My book follows a young girl, Marion Blumenthal, and her family through the events of the Holocaust. When the Blumenthals train was liberated by Russians, they lived in Germany. Marion and her father were being medically treated in a nearby hospital but sadly, her father soon died of typhus. Eventually the Blumenthal were given the visa to move to America and they jumped on the opportunity. They were healthy and happy in America and Marion and her brother went on and started their own families.
To me the most valuable take away from my book is that even when the worst happens, you have to push through it and let it motivate you to live a better life. Marion was always very sure of the fact that her family would make it through and I think that helped her survive. On page 58, when being transported to a new concentration camp, it says “we are almost joyful”. Even in their situation they are still able to stay strong. This book is still very valuable because you need to remember your past mistakes so they aren’t made again. Also horrible things happen all over the world and this book can motivate people to push through.
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My book, Four Perfect Pebbles, is a true story about a young girl named Marion Blumenthal and her family on their journey through the Holocaust. When Hitler rose to power, Marion was only a normal toddler living in Germany. After the death of her grandparents, her family was able to flee and moved around a lot waiting to get into the US. When all hope had been lost on going to the US, the Blumenthals began living in a concentration camp and were shipped around for a while. Marion was now nine years old and was being tortured and had to watch others around her die. When Germany began to lose the war, they were sent on a death train for 2 weeks until it was liberated by Russians. Eventually, Walter (Marion's father) and many other Jewish survivors, died of Typhus. Marion, her mother and brother moved to America a few years later and started families of their own.
Being tortured and watching everyone die can't be easy for anyone, especially a nine year old. Marion was physically and mentally tortured during the Holocaust, and the people in Syria are going through something similar. The Syrian government has attacked civilians with gas and kills around 50 prisoners a day. Many of these prisoners were buried in mass graves or put in crematoriums to hide the evidence. This is very similar to what happened to people during the Holocaust. They were put in gas chambers, buried in giant graves they dug themselves and many of the body remains were burned. What is happening in Syria strongly resembles the Holocaust and we should definitely put a stop to it. My novel, Four Perfect Pebbles, is a true story about the Holocaust. The book follows a young child Marion Blumenthal and her family through the horrors of the Holocaust. The book starts off with the family in a concentration camp and then goes back and tells the story of how it all happened. When Hitler rose to power the Blumenthal family owned a shoe store and a home in Hoya, Germany. Hitler started a boycott on Jewish sold products and eventually their business shut down. The family flees Germany and tries to immigrate to America. This was a long hard process and while waiting they moved to Hanover and then to Holland to try and remain safe. Eventually America stopped taking immigrants and the Blumenthals were taken to several different concentration camps. When America stopped taking immigrants it was a devastating time for many, including the Blumenthals. "There would be no more ocean linerstaking refugees to America from the crippled port of Rotterdam. The family would remain in westbrook, uncertainain of it's fate". This novel is a true story so everything this family was going through were real events from the Holocaust. In 1933 Germans began boycotting Jewish products and shops shut down. Jews started to flee some as early as the beginning of Hitler’s rise to power. Many wanted to immigrate to America but were unable to because America only took some in. Hitler eventually captured the remaining Jews and sent them to concentration camps where many were killed or worked to death, only few survived. This is the story of the Blumenthals and is similar to so many just like them. Jews felt scared, threaten and horrified by what the Nazis were doing and will be forever horrified.
