World History Humanities Portfolio

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World History Humanities Portfolio

• Lauren Kelley
• 2nd Semester
• May 2005
• Murphy, North Carolina

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Table Of Contents

• Introduction Page
• Acceptance of God
• Commitment to the Church
• Interpersonal Relationships
• Responsible Citizenship
• Healthy Balanced Living
• Intellectual Development
• Communication Skills
• Personal Management
• Aesthetic Appreciation
• Career and Service

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Introduction
Welcome! Thank you for taking the time to look at
my 2004-2005 World History Humanities Portfolio.
It is a pleasure of mine to be able to share with
you just a tiny bit of what I have learned this
semester, and this whole year. This year we have
strived to fit all of our assignments into 10
goals. The goals are called the Journey To
Excellence Goals. These 10 goals cover a wide
range of topics anything from accepting God as
your personal Savior to knowing the fine arts to
communicating effectively, and everything
in-between. It has been a pleasure working with
Mrs. Bacon this year. We have covered a lot of
material and have learned more than I ever
thought possible. I hope that you will enjoy
reading as I has experiencing it. So without
further ado, I present to you my Humanities
portfolio!
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Acceptance of God
At the beginning of this year my life was
surrendered to God. I had accepted Him as my
personal Savior. I have been working on my
relationship with Him. Sometimes I get
discouraged, but other times I am inspired. Its
an ongoing process for me. I continually have to
ask God to work through me. If I didnt have
Jesus working on me then I would be a horrible
person. No one would want to be my friend, I
wouldnt be nice to anyone, would skip out on
school, I wouldnt amount to anything. Thankfully
God is working on my heart and on my attitude and
I am hopefully becoming more and more like Him
every day. I know that I have a ways to go still,
but Im still working on it, He hasnt given up
on me yet! We have done many assignments that
have helped me to grow closer to God, and have
made me be so thankful that I was brought up in a
Christian home. The world history and Bible books
have helped me as well. When reading the history
book, I read about a lot of people who didnt
know Jesus, and I saw their actions, and I didnt
want to have any part in what they were doing. I
dont want to be another Hitler, and if he would
have only read in the Bible where it says not to
kill, then we wouldnt have had as big of a mess
as we did. There were many instances like that in
our weekly reading. In our TIME articles I read
about what was going on in the world, it made me
really sad to know how twisted people have gotten
these days.
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Acceptance of God (2)
The one assignment that we did that really made
an impact on my life in this area was the
journals. Once a week we would journal on a
Christ-like quality. We didnt necessarily
journal about the different stories in the Bible
where Jesus was unselfish, tactful, etc., but we
journaled on what others had to say about the
topic. Hearing a negative quote from someone made
me not want to be that way. It secured me into
wanting to be like Jesus. Who doesnt, but it was
almost a daily reminder for me to keep my focus
on God rather than elsewhere. In the future, I
continually see myself growing in God. I dont
think I could ever live without Jesus. I hope I
will never be satisfied with the relationship
that I have, but will always try to have a better
one--to always seek out what God wants.
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Commitment to the Church
Commitment to the church is a very important goal
that each one of us should strive for. I
personally felt as if I was committed to the
church at the beginning of the year. I felt like
the Seventh-day Adventist church was the church
that had the truth. That is still true for me,
but as I have looked at others and how they were
committed to the church, I have come to realize
that I was not so committed as I had thought.
Going to church, reading your Bible every day,
and holding a position in the church did not cut
it for some people. They had to be constantly
active in the church they had to tell everyone
they met on the street or in the market about the
love of God and about their church. It was an
ongoing process for them. There were, and still
are, people, to this day, serving God with
everything that they have. They volunteer for
every job they possibly can, and if they cant
make it to a function they feel really bad. That
to me is total commitment to the church. In the
future, I see myself growing in the church. I see
myself keeping my faith and keeping active in the
church. I dont think that Ill ever be able to
not be active in my church.
