Brave New World Project Reflection
1. I think the greatest challenge of this project was probably organizing my essay. I personally have a difficult time putting everything into correct tea paragraph and writing thesis statements. Luckily Sara helped me with writing my thesis and I was somewhat able to pull together a real essay.
2. In this project I think I have grown by acting on my thoughts and acknowledging how I am like the people in Brave New World. Before I had read Brave New World, I had had thoughts about how people escaped from their world. After I read Brave New World I stared to think deeper about it. People in our world are very similar to the people in the book because of how we numb ourselves. I started to think deeper about how people do this through getting high. I also started to think deeper about how I was using self-medication . Reading Brave New World really helped me see the true effect the self-medication had in my society.
3. One thing that I would like to remember from this year for next year is that I need to say engaged in my learning. From this year I have experience that when I am excited and I get into my project, I end up learning a lot more than when I am not having fun. I would like to remember this because I want to have a school experience next year that is as good as this one was. If I want to have to have a great Sophomore year I have to get excited about what I’m learning, and I’m glad that I took that away from this year.
4. With my project I am most proud of my learning from the book. Brave New World opened my eyes to new experiences and ideas that I didn’t know I could comprehend. Reading the book gave me a lot of confidence and pride of what I could understand and learn. It was really exciting to see how much I have grown this year, because at the beginning of ninth grade I would have never understood this book. Over all I was extremely proud of myself for being able to understand and think about the complicated ideas in Brave New World.
2. In this project I think I have grown by acting on my thoughts and acknowledging how I am like the people in Brave New World. Before I had read Brave New World, I had had thoughts about how people escaped from their world. After I read Brave New World I stared to think deeper about it. People in our world are very similar to the people in the book because of how we numb ourselves. I started to think deeper about how people do this through getting high. I also started to think deeper about how I was using self-medication . Reading Brave New World really helped me see the true effect the self-medication had in my society.
3. One thing that I would like to remember from this year for next year is that I need to say engaged in my learning. From this year I have experience that when I am excited and I get into my project, I end up learning a lot more than when I am not having fun. I would like to remember this because I want to have a school experience next year that is as good as this one was. If I want to have to have a great Sophomore year I have to get excited about what I’m learning, and I’m glad that I took that away from this year.
4. With my project I am most proud of my learning from the book. Brave New World opened my eyes to new experiences and ideas that I didn’t know I could comprehend. Reading the book gave me a lot of confidence and pride of what I could understand and learn. It was really exciting to see how much I have grown this year, because at the beginning of ninth grade I would have never understood this book. Over all I was extremely proud of myself for being able to understand and think about the complicated ideas in Brave New World.
Brave New World Project
In the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the ideas of how the people numb themselves from their world seem crazy but it’s not that far off from what people are doing in our society today. We like to think that their society is completely different from ours. They all take soma to forget there problems and it seems horrible, but we are blind to how we do the same actions with alcohol and drugs. These habits could be as simple as getting drunk after a break up or getting high to relieve pain. These things may seem simple but they are examples of numbing the body to emotions. We also use consumption as another form of numbness. While some of Huxley’s predictions have not come true, his ideas about self-medication through consumption and drugs are visibly present in our society today.
In Brave New World consumption plays an important part in how their society is functioned. From an early age, kids are taught to consume. Their pillows would whisper things like “Ending is better than mending,” to condition them to want to buy clothes instead of fixing old ones. Shopping is looked at as something to enjoy or as a form of fun. They are taught to treat themselves constantly with shopping and entertainment. These things are used to distract the mind from feelings or thoughts. When the book was published in 1932 most of these ideas were smaller issues because people didn’t but Huxley had a keen sense for predicting the future.
In our world we also use consumption to numb our lives as well to Brave New world. We are taught that it is fun to contribute to society by buying pointless objects that we don’t need. Shopping is just a natural way of life. People are shamed if they haven’t contributed to buying the “new thing.” We are told that to be happy, we need to buy the next big thing. We are only a “somebody” or worth something if we prove to other people by spending three hundred dollars on something that is exactly the same thing that we had before. Apple makes a new IPhone every year so we are always contribution to them. Companies have even begun to model their products so they break fast enough that we have to by more, but slow enough that we buy the same product again, this is called “planned obsolescence”. We shop for things that we don’t need because it gives us a sense of happiness, but this happiness is short lived. Although important, consumption is not the only way the people in our world and Brave New World anesthetize themselves to life.
Soma is an important part of the oblivious state in Brave New World. Huxley used Soma in his book, not as a spiritual device, but more as symbol of “letting go” and ignorance. Soma is a way to stay happy and not have to worry about problems. It manipulates the feelings in the human brain and creates the illusion of happiness. In the book, Soma is used as a drug to control the people of the world. It is used as containment to keep people constantly happy and not questioning authority. But with the joy of Soma comes extreme addiction. People love to feel careless and not have any worries in the world. The characters in the book are constantly thinking about or taking Soma, and when they are deprived of it their most primitive side comes out. Though the idea of Soma seems a little out there we have many things that resemble it in our society.
