a good leader considers the will of the people.

I think that good leaders should always consider the will of the people, so that they can keep the majority of the population happy. If they, like King Richard of England just keep oppressing the people, charging more taxes such as the poll tax, that charge you for simply being there, even though it is unfair, and the people obviously don't like it. Good leaders stay on the throne for a long lime, because they are not overthrown by rebellions by people who think they are being treated unfairly. King Richard and most of his predecessors were not good rulers, they only cared about money, and power- definitely not the people.  That is why King Richard was nearly overthrown. The peasants wanted their leader to consider their will, but their leader did not, he just kept adding new taxes, and killing people who did not pay. The people were angry at being treated like this and they joined together to overthrow the King if he did not agree to their terms. King William also did not care about the people, he killed them when he made a mistake( he thought that their cheering was protest.) He did not even try to think that there might have been a mistake on his side, and he just went and made lots of peoples lives worse. So good leaders always consider the will of the people.

Who had the best claim to the throne?

1066 was a very chaotic year. First King Edward died, and then Harold Godwinson became King. Two other men were not very happy about this, they were Duke William of Normandy, and King Hardrada of Norway. These men both attacked England after Godwinson was made King, Godwinson defeated Hardrada, but was killed by William, who then became King.


I think that Harold Godwinson had the right claim to the throne, because he was chosen by the previous King of England, Edward. Edward was the King of England by blood, but since there were no more blood relations to become King, the brother of his wife, Harold Godwinson was chosen. Harold was already used to leading, because he was the leader of the army, and he was a strong leader who would make sure the nobles kept their power. The Witan (council of the nobles) decided that Harold would be crowned King It was also the easier choice for everyone, because Harolds rule would be similar to Edward's. So Harold had all of the right and legal claims to the throne. The other people with claims to the throne would have to invade to get the throne, while Harold was the peaceful answer.

Values and Choices

Think about a time you witnessed bullying/ostracism/peer pressure/exclusion/discrimination/violence. How did you respond? How do you wish you had responded? What stopped you from responding that way?

When I was in grade 4, some boys in my class were trying to make a girl use a calculator on a math test, so that when the teacher came back, she would get in trouble. This girl desperately wanted to be friends with these boys, and so she used the calculator, when the teacher came back, the girl got in trouble and had to go to the principal's office. I didn't do anything about it, because I didn't really know the girl. Later on I looked back on it and I wished I had stood up for the girl, and told those boys to mind their own business. The reason that I did not do it, is because I didn't know the girl, and if the teacher had come back in and seen me being mad at the boys, I might have gotten in trouble myself.

Where have we seen examples of bullying/ostracism/exclusion occurring in texts studied so far this year- factual as well as fictional?

We have seen examples of these things in The Hunger Games and the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. IN the Hunger Games there are examples of ostracism, district 12 is the ostracized District. In the boy in the striped pyjamas the Jewish are bullied by the German soldiers in the concentration camps.

1.Select one line/phrase/group of sentences that are significant to you. Explain why.

"It was as if the outcasts had been invented by the group out of a need for them." This is a girl who was excluded from a group that she desperately wanted to join. She called herself an outcast, but she was puzzled about why she was excluded, she was no different from the rest of the people in the class. The group needed someone to pick on , and she just happened to be there. She said that there were a few other people like her, one of who tried to join the group by giving them material for jokes. She said that the normal reasons people are picked on was because they were different, but in their class they were all the same. Maybe the group decided that they were getting bored, and they chose a few random people who they would bully for no reason, making fun of all the things that she did, even if they were exactly the same to what others did.

1.What’s familiar about the incident Eve describes?

The incident was familiar, because one time this girl just sort of ignored me, she never talked to me but whenever I saw her she would look at me from her group of friends and giggle something, or whisper something to them. I got the feeling they were talking about me. That was sort of like Eve's experience .

2.What surprised you?

What surprised me was that Eve said that the group did not bully the people for their differences, because they were all the same, but for no reason at all except for that they needed someone to bully and Eve just happened to be in the class.

3. How does Eve’s story relate to bullying? Was she bullied? Did she bully? How would you explain her behavior?( perpetrator/bystander/victim?). make sure you justify( back up your answer.

In a way it does relate to bullying, because the girls were excluding and laughing behind her back, and making jokes about her, which are types of bullying. She was bullied, and once she did bully, there was a girl who was much more excluded that Eve and more desperate. The 'elite' group found something that they said was her diary and they invited Eve to come and read it, and Eve laughed. That is bullying, and so yes Eve did bully, but only out of desperation. I would explain Eves behaviour when she laughed at the girl, desperation, she desperately wanted to join the group and no longer be bullied, that she bullied someone else.

4.How did Eve’s need to belong affect the way she responded when another girl was being mocked? Why does her response still trouble her? How do you like to think you would have responded to the incident?

Eve wanted so badly to join the group that she did not even think about what she was doing until she had done it. Her response troubles her because she feels like she betrayed the girl by laughing at her diary. She knows what it feels like to be mocked, and she feels bad and unfair. I would like to think that I would have responded to the incident by telling the girls to stop laughing, telling them not to be mean, but I have not been in this situation, so I don't know the pressure that Eve was feeling.

5. Eve concludes “Often being accepted by others is more satisfying than being accepted by oneself, even though the satisfaction does not last.’ What does she mean?

Being accepted by others like the "elite" group, is more satisfying than knowing that you did the right thing, but being accepted by them soon seems boring, and you look back on what you did and you start to feel sad and unsatisfied.

