"In this world, we're not here to survive, we're here to THRIVE!"
Welcome to the Humanities Note Page
You can see the slides of the PowerPoints we have in class on Matt's DP:
Day by day
Thursday, January 19th, 2017
At first, Matt had us do a free write about a short film that took place in Iran called "2+2=5". It dealt with a teacher telling his students that from then on, 2+2 was going to equal 5. At first, many boys protested. In particular, one little boy was fierce in his belief that 2+2 actually was 4. The teacher gave him a chance to change his mind, and when the student didn't, he had the boy shot.
After watching the video, we had a free write about what we could learn about what it is to be human from this video. When the song ended (we write continuously for the duration of one song for our free writes), we discussed the video and possible interpretations of it.
Lastly, Matt assigned us a presentation on "What it is to be Human". This presentation is due Monday, January 23rd. It is supposed to be about 10-13 slides. On the slides, you're supposed to use photos instead of words because Matt thinks photos are more captivating. If you have any other questions, you can look at page sixteen of his pages for the week at this link:
(http://javierjupiter.weebly.com/uploads/8/7/2/5/87254458/week_1_semester_2_hthi_2016-2017.pdf)
Since Mariah was gone, for the rest of the day, we just worked on our presentations and the chemistry work that Mariah gave us.
Friday, January 20th, 2017
Today, since Mariah was gone, it was mostly another work day. We continued with our presentation for Matt's class and did the work that Mariah assigned us. We did the HW from each class when we wanted to; there wasn't really a specific time that you were supposed to work on each class's work.
Just keep in mind that the presentations are due Tuesday, January 24th. The orignal due date was January 23rd (Monday) but it was moved to Tuesday the 24th. This is because Matt ended up missing Monday since his son was recovering from surgery. We'll present on Thursday, too.
Monday, January 23rd, 2017
Today, since Matt's son was recovering, Matt stayed with him in the hospital. Mariah covered for him and Matt wanted us to watch a movie called White Helmets. As an assignment, Matt had us fill out a worksheet about it. We turned it in at the end of class but you may be able to turn it in tomorrow if you forgot to turn it in today.
Tomorrow, we are giving our presentations on "What it is to be Human". Be prepared to speak on each of your images and to do so with detail.
Tuesday, January 24th, 2017
The class was started with free write about whether the "White Helmets" film changed our perspective on humanity. Afterwards, we had a discussion about the free write and (in one class), the topic changed to bonobos and birds. Matt pushed back on that and said that we were straying from the main topic.
Next period, we had team time and watched the various presentations on "What it Means to be Human". This took up the entire time that we had in Matt's class, so there is absolutely no homework that is due or that we have been assigned in Matt's class.
Wednesday, January 25th, 2017
We started off class today finishing the rest of the presentations. To those who presented today: great job! Once we finished listening to the rest of the presentations, we watched an interesting clip from a movie called "Do the Right Thing". The person who we watched was named Radio Raheem, and on his hands he had brass knuckles. One hand had "hate" for the brass, the other had "love". He said that love and hate are like two forces boxing each other, with neither ever winning.
After the video concluded, we did a free write on the video and whether we agreed with Radio or not. Then, we went into a lengthy discussion the video.
Once that concluded, we read a short story called "What Do We Have in Our Pockets" by Etgar Keret. He talked about the contents of his pocket and their purpose. We annotated the story "as if we were talking to it". Then, class ended. It would be a good idea to have the annotations done by tomorrow.
Thursday, January 26th, 2017
Class began with us watching a music video of Rhianna and Drake singing "What's My Name". After watching the music, we did a free write on what this video showed us. Afterwards, we had a discussion about the free write and what could be taken from it.
After that, we watched a video from a cinematic version of Romeo and Juliet. After the completion of the video, we discussed whether we thought Romeo and Juliet is any more romantic than the music video of Drake and Rhianna. Ultimately, Matt concluded with the statement that most of us thought Romeo and Juliet was more romantic because we had been guided by our culture to thinking that.
There is nothing due on Monday and there is no homework for the weekend
Monday, January 30th, 2017
Today, we started class with Matt going around and asking each one of us what 3 items we would take if we had to leave San Diego immediately. After we all told him what we would take, we did a free write on why we would take those three items.
Once we finished our free write, we watched a short film called "4.1 Miles". It was about Syrian refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean from Turkey to Greece. The footage was taken in the heat of the moment, with all that went on in the film being actual coverage. During the film, we took notes on quotes or comments from the film and comments, questions, or observations we had about the film.
Lastly, we moved into discussing our writing assignment that has a first draft due on Friday. It has to be within 400-500 words long and needs to be about if we were to flee to some other country, what would it be like? What would the political environment be towards immigrants there? What would the weather be like when traveling there? The assignment has to be written in a first person narrative. Find more information on Matt's DP. Click "Matt's DP" below the quote from Matt to see his website. When there, click on work in the left hand column, where you should find a description of the writing assignment's requirements.
Tuesday, January 31st, 2017
We started off class writing down an excerpt from a story called "The Parade Ends" by Reinaldo Arenas. This was to help us hear the voice of the writing better. After that, we took time to reanalyze the excerpt, and then, we had a free write on anything that we gathered from the poem or anything about the poem.
Once the free write song concluded, we had a discussion about the possible interpretations of the literature. This went on for a long time, and then Matt had us switch over to continuing our creative writing assignment for the remainder of the period.
My only suggestion for homework is working on the writing assignment that has its first draft due on Friday.
Wednesday, February 1st, 2017
I missed most of class because I was playing soccer. When I checked up with Matt, he said most of the time was just for working on Mariah's chemistry assignments and the creative writing assignment.
For HW, please work on the creative writing assignment.
Thursday, February 2nd
We started off class by watching a video of the interesting situation in Tijuana right now with foreign immigrants. Immigrants are starting to flood in from Haiti (in the Caribbean) and various nations in Africa. They are all trying to go to the US, some for political asylum, some for economic reasons. The video then went on to focus on one immigrant in particular who was living off the generosity of others since he wasn't able to get a job while waiting to enter the United States.
After we finished watching the video, we had a free write on any way we interpreted the video that we watched. This spurred a class discussion afterwards about the video.
