Pocahontas, the hero.

For the hero cycle project in Language Arts, Daisy, Allison, Natalie, Daria, and I selected Pocahontas as our hero. First, since some of us haven't watched the movie, we all watched the movie, Pocahontas 1, during the weekend. After we all watched the movie, we distributed the steps to each person. Some people got three steps and some got two. We mostly wrote the paragraphs ourselves, but since we made a Google document and shared it, we were able to read everyone else's writing and comment on it. For some pictures, we had hard time finding it but we helped each other and did a decent job. After completing the writing, we worked on the poster. We originally planned to use feathers and leaves brought by Allison but due to the amount we need, we made the leaves by hand. There's actually three kinds of different leaves that was designed by Natalie, Alison, and me.

After finishing the poster, our group presented the poster. Everyone did great on analyzing and speaking with confidence. We all went through the writings we did; the parts we read each was the on the steps we wrote about. Other groups, such as the group that presented Scooby Doo,Hercules, and Mulan did a great job. They did great because they presented with confidence and made lots of eye contact, and also did an amazing job on decorating the posters. The group with Back to the Future as their movie was recognizable on their understanding of the movie and analyzing it. The rest of the groups, who presented 42, Nemo, and Brave, did extraordinary job on decorating the posters.

the first photo is the poster our group made. The colors represent the nature and the colored leaves decorated the poster due to its significance in the movie.

the second photo is the movie cover of Pocahontas.

Sunday Goodness

This weekend, I’m going to volunteer in a Reading Buddy program in the Louisville public library. I volunteer in the library every Sundays for about two hours every week. The reading buddy for the first session is Prim. She is in first grade and she’s a bright girl. She likes Dr. Seuss series and other books too. She can read very challenging books that has half page full of 12 font words. I don’t think I was able to read such long books in first grade. All the books she picks are quite challenging and above her grade level. Sometimes she even teaches me how to pronounce some words like “disguise” which I always pronounce as dis-guise when it’s suppose to sound like dis’gaiz. (There are words I just cannot pronounce like “wood.” My middle school friends worked so hard for me to fix saying “woud” instead of “wʊdn.”) Since in the reading buddy program, the volunteers give the kids stickers which if the kids gather five of them, we give prizes, Prim is eager to collect those five stickers. Last week, she got a prize! Hurray!

I’m with a boy called Milan for the second session. He is in kindergarten and he’s not as bright as Prim but he is adorable. He can read words like “I”, “He, She”, and “The.” So usually I read most of the sentences but let him to read the words he now. He isn't as eager as Prim for getting the prizes or reading but I believe he’s just shy a little bit. In the last session, which was almost three weeks ago, we did a activity, a bingo game where you have to ask other kids questions that’s in the boxes, with other reading buddies too. First Milan was shy to ask anyone but later he was very enthusiastic and got along with everyone just fine.

Both Prim and Milan are wonderful kids. Assuming English is their second language, which I found it out in the form they filled out, they are both doing amazingly great! Hope to see Milan and Prim this Sunday too!

Is Napoleon a Leader? Or a Hero?

“...Napoleon was a leader. but he wasn't a hero in the sense that what he accomplished was grand for humanity’s sake. It was for France, the glory of France” (Moyers 127).

“Then he is a French hero, is he not? ...Is hero of a given state or people what we need today, when the whole planet should be our field of concern?” (Campbell 127).

When Moyers claims Napoleon a leader but not a hero, Campbell responds with a brilliant answer: “then he is a French hero, is he not?” (Campbell 127). Moreover he throws a curious question, “do heroes have to concern for the whole planet?” (Campbell 127). Heroes of stories appear as the savior of the perspective the story was written. For instance, Odysseus of the Odyssey was drawn as a war hero of Ithaca but he may be an enemy from the eyes of Troy. Campbell also quotes, “Whether you call someone a hero or a monster is all relative to where the focus of your consciousness may be” (Campbell 127). Even in history, some leaders were heroes of some perspective. Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi , followed by numbers of Germans, proved his leadership and worshiped as a hero of new rising Germany. Although the concept of Hitler being a hero is non-sense and not acceptable today, Hitler still is a hero of remaining Nazi descendants.  

Hero of my life

The Hero of my life

The word “hero” means a lot to me. When I was about seven or eight, the only hero I could think of was spider man since he was the only superhero I’d ever seen. My brother and I were obsessed with spider man. We loved the way he shoots his spider web and how he changes from a Peter Parker to a world saving hero spider man. As I age, I began to realize that there’s no one in the world who can save the entire human race. Even Barack Obama couldn't help all the Americans. Gandhi, the spiritual leader of India, still influences numbers of people but it can’t help all the men in the world. My definition of “hero” now has changed from 7 year old. Although heroes cannot change or influence the entire human race, if they influenced you, so they are heroes.

Obama is a hero, Gandhi is a hero, and Martin Luther King Jr. is a hero to me because they influenced me through their speeches, words, and wisdom. However, over this three well known heroes, there is my seventh grade science teacher, Mrs. Jamison. Unlike Obama, Gandhi, or King, she is not very influential to the world. However, she is a wonderful teacher who I respect and learned from. For me hero doesn't have to save the entire planet; if a person is influencing me in a positive way, they are my hero.