World History Humanities Portfolio

World History Humanities Portfolio Lauren Kelley 2nd Semester May 2005 Murphy, North Carolina

Table Of Contents • Introduction Page • Acceptance of God • Commitment to the Church • Interpersonal Relationships • Responsible Citizenship • Healthy Balanced Living • Intellectual Development • Communication Skills • Personal Management • Aesthetic Appreciation • Career and Service

Introduction Welcome! Thank you for taking the time to look at my 2004-2005 World History Humanities Portfolio. It is a pleasure of mine to be able to share with you just a tiny bit of what I have learned this semester, and this whole year. This year we have strived to fit all of our assignments into 10 goals. The goals are called the Journey To Excellence Goals. These 10 goals cover a wide range of topics; anything from accepting God as your personal Savior to knowing the fine arts to communicating effectively, and everything in-between. It has been a pleasure working with Mrs. Bacon this year. We have covered a lot of material and have learned more than I ever thought possible. I hope that you will enjoy reading as I has experiencing it. So without further ado, I present to you my Humanities portfolio!

Acceptance of God At the beginning of this year my life was surrendered to God. I had accepted Him as my personal Savior. I have been working on my relationship with Him. Sometimes I get discouraged, but other times I am inspired. It’s an ongoing process for me. I continually have to ask God to work through me. If I didn’t have Jesus working on me then I would be a horrible person. No one would want to be my friend, I wouldn’t be nice to anyone, would skip out on school, I wouldn’t amount to anything. Thankfully God is working on my heart and on my attitude and I am hopefully becoming more and more like Him every day. I know that I have a ways to go still, but I’m still working on it, He hasn’t given up on me yet! We have done many assignments that have helped me to grow closer to God, and have made me be so thankful that I was brought up in a Christian home. The world history and Bible books have helped me as well. When reading the history book, I read about a lot of people who didn’t know Jesus, and I saw their actions, and I didn’t want to have any part in what they were doing. I don’t want to be another Hitler, and if he would have only read in the Bible where it says not to kill, then we wouldn’t have had as big of a mess as we did. There were many instances like that in our weekly reading. In our TIME articles I read about what was going on in the world, it made me really sad to know how twisted people have gotten these days.

Acceptance of God (2) The one assignment that we did that really made an impact on my life in this area was the journals. Once a week we would journal on a Christ-like quality. We didn’t necessarily journal about the different stories in the Bible where Jesus was unselfish, tactful, etc., but we journaled on what others had to say about the topic. Hearing a negative quote from someone made me not want to be that way. It secured me into wanting to be like Jesus. Who doesn’t, but it was almost a daily reminder for me to keep my focus on God rather than elsewhere. In the future, I continually see myself growing in God. I don’t think I could ever live without Jesus. I hope I will never be satisfied with the relationship that I have, but will always try to have a better one--to always seek out what God wants.

Commitment to the Church Commitment to the church is a very important goal that each one of us should strive for. I personally felt as if I was committed to the church at the beginning of the year. I felt like the Seventh-day Adventist church was the church that had the truth. That is still true for me, but as I have looked at others and how they were committed to the church, I have come to realize that I was not so committed as I had thought. Going to church, reading your Bible every day, and holding a position in the church did not cut it for some people. They had to be constantly active in the church; they had to tell everyone they met on the street or in the market about the love of God and about their church. It was an ongoing process for them. There were, and still are, people, to this day, serving God with everything that they have. They volunteer for every job they possibly can, and if they can’t make it to a function they feel really bad. That to me is total commitment to the church. In the future, I see myself growing in the church. I see myself keeping my faith and keeping active in the church. I don’t think that I’ll ever be able to not be active in my church.

Commitment to the Church (2) The assignments that have helped me to become more committed to the church are the journals. Even though they become redundant after awhile, they embed in your mind the characteristics of Christ that you strive to obtain, and then that locks you into your church. If you cover the Bible concepts in the retells, that will also help you to grow and to become more committed to your church. The reason is that when you cover the concepts in the Bible, you have to know and understand the material to do the assignment. By knowing the material, you then can’t help but become more grounded in your church and its teachings. The January 10, 2005, CLQ Journal helped me to become more committed in my church because I chose to journal on a quote that said how Christians are the most intolerant of all people. I would hope that isn’t true, but I’m sure some people think that way. I got to thinking about that quote, and I figured the only way to change that is to change myself, and then maybe I might change my church. The only way that I am able to change myself is through Jesus Christ. So that has grounded me deeper in my belief in the church.