When the discussion came to a halt, we jumped over to learning Matt's 5 points for reading a text. They are:
We then read a poem about a man who wrote in his typewriter. The rest of the poem was up for interpretation, and, being so, we had a class discussion on the various interpretations that could be made from analyzing the text and gathering different details from the deliberate formatting (Matt says that everything is written deliberately and has a purpose in writing).
Later on, we worked on learning how to better facilitate conversation in class because our conversations (according to Matt) are inadequate right now.
The very important thing to have done for tomorrow: FINISH THE FIRST DRAFT OF THE CREATIVE WRITING ASSIGNMENT.
Friday, February 3rd, 2017
Class started off with us trying something a little differently today. Instead of having to write during our free write, we had to sketch our best imitation of "The Gulf Stream", a painting done by Winslow Homer in 1899. We were to do so by paying attention to the littlest of details and we weren't allowed to draw a stick figure as the man on the boat. We had to draw an actual person.
Matt then gave us three points on writing summaries.
Monday, February 6th, 2017
Today, we actually had two free writes. The first one was about what we, as individuals, wanted to do better this week. Once we knew what we wanted to do better, we were supposed to write why we wanted to do this better and three ways of accomplishing that goal.
The second free write that we had to do was a summary of the "84 Lumber" Super Bowl ad. The ad was about a mother and her child traveling across Mexico and trying to enter the US. We watched the video twice: once to just think about why we were watching it and simply absorb the video and a second time to take notes about different things that we noticed throughout the film so that we could compose our summaries.
The last main activity that we did in class was read about the journey of a Syrian family coming to the US, except it was in cartoon form. We duplicated the process of the Super Bowl ad except instead of taking notes about the video, we annotated the cartoon. We then answered four questions about the article. You can see those four questions on Matt's DP in the button link under Matt's quote.
After we finished that, Matt gave us Chapter One of "Giovanni's Room". We have to have a summary of the chapter done by Friday. I have an image with our game plan for the week in the image section above. It is written in red on a whiteboard (to help you distinguish).
For tomorrow, if you didn't finish or share your cartoon summary, finish it for tomorrow and share it with Matt
February 7th, 2017
Today, to my surprise, class didn't start off with a free write. We actually started class off with reading chapter one of "Giovanni's Room". This was given to us by Matt as free write time. He also mentioned that while only chapter one is due this week, he has chapter two printed up for us to read once we're done with chapter one so that we can get ahead. And, if we finish that, we can read a text from James Baldwin about what it means for us to live in the United States. That text is extra credit.
The rest of class was spent talking about the various contact zones and we watched several videos on the contact zone. Matt referred back to the example of kissing and how we always close our eyes when we kiss because it's an awkward type of contact zone that we're uncomfortable with.
For tomorrow, I would personally suggest finishing chapter one of "Giovanni's Room" so that you have whatever time Matt gives us in class and after school tomorrow to work on your summary of chapter one.
Wednesday, February 8th, 2017
Today, since Matt was gone, we watched a film called "God Grew Tired of Us". It deals with a group of Sudanese refugees fleeing the civil war in Sudan. The group call themselves the Lost Boys. "God Grew Tired of Us" follows their journey from Sudan to Ethiopia to Kenya to finally, the boys making their way in the USA. We filled out a worksheet that wasn't necessary, but would help us have talking points in the discussion in class tomorrow.
Tomorrow, make sure you have read chapter one of "Giovanni's Room" and written a summary for it. I have tips for writing summaries under the dates of February 2nd and 3rd. After that, if you want something else to do, you can get ahead and start reading chapter two of "Giovanni's Room" and/or a text written by the author of "Giovanni's Room" (James Baldwin) on what it means to live in the USA. This is for extra credit, so if you want a grade boost or just a good challenge, you should definitely read the text.
Thursday, February 9th, 2017
Today, since Matt was gone, we spent most of class just doing our work for his class, which consisted of making revisions on our refugee creative writing assignment, reading chapter one of "Giovanni's Room", and preparing for tomorrow's discussion about "God Grew Tired of Us".
Revise your essay for tomorrow and make sure that you have a summary for chapter one and are ready for the class conversation. Please, for those who don't speak up in our class conversations: DO NOT BE AFRAID!!! You are just as brilliant if not more so than any other student in the class, so let it shine! You can thrive if you just try.
Friday, February 10th, 2017
Today, Matt returned! We were all very glad to see him. Class kicked off with Matt going around and checking all of our summaries for chapter one of "Giovanni's Room" since they were due. After that concluded, we started a class-long discussion on chapter one. This was the first graded discussion we had ever had, so at the beginning, some nerves were taut, but that mostly all subsided as the conversation progressed.
For Monday, be sure to have your chapter two of "Giovanni's Room" read and I would suggest trying to knock out the summary, too, so that your work load during the school week would be lighter. The extra credit article from James Baldwin about what it is to live in the US is (suggested by Matt) hopefully to be completed by Monday.
Monday, February 13th, 2017
Today, we started off class by letting us read chapter two if we didn't over the weekend or get ahead if we had. Then, we continued class by having a discussion on chapter two of "Giovanni's Room". This entitled what we thought was happening in chapter two, how hard/easy it was to keep track of time while reading chapter two, and a vast myriad of other topics. In short, it was like any other discussion that we've had in class.
For HW, try to read some of chapter three. If you want to see the week's game plan, look at the photo section at the top. The game plan is right next to the red writing photo (last week's game plan). You can click on it to expand the image.T
Tuesday, February 14th, 2017
Today, we started off class with a free write. The question that we were to answer was "Who or what taught you to see?" The question was up to any interpretation of it that we could think of. After listening to a love song as our free write song and responding to the prompt, we discussed the various views and interpretations we had about the prompt. Since today was a shorter day in terms of official class time duration, that left us very little time to read an article that Matt assigned us for homework tonight called "The Aztecs of Mexico: a Zero Waste Society". Do that as homework tonight because it is due tomorrow.