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Commitment to the Church (2)
The assignments that have helped me to become
more committed to the church are the journals.
Even though they become redundant after awhile,
they embed in your mind the characteristics of
Christ that you strive to obtain, and then that
locks you into your church. If you cover the
Bible concepts in the retells, that will also
help you to grow and to become more committed to
your church. The reason is that when you cover
the concepts in the Bible, you have to know and
understand the material to do the assignment. By
knowing the material, you then cant help but
become more grounded in your church and its
teachings. The January 10, 2005, CLQ Journal
helped me to become more committed in my church
because I chose to journal on a quote that said
how Christians are the most intolerant of all
people. I would hope that isnt true, but Im
sure some people think that way. I got to
thinking about that quote, and I figured the only
way to change that is to change myself, and then
maybe I might change my church. The only way that
I am able to change myself is through Jesus
Christ. So that has grounded me deeper in my
belief in the church.
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Interpersonal Relationships
I feel like at the beginning of the year I had a
sense of self-worth. I understood the
responsibilities of the different family members,
and I think I had an ability to respond to the
need of others. I know Im not by any means
perfect now in those areas, but I do think that I
have grown in interpersonal relationships. The
assignment that has helped me most this year is
my journaling. The Food For Thought journals have
brought to me what other people have thought
through their quotes. The Food For Thoughts have
been on a vast majority of topics. By
understanding what other people have to say about
themselves, and about the important issues around
them, it has giving me a form of self-respect.
Respect for the country that I live in, respect
for my family and what they do for me, respect
for God, and respect for myself and who God made
me to be.
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Interpersonal Relationships (2)
The assignments that I feel have helped me to
grow would be all of the retells. With the
retells you have to work together with all
different types of people, and you learn that
some people are easier to work with than others.
Some people are more willing to work with you
than others, and you also notice that some people
dont look at the assignment and expect you to
tell them what to do. Then again, there are other
people who are a pleasure to work with I always
enjoyed working with those people. In life you
are going to run across many different types of
people you are going to have to work together
with them. You are going to meet a lot of people
some are going to try to change the way you are,
and that is where you need to know your
self-worth. There is this one quote that I love
by Dr. Seuss. Be who you are and say what you
feel, because those who mind dont matter, and
those to matter dont mind. Another activity
that has helped me grow in my interpersonal
relationships is the ADRA leadership project. It
forced me to work with people older than I am. I
had to contact professionals in the real world
who I didnt know, and hardly knew about. I feel
that in the future Im going to have to be doing
this a lot, and I had better get used to it now
rather than having to learn how to do it when I
get older and have to work with people outside of
my friend group.
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Responsible Citizenship
At the beginning of the year I did not have that
much understanding of cultural and historical
heritages. I knew about different heritages and
the different beliefs of others, but I did not
fully understand them. I did have a strong
respect for people with different backgrounds
because I have a mixed background myself, and
because I was raised that everybody is equal. It
doesnt matter if they are white, black, red,
blue, green, or orange. We are all Gods children
and all of us should be treated equally. The
assignments that have helped me grow in
experiencing other cultures would be the museum
assignments. We read in our history book about
when the artists liked to paint Biblical settings
and stories. So we went online to look at some of
these paintings. I had heard about the famous
artists, but did not have a chance to see what
type of art that they did, and by doing this
assignment I was exposed to a lot of different
styles of paintings and sculptures. Another
assignment that exposed me to different cultures
was the ADRA video. It had about 10 different
countries and some aspects of their specific
cultures. It was really eye-opening that some
countries today still believe in the old
traditions that you hear about in storybooks.
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Responsible Citizenship (2)
The main assignment that has pushed me to
understanding other cultures is the legacy line.
I had to read about a lot of major historical
events from the beginning of time up to recent
events, and while doing that I read about
different cultures and countries. I had to
understand about the different cultures around
the world to understand why the countries acted
differently to the situations around them. Some
countries didnt have a problem with the new and
evolving world around them, but then other
counties welcomed the new world. A lot of it had
to do with the culture and traditions of that
country and the history that the country had.
