An ingredient I would add is confidence.

Recipe for a Good Life

Recipes for a Good Life

In school we are working on recipes to make a good life. It is just like a food recipe but instead of ingredients like sugar or butter we use things like family that make a good life. Kyle showed us her grandmother’s recipes that were worn and in little old containers. She passed them around so everyone could take a look at them. Some of them were hand written in cursive and some were typed on a typewriter. We brainstormed verbs that had to with cooking.  Some of them were mix, stir, sprinkle, and chop.  We also brainstormed measurement words like cups and pinches.  Then we worked on computers to make an ingredients list and then added directions.

What would you include in a recipe for a good life?

Posted by Alise P.

Where Children Sleep

In our class we’ve been comparing how different parts of the world live. We’ve looked at what possessions people have and looked at what people eat in a week. Now, we are looking at how children around the world sleep. First, we made a list of ten or more things a stranger would see if they walked into our bedrooms and saw all of our stuff. Then, we saw pictures of children around the world from a book by James Mollison's called Where Children Sleep with pictures of bedrooms. It was sad to see how some of the kids only had one room houses, or lived outside. There was one kid in Rome who slept on a mattress outside. I couldn’t imagine sleeping outside. There were only three kids that I was able to relate to. I was shocked to find that out.

Posted by Max P.

Our Vision for The Year on Animoto

We got the idea for our Animoto on Twitter, from a teacher in Madison, WI, Pernille Ripp. Mrs. Ripp used Animoto to make a class mission, so we thought we would use her idea and make a Room 22 Vision for the Year. This Animoto was also an adventure. It was completely kid made. This first thing that happened was that the song called Good Life by OneRepublic was a little inappropriate for school so one of the kids in our class' dad edited the song on a software program called Audacity and soon after that word was no longer part of the Animoto video. When the Animoto was completely cleaned up we watched it and are class dignity was restored! That's how we made our Animoto.


Post by Henry S

Quality of Life

We studied “Quality of Life” by talking about “What qualities would you need to have a quality life?” My top 5 qualities are:

• Health

• Family

• Education

• Community

• Confidence

My parent’s top 3 qualities are:

• Health 

• Happiness

• Gratefulness

I think people need health because if someone doesn’t have health someone could get a disease, and maybe die. All people need health. I chose family because most of the time family gives you love and you can be happy. It would be great if every one had family/love but not every one needs it.  Good education can get you in to a good high school, and a good high school can get you in to a good college, and that can help you get into a good job. Jobs get you money and with money you can pay for the things you need.  Education is very important. I chose community because people around you can help you and help you get the things that you need. I don’t think every one needs it but it’s good to have it and some people’s family is their community. 

My parent’s thought that being grateful is important because when you are grateful you can appreciate all the things in life. And they thought that happiness is important because when you are happy you can enjoy life. And if you are healthy you feel great.

This is what our class thought compared to our parents:

We all agree on friends, love/family, health, food and freedom. It was a surprise that the parents didn’t say education, because it can help you get a good job and that helps you get money.

What do you think makes a quality life?

By Amelia L

The Danger of A Single Story

                          

TEDTALK: The Danger of a Single Story 

Our teacher showed us a TED talk called "The Danger of a Single Story".  I would recommend this video because it’s just one of those videos that you want to continue to watch.  Chimamanda Adichie, a Nigerian novelist, has a very interesting story.  She explains that there is not one story about any place.  There are multiple stories.

Chimamanda  grow up in Nigeria, Africa. When she was eight she got a new house-boy named Fide. All her mom told her about him was that he was poor. One day Chimamanda visited his village. When she got there Fide’s brother showed her a basket he had woven. It had never occurred to her that Fide's family could actually make something because all she had known about him was that he was poor.

Chimamanda learned how to read when she was four. She was also an early writer and started writing at age seven.  In all her stories the characters had blue eyes and blonde hair, just like in the British books. They also ate apples and talked about how nice the weather was when the sun was out. But, in Nigeria they ate mangos and the sun was always out.

When she moved to the U.S. for college her roommate asked “Where’d you learn how to speak English so well?” Chimamanda said that English is the official language of Nigeria. Then the roommate asked “Can you play some of your tribal music?” Chimamanda played Mariah Carey. Her roommate also assumed that she couldn’t use a stove. 

Chimamanda was reading a book by John Locke and it said that Africans are beasts with no houses.  Later a professor told her her stories were not authentically African because there was not enough suffering. Chimamanda had a very good childhood with a roof over her head and food on the table.

If we let only one story define Africa, then we will only think of it in one way and not realize that there are all kinds of people in different situations in Africa. I still have a lot of questions but along the way I’ll find the answers!

Posted by Lila F

The Five Ps of Poverty

Cate Biggs, the editor of the World Savvy Monitor and Writing for Global Engagement, came to speak to us about the causes of poverty.  Her talk was helpful and informative. We learned about the Five P’s of poverty.

There are 6 billion people in the world. One billion of that have what they need. Four billion of that have hope that they can get what they need. And the rest live in poverty and they get a dollar a day for the very hard work that they do.

Poor people in poor countries face huge challenges. Food is hard to get, they have to take six hours out of their day do get water and the water is sometimes not clean. No electricity, no roads so it’s hard to get from place to place, education is hard to get, there are a lot of diseases, not a lot of healthcare, and unfair rules of law, so someone can steal something and it won’t even mater.

The first P of poverty is PLACE. You don’t want to be in a country with the climate being very hot because then you have a scarce amount of water. Also you don’t want to be next to a poor country. The USA has a good climate, not a lot of diseases, and great coastlines. Chad is poor because it is small, landlocked, and has bad climate.

The second P is PAST.  A country's past matters because if your country had slaves that were sent to the USA then they took advantage of them.

The third P is PEOPLE. Overpopulation matters because if you have too many people and not enough space and not enough resources then you will have a country in poverty and you hard time controlling diseases. The USA normally has two babies per woman. In Chad it’s normally five babies per woman. 99% of people can read in the USA but only 25% of people can read in Chad. 

The fourth P in poverty is POLITICS. Nearly all voters in the USA can read. But, less then 25% of voters can read in Chad! Also the US government is all connected. But, in Chad the government spreads out.

The last P in poverty is PEACE. There are a lot of wars in the countries in poverty. For example, in Chad, after a war they are more likely to start up another. Chad is surrounded with war and bad things. Poverty is a cycle. The P’s of poverty keep the countries in poverty. India and China jumped out of poverty.  The USA is helping a lot with the countries in poverty by giving money. The USA has given of one trillion dollars to the countries in poverty. What you can do is, understand, act, and educate.
  

Post written by Elizabeth C