Humans of South Bay
Humans of South Bay is about listening to the stories of the unheard. Throughout history, we listen to the powerful, the rich, the leaders about their stories. We never hear the ones being told by the civilians in this world. We are gonna interview a family member, a friend, or even a stranger about them, everyone has a story to tell. The thing, we need to listen to their stories, amazing stories from a everyday person like you. So we’ll interview someone, and share their story with you.
Here is the process we took for our pre-interview. We watched Storycorps interviews which is about people interviewing about people's lives, their unheard stories. We had practice interviews in class multiple to try our body and language and what we needed to work on, and we also had to do some background research on our interviewee know who we’re talking about and what we could talk about.
The interview itself went smoothly, it was nice. I interviewed my uncle so I had a good amount of info of how he grew up, where he grew up and how he transitioned from Mexico to the U.S. There would be times in the interview where I would ask questions that I already, but I needed to ask them anyways to keep the interview going. It felt like it was all natural, like it wasn't an interview, it was a normal conversation of me getting to know my uncle more.
Once we had our recording with our interviewee, we had to do a Interview Outline. We had to listen back to our interview and write down the time of a subject we talked about and write a headline for it. Once we changed the subject or topic, we mark the time of the new topic and give a headline of what we talked about.
After we did our Interview Outline, we had to our Script Outline. The difference is that we had to pick at least 3 of headlines we like and write down every word the interviewee said. The Interview Outline helps us find which topic, the Script Outlines shows us what they said. It’s just suppose to be their voice as well.
HERE IS MY SCRIPT OUTLINE
I wanted to interview my Uncle because I just wanted to get to know him more, and It would’ve been easy for both us to just talk. A thing I learned about him was that he was separated away from his dad a lot growing up, but he he tried to see him as much as I can. He felt normal, we were watching a soccer game when I was interviewing him. I would’ve wanted to interview my mom, but that would’ve been easy, so I wanted to do something different.
Here is the process we took for our pre-interview. We watched Storycorps interviews which is about people interviewing about people's lives, their unheard stories. We had practice interviews in class multiple to try our body and language and what we needed to work on, and we also had to do some background research on our interviewee know who we’re talking about and what we could talk about.
The interview itself went smoothly, it was nice. I interviewed my uncle so I had a good amount of info of how he grew up, where he grew up and how he transitioned from Mexico to the U.S. There would be times in the interview where I would ask questions that I already, but I needed to ask them anyways to keep the interview going. It felt like it was all natural, like it wasn't an interview, it was a normal conversation of me getting to know my uncle more.
Once we had our recording with our interviewee, we had to do a Interview Outline. We had to listen back to our interview and write down the time of a subject we talked about and write a headline for it. Once we changed the subject or topic, we mark the time of the new topic and give a headline of what we talked about.
After we did our Interview Outline, we had to our Script Outline. The difference is that we had to pick at least 3 of headlines we like and write down every word the interviewee said. The Interview Outline helps us find which topic, the Script Outlines shows us what they said. It’s just suppose to be their voice as well.
HERE IS MY SCRIPT OUTLINE
I wanted to interview my Uncle because I just wanted to get to know him more, and It would’ve been easy for both us to just talk. A thing I learned about him was that he was separated away from his dad a lot growing up, but he he tried to see him as much as I can. He felt normal, we were watching a soccer game when I was interviewing him. I would’ve wanted to interview my mom, but that would’ve been easy, so I wanted to do something different.
Who Is Francisco Javier Amarillas-Anaya
Francisco Javier Amarillas-Anaya is my uncle, he is the second oldest in his family from my aunts and my mom. I coulde chosen anyone to interview in my family, my sister, brother, mom, dad, cousins, aunts, but I chose him. The reason why I chose my uncle is that he has an interesting life, not that the other siblings in my family don but I wanted to talk about his. Some things about him was growing and moving to different places for school and vacation, coming to the U.S for military school and to learn English, his dad working and staying away to keep them wealthy. It was a relaxing interview, I just had to be prepared to hear what he had to say.
The Story He Told Me
My English, my English. I could speak it I wasn’t as fluent as I am now I would like to think. We had the opportunity to go and study a couple of well, I spent, well we me and my sister and your mom included we spent a couple of summers in Tucson, there was a school there called Suffolk Hills, they had summer programs for English as a second language. So mostly a lot of kids from Mexico would go over and spend a summer, I mean we would live in it, it was a boarding school for the summer, and we practiced our English, we learned English there, it was studied, it was a catholic school and that's where I learned my English to begin with.
