Learning Summary 2018-2019

This year I made a list of all the things I've been reading and studying about:


English – 

Reading and Literature Course - James Madison High School Online - (JMHS) – Grade A
English Course part 1 (JMHS) – Grade B

Books Read/Listened to
To Kill A Mockingbird
Percy Jackson Series
Kingdom and the Crown Trilogy (Historical Fiction New Testament)
QB: My Life Behind the Spiral, Steve Young
How to Watch Soccer, Ruud Gullit
Rivals: Frenemies who Changed the World
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Peak Performance, Brad Stulberg
Alice Adventures in Wonderland


History

American History Course (JMHS) – Grade A

Classic/Historically Themed Films -
12 Angry Men
Fountainhead
Atlas Shrugged
Casa Blanca
Shane
Emma
To Kill a Mockingbird
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Flipped
The Monuments Men
Pride and Prejudice
I.Q.
The Hunt for Red October



Language

I traveled to Spain and made some friends there. I also got to watch Barcelona play against Valencia which was Awesome!

Spanish I Course (JMHS) – Grade A
Bulgarian – Reading Heidi

Art
My grandma passed away from cancer this year, so I started a fundraiser for cancer research selling origami stars and raised over $500.

I also sold an origami dragon this year for $85. 

Science
Health Course (JMHS) – Grade A
Biology Course Part 1 (JMHS) – Grade A-

Physical Education 

Completed second season with the New England Revolution  Youth Soccer Academy. I really liked my coach this year and will miss him. I got to train in Spain a little as well which was fun. It's a 36 week season, so it is nice to have a little break in the summer.


Math & Logic

Algebra I Course (JMHS) – Grade A

The Lady and the Tiger Logic Puzzles
Alice in Puzzle Land – Logic Puzzles

Steve Young biography

So I have been reading the biography of Steve Young and it has been really good! I really like it because being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints just like he is we have a lot in common with playing very competitive sports and following our standards. I liked that when he went to the parties he drank milk instead of beer or alcohol. They always had a bottle of milk ready for him. I also like that there were a lot of individuals that helped him a lot through his journey to make him realize that he is very blessed and he shouldn't be taking it for granted like when he goes to see a boy around 12 years old with a terminal brain cancer. The boy says he is fine and after they do the surgery he will be good and will be able to play like Steve with the 49ers. Also his dad helped him a lot to get through hard times and continue to play football. It was really hard for him being the back up to Joe Montana because he really wanted to play, but seeing all of these people who would only dream to be in a position like his he changed his look on life. I love his biography because it is interesting and he shares my standards.

Letter to the Editor - Empathy

False empathy, like anything false, is a lie. You should not jump to conclusions and pretend that you

understand what others are feeling because it could hurt them. It's probably better to be honest that

you don't know what someone is feeling than to pretend that you do.

The problem with most people is that they are so caught up in their own lives, they can't stop

thinking about themselves long enough to have genuine empathy for someone else.

To truly feel empathy for someone you have to either have gone through what they have been

through or to talk with them and understand what they are feeling.

In the first case, it involves learning the hard way. You go through traumatic experiences like losing

someone close. It's a terrible feeling and you can't really think straight. You "feel that paralyzed

dullness with which the mind protects itself against,  too much sorrow and too much pain." (Steinbeck)

You can choose to be bitter and sad or to be positive about it and use it as a learning experience

which you can draw from to help other people going through similar situations. Even through the trial of losing a loved one we must still find joy in our lives to keep us going.When I lost my brother John F. Kennedy, I felt all those negative feelings, but

I  knew that the country needed unity and I was able to use that experience to help others

through their grief when Martin Luther King was assassinated. Instead of just telling people to have

more "love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another", I gave them a choice and showed

by leadership the way I had chosen in the very same situation (Kennedy).

If you learn to have true empathy for

someone, then you can build better and stronger relationships. Also if you learn to talk with and

more importantly listen to what the person you are talking to is saying they will like you more and

genuinely think that you are a friend. Most people just want to get out what they are trying to say and

don't even care about what the other person is saying! To feel empathy for others we must first

understand our own feelings. As I said once, "say a prayer for our

own country which all of us love - a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke."  (Kennedy)

We can pray for others and for ourselves to know how to help someone and receive understanding

and feel empathy for them. God will help you, or someone you are praying for, if you pray with faith.