In our world, alcohol and drugs are used as a way to forget and let go like Soma. This could be as simple as having a glass of wine after a hard day or getting high when you’re bored. This may seem harmless, and in some ways, it is. But if we continue this path of trying to escape from our lives through using substances, our world could turn into a prison of substances like Brave New World. People can become heroin addicts and be sucked into a life where their only care is getting their next drug. When people are addicted to drugs, they get primitive as the characters in the book. In both worlds people will panic when they don’t have their drugs. They because so focused and brain washed that nothing else matters.
Although the behaviors of Brave New World seem outrageous and far off, our society is stepping closer and closer to their world everyday. If we continue to numb ourselves from natural experiences, then our world will be more and more like the people in Brave New World. We are constantly drugged to avoid our emotions and thoughts. It’s better that we not be numbed. Instead, we should use our emotions to make important changes in the world. As people, we need to learn to accept our emotions and embrace being uncomfortable. If we can learn to work with our emotions then we can avoid ignorance and there’s more hope for the world.
In Brave New World consumption plays an important part in how their society is functioned. From an early age, kids are taught to consume. Their pillows would whisper things like “Ending is better than mending,” to condition them to want to buy clothes instead of fixing old ones. Shopping is looked at as something to enjoy or as a form of fun. They are taught to treat themselves constantly with shopping and entertainment. These things are used to distract the mind from feelings or thoughts. When the book was published in 1932 most of these ideas were smaller issues because people didn’t but Huxley had a keen sense for predicting the future.
In our world we also use consumption to numb our lives as well to Brave New world. We are taught that it is fun to contribute to society by buying pointless objects that we don’t need. Shopping is just a natural way of life. People are shamed if they haven’t contributed to buying the “new thing.” We are told that to be happy, we need to buy the next big thing. We are only a “somebody” or worth something if we prove to other people by spending three hundred dollars on something that is exactly the same thing that we had before. Apple makes a new IPhone every year so we are always contribution to them. Companies have even begun to model their products so they break fast enough that we have to by more, but slow enough that we buy the same product again, this is called “planned obsolescence”. We shop for things that we don’t need because it gives us a sense of happiness, but this happiness is short lived. Although important, consumption is not the only way the people in our world and Brave New World anesthetize themselves to life.
Soma is an important part of the oblivious state in Brave New World. Huxley used Soma in his book, not as a spiritual device, but more as symbol of “letting go” and ignorance. Soma is a way to stay happy and not have to worry about problems. It manipulates the feelings in the human brain and creates the illusion of happiness. In the book, Soma is used as a drug to control the people of the world. It is used as containment to keep people constantly happy and not questioning authority. But with the joy of Soma comes extreme addiction. People love to feel careless and not have any worries in the world. The characters in the book are constantly thinking about or taking Soma, and when they are deprived of it their most primitive side comes out. Though the idea of Soma seems a little out there we have many things that resemble it in our society.
In our world, alcohol and drugs are used as a way to forget and let go like Soma. This could be as simple as having a glass of wine after a hard day or getting high when you’re bored. This may seem harmless, and in some ways, it is. But if we continue this path of trying to escape from our lives through using substances, our world could turn into a prison of substances like Brave New World. People can become heroin addicts and be sucked into a life where their only care is getting their next drug. When people are addicted to drugs, they get primitive as the characters in the book. In both worlds people will panic when they don’t have their drugs. They because so focused and brain washed that nothing else matters.
Although the behaviors of Brave New World seem outrageous and far off, our society is stepping closer and closer to their world everyday. If we continue to numb ourselves from natural experiences, then our world will be more and more like the people in Brave New World. We are constantly drugged to avoid our emotions and thoughts. It’s better that we not be numbed. Instead, we should use our emotions to make important changes in the world. As people, we need to learn to accept our emotions and embrace being uncomfortable. If we can learn to work with our emotions then we can avoid ignorance and there’s more hope for the world.
Resolution Paper & Country Perspective
M.U.N Project Reflection
What advice would you give to a student beginning this project?
1. The best advice I can give a student is to get into the topic. The project will not be fun if you don’t care about it. Another thing that students should do is learn a lot about your countries perspective because with out it your whole project will fall apart.
Think of this project overall- which habit of heart and mind were you most proud of using during the conferences?
2. I am most proud of my advocating habit of heart and mind. While I was advocating for my self, I proved several people wrong. I also changed a few people’s personal perspectives on the matter, and I was able to agree on multiple amendments.
What would you do differently if you could start the project over?
3. If I could start the project over I would start by doing more research on my countries perspective. I would also practice my speech a lot more so that I would be nervous to present it to an audience.
What was the most interesting speech, resolution, amendment, or comment by one of the delegates?
4. I had two favorite speeches. My first favorite speech that I thought was most interesting was my own. I was very proud of myself for going up in front of a crowd and speaking, even though I have a fear of that. The second speech I thought was interesting was Marian’s, because it was very informative.
