A question that came up during my research was “How does your language affect the way you think?”

While researching my original question “How does the way you speak affect first impressions?” I came across an article talking about the new question about language and thought. It was interesting, and I thought about how I could integrate this new idea into my current one. The best way this question seemed to fit was how the language you think with affects how you perceive others. Although this is a rather intriguing thought, I think that I will have to stick with my original questions, for now. The reason? I think it would be too much for this project, and I wouldn’t be able to go into the finer depths that both these questions deserve. Perhaps next year I will use this thought as a foundation to build my ZIP project on.

The most significant conflict Junior faces in Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is his own frustration towards his race and the seemingly unescapable reservation. When Junior says, “My parents came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people,” he conveys his frustration at the endless loop of sadness and failure perpetuated by his race (11). This is the most significant of all the conflicts because it triggers many events of the story. For example, when Junior is told to “[…] leave this reservation,” by Mr. P, he realizes that when he does his “[…] fellow tribal members are going to torture me,” and punish him for leaving the loop that has been repeating for several years (42,47). But Junior decides to break this mold and take a risk. His frustration grows greater than his fear of leaving the reservation from the moment his tribes poverty hits his “[…] heart with the force of a nuclear bomb,” when Junior sees that he has his mother’s math book (31). Junior copes with this conflict by trying to face it head on. Moving to Reardan seems like the best option because he knows that nothing will happen if he just stays, the conflict is the reason why the story starts off. He also feels “(I felt) inspired,” by his sister when she does the same thing and breaks the cycle. When Junior says, “But I thought we were being warriors, you know?” he in some ways conquers this conflict.

For my first document I have chosen to answer the 9^th Question, “Record a journal entry of how you used one of our in-class focus blocks. What did you accomplish during this time? What did you struggle with? What might be your next step in you next focus block? Set a goal.”

During the focus block on Friday the 8^th, I spent most of my time reading articles and taking notes. I searched online for articles, studies, or experiments related to my question and started to read. During the first 10 or 20 minutes of research, I found one article on which I spent most of my time on. On it was an article about an experiment done by Phil McAleer. I read the article and wrote down pieces of information (about the experiment done by McAleer) that helped answer my question. An obstacle that I faced this block was thinking about what I needed to search for. There are probably hundreds of articles and studies completed which help answer my question; my task? to find them. This proved to be slightly difficult because many websites I found were a on a slightly different topic. For my next block I would like to have determined the questions I would like the answers to and continue taking notes for my ZIP presentation.

After a week of watching John Maxwell’s How to be a ‘REAL’ success and discussing about the topics in class, I have learned about a lot of new skills I will need to be successful. Throughout the week we learned that there are 4 main ‘subjects’ in being a REAL success; Relationships, Equipping, Attitude, and Leadership. Mr. Maxwell made it clear that you need a bit of each to become the best leader you can. Something that will stick with me was the story of the man who had to move bricks from the top of a building. He attempted to do the job himself and ended up in the hospital. The moral of the story; you can’t do everything yourself. John Maxwell nicely tied this story with the ideals of REAL and taught us that to become a good leader, one must seek out to others and build relationships; a team. But although one needs others to be successful, Mr. Maxwell made it CLEAR that the most important relationship is with yourself. You cannot get along with others if you cannot get along with yourself. Another thing that John Maxwell brought up is Equipping. A good leader must be able to identify abilities in others and build on them. Equip them with the tools they need to use that skill. I also learned that attitude is a choice, not a cemented personality. Mr. Maxwell says that your attitude is your approach to life. It influences everything that happens to you. Therefore, it is very important to sustain a positive attitude to be successful. Finally, I learned about the leadership lid. The law of the lid states that you cannot lead people that are ‘greater’ than you. For example, as John Maxwell said it, “A 4 cannot lead a 5.” To be an affective leader, one must be good at what needs to be done more than the team.

These skills can be applied in many situations. But I intend in using them in TALONS by using them in future trips, group projects, and leadership events. I hope that by understanding these skills through this video I can learn to apply them little by little. It might be hard at first, but I need to keep a healthy attitude and work towards the bigger goal.

How does the way you “speak” affect first impressions?
I would like to learn how different methods/ways of communication will affect the perception and treatment of the person who is ‘talking’. I wish to learn more about this question because (I’m going to be honest with you) when I am on a bus or in a public area, the way some people communicate has morphed into somewhat of a pet peeve (e.g. Loud voice, Baby crying, etc…). This isn’t a fair point to judge someone on, but I find myself doing it subconsciously. I am curious to see what stereotypes can/have been formed due to the way humans communicate.
I have heard people use terms like ‘soothing/calming voice’, ‘powerful voice’, ‘annoying voice’, etc… and I have noticed that some voices seem to have stereotypes. In addition to this I would like to learn if voices have privileges related and unrelated to race/ethnicity.
The skill of being able to use the Internet to my advantage when researching and the ability to ask questions (to teachers and myself) will be the greatest skills to me during this project.
The skills I would like to take away from this project is a list of factors that may affect how I perceive others and how others may perceive me, in order to develop an idea of what goes on in our minds when we first meet someone.
If I am in need of assistance during my project, I can approach my peers, teachers, family or friends for support.
To complete this project I will need access to internet, a computer, and other humans.
I think that doing an example will be the best way to present my research to my peers. For example I can show an illustration of a slouching figure and ask the class what they think the figure is communicating. This would be most likely in the form of a PowerPoint (with audio), or a video. Basically a lesson to teach the class some useful things I have learned.
Schedule:
Week one: Refine Question, research Concepts.
Week two: Continued research, close in on biggest topics.
Week three: Move research into real world applications.
Week four: Finish curriculum form, start working on lesson.
Winter break one: Refine PowerPoint or lesson plan.
Winter break two: Mentally prepare.

