Room 613 Student Blogs - 2005/2006

National Symbol

Mount Fuji, king of mountains

A beautiful sight

By: Jake S. 6E

What do you usually think of a book compared to the play? For those of you that saw it, what would you rate it? Our class went on a field trip to see the play, The Giver and we thought there were some positives and negatives about it after we saw it. We had compared it to the book for accuracy, and for any parts missing. First, we found out that 15 out of 18 students liked the book better than the play. The National Theatre Club was on tour, and they had to fit a significant part of The Giver into an 80 minute production. As you know, you wouldn’t be able to fit every detail of The Giver into a play. However, they jumped right into the Ceremony of 12, and there was only 6 people attending. Even the little things, like braids not in Lily’s hair were caught. In the end, they were really rushed and they skipped all of the escape because they said he just left. He had reached Elsewhere in no time and people that never read the book wouldn’t catch on. Despite the negatives, there are positives, and one thing I found they did well was they had really good sound effects. The grabbing of emotion was well done by the Club. A whole play would be so hard to act that some parts are going to have to be skipped. When they took questions, they said sometimes they would alter plays, but most things can’t be changed even though they are. This was a good play to go to, but it could be better.

Indira Gandhi was a very important figure in India. She lived in the 20^th century, to the age of 66 years. She was the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, elected in 1947. At the time, she worked in the Parliament with her husband Feroze Gandhi, also part of the same party, Parsi.

For the next 19 years, she was always involved in the government, in the Parliament. In 1966, she took the position of Prime Minister. She remained in office for the next 11 years when her party was defeated. Three years later, she ran again, and retook the position of Prime Minister. She had made her first enemy, the Sikh leader, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. She maintained the position of Prime Minister for four years until 2 Sikh bodyguards conspired to kill her. She was shot to death when the bodyguards had reached their limit of anger on October 31, 1984 in New Delhi. Riots broke out for the next several days and thousands of Sikhs were killed. Indira Gandhi previously said “If I die a violent death, as some fear and a few are plotting, I know that the violence will be in the thought and the action of the assassins, not in my dying.” But, “Even if I died in the service of my nation, I would be proud of it. Every drop of my blood……… will contribute to the growth of this nation and to make it strong and dynamic”. Despite the tragic ending, she is still remembered as one of the most important figures in the history of India.

Reflection:

I first knew about Indira Gandhi and how she was important in India. When I saw that she was assassinated I was surprised and eager to learn more about the topic. Mr. H had first assigned that we had to do an India Blog Project, where you look up more information about a topic you find interesting. At first, all I knew was that Indira Gandhi was a Prime Minister of India and she was assassinated in 1984. I had found some really good websites and I also got better surfing the web. The sites were highly recommended by Mr. H. I got some really good information and I got to understand more about Indira Gandhi’s Assassination. I found that her enemies were unpredictable and the assassination was what led me to learn about it.

I got my information from:

www.wikipedia.org

www.distinguishedwomen.com

www.onwar.com

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi accompanied

With U.S President

Ronald Reagan

Photo from http://www.famous-india.com/people-in-india/indira-gandhi.html

1/31/38

Dear Mr. H.,

Greetings!!!! I am a citizen of Turkey in the year of 1938. The leader of Turkey was Kemal Ataturk (Mustafa Kemal). He came into power after World War I, when all the Ottoman Empire was conquered except for Turkey. The Ottoman Empire stretched from Austria to a portion of Morocco. The Ottoman Empire had been around six hundred years. Constantinople was the capital of the whole Ottoman Empire. The capital was named after the great emperor Constantine. We chose the wrong side in World War I; it was the United States, France, and Great Britain against Hungary, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire. Turkey’s main religion is Islam because we have mosques, are biggest mosque is the Blue Mosque. After the war, in 1925, Kemal Ataturk banned people from wearing fezzes. Fezzes made it so it would be easier to touch their foreheads to the ground when praying. Fezzes were a sign of the past to Mr. Ataturk. Kemel Ataturk also wanted the Turks to dress in western clothes. For women, he banned people from wearing veils. Kemal Ataturk thought that men and women should be equal. Kemal thought education was important and he built schools so the children wouldn’t have to learn at home. Kemel gave women the right to vote which was quite unusual. Mr. Ataturk introduced the Roman alphabet used in the western countries. He ordered all writing sources to print the new language. He also changed the capital from Istanbul to Ankara. This made me feel like everyone respects me and that we should be thankful for the rights we have. On the other hand, being a Muslim, I didn’t like the banning of fezzes, but, the western countries wouldn’t treat us poorly. I am enjoying learning the new language but it takes practice. Kemel Ataturk was one of the greatest leaders in Turkish history because he gave us rights we probably would never get. Ataturk has made life more modern than before World War 1. He has made Turkey a better and well-developing country. We are in mourning after the death of Kemal Ataturk this year. He made a big affect on me and my country.

Sincerely,

Your friend from Turkey

Jake S. 6E

Journalist Jill Carroll once said, ” All I ever wanted to be was a foreign correspondent”. Jill was working for the Christian Science Monitor until she was laid off and became a freelancer. Jill Carroll had once wrote that she wanted to write stories about a war. Jill Carroll, who worked in Boston, Massachusetts decided to go to Iraq to write about the war. Jill had visited the area before in 2002 when she moved to Jordan, six months before the war started, to learn about the area. In Iraq, many of her stories were published in papers throughout the world. She also was interviewed by National Public Radio. Jill, 28 years old, kept on writing until January 7, 2006, when she kidnapped in one of Baghdad’s roughest neighborhoods. Jill was on her way to meet a Sunni Arab Official when her car was ambushed by gunmen and her translator was killed while Jill Carroll became a hostage. The gunmen threatened to kill her in 72 hours unless the military of the United States released all Iraqi female prisoners that they held in custody. As we speak, Iraq representatives from an American Muslim Group, are working as they can to find freelancer Jill Carroll. The gunmen threatening Jill Carroll wanted to kill her even though she purely believes in what the Iraqi people believe in, she also supports them. The search for Jill Carroll continues. See you next time with more news on Jill Carroll and what happens in Baghdad!! Hope all goes well!

The source of my information for this story is www.CNN.com. The photo is from www.cpj.org

The place in the world I would like to visit would be Jamaica. Jamaica has gorgeous beaches off the Caribbean Sea which includes five star hotels. You can just smell the aroma of gourmet food being made. Any day I could enjoy the warm water of the Caribbean Sea as I take a swim.