1. The best advice I can give a student is to get into the topic. The project will not be fun if you don’t care about it. Another thing that students should do is learn a lot about your countries perspective because with out it your whole project will fall apart.
Think of this project overall- which habit of heart and mind were you most proud of using during the conferences?
2. I am most proud of my advocating habit of heart and mind. While I was advocating for my self, I proved several people wrong. I also changed a few people’s personal perspectives on the matter, and I was able to agree on multiple amendments.
What would you do differently if you could start the project over?
3. If I could start the project over I would start by doing more research on my countries perspective. I would also practice my speech a lot more so that I would be nervous to present it to an audience.
What was the most interesting speech, resolution, amendment, or comment by one of the delegates?
4. I had two favorite speeches. My first favorite speech that I thought was most interesting was my own. I was very proud of myself for going up in front of a crowd and speaking, even though I have a fear of that. The second speech I thought was interesting was Marian’s, because it was very informative.
Model United Nations Project
Our Model United Nations project was when our humanities class were all assigned a country to take perspective of, my country was the United Arab Emirates. After we had out countries, we deeply researched the Israel Palestine issue that is going on in current day world problems. We had to research and analyze the issue though our countries perspective. At the end of the project our class was organized into a Model U.N. up at the college. There, we gave speeches of our perspectives, and advocated for our country though caucuses and consensus building.
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Greek Tragedy ProjectThe Greek tragedy project was when our class got into partners and had to show a social issue through plays, comic books, movies, or other forms. The social issue were current day problems like animal cloning, abortion, assisted suicide, oil fracking, and gay marriage. My partner and I chose the topic of assisted suicide.
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Greek Tragedy Reflection
1. What are you proud of about your project?
What I am most proud of with my project was Lia and I’s ability to make a movie. Neither of us are very good at using technology, so the fact that we were able to film and edit a whole movie was a miracle in itself. I am extremely proud of the way it came out too, for people of our skills the movie isn’t that bad.
2. What challenges did you struggle with, working with a partner and how did it impact? What did you like about having a partner to work with? Details.
The hard part of working with a partner is that we each had different options. Partners argue in general but Lia and I are about ten times worse, so it was hard to work together when we were both yelling our opinions about each other. Another thing that was hard with a partner, was focusing. When you are with your friend all you want to do is play and mess around so it was hard to get work done. The good thing about having a partner was getting different perspectives on ideas or frames.
3. What could you have done as an individual to make the project better?
There are a few things that I could have done to make the movie better. The first thing is that I could have done is had better acting and a better set, to make the story more realistic. The next thing I could have done would be to have filmed the movie in the first weekend instead of the second, that way I wouldn’t be rushing to finish editing and every scene wouldn’t look so choppy. The last thing that I would do to improve my project would be to focus during project work time. Doing this would help me get my work my work done so I’m not rushing and I can do a good job.
4. What specific advice would you offer an incoming freshman about how to be successful at project based learning? Be specific.
The advice that I would give to an incoming fresh man would be, always use the time that you teacher gives you. Even if it seems like you have plenty of time you can always work on something. Another thing I would tell them is don’t be afraid to be creative and have fun. The more different your project is, the better, its fun to have crazy ideas that bring your project out of the box. You don’t have to do what others do, the better projects are the ones that are your own.
What I am most proud of with my project was Lia and I’s ability to make a movie. Neither of us are very good at using technology, so the fact that we were able to film and edit a whole movie was a miracle in itself. I am extremely proud of the way it came out too, for people of our skills the movie isn’t that bad.
2. What challenges did you struggle with, working with a partner and how did it impact? What did you like about having a partner to work with? Details.
The hard part of working with a partner is that we each had different options. Partners argue in general but Lia and I are about ten times worse, so it was hard to work together when we were both yelling our opinions about each other. Another thing that was hard with a partner, was focusing. When you are with your friend all you want to do is play and mess around so it was hard to get work done. The good thing about having a partner was getting different perspectives on ideas or frames.
3. What could you have done as an individual to make the project better?
There are a few things that I could have done to make the movie better. The first thing is that I could have done is had better acting and a better set, to make the story more realistic. The next thing I could have done would be to have filmed the movie in the first weekend instead of the second, that way I wouldn’t be rushing to finish editing and every scene wouldn’t look so choppy. The last thing that I would do to improve my project would be to focus during project work time. Doing this would help me get my work my work done so I’m not rushing and I can do a good job.
4. What specific advice would you offer an incoming freshman about how to be successful at project based learning? Be specific.
The advice that I would give to an incoming fresh man would be, always use the time that you teacher gives you. Even if it seems like you have plenty of time you can always work on something. Another thing I would tell them is don’t be afraid to be creative and have fun. The more different your project is, the better, its fun to have crazy ideas that bring your project out of the box. You don’t have to do what others do, the better projects are the ones that are your own.