In today’s society, school is a major part of a child’s life. However, some students don't take their education seriously and this can lead to lower grades. This could be for a number of different reasons, for example, a poor student to teacher ratio or poor learning circumstances. While the amount of students on grade level in Wake County is up from last year, the overall trend has been down in the past five years (ncpublicschools 2012-17). Students are not performing on tests and there were over 10,000 dropouts in North Carolina in 2015-16 (ncpublicschools 2017). Of the 110 elementary schools in Wake County that we have statistics for, 37.3 percent did not meet growth expectations for the 16-17 school year (ncpublicschools 2017). So after graduating high school, or not, these students are dispersed into our community, where they don't have the experience or skills to add anything too it. This is a really big issue because we want to make our community better, adding more jobs and a better economy to the region. Frankly, I would love a community full of smart educated citizens who make good choices, that help benefit our community. I know my group members and I had a good elementary school education, and I know that has really helped shape who I am. I remember receiving help from tutors, talking to kids older than me, and just plain asking for help. This led me to understand more of the topics we would study. Plus, there's an easy fix, with just a little help from our community, giving a little bit of time to help these elementary schools whose performances are lacking, doing something so simple as reading to students or helping them with math, we can turn this issue around, making our community better along the way. North Carolina schools The issue we are focusing on, is that grades in some Wake County elementary schools are very low and a lot of schools are not meeting their yearly goals. Last year, forty one elementary schools in Wake County didn’t meet their growth standards (ncpublicschools 2017). This issue has a huge impact on our community. Some school performance grades are really low and it poorly affects the school’s appearance. These students who either need help or are just not trying, are really a big part of the issue. For example, Bugg Elementary School got a thirty four percent on their overall school performance grade (ncpublicschools 2017). The students who go to these schools, will forever be affected by this issue and growth standards. They aren’t getting the proper education that they need and from that, they will always be behind. It is important that we help them grow so they are able to share their knowledge with the world. Specifically, this has always been an issue in our community though it has become more of a struggle in the past few years. When kids are younger, they are not taught to take school seriously. Kids need to have a role model early on in their lives to teach them the importance of having knowledge. The lack of these role models is a big cause of this issue. In the future this leads to poor grades and a high number of student dropouts. Also, after graduating these kids will become a part of our community but they won’t have the knowledge or experience to give. These students not having a proper education affects us all because they are the future. Everyone’s future relies on these kids and what they are able to accomplish, which is why this is a large issue that needs to be solved immediately. However, this issue cannot be solved immediately. Though there are several organizations that are available to mentoring children, the problem is most of them are out of school rather than in school with the students. Of the several organizations in North Carolina, they all offer help in one area or another to give students chances at better lives. Some organizations for example, the Boys and Girls Club of America, help students by organizing programs out of school focused on certain topics. These programs allow students to understand the importance of certain topics such as career development, education, and health (Boys and Girls Club of America 2017). By doing these programs, we can make our community a better place through the educations of the younger generations. Other organizations such as the Triangle Literacy Council, work one on one with students to try and see where they are struggling and help in the areas that help is needed. Organizations like those are more focused on giving students the information needed to graduate high school and go to college which from there they can acquire jobs. Mentors inc. for example, works with older students in high school on academic subjects such as STEM to develop skills for 21st century jobs. One of their goals through their program is to give every student “... the support or guidance needed to graduate high school, prepared to be successful and productive citizens.” (Mentors inc. 2016). These give students a chance at a better having a better contribution in our communities. There are many steps that need to be done and requirements that need to be met before we start mentoring. The most glaring requirement is a school to mentor at, this however has already been solved, and it has been decided that we will be mentoring at Bugg Elementary. This is because they have been falling behind in all subjects, and may need additional support (Public Schools Of North Carolina 2017). The second most important requirement is volunteers, which is more difficult. The current plan for getting enough people to help is to advertise around the school for a month or two before they are required, (perhaps even ask for a shoutout on the morning announcements) the goal is to have at least 40 volunteers and at least 1 adult chaperone for every 10 students. After volunteers, there aren't many other requirements that need to be met that can’t be easily acquired out of pocket. Action Plan Our goal is to show struggling students the value of school before they get that annoying “I hate school attitude” that some kids tend to develop. A study by The University Of Nebraska, developing strong reading habits can increase academic performance (Acheaw 2014). The catch is that these habits must be formed while the children are impressionable and before they develop the idea that reading isn't fun. Because of this, our focus on the mentoring may be more on reading primarily and focus on subjects such as math and history as secondary focuses. If possible, we hope to get into contact with the school administrators at bug elementary to determine what subjects the students may need additional help with. By the end of this project we hope to have inspired at least 1 student to take school seriously and focus on their education. Works Cited Sonneman, Curtis.”2016-17 State, District, and School Level End-of-Course and End-of Grade Achievement Level Report.” Public Schools of North Carolina. 