Friday, August 27, 2010

Third Week (August 23rd to August 27th).

This week we made a role play and presentations of biomes:



The Kangaroo, the Duck, and the Iguana:

Kangaroo: Hey duck!
Duck: Hey!
Kangaroo: What are you doing?
Duck: I'm migrating, Quack! To Alaska, Quack!
Kangaroo: Oh my god! can I go, please?
Duck: Yeah I guess so.
Iguana: But kangaroo, you can´t go there, you'll die, its not your habitat!
Kangaroo: I don´t care! I'll go to Alaska even if it's the last thing I do.
Lest go Duck!
Duck: Alright, get on my wings!

They got to Alaska...
Duck: We made it kangaroo, we made it!
Kangaroo: Yeah...

Kangaroo died...

THE END.

Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Deserts are defined as areas with an average annual precipitation of less than 250 millimeters per year, or as areas where more water is lost by evapotranspiration than falls as precipitation. In the Köppen climate classification system, deserts are classed as BWh (hot desert) or BWk (temperate desert). In the Thornthwaite climate classification system, deserts would be classified as arid mega thermal climates.

Geography

Deserts are part of a wide classification of regions that, on an average annual basis, have a moisture deficit. Deserts are located where vegetation cover is sparse to almost nonexistent. Deserts take up about one third of the Earth's land surface. Hot deserts usually have a large diurnal and seasonal temperature range, with high daytime temperatures, and low nighttime temperatures. In hot deserts the temperature in the daytime can reach 45 °C or higher in the summer, and dip to 0 °C or lower in the winter. Water acts to trap infrared radiation from both the sun and the ground, and dry desert air is incapable of blocking sunlight during the day or trapping heat during the night. Thus, during daylight most of the sun's heat reaches the ground, and as soon as the sun sets the desert cools quickly by radiating its heat into space. Urban areas in deserts lack large daily temperature variations.
Many deserts are formed by rain shadows; mountains blocking the path of precipitation to the desert. Deserts are often composed of sand and rocky surfaces. Sand dunes called ergs and stony surfaces called Hamada surfaces compose a minority of desert surfaces. Exposures of rocky terrain are typical, and reflect minimal soil development and sparseness of vegetation. The soil is rocky because of the low chemical weathering.
Bottomlands may be salt-covered flats. Eolian processes are major factors in shaping desert landscapes. Polar deserts have similar features, except the main form of precipitation is snow rather than rain. Antarctica is the world's largest cold desert. Some of the barren rock is to be found in the so-called Dry Valleys of Antarctica that almost never get snow, which can have ice-encrusted saline lakes that suggest evaporation far greater than the rare snowfall due to the strong katabatic winds that evaporate even ice.
The largest hot desert is the Sahara in northern Africa, covering 9 million square kilometers and 12 countries.


The 10 largest deserts
Rank
Desert
Area (km²)
Area (mi²)
1
13,829,430
5,339,573
2
13,700,000+
5,300,000+
3
9,100,000+
3,320,000+
4
2,330,000
900,000
5
1,300,000
500,000
6
900,000
360,000
7
670,000
260,000
8
647,000
250,000
9
520,000
200,000
10
492,000
190,000

Tundra
In physical geography, tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine tundra, and Antarctic tundra. In tundra, the vegetation is composed of dwarf shrubs, sedges and grasses, mosses, and lichens. Scattered trees grow in some tundra. The ecotone between the tundra and the forest is known as the tree line or timberline.

aRcTIC TUNDRA

The Arctic tundra is a vast area of stark landscape and is frozen for much of the year. The soil there is frozen from 25–90 cm down, and it is impossible for trees to grow. Instead, bare and sometimes rocky land can only support low growing plants such as moss, and lichen. There are two main seasons, winter and summer, in the polar tundra areas. During the winter it is very cold and dark, with the average temperature around −28 °C, sometimes dipping as low as −50 °C. However, extreme cold temperatures on the tundra do not drop as low as those experienced in taiga areas further south. During the summer, temperatures rise somewhat, and the top layer of the permafrost melts, leaving the ground very soggy. The tundra is covered in marshes, lakes, bogs and streams during the warm months.

