Announcement Letter

Lilly Maher,  September 27th, 2016

lillymaher@ceaderridgehighschool.ca

http://21stcenturylilly.blogspot.ca

275 Michael Cowpland Dr, Kanata, ON K2M 2G2

Dear: Family, Friends, Teachers, peers and the world

This letter is to inform you of my newly created digital portfolio. The purpose of my digital portfolio is to enhance my learning by having a space to share my work, not just in the classroom but to everyone in the world. Having this digital portfolio will also help for future references by using this to show my past work all in one space in an organized way, so that if I ever need to show someone my work when I am applying for a job I can do it quickly. This portfolio is also a space where I can look for others opinions on my work to see how I am able to edit it so it may be approved, or see others point of views. I go to a school in Kanata called Cedar Ridge High school, its main focus is on 21st-century education. I am writing this blog for my 21st-century literacy course. This course is about literacy and business but more importantly, it encompasses the study of technology and other 21st century tools and how to use those tools to enhance or learning and in the real world. I would like my readers to leave my portfolio inspired to create, educate and learn. I would like others to look at my work and understand what I am trying to say as well as offer advice so that i may improve my skills and learn as well.

Thank you for reading

Sincerely, Lilly Maher  

Design Sprint Sketchnote

Flowers for Algernon Vs. Charly Movie review

Charly is a film directed by Ralph Nelson. It is based off the classic book Flowers for Algernon. The book, written in 1959, was produced as a movie in 1968 which people still continue to watch.

Description:

The movie follows the story of 32-year-old Charlie Gordon who is challenged with a mental disability that causes him to seem as though he doesn't belong in his own body both emotionally and intellectually and not experience life to the fullest. Charlie is given the chance to receive an experimental surgery that will increase his IQ and change him intellectually. A surgery which has only and still is in its experimental stages of being performed on a mouse named Algernon. Charlie finally gets to see the world with new eyes and actually understand everything in it. He finally gets to experience life for what it really is, shows his “friends” at the bakery that he is a human too, and even fall in love. But after discovering that his great pal Algernon the mouse is dead Charlie realizes that he doesn't have much time left. He works restlessly to come up with a theory as to why the experiment didn’t go right. He starts to become more of what he was before and forgets more things every day. Things continue to fall apart around him until everything goes back to the way it was. And Charlie Gordon is a 32year old man who finds joy in playing on the play structures at the park.

My thoughts on the book:

Flowers for Algernon is possibly one of the best classic books to read because of its engaging and creative storyline. I found it very intriguing to read due to the fact that I had never heard of an experiment similar to this one. The book gave an interesting perspective of what it's like to be a  mentally disabled person who had this surgery performed on them. It showed their progress, intellect and emotions from before and after the surgery and the after effects of the surgery. It also encompassed many different emotions that Charlie had. Instead of just focusing on the surgery and Charles IQ it also focuses on Charlie's relationships and emotions whether it be with Mrs. Kinnian and Fay or his family. During the parts where Charlie was seeing the original Charlie, I found it very creative and something that I had never read about before.

My thoughts on the movie:         

The movie altho would most likely be good to someone who never read the book was not actually very accurate to the actual occurrences in the book. Since some of the sections in the book were not in the movie it seemed as though parts of the movie didn't make sense and it missed very important parts that really shaped and helped you understand Charlie's character more. Charlie's family was not at all shown in the movie and it felt as though you were missing a whole part of Charlie because he didn't have flashbacks to how rough and sad his life was, which shaped Charlie's character in the future. They also had a period where they added Charlie doing drugs, hanging out with girls and riding motorcycles which didn't happen in the book I think this takes away because you don’t get to see Charlie improving his intelligence to his fullest potential. The movie takes some things from the book but they don't take important  character developing parts. The also go through all of the emotions and scenes very fast which takes away from the things that happened because they are going by so fast.

