World History HumanitiesPortfolio. 2nd semester, 2005-2006. Larnell Smith Sophomore Port Charlotte

Introduction

For this second semester I have learned a lot more about serving others and how other people have served others. I also had more of an opportunity to practice my grammar skills. I have also had the opportunity to practice leadership skills this semester.

Table of Contents

Responsible Citizen Commitment to the Church Interpersonal Relationships Acceptance of God Personal Management Intellectual Development Communication Skills Aesthetic Aspiration Career and Service Healthy Balanced Living

Responsible Citizenship

For the responsible citizen goal this semester, I felt I improved myself in the goal of responsible citizenship. Last semester I wrote about what I knew about the worlds different cultures, and what I knew about them. This semester I want to talk about the new things that I have earned this year. When we were doing research on the Gandhi movie, I learned some things that I didn’t know about the Indian culture. I didn’t know the sad plight of the Indians people before Gandhi stepped up to the plate and decided to change things. I think that I learned about the world around me when we had to do a retell where we made up a developing country and develop it. I was the president of the country; my job was to help to organize my classmates and to make sure that every one was present for the presentation. This assignment was a real eye opener to how hard it is to run a country, even though our country wasn’t real. It gave me the chance to develop leadership skills. I really had never had the opportunity to be a leader; I am more of a follower which is ok because if every one was the leader there would be no one to lead. I think that in the future I will have more opportunities to be a responsible citizen, whether it’s for picking up trash on the highway, volunteering in a hospital. Or simply watching the news and gathering information on the world around me.

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Commitment to the Church

This semester in the commitment to the church goal, we had some assignments that helped me to understand this goal better. The ADRA projects that we had to do, educated me of a way to help to spread this gospel. When one of the ADRA workers was talking about how they do their jobs, she mentioned that they aren’t allowed to talk about Jesus to the people they help in many of the countries that they go to. Their way of spreading the gospel is by their actions. Some of the people take notice of the kind gestures of the ADRA workers and ask them how they can be so kind. They then tell them that it is Jesus who makes them so kind. I thought that this was really cool that they evangelized in this way. I fell that the assignments that helped me grow in the area of commitment to the church were the ADRA assignments and the J-Bible assignments. In the future I would like to go on mission trips to other countries so that I can share our faith and help others who are out there already helping others. Just recently I went out with my class and passed out tracts to people around our community. As I know this is just the same spreading the word as going to a remote country and preaching. So yes in the future I see myself going out and helping to spread the gospel, especially in these times where the coming of the Lord is very near.

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Interpersonal Relationship

The interpersonal relationships goal this semester was easier to progress in than last semester I think because of the harder retells that we had to do. This semester we didn’t just have the drama, poetry, or presentation. We had to do things that involved half of the entire class. And with these large numbers we had some difficulty doing things. But with this challenge I am sure that our teacher had a plan for all of the work that she had us do. I am sure that she wanted us to work out our problems and pull things together, in a mature fashion. Well this was a very good idea I think for our teacher to do this because working with others well is a very important skill for adults to have. And since we are being trained to be responsible adults it is important. When we go to work or to school we interact with people, if we can not do that we will not do very well in life. I think of my self as a sociable person, so before this semester I think I was doing well with this goal. But I still think that the retells and some of our journals helped me to accomplish this goal. I just got a job this past week, and am getting to know my fellow employees. Working with other people is kind of different than working with classmates because you have the customers right there and they are demanding things. You have to work together to get the customer what they want fast. So all in all I feel that I did grow in this goal this semester.

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Acceptance of God

Acceptance of God. From last semester I believe that I have grown in this goal. I have to admit that it hasn’t always been an easy trip to remain close to God. It takes a lot of work and devotion on my part to remain saved. I heard a sermon preached where the pastor told the congregation that some one had asked him if he was saved. The pastor took his time and then answered “well I know that for today I am still saved”. After I heard this sermon it helped me to realize that you cant just have a spiritual moment and then forget about your relationship with God because you are “saved”. Being a Christian is a working relationship just like with your girlfriend, or boyfriend. So I think that this semester I learned a lot about the miracles that God does when we ask of them. I have seen it in the Gandhi assignments that we had, or in the prayer requests that were answered when we prayed for them in session. In the future I hope on growing closer to God, in fact I look forward to it. When you are separated from God or when you stop praying, the feeling is like you are empty. It is hard to describe but, I think that as I mature and get older the ups and downs will lessen even though it will still be hard sometimes to resist temptation from the devil to stop praying and communication with God.