antaRcTIC TUNDRA
The tundra model I made
Antarctic tundra occurs on Antarctica and on several Antarctic and subantarctic islands, including South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the Kerguelen Islands. Antarctica is mostly too cold and dry to support vegetation, and most of the continent is covered by ice fields. However, some portions of the continent, particularly the Antarctic Peninsula, have areas of rocky soil that support plant life. The flora presently consists of around 300–400 lichens, 100 mosses, 25 liverworts, and around 700 terrestrial and aquatic algae species, which live on the areas of exposed rock and soil around the shore of the continent. Antarctica's two flowering plant species, the Antarctic hair grass (Deschampsia Antarctica) and Antarctic pearlwort (Colobanthus quitensis), are found on the northern and western parts of the Antarctic Peninsula.
In contrast with the Arctic tundra, the Antarctic tundra lacks a large mammal fauna, mostly due to its physical isolation from the other continents

alpine TUNDRA 
The tundra model I made
Alpine tundra is an ecozone that does not contain trees because it has high altitude. Alpine tundra is distinguished from arctic tundra, because alpine tundra typically does not have permafrost, and alpine soils are generally better drained than arctic soils. Alpine tundra transitions to subalpine forests below the tree line; stunted forests occurring at the forest-tundra ecotone are known as Krummholz.
Alpine tundra occurs in mountains worldwide. The flora of the alpine tundra is characterized by dwarf shrubs close to the ground. The cold climate of the alpine tundra is caused by the low air pressure, and is similar to
polar climate.


I liked this week, because we made a role play and it was a fun process making it, I also learned about biomes and other things. I think I could’ve done better with my presentation.




Friday, August 20, 2010

Second Week (August 16th to August 20th).

So this week we worked a bit more but we still did some fun activities:

-What makes people happy?
Different people have different opinions on what makes people happy. Some would say it's getting a raise. Others would say it's having a wonderful and meaningful life. There have even been quite a few who have more specific answers according to their personal life.






-10 things that make people happy:


1.- Being treated right.
2.- Being respected.
3.- Being loved.
4.- Being important.
5.- Doing what they like.
6.- Relaxing.
7.- Having friends.
8.- Being with the people they love.
9.- Having peace.
10.- Having fun.


-10 things that make me happy:


1.- When people respect me.
2.- When I'm treated right.
3.- When I have fun.
4.- When I do things i like.
5.- When I make other people happy.
6.- When I'm with my loved ones.
7.- When I'm with my family.
8.- When I see that someone cares about me.
9.- When people make me laugh when I'm sad.
10.-When I'm peaceful with myself.

A Little questionnaire:


1.- What's the most important thing in life? Why?
A: Yourself and being happy, being with the people you love and making them happy.

2.- What's more important family or money? Why?
A: Family, because the money comes and goes but you family is the ones you love and will always be your family.

Ten rules to have a happy life:

1.- Enjoy your life.
2.- Always smile, always laugh.
3.- Have a positive attitude.
4.- Get along with others.
5.- Always do your best.
6.- Have fun.
7.- Be healthy.
8.- Take care of yourself and the ones you love.
9.- Never limit yourself.
10.- Always try new things and never give up.




-Why music influences people?
Why music influences people? Well, that is because a number of reasons and there are tons of different opinions about it. My opinion on why it influences us is because it is a huge part of our life, there will never be a single day we don´t listen to music.
Scientifically we know that the influence of music touches the senses from without.
Music is a way of life, it has existed forever and will always exist, music always helps to relax, it also motivates people and makes them happy.



In a social way it is a component of every one's life, it influences people's movement and behavior. Many people always carry around their portable music players almost everywhere and listen to their favorite music whenever it is possible. Sometimes music also influences people's appearance, the different kinds of music can divide people into categories as well.



The power that music has on a person is influenced by the grade of spiritual evolution and the mentality the person has.

In some cases music is enjoyed more by people with good ear or musical conditions, once you know music or play a musical instrument, you listen to it in a different way, more deeply and analytically, and also what is received goes deeper into the soul and to the feelings.