Movie reflection:

Considering that the movie was made in 1968 I believe that it was a very good movie for its time and that because the times were different then people may not have wanted to see certain things that were left out of the movie. The acting, for the most part, was good except for certain actors who could have done better. Cliff Robertson who played Charlie did an exceptional job showing the difference between mentally challenged and smart Charlie when he was mentally challenged Charlie he acted as though he was a child but there was more than just the child he acted as though he was a zombie as though he wasn't human at all. When he was smart Charlie he acted as a regular person he held himself higher and acted like he was better than everyone else which he thought he was during a section of the book.  Overall I found the acting pretty good and I especially loved the portrayal of Charlie which I found was very careful in not offending people who have mental disabilities.            

The Book vs. The Movie

                                                      Flower for Algernon            vs.                 Charley

Warren	Charlie seems as though he is visiting the Warren as a scientist who is interested in what they do there, but he is actually looking at the conditions for when he goes there.	Charlie doesn't visit the Warren.
Surgery and after effects	The surgery is not described in great detail but afterward, how Charlie is feeling is described. Afterward, Charlie's eyes and head are covered with a bandage for a few weeks and he is visited by a nurse who does not agree with what Charlie has done. Charlie slowly starts to learn and he doesn't show signs of improving till a few other events take place. Charlie’s IQ starts to decrease very suddenly and he doesn't know about it till right before he starts to go.	There is a quick scene of Charlie being knocked out so they can perform the surgery and then it goes straight to Charlie for a brief moment seeing Mrs. Kinnian after he has had surgery. Then right after Charlie’s IQ starts to improve and he starts to do things such as paintings which are progressively more sexual and disturbing as he gets smarter. Charlie knows that he is going to go back to the way he was at the conference and he announces it to everyone there, whereas in the book Charlie just lets Algernon out of the cage because he gets upset.
Algernon’s mental State after the operation	Algernon is doing well and is performing his tests very well up until just before the conference when he starts to not complete the maze, throw himself against the wall, bite people, not eat and many other crazy things. Then when Charlie runs away with Algernon he bites Fay and kills Minnie. The shortly after Algernon dies.	There is no showing of Algernon going crazy except for when Charlie beats Algernon in the maze and Algernon doesn’t finish the maze. Then later 1 week before the conference Algernon and some other mice in his unit start to go crazy. Then on the day of the conference Charlie goes to see Algernon in his cage  and while giving his speech he pulls a dead Algernon out of his pocket and says “Charlie Gordon? Charlie Gordon is a fella who will go back to the way he used to be.” Then he says to Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss “ Why didn’t you tell me the experiment was temporary.”

Flowers for Algernon, Rose Gordon Diary entries

Dear Diary,

My life is such a mess. All I do is worry about my son being normal and fight with Matt. I want to go back to the good old days, when it was just me and Matt. We could do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. But no, we had to have a son. I blame Matt for all of this. He wanted a son so bad. Why can't he consider me as well. Uhhhhhhgggggg, why does the lord hate me so. I just want to be a normal family. I don't want to fight with Matt all the time about Charlie and all the money we spend on trying to help him learn better. But it has to work. It has to. If it doesn't I’m going to get so much crap from Matt. He wants to open a stinkin barber shop. A barber shop!!!! Can you believe that man. That is not a dignified line of work, he can survive being a salesman or no more Rose Gordon for him. Oh if he evens mentions barbering again i'm going to chop his head off. He doesn't care like I do. He doesn't understand. If you don’t hold your head high and look down on people, than those people will look down on you. That’s one of the main reasons I don't want him to be a barber, all of my friends their husbands are in such respected lines of work. Imagine what they would think of me if they found out I was married to a barber. Oh my gosh there goes that child again. What did he do this time. I swear if he dirtied his pants… again i am going to have to take away that rope toy he’s always playing with. Where did he even get that. Matt probably brought it back for him... Like he deserves it. He always brings things back for him. Toys that kids Charlie's age don’t play with. Matt always says “he's different from the other children Rose.” “he doesn't learn like them he's slow, can’t you see he’s not normal.” But I REFUSE to believe that. HE IS NORMAL. He just needs a little more help that’s all, and there is nothing wrong with that. There he goes again. I wish I could block out that infernal noise. I’ll talk to you tomorrow diary.