For tomorrow, have the majority of chapter three of "Giovanni's Room" completed so that you only have a very scant amount to read tomorrow and then all you'd have left is the summary that goes along with chapter three. Also finish "The Aztecs of Mexico: a Zero Waste Society". A link to the article is here: https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/the-aztecs-of-mexico-a-zero-waste-society
Wednesday, February 15th, 2017
Today we started off class by having a class discussion around the article "The Aztecs of Mexico: a Zero Waste Society" . The two main questions that we were supposed to address in the duration of this conversation were
For homework, finish chapter three of "Giovanni's Room" and write a summary for it.
Thursday, February 16th, 2017
Today, we started class by watching a video of homosexual conversion therapy and the detrimental impacts of it. After the video had concluded, we had a extenuated break because Matt had to go out for a while and deal with minor emergency. This consumed a large chunk of class, but with the help of Angel, we got back on task and started our discussion on chapter three of "Giovanni's Room". This conversation took us up to the end of class.
For the four day weekend, you have no homework in Matt's class! Enjoy it!
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2017
Class kicked off differently today. Matt introduced us to a species of lizard that can shed its outer layer of scales to escape a predator's grasp. This leaves the lizard looking vulnerable, and, according to Matt, like an "raw chicken tender". Matt then asked us if there was a moment in which we would have liked to have been able to drastically change our physical characteristics and how that would make us vulnerable. The free write was then discussed by the class.
The rest of class was spent analyzing and discussing the poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar called "We Wear the Mask". The discussion was charted by a student; this was done so that Matt could help the conversation more.
For HW, read some of part two of "Giovanni's Room". This will alleviate potential struggles later (having to cram in the reading on Thursday night).
Thursday, February 23rd, 2017
Today, we started off class with a free write about an eight year-old child finding a sparrow. We were allowed to write anything in any manner that we wanted to about the interaction of the two, as long as that's what we wrote about in the beginning. Once we finished writing about that, we wrote as that same child finding the same sparrow on the ground and what would happen. We compared the differences in the two paragraphs and the different or same ways that we started each paragraph.
Next, we listened to the struggle of a comedian on "The Tonight Show" with his daughter who had cancer, and, sadly, passed away from it. The comedian started off with a quote from the beginning of "A Tale of Two Cities" that was "It was the best of times and it was the worst of times".
Lastly, we were given some time to read chapter one of part two of "Giovanni's Room". This has to be read, and, if you'd like, annotated by tomorrow. That is the only homework we have tonight.
Friday, February 24th, 2017
Today, we spent the entirety of class watching a video of Beyonce and then discussing anything that we wanted to about the issue. It was extremely bipartisan, with the class splitting into a majority pro-Beyonce support group and then a scant few who didn't support the video that Beyonce had posted.
Since this discussion consumed the entirety of class, we have no homework for the weekend. Enjoy the Oscars!
Monday, February 27th, 2017
Beyoncé found her way into our class again, with her music video "***Flawless". We listened to the video and took notes on it. Then, we listened to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her speech on womanhood. We compared the possible common threads and/or the differences between the two women and how their depictions of womanhood stack up.
For homework, there is none. We'll get some tomorrow.
Tuesday, February 28th, 2017
We started off class copying an excerpt from a piece by James Baldwin called The Discovery of What it Means to Be an American. We then passed our written copy to the left and had the person that we passed our copy to right a response of what they thought of that excerpt.
Later in class, we were given an hour to read pages 85-102 of "Giovanni's Room". Make sure that you have it done by tomorrow so that you're prepared for the class discussion tomorrow.
The last thing that we did in class today was draw partners for our upcoming project. We have to read articles and write a one paragraph summary for each article. You can see this at Matt's website, which is javierjupiter.weebly.com. Have a nice night!
Wednesday, March 1st, 2017
Today, we started off class with a discussion about pages 85-102 of "Giovanni's Room". This conversation went on for a long time, and it followed the same structure as our normal free writes: no structure. Matt just had us lead it in whatever direction we wanted it to be led in.
Then, we worked on reading the articles that I talked about in yesterday's post. Since we had our "Workout Wednesday" that Mariah led, the amount of time that we had to work on the articles was brief.
For tomorrow, read some of the articles and make sure you write your one paragraph studies on each article that you read.
Thursday, March 2nd, 2017
Today, we started off class by working on our summary paragraphs for the articles that I talked about on this Tuesday's upload. Your group has to, as a whole, read four articles and write a one paragraph on each article. This is the homework for tonight and this consumed the entirety of class.
If you finish the summaries, I would suggest thinking about what question you want to ask and how you want to present it, including through which medium you'd like it to be presented.
Friday, March 3rd, 2017
Today, we spent the entire period working on our projects. This day was mostly spent getting ready to think about which way we wanted to convey our project (our article summaries should have been done by today).
For Monday, know which medium of social media you're going to use for your project. Also, make sure to do some of the "Giovanni's Room" reading.
Monday, March 6th, 2017
Today was another work block. Matt let us know that he had received many emails over the weekend from various students and had decided to let us have one more day for working on our presentations. He said that we really did have to work more efficiently, though.
For tomorrow, do some more of pages 103-148 in "Giovanni's Room". It is due Thursday instead of Wednesday since we're doing our presentations on Wednesday
Tuesday, March 7th, 2017
The last work block was today. We spent the entire period finishing up the projects (you should be in the closing stages of the project). Since we spent the entire period working on projects, we weren't able to do anything else.
For tomorrow, make sure you have your entire project finished and you read the last couple of pages of pages 103-148 in "Giovanni's Room". That reading is due on Thursday, when we'll also have the discussion.
Wednesday, March 8th, 2017
The last hurrah for finishing our Cold War 2.0 social media projects today. We did peer critiques on other group's projects, giving them ratings from seven to ten on five different subcategories and writing insightful comments on how each group could improve their projects.
For homework, finish pages 103-148 of "Giovanni's Room" for tomorrow. Make sure that you actively participate and have courage to speak up in class. Your grade depends on your courage and "We're not here to survive, we're here to THRIVE!"
Thursday, March 9th, 2017
Today, we had our discussion on pages 103-148 of "Giovanni's Room". Matt experimented with having our class discussion split into two groups to see if it would incite more input from those who speak less in class. This consumed the entirety of class, so you know what that means: NO HOMEWORK!!!
The only thing that I'll mention is that Matt said if you want to lead an hour-long class project for the other class, you can receive extra credit for it. Just talk to him and tell him that you're interested in doing the project.
