheus who's music can cut as sharp as knifes and the great huntress Atalanta. The Argonauts.

He had faced many difficult challenges through out the journey like the harpies and the clashing rocks. When he arrives upon the land where the golden fleece was, the king of the land offered a deal with Jason, if he could accomplish the tasks set out for him, he would kindly give the fleece to him. Meanwhile the king's daughter fell in love with Jason, helping him with all the tasks. Without her, Jason would be nowhere. After Jason and the Argonauts had the fleece, Jason promised to love Media, the daughter of the king, for the rest of his life. But when he breaks the promise back at his homeland with another princess. Media found out and cursed him but the discovery impacted her so much that her whole life changed, turning from good to evil. Jason didn't live long after he's gained the golden fleece because his death was caused by his our ship, the Argo, when a piece of oak fell on his hand, knocking the life out of him.

Who was Jason? Was he really a hero? Who were the real Argonauts? question not yet answered. I think there is no right or wrong answer to these questions, for examples; we'll never know if Hercules really existed or was made up. Only a fool would answer with a yes or no because he has no evidence unless he built a time machine and was able to control time and space to go back in time to check. And there are so many versions of the story, changing only by a little though but still has the main idea. With more than one version, it suggests to me that the story might be made up but the video we watch -The Real Jason and The Argonauts Part 1- says that most myths are based on true facts. What do you think?

For centuries, people think it was just a old legend but with modern day technology and the help of archaeologists, we were able to find evidence of Jason. Stones and artifacts were dug up by archaeologists and some of them had "history" carved on to them. And with high tech scanning, archaeologists found lost ruins, buried under tons of rock and soil. They were able to uncover a part of the city where Jason lived. History and geography supports the statement that Jason was real. But are you convinced?

Picture URL: http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/thumbnail/223292/1/Jason-And-The-Argonauts-1925.jpg

Curiosity can, sometimes, be not a good thing...

Have you ever heard the phase “curiosity killed the cat”? Well it doesn’t kill but it can get you into trouble and it portrays curiosity can lead to change and devastation like in the myths Pandora’s box, a Greek myth, and Orphan boy, and African myth. Zeus gave the box to Pandora because he knew that she wouldn’t be able the resist opening the box because of curiosity. She opened it sometime later, letting all the monsters out, showing devastation but there was hope, showing change. The same thing happened in the Orphan boy myth since it was curiosity who caused the trouble. When Orphan boy left, the old man’s crops failed and his animals died, showing devastation again. Sometimes it’s curiosity who’s the boss not you…

Pandora's box picture URL: http://www.amazon.com/Pandoras-Box-Novel-Allison-Hobbs/dp/1593090110/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254997951&sr=1-1

Orphan boy picture URL: http://www.amazon.com/Orphan-Boy-Tololwa-M-Mollel/dp/0395720796/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254998009&sr=1-1