In the future I see myself traveling around the
world and experiencing different cultures. I
dont want to just read about the cultures in a
book, but I want to live them myself. I see
myself going to Europe and experiencing the
monarchy and see what they see in a King and
Queen. I see myself visiting Cuba and trying to
understand what they see in a dictatorship. I see
myself going to India and learning more about
their religion and why they believe the way that
they do. I do not want to imagine what the
different cultures are like, but I want to
experience them first hand.
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Healthy Balanced Living
I feel like at the beginning of the year I did
accept responsibility for physical, mental, and
spiritual health. I knew that I needed to
exercise to stay healthy, and I did. I would do
my sit-ups, run, and play outside a lot doing the
normal things a kid would do. I also took
seriously my schoolwork, which would encompass my
mental health. I would make sure to get all of my
homework done, and I would strive for As. For my
spiritual health, I read my Bible every day, go
to prayer meeting every Tuesday night, and attend
church every Sabbath, along with a number of
other things. Now I feel like I could expand upon
all three of those areas. I dont think anyone of
us should be satisfied with our spiritual health,
but should continually be hungry for the Word and
what it has to offer. As for the mental health, I
believe that I could expand on that area
tremendously I can never stop learning, even
though sometimes I would like to stop learning
for a little bit. On the physical aspect, I can
always work to become more in shape than I am
now. That is almost like an ongoing process.
One assignment this semester that has propelled
me to gain more mental health was the Emma
assignments. We had to read the book Emma, really
understand what we read, and then answer
questions. These questions wouldnt be easy
one-answer questions, but we really had to think
about the answer. There could be more than one
answer to the question, and thats what made it
difficult sometimes. You had to look at the
situation from all angles of the story and then
answer the question after you had analyzed the
story.
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Healthy Balanced Living (2)
There have been many assignments that have
challenged me mentally. Mrs. Bacon is always good
about giving work that makes you really think.
These portfolios are really making you think. You
have to take all of the information that you have
learned this semester and put it into a summary
that fits under a category. Sometimes you have to
make the assignment stretch a little for it to
fit under a category, and thats what really
makes you think. Her journal assignments really
make you think also. If you give a half-hearted
answer she will count off on you, and then soon
your grade will go down and you will be sure next
time to write logical sentences that go with the
topic and that cover the topic completely. In
the future, I see myself still challenging my
brain with books and analyzing my reading. I see
myself going to college and getting my brain
teased a lot there. I hope that in everything
that I do I will continually learn, whether it is
from doing schoolwork to knowing which car not to
buy.
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Intellectual Development
 
At the beginning of this year I felt like I had
a Biblically based approach to decision making.
When I had an important decision to make I would
always see what the Bible had to say on the
topic. After this year I didnt realize how often
I use the Bible to help guide my decisions. I
think that I should be reading and studying the
Bible more to know what it says, and to know what
to do in some cases. Its really hard to know
what to do sometimes. Its like there could be
more than just one answer to the problem, but you
dont know which road to take. Thats when you
have to go to God in prayer and study all the
more to see what He thinks about what you should
do. The song drama sticks out in my mind as the
assignment that has helped me the most in
decision making this semester. In doing the song
drama we had to come up with a Christian song
that deals with leaving a legacy of freedom. We
finally decided upon a song, and then had to come
up with actions for the song. It took us awhile
to decide on the final movement, but we all
compromised and had our final plan. We had a lot
of decisions to make, some were Biblically based,
and others were just logical.
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Intellectual Development (2)
One assignment that comes to my mind that has
helped me to develop a better Biblically based
decision-making is the Machiavelli assignments. I
constantly had to be checking with the Bible to
see if I agreed or disagreed with Machiavelli
according to what the Bible says. Other
assignments that I found that I really needed
problem solving skills would be in the retells. I
had to read the material, and then figure out a
way to present it to the class in a way that they
would be able to understand what I read.