Friday, March 10th, 2017
The main thing that you need to know from today is that we do have some reading to do over the weekend. The pages are from 149-163, which is the end of "Giovanni's Room". Make sure you do thorough annotations of the text so that you can be ready to have a class discussion on Monday.
Monday, March 13th, 2017
Today, we had our discussion on the last pages of "Giovanni's Room". This took up a large part of the period, but we also had another interesting thing that we did, which was try to determine whether Self Portrait, 1967 by Chuck Close was a painting or a photo and write a factual paragraph to support it.
For tonight, there is no homework. Enjoy your night!
Tuesday, March 14th, 2017
Today, class started off with us doing a free write on a photo/painting by Mickalene Thomas, and we had to use our own observations from the image to determine whether it was, in fact, a photo, or whether it was a painting.
Next, Michelle and CJ kindly came in and gave a presentation on the Stone Wall protests and their impact on society. They did a great job and had a very interesting simulation to go with it.
Lastly, we were introduced to a project that is due on this Friday. What the project consists of is picking an aspect of "Giovanni's Room" to have as the front page of a newspaper article. This newspaper article will be made electronically. You'll have three leads to articles of about fifty words each and one photo. The leads need to address "Who, what, where, when, why, and how". And, if you'd like extra credit, you can add hyperlinks to external articles for one extra credit point each one, for a maximum of ten extra credit points.
Wednesday, March 15th, 2017
Today, we spent a lot of time working on our news leads. Matt gave us some experience in news lead writing by showing us a clip of the Zanesville, Ohio animal tragedy and had us write a news lead with a word constraint on it.
Then, we watched a documentary called "Joe's Violin". It dealt with a Holocaust survivor name Joe Feingold and how he tried to cope with the struggles and the sadness of his experiences by playing the violin. He then, many years later, decided to give his violin to the BGLIG school, where a girl named Brianna uses the violin to help her cope with sadness, too.
We were then given the rest of class to work on our news leads.
Thursday, March 16th, 2017
We started off class analyzing a painting of a skull and we were to write what it was and why we thought so, citing specific evidence in our reasoning. Our analysis could have no more words than seventy, and it had to follow Matt's format. After finishing that, we then talked about the different interpretations of it that we had gathered.
We then spent the rest of class working on our news leads for "Giovanni's Room". Make sure that you have them done for tomorrow.
Friday, March 17th, 2017
Today, we watched part one of "Moonlight" and had a class discussion on general thoughts and observations that we had gathered from the film. This film watching took up all of our class time.
For the weekend, there is no homework. Rejoice and enjoy!
Monday, March 20th, 2017
We started off class by reading an article about the color usage in "Moonlight". We read this aloud as a class and Matt called on various people to read certain sections of the text. Once we had concluded reading that article, we watched part two of "Moonlight".
Since this consumed the class time, we have no homework tonight!
Tuesday, March 21st, 2017
Today, we watched part three of "Moonlight". That was the last scene of the film. We then got into groups and filled out a Google Form about it.
Lastly, Matt wanted us to watch the analysis of "Moonlight" that is on his class website and also to read the article on his website called "From Bittersweet Childhoods to Moonlight". You can look up that name on Google and find it, but if you want to see the analysis, click this link: http://www.indiewire.com/2016/10/moonlight-cinematography-color-barry-jenkins-james-laxton-alex-bickel-1201740402/ .
Wednesday, March 22nd, 2017
Today, we spent time reading the articles that Matt wanted us to do yesterday. This took a long time since people hadn't done either of them. We also had a guest speaker that came, so time was shortened for us.
Tomorrow, we'll watch "400 Blows". No homework tonight!
Thursday, March 23rd, 2017
Today, we watched "400 Blows". This took up the entire class period, so we had no other homework.
Friday, March 24th, 2017
Today, we finished watching "400 Blows". After that, we drew some parallels between "Moonlight" and "400 Blows". We also watched some of the films that influenced Barry Jenkins and his first student film.
Since Advisory Olympics was today, our class was cut short.
Tuesday, April 11th, 2017
Today was our first day back from break! Since we had a presenter that came at the end of the day, Matt's class time was used for that. That means that we really didn't do anything in class.
He did, though, give us the first chapter of a book that we're going to start reading called "The Gangster We Are All Looking For" by Le Thi Diem Thuy. We are supposed to have it read and annotated by Thursday. Make sure that you have four references to the text, two personal relations, and two questions.
Wednesday, April 12th, 2017
Matt started off class by giving us about an hour to read the first chapter of "The Gangster We Are All Looking For".
Then, he switched course and discussed his opinion of project-based learning and what our projects could help the Syrian refugees with, if they could.
Lastly, we read an opinion-based article that said we might care more about our pets than refugees and ways that we can help. For homework, make sure you read and and annotate chapter one of "The Gangster We Are All Looking For". Also, make sure you have four references to the text, two personal relations, and two questions for the discussion tomorrow.
Thursday, April 13th, 2017
Today, we were given thirty minutes at the beginning of class to finish up the first chapter of "The Gangster We Are All Looking For". Then, we had our discussion.
Next, after we had our break, we discussed the meaning of time, how there were already time systems before AD was invented. We expanded to think about how time is viewed differently for the writer of the story than it is for us, and furthermore, the author's perception of time might be similar to that of the Syrian refugees since they both went through/are going through similar struggles.
No homework tonight!
Monday, May 23rd, 2017
Hey guys, I've taken a bit of a break from note-taking, but I'm back and better than ever! Today, we had a free write about our context, also known as "what led up to us". After we did this, we worked on our #3 Zine and it has to be done by tomorrow.
For tomorrow, make sure you have chapter two of "Hold Love Strong" read and annotated. We will have a discussion on it tomorrow.
Tuesday, May 24th, 2017
Today, we started off class with a free write on our circumstances, what led up to who we are. This is similar to the free write from yesterday, but Matt said that there were some differences.
In class, Matt gave us some context about the characters in his book "Hold Love Strong" and then he left and we had our discussion about chapter two.
For Friday, make sure you've read chapter three of "Hold Love Strong".