When we came here, when we left Mexico, one of the reasons not only we left for school or cause my sister was in El Paso, you have to take in mind that the city where we were raised where we were born Culiacan, historically has always had a lot of problem with narcos and security problems and it was a violent time back in the mid-early 80’s. Well it’s been violent forever and which we decided to get out of that, it wasn’t good for us anymore, we just wanted to stay away from all the violence. It was a good move up in here.
Favorite memories, one of my favorite memories that I have is when I was very young. I'm trying to remember if I was 11 or 12 years old. Back then my dad wasn’t living in Juarez he was living in Merida, Yucatan. And I remember right after my mom picked us up from Tucson we flew, uh it wasn’t from Tucson, so we flew to Merida to be with our dad for Christmas vacation. We spent a couple of Christmases and New Years in Yucatan Peninsula. In this particular Christmas, we were in Cancun and my dad had rented a beautiful villa right by the beach and I remember coming down on Christmas Eve and watching my mom and dad packing the, packing the, my mom, my dad and my grandma, Maye. My mother’s mom, they were all working on the presents for the next day and I was like 11 or 12 years and of course I didn’t believe in Santa Claus anymore but it’s a beautiful I have from all of them getting along and working on all the presents for the kids, and I just went right back and went to sleep, but I will never forget my mom and dad working on the presents.
Francisco Javier Amarillas-Anaya is my uncle, he is the second oldest in his family from my aunts and my mom. I coulde chosen anyone to interview in my family, my sister, brother, mom, dad, cousins, aunts, but I chose him. The reason why I chose my uncle is that he has an interesting life, not that the other siblings in my family don but I wanted to talk about his. Some things about him was growing and moving to different places for school and vacation, coming to the U.S for military school and to learn English, his dad working and staying away to keep them wealthy. It was a relaxing interview, I just had to be prepared to hear what he had to say.
The Story He Told Me
My English, my English. I could speak it I wasn’t as fluent as I am now I would like to think. We had the opportunity to go and study a couple of well, I spent, well we me and my sister and your mom included we spent a couple of summers in Tucson, there was a school there called Suffolk Hills, they had summer programs for English as a second language. So mostly a lot of kids from Mexico would go over and spend a summer, I mean we would live in it, it was a boarding school for the summer, and we practiced our English, we learned English there, it was studied, it was a catholic school and that's where I learned my English to begin with.
When we came here, when we left Mexico, one of the reasons not only we left for school or cause my sister was in El Paso, you have to take in mind that the city where we were raised where we were born Culiacan, historically has always had a lot of problem with narcos and security problems and it was a violent time back in the mid-early 80’s. Well it’s been violent forever and which we decided to get out of that, it wasn’t good for us anymore, we just wanted to stay away from all the violence. It was a good move up in here.
Favorite memories, one of my favorite memories that I have is when I was very young. I'm trying to remember if I was 11 or 12 years old. Back then my dad wasn’t living in Juarez he was living in Merida, Yucatan. And I remember right after my mom picked us up from Tucson we flew, uh it wasn’t from Tucson, so we flew to Merida to be with our dad for Christmas vacation. We spent a couple of Christmases and New Years in Yucatan Peninsula. In this particular Christmas, we were in Cancun and my dad had rented a beautiful villa right by the beach and I remember coming down on Christmas Eve and watching my mom and dad packing the, packing the, my mom, my dad and my grandma, Maye. My mother’s mom, they were all working on the presents for the next day and I was like 11 or 12 years and of course I didn’t believe in Santa Claus anymore but it’s a beautiful I have from all of them getting along and working on all the presents for the kids, and I just went right back and went to sleep, but I will never forget my mom and dad working on the presents.
The Book of Us 2015
The Book of Us project was about each student writing a non-fictional story that matters to them. The point was for this writing pieced to be one of the best pieces we wrote or be the best piece wrote. What I wrote about was the show Breaking Bad and how it is possible for the scenario of the show to happen in real life. We also used this guide to write our piece called "Real-World Writing Purposes Field Guide". The way we used that guide was to help us connect our writing pieces to real life. I used the Inquire and Explore guide, that helped me gather all the information I get from the show, and see the possibilities of the situation happening.