Excerpted from The Harvest Gypsies by John Steinbeck, published by Heyday.
 Statement on the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. 

New England and other colonies

So the Question is In what ways did agriculture differ in the three colonial regions?

Well in New England they didn't have very good weather like very cold winter and short growing seasons and rugged landscape. But they did get to fish a lot and send the salted cod to Europe.

In the middle colonies the weather was better and they were able to grow large amounts of wheat that they got to trade with Europe. They were booming while New England was stagnated. New York and Philadelphia were two big seaports that prospered in the Middle colonies.

But in the South the weather was perfect and the growing seasons were long they got the most valuable profits and the did the best, they grew tobacco and wheat, which were staple crops which means that they were on high demand at that time.

Cause and Effect of Jamestown

So the cause for Jamestown to be established was mostly from people wanting land, so like whoever paid for passage to Virginia or paid for someone else passage got 50 acres of land there to start plantations and the landowners imported people from England to come help them grow the plantations.

But the effect turned out to be a little bad. After so many people were coming to Virginia the land began to grow it went into the property of the Indians and they got mad and did a surprise attack on Jamestown and burned the plantations and killed one third of colonists!

New France

Their question - How did the battle at Lake Champlain change the methods used by the Iroquois to fight the French.

My answer - After they saw the French fighting with guns they changed their fighting tactics so instead of fighting in clumps they were more scattered and used trees as cover and fought by attacking then retreating under cover.

Their question - Why did New France attract few colonists.

My answer - Because there wasn't much opportunity beyond trading for deerskin with the Indians or raising poor quality tobacco it was also very swampy and diseases came from the swamps such as malaria and dysentery.

Learning New Things This Year

This year I made a list of all the things I've been reading and studying about:


English
The Incorrigible Children Series
The Phantom Tollbooth
100 Cupboards
The Twenty One Balloons
Farmer Boy, Wilder
The Lost World
Harry Potter - the whole series (This was a re-read, but it was just as good the 2nd time)
Kingdom and the Crown Trilogy (Historical Fiction New Testament)
Masters of Modern Soccer
Mister Max

History
World History Course - Middle Ages through Colonial Period
A Child's History of the World V.M Hillye
The Matchlock Gun
Guts and Glory Revolutionary War and Civil War
I Survived Series
The Darkest Hour (Churchill)

Language
Spanish - Duolingo
Bulgarian - I'm Reading Heidi the Classic at about 3 pages per day

Art
Origami - got a great book on some very complex 3D models of animals and dragons. It's amazing what you can make folding a single piece of very thin paper. I have to get my paper from France because normal origami paper won't let you do all these complex folds.
       Art competition (Won an award for an origami dragon I made)
Made Stop motion video  with Origami
        Wrking on starting a business selling origami

Science
Basic Chemistry - Learned about acids, bases, moles and how to balance equations
Put on a Science Magic Show for family and friends
A lot of experiments with Baking trying different flours and mixtures for the perfect consistency of cakes and cookies
Physics - Studied in depth the motion of a ball through the air and why it bends or knuckles based on spin

Physical Education 

Completed first season with the New England Revolution Youth Soccer Academy. This involved going to Foxboro 3 times a week for training and farther than that for games on the weekends. It was a lot of work but I really love it and am looking forward to the next season.

Math & Logic
Watched The Man Who Knew Infinity about an Indian Mathematician in Cambridge
Geometry - Learned how to calculate area of all basic shapes
Probabilities - Learned how to calculate compound chance (i.e. chance of success doing the same thing multiple times in a row).
Played a lot of Mindtrap with family during commutes (Logic puzzles, mysteries, visual puzzles)
The Da Vinci Puzzle Book
The Lady and the Tiger Logic Puzzles
Studied Chess strategy and beat my dad on multiple occasions and the computer on the hard level
Basic Algebra - Learned to balance and rearrange equations using Dragon box
Learned algorithms for new rubiks cube puzzles 2x4, Ghost cubes and others