As an artist I use painting as a way to cope with my everyday life, especially situations I find stressful. I find the stroke of the paint brush calming and I am filled with a sense of pride whenever I finish a piece. My favorite way to paint is by using acrylic paints. I like to paint solid pictures or pictures that don’t involve a lot of blending with these. When I use water colors, I’m better at blending. I normally paint scenery whenever I use watercolors. Currently, I’ve been really interested in landscapes and fantasy paintings. I try to use these elements in my current work. I hope you enjoy my fourth quarter portfolio.

As an artist, I always try to create pieces that I know I will enjoy. As part of my process, I always make it a point to carefully think about the subject matter I will be working with. The artwork in this portfolio highlights the child within me and I think it is important to acknowledge our old selves and how we once had very imaginative minds. My old self fueled my creativity whenever I created a piece this quarter.

Melanie Harrington Q1

Earth Stream

To Kill a Mockingbird Book Review

Harper Lee’s compelling classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, forever touches the hearts and minds of those who read it. Harper Lee created a thought provoking world that would not soon be forgotten. While the genre may be fiction, the book is anything but. It still remains today to be one of the best books ever written and over 30 million copies have been sold worldwide since its publishing date in July of 1960. Upon it’s release it generated a lot of controversy and uproars among its readers. A few aspects of the book are perceived to have come from Lee’s experiences and life in her hometown, Monroeville, Alabama. To Kill a Mockingbird is the only piece of writing she ever published.  It is amazing how someone’s first and only book turned into a worldwide best seller, won the Pulitzer Prize and several other awards and was adapted into an Oscar Award winning movie. To Kill a Mockingbird is still taught in classrooms across the nation today.

Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. Lee developed an interest in writing and literature during her high school years. When she graduated in 1944 she attended the all-female Huntingdon College in Montgomery. Unlike many of the girls who attended, Lee focused less on fashion and boys and more on her studies and writing. It wasn’t until after she transferred to the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and enrolled in a law program that she took all of her focus away from writing, when she finally confessed to her family that it was her true calling. Soon after, at twenty-three years old, Lee dropped her law studies and moved to New York City to follow her dreams. With the help and financial support from new founded friends, Lee finished her manuscript of To Kill a Mockingbird in 1959.

This mind blowing novel follows the life of a family living in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. The world may be changing but Maycomb is in no hurry. Racism and gossip are prevalent in this small town. An innocent black man is put on trial by the word of a white man and Atticus Finch, lawyer and single father of two kids, is put on the case. Atticus faces the scrutiny of the town and his family for openly defending a black man and the choices he makes when raising his children. Jean Louise “Scout” Finch takes us through her early years and the events that all add up to the trial, all the while opening our eyes to the many themes brought up in the book.

To Kill a Mockingbird is not based on any one topic in particular. Every event undergone by Scout and her brother, Jem, bring up a new theme for discussion. Childhood, parenthood, innocence, justice, social norms and racism are a few that recur throughout the novel.  Every theme is interconnected and the transitions are flawless.

Society is ever changing. All of the unspoken rules we abide by without question are created and upheld by society. Face forward in an elevator, not back, bring a gift to the host or hostess, don’t take your shoes off unless you’re at home, call before you show up, fill up the gas tank before you return a borrowed car. We follow these rules every day and don’t even realize it. It just comes naturally to us because it’s the way we were brought up. We watched others do these things and assumed we had to as well.

Society and it’s norms force us to do one of two things. The first is to conform into society’s ideal person. This means following all the rules, spoken and unspoken, following trends in style and technology, making sure that you meet every standard and resemble every other person around you, in every aspect, in order to fit in. The second thing society forces us to do is break away and rebel on our own. This means standing alone, being different, and not following the set rules and guidelines to life.

Throughout the book society has an impact on the way people present themselves. Atticus, the wise and very observant lawyer, sees the flaws in the way society is made up but can not speak up about it because it would be frowned upon greatly. The choices he makes when raising his kids are scrutinized by the entire town and speaking out would only cause more trouble. Scout is in a constant battle of fitting her aunt’s idea of a perfect lady. Even Boo Radley, the town shut in, battles with fitting in on a daily basis. On the other hand, the Ewells, the sleaziest white family in Maycomb, actively rebel against society. The children run wild, they don’t go to school, aren’t polite and collect free money like a shelf collecting dust. They refuse to be a part of the black and white sea that is society and instead prefer to make a sea all of their own.

To Kill a Mockingbird is recommended to anyone looking for a good historical fiction or drama book or someone who is interested in one of the topics listed above. Considering there is some mature content throughout the book it is not recommended that children who are not mature enough to handle it read it. Do not force yourself to read this book if you are uninterested. It will ruin your reading experience. Come back when you grow a little older and see how you like it. You won’t ever regret picking up this book if you do and the life lessons will stay with you forever.

