Cuban Revolution CommonCraft Video

Posted on by Andrew

This CommonCraft inspired video takes place in the Cuban Revolution, during the 1950s. During this period, we learned about how the government of Cuba is taken over by a corrupt leader that cheats in the presidential election TWICE. The video that Henry Zhao and I made is about how important characters from the revolution changed Cuba into what it was after, even until now. Numerous key events and dates were mixed in along with sound effects and humorous clips.

Here is the link to the video: https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/58358b5f-6168-41c1-8dd1-dd46a5871397

Quiet Power – Introvert Analysis and Notes

Posted on by Andrew

A study about the strengths of introverts all around us, the book Quiet Power by Susan Cain is an analysis that talks about the effect of “loners” of the world. The book takes on an informational style to describe her experience being an introvert. In addition to this, the author has also interviewed other people to let us know more about how these people behave in their quiet lives.

I find this book quite interesting and found it easier to understand as I took some notes and did some brainstorming.??

At the beginning of the book, I came across the main idea that Introverts were being overlooked by society. As you can see, I also started a reading schedule to make sure I could keep up with the team to finish the book within the time frame that was given.

After reading a little bit the author started to talk about the interviews and stories about people around the world, so I made a mind map combining some of the aspects of the main idea that appeared. I also used some quotes to link the main idea to the book, making the points clear.

After organizing my notes, my classmates gave me some suggestions to improve my notes, not just pack them into one large page and with no exact direction, I took up some of the tips during class on what a page of good notes looks like, and it was massively reduced to about 2/9 of a page, which made it very straight forward and easy to understand. This is what it looks like:

From this page, we can not only see that the notes have been shortened and there is a small mind map, I also asked myself some questions to let me brainstorm more ideas to add in addition to what I have so far, like examining more closely at a sophisticated part in the book or finding a deeper meaning to what the book is talking about. At this point, I’ve realized that the central idea that this book revolves around is that introverts also have their own special abilities and benefits, it’s just that society doesn’t view introversion as something that should be idolized.

In chapter 4, what I found very interesting was that the author wrote about many examples of introverts, especially when they are in leadership. It shows how introverts gain confidence through different strategies, and if we meet a shy introvert, sometimes we just need to give them a small push to get them going! Furthermore, reading through this, I found a very good argument and used it in our class debate. =)

This page helped me a lot with my debate since the mind map also had a lot of connections that benefit me to keep talking, also guiding me to talk about the connecting main idea.

At last, we have come to the end of my notebook analysis on the book Quiet Power by Susan Cain, and I really recommend reading this book if you have trouble finding your time to speak in class, or even if you want to understand more about introverts. I hope you can take a look at this book soon!

 

The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon — Book Talk

Posted on by Andrew

In this book talk, I present the book The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon in a four-minute summary and explanation using three parts from the book.

After a fateful encounter, Natasha and Daniel, two people from two different worlds fall in love with each other in a romantic dream, but conflicts occur between the two when it comes to their background. Natasha is an undocumented immigrant that needs to figure out how to stay in America before she gets deported the next day. Daniel, on the other hand, has a very different problem. Born as an American-born Korean, he frequently gets discriminated against by his way more “Americanized” brother. Through the two protagonist’s interaction, they get to know each other more and agree to help each other even when conflict between the two occurs, as two worlds intertwine into one, and their fates are decided through their love for each other…

The common theme in this book is fate and love, since Daniel falls in love with Natasha not knowing that she might have to leave him after just one day in their relationship, while Natasha has to solve this problem that will determine her fate and future.

 

Found Poem-Button Button

Posted on by Andrew

My found poem is from the story Button Button by Richard Matheson, and it talks about the internal conflict between the protagonist Norma and her husband Arthur when they are fighting over whether or not to push a button that was given by a man called Mr. Steward, who is also the antagonist. While Norma only thinks about the money they can get and where they can go with that money, Arthur worries about the people who can die from the it. The inspiration behind the illustration is actually a collage of many different icons to show the conflict between the two. The icon I used for Norma is the housewife, and it’s thinking about all the things they could get and do if they pressed the button. Arthur is represented by the businessman, and all he can think of is the death that will happen once they do it. the red X between the two arrows represent the disagreement between the two characters, and the arrows pointed toward the button link them together to the push of the button. The website prism.scholarslab.org talks more about the conflict in this story here. The reason why I chose these words is because they represent the disagreement between the two. It gives a summary on what is going on between Norma and Arthur, and how they have a contradiction between two decisions, to push the button or not. You can read the full story here.