Sincerely, Rose Gordon

P.S. I have to tell you about my surprise when I get back.

Dear Diary,

I am ECSTATIC. Finally a second chance. Oh my gosh thank you lord, I knew you couldn't have cursed me. When I told Matt about the news he was excited but not as excited as me. I have no idea why, but I don't care I finally have my chance to prove that I am not cursed to have retarded children. I do hope this one is a girl. A little girl, my little girl. I’ve got remember to keep her out of reach from Charlie when she’s born. He might do something to her. He could drop her on her head or play with her to ruff. Lord knows what goes on in that childs head he is to dangerous for my little girl. I’m going to the doctor tomorrow to see how it's (she’s) doing. Oh I’m so excited!!!!!!! She should be born in a few months. I should probably go and start making dinner, Matt will be home from working soon. He likes to eat as soon as he gets home. I’d better go check on Charlie first before I start to make sure he’s not doing bad things...

THAT CHILD. When I went into his bedroom he was playing with his spinner and his pants were soaked. It was totally disgusting, I can not belive it. I had him go take a bath and I threw his clothes out. I am DONE dealing with that grossness. He’s still in the bath, hopefully he’s cleaned himself up. I must go make dinner now.

Sincerely, Rose Gordon

P.S. I have a feeling that things are about to get very rough with my pregnancy and money and Charlie, so I will try and talk when I can.

         Dear Diary,

I’m sorry I haven't written in 5 months. My life has been so busy. Charlie has done some very bad things lately. He wrote a very disgusting note to a sweet girl in his class and her brother beat him up. He probably didn’t know any better, but if he’s starting to act like this with girls what is he going to do with his sister. I’m scared what if he hurts my daughter. Speaking of her, I went to the doctor and he told me that she will be a girl, i’m so excited!!!!!!!!!!! I should be giving birth soon. Hopefully sooner than later I want to see my daughter. Matt and me are going through a very rough patch. Last night we were fighting about Charlie getting switched into his new class, and Charlie came down to “talk” about who knows what and started to cry when he heard that we were screaming. So I started yelling at him to go to bed and he dirtied his pants again, the whole time Matt was telling me to stop that i’m scaring him but I didn’t listen. I’m so tired of dealing with him. I have no idea what to do about him. UHggggggg. I have to go and cook dinner now. I do everything in this house. Matt doesn't help out at all. I wish he could be a more efficient worker and make more money for all of Charlies treatments. Oh Charlies treatments every weekend we traveling to different towns where Charlie goes through a different treatment. Even though none of them have worked yet, I am determined to fix my child. Maybe when my daughter is born we can stop going to treatments. My daughter is going to be perfect and nothing is going to stop that from happening. I guess I should go cook now Matt has been coming home later now so it gives me a chance to write a little longer. I will talk to you soon but this baby is ready to come out so it may be later than sooner. Goodbye Diary

Sincerely, Rose Gordon

Dear Diary,

I finally had beautiful Norma Rose Gordon. She is so sweet and beautiful, and she is my child. So far she is looking to be the perfect child. I’m always nervous when Charlie is around Norma. I’m scared he going to hurt her. He is so careless, whenever Matt is holding her I get terrified that he will let Charlie hold her, I tell him every time don’t let Charlie hold her. Speaking of the angle, she has started to cry I better go check on her.

I walked into Norma's bedroom and there was Charlie holding Norma. I started screaming at him and snached Norma away, who started to cry. I told him “ look what you’ve done, now she’s crying.” He looked at me and he started to cry. I sent him to his room. I was able to calm Norma down and I told her “don’t worry my little angel, he won't touch you ever again.” He is a horrible child. Why can't he just listen. HE IS NOT SUPPOSED TO TOUCH HER.