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Personal Management

This semester for the personal management goal I think I learned several valuable lessons for why this goal is important. Last semester I had at first a hard time getting my act together. But then after a while I got it and I ran with it. Then the second semester came and I kind of got lazy and that of course caused my grades to go down, just a little bit. Well I have learned my lesson that you have to keep on top of things, you can’t wait till the last day to try and get things done. It just doesn’t work right at all. Another thing that I learned this semester is to read the instructions, it really pays to o this that way you don’t have to ask your teacher about every thing five times. I have to admit I do have a problem with reading the instructions and at many a time it has caused me some real problems. But I am learning to check the front page for things and then promptly do what I fine in need to do because procrastination is not good. These skills that I learn now will save me a lot of trouble in the future because as I go to college they wont be telling me that I have to turn this thing in 10 times, or what the instructions are every time I ask. So learning this now I believe will help me a lot when I get to college and even when I get out and am working. If I follow my ambition and am a doctor, I can not be in the hospital working on someone and just forget to tell some one that the patient has some kind of problem. That would cost me my job and maybe the patient’s life. So as you can see all of these things are connected, what I learn now will carry with me when I get older. And this semester I have learned how to help myself with this goal.

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Intellectual Development

For the intellectual development goal this semester there were a lot of assignments that helped me to realize this goal. It was the debates and some of the journals that helped me with this goal. I feel that before this semester I had a pretty good grip on this goal, but ii was of course still learning about different things, because a person never stops learning. In the beginning of this semester I had to pick my self off after Christmas vacation and get back to work. It was hard at first but I had to get over it because there was a lot of work to be done. This semester we changed up the retells a little and they were a little harder than the ones before. They caused me to be able to think more in a problem solving way because we sometimes had to communicate with others far a way and at times it was challenging. But we learned how to do these things and the kind of thinking that went into it will be useful to my future. Like I said before a person never stopped learning, and the way a person learns effects how a person will remember what they learned. Mrs. Pinter was telling us different ways to remember things that were hard to remember. She suggested note cards and walking while you are studying. Talking about loud and reciting. These little tips help a lot. They help with studying and with remembering what you learned. I am glad that this semester and the entire ae21 year I have been able to challenge my self more that usual because of the learning environment that I work in with the computer and other equipment that we work with. I appreciate the opportunity that I have received this semester for learning and I hope to come back next year for more .

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Communication Skills

This semester for the communication skills goal, I think that at the beginning of the semester I had improved from when school first started. At first I didn’t even know how to type, at least not very fast, by the second semester I had a much faster typing speed than when I first started. That wasn’t the only thing that I improved on. I think, and I may be wrong but I think that my writing skills improved over this last semester because of all of the writing that we had to do. This was the extra practice that I needed to get a better background in writing. Also as you talk on camera more you become better at speaking and saying what you want. The debates that we did this semester were a help to the communication skills goal as well. As we debated you learn how o defend what you think and you also learn how to take criticism from other people. In the future I think that I will be using the speech skills that I have learned over the years to get me jobs and also in college because I know I have to take some sort of speech giving class. So yes this semester I think that I grew in the communication skills goal

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Aesthetic Aspiration

Aesthetic aspiration. For this goal I think the assignments that helped me realize this goal were the FFT”s that we had to write and respond to. Some of the ones that my fellow students were very well thought out. They had really put some thought into what they had written, and some of it made me think. Writing these FFT”s also helped me to realize this goal as well. When you are writing them you can get a sense of what it is like for an artist or an author to sit there and create something out of nothing. Sometimes it was really hard to do this, but in the end something came out. This kind of thinking is good for the mind and it helps one to think in a different way other than mechanically. One of the assignments that I had to do, it was a journal, which was on a subject that I really liked. It helped me to think about the subject in a different way than I had before. As I looked at it I felt moved and I just started writing. As I sat there and typed with the words poring out of my mind, I came to know what it must be like to write an award winning book, or poem. When I get older and have a family, I want my children to appreciate the fine arts and not just go to school and get good grades. Because even thought those are just as important, looking at abstract things like art and music really helps the mind to grow out side of the mechanical box we sometimes get into. So for the future I will try to supplement my education with music. I play the cello and this is my outlet sometimes when I am upset of excited. I play to match my moods, and this can produce songs that are sad and solemn or light and airy. So I think I learned a lot about aesthetic aspiration this semester and I have ae21 and Mrs. Bacon to thank for that.