Thursday, January 19th, 2017
At first, Matt had us do a free write about a short film that took place in Iran called "2+2=5". It dealt with a teacher telling his students that from then on, 2+2 was going to equal 5. At first, many boys protested. In particular, one little boy was fierce in his belief that 2+2 actually was 4. The teacher gave him a chance to change his mind, and when the student didn't, he had the boy shot.
After watching the video, we had a free write about what we could learn about what it is to be human from this video. When the song ended (we write continuously for the duration of one song for our free writes), we discussed the video and possible interpretations of it.
Lastly, Matt assigned us a presentation on "What it is to be Human". This presentation is due Monday, January 23rd. It is supposed to be about 10-13 slides. On the slides, you're supposed to use photos instead of words because Matt thinks photos are more captivating. If you have any other questions, you can look at page sixteen of his pages for the week at this link:
(http://javierjupiter.weebly.com/uploads/8/7/2/5/87254458/week_1_semester_2_hthi_2016-2017.pdf)
Since Mariah was gone, for the rest of the day, we just worked on our presentations and the chemistry work that Mariah gave us.
Friday, January 20th, 2017
Today, since Mariah was gone, it was mostly another work day. We continued with our presentation for Matt's class and did the work that Mariah assigned us. We did the HW from each class when we wanted to; there wasn't really a specific time that you were supposed to work on each class's work.
Just keep in mind that the presentations are due Tuesday, January 24th. The orignal due date was January 23rd (Monday) but it was moved to Tuesday the 24th. This is because Matt ended up missing Monday since his son was recovering from surgery. We'll present on Thursday, too.
Monday, January 23rd, 2017
Today, since Matt's son was recovering, Matt stayed with him in the hospital. Mariah covered for him and Matt wanted us to watch a movie called White Helmets. As an assignment, Matt had us fill out a worksheet about it. We turned it in at the end of class but you may be able to turn it in tomorrow if you forgot to turn it in today.
Tomorrow, we are giving our presentations on "What it is to be Human". Be prepared to speak on each of your images and to do so with detail.
Tuesday, January 24th, 2017
The class was started with free write about whether the "White Helmets" film changed our perspective on humanity. Afterwards, we had a discussion about the free write and (in one class), the topic changed to bonobos and birds. Matt pushed back on that and said that we were straying from the main topic.
Next period, we had team time and watched the various presentations on "What it Means to be Human". This took up the entire time that we had in Matt's class, so there is absolutely no homework that is due or that we have been assigned in Matt's class.
Wednesday, January 25th, 2017
We started off class today finishing the rest of the presentations. To those who presented today: great job! Once we finished listening to the rest of the presentations, we watched an interesting clip from a movie called "Do the Right Thing". The person who we watched was named Radio Raheem, and on his hands he had brass knuckles. One hand had "hate" for the brass, the other had "love". He said that love and hate are like two forces boxing each other, with neither ever winning.
After the video concluded, we did a free write on the video and whether we agreed with Radio or not. Then, we went into a lengthy discussion the video.
Once that concluded, we read a short story called "What Do We Have in Our Pockets" by Etgar Keret. He talked about the contents of his pocket and their purpose. We annotated the story "as if we were talking to it". Then, class ended. It would be a good idea to have the annotations done by tomorrow.
Thursday, January 26th, 2017
Class began with us watching a music video of Rhianna and Drake singing "What's My Name". After watching the music, we did a free write on what this video showed us. Afterwards, we had a discussion about the free write and what could be taken from it.
After that, we watched a video from a cinematic version of Romeo and Juliet. After the completion of the video, we discussed whether we thought Romeo and Juliet is any more romantic than the music video of Drake and Rhianna. Ultimately, Matt concluded with the statement that most of us thought Romeo and Juliet was more romantic because we had been guided by our culture to thinking that.
There is nothing due on Monday and there is no homework for the weekend
Monday, January 30th, 2017
Today, we started class with Matt going around and asking each one of us what 3 items we would take if we had to leave San Diego immediately. After we all told him what we would take, we did a free write on why we would take those three items.
Once we finished our free write, we watched a short film called "4.1 Miles". It was about Syrian refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean from Turkey to Greece. The footage was taken in the heat of the moment, with all that went on in the film being actual coverage. During the film, we took notes on quotes or comments from the film and comments, questions, or observations we had about the film.
Lastly, we moved into discussing our writing assignment that has a first draft due on Friday. It has to be within 400-500 words long and needs to be about if we were to flee to some other country, what would it be like? What would the political environment be towards immigrants there? What would the weather be like when traveling there? The assignment has to be written in a first person narrative. Find more information on Matt's DP. Click "Matt's DP" below the quote from Matt to see his website. When there, click on work in the left hand column, where you should find a description of the writing assignment's requirements.
Tuesday, January 31st, 2017
We started off class writing down an excerpt from a story called "The Parade Ends" by Reinaldo Arenas. This was to help us hear the voice of the writing better. After that, we took time to reanalyze the excerpt, and then, we had a free write on anything that we gathered from the poem or anything about the poem.
Once the free write song concluded, we had a discussion about the possible interpretations of the literature. This went on for a long time, and then Matt had us switch over to continuing our creative writing assignment for the remainder of the period.
My only suggestion for homework is working on the writing assignment that has its first draft due on Friday.
Wednesday, February 1st, 2017
I missed most of class because I was playing soccer. When I checked up with Matt, he said most of the time was just for working on Mariah's chemistry assignments and the creative writing assignment.
For HW, please work on the creative writing assignment.
Thursday, February 2nd
We started off class by watching a video of the interesting situation in Tijuana right now with foreign immigrants. Immigrants are starting to flood in from Haiti (in the Caribbean) and various nations in Africa. They are all trying to go to the US, some for political asylum, some for economic reasons. The video then went on to focus on one immigrant in particular who was living off the generosity of others since he wasn't able to get a job while waiting to enter the United States.
After we finished watching the video, we had a free write on any way we interpreted the video that we watched. This spurred a class discussion afterwards about the video.
When the discussion came to a halt, we jumped over to learning Matt's 5 points for reading a text. They are:
- Skim the text, looking at format and thinking about why you are reading this text
- Read the text, highlighting important information
- In your own words, write down the main theme from each section of the text (paragraph, stanza, etc.)