-Mun Paper: 


1.- What are the six main bodies of the UN?
A: General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council, International Court of Justice, Secretariat.

2.-Which countries are not members of the UN?
A: Kosovo, Taiwan, Vatican City/The Holy See .


3.- When did Japan join the UN?
A: On the 18th of December, 1956.

4.- Who's the present Secretary General of the UN?
A: Ban Ki-moon.

5.- When is united nations day?
A: 24th of October.

6.- What's the origin and purpose of the permanent five as they relate to the United Nations?
A: 
The five permanent members of the security council were the big five victorious powers in World War II. (USA, UK, France, China, and Russia.) You could view it as the spoils of war, or the winners' guarantee that the same war doesn't happen again.
It is also interesting to note that these power these countries have enable them to do as they like and simply veto any move that may stand in their way regardless of the objections of the majority of the other members of the UN.
The P5 themselves, and their academic supporters, argue that they hold the power of veto as they are responsible for enforcing Security Council resolutions and ensuring International Peace and Security itself. Thus, they should not be forced into supporting a situation they do not agree with and sacrificing their own soldiers. Though, this does create a situation where SC countries can shield their allies, like the US protecting Israel, or China defending North Korea, or Russia supporting Iran. 


7.- Why didn´t the US join the league of the nations?
A: 
Despite all Woodrow Wilson's efforts in establishing the League of Nations, the USA did not join the League because of objections raised in the Senate, especially from Republican politicians William E Borah and mainly Henry Cabot Lodge, and Wilson's refusal to compromise ensured that the US would not ratify the Covenant of The League of Nations and the Treaty of Versailles.
Joining the League of Nations would be like signing a blank cheque - America didn't want to have to ship its troops half way across the world for disputes that didn't concern them. It didn't want to risk its economy or any more American lives after the losses of WW1. The Republicans wanted to return to Isolationism - being an independent country and not involving itself in other countries affairs.
America also strongly disagreed with the Treaty of Versailles. Many Germans lived in America and Americans felt it was far too harsh. One of the Leagues aims was to uphold the Treaty of Versailles which made some Americans very averse to joining the League.

8.- Who was the president when the US became part of the UN
A: Harry S. Truman.

9.- What nations are involved in the UN?
Afghanistan

Albania




Algeria
Andorra
Angola
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Brunei Darussalam
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros
Congo
Costa Rica
Côte D'Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Denmark
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatoral Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Fiji
Finland
France
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Grenada
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran 
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Lao People’s Democratic Republic
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Micronesia
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Norway
Oman07
Pakistan
Palau
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Republic of Korea
Republic of Moldova
Romania
Russian Federation
Rwanda
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Sao Tome and Principe
Saudi Arabia 
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Syrian Arab Republic
TTajikistan
Thailand
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu
UUganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
United Republic of Tanzania
United States of America
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
VVanuatu
Venezuela
VietNam
Yemen 
Zambia
Zimbabwe.

10.- How many nations are involved in the UN?
A: 192 Nations.

11.- What's the purpose of the UN?
A: To provide a place for countries to do two things. First, allows countries a neutral means of communication. Second the United Nations is in a basic sense a world government.

12.- Which body of the UN is like a parliament of nations which meets to consider the world's most pressing problems?
A: The General Assembly.

13.- Where's the headquarters of the UN loaded?
A: New York City

14.- How was the UN involved in the Vietnam War?
A: 
They opposed the war effort. 
The war was a multilateral invasion by the US, without UN Security Council support.
The United Nations was used as a spark point for protests - On the 9th of November, 1965, Catholif Worker Movement member Roger Allen LaPorte self-immolated in front of the UN HQ building in New York City.
In fairness to America, the situation in the Security Council would have meant that a UNSC Resolution would have been nearly impossible.
 

15.- What's the role of the UN in the decolonization of Angola?
A:

16.- What are the contributions to the world peace by the UN or any of it's agencies?
A:

17.- What's the role of the UN in the world's affairs?
A: T
he UN helps bring together countries in an internationl forum to settle disputes and problems. The UN has programs like UNESCO and all these other programs to help feed poor people and provide some other forms of aid.


