Maus

1. What do cats represents in the book?
The Nazis
2. What is the main theme of the book?
Oppression and Family
3. What does the son learn a lot about in the book?
The history of his family
4. How does this book relate to RCG?
It is about the Jews and other groups who were oppressed during that time period
5. What animal were the Jews portrayed as in the book?
Rats
6. Why were the Jews portrayed as rats and the Nazis as cats?
The Jews were rats because cats chase rats and eat them, just like the Nazis are killing the Jews
7. Why do you think it is important to learn about this period in time?
So that history doesn't repeat itself
8. What happened to the father's family?
They were killed, some in concentration camps and some were just killed
9. Who is one example of a non-Jew that helped the Jews?
The person in the black market that he stayed with
10. Why did the laws keep getting harder and harder for the Jews?
So that it would get harder for them to survive

A very big theme in this book is Oppression. In RCG we always talk about how to deal with the oppression. In Maus the Jews have to deal with it and they can't do anything about it. Can someone tell me how you think the Jews are handling this situation? Right, so the Jews can't really do anything about it except for hide and try to make it out alive. Does anyone else have something to say about how people during the Holocaust were oppressed? Yes, they oppressed by not being able to leave their homes, and by all of the laws that were made that pretty much made it impossible for them to do anything.

Another main them is Family. This book talks a lot about it and it comes across as very important. The only way that they are able to survive is by sacrificing themselves for the family to survive. Does anyone relate to that? How family is so important to him. At one point in the story though he says that family is not important just money and food. But, it obviously was, because still the family worked together to protect each other.

Also, another big part of the book is also related to family but it is his ancestry. The son learns a lot about his family history and his ancestors, which made him a lot more family orientated. Throughout the book the father would tell him stories about how his ancestors would stand up for each other and help each other out. That also made him want to become more family orientated. Do any of you guys feel like you should become more family orientated? Lastly, the son starts going over to his fathers house and spending more time with him.

Numbers, By The. "Airport Screening: Would Profiling Work? - The Week." The Week Magazine:

Political News and Cartoons, Current Events and Entertainment Online. Web. 30 Nov. 2010.

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The new full body scans and full body pat downs are not going over to well with travelers. Some are taking

it so far as to compare it to Racial and Religious profiling. A lot of Muslims are arguing that they are the

only ones being searched. Some top security officers are saying that not only is profiling mean it is also

useless. They said that it won't detect diverse terrorists, because Muslims are the only ones being searched.

Numbers, By The. "Is Obama's Federal Pay Freeze a 'gimmick'? - The Week." The Week Magazine: Political News and Cartoons, Current Events and Entertainment Online. Web. 30 Nov. 2010. .

Obama has announced that for the next two years anyone who works for the federal government will not get any raises. The good thing about this is that their salary cannot drop either. Even though he has announced this Congress still has to approve it, and if it does go through it won't save a lot of money. Some people are saying that this was a bad move and "won't win him any political points."

China's towering inferno

"Apple's Beatles Announcement: A Letdown? - The Week." The Week Magazine: Political News and Cartoons, Current Events and Entertainment Online. Web. 16 Nov. 2010. .

In downtown Shanghai, China on Monday 53 people were killed and 70 injured in a monstrous fire destroyed a 28 floor apartment building. The fire is thought to have started by "flammable nylon and bamboo scaffolding" outside of the building and took about 4 hours for firefighters to get it under control

Apple's Beatles announcement: A letdown?

"Apple's Beatles Announcement: A Letdown? - The Week." The Week Magazine: Political News and Cartoons, Current Events and Entertainment Online. Web. 16 Nov. 2010. .

Starting on Tuesday Apple said that it would start selling Beatles MP3's. This ended a 20 year long legal case about whether they could sell the music or not. After this they made their home page on apple.com all about the Beatles. Was all of the hype leading up to this day a big let down? That is the main question people are asking.

Obama's settlement stand: The end of Mideast peace talks?

• It is Important that I did this article for two reasons. The first one is that it is a very big topic right now in the world. The second one is that I am Jewish and and Israel is my homeland. The second one is more important to me, because if my homeland is not safe and that is the only place I can be safe than I don't feel safe.

• President Obama says that he is worried about the decision Israel made to start building the 1000 new homes in East Jerusalem. Obama, who right now is on his nine day trip through Asia, insists that the talks he started in September through Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas should keep going. Obama’s disapproval of Israel is a signal that the peace treaty between Israel and Palestine has failed again.

Donorboy by Brendan Halpin

Some of the main themes in Donorboy are grief, trust, acceptance, and the definition of family. The author is discussing both Rosalind’s and Sean’s loss of their mothers at young ages, their ability to learn to trust and accept each other and other people, and how to be a person that you can like.