Technology is a major factor that has helped me
learn how to problem solve. Whenever there is
something wrong with the printers, or the
Internet we have to figure it out somehow. We end
up switching cords, unplugging things, or
restarting other machines until the equipment
works like its supposed to. It seems like we
have to do that everyday. Either the polycom
wont work, or our computers are somehow messed
up. We are so thankful when we dont have any
problems to fix! I see my logic reasoning, and
decision making grow tremendously in the future.
For one reason, Ill continually become more and
more mature as I get older.
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Communication Skills
At the beginning of this year I dont think that
I was communicating as effectively as I do now.
If I had to communicate with someone I would, but
I preferred not to. If I had to communicate with
my friends then by all means I would, but with
other adults and officials I would rather not
have. There are many assignments that come to
mind that have helped me to communicate better.
My journals have been a major one. I had to
convey my thought onto paper. It wasnt always
easy, but hopefully I managed to do it
effectively. It is very important that you learn
to communicate effectively because otherwise your
thoughts could be interpreted wrong. If your
words are taken the wrong way you can be labeled
in a negative way, you could have people upset at
you for no apparent reason, or you might be asked
to try to communicate your thoughts in a better
and clearer way. Im sure that I wasnt always
understood in my journals, or even in my legacy
project. Sometimes it was hard to write down my
thoughts, feelings, and actions on what we were
doing to leave a legacy. Another assignment that
we did last semester that helped me covey my
thoughts was in the Machievelli assignment. We
had to read and understand all that he wrote, and
then write three things that we disagreed with
him on and three points that we agreed with him
on. Sometimes it was difficult to organize my
thoughts and write them all down in
understandable form.
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Communication Skills (2)
The assignment that has helped to improve my
communications skills the most is the retell
assignments. Reading the material is one thing,
but putting it into presentable information is
another thing. You have to really understand the
concept and then present it in a specific way.
The drama weeks were sometimes the most difficult
because you had to learn to communicate with
different types of people. Sometimes you just had
to find out what concepts they were going to
cover and you knew that they were going to get it
done, but others you had to ask them over and
over again if they got it done, and then take
their questions and answers and put that
information into a skit form. It was all a
learning experience. I hope to continue to
improve my communication skills in the future. I
hope that I wont be taken wrong much anymore. I
know that the skills that I have learned here are
very valuable and I will continue to use them the
rest of my life in dealing with different
personalities.
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Personal Management
At the beginning of this year I think I did
really well functioning responsibly in my
everyday world. I was doing all of the tasks that
I needed to do. I was getting all of my homework
done on time, and I was completing everything in
Pathfinders that I needed to. I didnt have to
stay up late too many times because I had to hand
something in the next day that wasnt done. I
kept myself invisible on IM so that no one would
talk to me and get me distracted. I know that I
can always improve my skills. I could rearrange
my schedule so that I get more sleep, and get
more work done. I could also arrange it so that I
could spend more time with my family. I know I
can improve on my stewardship part. I dont
always display my talents like I should. I know
that I should be playing my flute more. That is
another reason why I need to rearrange my
schedule I need to have more time to practice my
flute, among other things. There have been a lot
of assignments that have helped me to manage my
time. I know that our TIME article and vocabulary
words each week help me to manage my time every
week. On Monday when we are given the article, I
read it and then pick out the words that I dont
know. Then on Wednesday I have to get the words
that Mrs. Bacon has posted so that I can start
studying them for the test that I take on Friday.
I need to manage my time so that I have enough
time to do the rest of my work, plus study for my
test.