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Career and Service

The career and service goal was one of the one that I think I grew the most in this semester. We had a lot of exposure to different career opportunities this semester with ae21. I have wanted to work in the medical field for a while and when I saw the doctors that came and talked to us about what it was like in medical school. it first I was a little scared because they were saying that it was very difficult to stay in school and practically be studying the entire time. I know that I am expected to work but I also want to have fun I college. But still for some reason after a while it didn’t bother me that I would have to be in school for all that long time, of about how much it would cost. I know that I would really enjoy being a doctor or at least working in the medical field healing people. One of the other things that I was exposed to this semester was missionary work. I think it would be really good for me to go over seas and work as a missionary helping out with the sick. As I had said in one of my journals that we had to do, I think that one year in college I would like to spend as a student missionary to another country, it would help me to see if I would like to do missionary work or if I was cut out for the job. I would like to thank ae21 for exposing me to these different careers options. This semester I have also learned how to achieve the careers that I want. This semester I have also improved on my knowledge what tit takes to get into college. And that is what I think I learned this semester about the career and service goal.

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Healthy Balanced Living

For the healthy balanced living goal this semester I definitely got the physical part of the goal. It wasn’t the AE21 program that did it but the P.E. that Mrs. Pinter has our class do. This semester we had a lot of physical education for our health class, we did running, pushups and sit ups, and all kinds of other activities like that she had us do. We also learned a whole lot about how to care for our bodies, like how to eat right and exercise. I think I learned a lot of good habits that will stay with me for the rest of my life. And I am not just saying that, because really I don’t even drink soft drinks any more unless we are on a trip or something. For my mental health I think that the mental exercise I received was from the work we had. I surly did get some mental stimulation in for this goal. Which I think is good because I know that I am learning something and not just sitting down and doing nothing. For my spiritual health I had the experience of spiritual battles with the Lord. This was where I think I grew the most over not just this semester but the entire year. In the future as I mature I can anticipate that my mental health will be tested more that it is now. I say this in a funny way but I think that the little stress that we have now will help to prepare me for the future as long as I know now to handle the stress in the proper way.

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The Industrial Revolution changed the way we work it helped give rise to possibilities, worked all day worked all night, that’s the way of the industry. With the revolution the religion changed as people sought new thoughts. The Darwin’s thought self. The Marxists thought share, and the Christians, God. With all this change the people were happy that their lives went mush. But they soon found out that the Revolution wasn’t easy if they wanted to live in prosperity.

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Yesterday we waited for the Lord to come. My entire family was so excited, all that the little ones could talk about was what they would do when they entered those pearly gates. Oh the bitter pain of it all! To think that we thought that our savior would come and save us from the sin and destruction of this world, to be released forever from sins deep and icy grasp. Alas my soul cries out to the heavens and I ask "Is there a God? To be so cruel to promise eternity and happy bliss, and then not bother to show?" I feel like a fool, I told all of my friends that the Lord was coming and that they needed to prepare for the advent. How they laughed, I was scorned and I was taunted, they left me but I didn't care. I was going to heaven soon and nothing they could say would stop me from believing. I thought of them as poor fools. Ha! Little did I know that I was that fool! What are we to do? We have sold every thing but the bare necessities. How will we survive the winter? But at this moment in my utter despaired I hear a voice in my head. It say's " Believe, believe and you will be saved." How am I to believe any more? Every think that I thought was true is not. I have nothing to my name and all my friends are gone! But the voice has changed it now say's “Read and you will understand". What am I to read? It replies "My word, read it and understand; and you will be released from your suffering." I know that voice and I cannot deny it I must obey. I open my Bible, well thumbed and dusty. The light is thin, I light a lamp. I don't feel like praying so I just open it, the verse that I open it to is Matthew 24:36. “However no one knows the day or the hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son Himself. Only the Father knows." At this I rejoice! The clouds of darkness begin to lift from my head and I begin to feel at peace. The Lord doesn't even know when he is coming back, only the father. And no man knows either! The most unspeakable joy runs through my veins, I cannot contain it. I must chare this news with my family; they must share in this incredible joy that the Lord has bestowed on his children. He loves us and has not forsaken us, now we only must hold on a little longer until the Lord comes in the clouds of glory to take us home to live with him for ever and ever!

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That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.