Interpersonal Relationships I feel like at the beginning of the year I had a sense of self-worth. I understood the responsibilities of the different family members, and I think I had an ability to respond to the need of others. I know I’m not by any means perfect now in those areas, but I do think that I have grown in interpersonal relationships. The assignment that has helped me most this year is my journaling. The Food For Thought journals have brought to me what other people have thought through their quotes. The Food For Thoughts have been on a vast majority of topics. By understanding what other people have to say about themselves, and about the important issues around them, it has giving me a form of self-respect. Respect for the country that I live in, respect for my family and what they do for me, respect for God, and respect for myself and who God made me to be.

Interpersonal Relationships (2) The assignments that I feel have helped me to grow would be all of the retells. With the retells you have to work together with all different types of people, and you learn that some people are easier to work with than others. Some people are more willing to work with you than others, and you also notice that some people don’t look at the assignment and expect you to tell them what to do. Then again, there are other people who are a pleasure to work with; I always enjoyed working with those people. In life you are going to run across many different types of people; you are going to have to work together with them. You are going to meet a lot of people; some are going to try to change the way you are, and that is where you need to know your self-worth. There is this one quote that I love by Dr. Seuss. “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those to matter don’t mind.” Another activity that has helped me grow in my interpersonal relationships is the ADRA leadership project. It forced me to work with people older than I am. I had to contact professionals in the real world who I didn’t know, and hardly knew about. I feel that in the future I’m going to have to be doing this a lot, and I had better get used to it now rather than having to learn how to do it when I get older and have to work with people outside of my friend group.

Responsible Citizenship At the beginning of the year I did not have that much understanding of cultural and historical heritages. I knew about different heritages and the different beliefs of others, but I did not fully understand them. I did have a strong respect for people with different backgrounds because I have a mixed background myself, and because I was raised that everybody is equal. It doesn’t matter if they are white, black, red, blue, green, or orange. We are all God’s children and all of us should be treated equally. The assignments that have helped me grow in experiencing other cultures would be the museum assignments. We read in our history book about when the artists liked to paint Biblical settings and stories. So we went online to look at some of these paintings. I had heard about the famous artists, but did not have a chance to see what type of art that they did, and by doing this assignment I was exposed to a lot of different styles of paintings and sculptures. Another assignment that exposed me to different cultures was the ADRA video. It had about 10 different countries and some aspects of their specific cultures. It was really eye-opening that some countries today still believe in the “old” traditions that you hear about in storybooks.

Responsible Citizenship (2) The main assignment that has pushed me to understanding other cultures is the legacy line. I had to read about a lot of major historical events from the beginning of time up to recent events, and while doing that I read about different cultures and countries. I had to understand about the different cultures around the world to understand why the countries acted differently to the situations around them. Some countries didn’t have a problem with the new and evolving world around them, but then other counties welcomed the new world. A lot of it had to do with the culture and traditions of that country and the history that the country had. In the future I see myself traveling around the world and experiencing different cultures. I don’t want to just read about the cultures in a book, but I want to live them myself. I see myself going to Europe and experiencing the monarchy and see what they see in a King and Queen. I see myself visiting Cuba and trying to understand what they see in a dictatorship. I see myself going to India and learning more about their religion and why they believe the way that they do. I do not want to imagine what the different cultures are like, but I want to experience them first hand.

Healthy Balanced Living I feel like at the beginning of the year I did accept responsibility for physical, mental, and spiritual health. I knew that I needed to exercise to stay healthy, and I did. I would do my sit-ups, run, and play outside a lot doing the normal things a kid would do. I also took seriously my schoolwork, which would encompass my mental health. I would make sure to get all of my homework done, and I would strive for A’s. For my spiritual health, I read my Bible every day, go to prayer meeting every Tuesday night, and attend church every Sabbath, along with a number of other things. Now I feel like I could expand upon all three of those areas. I don’t think anyone of us should be satisfied with our spiritual health, but should continually be hungry for the Word and what it has to offer. As for the mental health, I believe that I could expand on that area tremendously; I can never stop learning, even though sometimes I would like to stop learning for a little bit. On the physical aspect, I can always work to become more in shape than I am now. That is almost like an ongoing process. One assignment this semester that has propelled me to gain more mental health was the Emma assignments. We had to read the book Emma, really understand what we read, and then answer questions. These questions wouldn’t be easy one-answer questions, but we really had to think about the answer. There could be more than one answer to the question, and that’s what made it difficult sometimes. You had to look at the situation from all angles of the story and then answer the question after you had analyzed the story.

