Conflict in the Freedom Writers

In Long Beach it all comes down to which you look like, it’s all about color. If you’re Latino, or Asian, or Black; you can get blast at any time you walked out your door. Schools are valuated to separate trials. We kill each other over race, pride and respect. We fight for our America! We are on war.

I think that the main conflict of this movie is how people are being separate and judge for the way they look their color for their raze and where they grow up at... But at the end they realize that all of that don’t matter and what really matter is what that person is capable of doing... Don’t ever judge someone with out knowing them good enough because you might have a fake opinion about them.

      The conflict of the movie freedom writers is to create change to many students that is having trouble in there life also it is for people to think positive and not negative. what this means is the teacher MS.G became the teacher and found out what was each student struggle and changed them and made each student unite and relate to each other. this action called freedom writer helped gain and start off a new society furthermore, the students who perceived school as they don't need it realized they did need it and it is important. this movie also changed the racism act and made African Americans and white people relate and connect with each other. what this whole paragraph demonstrates is there was a lot of changing occurring. RACISM & GANG VIOLENCE.

Like they said: “ Don’t judge a book by its cover”

Senior Project Update #3

  

My research paper will be on how to become a ranch owner, the steps that a person takes in order to become a ranch owner (rancher/farmer). Some of the ideas that I have are working at a ranch to get experience, live what a rancher lives, and do what ranchers do; how to manage a ranch, what it takes to build a ranch. The ranch where I am going to work is either at a ranch in Michoacán, Mexico or at a ranch here in California. I am looking forward to work the lands of my beautiful Mexico but if its impossible for me to travel during the next five months I might do my hours here at California or Texas. The resources I hope to use would be a ranch, obviously, the ranch owner to give like an idea of what is like to be a rancher, effort and time.

First I want to say that everything in my senior project has changed, or at least for the part of completing the 20 hours of service. So, last week while my family and I were celebrating Thanksgiving someone called our house and on the TV screen appeared a private number, I was like “who the hell calls on private number during Thanksgiving, “at the time the phone was ringing we were in the middle of eating pozole, because we; Mexicans, or at least not us eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day, we eat everything but turkey, well the point is that the phone rang and we were eating and for Mexicans when we are eating is like our holy time, we cannot get up of the table until everybody is done eating, so we let the phone ring and ring, until it stops ringing. Twenty minutes later the phone rings again, lucky for the person who was calling we were finish with dinner but not with desert, but we made an exception. It was someone from México saying that we have to go to México, right now (Family Emergency). I don’t know if that call changed my project for good or for bad, but what I certainly know is that I am living to México next week.

Fortunately, I think 80%-90% I’m done with my research paper. I told my sister if she could help me correcting my research paper or if she knew someone that could read my paper and correct it. Lucky for me she has a teacher or counselor that helped me with my research paper and I am done with it. I just need to turn it in on time and wait for what the people that checks all the research papers will say about my paper. I hope all the hours that I spent writing it is worth at the time they check my paper. For my senior project, the actual project, like I said on my last senior project update I am planning to do a model to scale of what includes a basic ranch. What I’m doing right now is drawing some sketches of how my scale model will look like, where the things that I recently bought are going to be located; technically the sketches are like the planes so to say. And now that I know that I’m going to México, my brother told me that the best base for building a scale model is like a board made of a pretty hard material called plywood. Plywood is a very good material not just for building furniture but also for doing models to scale, like in this case is my ranch model to scale. I already told my brother if he can obtain plywood for my project and some little things that my model-to-scale will have. Well, I think that's all for now.

Sentence Fixes

Mrs. Guerdard here is the Sentence Fixes document that I had to do for my conference on Thursday November 29.

"Diarios De Las Calles" - Su Historia, Sus Palabras, Su Futuro

 “Diariosde las Calles”- The Freedom Writers Diary with Erin Gruwell. I read the first pages and I was like “Damnnn!!” There are no words in my vocabulary that can describe my thoughts so far about this book, it’s a pretty amazing book that can change someone’s way to think, someone’s perspective of life, and even someone’s life. You have to pay really close attention to the words these teenagers used on their writings, the way they write on their diaries is like if they are narrating you their story, the way they live, and specially the war they face day by day and that they hope one day that war will end.

 The book is about how a 23-years-old English teacher uses the techniques of reading and writing to change 150 teens and the world around them. Ms. Gruwell was a student teacher at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California.  Long Beach was dubbed the “gangsta-rap capital” by MTV due to its depiction if guns and graffiti. Ms. Gruwell was given the group of the “un-teachable” students as the others teachers refer to them. This group was form of Latinos, Asians, Blacks and one white boy. They lived in the projects, the so called “hood”

The book takes place in Long Beach City "gangsta-rap capital" or L B C as the rappers refer to it, at Woodrow Wilson High School located in a safe neighborhood. Its location and reputation make it desirable. So much that a lot of students that live in the hood take two or three buses to get to school. Students come from every area of Long Beach; rich kids from the shore sit next to poor kids from the projects. There's every race, religion and culture within the confines of the quad. But since the Rodney King riots, racial tension has spilled over into the school. Over 120 murders in Long Beach in the months following the Rodney King riots. Gang violence and racial tension reach an all time high. The cultural influences of the Freedom Writers Diary are that in Long Beach it all comes down to which you look like, it’s all about color. If you’re Latino, or Asian, or Black; you can get blast at any time you walked out your door. Schools are separate by sections; "Beverly Hills" or "Disneyland" where all of the rich white kids hang out, there's "China Town" where the Asians hang, the Hispanic sections is referred to as either "Tijuana Town" or "Run to the Border", then there's the Black section known as "Da Gueto".  We kill each other over race, pride and respect. We fight for our America! We are on war. Those were the words a Mexican girl said. 

