Feelings and experiences of immigrants coming to the United States.

While looking through the pictures, it seemed like most people looked nervous for what was coming next. Most of the kids look unhappy, but it was probably from the long journey and not understanding why they were there. Most of the adults did look nervous, but they seemed somewhat excited to see what life in the United States had in store for them. The fact that it was also the turn of the century, they were excited to see when was in store for them at the beginning of the next century.

Should countries leave pieces of their history out, especially that which is negative, when documenting these stories? Explain.

I don't think we should leave out the full story of how history happened, but i don't think young children need to hear about all the violence in the wars and everything. When we are all young, we wouldn't understand why everything was happening anyway, so why would kids need the full details? they can get the overview of how it happened without all the gore an violence. Once they get to high school, they will be mature enough to hear the truth and be ready to understand why the whole truth wasn't told when they were young.

Which blogging topic was your favorite from first quarter?

My favorite blogging topic was getting the listen to Rocky Raccoon by the Beatles. I love the Beatles and think they are a great band. I have most of their music but I had never actually heard Rocky Raccoon before, and i really liked the song. I enjoyed getting to listen to it and getting to use my brain and really think about how it related to real life cowboys. I'm really into music, so getting to use music as part of a learning experience is great.

Was your learning different when blogging, as compared to writing just pen and paper?

My learning was different because instead of answering questions on a piece of paper, i was made to actually think about my answer and even do an activity. The questions were also interesting and kept me interested the whole time while doing them. I also enjoyed the fact that it felt very freeing getting the freedom to do the blog posts at home and taking as much time as needed in the week for them rather than the stress of filling out a worksheet or writing and essay and getting it into school on time. I have also never blogged before, so this is a new experience for me which is turning out to be quite enjoyable.

What life was like for textile workers.

Life in the textiles was definitely very hard. The workers had long hours with no breaks, no sunlight and no rest. They were left to be hungry all day while working. The lyrics of the song also suggest that they worked from morning till night with little to now breaks. They didn't get to go outside or get fresh air or antyhing. Women wore dirty rags to work in, along with her kids. The song shows just how hard the word was for them and how unfair it was. It's crazy how children were also made to work such long hours.

What effect did Reconstruction have on former slaves? Were they better off after Reconstruction than they were before the Civil War?

The effects that the reconstruction had on African Americans was a pretty good one. They had just been freed from slavery and were able to get jobs. These jobs weren't anywhere close to first class or even middle, but it was certainly much better than slavery. The slaves were offered share crops which was when they got given a home and land to work on that was owned by a landowner. The African American would give the landowner half of all the crops. They were still treated very badly, but anything was better than being a slave.

The African Americans were much better off after the Civil War since they were free, and anything was better than being a slave.

"Rocky Raccoon"

The Beatles portray the wild west by the very beginning of the song talks about how a boy wants to start a fight with another boy for taking his girl. This seems very typical in the Wild West since girls and fights always came about. It also takes about how he went to a saloon with a gun, which again is typical for cowboys. Cowboys were always thought to be carrying guns around and going to the local saloon all the time. The names of all the 'character' in the song are also very western sounding. A showdown is also mentioned which are shown in every western movie, when one man is standing at one end of an empty dusty town and the same with another man the other side. The song also sounds pretty western, so that can connect with how cowboys were.

Discuss why you agree or disagree with the blogging assessment system used in this course. Your opinion will not affect your grade. You will be assessed on how you formulate your argument.

I don’t really strongly disagree or agree with them. I feel like there is both good and bad in them, but either way I look at it as an assignment that I have to do if I want to get good grades to get into college.

I agree with them because I feel like they are a good way in helping to practice managing time and not procrastinating. This is a very good skill to possess since in college it is very important to do things on time and not get behind. And the result from procrastinating from doing them is a fair enough result since in college, the result in procrastinating or not even doing your work will end much, much worse. College is also where it actually really matters too, since your parents or you are paying for you to go there. It would suck to let your parents down or even yourself. So I feel like these blogs are a great way to practice time management.

These blogs posts are also good because they will get your mind thinking. They are not just yes or no answers, it’s the type of question where you really have to think about your answer and formulate an argument or explanation as to why you feel the way you feel in your answer. By working your brain to come up with good enough sounding answers, its creating more skills that can be used in later life.

Another good think about these blog posts are they can be more fun than regular homework. I like how for some posts we get to play a game, or watch a movie clip or even listen to great songs from popular bands. It is definitely a lot more fun than getting boring worksheets. It also helps you learn easily without straining your brain to remember things.

The only things I disagree with about these blog posts are the length of the weekly article. I seem to find it hard to come up with 600 words without sounding like I am rambling on and on. Even having 500 words would make the world of difference to 600. I don’t find the topics hard, I just find it hard to come up with a long enough answer that flows rather than sounding choppy and not making much sense.

I’m also on the fence about blog posts because it is all on the internet. I find having to be on the internet while doing my homework can cause me to get distracted much easier since itunes, youtube, ichat or facebook is only one click away. So the down part is I will end up spending hours doing one post because I become terribly distracted so easily while online.

Another down thing is the internet itself. Recently, the internet company I use has been crashing a lot so I never know if I’m going to have internet of not one night. This can result in me getting behind in blogs posts. And I’m sure some of these reasons are the same for other students.