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Personal Management (2)
Out of all of the assignments this year, the
assignment that has helped me learn to manage my
time the most would be the retells each week. I
have to be able to read the material each week,
and then be able to come up with a creative way
to present the information during class on
Thursday. I have to do that, plus everything else
my teachers have given me. So it can get rather
challenging some weeks trying to finish up
everything that the teachers assign. In the
future I plan to say organized. I plan to keep
efficient, and to manage my time very wisely. I
hope that the teachers and circumstances before
me will help me in reaching this goal.
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Aesthetic Appreciation
At the beginning of this year, I dont think that
I appreciated the things that God made around me
as much as I do now. I understood that He made
everything, but I didnt think about it a lot,
and I didnt take enough time to do so. I know
that I still need to appreciate what He created
more than I do now, but I have progressed this
year. I not only didnt really appreciate the
things that God created, but the things that
people made as well. I didnt take time to
appreciate the poetry that some people write, or
the paintings that people create. I didnt think
too much about it. It was something that I knew
was there, but didnt pay too much attention to.
Now I think that I am aware of peoples
creations,pay closer attention to them, and
appreciate them more. One assignment that comes
to mind is the museum journals that we did. We
searched the web for an online art gallery to
look at paintings and sculptures. It was really
intriguing to see what some people are capable of
doing. Its absolutely amazing! Also, when we
went to the art gallery in Washington DC, we got
to see some of the famous paintings there. It was
so unreal to be able to see those beautiful works
of art! I cant imagine what it must have taken
for those people to be able to do that. Some of
those paintings and sculptures looked so real!
Very amazing!
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Aesthetic Appreciation (2)
The one assignment that sticks out in my mind
would be the Gandhi paper. Even though we didnt
learn about the fine arts in India or any other
place, we learned about appreciating humankind.
Gandhi fought for equality. He fought so that all
would be given the same chance. It didnt matter
to him if someone had a well educated background,
or if they had been working in the fields all of
their lives. He looked at who they were and not
what they were. He understood that we are all
Gods children and that we should be treated as
such. I think that we all need to know that we
are all the same, and that we are all beautiful
in Gods sight. I see myself studying about the
fine arts more. I plan on taking classes to learn
more about art rather than just looking at it. I
want to be able to understand it. I see myself
learning more and more about Gods creations and
learning to appreciate them. I can also see
myself actively being a part of His creation and
trying to preserve it.
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Career and Service
At the beginning of this year I think that I had
an appreciation for service. In Mr. Ds class we
had to do community service time. We had to work
down in Florida, and we also had to do 10 hours
of community service on our own. I also have been
doing community service in Pathfinders. We go out
collecting cans and singing at the nursing home.
I have been in Pathfinders for six and a half
years, so Ive put in a lot of hours with them.
I thought that I was doing all of the people
that I helped, a big favor. I thought that
collecting can goods once a year for the hungry
was a big deal, then I got to Mrs. Bacons class
this year. She didnt expect just a one-time
deal, she wanted something that would last for
forever! She wanted us to leave a legacy. It was
hard, at first, to come up with a legacy to leave
that would last for years to come. It was rather
challenging, but she always had faith in us. She
knew that we could do it even if we did get some
help from her.
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Career and Service (2)
The Murphy site decided to adopt a child
overseas. So we had to plan, and plan some more
so that we could come up with enough money to be
able to support her. That wasnt enough for Mrs.
Bacon we had to leave more of a legacy. She
didnt want us to only touch one childs life,
but to touch many peoples lives. So we spent the
next semester learning how to create a web page.
That was really hard. It took me awhile to figure
out what I wanted my page to look like, then I
had to figure out how the program worked. The
most challenging part was finding a free site
that would host my page. I finally got it figured
out, and so did a lot of other kids. When it was
all done, it was really cool to be able to go on
the web and see the pages that we created
ourselves! We did other assignments that had to
do with service. Our ADRA assignment dealt with
service, our leadership paper, believe it or not,
dealt a lot with service and how a leader is
supposed to serve. I plan to take what I have
learned this year and build upon it. I plan to
continually serve those around me in the best way
that I possibly can.
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THE END