*Throws diary, which hits the wall and falls behind a table*

Dear Diary,

I found you the other day while trying to make space for a new painting that I was able to buy with the money I secretly saved up from doing odd jobs. No one knows about my odd jobs. I go do them while Matt’s at work and the kids are at school. I’ve made a decent amount of money so I could buy this small little painting. I’ll just tell Matt that my parents sent it to me. Reading my last entry I realized how simple life was back then even though it was only 7 years ago it feels like such a long time. Life now is very frustrating and annoying. Charlie is causing problems for Norma. Because he’s been put into the retard class the other students tease Norma and give her a hard time. It is absolutely terrible. I had promised Norma a puppy if she did good in school, and she came home with an A on her test, I am so proud to be her mother, she kept saying I want a dog, I want a dog and I told her alright I guess I did promise you a puppy if you did well. But Charlie heard and offered to help with the dog. Norma wanted the dog all to herself, and of course Matt had to come right in and say that if she was being selfish she didn't deserve a dog. But she was not being selfish at all she was sticking up for what she wanted. Matts actions forced Norma to say a horrible thing “I’ll stop studying, and I’ll be a dummy just like him. I’ll forget everything I learned and then I’ll be just like him.” I could not believe what I was hearing. All of this happened because of Charlie. Last year another very horrible thing happened. Charlie was watching Norma through the keyhole while she was in the tub. He started looking at her in sexual ways. I may not be in his brain but I know he is. He is horribly dirty minded and disgusting. I must send him away. To protect my beautiful, perfect, normal Norma. Now thinking back about it, and all other things that have happened that Charlie is responsible for, I have made a decision. Charlie is no longer allowed to be in this household. He needs to leave, TONIGHT. I will tell Matt and he will take him to the Warren State home. Then he will be out of our lives forever. Finally Norma and I won’t have to live with the constant struggle of Charlie. Matt doesn't have to deal with having a son like Charlie all he does is work, work, work, work, work, work. Oh there he is now. I will tell you the details after, but the one thing that I am sure of is that Charlie has to go.

Sincerely,  Rose Gordon

Dear Diary,

Last night was and will be the best night of Norma and my life. Matt took Charlie away. Altho it wasn't very pretty when I was screaming at Matt and threatening to kill Charlie with a knife if he wasn’t gone by the morning. Matt gave in right after I pulled out the knife. He went upstairs grabbed Charlie's stuff put it in a suitcase grabbed Charlie and drove to the Warren State home. He came back a few hours later with no Charlie and divorce papers. I honestly couldn't believe he wanted a divorce. I asked him why, he said its because I won't give him freedom to be a Barber. I can’t believe it, he should have a distinguished job. A salesman was at least a bit distinguished. He said now that Charlie is gone he doesn't need to be working as a salesman, and he knew that I would never let him be a salesman. He says “I have finally realized that you are not good for me you don’t even want your own child to be who he is. I don’t want to deal with poison like that.” Then he went upstairs packed his bags and left. I was kinda upset but Mat was right about one thing I was not good for him, I was to good for him. I feel so free now that the two men are gone, well boy and man, I can do what I would like and be free. I know longer need you to write down my feelings thank you for being my vent when I needed it.

Sincerely, Rose Gordon

Dear, Dairy

I fell myself slipping, I can’t concentrate, everything is messed up. I think I am going insane. Is this going to be the end of Rose Gordon.

Rather strange I don’t remember writing that last sentence. Oh well must have been from a long time ago. But I am not going crazy oh definitely not. I am just dandy. The other day I felt as though Matt and I were fighting again. It was quite strange we haven't fought in years.  He still must have been out getting groceries and I was just daydreaming. I am going to the doctor in a few weeks. I haven’t been to the doctor in a very long time since I was 5 maybe. I don’t know why I didn’t go back. Maybe I was to scared. I even had my beautiful two children at home. Oh my children. Norma is a beautiful young lady she looks like me. Charlie, my charming, smart, kind Charlie. I’d give anything to see him again I would die. But I miss him terribly, I wish he never had to go off to college and then die. I never even got to see his body. I miss him. It was terribly hard to tell Norma she cried for many days, as did I. Mat cried to altho he went out a lot, I think to drink away the pain. Oh wonderful I hear my timer for my cookies. I shall be back shortly.