William J. H. Boetcker I like this FFT because like it or not this is true. We can't

always please people, and sometimes people want us to do thinks that we know are wrong like smoking. We may like this person, but you know that if you take that cigarette you will be degrading yourself. If you were to take the cigarette the person would be happy that you took it but you yourself would feel that you cheated yourself. Also the person may be looking for your approval for their behavior, and if you say that you won't do it you may push them in the right direction. So I guess that there is a up side and a down side to asserting self control for yourself

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I think that Gandhi will be in heaven. I have a couple of reasons why i think this will be so. First even thought Gandhi wasn't a Christian, he was following the way of God and he believed in the things that God would have us do. In the Bible it says that you cant be saved by works alone, but that you must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But I believe that Gandhi believed in the Spirit of God, and he was misled by the Christians that he met. My teacher made a good point she said that if Gandhi had been a Christian, the people of India wouldn't have listened to him. So it is my belief that God had him be a Buddhist so that he could led India to freedom. I am not God so i cant say weather or not he will be there, but I believe that he will be.

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Final.wpd

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Striving for accuracy is like trying to get a bull’s eye. It takes time to get it but you feel good when you finally do get it. Robert Rayburn .

I chose this FFT because it has explains something that most people don’t realize. To become an accurate person, you must practice. The concept of getting the bull’s eye is just an example that we should follow. People don’t just wake up in the morning and start to be accurate people. You have to have trial and error, and in the end the reward will be being able to do things without mistakes most of the time. Sometimes it is hard to practice the patience that it takes to realize the dream of accuracy. But I think that one thing that people should keep in mind is the fact that there is no such thing as a perfect person, and striving to do so is impossible. We all make mistakes and even thought there is no such thing as perfection, we should all work our hardest to do our best.

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Ok I am going to write about language. I am very interested as to how we have so many different ways of speaking English, even in one country. I did a little research and I found out how an accent comes about. It said that as a group moves away from another group and isolates themselves, their offspring begin to alter the way they speak. They come up with slang and different ways to change the sound of speech. Eventually after a couple generations you have an accent. This will only happen if the group is almost completely isolated from the mother accent, as were the Americans for the most part. I then looked at how come we have too many different ways of speaking American English. I found that there is no such thing as a person with no accent, in America or in the world for that matter. There is always a slight difference in the way people speak, depending on the region they are from. Even different parts of a state will produce a slightly different accent. In the south where I’m from there is a drawl and a lot of slang. I grew up in rural Mississippi and let me tell you, people from Mississippi have the roughest country talk you will ever hear. There is a difference between the people from Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and other southern states. The accent that we find the most pleasing in America is the Midwestern accent or the people from Wisconsin, Michigan so on and so fourth. But I read some where in my research that the southern way of speaking is now the most common accent in America at this present time. (When I say southern accent I don’t mean the “Black” talk that you hear on BET). I found all of this rather interesting I hope you found it as well.

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For the ADRA assignments we had to make up questions that we would like to ask an ADRA volunteer. We also had to watch a video about what ADRA is doing around the world. As I sat and watched the video, I saw the horrible conditions that some people around the world had to deal with. One of the stories was about the elderly people in the former Soviet Union. Since they were retired they had to way of making money to support themselves as the cost of living rose. In the end they had to resort to living in huts made out of mud, with their only nourishment as tea and bread. In these appalling conditions they were forced to live, until ADRA caught wind of this atrocity. ADRA began organizing soup kitchens for the elderly. For those who couldn’t get out because of their health or age, ADRA brought food to them. This display of kindness was gratefully received among the elderly people, they didn’t even want the ADRA workers to leave when they had to go on and deliver food to other people.

The word of ADRA has helped me with the career and service goal because it opens a new horizon of things that I could do for people in mission work. I would most certainly like to participate in something like what the ADRA volunteers are doing, and I think that this assignment has helped me to get a better focus on what it takes to become and ADRA worker, the risks and the rewards.

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Even before the ADRA presentations I have thought about becoming a student missionary. I don't know it’s just something that I have wanted to do since I became aware of the things going on in this world. The ADRA presentations have helped me to at least have an option of where i could serve when I get into college. MY plan is to serve at least one year in college as a student missionary. I would like to go some where in the pacific, maybe some of the islands near Australia. Maybe even Korea and Japan. Japan is by the way my favorite country besides America). The presentations made me think about my self and my serving abilities. I don't know if I could do some of the things that the ADRA people are doing. Like risking their lives for people they haven't even met. But In the Bible it says that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. And I know that I would want some one to come and tell me the gospel of Jesus Christ if I had no idea of the wondrous peace it can bring.

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I think that this was a very thought out FFT. We as a people forget that we shouldn’t give things in a hope for something in return. Its like we give something with one hand and then we hold out the other one empty waiting for it to get filled. What we take from people is also important. When we take something from some one, we should remember it and not just put it some where in the dark corners of our minds. Like I said I think that this was a very well thought out FFT.