Healthy Balanced Living (2) There have been many assignments that have challenged me mentally. Mrs. Bacon is always good about giving work that makes you really think. These portfolios are really making you think. You have to take all of the information that you have learned this semester and put it into a summary that fits under a category. Sometimes you have to make the assignment stretch a little for it to fit under a category, and that’s what really makes you think. Her journal assignments really make you think also. If you give a half-hearted answer she will count off on you, and then soon your grade will go down and you will be sure next time to write logical sentences that go with the topic and that cover the topic completely. In the future, I see myself still challenging my brain with books and analyzing my reading. I see myself going to college and getting my brain teased a lot there. I hope that in everything that I do I will continually learn, whether it is from doing schoolwork to knowing which car not to buy.

Intellectual Development At the beginning of this year I felt like I had a Biblically based approach to decision making. When I had an important decision to make I would always see what the Bible had to say on the topic. After this year I didn’t realize how often I use the Bible to help guide my decisions. I think that I should be reading and studying the Bible more to know what it says, and to know what to do in some cases. It’s really hard to know what to do sometimes. It’s like there could be more than just one answer to the problem, but you don’t know which road to take. That’s when you have to go to God in prayer and study all the more to see what He thinks about what you should do. The song drama sticks out in my mind as the assignment that has helped me the most in decision making this semester. In doing the song drama we had to come up with a Christian song that deals with leaving a legacy of freedom. We finally decided upon a song, and then had to come up with actions for the song. It took us awhile to decide on the final movement, but we all compromised and had our final plan. We had a lot of decisions to make, some were Biblically based, and others were just logical.

Intellectual Development (2) One assignment that comes to my mind that has helped me to develop a better Biblically based decision-making is the Machiavelli assignments. I constantly had to be checking with the Bible to see if I agreed or disagreed with Machiavelli according to what the Bible says. Other assignments that I found that I really needed problem solving skills would be in the retells. I had to read the material, and then figure out a way to present it to the class in a way that they would be able to understand what I read. Technology is a major factor that has helped me learn how to problem solve. Whenever there is something wrong with the printers, or the Internet we have to figure it out somehow. We end up switching cords, unplugging things, or restarting other machines until the equipment works like it’s supposed to. It seems like we have to do that everyday. Either the polycom won’t work, or our computers are somehow messed up. We are so thankful when we don’t have any problems to fix! I see my logic reasoning, and decision making grow tremendously in the future. For one reason, I’ll continually become more and more mature as I get older.

Communication Skills At the beginning of this year I don’t think that I was communicating as effectively as I do now. If I had to communicate with someone I would, but I preferred not to. If I had to communicate with my friends then by all means I would, but with other adults and officials I would rather not have. There are many assignments that come to mind that have helped me to communicate better. My journals have been a major one. I had to convey my thought onto paper. It wasn’t always easy, but hopefully I managed to do it effectively. It is very important that you learn to communicate effectively because otherwise your thoughts could be interpreted wrong. If your words are taken the wrong way you can be labeled in a negative way, you could have people upset at you for no apparent reason, or you might be asked to try to communicate your thoughts in a better and clearer way. I’m sure that I wasn’t always understood in my journals, or even in my legacy project. Sometimes it was hard to write down my thoughts, feelings, and actions on what we were doing to leave a legacy. Another assignment that we did last semester that helped me covey my thoughts was in the Machievelli assignment. We had to read and understand all that he wrote, and then write three things that we disagreed with him on and three points that we agreed with him on. Sometimes it was difficult to organize my thoughts and write them all down in understandable form.

Communication Skills (2) The assignment that has helped to improve my communications skills the most is the retell assignments. Reading the material is one thing, but putting it into presentable information is another thing. You have to really understand the concept and then present it in a specific way. The drama weeks were sometimes the most difficult because you had to learn to communicate with different types of people. Sometimes you just had to find out what concepts they were going to cover and you knew that they were going to get it done, but others you had to ask them over and over again if they got it done, and then take their questions and answers and put that information into a skit form. It was all a learning experience. I hope to continue to improve my communication skills in the future. I hope that I won’t be taken wrong much anymore. I know that the skills that I have learned here are very valuable and I will continue to use them the rest of my life in dealing with different personalities.