Goodbye diary it was pleasant writing to you. I shall be back to speak to you again tomorrow.

Sincerely , Rose Gordon

* Rose places her diary on a bookshelf  where all of her other books are and takes her cookies which turn out to be chicken, the next day she wakes up and feels as though she is forgetting something but shrugs it off and continues her daily activities, as she does everyday, she forgot about her diary and she never wrote in it again and her life continued to spiral down she she forgot ore things and slipped in and out of reality. *

Results of Disarmament Survey

Survey conducted by: Lilly Maher                                                                November 4th, 2016

Disarmament     

Introduction:

Disarmament is a large issue spreading worldwide. Even first world countries struggle with the issue of civilians possessing guns and using them in a tormenting way. Disarmament is a excellent solution in many people’s point of view, but certain people believe that guns are a necessary item that they could not live without.  

Q.1 Should civilians be allowed to possess guns and other war related items?

Most people believe that Civilians should not be allowed to possess guns or war related items. If no civilians are allowed to possess guns then there will be no need for anyone to “protect themselves.” Few people believe that guns should be allowed with strict laws and regulations or an improvement of the laws already in place. Very thorough background checks should be in place and the owners must give very specific reasons as to why they want to possess the gun, and a limit to what guns should be allowed and guns that are not. No one had an argument against disarmament.

Q.2  Give a reason for your previous answer.

Q.3 Do you believe that in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo civilians should be allowed to carry weapons?

The majority (69.2%) of the class believe that in a waring & corrupt country civilians should be allowed to carry guns with special regulations and laws. Altho it will be hard to enforce those laws with such a corrupt country.  15.4% of the class believes that all guns should be taken away from civilians and that they sound not be allowed to use or have access to them. 7.7% believe that the people the people in the DRC should be allowed to have guns as a way to protect themselves. The remaining 7.7% believe in another option not listed.

Q.4 How can the effects of disarmament be a problem?

The after effects of disarmament can be a problem. Some people may resist guns being taken away and not give their guns back. So some will still have guns while others do not which would cause mayhem with those whose guns were taken away. People will resist giving up their guns and cause issues and disturbance. The majority of people whose guns were taken away from them will cause an uproar and they will try and defend their rights with protest and taking away guns may cause fear and trust issues between the people and the government. People will feel unsafe and not listen they would reject the government. There would be an increase in the smuggling of guns and blackmarket. Criminals can gain access to guns and be very dangerous because no one has the means to protect themselves. People will feel unsafe because they will not have any means of protection.

Q.5 Who should be allowed to carry guns?

  

76.9% think that  only police, army and other emergency services should be allowed to carry guns while other believe that should be allowed to be used for hunters as well. The remaining percent think that everyone should be allowed to carry guns.

Q.6 What countries are in desperate need of disarmament?

The USA is one of the main countries that need disarmament, they are setting examples for the rest of the world. Third world countries  and countries such as the DRC, Honduras, Colombia, Iran and Iraq are all in need of disarmament.

Q.7 Why would some people not agree with disarmament?

  

People are emotionally and traditionally tied with their weapons and from a young age they are taught to believe that they have the the right to use them as they please, they feel violated if they are taken away. People who make their living off of hunting will have difficulty with disarmament because they will no longer be able to use their guns. People will feel unsafe without their guns and feel as though they don't have any means of self defence. People feel that things will forever stay the same and nothing is going to change.  

Conclusion:

Disarmament altho a good thing in many points, it could cause more issues than it's solving. It could create rebellion and distrust within the government and cause mayhem and chaos. As well as people who make a living off of guns can no longer do that. Guns should be allowed but with strict strict regulations and very thorough background checks to see if they should be able to possess guns and use them in a safe way.