- Write down key points for the text
- Read it over again
We then read a poem about a man who wrote in his typewriter. The rest of the poem was up for interpretation, and, being so, we had a class discussion on the various interpretations that could be made from analyzing the text and gathering different details from the deliberate formatting (Matt says that everything is written deliberately and has a purpose in writing).
Later on, we worked on learning how to better facilitate conversation in class because our conversations (according to Matt) are inadequate right now.
The very important thing to have done for tomorrow: FINISH THE FIRST DRAFT OF THE CREATIVE WRITING ASSIGNMENT.
Friday, February 3rd, 2017
Class started off with us trying something a little differently today. Instead of having to write during our free write, we had to sketch our best imitation of "The Gulf Stream", a painting done by Winslow Homer in 1899. We were to do so by paying attention to the littlest of details and we weren't allowed to draw a stick figure as the man on the boat. We had to draw an actual person.
Matt then gave us three points on writing summaries.
- The summary covers the original as a whole
- The material in the summary is presented in a neutral fashion
- The summary should be a condensed version of the material and in your own words.
Monday, February 6th, 2017
Today, we actually had two free writes. The first one was about what we, as individuals, wanted to do better this week. Once we knew what we wanted to do better, we were supposed to write why we wanted to do this better and three ways of accomplishing that goal.
The second free write that we had to do was a summary of the "84 Lumber" Super Bowl ad. The ad was about a mother and her child traveling across Mexico and trying to enter the US. We watched the video twice: once to just think about why we were watching it and simply absorb the video and a second time to take notes about different things that we noticed throughout the film so that we could compose our summaries.
The last main activity that we did in class was read about the journey of a Syrian family coming to the US, except it was in cartoon form. We duplicated the process of the Super Bowl ad except instead of taking notes about the video, we annotated the cartoon. We then answered four questions about the article. You can see those four questions on Matt's DP in the button link under Matt's quote.
After we finished that, Matt gave us Chapter One of "Giovanni's Room". We have to have a summary of the chapter done by Friday. I have an image with our game plan for the week in the image section above. It is written in red on a whiteboard (to help you distinguish).
For tomorrow, if you didn't finish or share your cartoon summary, finish it for tomorrow and share it with Matt
February 7th, 2017
Today, to my surprise, class didn't start off with a free write. We actually started class off with reading chapter one of "Giovanni's Room". This was given to us by Matt as free write time. He also mentioned that while only chapter one is due this week, he has chapter two printed up for us to read once we're done with chapter one so that we can get ahead. And, if we finish that, we can read a text from James Baldwin about what it means for us to live in the United States. That text is extra credit.
The rest of class was spent talking about the various contact zones and we watched several videos on the contact zone. Matt referred back to the example of kissing and how we always close our eyes when we kiss because it's an awkward type of contact zone that we're uncomfortable with.
For tomorrow, I would personally suggest finishing chapter one of "Giovanni's Room" so that you have whatever time Matt gives us in class and after school tomorrow to work on your summary of chapter one.
Wednesday, February 8th, 2017
Today, since Matt was gone, we watched a film called "God Grew Tired of Us". It deals with a group of Sudanese refugees fleeing the civil war in Sudan. The group call themselves the Lost Boys. "God Grew Tired of Us" follows their journey from Sudan to Ethiopia to Kenya to finally, the boys making their way in the USA. We filled out a worksheet that wasn't necessary, but would help us have talking points in the discussion in class tomorrow.
Tomorrow, make sure you have read chapter one of "Giovanni's Room" and written a summary for it. I have tips for writing summaries under the dates of February 2nd and 3rd. After that, if you want something else to do, you can get ahead and start reading chapter two of "Giovanni's Room" and/or a text written by the author of "Giovanni's Room" (James Baldwin) on what it means to live in the USA. This is for extra credit, so if you want a grade boost or just a good challenge, you should definitely read the text.
Thursday, February 9th, 2017
Today, since Matt was gone, we spent most of class just doing our work for his class, which consisted of making revisions on our refugee creative writing assignment, reading chapter one of "Giovanni's Room", and preparing for tomorrow's discussion about "God Grew Tired of Us".
Revise your essay for tomorrow and make sure that you have a summary for chapter one and are ready for the class conversation. Please, for those who don't speak up in our class conversations: DO NOT BE AFRAID!!! You are just as brilliant if not more so than any other student in the class, so let it shine! You can thrive if you just try.
Friday, February 10th, 2017
Today, Matt returned! We were all very glad to see him. Class kicked off with Matt going around and checking all of our summaries for chapter one of "Giovanni's Room" since they were due. After that concluded, we started a class-long discussion on chapter one. This was the first graded discussion we had ever had, so at the beginning, some nerves were taut, but that mostly all subsided as the conversation progressed.
For Monday, be sure to have your chapter two of "Giovanni's Room" read and I would suggest trying to knock out the summary, too, so that your work load during the school week would be lighter. The extra credit article from James Baldwin about what it is to live in the US is (suggested by Matt) hopefully to be completed by Monday.
Monday, February 13th, 2017
Today, we started off class by letting us read chapter two if we didn't over the weekend or get ahead if we had. Then, we continued class by having a discussion on chapter two of "Giovanni's Room". This entitled what we thought was happening in chapter two, how hard/easy it was to keep track of time while reading chapter two, and a vast myriad of other topics. In short, it was like any other discussion that we've had in class.
For HW, try to read some of chapter three. If you want to see the week's game plan, look at the photo section at the top. The game plan is right next to the red writing photo (last week's game plan). You can click on it to expand the image.T
Tuesday, February 14th, 2017
Today, we started off class with a free write. The question that we were to answer was "Who or what taught you to see?" The question was up to any interpretation of it that we could think of. After listening to a love song as our free write song and responding to the prompt, we discussed the various views and interpretations we had about the prompt. Since today was a shorter day in terms of official class time duration, that left us very little time to read an article that Matt assigned us for homework tonight called "The Aztecs of Mexico: a Zero Waste Society". Do that as homework tonight because it is due tomorrow.