Through the e-mails and texts Rosalind, the main character of the book, learns to accept Sean and her new situation and maybe most importantly she learns about love and family. Throughout the novel, many situations show Rosalind opening up and trusting Sean and herself. While this progression was slow throughout the book, one situation really causes Rosalind to change. Rosalind finds herself in a terrible situation with drugs at a friends house and sends Sean a secret text that he was able to understand and come rescue her.

The book had many interesting sections but a few stood out to me. The first one is in a journal entry that Rosalind wrote in her diary where she calls herself lucky even though most people would not find her situation to be good luck. Next, there was an e-mail from Sean to Rosalind where he talks about many things including their great weekend in Philadelphia and how proud her mothers would have been of her. Lastly, at the end of the book Rosalind runs away so as not to experience Christmas day without her moms and Sean tracks her down in New York City and it is clear to Rosalind how much Sean loves her.

Rosalind doesn’t like the person that she becomes after her mothers die. This easily relates to my life in the junior high in the past year and a half (mostly last year though). Last year I was new and I didn’t like the person that I became. I was a suck-up and it got to be so bad I wrote my speech about it this year. I was a big suck-up especially toward all of the 8^th graders who I really wanted to like me as a friend. I have also witnessed some seventh graders this year sucking up to me and to other 8^th graders.

I enjoyed Brendan Halpin’s Donorboy very much. The author developed the character really well and it was easy for me to read because it was written in e-mail style. I would definitely recommend it for next year’s reading bowl. It was a great book.

My Parent/Teacher Conferene

1. When you (Martha and Greg) meet with my parents during conferences I think that you guys will say I am doing well this year in school and with friends. Also, I think that you might mention I am doing a better job of not talking in class.

2. I would like you to mention that I am working really hard to get all of my work in and that I think it is paying off. Also, I would like you to mention that I am not sucking up to people this year and I am talking more in class.

3. There is nothing that you can't tell my parents during the conference, because I don't have anything to hide.

The Chilean Miners' Doomed Pact of Silence

"The Chilean Miners' Doomed Pact of Silence - The Week." The Week Magazine - News Reviews and Opinion, Arts, Entertainment & Political Cartoons. Web. 19 Oct. 2010. .

Only a few days after the Chilean Miners were rescued from the mine one of them already broke their very unique pact. The pact was that none of them would sign a TV deal or a book deal without the rest of the group. The man who broke it was nicknamed "Super Mario." He claims he broke it because "there are certain things that need to be told."

Does Christine O'Donnell Not Know the First Amendment?

"Does Christine O'Donnell Not Know the First Amendment? - The Week." The Week Magazine - News Reviews and Opinion, Arts, Entertainment & Political Cartoons. Web. 19 Oct. 2010. .

This morning in a debate about teaching creationism in schools, the Delaware Republican State Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell made a comment that shocked the audience. Christine O'Donnell stated that the first amendment prevented making laws that established religion.

Europe terror warning: Time to cancel your travel plans?

U.S government officials have been warning travelers about their trips to Europe, because of recent evidence from Al Qaeda that they may be planning some Mumbai-style attacks. State department officials are trying really hard to convince Americans to be very cautious as this may be a bad time to travel to Europe. Some believe that the warnings are so vague that perhaps they should not have been issued. Officials have not specifically what countries to avoid or what threats have been made. They have only said that tourists should avoid public transportation and popular tourist destinations. This makes it very hard for travelers to know what to avoid. Others believe that this warning is not strong enough to make people cancel their plans but should give people a reason to be careful and practical.

The Week

Celeste and I picked The Week Magazine as our source.

The Week Magazine was founded in the United Kingdom in 1995. It became an American magazine 6 years later in April of 2001. Then 7 years later Australia adopted the magazine in October of 2008. The Week Magazine has a liberal slant, but does a fairly good job of keeping it fair and balanced. The interesting thing about this magazine is that they write hardly any of the articles in it. They get their articles from other magazines and sources which are: Yahoo News, The Financial Times, AOL News, Politics Daily, Global Post, Real Clear Politics, Newser, and Salon.com

The Week gets/writes articles about a lot of things such as: The U.S at a Glance, The world at a glance, famous people in the world, Talking points for books and current events, Health and science, Reviews of books and films, and business. The Week is a pretty thorough Magazine and we hope it helps us learn about new things.

