Battle for the English Throne

The game we I played as a class in my 7th grade Humanities class, was educational. It is a game where you can choose what you want to select (multiple choice). When you click the right answer you have another ch0ice of two selections. Everytime you pick an answer, something would happen. What I enjoyed about the game were the reactions of the voices, especially the foot-soldiers. I learned what were the consequences when you picked the wrong answer. The Battle of Hastings (where the game was based on), occured in Hastings in the south of England in 1066. William Duke of Normandy, attacked from the south after a ruthless battle in the North. Harold Godwinson (English) arrived at night where they attacked immeadatly when the Normans were still sleeping, killing hundreds. The English set up a shield wall just on top of the hill of Hastings, that is how they dominated the battle. After a number of fake retreats and side and back attacks by William, Harold falls, and William wins and becomes King of Enlgand. I think this is a good learning experience because for kids playing a game as homework motivates them, and it was another way of sending the knowledge to the kids in my class.

The Life of a Teenage Girl

In the Historical Fiction Novel: Catherine Called Birdy written by Karen Cushman, Catherine the main character leads a complicated and extremely frustrating life of a teenage girl. The story is led without gender equality, with the lack of freedom and the power of the church, which takes place in the Medieval Britain. Girls and women meant absolutely nothing in those times; they were ignored and only used for the boring and hard work of life. Men had the power over everything; they would decide what people were going to do, instead of people deciding for themselves. Since Catherine is a girl, she was nothing, the only thing that made her more important was that she was the daughter of a country knight, who had a village and a dozen servants. She had no freedom, since she had to learn how to be a lady and learn how to do the hard and boring work. In Medieval time, the Church was more important and more powerful that now. Every day there was a day for a particular saint which was different every day. It would be celebrated if it was your own saint’s day. Girls had a hard time staying happy in the days where men were in power, where freedom was only to men, and where the Church changed everybody’s lives.

The Black Void

I called this story the black void because there were a lot of relationships with the color black, and this void was totally endless. I expected that the person with the black dot would leave the community to keep it simple and small. Because the lottery gave me a feeling of that it wasn’t nice, it made me think that people would leave the “village”. I really wanted to know how this cruel thing was going to end, but I also didn’t want to read it because I expected it to be ugly. I totally followed the instructions because I opened it the day afterwards. I hoped not to get the black dot because in the story it was a bad thing so I thought it would be bad in our world too.

After all the tension with the black box the lottery itself came and the box was the most important thing in the story for a while and the tension created by the pieces of paper made this very scary and un-expecting. When I read the end of the story I was very thrilled and thought it was a totally mad story when I did like it in the beginning. My predictions weren’t correct, but were pretty close so I felt proud for coming pretty close. If the author would have described more about the stones it would have easily made sense in very less seconds.

Leaving a void in this story created our tension and questioning after a while, because it totally didn’t make sense with so many voids cramped up together, which made a big void, and made it pretty weird.

This big void created a lot of power, which made us all question and want to keep on knowing something, which creates frustration and when frustration is created it is a lot of power I may say.

Shmuel's Point of View (Introduction to the book: The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas

"He...Hell...Hello", I hesitated. "Hello", said the chubby boy approaching the wired fence I sat next to. "What's your name", he asked. "Shmuel", I answered, shyly. Still wishing I could shake his hand like real gentlemen,, like my papa would say. "What is yours?". "Bruno", the boy said loudly. (I personally thought he was a bit too loud.). "I've never heard anyone named Shmuel before", he chuckled. "And I have never heard anyone named Bruno before!" I said disgusted and slightly angry, because I thought my name was absolutely normal. "I am an explorer," Bruno said proudly. I thought he was way too young to be an explorer, but thought that's probably what he would like to become when he grew up. If he grew up.

Looking Beneath the Surface

World famous photographer, Steve McCurry, was born in Philadelphia in 1950. In 1987 he started freelancing as a photojournalist. Some may say that his most thrilling photo, the most famous worldwide image, is the Afghan Girl with the glowing green eyes. Steven McCurry’s images represent humanity. Some of his subjects are sometimes taken in harsh circumstances, for example poverty and war, or the cruel corruption that rules their country. Steve McCurry says “…the pictures I shot back in 1980 are still as vibrant and as wonderful today as when I shot them.” This proves that he feels the pain and sadness of whom or what he captures, and shows his great skill of how he thinks about the world.

To me, the conflicts that cause the sadness is shown in this image, because of that one man who walks there, which emphasizes the loneliness to me. I think the background is less obvious, but still very important, because of the nothingness that flows in those mountains. To me it means how this man is walking away into the void. I think McCurry made me feel this way because of the man. My eye was immediately drawn towards the alley line in the middle. After a while of looking at the alley, I understood that this meant to be a big scar going across the land, which emphasizes the pain that this country has suffered.

I have learnt that photography has more than one meaning, and that there could be a story to a photograph. I think McCurry’s work reflects a great journey because he goes around the world and photographs the culture and the people of a country, which shows how he moves around in places and finds the best places to make pictures of. I think McCurry’s photographs also reflect the importance of a country.

1. The stages before the Final Solution are: Stage 1 classification, when people find who is Jewish, Gypsy, etc. Stage 2 is symbolization when the Nazi’s mark the victims. Stage 3 is dehumanization when the Nazi’s murder specific groups. Stage 4: organization is when they attack the homes. Stage 5 is polarization when they separate people. Stage 6 is preparation, when they mass murdered everyone with gas.

2. I see people looking at the wired fence, and they want to leave the ghetto. I feel like I want to help the people inside there, and from looking at the picture from my picture, it looks like you could just climb over.

3. Jews were treated like they were nothing, not a human, and the Nazi’s thought of the Jews this way because the Jews work very hard and always try to reach their goals. The Nazi’s think they took their jobs because the Jews work hard for it.

4. I don’t know the answer to this question.

5. They used it because it was easier.

6. To me those clothes being stuffed in the chamber mean all the dead people being stuffed away so they can’t be found.

7. 9 million and more unknown died in Auschwitz, not only in the gas chamber, but also when the Jews were starved to death, and when they had to work.

8. I don’t know the answer to this question.

9. I cannot describe anything because I don’t see any good evidence from this picture I am supposed to look at.

10. No this won’t happen again, and as I said already: “Jews were treated like they were nothing, not a human, and the Nazi’s thought of the Jews this way because the Jews work very hard and always try to reach their goals. The Nazi’s think they took their jobs because the Jews work hard for it.”

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World War 2 Webquest

1. Go to dictatorship of the Third Reich, and look at the picture. What do you see about Adolf Hitler, how does he feel and why?
2. Read the third paragraph. Why do you think Hitler needed to be so powerful? Write how he would rise to this power, and what he would do with this power?
3. Go to concentration camps and look at the picture. How do you think the Nazi’s made the concentration camps? Give details.
4. Go to World War 2 and look at the picture. How would the people who survived these attacks feel? Describe.
5. Look at the PowerPoint. What do you think about it? Describe.
6. Read Murder of the Disabled, and Persecution and Murder of the Jews. Why do you think the Nazi’s wanted to have a “pure” race? Describe which races were persecuted in this whole idea.
7. Go to and read mobile killing squads. What is a mobile killing squad?
8. Go to killing centers. What is a killing center?
9. Go to and read Rescue. When was the war over?
10. Go to liberation and look at the picture. Describe what you think those children are feeling. Give 3 things that they might worry about.