18.- Who was the Secretary General of UN during the 1960`s ?
A: U Thant.

19.- UN founders.
A: There were 51 founding members of the United Nations:

South Africa
Argentina
Australia
Belarus
Belgium
Bolivia
Brazil
Canada
Czechoslovakia
Chile
Republic of China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Denmark
Egypt
El Salvador
Ecuador
Ethiopia
France
Greece
Guatemala
Haiti
Honduras
India
Iran
Iraq
Lebanon
Liberia
Luxembourg
Mexico
Nicaragua
Norway
New Zealand
Panama
Paraguay
Filipino Netherlands
Peru
Poland
Dominican Republic
the United Kingdom
Saudi Arabia
Syria
Turkey
Ukraine
Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (the USSR)
The United States of America (USA)
Uruguay
Venezuela
Yugoslavia
20.- What did the UN do to help the Rwanda genocide?
A: 
Rwandan genocide occurred in 100 days in 1994. This was a fight for power involving the Tutsis and the Hutus ethnic groups. Hutus began to slaughter all Tutsis in the aim to demolish this entire ethnic group, an as a result, killing 800000 people. 


1992 Ceasefire/ peace talks open 
1993 UN began their peacekeeping mission 
1994 President Habyarimana was killed near Kigali (Smith, D, 2003) 
The world along with the UN failed to act and respond quick enough to stop these killings and end the genocide. 5500 UN troops were sent over to Rwanda, and international leaders were warned of the slaughters however no one believed or took any measures to prevent. (Murray, P, 2004)

"Rwanda's tragedy was the world's tragedy in their greatest hour of need; the world failed the people of Rwanda" General Kofi Annan.
21.- How did the UN help the earthquake in Kashmir?A: Eneficiaries, which covered emergency shelter, health, nutrition and water hygiene and sanitation; and Cross-Cutting Concerns, with three clusters: early recovery, protection and camp coordination and management. Other sectors which the UN considered had clear leadership and accountability, such as agriculture (led by FAO), refugees (UNHRC-led), education (UNICEF) and food (WFP), were not included in the cluster approach.
22.- Who was the first elected Secretary General of the UN?A: Gladwyn Jebb.
23.- What was the forerunner of the UN?A: President Franklin D. Roosevelt
24.- When was the UN born?A: 1945.

25.- What are the components of the General Assembly of the UN?
A:


26.- Why did the UN send an army to the south of Korea in 1950?
A: To answer North Korea's aggression, restore regional stability and return 
the border between North and South Korea to the 38th parallel.


27.- What do Oliver branches on the UN flag represents?
A: The olive branches are a symbol for peace, and the world map represents all the people of the world.



28.- When did new Zeeland join the UN?
A: 24 October 1945.


29.- Why didn’t the UN get involved during the cold war?
A:
30.- Who is the best popular UN member?
A:


This week was really good, and I felt more integrated with the subject, I think it was awesome that we got to write about the influence of music in people because I really enjoy music.
My goals are to get better and make a good oral presentation next week.

First week. (August 9th to August 13th).

This first week in the English class, we got to know each other and do some entertaining activities which are the following:

1.- First we learned about types of intelligences and we did a test:

Intelligence:
Individuals differ from one another in their ability to understand complex ideas, to adapt effectively to the environment, to learn from experience, to engage in various forms of reasoning, and to overcome obstacles by taking thought. Although these individual differences can be substantial, they are never entirely consistent: a given person’s intellectual performance will vary on different occasions, in different domains, as judged by different criteria. Concepts of "intelligence" are attempts to clarify and organize this complex set of phenomena. Although considerable clarity has been achieved in some areas, no such conceptualization has yet answered all the important questions, and none commands universal assent. Indeed, when two dozen prominent theorists were recently asked to define intelligence, they gave two dozen, somewhat different, definitions.

The seven types of intelligence 

-Linguistic: People with this kind of intelligence enjoy writing, reading, telling stories or doing crossword puzzles. 

