ELA/History

so this was a group project that we did at the beginning of the year. i didn't usually like doing group projects since often the group work isn't split evenly and your grades end up depending on someone else's work, bu this project overall turned out fine. the idea of writing an essay in a group was also a little strange since it might seem like a different person was talking every paragraph if each person's writing styles were different, but it turned out much better than i thought it would.

Benjamin Mayorga

Haley Alvendia

Mario Portillo

Natalia Engdahl

Lauren Agarwala

Period 4

 What Were The Primary Reasons for The "Fall" of Rome?

The Roman Empire was one of the greatest empires in the Mediterranean. It paved the way to modern mathematics, literature, and medicine. Over the 1500 years the Roman Empire was in power, they conquered lands from the Middle east to Asia minor.  However, around 476 C.E., the Roman Empire began to decline due to problems that were external and internal; along with natural disasters they faced.

No doubt, the Roman Empire had many internal flaws. These flaws include taxes that were too high, unprincipled men inflicting pain on others, and many courtrooms that were not justified or fair. This lead to many Roman civilians believing it was “better to be in war than to have peace”(Doc E). Even though the Roman Empire had a fair law system, they still had many problems like the actual justice. Many of the cases were unfair and usually the judges and jury were bribed. The Roman citizens did not take kindly to these unfair laws systems(Doc E). This could be the cause for so many assassinated Emperors (Doc A). These assassinations lead to more internal problems. Not only were there civilians having problems, the Romans had also become more careless with their soldiers. The Roman soldiers decided they didn't want to wear breastplates and helmets anymore(Doc B). This was definitely one of the main reasons for the “Fall” of Rome.

Another key point that contributed to Rome’s fall was their external problems. One of these obstacles was the Huns tribe. “Huns were classified as ‘savages’ by the Roman people”(Doc D). While the Romans spent their time indoors with luxuries like shoes and shelter, the Huns were constantly traveling. “They endured cruel weather conditions and were hungry almost all the time”(Doc D). This made the Huns more perseverant. When, the Huns attacked the Romans they had a great advantage over them. However, the Huns were not the only external problems that the Romans faced. It was not just the Huns that struck Rome, many other foreign forces also invaded and attacked Rome from the main lands(Doc C).

Furthermore, external problems getting out of hand. The Romans were hit by two major natural disasters. In 366 C.E., an intense earthquake set a huge flood into motion(Doc F). These two natural disasters caused major controversy. Not only did all these natural disasters occur, but “plagues swept over the empire”(Doc F). “The population of Rome decreased from a million to 250,000. Recruitment of the troops became more difficult, so the empire was increasingly having to hire Germanic soldiers to guard its frontiers.” (Doc F) This meant the tax would rise and added to the “state's budget” (Doc F).

In other words, the Roman Empire was once one of the most successful empires. They impacted the world in many ways, but they didn’t last forever. Rome declined and fell within a century, the problems that led to the fall include natural disasters, unfair courts, and many other issues. Perhaps the Romans reign would have continued if the Romans had payed more attention to their citizen’s and safety of the soldiers.

this project was fine apart from the fact that since there was a limited number of topics to choose from, i ended up hearing the same project at least eight times. other than that, it was an interesting way to learn about your own topic in addition to many others because of the other subjects that were presented. it ended up teaching me about the silk road, history of tea, and chins's first emperor with only putting the time to researching a single subject.

I never really enjoyed poetry but the until we did on it was fine. it was an interesting change to the nonfiction writing we had been doing all year and really gave me a chance to write something that i had more creative control over. While I'm not overly proud of my poetry, it was still a good experience to try out another form of writing i had not done in a number of years.

Middle ground

In the end what can be done

I shift from one to ten

To ten to one

I live with aimless conviction

Indecisive decisions

Sloppy precision

Im hot im cold

Im dark i'm light

I jump between day and night

I sleep for days

I barely close my eyes

I wait, then dont, for the sun to rise

I'm calm level headed listening intently

Im rash non negotiable hot headed fiery

Each morning I choose who to be that day

But it always goes a different way

And I say:

I have said it Over and over again

I shift from ten to one

To one to ten  

the social justice slide was probably my favorite of the year. it showcased a lot of
important issues in our society today and in the past and gave us an opportunity
to express our feeling about the subject. It was also one of the only projects where i
liked hearing other people present their slides. the topics ranged from racism to
homelessness and was an overall good assignment.

this was a one pager we did for 'The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street' we read the script of the episode of the Twilight Zone and picked apart the different plot elements in the story. in the one pager, we had to provide some samples we were able to identify in the story.

the Muslim distribution map was supposed to show where the percentage of  the population in different countries that were Muslim. maybe there was an easier way to do it, but the completion of the project was very tedious and probably took much longer than it should of. because of this, it was hard to say that i enjoyed the project, bu the end result turned out okay.