AA GCE Portfolio: February 2017

Friday, February 24, 2017

Is Junior two people?

In this class called Forbidden Books, the unit I studied is called Diversity. We learned about why have book been banned and what is a limit for censorship. We learned how to tell a story through censorship. During this unit we read this book called The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian. It was about a 14 year old kid who lives on a rez. His name was Junior he lived with his parents, grandmother, and sister. He needs to leave in order for his dreams to come true. He goes to a white school and at first he does not really fit in but at the end he does. For this AP, we had to find make an essay about this book. On of thing we had to do for this was explain the censorship about this book. The thing I did great at was writing the essay. The thing that I had trouble was thinking about what to write for the paragraphs. I over came that by going through the book and finding quotes that could help me. Overall, I thought that this was a fun project to make and to write the essay. I hope you enjoy my project that I did.

Maryann Yin, The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian,(2016)

Is Junior two people? In the book, The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian, Junior is technically two different people because he lives on the rez and studies in the white community. There are two main settings, both are towns in the Pacific Northwest. The first is Wellpinit, which is the hometown of the Spokane Indian Reservation where Junior lives with his mother, father, sister, and grandmother. His family has lived there for generations. The second setting is Reardan a white school that’s 22 miles away from the reservation and Wellpinit. This novel explores the inner conflict that minorities feel when they are forced to go into an all white environment to pursue their dreams.

There are many themes in this book, but I will only be focusing on one. That is Hopes/Dreams/Plans. Junior’s hopes and dreams are to become a famous cartoonist, but for people who live on the rez their dreams don’t really come true. Junior says, “But we reservation Indians don’t get to realize our dreams. We don’t get those chances. Or choices. We’re just poor. That’s all we are” (18). This means that Junior has to leave in order for his dreams to come true. Junior’s math teacher at the rez school told him that the farther he walks away from the rez the more likely he will find hope. ““I was starting to understand. He was a math teacher. I had to add my hope to somebody else’s hope. I had to multiply hope by hope. “Where is hope?” I asked. “Who has hope?” “Son,” Mr. P said. “You’re going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation.” (46).

Junior leaves the rez to attend the white school in order to have his dreams come true. At the new white school Junior has everything that he needs to fulfill his dreams. “But Reardan has one of the best small schools in the state, with a computer room and huge chemistry lab and a drama club and two basketball gyms. The kids in Reardan are the smartest and most athletic kids anywhere. They are the best.” (49).

Another way of Junior giving himself hope to achieve his goal, was when he was supported by his White classmates. When Junior’s sister dies he went to school the next day. The teacher tried to make a joke of him but the whole school walked out of the teacher's classroom. “I walked out of the classroom and felt like dancing and singing. It all gave me hope. It gave me a little bit of joy. And I kept trying to find the little pieces of joy in my life. That’s the only way I managed to make it through all of that death and change. I made a list of the people who had given me the most joy in my life” (171).

There are many reasons that the book was banned. In fact it was one of the most banned books in 2014 according to (Schuab). Some of the reasons were anti-family, cultural insensitivity, and drugs/alcohol/smoking. The people who wanted to ban it used Junior’s words. Junior said that people on the rez got drunk a lot. “And the whole time, everybody would be drinking booze and getting drunk and stupid and sad and mean. Yeah, doesn’t that make sense? How do we honor the drunken death of a young married couple?” (202). When the book was published, many people did not want to read about the troubles minorities faced in an all white school. They thought it offended minorities, especially Indians, and they did not want to confront their own prejudices.

My main points were that Junior had dreams just like every kid, but because of who he was he faced obstacles to making his dreams come true. He had to live two lives and endure hurts that he faced in each life in order to succeed. He had a lot of courage.

Work Cited

Schaub, Michael. The most banned and challenged books of 2014. latimes.com, 13 Apr. 2015. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.

“Some parents seek to ban ‘the absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian.’” tribunedigital-chicagotribune, 22 June 2009. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.

Titus, Ron. Banned books. 2015. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.

Yin, Maryann. Hugh Jackman lands role in the absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian movie. 6 Dec. 2016. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.

How Bad Is An Outbreak Of HIV/AIDS

This course was called Disease which is a STEAM the unit was called World. In this unit, we learned about R-Naught and how a disease can spread. We also learned about the categorizing of an outbreaking disease. For this AP, we had to find a disease and do research about it and make a Newspaper about it. What I had fun when doing this project was making the newspaper. what I had trouble with was finding what the R-Naught and other research items. I overcome that by asking for help and doing more research. Overall I thought this project was fun to make.

