The King is Dead

The King is dead! I think we have a good example of how the colonist live, because there where weird taxes and unjust acts. We had taxes on denim, sport shoes, mouth equipment, and jewelry, compared to the taxes they had there. The quartering act, stamp act, tea act, etc. Mr. Coyle was a tyrant, he treated us unfair and used his power to take advantage of us. Mr Coyle also took away our rights, by taxing us a lot and stealing our belongings and demanding taxes for them. We all wanted to rebel and start a revolution so that we go be treated fair and that is self-determination. Instead of us actually going through with the rebellion and refusing to pay taxes, the King actually resigned, unlike in the American Revolution. Mr Coyle was our King George III, he had complete control of us and threatent us a lot. He said that if we didnt pay for paper on our assignment, he wouldn't grade it. Like "NY says no" King revoked some of the taxes as time game, like the agenda tax. But he kept most of the taxes, and if you refused to pay, he would take something of yours and charge even more for it. We had a mini "Sons of Liberty" which only really had one person, Lucas. Like the Sons of Liberty, Lucas fought to get freedom and ended up on the treason list. If you didnt have enough money to pay, you would have to move to Georgia. Georgia was the place where you moved to pay a debt. The board filled up fast, and a lot of people where stuck there because of the King being unjust. It was hard to get money with all the taxes in the class, because there was only one way to make money. I have a good feel about how hard it was to live in the 13 Colonies with someone charging you for everything you did.
http://www.britishbattles.com/images/king-george-iii.jpg

Where is the 43rd War held

The 43rd war is based in El Salvador because in the "Nations of the World Atlas" It ways that El Salvador was torn by civil war. The main religion is Roman Catholic (Wikipedia), like in the book, when the villagers died, it says that they put a cross on the grave. The cross is a Catholic sign, and the main language is Spanish. They speak Spanish a lot in the book. (43rd War). It says that there is a lot of guerilla warfare in El Salvador which agrees with the book because they use it a lot. Altacal was the ruler of El Salvador a while ago and that is maybe why Moeri choose to name a volcano by. I think that Moeri decided not to tell the location because it is not true and also he didnt want to make any one upset about their government. I think that people would have gotten mad if he said any specific country.



moeri, louis. the 43rd war. NY: Hougton miflin, 1989. "Atlacatl."
"Atlacatl." Wkipedia. 2007. Wikipedia. 28 Jan 2008 .

DoI

When it is time to break away, you need to explain why you are doing it. It’s needed that everyone is treated equally and they have undeniable right, life, liberty, and happiness. The government is a people. When someone is not given those rights and things are getting really bad, it is that person’s duty to change that government in hope to make sure that the new government creates a place where people are safe and happy. King George has been so bad; it is our duty to change what he has done wrong.

King George III did several things that were despotic. He cut off all of the trade with the rest of the world, imposed a lot of taxes on us without our approval. He deprived us of the right to a trial by jury, he refused our consent to law and has came overseas, messed up our coast, and killed many people.

We have made many attempts to change this way, but have always gotten the same answer, no. We have tried to warn the British soldiers of what they have done. They have also been deaf, and have not heard what we have been trying to say. These united colonies need to be independent and need to be rid of the British. With this declaration we pledge the to each other our lives, fortune, and honor.

Is TBAS Trustworthy?

To be a Slave is a trustworthy book because there are quotes by real people who went through these events. There is a lengthy bibliography (Lester 159-160). Also in the About the Author it says the Lester is a professor in black studies in the University of Massachusetts. He is a frequent contributor to news papers and is author of other highly acclaimed books, so he has a reputation of being a good and truthful author. One of his examples is the Library of Congress, which is a very good library. (Lester 36). To be a Slave has one six high class awards including a Newbery Honor Book and a New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year. If it wasn’t a trust worthy book we wouldn’t be reading it either. It won an ALA Notable Children’s Book. What I am trying to say is that if it wasn’t true we would be reading another book about slavery. Although he obviously didn’t experience the slave trade, he knows a lot about it. "...one of the most powerful documents to appear in children's literature." - School Library Journal. The book wouldn't be condemned for its great literature if it was all false. Since black studies is his occupation and his citations include the Library of Congress, my view is that To be a Slave is a very trustworthy book.

Lester, Julius. To be a Slave. New York: Scholastic, 1968.

GP Game

In the great powers game, I was partnered with Sabei and was Germany. From the start we focused on mainly building our army, which didn't turn out to be the best idea, as a lot of other teams focused on colonies and industries which looked to benefit them in the long run. I think that USA and France had an advantage at the beginning at the game and they made it obvious. I condemn France's idea to wait the first round, when a lot of countries were busy making "allies" they sat around and watched what was going to unfold. Conor kept a strong hold on his armies, and really helped the alliance that defeated Great Britain in the "great war." Compared to some of the weaker countries like Ottoman, we were a strong country, and they rushed towards us to make allies. In the long run, like I stated before, It is better to by colonies and industries, but you shouldn't overlook armies which are your only line of defense. Navies are useless because they are equivalent to half an army... too bad we had thirty of them. If I were to do something differently, I would have bought a lot more industries, we had 96 economic points compared to Russia's 2000 plus. With that much wealth you can by a lot of army to strengthen up your arsenal whenever an attack comes. We didn't do that, but instead focused on army, in the first few years we were the strongest country, but then that slowly changed. We made a mistake in the beginning, we made to many allies. We only had one trustworthy ally, Russia. Italy double crossed most of their allies by helping USA in the first war, surprising all of the GB friends. Karma struck and Italy paid the price. We also double crossed some of our "allies." In the great war, we didn't choose to part in it, leaving GB to fall. Although we didn't gain much, we didnt run the risk of loosing anything.
I learned that you really can't trust anyone, and even if it is on paper, it does't mean anything. Its a dog eat dog world, and its unfair. You should always expect to be attacked. I learned also that you should get colonies before bolstering up your army, because in the long run, the colonies will help a lot more. And also I learned that before you attack, you should talk over with your "allies" and see what way the will go, not enough help, not worth it. I think that the great powers game was a great way to start up the quarter because we have a really good example of what we are studying now.

Goals Feedback

I don't think that I met my goals this year very well. Although I continued improvement on my reading comprehension and got a good grade on AR, I failed on the aspect on paying attention and my grade suffered from it. On the big Africa research paper I struggled and got a C on it, which brought my grade down to an 84%. I needed to pay more attention to the writing, I think what I did was just try to rush through the piece to get it down, rather then carefully looking at it part by part to make sure that it flowed well. I think what I need to do next quarter is really work on my writing and set aside a good 30 minutes plus to look over the piece before I turn it in. Along with that I need to still set aside time to do my homework. Just because I do it, doesn't mean I understand it. Later in the year it will by key to fully comprehend all the homework I do because I know that it will benefit my a lot if we do another big project like this one. My goals for this quarter are to pay more attention to my work my setting time to double read my assignments and also to work on my actual writing, by looking over it and making sure that I haven't done any mistakes and make sure that it flows well. Also I want to continue with my reading comprehension which will also tie into me understanding homework, and also getting a good AR grade which could really help my great, because I need to big it up in Q3