Our Second Project

Today in class, we got our "God Grew Tired of Us" tests back. I was surprised that no one got below a 70% on the test. However, there were no 100%'s either. All of us got in between those numbers on the test. I got an 85%, which isn't bad. After he finished passing out the tests, Mr. Schick introduced a new student in our class from Nigeria. We are all excited to have him with us in Human Geography. Today in the United States, we celebrate Columbus Day. Christopher Columbus discovered America while trying to make his way to India for trading purposes Mr. Schick said that when he was a kid, he had school off on Columbus Day, while nowadays it is not celebrated as much and we have school today. We had to do a project on Google documents today about a topic that he gave us. My group coincidentally was assigned to research Christopher Columbus. During class, we worked on the presentation so we could have it completed to share in class today. Besides that, not much else happened.

Our Second Test

Today in class, we took our test on the documentary "God Grew Tired of Us". The test consisted of 20 questions, each worth 5 points, to make a total of 100 points. All of the questions were "fill-in-the-blank", which meant that you had to fill a word in the blank to make the sentence true. If you got the answer wrong, you got 0 points. If you got the answer right, you got 5 points, but if you spelled it incorrectly, you lost a point. I was a bit unprepared because I was not expecting the test to be in this format. Luckily,  Mr. Schick gave us 15 minutes before the test to review our notes so we could do well. I feel pretty confident about how I did. I though that after I reviewed my notes, the test wasn't so bad after all. One of my classmates had the town name in which one of the lost boys lived in, on her sweatshirt. Plus, that question was on the test. It was funny when many classmates spelled the town name wrong, when they could have just looked at the students shirt to get the answer. I am excited to start our next unit so we can learn about more fascinating things.

Sharing Our Information

Today in class, we shared the information we got from the charities websites yesterday. Anyone who thought that they had a good charity they would like to present, was allowed to do so. During the class, we talked about the different charities and looked at their websites. Some of the charities we looked at seemed very organized, and have donated large amounts of money in the past. We were also discussing on how we could raise money  to give to the charities that would help people in Sudan, like the John Dau Foundation. We actually e-mailed John Bul yesterday to see if he could come to our school to talk to us. However, we found out that in order for him to come to John Carroll, it would have to cost between 6,000 and 10,000 dollars plus Johns airfare to get here. The 10,000 dollar part does not go in John's pocket though. It is used to go to his charity to help the people in Sudan with diseases and those who need proper healthcare. We will need to have a BIG fundraiser if we ever think of receiving that much money. Tomorrow is my test on "God Grew Tired of Us", so I need to review my notes if I am to get a good grade on it.

Working with Charities

Today in class, Mr. Schick posted an edible document that the whole class had to partake in. The purpose was to find information on charitable organizations so we could get a better understanding of the charity we want to contribute to. We paired up in groups and started to find good charity websites so we could write about them. I was working with one of my classmates Alex. We were looking on the John Dau Foundation website and adding information about the foundation on the document. As we were adding, we saw that there were more people on the document then there were people in our class. Plus, some anonymous users on the document kept deleting peoples work as they were typing it up. Mr. Schick then disabled editing on the document so no one would keep deleting other peoples work. He told us to copy what we have typed, and to continue working on a word document. He would then allow 5 minutes at the end of class, to copy their work from the word document onto the document that everyone was working on. That is exactly what we did before the bell rang. It was a very productive day, and Mr. Schick told us that there will be a test on the movie "God Grew Tired of Us" on Friday. I hope that I do well on it.

"God Grew Tired of Us" 3

Today we finished the documentary "God Grew Tired of Us". During the last 30 or so minutes, the lost boys have been in America for about 3 years. The boys are now fully accustomed to American life, and know how to function in society. They find themselves remembering many traumatic events during their childhood, as a result of PTSD ( or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). During Independence Day in the United States, the fireworks and the loud noises reminded them of the war in Sudan. A little later, the UN is able to locate Panthers mother in one of their refugee camps. Panther sends his mother money so she can take a flight to America to see her son. It was very emotional to see Panther and his mother reunite after being apart for 17 years. Also, the lost boys come together at a family reunion so they can talk about issues with Sudan and what they can do to help. At the end of the video, it talks about what the boys are doing from this day forward. Panther wants to open a school in his village. He also marries a woman in his village and reunites with his brother. John is the founder of the John Dau Foundation, and he plans to build medical clinics in South Sudan. Daniel is beginning to go to collage, but has yet to meet or hear from any of his family members. After the movie, Mr. Schick wanted us to come up with a few ideas in which we could help the people suffering in Sudan. One of the ways we cold help is we could donate to the John Dau Foundation. The link is provided here  http://johndaufoundation.org/

Another way we could help is to make a fundraiser to raise awareness about the war in Sudan. We could also send care packages to Sudan to give the homeless and the hungry some food and other materials. There are infinite ways in which we could help these people, and I hope that this madness in Sudan comes to an end in the nearby future.

Friday September 29, 2012

I came to class today knowing that Mr. Schick was on a field trip with the Film Club, but it turned out to be a lot more than that. In my free mod right before this class, I read Mr. Schick's blog, saying that section 1 (that's us), would have a substitute while he was on the field trip. However, when we arrived, there was no one in the room! All of us were very confused as 10 minutes went by without anyone to teach us. A few of my classmates remembered a school rule stating that if no teacher was available, a student must contact the main office immediately. So a few students called the main office and told them that our substitute was not here. They said that they would fix the problem and send someone to look after us. A couple teachers stopped in occasionally to check on us as time passed. After a while, we got news that Mr. Schick just got back to the school and that he would be with us in a couple minutes. When Mr. Schick finally cam, he played "God Grew Tired of Us" for us to watch. In the movie, the lost boys have been in America for a while. They got small jobs to support themselves, like cooking burgers at McDonald's, and working in factories. Later, one of the lost boys, Panther, received a letter from his parents saying that they were having financial issues in Uganda. Panther is now working very hard in America so he can send money to his parents. I am curious to see what happens next in the film. 

"God Grew Tired of Us" 2

Today we watched more of "God Grew Tired of Us" in class. In the movie, the UN learns about a large group of boys who are running away from Sudan to avoid religious persecution. The UN decides to set up a refugee camp in Ethiopia, where the boys can live in peace. The refugees predict that they only will be there for a few weeks, maybe a month, before things get better and they can go back to Sudan. However, the civil war in Sudan rages on for another 10 years, and is still going on today. For 10 years, the boys had no choice but to stay in Ethiopia, for if they set foot in Sudan they would be killed. Later, the United States agreed that they would take a handful of the refugees and allow them to live in America. The documented 3 boys are among the few hundred who are selected to live in America. As they are travelling to America, the boys are amazed at the technology that they encounter along the way. They have never seen electricity before, and have never eaten food like Americans do. It was a bit funny when they were served a meal with and butter on the side, and they started to eat the stick of butter alone. It was a very interesting to see how they reacted to their new life, and I am very excited to see what they will encounter next!