The "Real-World Writing Purposes Field Guide" was also called 1 Topic=18 Topics. It was way more many ways to write our pieces, and this helped us explore on what to write. I could've written a review of the show, I could've analyzed the show and see the deeper meaning of it.Written out all the possibilities was opening so many doors for writing, it also helped me choose the one I wanted to write about. I chose Inquire and Explore because I wanted to see if Breaking Bad was actually possible
The "Real-World Writing Purposes Field Guide" was also called 1 Topic=18 Topics. It was way more many ways to write our pieces, and this helped us explore on what to write. I could've written a review of the show, I could've analyzed the show and see the deeper meaning of it.Written out all the possibilities was opening so many doors for writing, it also helped me choose the one I wanted to write about. I chose Inquire and Explore because I wanted to see if Breaking Bad was actually possible
We also did this quick assignment called the 5 Minute Write-Up, what we did was get 5 minutes to write each of the 18 topics. It was meant for us to start brainstorming on which topics we could possibly write. These kind of did help, I was just brainstorming what ever camr o my head and didn't think much of them in the moment of writing them.
When I did my first draft of my piece which is called a down draft, I see what i did wrong. I needed to rearrange the paragraphs so that they can transition smoother. I needed to explain how the scenario is possible with the money, and health. I also had some punctuation errors that needed to be fixed. HERE IS MY DOWN DRAFT.
We also did an assignment called the Reverse-Engineered Mentor Text Graphic Organizer. A mentor text is reading an article and learning from that piece. It's what is guiding you to write your piece similar to it. The mentor text I used was Fifa 15: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The way I used that piece was taking the subject and comparing it and using it to see how it affects actual lives of people. I don't have my piece of work because I turned it in paper so here is the link to the Reverse-Engineered Mentor Text Graphic Organizer.
We had 4 different graphic organizers were the "Outline" Tribute, Sensory Images, Opening Lines, and Proofread Checklist. The one I found the most useful was the "Outline" Tribute sheet, it helped have my writing all organized. From the similarities to the paragraphs arrangements. The one I found the least useful was the Sensory Image Tribute because I didn't really need sensory images for my piece except for the beginning, which was only a couple of sentences.
In this project, there were many feedback and critique sessions to make our pieces better. The most helpful critique would've been the Big Picture Critique. The feedback was straight and effective. They told you what they understood and what they wanted to hear or didn't hear.I got feedback from Diego who It was also a good paced critique which didn't take forever. One of the critiques I didn't get much feedback on was the Scissors Critique. The paragraphs got everywhere, some got lost, ripped, or just thrown away being mistaken for trash. It was a mess that critique session.
What I'm most proud of in my piece is that, I went deep into it. I analyzed the show, did some research, learned about health and the economy. I felt like I did a lot of work, which I did. Breaking Bad is my favorite show and I was excited writing about it, which I think was the reason why I did so good on it, I went into depth of something I was really interested in. The only thing that I want to put into major pieces. HERE IS MY FINAL DRAFT.
Reflection
When I first started, I wanted to write about video games, and it was something I was into. It was a sturdy subject and there are millions of choices to pick from. So I decided to pick something I was interested in and solid on what I knew so I picked my favorite show Breaking Bad. I started with trying to find the deeper meaning behind Breaking Bad, I started realizing that the protagonist went through a situation that could happen to anyone with health insurance. Then I decided to switch it to see if the plot of the show is possible which turns out to be, it is. Something different I would've done is add more scenes from the show in my written. This project was nice and long, some what repetitive, but definitely help in writing, reading, and in critiquing.
Syrian Refugee Simulation
The Syrian Refugee Simulation project was to make a simulation of what is happening to refugees fleeing from Syria because of the terrorist group ISIS. We did this to cause more awareness of what is happening to civilians leaving Syria from the terrorists attack and what happens in their journeys looking for a new home. We wanted to achieve that what they go through is worse than what we think it is, we imagine it takes a day to move somewhere when actually, it takes months of walking, rejection, crime, etc.
We wanted our simulation to show what happens in a journey of a refugee coming from Syria. You would've started off being harassed by ISIS with them explaining how they will live, after they leave you are smuggled to Turkey and now on your own, you would either be a refugee at Turkey, leave Turkey, or insert yourself into the UNHCR system to live in the U.S or Canada. If you left, you would've been smuggled to Lesbos and you would have to been smuggled to Greece by "sea", then from Greece you would keep going to different countries seeing if you can take place refugee there. I am one of the lead designers so I had to make sure there was a flow in moving from country to country.
We wanted our simulation to show what happens in a journey of a refugee coming from Syria. You would've started off being harassed by ISIS with them explaining how they will live, after they leave you are smuggled to Turkey and now on your own, you would either be a refugee at Turkey, leave Turkey, or insert yourself into the UNHCR system to live in the U.S or Canada. If you left, you would've been smuggled to Lesbos and you would have to been smuggled to Greece by "sea", then from Greece you would keep going to different countries seeing if you can take place refugee there. I am one of the lead designers so I had to make sure there was a flow in moving from country to country.
