Art Statement

The Book in the Sky
Ahsaki Hawkins

In this piece of art, the book represents knowledge, and learning. A book can give you something you never known before, something useful, or something that can come in handy later on. A book can give a person ideas, imagination, and inspiration. The back ground is a night sky because at night, a person dreams. In this case, dreams are like your goals, and what you want to achieve. The hand on the book means that there is a person. A person with dreams and goals and this person wants to learn more in order to achieve their goals. This is made out of rice because it is dedicated to my mom who grew up poor and on a farm, but she was smart and was able to achieve success when she grew up.

Resilience Cafe' - Essay

Ahsaki Hawkins
Tritons
Resilience

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but rising every time we fall.” - Confucius

There are many people from the past and from the present with a shared legacy of resilience. My mom, Florence Elopre Hawkins, and Abraham Lincoln are two of them. My mom grew up poor, as did Abraham Lincoln, and when they grew up, they became successful. My mom connects to me, because like her, I try to do my best. Abe Lincoln connects to me because he liked to learn. I like to read books and learn interesting things also.
Abraham Lincoln grew up poor, but although he did, later in his life, he became the 16th president of the United States of America. He said, “I was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families- second class families, perhaps I should say.” Lincoln was the son of a Kentucky frontiersman, and he had to struggle for a living and learning. “…somehow I could read, write, and chipper…but that was all.” Abe Lincoln became a captain in the Black Hawk war, and spent 8 years in the Illinois legislature. He ran against Stephen A. Douglas in 1858 for senator and lost. But he also gained a reputation that got him the Republican nomination for president. When he became president, the south started to secede which was probably a national crisis for him as president. But even though he hated war and the death and destruction of war, he accepted it only in order to save the Union. Some of his greatest accomplishments is when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment that abolished all slavery. Abraham Lincoln is resilient because even though he grew up poor, he was smart, and grew to success, like my mom.
My mom, Florence Elopre Hawkins, grew up poor, but has become successful in life, just like Abraham Lincoln. She was born and grew up in a small home in the Philippines, in a small place called Lutoban, Zemboanguita Negros Oriental. She lived on a farm with her parents, and her 4 sisters and 3 brothers. My mom says, “ We were poor, and when we went to school, we didn’t wear any shoes.” My mom also told me that, “Every time we came home from school, we always talked about our life, and how we were going to study harder.” My mom did study hard, and after elementary she went to 3 different high schools. Foundation University (A place with elementary, Jr. high, and high school.), Dumaguete High school, and Holy Infant Jesus High School for school. Then she went to ITT Tech, and then Manuel L. Quezon University for college. Some years after, my mom became pen pals with my dad who was her sister’s pen pal’s friend. They became friends and 7 years after that they got married in the Philippines, then came to America. In America she started working at Pizza Hut, and slowly worked her way up to becoming the general manager. Her greatest accomplishments was working her way to becoming Training Leader, and Restaurant General Manager at Pizza Hut.
I try to do my best in school to get good grades. I like learning and I love reading. I started reading big chapter books when I was in 1st or 2nd grade. This is important because in the future, I want to be have a successful life like my mom , and accomplish and fulfill my dreams. This affects my life because I have to ready to go on that journey that will fulfill my dreams. This also connects me to my mom and Abraham Lincoln because my mom grew up and became successful and Abraham Lincoln became successful too.
There can be many steps you have to take in order to get to where you want be. It is important to continue this legacy because one must know that just because you may be in the hardest of times, or in a situation where dreams, might just always be dreams; if you work hard, and keep your spirits up, you can rise up, and be whatever you want be. Make the impossible possible, and make a difference.

Juror Paragraph

One of my strengths was taking notes about what was being said during the trial, and I had drew a little sketch of how the court room look like. One of my challenges was trying to remember that I’m not supposed to know anything and it was hard when I knew some of the information they mentioned was incorrect. In preparation of the trial, I worked on the masks, although they didn’t wear masks, they just had their faces painted. I also worked on making a good bio for my juror whose name is Raven Jaymes Elizabeth Jensen. This shows that I am a good worker that likes getting things done and making things look good and on this trial I believe I deserve a B.

Publishing My Story

(The link to my story is to the right in Links)

Title: Two Different Worlds or The Lady of Thieves. The reason why there are two titles is because after thinking about the title, I thought it would be better to call it by something else because the story is about a girl who is a thief and a prince who is to be married to some princess , and they both (the theif and the prince) start that liking each other, but cant be together because of the difference in their ranks.

Author: Ahsaki Hawkins (DeviouslyDeviant on fictionpress.com)

Genre: Romance/Adventure/Fantasy??? There are a little bit of each in my story.

Pages: 8 (3 on fiction press)

Mentor Texts: Robin Hood: The Prince of Thieves

I don't exactly know if I got my idea for my story for Two Different Worlds/The Lady of Thieves from Robin Hood, but I notice that the names of are very similar. For Robin Hood its The Prince of Thieves, and for my story, Raven is the Lady of Thieves. Raven doesn't really steal from the rich and gives to the poor. She mainly just steals from the rich. My story takes place in medieval/renaissance times and like in Robin Hood, there is a place in the middle of a forest where outcasts live.