-Logical-Mathematical: People with lots of logical intelligence are interested in patterns, categories and relationships. They are drawn to arithmetic problems, strategy games and experiments. 

-Bodily-Kinesthetic: These people process knowledge through bodily sensations. They are often athletic, dancers or good at crafts such as sewing or woodworking. 

-Spatial: These people think in images and pictures. They may be fascinated with mazes or jigsaw puzzles, or spend free time drawing, building with Legos or daydreaming. 

-Musical: Musical people are always singing or drumming to themselves. They are usually quite aware of sounds others may miss. These kids are often discriminating listeners. 

-Interpersonal: People who are leaders among their peers, who are good at communicating and who seem to understand others' feelings and motives possess interpersonal intelligence. 

-Intrapersonal: These people may be shy. They are very aware of their own feelings and are self-motivated.


2.- Then we were challenged to build the highest and cheapest skyscraper:

Materials List:
-13, 30cm Wood sticks: $3,900.00
-4 Styrofoam plates: $1,000.00
-Glue: $Free.

Company's name: Double J Productions Inc.
Building's name: DJP Inc.
Building height: 1.25 m

Final Budget: $4,900.00









This week I felt really comfortable with the english class, I had fun and enjoyed. We did really fun activities, played games, we presented ourselves, talked about our likes and interests, did a test and build the skyscraper, I felt like I could give more for the class, pay more attention, and don´t get distracted by such little things as I sometimes do, my goals are to be a better student, pay more attention and behave well.  

Biography

My name is Julio César Mesa Corro, I was born in February the 15th 1995. My Father Julio Rodolfo Mesa Becerra was born in June 16th 1947 in Cuba, who is a musician, and my mother Angélica Corro Salto was born in March 17th 1966 in Veracruz. Since I was little I have been going to La Salle schools, now I’m of the first semester of high school. I’ve always been interested in the artistic areas, as a child I always loved music and drawing, when I was in fourth grade a new teacher organized a theatre play “Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” Which is about one of the sons of Jacob who interprets dreams, I was in the chorus, just for fun, but I noticed I really liked singing and wasn’t that bad at it so I just kept on doing it, the next year, that same teacher organized a singing contest and I entered, I passed to the finals but unfortunately I didn´t win, but that didn´t stopped me. Then a year later the teacher organized another play “Mamma Mia!” and I played Harry, because the guy who was originally playing that character at the end said he didn´t want to, it was a lot of fun. Next year I entered Junior high, that grade the teacher organized yet another singing contest, and I bet you know what I did, well of course I signed up for it. This time I did won because of the experienced I gained through all of the years of singing and I was getting better at it, that same year I got interested in playing guitar but I didn’t got that much into it I just learned a few thin here and there. The next year the teacher organized a compilation of plays, but this time it was different we played parts from “Rent”, “Mamma Mia!”, “Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and others, and we traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina to present all of them there, it was a blast, I met a lot of people and made new friends, and get to know a whole new country. That year a Spanish teacher asked us to make an ad, and I didn’t know a thing about ad making nor editing, what I had, was a camera, a tripod and imagination, so during spring break I tried to learn as much as I could and I found out that I really liked video making and editing. Next year we were asked to make a history project and we made a video where we time travel to the past and learn about the old Mexican civilizations.Then we made a Coca-Cola ad which was shown at a school fair, 
We also made a “Project for Peace and Non-Violence” video,I also made a magazine at the end of the year. 
So as I was in high school I found I also liked editing videos and filming, now I want to study to be a film director.
     

My english class.

Hey!
What I have here is an "evidence portfolio" for my english class, basically the idea of this is to make a blog each week including what I've learned, self reflections and model of united nations papers.
So, weekly I'll be making a blog with what I did in the class during the week, this should be really fun and entertaining because it is supposed to be a way of sharing what I learn and how I feel about my class.

Greetings!
-Julio Mesa
Mesa Corro Julio César 

Teacher David Castillo Kuhne

Evidence Portfolio

1° E

Semester 1