Title: To Kill a Mockingbird

Author: Harper Lee

Publisher: J. B. Lippincott

Date of publication: 1960

Number of pages: 384

Genre: historical fiction, drama, suspense, legal

Don Marcos

“Murió poeta colombiano Álvaro Mutis”

En lunes 23 de septiembre, Álvaro Mutis, un escritor y una poeta, murió. Tenías noventa años. Fue el más grande escritor y poeta de su generación. Él nacido en Bogotá en 1923 y fue un hijo de diplomático. Él comenzaba su labor literaria en “El Espectador”, un diario en el capital colombiana. Mutis escribía las críticas de las poemas en el diario. Él publicó su primer libro de poemas en 1947. En 1956 él fue acusado de abusar de fundos en la petrolera “Esso” y se mudó a México. Él escribió un libro sobre las acusaciones. Mutis tenía muchos buenos amigos y hablaba a los escritores famoso. Él ganó muchos premios también para sus poemas y cuentas. Álvaro Mutis es un escritor talentoso.

Yo escogí este artículo porque yo no sabo muchos escritorios hispánico y yo pensé este artículo fue muy interesante. Yo aprendí mucho sobre la vida de Álvaro Mutis y sus literatura. Yo también aprendí que es posible para las personas a ser exiliado de un país. Me gusta este artículo mucho porque yo penso Álvaro Mutis es un persona interesante, talentoso y inteligente. Cuando yo leí este artículo, yo pensé sobre todas los autores y escritores en el mundo y cuántas personas leen sus literatura. El vocabulario nuevo que aprendí es la petrolera, ganar, el premio, exiliado y comenzar.

Word Count: 221

"Murió poeta colombiano Álvaro Mutis." Ponte Al Día. N.p., 23 Sep 2013. Web. 30 Sep 2013. <http://www.pontealdia.com/america-latina/murio-poeta-colombiano-alvaro-mutis.html>.

Melanie Harrington Q1

Don Marcos

“Eventos culturales en Philly”

En domingo 15 de septiembre, el Consulado de México en Filadelfia y el Centro Cultural Mexicano invitaron los gentes de la ciudad a participar en “Grito de Independencia.” La celebración estaba en la gran plaza de Penn’s Landing. Los asistentes disfrutaron un día de comida y música tradicional.  En sábado 21 de septiembre en la Theatro de Arden, la comedia de Indira Paez, “Mujeres de par en par”, entregó por primera vez en Filadelfia. La comedia está sobre la sexualidad y los sentimientos de cinco mujeres. También en sábado 21 de septiembre, “El yunque” celebró riqueza cultural en gala de ‘Concilio’. El yunque está el símbolo del evento. El objetivo de la celebración para informar los jóvenes sobre el orgullo cultural. En jueves 26 de septiembre, los gentes celebraron la semana puertorriqueña en Filadelfia. El obispo auxiliar de la Arquidiócesis de Rockville Center, Nelson J. Pérez, conductió  una misa religiosa en la catedral basílica de San Pedro y San Pablo.

Yo escogí este artículo porque es muy interesante. Yo no sabía sobre estos celebraciones o la existencia de la semana puertorriqueña. Yo aprendí que hay un pájaro llama el yunque y todos culturas tienen los jóvenes que necesitan recordarse de sus culturas y tradiciones. Estos celebraciones recodan me de la festival Italiano. Esta festival celebra los tradicionales y el patrimonio Italiano. Yo pienso que cada cultura necesita se celebra. Yo aprendí  dos palabras nuevas; la misa y disfrutar.

Word Count: 238

" Eventos culturales en Philly (sept. 15 - 26)." Ponte Al Día. N.p., 10 Sep 2013. Web. 27 Sep 2013. <http://www.pontealdia.com/philadelphia/eventos-culturales-en-philly-septiembre-15-26.html>.

Throughout the year, in both my English and History classes, we did very deep exploring into different topics that may be confusing and taboo in real life. By this I mean that people find them hard to talk about or deal with straightforward. Through this exploring I was able to come up with a few general concepts that I think are very important and have helped me improve my learning throughout the year. These two statements are, “reflection allows you to connect with the thoughts and feelings of others and gives you a better understanding of different perspectives” and “when challenging yourself you are bettering yourself.” My experiences connected with these statements have not only allowed me to grow and challenge myself academically, but they have allowed me to start growing and changing as a human being. These are two lessons that I will carry with me throughout my life and I will fall back on them when I am dealing with a real world situation.

