CJH GCE Portfolio

 This is an Action Project for my civic term class, Music That Matters. This term we took a deep dive into music and how it can teach, inspire, and ignite people. For this project we had guest speakers from many different places come and teach us about different ways music can be effective. We took these ideas and came up with ways music can benefit our communities. We are proposing these ideas to My Block My Hood My City, which is an organization that helps communities by giving grants and donations to help make peoples ideas reality. We also learned about Ratliff's vocabulary. I went out to the end of my block and took a video of the sounds that come from my neighborhood.  Hello, I am a student from GCE Lab School, and I am applying for the grant to help make my idea of making this installation possible. For this project, I came up with an idea to teach, inspire, and ignite my community through music. I went out to my block/neighborhood and I sat there for about 4 minutes, j...

 This is the final Action Project of the term. This unit was all about unity and how it can be shown in art. Even though it was a short unit, I definitely learned a lot. We had two guest speakers who are a absurdist comedy group named A Waste of your Time and Money. They talked about what inspires them and why they use comedy to get their point across. For this Action Project, we were tasked with creating some sort of art project that addresses a social/political issue. I chose the topic of wearing a mask in public. To show my idea and thought process, I have made a comic sketch showing what could happen if you don't wear your mask when with others during this COVID-19 pandemic. I have also put together an artist statement to explain my thought process and show what my art piece is talking about in more detail. I am a high school student who is in the midst of learning online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has forced me to wear a mask in places I would normally go for fun, food, ...

This is an action project for my core class Design and Engineering. This unit, we have learned about many different subjects. For example, gears, gear ratio, bikes, radius, diameter, circumference, speed, energy, etc. During this unit I also interviewed a friend of mine who mikes often. During the interview he said "I enjoy customization." I took what he said and turned it into inspiration to help me give my bike more innovation. This quote made me think of more ways that I can add customization, not just for the gears on a bike. For this Action Project, I have teamed up with a classmate of mine and given a persona to solve problems they have with bikes, theft of bikes, terrain, and many more things. Our persona is a man named Mohammed who lives 5 miles away from his school. He has issues with his bike getting stolen, he lives in a hot and rainy climate, has a very rocky terrain with streams flowing through the streets, and he needs a way to carry goods from the market. My pa...

 For this unit, we have discussed rhetoric and how it can be effective in op-eds. An op-ed is basically an opinion piece in a newspaper. We have also met with a guest speaker and went to Marquette Park Memorial. The guest speakers name was Ugo Okere and he ran for office to be the 40th ward alderman. He talked to us about how public speaking can be effective and how we can prepare ourselves for arguments/debates in the future. The Marquette Park Memorial is a place in Chicago that symbolizes Dr. Martin Luther Kings' quote about the three evils, Race, Poverty, and War. For this Action Project, I was tasked with writing our own op-ed to challenge the status quo. My topic is "How Video games can be effective in life and not a menace to society."  CJH, Nov 5 For years video games have been represented as a menace to kids of all ages to enjoy. But video games have a whole different side to it that makes it effective in the shaping of kids minds and eventually how it can start ...

       This is an action project for my core class Design and Engineering. During this unit, we have learned about many things. Such as tools, finding volume/surface area, and empathy. More specifically, we have learned about gardening tools and how they can be effective. For this project, we were tasked with finding a specific garden tool and trying to innovate it. We were supposed to design it towards the elderly and how we can make the tool easier to use for them. I teamed up with my brother and together we came up with a design that can help elderly people use tools more effectively. In order to start this project, we needed to find a tool that would help elderly people. We went to Home Depot to learn about all the types of garden tools there are. We even interviewed people to find out what tool would need to be redesigned. In my interview, they said "Shears or my favorite tool," and in a different interview, they said "shears or good but i wish they were longer....

     This Action Project is all about demonstrating rhetoric and how it can be used in different situations. For this Action Project, I will be demonstrating rhetoric through a speech that I am writing for Margaret Croke. Margaret Croke is a progressive activist who is running for the Illinois house of representatives to represent the 12th District of Chicago. During this Unit, we have learned about parts of rhetoric like, Pathos, Logos, Ethos, and rhetorical devices. In the video I have posted below, I am reading the speech I have written for Margaret Croke. I have used Pathos, Logos, and Ethos to give my speech more effectiveness. The speech is about what Margaret Croke will do for the lower income communities of Chicago and how will she help them thrive.                                                      ...

Welcome to my Action Project for my Core class Drama. In this Unit, we have been studying the south side of Chicago and what it was like in the older times. We had two FE guests brought in to teach us about what they know. Our first FE guest was Regina Holloway. Our second guest was Joel Hamernick. Throughout the term, we have been reading different plays in each unit. This unit, we read A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. For this Action Project, we have written a letter to Walter trying to convince him whether to buy the new house or to sell it. We had to write this play from the perspective of a person mentioned in the play. I personally chose to write as Travis, Walter's son. This is the last action project of the entire school year. I hope you enjoy and see you next year. Dear Daddy, This is Travis. I know that I am young and my opinion isn’t a big factor for you buying or selling the house. I still think that you should keep the house. First, this house is all the joy ...

