"Syrians in Crisis"

"Syrians in Crisis" 

By: Anthony Gonzalez

You have been forced out of your home, because of all of the destruction. You travel thousands of miles. You risk your lives seeking safety. Some of you have died during this long, grueling trip. Eventually you make it to somewhere safe, but only turned down at the entrance. Not being allowed to enter the country.

  Currently, there are thousands upon thousands of syrian refugees outside of the country not being allowed to enter the country. Even with this mind they are letting a few refugees in, they are still not letting in half of the thousands of refugees, because according to the article, “A total amount of 38,901 Muslim refugees entered the U.S. in fiscal year 2016, making almost half (45%)...”. This shows that even though they are letting in a lot of them, they are still thousands of Syrian Refugees still being denied entry into our country.

    With all of the drama going on with the Syrian Refugees some might forget that the Right of Asylum, is being violated. The right of Asylum is one of the universal human rights which means that everyone should have this right, no matter race or religion. But that's not the case with the Syrian Refugees, which is totally unacceptable.

Syrian Refugees

Syrian refugees being forced to leave their country, because of the Syrian Civil War. It was 2011 when the Syrian refugees started running away from their countries, all because of the Syrian Civil War currently going on. All of them risked their lives fleeing for their safety, with some of them even dying on the way to safety. They all went to different countries for safe places to stay. Some even looking for a safe haven in our country, but upon arrival being turned down. Why? Because of terrorism. They had found out that the terrorist attack in Paris, was carried out ISIS members that said that they were refugees. If it wasn't because of that event there would be many more Syrian refugees in the US.

Currently there are thousands upon thousands Syrian refugees currently not being allowed to enter the US. That's a number that has increased since the Syrian Civil War had started. When the civil war had started 11 million Syrians left the country. Since then the number of Syrian refugees have increased to, 13.5 million. That's a lot of refugees. Especially, because of the fact that almost all of them that are not allowed to enter the US.

Nonfiction Blog

The nonfiction book that I am currently reading is "Steve Jobs, Apple and IPod Wizard", by Scott Gillam. The book tells us about the life of the late apple ceo, Steve Jobs. Throughout the whole book we learn about the many event that led to Steve Jobs becoming one of the most successful buissness men ever and the apple CEO. Besides that we also learned of the many hardships Steve had to go through, like how he was put up for adoption at a young age. Also how he would have to drop out of one of the best colleges, because his family was not able to pay for it.

The passage that had interested me the most was, "Steve was obviously bright. One teacher later remembered how he had always had a different way of looking at a problem. His low grades and pranks, however, had gotten his school career off on the wrong foot. Fortunately, Steve's fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Hill, found a way to motivate him. "I have this math workbook," she said. "If you take it home and finish on your own without any help and you get 80 percent right, I will give you five dollars and one of these really big suckers." This passage is interesting because I find it really weird how one of the most successful businessmen would not like school that much. The other thing that I find interesting from this passage is the fact that he needed to be bribed in order to do he work. That was a complete surprise to me when I read because it was funny how one of the most successful businessman needed to be bribed.

Later on i will probably forget everything. Will except for the fact that he would need to be bribed in order for him to learn. I mean come on why would one of the most successful businessman in the world need to be bribed with money and candy. I mean for real why would a buissness man need to be bribed in order to learn, also the fact that he didn't like to learn was surprising as well.

I commented on: Edgar's Blog, Lazar's Blog, Jesse's Blog, Christian's Blog

Gratitude Blog

I'm grateful for many things in life, but the person that I'm the most grateful towards is my mom. I'm grateful towards her for many reasons, but the main reason that I'm the most grateful towards her is because she was the one that gave birth to me. She is also the most hardworking person that I know and that I will ever know in my whole life. Everyday she wakes up at 3:00 am in order to go to work, in order to support us. She never goes to sleep until she is able to clean the entire house. Even though she knows that I love her, I have never taken the time in order to tell her how grateful I'm to have her as a mom. So with that in mind I now realize that needs to end, and I need to tell her how grateful I'm to have her as a mom.

The next person that I'm grateful towards is my dad. The reason why that I'm grateful for my dad is because he is also a hard worker. My dad is always going to work while we are at school and does not come back into we are all asleep, just to support our family. My dad has always told me how whenever he would break a bone he would never take off from work, because he needed the money in order to support us. Just like with my mom, I have never take the time in order to tell him how grateful I am to have him as a dad. So with that in mind I realize that needs to end, and I need to tell him how grateful I am to have him as a dad.

