Through our work and efforts in trying to callaboratively consume and recycle better, I have learned so much and I feel like I am really beginning to get excited about this. I feel that since the start of the project, I always imagined trying to do something for our school would be extremely cool, but I never believed that it would make me want to change the way I live and consume daily. I've learned so much about just how bad things can get within a single classroom, for instance when other kids in our G&T class and myself see vast amounts of recyclable materials in the trash. I have also realized all of the books and literature that our classes do not even use and how there are just piles of books everywhere. Although right now all of these books are unused, I am hoping that when Mr. Wiggley writes back, I will be able to sign our school up for Swap4Schools and our class might be able to trade or give away these books to schools that need them.
In my collaborative consumption group I have given some ideas for what we can try to do with the school store, as well as the letter to Ms. Riordan. I also will be the one to set up our Swap4Schools account and try and help find schools to trade to.
I can definately see collaborative consumption sticking with me because the concept of it is so amazing and smart. It seems like our society should have had forms of these CC ideas way before computers and websites like Swap.com. Also, I have, in the past weeks especially, tried to make sure that I recycle everything I can and just try and reduce the items that I have thrown out. I feel that my biggest accomplishment is that I have tried to stay away from bottled water as much as possible since I used to drink multiple bottles a day. In all I think we are doing a great job and I can not wait until we can start enforcing some ideas in our school!

Holacaust Museum Reflection

As I returned from the holacaust museum a lot of things seemed to stick with me and not leave my mind. First I had trouble getting all of the images of the dead bodies that the guards at concentration camps would just throw out as if they were normal garbage. It really hurt my head and gave me a stomach ache. Definately though, it was an experience that will stick with me for the rest of my life. Another part of the museum that touched my soul was the room with all of the videos of people's survival stories. This room enstilled much hope in me as some of the people had unreal stories. The most powerful story that I heard was one of a man that was able to decieve a German officer from killing 70,000 people by telling him that his commanding officer wanted to call off the killing by sending him. This man could have easily been caught and killed but his heart told him what he needed to do in order to save 70,000 innocent Jews from being executed. The museum will forever live in me as it truly was a life changing encounter.

SORRRYYYYYYYYYYY:( I'll neverrrr everrrrrr leave you alone again blog:)

Dear blog,

I'm so sorry for not updating you and letting you think i had forgotten. Just know that I care about you blog and I could never forget you. I want you to know that it was wrong for not updating you and I haven't been able to sleep at night knowing none of my viewers could see you grow and flourish. As I haven't been updating you, (again I'm sorry), I have been working on my Gifted and Talented Project in which I interviewed a man named Patrick Bowes who had been through oral cancer and had a large amount of his mouth and throat removed. As he was a gifted and talented teacher, I felt that interviewing him would be a very good idea. I then chose to interview my 23 year old brother who had gone to Columbia and works in New York i found a very good contrast between the views of someone who had gone through a tragedy and one who hadn't. I also found some interesting similarities between the two. By the end of my project I created my new definition of hope and humanity. I learned a lot through this project and I was blessed with getting so much help from Mr. Bowes, which you should all visit his inspirational blogs here.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert is one of the most inspirational men on the planet. As a movie critic in his prime he was known for his thumbs down or thumbs up routine. He was known throughout the country for his great abilities as a critic. Although he was very lucky and healthy back in his prime as a critic, he began to grow cancer cells and it expanded into his jaw. It speedily caused problems and he was forced to take a procedure in which they removed the majority of his jaw. It took away all abilities to eat, drink, and even talk. In fact he was forced to eat through a tube that went into his throat. It was a terrible and gruesome thing to happen to such a beloved man, and hard to imagine that something that devastating could actually happen to a person. It made me think about a lot of things that just confused me. First, I really didn't understand where he got the courage to go on, I mean to lose the ability to taste, that just would destroy me. I believe to know that you cannot do something anymore is one of the hardest things to cope with, but he had to deal with thousands of things he could never even hope to do again. But through reading the Esquire article on Roger Ebert it gave me a sense of hope and made me realize that if a man could deal with not having some of what i thought were basic necessities to live, then maybe I can gain some courage for the minor things in life that I get depressed about not having anymore. The point is Roger Ebert is a role model for me, I don't pity him but I envy the power and hope that he has acquired from his ongoing situations.





The Roger Ebert article can be found at this website.
www.esquire.com/features/roger-ebert-0310

Humanity/Hope Unit

I hope to learn a lot about what it means to be human. By the end of the human I would like to have a much greater appreciation for humanity. I wish to learn more about Roger Ebert and I know that it will be a very deep and comprehensive unit.

My name is Matt Vieten and i am part of G & T 2. In our class we discuss various important things about humans and about the human nature. We are all about going above and beyond the norm of regular school and we learn about things that would never normally be taught.