Playtest
The first play test was outside of the middle canyon/field with nothing but little groups. I was a lead designer so I had to check what went well and what went bad. Good things were that people were interested and were excited, bad things were we had no props, money wasn't enough, and the character sheets were perfect. The second with play test was with more props, tables, cardboard, it was better. The next play test was a single play test of Denmark, we learned that we need a script and solid characters. After that, our third play test was great, we had solid characters and character sheets, props, a script, costumes, and a good flow in the simulation. The students loved the simulation, they got really into which was a really good sign of interest. We had their attention and they were responding grateful. After the 9th grader, we had our final play test before our real one, our refugees were 10th graders, and it turned out great, countries had the characters locked down, scripts ready, props up, costumes dressed, refugees actually trying to find a home, it was very stress relieving seeing that.
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Exhibition Day of Simulation
So came the day of simulation, I was a little nervous, we had reservations for the adults coming, but we did have enough money ready if extras came or if they were late. But after a good amount of times they were "smuggled", the smugglers would give back the fake money so we could give to the new comers. Parents loved the intuition of the characters, the scenarios, the smuggling, the tests, they enjoyed it. They were confused but in a good way, not that it was going on, but what to do and what they wanted. They experienced what a refugee goes through in weeks and months.
Reflection
This project I went in eyes closed, I did not know what was going to happen or what we were going to make but I liked it. I was assigned Lead Designer which was new to me, I had a really big responsibility, which was putting this project together. My favorite moment would have to be the 3rd play test because it was super stress relieving seeing it all come together very well. Something I would change would be to have the money ready and the character sheets ready first. So those are one of the main keys to the project, plus always checking up on them. I learned that in big projects, what going to get you throughout is communication and effort.
Models of United Nation
The Model of United Nation Project was to portray the United Nation and the countries that join the UN. We were in different committees, the WHO which is a committee about health and medicine, UNICEF is a committee which focuses on the lives of children, and UNHCR/UNHRC which is about refugees and discussing their problems. For the project i was given Afghanistan to portray and I was in the UNHCR/UNHRC committee. Our goals was to discuss our problems together and make a solution as one that we can all agree to.
Articles for Evidence/Facts
_When studying our country and our committee, we needed to find reliable sources that state facts and have dates and complete statements. It took a good amount of research but when looking in the right places and reading what they're saying, little facts could come in handy many times. I needed to learn what women in Afghanistan live like and how they're treated. This was the website I found about women and they live. Click Here. I first read through the whole article, wrote notes of which facts come up a lot, I read their stories that they tell, I looked at the numbers they give and compare them to a document they sign with the UN. Something interesting that I can tell you about Afghanistan is that women are rising over there, and soon are going to have female representatives in their government.
Position Paper
For our position paper, were given an assignment of a opening statement, with national actions your country has taken trying to solve their problem, UN actions with what they have attempted with the UN, and come up with past solutions and modern solutions. Here is my position paper. Click Here. I was given critique with two drafts and my third being my final. For my first draft, I only had 3 paragraphs instead of 4. Then in my second draft, I had to fix my grammar/wording and have more evidence when stating a fact and siting my resources.
Opening Speech
When we first start our committees, we opened with a speakers list giving us a 1 minute to make a speech about our position overall. Which was a little difficult because when doing our opening speech, we would want to go into detail, but we couldn't since of the time limit. Here is my opening speech. Click Here. When I finished writing my opening speech, I decided to scratch out sentences during the conference because it took to much time and space. It wasn't bad the info, I would say, at the time it was not necessary.
MUN Conference
When I was I had goals to complete, personal ones, ones for my grades, and working with other countries. When it came to me personally, I was proud that I had so many facts/evidence when someone spoke, I had the evidence to claim a statement and back it up or help a country with the problem we have in similarity. In my committee, I wanted to achieve the goal of helping my people with security for their education and I help funded other countries. If I did this again, I would have other countries speak as well, get to know more countries during un-moderated caucus. I would also like to warn the next class that come into this, when it's time to work for MUN, you gotta shift the gear into work mode.
Gold Moment
There was a moment when Maldivians were in a flash flood and need help for rescue. Myanmar wanted to support with transportation, but he needed the funding which I said I would agree to, but after realizing, the Maldivians were just illegal immigrants not refugees, then he told once he finished transporting Maldivians to land with my funding, he would send his troop to Afghanistan to support women and children to keep them safe for education.
Moments during MUN
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