The final person that I'm grateful for is my older brother. The reason that I'm grateful for him is because he will actually do anything for us (me and my little brother). He is always asking what we want, and if we ever want anything he will go out and buy it for us. If he is playing video games and we go to the living room, because we want to watch tv he will instantly get up and put the tv on. Sometimes it may seem that I'm not grateful to have him as a brother, but I actually am and always will be grateful to have him as a brother.

Gallery Walk Reflection

Today during our gallery walk I learned a plethora amount of things. From Trump’s and Obama’s first meeting in the white house, to the fact that there is a super earth beyond pluto. With these things in mind I have to say that the most interesting thing that I learned today that Clinton has blamed her loss on someone else. So, the article had said that 11 days before the presidential election the F.B.I director had sent a letter to congress saying that the investigation on Clinton’s emails are back on. With this in mind Clinton had reacted in a way that we had all seen coming. She got furious, because she was back into controversy. Since she right back into controversy she was not able to win the battleground states.

The next interesting thing that I learned during the gallery walk is, the fact that their might be a new planet behind Pluto. It's not even just a super planet, it might even a super earth. So far there has been a lot of evidence to prove this, but they can't exactly prove that this planet exists. They can't prove that it exists since it is extremely far away, because of the fact that it is beyond Pluto. But if they do find a way to prove its existence it would be world wide news.

In my opinion this gallery walk was a success, and I can't wait for the next one!

2016 Election

This year’s election in my opinion was absolutely horrible. They chose the wrong person to win, because Hillary should have won. Even though Hillary would not have made a bad president, she would not have made a good president. But Hillary would still have been a better president than Trump because, Hillary is not racist while Trump is. Even though I don't like Trump, I still still I have to live with him being president for four more years. All I can do is pray for our country.

Veterans Day Poem

“Thank You”

This might be the one thing you always hear
But I want to say thank you
Thank You for everything you have done

Thank you
For risking your life
For Protecting our country
Thank you for everything else that you have

"Man Has Fallen and Can't Get Up"

On October 23, 2016, it was the day that an ambulance surrounded the parking lot at Giordano's on W Cermak Rd. There was people surrounding the scene, so the people that were entering the parking lot were not able to see what transpired. Finally when the crowd of people left everyone was able to see what had happened. There was a elderly man standing in the middle with the parametrics surrounding him. At that point everyone had been wondering what had happened so they got closer to see what had happened, as they got closer they saw the elderly man with bandages wrapped around his head with some blood covering the bandages. When people had seen the blood covered bandages they all instantly wondered what had caused him to be bleeding. As time went on everyone had found out that the elderly man had fallen, and as he was falling he suffered a blow to the head.

1st Quarter Reflection

Since starting 8th Grade I have struggled with a few things. The thing I struggle with the most is organization. Since I have stopped using my binder filled with folders I have started using the folders in my notebook, and that has caused me to have very bad organization. Since everything is piled up together it makes it very hard for me to find things. Sometimes I even lose things. So my biggest goal for next quarter is to have better organization. So next quarter when I need to look for things then it will be a lot easier.

The second thing that I have struggled the most with is with punctuation. What I mean when I say proper grammar, is that I have trouble with punctuation (commas). I don't know where to place commas in a sentence. I never had this problem until 6th grade because before then I could place commas where they needed to go without even thinking about it, but now whenever I need to put a comma somewhere I need to think about it and that just takes way too long. So, with this being one of biggest struggles, my goal for next quarter is to be able to use proper punctuation.

My final struggle is that sometimes I get off task during class. Whenever we do work with the ipads I got off task from time to time. Sometimes I get so off task that I don't finish the work that the work that they give us during class, which I would almost finish my work during class. Since I get off task I am getting affected deeply because when I get off task my homework gets piled up, and sometimes I won’t be able to do homework for classes. So with this struggle in mind, my final goal for quarter 2 is to control myself so I don't get off task during class.

The Giver: Book vs Movie

The aging ceremony from the book, The Giver, is extremely different from the aging ceremony from the movie, The Giver. They are different in many ways but, the most obvious way that they are different is the fact that in the book they were given their assignments at the ceremony of 12, but in the movie they are given their assignments when they turn 16. This explains why they are different because in the book you are given your assignment when you turn 12, but in the movie you have to turn 16 in order to be given your assignment. The differences just don't stop there. Some characters are even given different jobs. LIke how in the book Fiona is given the job of Caretaker of the House of Old, but in the movie she is given the assignment of nurturer. Asher is another character that is given a different job in the book than the movie, in the book Asher is given the job of A    assistant Director of Recreational Activities, but in the movie Asher ends up being given the job of Drone Pilot. This shows how the aging ceremony from the book is so different from the aging ceremony from the aging ceremony from the movies, because of the age differences and the differences in the jobs given.

