Evelyn Glennie: Shows How to Listen

Describe what it felt like listening to her play. What factors helped create this moment? You can describe any of the times that she played on either instrument (the Snare drum or Marimba).
-The last Thing she played I guess on the Marimba, made me feel really down and just kept you quiet and watching and listening. It was powerful i could say because it felt like she was putting meaning into it.

What elements of her performance influenced what the audience heard?
-I think that really made her performance special or unique was that she's deaf. Something else about her performance was how she would play different things and explain how their different.

What did she mean by, "Each person experiences music in their own way"? Think about how you experience music and why everyone doesn't enjoy listening to the same music.
-Many people listen to music that they think fits them; their personality, the way they dress, etc. Some music or songs could be more meaningful to someone than it can be with some other person. What I think she meant by was each person experiences music in their own way was that everybody gets something different out of the same music.

Farmers Market

Interview with seller at Chula Vista's Farmers Market.

What is your name and your role here at the Farmers Market?
My is Ester and I'm here to sell my products.

Why do you chose to sell here at the Farmers Market?
I have sold these products for 20 years. It's a family business and they grow and sell the food.

When did you first start selling here?
I've sold here for 16 years. since it started.

Do you have a garden at home?
Yes, and Orchid.

What would be your advice to get others to do what you do?
The food I sell is much better and it has no pesticides and its a lot healthier than other food.
For the people that sell here I would tell them to keep on selling their produce so this can keep on going.

Reflection

What struck you about the location you visited? Was it what you expected, or very different?
-Well when we were there, there wasn't a lot of people and I thought there was going to be a lot more people. They didn't only sell food there was also other things like jewelry and decorations. I though they would only sell food.

Which items were cheaper than you expected? Which were more expensive?
-There wasn't anything cheaper than the food that you would buy at a grocery store. The fruit was the most expensive there but it's organic and a lot better than the non-organic food.

Do you think you will start going to a farmers market more often? Or using a community garden? Or supporting a CSA?
-I think we will start going to a farmers market often because even though the fruit seemed expensive it looked more yummy than the fruit you buy at a grocery store and the jewelry was pretty too.

How do these locations fit into our essential question of "Why Don't People Live More Sustainably?" and "How Can I Convince them to do so?"
-These locations do in fact fit into the questions. The reason I think people don't live more sustainably is because its more expensive and harder to buy from a farmers market. I think people just need to be informed and motivated about buying better food. Many people don't know why it is more expensive and how it is worth it.

School Garden

What did you like most about the garden?
What I like most about the garden was that they learn about environmental science and still have fun outside growing a garden.

Does this visit inspire you to make your own Garden?
Not really. It seems like a lot of work and it wasn't convincing because you can buy organic food at a farmers market and not have to work so hard.

What struck you as interesting and why?
All the things that they were growing and how they have class and spend a lot of time and its still school and your learning at the same time.

Do you think the seniors care about the garden?
It seemed like some of them did but at the same time there were others that didn't. But at the same time i don't think any senior is going to care so much for a garden when they probably have a lot more things to care about.

Interview

What's the purpose of this Garden?
-To grow organic food.

What do you do here?
-Harvest the things that are ready.

How does this apply to school?
-Environmental science, we get to actually learn and see how it happens. And we are being friendly to the world.

What's going to happen in the summer?
-John is probably going to take care of it.

talking these ideas out

What has struck me more about My Ishmael was how the tribes before lived better than we do now, and that people just for power took over and changed everything. Especially with the school system. Everything that Ishmael says is a totally different perspective than how I have seen things. I don't exactly agree or disagree with anything I just think it's a really good way of seeing things, because I don't really know. Even though many things he says are very true and I understand where he gets it from. I guess it could be applied to the real world by seeing things in a different way and maybe try to change in what we think would be better for us. When I told my mom about Ishmael's thoughts about the school system, she didn't think that way at all, she likes the schools and thinks that everything we learn is very important.