Audience: Maybe around 7 graders through 9th graders. I was going to add some parts in my story where a person dies, and there is a part in my story that talks about the main characters family being killed...

Writing Process: After getting an idea of what I was going to write about, I did a fretag pyramid on how I wanted my story to go. Then I started writing the story. I had my first draft peer edited and then I went back and revised and edited my story to get my second draft that would be looked at by Ms. Staff. I then edited my story again to get my final draft which I posted up on Fiction Press. com

Publishing Process: When I got my story ready to publish, instead of publishing it on paper, I decided to publish it on the internet on a website called Fictionpress.com I had to create an account, and then for some reason wait three days before I could publish it.

Featurecast From The Past Reflection

Project Purpose:



To understand the difference between Cause/Effect Relationships and Correlations.

To understand how and why major events in history are connected and intertwined.

To research a major event from U.S. history in order to understand why it is significant and how it relates to other mayjor events.

To understand features of a feature article and podcast and be able to create a feature article or podcast about major event in history.



Project Requirements:



To present the 5Ws of your major event to the class. To write/peer edit/revise a feature article or podcast. To have at least three drafts in your Writing Portfolio. To present a polished version of your feature article or podcast on Media Night, as well as posting it online to our Team Featurecast from the Past web page.


1st Concept:
While working on this project, I learned about the Salem Witch Trials. These trials began in Salem, Massachusetts; 1692 - 1693. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings by local magistrates and conty court trials to prosecute those who commited acts of witchcraft. A girl by the name of Betty Paris was the first afflicted and had fell sick and started to have seizures, trance like states, and fits of screaming. So the people of Salem belived that it could only be the work of the devil. Some of the other causes that "fueled" the trials were because of politics, religion, and peoples fear and imagination. In the end, 19 were hanged, 1 a man by the name of Giles Corey was pressed to death, and overall, 140 were accused.

I also learned that the Salem Witch Trials are somewhat repeating itself today. People are being targeted at airports and are getting entered into a security detection report (S.D.R.) in suspicion of being terrorists or for acting in a suspicious way, yet they did nothing wrong. I learned that not only does the Salem W. Trials repeat itself today, but also other major events that have happened throughout history.

2nd Concept:

My second concept is understanding the writing process. I learned that in order to draw the reader in, you have to have a strong hook that will catch the readers intrest and attention. You must also have good content and evidence, a counter argument to back yourself up, and also a conclusion that will wrap it up.

Challenge:

A challenge that I faced during this project was trying to figure out things happening today in world that could relate to the Salem Witch Trials. I didn't really think at first that the Salem W. Trials related with anything today -it being about witches and such- but Ms. Staff said that it could relate to how people today are being falsely accused, and so that is what I did my feature article about.

Real World Significance/Application:

The significance to learning the major events in history is being able to have the knowledge of what have happened long ago and the difference that those events make today. The real world application is research and learning that you will have to go to the right search engine to get correct information, and with out research, you'll have no knowledge about a topic.

Content Driven Questions:

1. How does the Salem Witch Trials relate to today?


2. What were some of the trials that people used to prove the accused if they were innocent or guilty?

The trials were pretty unfair. There was this one trial where they would throw the accused witch into a pond with a brick tied to their ankle, and if they survived, they were a witch. And if they didn't they wouldve just died.

3. What are some of a feature article's features?

Some features would be captions, pictures, and graphs.

My Querencia:

In Humanities, we had a project where we had to write about our querencia: the place where I feel most powerful.

My querencia; a place whereI feel safe and powerful is any quiet, comfortable place like in my room alone, where I can read a book, or write a story. When reading a good book, sometimes I feel pulled inside of it; like I'm at the sidelines, watching the characters go through, what they face and have to overcome.
Every so often while reading, everything around me disappears, and I am able to relax, forgetting all of my anger frustrations, and problems.
I find that reading is an adventure, you never know what might happen.

~
When writing, I can let my imagination go into over drive, jotting down my thoughts, and things that come to mind.
I like to just go on and on writing, until I come up with writers block where I have to put down my pen or pencil and start brainstorming.
I strive to put my imagination into descriptive and creative words, so anyone who would read my story may see what I see, or feel what I feel when I read my own piece of work. And get a good picture of what is happening.
If I am able to do that, I feel content and satisfied.
And when I create a finished book, I like to read it through, share it with others, and know what they think about it.
Good critiquing leads to better writing!
Writing also reminds me of my best friend since Elementary, Madeline Jensen, who attends a different school. In Elementary, we would go to the library at lunch, reading books, magazines, and writing endless fairy tales. I feel that...any place where I can read and write is my sanctuary, my refudge, a place where I can be alone and -sometimes- reflect on my day.

Sincerely - Ahsaki Hawkins aka Saki.