29 Nov. 2017. 24 Jan. 2018 <http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/accountability/reporting/2017/reports /1617testresults.xlsx> Sonneman, Curtis. “2016-17 School Performance Grade Score and Growth Status.” Public Schools of North Carolina. 29 Nov. 2017. 24 Jan. 2018 <http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/accountability/reporting/2017/reports/spg1617.xlsx> Public schools of North Carolina.”Report to the North Carolina General Assembly.” Public schools of North Carolina. 15 Mar. 2017. 23 Jan. 2018 <http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/research /discipline/reports/consolidated/2015-16/consolidated-report.pdf> Boys and Girls Club of America. “Club Impact.” Boys and Girls Club of America. 24 Jan. 2018 <https://www.bgca.org/about-us/club-impact> The News and Observer. “2015-16 NC school performance” The News and Observer. 1 Sep. 2016. 22 Jan. 2018 <http://www.newsobserver.com/news/databases/article98569482.html> Nguyen, Arly. “The value in mentoring youth” Social Work License Map. 30 Jan. 2015. 22 Jan. 2018 <https://socialworklicensemap.com/the-value-in-mentoring-our-youth-> Triangle Literacy Council. “Programs.” Triangle Literacy Council” 23 Jan. 2018 <http://www.triangleliteracy.org/learn/programs/> Mentors Inc. “Mentoring with career and STEM exploration” Mentors Inc. 23 Jan. 2018 <http://www.mentorsinc.org/about-us/our-program/mentoring-with-career- and-STEM-exploration> Public schools of North Carolina. “State/ LEA and school test performance” Public schools of North Carolina. 2012-17. 23 Jan 2018 <http://www.ncpublicschools.org/accountability /reporting/leaperformancearchive/> Archeaw, Michael.”Reading Habits Among Students and its E ect on Academic Performance: A Study of Students of Koforidua Polytechnic.”digitalcommons. June 4th, 2014. January 29th 2018.<https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2908&context =libphilprac> One of six families in the US struggle to buy food everyday. Seventeen percent of the people in North Carolina Can’t put food on the table making North Carolina the thirteenth worst state for food insecurities in the country. Personally, I think that it is really important to recognize that these people need our help because we don’t want them to have to go to bed hungry. I have done some volunteer work before to help feed these people in need and I've noticed that not having enough nutrition can make you really tired and unhappy. Helping these people can not only give them the nutrition they need but it can make them very happy. I don’t think that anyone should have to worry if they are going to have the opportunity to eat breakfast lunch or dinner. This is why we need to help. My article says that the programs set up to help are not even getting food to half of the people who need it. To help I think that these programs need to be more widespread and open to more people. Most of these places have strict acceptance policies and not everyone is able to get the meal. I think there should be more food shelters who are open to anyone as long as they cant afford food. This would help so many people because no one would be discriminated from being a part of these food programs. I think it is important to help these people in need and I think that others should want to help out too. You can do this by volunteering at food shelters pr even building your own program to feed others in need.
I believe that everyone should try to make friends. If you don’t attempt to make new friends then eventually, you will not have any and that is not the best way to go through your life. In my opinion, a life with friends is much better than a life without them. This is why I think that everyone should have friends. When I was in sixth grade I did not have any friends in my classes. During open house, we figured out what classes we had and who was in them. I was really bummed to see that I didn’t know anyone in mine. I was already upset about starting middle school because I was going to a different school than most of my friends from elementary school. This made not being with my friends throughout the day even more difficult. After open house, I didn’t want to do anything and I just wanted to go home. On the first day of school, I was really shy and quiet in all of my classes. I didn’t want to be at school at all. All my friends would talk about how much fun they were having and I had barely said a word all day long. The next day when it was time to go to school, I didn’t want to go at all. That day, I started talking to the girl who sat next to me. She was really nice and we realized that we had all of our classes together. Since we were together for most of the day, we became really good friends very quickly. I eventually became friends with all her friends too, so I had a ton of friends in my classes. I started to talk a lot more in my classes and I wanted to go to school. I finally understood what my friends were talking about. I had made so many new friends. It made me realize how easy it is to make new friends which told me I should always make friends with everyone. You will not be living your life to the fullest if you aren't . In sixth grade I made some of the closest friends I have ever had. After going through this experience, it taught me that it is better to go through your life with friends than it is to go without them. |
AuthorI'm Mills Austin. I am in eighth grade at Martin Middle school. ArchivesCategories |