       "I always thought that "odd" was a three-letter word; but today I found out it has seven, and they spell G-r-u-w-e-l-l." (Freedom Writers)

Who Would You Blame?

Who would you blame?  
Red Code, the United States has been declare a State of Emergency, childhood obesity has going beyond the limits. Like Uncle Sam would say "I want you, parent of family to take charge of your children's health!" Parents need to develop a routine of exercise and a balanced diet  for themselves and especially for their children, they are the future of our nation.

Making Progress

So far for my senior project is going pretty good. I have almost finished my research paper. Right now, I am just checking for grammar error on my paper and I had ask my counselor, Sandra, to help me on reducing paragraphs or sentence that are unnecessary on my research paper because the document is too long, is about ten pages long, including the work cited page, I looked up on the Napa High web, where are all the Senior stuff and it says that the research paper has to be 5-6 pages long including work cited page, so I just need to fix it and make it fit all in 5 or 6 pages.

On my senior Project what I am planning to do is to build a ranch model to scale. I already bought some of the equipment that are in a ranch, and have some supplies to build it. I found this big ass red agricultural tractor that when I saw it, literally I fell in love with it haha and I bought it. Then I bought a seeder, two little John Deere tractors, two cargo trucks, some animals and three trucks. I just need a barn, a warehouse, make some stockyards for the livestock (bovine, porcine, ovine, and poultry) and also make some stables for the equine livestock. What I am still thinking is how I am going to put the crops in the model, I do not know if I will draw them or make like in 3-D.

For my hours, I had contact some ranchers I am going to be volunteering at a ranch in Mexico. I am planning to go to Mexico on January so I can do my hours over there. From what I know that I am going to be doing at the ranch in Mexico is shadowing the ranch owner and the workers at the fields, watch and pay close attention to the duties they are going to be performing at the crops, pulling fertilizer, harvesting, all duties they do, and I may be able to drive the vehicles they use, like the tractors, the seeder, the thresher and hopefully the cargo trucks. But first I have to learn how to drive, I remember I drove like two three times on the fields but that was when I was like seven or eight; it is been so long, almost ten years, I think I already forgot what I learned L. That is for the part of Agriculture, and for the other part is the livestock.  The duties that I am going to be doing in the ranch with the livestock will be: feed the animals, clean the stockyards and throw their excrement, milking the cows, among other duties.

And that's all what I had been doing so far.

Just Like Us

Dear Rifkin

            I had read your article “A Change of Heart About Animals” and I’m totally agree with your point of view. Our fellow creatures are like us in many ways.  Animals have feelings just like us, they feel our actions, even do they don’t express themselves in a way that we humans understand but if one as a human pay close attention to our fellows then we’ll be able to understand or at least get an idea of what animals feel. Just by looking at their eyes you can imagine how they feel. Like those commercials that are on TV that put those pets that had been abused and they want a home where they will receive love, just by seen those looks I got that feeling of feeling sorry for those poor animals, that cruel people that abused of them have a rock instead of a heart, how can people abuse of those creatures that are the best friend of a the man. Animals can defend themselves against the people that abuse them, but they don’t do it, why? because even do the treatment they receive is not okay they don’t defend themselves just because they love their owners.  

            While I finished reading the letters to the editor in response to your article "A Change of Heart About Animals" I was laughing at the last paragraph of the second letter in response; "...vegan or vegetarian lifestyle. Meat eating and animal abuse lead to spiritual disturbance and physical disease."  I mean it is understandably what he/she is saying, but don't expect people do that, I don't think anyone will stop eat meat and start to eat vegetables, from my perspective I'm not going to do that, I'm Mexican, I like meat and I don't like to eat vegetables. What I'm trying to say is that humans will continue to eat meat and products that come from animals just because that's how the food chain goes. Don't expect a person that eats meat two to three times a week become a vegetarian from one day to another. I never met a person that just eats vegetables, I don't even knew the definition of "vegetarian" until I came here, to the United States. 

            Animals have abilities that humans could never imagine. They have an intelligence that is pretty impressive as they been animals. According to some studies made in animals, the dolphin has been declare the most intelligent animal, well after the chimpanzee. “Equally impressive is Koko, the 300-pound gorilla at the Gorilla Foundation in Northern California, who was taught sign language and has mastered more than 1,000 signs and understands several thousand English words. On human IQ tests, she scores between 70 and 95.” For me this is very impressive since I think I don't own several thousands words in English as the gorilla, and also score 70 out of 95, that's a good score for someone that it's not a human, it's an animal. 

           Also I was very surprise when I read the sentences "Strangely enough, some of the research sponsors are fast food purveyors, such as McDonald's, Burger King and KFC. Pressured by animal rights activists and by growing public support for the humane treatment of animals, these companies have financed research into, among other things, the emotional, mental and behavioral states of our fellow creatures." It was like a "what?" in my mind, I never thought fast food restaurants would be purveyors to finance the research into the emotional, mental, and behavioral states of our fellow creatures.

         All they do is give love and security is that a bad thing?

          Sincerely,

          Jaira Ontiveros