Fodey, Newspaper,(2017). Blogger, Map,(October, 10, 2015) .

My disease that I am researching is HIV/AIDS. I found an outbreak in Africa in 1990s-2000s. “1990 Jonathan Mann resigned as the head of the WHO AIDS programmed, to protest against the failure of the UN and governments worldwide to respond adequately to the exploding pandemic, and to protest against the actions of the then WHO director-general Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima. During Jonathan Mann's leadership, the AIDS programmed became the largest single programmed in the organization’s history.”

HIV symptoms include fever, sore throat, and fatigue can occur. AIDS symptoms include weight loss, fever or night sweats, fatigue, and recurrent infections. The R-Naught is 2-5. It means 2-5 of new cases from one person. Two risk factors are having unprotected sex and having another STD.

91% of HIV cases in Africa are caused by sexual transmission and virtually all is heterosexual. “So says the World Health Organization, with other agencies toeing the line. Some massive condom airdrops accompanied by a persuasive propaganda campaign would practically make the epidemic vanish overnight. Or would it?” In Africa, the HIV outbreak is epidemic because epidemic means, “a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.” In Africa, there are a lot of communities that have HIV/AIDS. “69% live in sub-Saharan Africa. There are roughly 23.8 million infected persons in all of Africa. 91% of the world's HIV-positive children live in Africa.”

There is no Vaccine for HIV yet but here is an Evaluation of: Liu J, O’Brien KL, Lynch DM et al.: Immune control of an SIV challenge by a T-cell-based vaccine in rhesus monkeys. Nature 457(7225), 87–91 (2009), of it. It says that we don’t have a vaccine but what you can do is have safer sex. For the decline of HIV, it was nearly declined over 20% overall during the past decade. Is happened because people had safer sex.

Here is a list of things to avoid a future outbreak of HIV/AIDS:

1. Use a new condom every time you have sex:

2. Consider the drug Truvada:

3. Tell your sexual partners if you have HIV:

4. Use a clean needle:

5. If you're pregnant, get medical care right away:

6. Consider male circumcision:

Work Cited

"A Timeline of HIV/AIDS." AIDS.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.

"Can the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in New York City be Stopped?" Can the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in New York City be Stopped? N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.

Devarajan, Shanta “What caused the HIV epidemic in Africa?” 27 Jan. 2011, Web.

Fumento, M. Michael Fumento: Why is HIV so prevalent in Africa? Retrieved February 24, 2017.

ΚΟΣΜΟ, ΝΕΚΡΟΣ ΓΙΑ ΤΟΝ, and Προβολή πλήρους προφίλ. The history of AIDS in Africa. Oct. 1980. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.

sahoboss. HIV/aids in South Africa. 20 May 2011. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.

"Symptoms of HIV." AIDS.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.

"Timeline: AIDS moments to remember." CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

The Da Vinci Code

In this class called Forbidden Books, the unit I studied is called Dogma. We learned about religions and how they are and what they do in the world. Dogma is a set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true. One good thing about dogma is that people have a set of rules to follow. A bad thing about that is that someone people may not agree with what it says. For this AP, we had to find a movie, book or video that was banned for religious reasons. The book I choose was The Da Vinci Code. We had to make a power point about the banning, like when was it banned or how or even what group banned it. The thing that I had trouble with the most was finding what book to use my project on since there was and this are a lot of books that are banned and being banned now, I over came that by choosing a book I have already read. The thing I have to most fun at was making the whole project and rereading the book again. Overall, I thought that this was a fun project to make and I hope you enjoy my project that I did.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

OCD In You!

This course was called Disease which is a STEAM the unit was called Mind. In this unit, we learned about mental disease. We learned about what mental diseases there are and how to diagnose them. We learned about the brain waves and how each can work or not work with some mental diseases or disorders. For this AP, we had to find a disease and make a video, and a simulation of it. The disease I did was OCD. We had to present out project on Wednesday February 8. The thing that I excelled at was the video and presenting part. The part that I had trouble with the most was trying to find and create a simulation. I overcame that by looking up case studies and examples of OCD simulations. Overall this Action Project was great I learned some many things about OCD and how it gets diagnose. Watching the videos of the simulation really helped me think of ways to make the class feel what people with OCD feel everyday. Also by reading some articles about kids who have OCD and watching a video about Howie Mandel and his life with OCD helped a lot too. Look below to see my project!