Dialectic Jornal

School daze II
quote: Kids will learn anything they want to learn, anything they have a use for. But to make them learn things they don't have any use for, you have to send them to school. That's why we need schools. We need schools to force kids to learn things they have no use for.
----> This is so true. I have not known a person my whole life who has complained about what we learn at school isn't going to be useful at all for the rest of our lives. I personally don't really remember what I was taught last year, I probably couldn't really explain what I was taught last semester. I had never really thought we were right in a way, that most of the things we learn aren't going to be useful because it doesn't make sense. Every thing has a purpose or should have a purpose. Maybe school does have a purpose, it makes us more mature and we go through many experiences that are going to help us in the real world. Many of us at school go through the motions and do what we have to do to get a good grade on a test but after the test it totally disappears from our minds because we have no use for it anymore. I still don't understand why would they make us do this for so many years?

Sisters - Tragedy

Sisters

Cecelia looked at her beautifully silver colored watch she was given as a gift for her birthday, once again and gave away a big sigh. She had been waiting for her little sister for over 30 minutes. Cecelia looked around desperately hoping she would see her sister with a big smile on her face walking to the table outside of a coffee place downtown.
She was the oldest of seven children and her sister, Lela, whom she was waiting for was like a daughter to her. She took another sip from her warm, rich cappuccino which wasn’t as hot anymore because of the cold weather. Growing impatient Cecelia decided to call Lela; she picked up her shiny, leathery black bag from the floor and placed it on her top of her lap. She dug around her bag looking for her BlackBerry. She noticed she had two missed calls from her son Darrell, but none from her sister. Her mind started to think of awful things that could have happened to Lela, she shook her head trying to remove the thoughts from her head, but they didn’t go away.
She took another sip from her cappuccino and decided to call Darrell. She put her phone to her ear and listened to the phone ring repeatedly.
On the 4th ring her son answered, “Hello?”
“Hey, honey why did you call?” she asked him as she heard the rap music playing in the background.
“Huh? Oh yeah, can I go to the mall with Rafael?” he asked even though he knew how much his mom didn’t like it when he hung out with Rafael.
Cecelia paused for a second as she thought of what to say.
“What for honey? What are you guys going to do?” Rafael was a boy in Darrell’s school who was one year older than him, but much more experienced and foolish.
“Uh I don’t know, just walk around I guess. He’s here right now.”
“Rafael is at the house!” Cecelia yelled harshly, making the waiter beside her turn around and look at her.
“Yup.”
“No, honey you can’t go to the mall, just wait for me until I get home.” She ordered in a strict voice.
“Please, mom?” He begged but Darrell actually really didn’t want to go to the mall; he just asked because Rafael wanted to.
“No, honey I’ll be there in like an hour.” She really hoped that she could be there in an hour, she was worried of the things Rafael could make Darrell do.
“Alright, mom. Bye.” He suddenly clicked. With that Cecelia hung up as well and looked down at her phone. Lela still wasn’t there.
Cecelia then spotted her sister with three bags in her hand and a big smile on her face. Lela started waving at Cecelia and dropped one of her bags in the middle of the street; she bent down to pick it up but, as she got up a yellow hummer honked and she turned around and gasped. The driver in the yellow hummer tried to step on the brakes but it was too late, he slowly shut his eyes as the front of the car hit Lela in the head and she collapsed to the ground, blood streaming out of her head. Cecelia let out a horrible scream as Lela fell to the floor. She swiftly got up from her chair and ran towards her sister. The people at the coffee shop and on the streets that had just witnessed what happened stood frozen and watched; Cecelia was the only one running towards her. People stared as the hummer driver slowly stepped out his car with a terrified look on his face. A little girl tugged on her Mom’s hand and asked what was going on.