Twist

Twist is an americanized play of Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. The main character in the play, Twist, is a biracial kid who is an orphan in Prohibition Era in New Orleans. Twist is an archetype orphan who will do absolutely anything for love. I think his character represents all orphans and mixed racial people who don't think they belong to a specific group like white, black, etc. Twist is also called a mulatto, which makes him feel even more like he doesn't belong to a group. In the orphanage Twist gets teased by all the kids, and they tell him to ask for meat on his birthday so he does. When he does he gets sold to a funeral to dance at all the funerals. Twist hates it there so he runs away to the Jewel Box Theatre and lives there with Boston and the boys. Boston used to be Twist's dad's dance partner back when they were younger. While living with Boston he discovers that Della Boston's girlfriend birthed him. Della wants the best for Twist but Boston only wants money. So Della is trying to give him to Mr. Pruhdomme who is a big time lawyer and show bizz fan, but Boston is trying to sell him to his uncle for $1000. Twists uncle is white and a very mean man.

Twist's mother is white, and her brother Lucius is white as well. Twist's mother died during childbirth and his father died just before he was before. Twist was born an orphn. Lucius, Twist's uncle in the story, paid the orphanage 200 dollars to keep since Twist's mother had died in child birth. Nine years later, though, Lucius decides he wants Twist so that he can use him to do illegal things for him, even if this may result in Twist's death. Lucius character represents the typical villain in this story. There are many different villain archetypes that are portrayed throughout literature. In this play, there is a bit of irony with the villain because all of the main characters are black yet the villain is white. Often in literature and plays, the villain would be stereotypically black or some other minority. Villains can be schemers, lunatics, backstabbers tyrants and many other nasty characters. In Twist, Lucius seems to be "The Bastard" because he can't have what he wants (to be wealthy) so he lashes out and hurts those around him. Throughout the play, Lucius chases Twist in an effort to kidnap him, but Twist is able to avoid him and remain on the run. Ultimately, Lucius gets what the viewer thinks he deserves and dies.

The thing that worked really about the production was that everyone could sing and dance really well. Also the beginning scene was fantastic. One part that needed to be improved in particular was the scene in the orphanage when he is singing a sad song and everyone behind him is doing something funny. If I was being hired to get the production ready for broadway I wouldn't change much. The only scene I would change is the one in the orphanage when he is singing, but other than that the play was great.

Children Inspiring Hope Part II

The object I'm going to send to Ghana is a baseball.  I chose to send a baseball to Ghana because it is pretty much my whole life.  Baseball means a lot to me.  To me it represents life, in baseball you go through slumps, just like in life.  In baseball you have good days and bad days, jut like in life, but in baseball you always work your way out of things, just like in life.

Also on the photograph I am sending of myself, i am going to write about how i would like to bring peace and friendships to people everywhere in the world so that we can all work together.  I will also say how peace is very important to have especially with friends which is what these people in Ghana are going to turn out to be, at least to me.

Expectations of my 8th Grade Year

This year in 8th grade I expected it to be a lot harder than last year. Also I thought the teachers would be a little harder on me. This has failed to meet my expectations, because all of the teachers are very nice especially Martha, who I heard from last years 8th graders was mean.

As you heard from my speech last year I was a big suck up. This year I feel that I am doing a better job at that and that this year will be very good socially. Although I am not intimidated by anyone, I do wish I am closer to Eliot. Eliot and I are pretty good friends but we don't talk about like important stuff, and we don't hang out outside of school.

I feel that in this class I am a leader socially and academically. It has been easy for me to be a leader, because in class I am very focused, and at breaks and lunch I am a very social person and good at talking to a lot of people.

Even though it is only about the 5th week in school high school is still right around the corner. I feel like in order to do as well as I can in high school I need to work on a couple habits in school. The first thing I would like to work on is not putting work off until the last possible minute, or not procrastinating. I would also like to work on voicing my opinion in class, especially lit class.

Children Inspiring Hope

1) Amy developed a program called Children Inspiring Hope. She goes twice a year to Ghana and helps out in a classroom, then she comes back to the U.S and teaches us about it. Finally, we come up with a project and send it to them and send one back.

2) The word peace means a lot to me, the main things it means to me is respect. When I think about the word peace I think of Sister Peace and her Buddhist monk friend. In my life, I promote peace by being respectful.

3) I am interested in promoting through art. this is my chosen method because art is something anyone can do, you don't have to be talented. It is also a great way to get to know someone and to express yourself.

4) I would like to do a collaborative art project, that everyone does together, like what Nicole did for her auction project in junior high which was a collaborative canvas painting. If that doesn't work we could make a song.

Hello there this is Benjamin Ryan Siegel and I am fantastic. This blog is going to be my academic portfolio for the 2010-2011 school year.