The actors that portrays Jonas in the movie is different of how Jonas is portrayed in the book. In the book Jonas could be described as scared and nervous  because, “It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to become frightened”. This shows Jonas was described as fearful since he scared because the idea of the ceremony being so close was kind frightening to him. It also shows how he can be portrayed as nervous because a all he could think of is what assignment he was going to be given, and that could be nerve racking on someone. Even though in the book Jonas can be described as scared and nervous, but in the movie Jonas can be portrayed as the complete opposite, Jonas can be portrayed as selfless. Jonas is selfless because when he was walking in the snow he did not stop, he kept going for Gabe. This shows a lot of selflessness because he could've stopped to rest and Gabe could of died, but he didn't.

Between the book and the movie, the book impacted my understanding the most. The book had impacted my understanding the most, the author Lois Lowry had written the book so in so much detail. Yeah sure the movie was good, but it will never be as good as the book because it is nothing like the book. Even though the movie will always impact my understanding, the book will always impact my understanding the most. The book will always impact my understanding more than the movie will, because  of how much detail was put into the book by Lois Lowry.

The Giver Themes

Jonas is a very dynamic character, because he has changed a lot from the beginning of the book to the ending, in the beginning Jonas was a bit selfish. Jonas shows signs of selfishness. Jonas shows signs of being selfish because when the ceremony was coming up an example of this is, ““I'm feeling apprehensive,” he confessed…it's the ceremony that I'm worried about. It's ceremony that I’m apprehensive about”. This shows that Jonas showed signs of selfishness, because the ceremony was the only thing he had cared about and the only thing he could think about. Also to top it all off Jonas wouldn't even think of what assignment his friends would get. Even though in the beginning Jonas was selfish, he would eventually have a change of heart, he would then become selfless. Jonas showed signs of selflessness when, he no longer cared about himself this is shown when, “...he was afraid now that he could not save Gabriel. He no longer cared about himself”. This shows great selflessness because he did not care about himself anymore at that point. All he cared about at that point at time was if Gabriel would survive or not. So Jonas has changed a lot from the beginning to the ending of The Giver.

Jonas had went through many hardships, and that had made him a selfless person. While Gabriel and Jonas had escaped the community, Jonas showed signs of selflessness because, “ He wept because he was afraid now that he could not save Gabriel. He no longer cared about himself”. This shows how he shows selflessness because he is literally crying because he feels that he can no longer keep Gabriel alive. Jonas has also been giving him memories to be able to keep Gabriel, the memories that Jonas would give Gabriel would be things like warmth. So he doesn’t even care if he freezes to death, all Jonas care about is keeping Gabe alive. However this is not the only change of attitude that Jonas has had, at a time Jonas has had the feeling of loneliness. For a while when a The Giver had first started giving Jonas the painful memories, there was a time were Jonas had felt lonely because no one had to go through the same things he had to. While in his Jonas thought to himself, “They have never known pain, he thought. The realization made him feel desperately lonely…” . This shows that he had felt lonely for a time because he felt that he could not go see no one else for help for all of those memories. He would feel like this because since almost no one else had those memories so no one else would be able to help him deal with all of the pain, and The Giver didn't do a good trying to help Jonas deal with all of the pain.

The Giver Signpost Blog

Throughout reading The Giver by Lois Lowry there has been contrasts and Contradictions between their society and ours. A big one is the fact that they release people. In chapter one, Jonas was remembering the time with the plane, "...a Pilot-in-Training had misread his navigational instructions and made a wrong turn...NEEDLESS TO SAY, HE WILL BE RELEASED" (pg.2). This is a big contrast and contradiction because we don't release people, but they do. They release people when they either make one big mistake or 3 small ones, while we don't because it's wrong to just release people for a mistake that they make. Why can't they just learn that releasing people is wrong.

Also throughout the book, they keep mentioning release over and over again. When they are talking about their feelings for the day Jonas thinks about the fact that, "...a boy in his group of elevens whose father had been released years before" (pg.9). Currently while the book I wonder why they keep mentioning release, because it must be really important if they have mentiond it so many times. This could end up being an extremely important part of the story, because if people get released then nobody is safe. Since they can release anybody.

Welcome to My Blog

Hi, guys! Welcome to my blog. My name is Anthony G, I am currently 13 years old, I am in 8th grade, and go to Heritage Middle School. I have 4 siblings, two older brothers, a older sister, and younger brother. I also come from a Mexican family, and some of my family lives in Mexico, but the sad thing is that I have never been to Mexico. Surprisingly, my favorite food is not even a type of Mexican food. It's pizza! I know, how surprising. So, those are just things about me.

I am a very simple creature, my hobbies include watching YouTube videos, playing video games, eating food, sleeping, and being on my phone.

Now that's all about me, now see you guys later.