When Cecelia finally reached her sister she fell to the ground her eyes red with grief, tears rolled down her checks one after another uncontrollably, she picked up her sister from the ground and brought her fingers to her neck to check her pulse. Cecelia waited a second and then she felt her sister’s pulse, she was still alive. Cecelia now drenched in her sister’s blood, looked around franticly and started yelling, “Someone please help! Call the ambulance!” The driver grabbed his cell phone and called the ambulance, he slowly got closer to Cecelia. Cecelia looked up with sadness, her chin trembling as she looked up at the man who had just killed her sister. She recognized that it was the man that was driving in the hummer, the very one that hit her sister. She slowly got up and wiped the tears away from her cheeks but the tears kept flowing out of her eyes, like a leaking sink. The man backed away a few steps; Cecelia’s eyes were still red but this time with rage, but before she said anything the high pitched noise of the ambulance made everyone’s head turn.
The paramedics quickly ran to the scene, they put Lela in the ambulance and Cecelia got in, too. She held her sister’s hand and talked to her, telling her it was going to be alright, trying to believe her own words as she said them. When they finally reached the hospital, Cecelia was stuck in the waiting room, desperate to know what was going to happen. She slowly closed her eyes and tried to relax, suddenly her phone starting vibrating, she dug in her bag for her cell phone and quickly answered it, “Hello?” her voice cracking as she spoke.
“Hello, Cecelia? Cecelia, it’s me Chanita your neighbor. Oh my God you need to come quick… your house is on fire!” Chanita’s voice sounded frantic.
“What? Why is my house on fire? Call 911 Chanita!” Cecelia couldn’t believe what she was hearing; she thought this must be some kind of nightmare, from which she couldn’t wake up. She closed her eyes then opened them again hoping that everything could disappear and she would be back at the coffee place waiting for Lela. But of course when she opened it she was still in the waiting room covered in blood.
“I already did.” Chanita assured her.
“Okay, I’ll be over there soon.” She said out of breath before hanging up.
Cecelia was shaking; she wasn’t even crying anymore her face was blank and emotionless. She realized she had left her car at the coffee place, so she decided to call her brother, Darius. As she explained everything to him she started to sob, he tried to clam her down, telling her he would go pick her up from the hospital right away.
The car ride to Cecelia’s house was quiet, neither of them said a word. Cecelia silently wept to herself. Darius patted her on the shoulder and assured her, “Everything is going to be okay.”
As they arrived to her house, the firefighters were all over the place trying to turn extinguish the fire. Cecelia started to remember all the valuable things she had in her house, then she remembered Darrell and Rafael were in the house, she quickly got out of the car and went to one of the fire fighters, she started yelling and asking where her son was. One of the firefighters grabbed her and told her to calm down and that he was ok; she spotted him on the street coughing besides Rafael, she ran towards him. Darrell’s face lit up when he saw his mom but he was scared because of what was going to happen to him, since they set the house on fire.
“Ooo honey, are you ok?” Cecelia hugged her son like it was her last time, grateful nothing had happened to him. When she finally released him from her embrace, Darrell looked down at his mom who was covered in blood, and gave her a confused look since that was obviously not from the fire.
“Yeah mom I’m ok, the real question is are you ok?” Cecelia looked at him sympathetically.
“Honey, you know Aunt Lela…. well she’s in the hospital.”
Darius got of the car and went running towards Cecelia and Darrell, tears streaming down his cheek. Darrell had never seen his uncle cry. Darrell dropped his phone to the ground.
“She died.” He tried to choke out.

link to zine

Cassini Spacecraft 1997-2010

1. A brief summary of the topic. What is it? What field of research does it fall under?
-Cassini Spacecarft just finished its orginal mission exploring Saturn and its moons. Its new Equinox mission is to observe seasonal changes on Saturn extending its life to this year 2010.
2. What's the big deal with this topic? Why should you care about its developments and any new discoveries that are made?
-It's life or mission is likely to be extended again, it will continue gathering information and pictures at least until 2017. After that, researchers want to land it on Saturn to find more data but only if they can find a way through the rings of Saturn.
3. What's going to happen to this topic in 2010?
-It's mission was extended to observe seasonal changes on Saturn.
4. What obstacles or setbacks are in the way of this topic's success?
-Researchers still don't know a way to get the spacecraft onto the planet Saturn because it can't go through the rings.