The Mysterious Major

What did Schmahling mean when he said that in crushing the boy in his classroom, he was destroying something in himself? What was he destroying? How was it like what the Nazis were destroying in the people they ruled?

In this story, a major in the army is a protector of Jews, but he only helped anonymously. He sent anonymous phone calls warning Jews of raids, and so on. He was a teacher before he was in the army, and one day the Major was telling about beasts, and he was talking about the lion when the class dunce interrupted him. The class dunce interrupted him by saying that he had seen a rabbit yesterday. The teacher was angry because, obviously he did not like to be interrupted by the class dunce, who was not even talking about beasts, but about a rabbit. The teacher got very angry at the boy and called him a lot of unpleasant names and told him to shut up. The boy did not talk again for the whole year (in class). Later on, Schmahling looked back on this moment and was very ashamed of himself, and he said he had destroyed this young boys moment of happiness. He said that when he crushed the boy in the classroom, he was destroying something in himself. I think that what he meant was that, in ruining a boys moment of happiness, he was destroying a piece of his heart by being hurtful, and watching the boys happiness fade because of him. He was destroying the boys happiness, making him feel small and powerless, while the teacher told him what to do, similar to how the Nazi's made life for the Jewish people miserable, and making other civilians feeling like they needed a leader, and that they were powerless, and small, but with the help of the Nazi's they could be powerful and big, so they had to help.

In Memory to My Mother

I chose the poem In Memory to my mother, I chose this poem because I thought it was a really powerful poem. The part of the poem that painted a picture in my mind was mainly the part that said "Where is your grave" it paints a picture of a lonely gravestone, in the middle of a field. I also thought that the questions at the beginning of the poem was a great way to start the poem. Something that makes the poem seem gloomy is a " a rainy autumn day" This gives the impression that the day was already quite gloomy, and it adds to the desperation of the situation. "Your eyes as green as emeralds" was a simile that I found in the poem, it makes it seem as if the girl was analyzing her mother deeply as she was taken away. Another simile was "Silent like a stone.". " It pierced my heart and made it dry is one of the metaphors in the poem. "Those dizzy eyes" is another metaphor. I wondered when it said that the mother pressed something into her palm, what it was that had been pressed into her palm, the mood of this poem was very depressed, and sad and heartbroken. I was a little confused where it said about a nightmare that was true, because I was not sure if here she was dreaming or not. When it said that countless lips whispered help but didn't make a sound it meant that no one listened to the pleas for help. " O No, It can't be told" This is sort of like the saying a picture is worth a thousand words, or seeing is believing/understanding. A part of the poem that really stood out for me was the first part, " Where is your grave?Where did you die? Why did you go away?" Because it sounds like a young girl who can't understand why anyone would do anything that cruel, an can't understand why she was forced to endure this torture, and she is stricken with grief that her innocent mother has been taken away. The only personal connection I could make to this terrible thing is in a nightmare, when I was little I was always haunted by horrible dreams where a masked figure came and took my mother away and I always woke from these nightmares crying ( was only 5 or 6 ). Of course that is nothing to what happened to Sonia Weitz, but its the closest personal experience I have. This poem made me feel heartbroken, and I was really sad for Sonia Weitz, and it made me imagine what it would be like to lose my own mother in the own way, and it made me even sadder.

How did Hitler take control?

Did you ever wonder how Germany allowed Hitler to take control? There were two main reasons that allowed Hitler to take control, they were- a huge depression, and of course anger at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler had a wonderful opportunity to get people to vote for him in 1923. There was a hyperinflation( which means all of their money became almost worthless) and everyone was desperate. Hitler told them that if they voted for him, the country's economic situation would become better,so many people voted for him out of desperation, but in the 1928 elections the Nazi's still only received about 2% of the votes . Then there was the treaty of Versailles . This was a treaty signed after Germany lost the first world war. It forced Germany to pay for all of the damage done by the war and many other things. Many Germans thought that this treaty was unfair and humiliating. Hitler told them that he also thought it was unfair too,and if they voted for him,he would abort the treaty. Of course,some people realized that Hitler was crazy and did not vote for him,but they were not enough,Hitler became Chancellor of the Weimar republic in 1933, because the Weimar republic was worried that Hitlers new percent of 33% of votes would rise if they did not do something aboutit.When the old president died,Hitler became leader of Germany, and took all of the necessary steps to ensure that he did not lose his position, and he enforced many new rules that eventually led to the second world war.

The Nuremburg Laws

In Nazi Germany, the Nazi's introduced a new set of laws called the Nuremburg Laws. These laws were to restrict Jewish people from doing certain things and to make them easy to identify. Under these new laws, anyone with 3 or 4 Jewish grandparents was defined as a Jew, even if they themselves were Christians. Some people who had forgotten the religion of their grandparents found themselves being called Jews. The Nazi's also began to "aryanize" Jewish businesses, making them "pure" and Jew-Free. This meant that Jewish workers were no longer allowed to work in the shops, and their shops were taken over by Nazi's. Jewish doctors were only allowed to treat Jewish people, and Jewish lawyers were no longer allowed to practice law. Anyone who was Jewish was not allowed to sell to non'Jewish people. Also, Jewish people like all other Germans, had Identity cards, but now Jewish Identity cards needed a big red J stamped on them to show that they were Jewish. Then those that did not have very Jewish sounding names were issued a new middle name- Sara for girls and Israel for boys.

The Law for the Protection of the Hereditary Health of the German People was a law that made sure Aryans did not poison their offspring;s blood with Jewish blood. All would be married couples had to go to the health office and make sure they were fit to marry the other person. Anyone attempting to marry someone bad was breaking the law