1. Did you meet your goals for the project? How can/could you tell? How would you improve on future learning opportunities like this?

My goal was to learn about Oda’s path and obstacles that he had to overcome along the way – to see if I wanted to follow in his footsteps. I think I completed that goal and I can tell because I know I can tell you how he got to were he is today and some obstacles that he had to overcome. For example; An Obstacle he had to overcome was his own stubbornness. When Oda first moved to Tokyo, he couldn’t fix himself and get better because he refused to listen to the editors sometimes, believing he was right.

When I do this again, I would like to spend more time researching and choose somebody that is more public. Somebody with more information online and offline. Because I feel that Oda was private about his personal struggles/obstacles and life – which I can understand why.

2. What will you remember about Night of the Notables?

The thing that will stick with me this year is definitely, hands down, the grade 10 speeches. I could physically feel the difference in experience and practice with the grade 10’s and it was just amazing. I could feel the emotion coming from them and I truly did not see them as themselves, but as their eminent people.

3. Who would you like to thank, or recognize, for their contributions to Night of the Notables?

I would like to thank all the nine’s for spending their time planning the night weeks before it happened, the ten’s who did so well presenting their speeches, the MC’s who made the whole process feel that much more smoother, the teachers for everything that they have done, and finally the practice interview volunteers who gave up their valuable time to give us an opportunity to experience a formal interview.

1. http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/10-things-you-should-know-about-eiichiro-oda-creater-of-one-piece-repost.454213463/

From this post on IGN I got information on the inspiration of One piece, the beginning of Oda’s career, work habits, his future goals, and Oda’s dedication to his fans. This site was helpful for getting some facts about Oda.

2. https://kotaku.com/one-piece-made-its-creator-stinking-rich-1751771304

This short post talks about Oda’s yearly income. It mentions a TV show in Japan that did a calculation of royalties, international licensing and character goods related to One Piece and came up with around $26 million USD.

3. https://en.rocketnews24.com/2015/10/09/one-piece-manga-creators-work-schedule-is-absolutely-insane/

This website again talks more about Oda’s ridiculous work schedule and how his life has turned into his job. It talks about how it might seem easy to draw for a job, and how it actually requires lots of time and dedication. I used this website to get more information on Oda’s work.

4. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1520917/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

This website just gave me some facts about Oda. It wasn’t used for much but I did get small things form it.

5. http://onepiece.wikia.com/wiki/Eiichiro_Oda

This page was used for details on Oda’s earlier days, manga career, and working method. It was extremely helpful as it was a collection of information about Oda.

6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiichiro_Oda

This Wikipedia page was used for information on Oda’s first creations (Wanted!, Pandaman, etc…) and main work (One Piece.)

7. http://www.onepiecepodcast.com/2015/10/05/eiichiro-oda-interview-a-trip-down-memory-lane-jump-style-interviews-part-1/

This article is arguably the most important source as it talks about an interview with Oda and his troubles with story board writing. It also has information regarding how he practiced drawing to get better, and Oda’s stubbornness.

Document of Learning

Here is my learning center:

When I first heard about learning centers, I thought that it would be like any other school science fair poster that I have seen: jam-packed with paragraph after paragraph. But when our class got around to doing them, I realized that the learning center was just like a title or thumbnail. It was a visual to grab the attention of the guests.

So, I made a poster that I could use like a power point, something that would aid as a visual while I gave the information.

1. While researching, I realized that one of the biggest points I wanted to make was how much time and effort one must put into their passions and dreams to make it a reality. And I thought Oda’s work period was a great way of making his amount of effort relatable to the guests. This part of the learning center started off with me asking the guests how long their average work day was. *A lot of the guests were still students and didn’t work full time which I think made this even more impactful*. And then I revealed Oda’s work time and all the guests were surprised. Some, even concerned for his health.
2. When Oda moved to Tokyo, he created many stories which were rejected by the editing department. To replicate this, Kevin and I created (an identical) activity that would share the idea of someone (who you may not know) editing your work.

We did this by doing something like the game where everybody says a word to make a story. Each participant was only allowed to view the panel that came right before itself and then continue the story. This was in an attempt to show the power of the editors.

3. The last thing I wanted to share was Oda’s achievements. I used the poster the most in this point and started with his first works on the far left. Pandaman and the one-shot story, Wanted! After the brief explanation I moved down to the Weekly Shonen Jump in giant letters to educate everybody on what Oda’s job was there. Finally I moved to the top right where I talked about how Oda went to Tokyo to train and start on One Piece.