There is a lot of evidence throughout the year of me applying those two statements to my work in both English and History. Those two concepts came into play in almost every lesson and activity that we have done. This year, in English especially, I have challenged myself in multiple ways in order to produce high quality work. I’m not very good at expressing myself in my writing because it’s hard for me to bare my soul on a piece of paper and have it out there for anyone to read. However, this year I have made my best effort to put a piece of me into everything that I have written. By doing this I have not only made my writing something worth reading, but I have bettered myself by learning how to be more open about myself and trustworthy. The first example of me applying this skill to my work would be our first journal entry of the year. It was called “I know something about...” I was very scared of writing this and when I wrote it I was in a very dark place at the time. I had never displayed myself like the way I do in this journal entry before. At the time I wasn’t ready to show anybody or talk about it, so I folded the page down so my teacher couldn’t read it. But now I’m ready for people to see.

I found comfort in my classes and eventually was able to be more upfront about the way I was feeling and the things I was dealing with and soon applied them in my writing. My english class became a form of release for me. When we started our Descriptive Scenes and Essays unit, the class was asked to write an essay incorporating a descriptive scene we had written earlier. I titled it “Poor Unfortunate Souls” and in it I wrote, “It all spiraled out of control from there. It was like I was stuck in a never ending freefall, and every time I thought it was over I would fall again.” I felt like this was the first thing I had ever contributed to the world. It took a lot of thought and a decent amount of time to write it and when I was finished the class was instructed to post it onto our english class's public blog. I was really proud of being able to say that I wrote this essay.

During our Poetry unit in english, we learned about different types of poems and how to analyze them. Every student in the class was then asked to create a poetry wiki page of their own. On this page we had to create our own poems using the style of poems we had learned about in class. We also had to research a poet and do a report about how we can connect the type of person the poet was to the way they wrote. “To me a poem doesn’t have to be obvious to be meaningful. Your poem must leave something up for the reader to interpret and come to their own conclusions about.” Poetry has never been one of my strong areas of writing, but this project really helped me learn how to express myself in ways that I have never experienced before. Poetry can be anything, mean anything, and be seen in different ways by different people. That’s what’s so great about it. Anyone who reads a poem will be able to connect to it in some way because we all interpret things differently.

Most of the time when I challenged myself it was on an English assignment and I was challenging myself to express how I felt and to show the real me. But most of the thinking I did in both classes was reflecting about different events in history and different experiences of people from a vast amount backgrounds. In english we did some reflecting after reading and analyzing a book or text. Upon finishing the book Night by Elie Wiesel, we were asked to write a reflection on our thoughts about the book and it’s meaning. In my reflection I wrote, “Remembrance keeps people alive in spirit and forgetting them makes them disappear forever. Forgetting about horrible and tragic events helps heal you and puts the past behind you.” When a person is asked to reflect on something, it gives them the opportunity to think long and hard about the thing they have just experienced and whether or not they can relate to it or not. In this case, by reflecting on two quotes by Elie Wiesel, I was able to understand the points he was making and connect with the way he felt about what he was talking about.

As I mentioned before, our class held a lot of thought provoking conversations about taboo topics that one wouldn’t have in a normal conversation or even think very much about. In our sixth english journal we had to respond to the question “Why do humans treat each other badly?” At first I thought it was kind of an odd question. This question only looks on the negative side of things and implies that most humans treat each other badly. But the more I thought about it the more I was able to understand that in fact most humans do treat each other badly. I could see why someone might ask this question because a lot of things that go on in the world today are violent and cruel. One of the problems is a lack of understanding about different cultures. In this journal entry I wrote, ““Things like race, religion, language and all the other barriers...” I referred to these things as barriers because they are one of the main reasons why there is still so much cruelty in the world today. This journal got me really thinking about a topic that is happening globally each and every day and by thinking about it, it opened my mind to solutions and the feelings of those who are treated badly.

During our Revolutions unit in history class this year we learned about different types of revolutions throughout history and discussed how revolution still exists today around the world. Throughout the unit we completed several interactive activities such as a role play of different people/roles from the French Revolution and a video made with a partner about the Arab Spring. Upon the closing of the unit, the class was instructed to write a response about what we had learned about revolutions. In my Revolution Final Thoughts I talked about how different aspects of a revolution were evident in the French Revolution and the Arab Spring. I feel as though by writing this response I was able to fully understand what a revolution was and make connections between events in time based off of the expectations of a revolution.

Although I have created a lot of great work this year in both English and History, I feel like the pieces of work I have explained above are the best and fully relate to the concepts of “reflection allows you to connect with the thoughts and feelings of others and gives you a better understanding of different perspectives”, and “when challenging yourself you are bettering yourself.” Theses two concepts have pulled me through both of my classes and have been the main structure for almost every piece of writing I have written this year.