Welcome to my blog. This is an Action Project for my core class Cure. In this unit, we have been at home talking about cells, what they are, and what they are made up of. We have also taken the time to look at different types of surgeries. Also, we had two special FE guests join us through Zoom and teach us about themselves and what they know to help us get a clearer understanding. The two guests who joined us were Dr. Neeraj Jain and Kellee Athens. For this assignment, we were tasked with interviewing someone who has had any surgery performed on them. For the interview, I chose to interview someone about the surgery they had done. The surgery that was performed was a Hysterectomy which is the removal of the uterus. I have put together a slideshow below explaining all of the risk factors, side effects, and much more detail on how the surgery is performed. "No dietary restrictions. I was super groggy and just slept a lot. I was in the hospital for 1 or 2 days. It took me a week to ...

Welcome to my blog. This term, our class is called Drama. In this term, we are going to learn about plays and acting. This unit, we have been reading a play by Shakespeare, "The Taming Of The Strew." This was the first unit that we had to do over video using Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been interesting but we have found a way to make it work. For this Action Project, we were assigned with creating our own sonnet using iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter is a type of rhythm in the sonnet that follows a "duh-dum" type of beat with ten syllables in each line. In this sonnet, we made it based around a character of our choice from The Taming Of The Shrew. We have also taken a video of ourselves reading this sonnet that we have created. The man that I am talking about in this sonnet, is named Lucentio. He is a man that won the heart of Bianca in Bianca. There were other suitors chasing Bianca but Lucentio won the chase. He is my favorite character in the pl...

Welcome to my blog. This is a final presentation of the term that shows a certain project I enjoyed doing and wanted to go into more detail about. This term, we have learned about mental disorders and physical disorders in our STEAM class. In our Humanities class, we learned about banning books and the censorship of books. For my final presentation, I had to pick a guiding question from one of our core classes. The guiding question that I picked was from my STEAM class. The question is "How can epidemics be contained?" I took this question and redefined it into a new question, "What is an epidemic and how can we prevent one?" Below you will find the slideshow based around this question. Each slide explains a different part of epidemics and how they relate to what is going on now (COVID-19).   I enjoyed this project because I was able to understand more about what was going on in our lives today, and also I am now able to give details to people about the sp...

Welcome to my blog. This is an Action Project for my core class Forbidden Books. In this unit, we have been learning about diversity and how it relates to a book being banned. In this action project, we have picked our banned books from the last unit and studied them and why they were banned. We have taken all of the research about our books and turned them into research papers. We were tasked with first, researching why the books were banned, who banned it, and what the author has responded to their book being banned. My author was Jack London, and he didn't say much about his book being banned, so I had to take one of his quotes about literature instead. I have also taken a side in this paper about whether or not the book should or should not be banned. You will hear my side in the paper and I hope you enjoy it. CJH. The Call of the Wild Book Cover. 2020. Above is my own book cover that I made from my other class Fine Art.

This is a blog post for my second Action Project for my core class Disease. This class is about diseases, both physical and mental diseases. We have been studying different diseases and a couple main ones we have been looking at are Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We also learned about the DSM-V. The DSM-V is a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. So it shows you all about the mental illnesses in the manual. For this action project, I had to choose a disease from the DSM-V and study it. The disorder I chose was Agoraphobia. Agoraphobia is the abnormal and persistent fear of public places or open areas, especially those from which escape could be difficult or in which help might not be immediately accessible. My definition for it is the fear of crowded places without being able to find a way out. In the panic disorder/agoraphobia spectrum, several studies appear to converge on effects in the amygdala, Adenoid cystic...

This is my Action Project for my core class Forbidden Books. In this Action Project, we have each picked a censored book and read it. The book I chose was The Call of the Wild. This was a book that I had read many times before, and I have loved it each time. It was interesting to find out that this book was censored. So, why was The Call of the Wild banned? It was banned in Yugoslavia and Italy for being "too radical" and was burned by the Nazis because of the author's well-known socialist leanings. So...yeah, interesting right? In this podcast, I am interviewing my father and he is representing John Thornton from my book. This book takes place in 1896 Canada. In this unit, we have studied different religions and beliefs or also known as "dogma" and looked at how it relates to why a book is banned/censored. We studied Christianity and we also went to a mosque to take a closer look at Islamic culture. The podcast is going to be a deeper dive into John's do...

Welcome to my blog. This is an Action Project for my core class Disease. In this class, we have been studying the human body and all of its body systems. The eleven body systems are the integumentary, muscular, skeletal, nervous, circulatory, lymphatic, respiratory, endocrine, urinary/excretory, reproductive and digestive and each has its own important role to play. We have each picked a disease that has been in our family. The disease that I picked is asthma. Asthma is a disease that affects the respiratory system . In the slideshow below I say how each organ is affected. Her name is Jane and she is 14 years old. She has had asthma for most of her life. It has prevented her from participating in sports. When she has an asthma attack, she stops and has to hold onto something in order for her to stop herself from falling over because she can’t catch her breath. She always has an inhaler with her whenever she is going somewhere that requires a lot of movement. "If I kno...

Welcome to my blog post. This is an Action Project for my core class Forbidden Books. So, what is a forbidden/censored book? Well, it is a book that was written and either banned or censored by a government or a school because they think that the book is signifying or implying something they don't like.      In this project, I have teamed up with another student in our class. We put together a dialogue using the Socratic Method. The Socratic Method is a type of argument that is meant to create critical thinking by questioning each person. The Socratic Method is named after Socrates. Socrates was one of the first founders of western philosophy which is why he was so important. He created the Socratic Method because he wanted to make solid conclusions by asking questions and he later taught his students this same method. The Socratic Method is also used to try and change the mind of the other person like I am doing in this video below. To start this video we had to come up...