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Hero Pre-Write
We started our projects by doing a free write about our ideas of a hero, and who our childhood heroes were. It made me really think about what I feel a hero should be like, which I had never really thought about before -
Subway Hero
We saw a video of Wesley, who risked his life to save a stranger who had a seizure at the subway, to show an example of one kind of hero. Here, I was amazed at how willing Wesley was to help a stranger, and it inspired me. -
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Hero's Journey Project
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Why Courage Matters
We read about Roy Benavides in John McCain's book Why Courage Matters. Benavides risked his life during the Vietnam war to save the lives of his comrades, at the cost of enduring 7 bullet shots. I was shocked at how Benavidez could have possibly stayed alive through all that, and it amazed me. -
Kristi Quillen: Peace Corps Volunteer
In class, we watched an interview of Ms. Quillen, who used to teach literature here at CRHS, and is now in Costa Rica. We listened to what it meant to be a Peace Corps and what life is like in Costa Rica. I really felt admiration for Ms. Quillen for being so willing to give up all the luxuries she has here to go and teach English in Costa Rica. -
Goodreads.com
On this day, I spent a lot of time on goodreads.com during class, where I looked through many books on Mrs. Simmons' list. Here, I found many possibilities of heroes, such as Lang Lang, Einstein, Aung San Suu Kyi, Michelangelo, and many others. -
Choosing a Book
I finally decided to research Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Jewish pianist who spent several years in hiding from the Nazis. -
Searching for a Book
We spent this day in the library looking for our book. Since I had a lot of heroes in mind, I had many possible books to look for. I also had to go to the Fort Bend Libraries afterschool to look for more possibilities -
Change the World-Day 1
We discussed many categories of heroes and who would be an example of each and characteristics of each category. We also saw the cases of Tuesday Muse, Hudson Plaskoff, and two friends in Haiti who are everyday people who raise money for those in need. I was really surprised at how people as young as Hudson and Tuesday, and how they could raise money for a good cause at such a young age. They were also really cute!! -
Change the World-Day 2
We continued our Change the World presentation, and we saw the video Badly Drawn Boy-Year of the Rat, which was very inspirational. We also listened to Waiting on the World to Change by John Mayer, which gave us insight on how we can change the world. Finally, we saw an ad by Liberty Mutual on how we define responsibility. I was especially inspired by the Badly Drawn Boy video. I never knew it was possible to be immune to all the anger in the world, and it inspired me to try and do so myself. -
Change the World-Day 3
We concluded our Change the World presentation by listening to We Are the Youth of Today by Amy MacDonald, who defines the youth of our generation, and watching the unique poem Lost Generation, which at first sounds desolate, but with a quick and simple line, reverses the whole situation, as well as the poem. I really loved the Lost Generation poem because of its unique structure and the message it delivered, which made me want to be more positive throughout life. -
First Chapter Friday
Today, everyone in class shared a passage from their book, which gave me many interesting facts about many famous people's lives, which fascinated me.