All in all, the blog posts are somewhat enjoyable. They can be enjoyable because doing homework through a blogging website is new for me and it’s a new, interesting way to do homework. The freedom is also nice to have from a teacher to trust us enough to do our blog posts. The freedom also can help prepare for college since most stuff is done online. Blog posts also help use your mind in different ways than regular homework, which is refreshing. So overall, i agree with the blog posts more than I disagree with them.

Truths about the American Cowboy

The truth about the American cowboy is not all about this crazy talk and the drinking and the girls, being a cowboy was a real job and a hard one at that. They all faced struggles everyday, which each day got harder to overcome. Jobs were not easy and other cowboys were not easy. They didn’t have fun partying all the time like in the Hollywood movies.

The picture I chose was of a cowboy doing the job night herding. This job was tough and dangerous. Herding throughout the night could result in getting lost, getting attacked by another group or man, getting attacked by an animal, losing people night herding with you because of the dark, or many other bad things could happen.

In wild west movies, cowboys are portrayed as these strong men with thick accents who are always chewing on straw, drinking in saloons, getting into fights and getting lots of women. Part of this is true, part of it is not. Being a cowboy in a movie is portrayed as more as a life style and not a job. In the movies cowboys are all big talk and fighting with lots of dusty deserted roads, wagons and boots with stars on it. Take Toy Story for example: Woody is a cowboy and his biggest concern is his fashion and horse. He is portrayed as someone who talks in an accent, says silly phrases like “there’s a snake in my boot” and likes to have fun. While in real life, being a cowboy is much different.

In real life, being a cowboy was about surviving however you could, trying not to die everyday and making a living. There were many jobs involved in being a cowboy. Most of these jobs were very dangerous but absolutely had to be done. For example, the picture I chose was night herding. It had to be done in order to heard the horses and cows in other farms or towns over night for people to use and who needed it. The whole fighting and crazy talk of cowboys came about from their need to survive. Yes, cowboys did fight a lot. But not for some stupid meaningless thing like in the movies when they would fight over women, beer, or cows. These fights would come about from people trying to do their jobs and getting in the way of other people trying to do their jobs. Also, since cowboy’s jobs were very hard and tedious, it was easy for them to get angry fast. Their jobs left them on tight schedules which needed to be done. Like for night herding, if it doesn’t done in time, it was very easy for the job to just fail or the cowboys could even dies and lose their heard of cows and horses. This would effect the town they were going to since they would need the supplies and it would also effect other cowboys.

In conclusion, Hollywood movies portrayed the cowboys as these wack and crazy figures who fought over stupid stuff while chewing on straw. It did a poor job of explaining how tough life really was for the cowboys and how many struggles they faced everyday. These struggles were not easy to overcome which would result in fights, this creating more chaos and struggles for each cowboy. Life was certainly not easy for them and they definitely didn’t have fun drinking all the time and getting lots of girls and beating the poop out of each other for no reason like in Hollywood movies.

Cowboys are highly overlooked, and viewed as good-for nothing loonatics rather than people who actually faced hardships every days of their lives and and had to fight for survival.

Discuss the relationships between the treatment of African-Americans during Reconstruction with the treatment of the same peoples during the United States Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

During the Reconstruction, African Americans were not treated much better than when they were slaves. People would discriminate against them and still treat them like nothing. The only improvement the fact the were free. The African Americans were now able to work and have a job. Though it was not a good job, it was still a step up from being a slave.

The job the African American's now had was in share cropping. Share cropping was when the land owner would give the African American's part of their land and a house to stay in. The African Americans would work on the land and give half the produce to land owner and keep the rest for themselves. This though, was not a big improvement from slavery. There were still many strict, tough rules for the African Americans to follow. 

During the United States Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s, African American's treatment had not improved much. By this time they were able to get jobs and started getting education. African Americans were still discriminated against though and treated like dirt. 

The Education for the African Americans was bad. They were segregated from white people and didn't have good books or anything. They had school in old houses which were not comfortable places to stay in all day. Teachers were also not trained and therefore were not good.

Treatment for African American adults wasn’t any better than for the kids. Adults were excepted to sit at the back of the bus, wait in different lines at stores and again, were discriminated against greatly. It was much harder for African Americans to get jobs than any other race. Life was not easy for them in this time era because off all the racism.

The relationship between treated of African Americans during the reconstruction and African Americans during the United States Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s was close to the same thing. The only major differences were, of course, technology and how things were run. But the basics were still there. African Americans had no rights, or anything. Life was not fair for them in either era because of  all the racism and the past that they had had.

A few differences were that in the 1950s and 1960s, African Americans did have a few more rights. They were able to start getting an education and other jobs. There was no longer as much hatred towards them from the south as there was during the reconstruction. Racism was still very high, but more African Americans were trying to stand up to it now.

As for back during Reconstruction, African Americans were not fighting as much for rights since they had only just been freed from slavery. Being free was a whole new thing for them that they were not going to complain about. Conditions may have been hard but they were ready to try and live life. Although it may not have been easy and conditions were rough, it was a lot better than slavery.

So, therefore, there were not great differences between life for African Americans during the time of the reconstruction and during the time of United States Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Of course, conditions were mildly better for African Americans during United States Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s because it was the civil movement, and the civil movement was about getting more rights. But all in all, African Americans were treated unfairly even after slavery. Even today, racism is still getting in the way of having the same rights for everyone. That just shows how uneasy it is for racist people to be fair to African Americans or any other race out there.