Personal Management At the beginning of this year I think I did really well functioning responsibly in my everyday world. I was doing all of the tasks that I needed to do. I was getting all of my homework done on time, and I was completing everything in Pathfinders that I needed to. I didn’t have to stay up late too many times because I had to hand something in the next day that wasn’t done. I kept myself invisible on IM so that no one would talk to me and get me distracted. I know that I can always improve my skills. I could rearrange my schedule so that I get more sleep, and get more work done. I could also arrange it so that I could spend more time with my family. I know I can improve on my stewardship part. I don’t always display my talents like I should. I know that I should be playing my flute more. That is another reason why I need to rearrange my schedule; I need to have more time to practice my flute, among other things. There have been a lot of assignments that have helped me to manage my time. I know that our TIME article and vocabulary words each week help me to manage my time every week. On Monday when we are given the article, I read it and then pick out the words that I don’t know. Then on Wednesday I have to get the words that Mrs. Bacon has posted so that I can start studying them for the test that I take on Friday. I need to manage my time so that I have enough time to do the rest of my work, plus study for my test.

Personal Management (2) Out of all of the assignments this year, the assignment that has helped me learn to manage my time the most would be the retells each week. I have to be able to read the material each week, and then be able to come up with a creative way to present the information during class on Thursday. I have to do that, plus everything else my teachers have given me. So it can get rather challenging some weeks trying to finish up everything that the teachers assign. In the future I plan to say organized. I plan to keep efficient, and to manage my time very wisely. I hope that the teachers and circumstances before me will help me in reaching this goal.

Aesthetic Appreciation At the beginning of this year, I don’t think that I appreciated the things that God made around me as much as I do now. I understood that He made everything, but I didn’t think about it a lot, and I didn’t take enough time to do so. I know that I still need to appreciate what He created more than I do now, but I have progressed this year. I not only didn’t really appreciate the things that God created, but the things that people made as well. I didn’t take time to appreciate the poetry that some people write, or the paintings that people create. I didn’t think too much about it. It was something that I knew was there, but didn’t pay too much attention to. Now I think that I am aware of people’s creations,pay closer attention to them, and appreciate them more. One assignment that comes to mind is the museum journals that we did. We searched the web for an online art gallery to look at paintings and sculptures. It was really intriguing to see what some people are capable of doing. It’s absolutely amazing! Also, when we went to the art gallery in Washington DC, we got to see some of the famous paintings there. It was so unreal to be able to see those beautiful works of art! I can’t imagine what it must have taken for those people to be able to do that. Some of those paintings and sculptures looked so real! Very amazing!

Aesthetic Appreciation (2) The one assignment that sticks out in my mind would be the Gandhi paper. Even though we didn’t learn about the fine arts in India or any other place, we learned about appreciating humankind. Gandhi fought for equality. He fought so that all would be given the same chance. It didn’t matter to him if someone had a well educated background, or if they had been working in the fields all of their lives. He looked at who they were and not what they were. He understood that we are all God’s children and that we should be treated as such. I think that we all need to know that we are all the same, and that we are all beautiful in God’s sight. I see myself studying about the fine arts more. I plan on taking classes to learn more about art rather than just looking at it. I want to be able to understand it. I see myself learning more and more about God’s creations and learning to appreciate them. I can also see myself actively being a part of His creation and trying to preserve it.

Career and Service At the beginning of this year I think that I had an appreciation for service. In Mr. D’s class we had to do community service time. We had to work down in Florida, and we also had to do 10 hours of community service on our own. I also have been doing community service in Pathfinders. We go out collecting cans and singing at the nursing home. I have been in Pathfinders for six and a half years, so I’ve put in a lot of hours with them. I thought that I was doing all of the people that I helped, a big favor. I thought that collecting can goods once a year for the hungry was a big deal, then I got to Mrs. Bacon’s class this year. She didn’t expect just a one-time deal, she wanted something that would last for forever! She wanted us to leave a legacy. It was hard, at first, to come up with a legacy to leave that would last for years to come. It was rather challenging, but she always had faith in us. She knew that we could do it even if we did get some help from her.

Career and Service (2) The Murphy site decided to adopt a child overseas. So we had to plan, and plan some more so that we could come up with enough money to be able to support her. That wasn’t enough for Mrs. Bacon; we had to leave more of a legacy. She didn’t want us to only touch one child’s life, but to touch many people’s lives. So we spent the next semester learning how to create a web page. That was really hard. It took me awhile to figure out what I wanted my page to look like, then I had to figure out how the program worked. The most challenging part was finding a free site that would host my page. I finally got it figured out, and so did a lot of other kids. When it was all done, it was really cool to be able to go on the web and see the pages that we created ourselves! We did other assignments that had to do with service. Our ADRA assignment dealt with service, our leadership paper, believe it or not, dealt a lot with service and how a leader is supposed to serve. I plan to take what I have learned this year and build upon it. I plan to continually serve those around me in the best way that I possibly can.

THE END

World History Humanities Portfolio