For tomorrow, have the majority of chapter three of "Giovanni's Room" completed so that you only have a very scant amount to read tomorrow and then all you'd have left is the summary that goes along with chapter three. Also finish "The Aztecs of Mexico: a Zero Waste Society". A link to the article is here: https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/the-aztecs-of-mexico-a-zero-waste-society
Wednesday, February 15th, 2017
Today we started off class by having a class discussion around the article "The Aztecs of Mexico: a Zero Waste Society" . The two main questions that we were supposed to address in the duration of this conversation were
- How did the Aztecs do it?
- Is a zero waste society possible?
For homework, finish chapter three of "Giovanni's Room" and write a summary for it.
Thursday, February 16th, 2017
Today, we started class by watching a video of homosexual conversion therapy and the detrimental impacts of it. After the video had concluded, we had a extenuated break because Matt had to go out for a while and deal with minor emergency. This consumed a large chunk of class, but with the help of Angel, we got back on task and started our discussion on chapter three of "Giovanni's Room". This conversation took us up to the end of class.
For the four day weekend, you have no homework in Matt's class! Enjoy it!
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2017
Class kicked off differently today. Matt introduced us to a species of lizard that can shed its outer layer of scales to escape a predator's grasp. This leaves the lizard looking vulnerable, and, according to Matt, like an "raw chicken tender". Matt then asked us if there was a moment in which we would have liked to have been able to drastically change our physical characteristics and how that would make us vulnerable. The free write was then discussed by the class.
The rest of class was spent analyzing and discussing the poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar called "We Wear the Mask". The discussion was charted by a student; this was done so that Matt could help the conversation more.
For HW, read some of part two of "Giovanni's Room". This will alleviate potential struggles later (having to cram in the reading on Thursday night).
Thursday, February 23rd, 2017
Today, we started off class with a free write about an eight year-old child finding a sparrow. We were allowed to write anything in any manner that we wanted to about the interaction of the two, as long as that's what we wrote about in the beginning. Once we finished writing about that, we wrote as that same child finding the same sparrow on the ground and what would happen. We compared the differences in the two paragraphs and the different or same ways that we started each paragraph.
Next, we listened to the struggle of a comedian on "The Tonight Show" with his daughter who had cancer, and, sadly, passed away from it. The comedian started off with a quote from the beginning of "A Tale of Two Cities" that was "It was the best of times and it was the worst of times".
Lastly, we were given some time to read chapter one of part two of "Giovanni's Room". This has to be read, and, if you'd like, annotated by tomorrow. That is the only homework we have tonight.
Friday, February 24th, 2017
Today, we spent the entirety of class watching a video of Beyonce and then discussing anything that we wanted to about the issue. It was extremely bipartisan, with the class splitting into a majority pro-Beyonce support group and then a scant few who didn't support the video that Beyonce had posted.
Since this discussion consumed the entirety of class, we have no homework for the weekend. Enjoy the Oscars!
Monday, February 27th, 2017
Beyoncé found her way into our class again, with her music video "***Flawless". We listened to the video and took notes on it. Then, we listened to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her speech on womanhood. We compared the possible common threads and/or the differences between the two women and how their depictions of womanhood stack up.
For homework, there is none. We'll get some tomorrow.
Tuesday, February 28th, 2017
We started off class copying an excerpt from a piece by James Baldwin called The Discovery of What it Means to Be an American. We then passed our written copy to the left and had the person that we passed our copy to right a response of what they thought of that excerpt.
Later in class, we were given an hour to read pages 85-102 of "Giovanni's Room". Make sure that you have it done by tomorrow so that you're prepared for the class discussion tomorrow.
The last thing that we did in class today was draw partners for our upcoming project. We have to read articles and write a one paragraph summary for each article. You can see this at Matt's website, which is javierjupiter.weebly.com. Have a nice night!
Wednesday, March 1st, 2017
Today, we started off class with a discussion about pages 85-102 of "Giovanni's Room". This conversation went on for a long time, and it followed the same structure as our normal free writes: no structure. Matt just had us lead it in whatever direction we wanted it to be led in.
Then, we worked on reading the articles that I talked about in yesterday's post. Since we had our "Workout Wednesday" that Mariah led, the amount of time that we had to work on the articles was brief.
For tomorrow, read some of the articles and make sure you write your one paragraph studies on each article that you read.
Thursday, March 2nd, 2017
Today, we started off class by working on our summary paragraphs for the articles that I talked about on this Tuesday's upload. Your group has to, as a whole, read four articles and write a one paragraph on each article. This is the homework for tonight and this consumed the entirety of class.
If you finish the summaries, I would suggest thinking about what question you want to ask and how you want to present it, including through which medium you'd like it to be presented.
Friday, March 3rd, 2017
Today, we spent the entire period working on our projects. This day was mostly spent getting ready to think about which way we wanted to convey our project (our article summaries should have been done by today).
For Monday, know which medium of social media you're going to use for your project. Also, make sure to do some of the "Giovanni's Room" reading.
Monday, March 6th, 2017
Today was another work block. Matt let us know that he had received many emails over the weekend from various students and had decided to let us have one more day for working on our presentations. He said that we really did have to work more efficiently, though.
For tomorrow, do some more of pages 103-148 in "Giovanni's Room". It is due Thursday instead of Wednesday since we're doing our presentations on Wednesday
Tuesday, March 7th, 2017
The last work block was today. We spent the entire period finishing up the projects (you should be in the closing stages of the project). Since we spent the entire period working on projects, we weren't able to do anything else.
For tomorrow, make sure you have your entire project finished and you read the last couple of pages of pages 103-148 in "Giovanni's Room". That reading is due on Thursday, when we'll also have the discussion.
Wednesday, March 8th, 2017
The last hurrah for finishing our Cold War 2.0 social media projects today. We did peer critiques on other group's projects, giving them ratings from seven to ten on five different subcategories and writing insightful comments on how each group could improve their projects.
For homework, finish pages 103-148 of "Giovanni's Room" for tomorrow. Make sure that you actively participate and have courage to speak up in class. Your grade depends on your courage and "We're not here to survive, we're here to THRIVE!"
Thursday, March 9th, 2017
Today, we had our discussion on pages 103-148 of "Giovanni's Room". Matt experimented with having our class discussion split into two groups to see if it would incite more input from those who speak less in class. This consumed the entirety of class, so you know what that means: NO HOMEWORK!!!
The only thing that I'll mention is that Matt said if you want to lead an hour-long class project for the other class, you can receive extra credit for it. Just talk to him and tell him that you're interested in doing the project.
Friday, March 10th, 2017
The main thing that you need to know from today is that we do have some reading to do over the weekend. The pages are from 149-163, which is the end of "Giovanni's Room". Make sure you do thorough annotations of the text so that you can be ready to have a class discussion on Monday.
Monday, March 13th, 2017
Today, we had our discussion on the last pages of "Giovanni's Room". This took up a large part of the period, but we also had another interesting thing that we did, which was try to determine whether Self Portrait, 1967 by Chuck Close was a painting or a photo and write a factual paragraph to support it.
For tonight, there is no homework. Enjoy your night!
Tuesday, March 14th, 2017
Today, class started off with us doing a free write on a photo/painting by Mickalene Thomas, and we had to use our own observations from the image to determine whether it was, in fact, a photo, or whether it was a painting.
Next, Michelle and CJ kindly came in and gave a presentation on the Stone Wall protests and their impact on society. They did a great job and had a very interesting simulation to go with it.
Lastly, we were introduced to a project that is due on this Friday. What the project consists of is picking an aspect of "Giovanni's Room" to have as the front page of a newspaper article. This newspaper article will be made electronically. You'll have three leads to articles of about fifty words each and one photo. The leads need to address "Who, what, where, when, why, and how". And, if you'd like extra credit, you can add hyperlinks to external articles for one extra credit point each one, for a maximum of ten extra credit points.
Wednesday, March 15th, 2017
Today, we spent a lot of time working on our news leads. Matt gave us some experience in news lead writing by showing us a clip of the Zanesville, Ohio animal tragedy and had us write a news lead with a word constraint on it.
Then, we watched a documentary called "Joe's Violin". It dealt with a Holocaust survivor name Joe Feingold and how he tried to cope with the struggles and the sadness of his experiences by playing the violin. He then, many years later, decided to give his violin to the BGLIG school, where a girl named Brianna uses the violin to help her cope with sadness, too.
We were then given the rest of class to work on our news leads.
Thursday, March 16th, 2017
We started off class analyzing a painting of a skull and we were to write what it was and why we thought so, citing specific evidence in our reasoning. Our analysis could have no more words than seventy, and it had to follow Matt's format. After finishing that, we then talked about the different interpretations of it that we had gathered.
We then spent the rest of class working on our news leads for "Giovanni's Room". Make sure that you have them done for tomorrow.
Friday, March 17th, 2017
Today, we watched part one of "Moonlight" and had a class discussion on general thoughts and observations that we had gathered from the film. This film watching took up all of our class time.
For the weekend, there is no homework. Rejoice and enjoy!
Monday, March 20th, 2017
We started off class by reading an article about the color usage in "Moonlight". We read this aloud as a class and Matt called on various people to read certain sections of the text. Once we had concluded reading that article, we watched part two of "Moonlight".
Since this consumed the class time, we have no homework tonight!
Tuesday, March 21st, 2017
Today, we watched part three of "Moonlight". That was the last scene of the film. We then got into groups and filled out a Google Form about it.
Lastly, Matt wanted us to watch the analysis of "Moonlight" that is on his class website and also to read the article on his website called "From Bittersweet Childhoods to Moonlight". You can look up that name on Google and find it, but if you want to see the analysis, click this link: http://www.indiewire.com/2016/10/moonlight-cinematography-color-barry-jenkins-james-laxton-alex-bickel-1201740402/ .
Wednesday, March 22nd, 2017
Today, we spent time reading the articles that Matt wanted us to do yesterday. This took a long time since people hadn't done either of them. We also had a guest speaker that came, so time was shortened for us.
Tomorrow, we'll watch "400 Blows". No homework tonight!
Thursday, March 23rd, 2017
Today, we watched "400 Blows". This took up the entire class period, so we had no other homework.
Friday, March 24th, 2017
Today, we finished watching "400 Blows". After that, we drew some parallels between "Moonlight" and "400 Blows". We also watched some of the films that influenced Barry Jenkins and his first student film.
Since Advisory Olympics was today, our class was cut short.
Tuesday, April 11th, 2017
Today was our first day back from break! Since we had a presenter that came at the end of the day, Matt's class time was used for that. That means that we really didn't do anything in class.
He did, though, give us the first chapter of a book that we're going to start reading called "The Gangster We Are All Looking For" by Le Thi Diem Thuy. We are supposed to have it read and annotated by Thursday. Make sure that you have four references to the text, two personal relations, and two questions.
Wednesday, April 12th, 2017
Matt started off class by giving us about an hour to read the first chapter of "The Gangster We Are All Looking For".
Then, he switched course and discussed his opinion of project-based learning and what our projects could help the Syrian refugees with, if they could.
Lastly, we read an opinion-based article that said we might care more about our pets than refugees and ways that we can help. For homework, make sure you read and and annotate chapter one of "The Gangster We Are All Looking For". Also, make sure you have four references to the text, two personal relations, and two questions for the discussion tomorrow.
Thursday, April 13th, 2017
Today, we were given thirty minutes at the beginning of class to finish up the first chapter of "The Gangster We Are All Looking For". Then, we had our discussion.
Next, after we had our break, we discussed the meaning of time, how there were already time systems before AD was invented. We expanded to think about how time is viewed differently for the writer of the story than it is for us, and furthermore, the author's perception of time might be similar to that of the Syrian refugees since they both went through/are going through similar struggles.
No homework tonight!
Monday, May 23rd, 2017
Hey guys, I've taken a bit of a break from note-taking, but I'm back and better than ever! Today, we had a free write about our context, also known as "what led up to us". After we did this, we worked on our #3 Zine and it has to be done by tomorrow.
For tomorrow, make sure you have chapter two of "Hold Love Strong" read and annotated. We will have a discussion on it tomorrow.
Tuesday, May 24th, 2017
Today, we started off class with a free write on our circumstances, what led up to who we are. This is similar to the free write from yesterday, but Matt said that there were some differences.
In class, Matt gave us some context about the characters in his book "Hold Love Strong" and then he left and we had our discussion about chapter two.
For Friday, make sure you've read chapter three of "Hold Love Strong".