Hueco Tanks, Texas

This photo was taken at Hueco Tanks, Texas,

Photo by Kenji - research by EJ

Below is some information I found on the following website about Mesa Verde:

http://www.nps.gov/archive/meve/cliff_dwellings/cliff_dwellings_home.htm

We visted Mesa Verde during our last expedition.


Spruce Tree House, the third largest cliff dwelling (Cliff Palace and Long House are larger), was constructed between AD 1211 and 1278 by the ancestors of the Puebloan peoples of the Southwest. The dwelling contains about 130 rooms and 8 kivas (kee-vahs), or ceremonial chambers, built into a natural cave measuring 216 feet (66 meters) at greatest width and 89 feet (27 meters) at its greatest depth. It is thought to have been home for about 80 people. Spruce Tree House was opened for visitation following excavation by Dr. Jesse Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian Institution. Dr. Fewkes removed the debris of fallen walls and roofs and stabilized the remaining walls. Due to the protection of the overhanging cliff, Spruce Tree House had deteriorated very little through the years and has required little supportive maintenance. The cliff dwelling was first discovered in 1888, when two local ranchers chanced upon it while searching for stray cattle. A large tree, which they identified as a Douglas Spruce, was found growing from the front of the dwelling to the mesa top. It is said that the men first entered the dwelling by climbing down this tree, which was later cut down by another early explorer.
Spruce Tree House, the third largest cliff dwelling (Cliff Palace and Long House are larger), was constructed between AD 1211 and 1278 by the ancestors of the Puebloan peoples of the Southwest. The dwelling contains about 130 rooms and 8 kivas (kee-vahs), or ceremonial chambers, built into a natural cave measuring 216 feet (66 meters) at greatest width and 89 feet (27 meters) at its greatest depth. It is thought to have been home for about 80 people. Spruce Tree House was opened for visitation following excavation by Dr. Jesse Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian Institution. Dr. Fewkes removed the debris of fallen walls and roofs and stabilized the remaining walls. Due to the protection of the overhanging cliff, Spruce Tree House had deteriorated very little through the years and has required little supportive maintenance. The cliff dwelling was first discovered in 1888, when two local ranchers chanced upon it while searching for stray cattle. A large tree, which they identified as a Douglas Spruce, was found growing from the front of the dwelling to the mesa top. It is said that the men first entered the dwelling by climbing down this tree, which was later cut down by another early explorer.

Strengths Finder

Strengths Finder

Psychologist Dr. Donald O. Clifton (1924-2003), in partnership with the Gallup Organization, worked together for decades to study, quantify and survey the unique strengths of individuals. Through careful examination, 34 themes emerged. The creators of Strengths Finder believe that gaining an awareness of personal strengths and working in an environment that celebrates and fosters further development of the strengths of employees generates improved productivity and job satisfaction.

All employees of SOAR, including semester staff, have taken the Strengths Finder questionnaire and consciously integrate their strengths into professional pursuits. In addition to SOAR's full time staff, all semester course students complete the questionnaire. Strengths Finder plays an integral role in our overall goal of increasing student self-awareness.

Below are each team member’s Top 5 Strengths:

Spencer:
Adaptability
Strategic
Ideation
Input
Restorative

A.C.:
Adaptability
Command
Maximizer
Strategic
Woo

Mitchell:
Harmony
Activator
Individualization
Communication
Arranger

Charlie:
Context
Consistency
Empathy
Futuristic
Learner

EJ
Strategic
Input
Achiever
Communication
Activator


Below is what each student wrote about their discoveries:

EJ:



What strengths I would like my peers to see in me

I am an achiever so that means that I like to have a set plan of attack with all of my goals in life; I always go 110% with everything I’m doing. I’m the kind of person who never likes to be in one place for very long - I like to get up and go (kind of like the energizer bunny). Ever since I was a child I’ve always had a drive that makes me want to be the best at everything I’m doing at that time.

I’m an extremely athletic person and I have been a part of numerous sports teams throughout my life (football, crew and basketball) and I’ve always pushed myself to my physical limits whether or not I think I can continue. Being a semester student at SOAR has shown me an interesting perspective about where my untapped skills lie and areas where I could perform better.

I like that SOAR has a different style of conditioning its students physically than traditional school systems. I understand that sometimes being an achiever means that I must, like everyone, do certain things that I don’t always want to do (such taking the SAT), but like everyone learns in life: you’ve got to take the good with the bad sometimes. I’m proud to say that I have been achieving my goals while being a semester student at SOAR; I’m maintaining an A average in most of my classes and I’m having a great time while doing it.

I’ve always been the type of person who loves going to school for my friends and playing sports, not so much for the work itself. While I was a good student I put more effort into sports and that ultimately affected my academic success. I now know that I can have my cake and eat it, too!
SOAR has taught me how to maintain being an excellent athlete while being an excellent student. I’m happy that I have had the chance to experience such an amazing program that has taught me many life lessons that I know will stay with me long after my graduation.

By EJ KORNHAUSER

___

Spencer:

I have always been a strategic thinker and I have known this early on. However, there are some ups and downs to being a strategic thinker. For instance, I might come off as being a know it all.

Although my processing and strategic thinking can be viewed as a kind of know it all behavior when I say what I processed, I do not intend it to come across that way.

The positive aspect of this type of thinking is that I am able to process and assess things at a high level.

I have another strength I would like for people to recognize and remember me by which is ideation. Ideation means what it sounds lik - I have a lot of creative and good ideas. The downside to having this ability is that it can make others jealous or think that I’m trying to be better than them.

This is so because I love to share my ideas. When my ideas are practical people love them use them. Sometimes people use my ideas and forget about others' ideas, which sometimes causes conflict. This gives the impression that I want to take the focus away from them, which is not what I want to do.

But the good side is that I am great at creative projects and artistic things such as cooking and music.

If you know me then you probably know all of this. If you don’t then it is a good thing to know about me.

We all have different strengths and these are some of mine. They are good to know if you want to understand me better.

Spencer Malecki


___

Mitchell

I discoverd that these are my strengths by doing the strengths finder test:


Harmony
Activator
Individualization
Communication
Arranger

Although I know this about myself, this test confirmed that I'm a good communicator. I talk a lot which can be a good thing. I know how to ask teachers questions when I don't understand something and that helps me with school.

I try to be polite when I talk which makes me a good communicator.

I also learned that I like harmony. In this context it means that "I look for areas of agreement."

We discussed all of our strengths in class and realized we all have different strengths to add to the group.

___



This is the Strengths that I found by A.C. Berry
1 Adaptability
2. Command
3. Maximize
4. Strategic
5 .Woo


The most interesting thing that I discovered was that I have strength in being Strategic. This means that I am an outsider when it comes to work. That means I think a lot differently then others. I do not argue about everything that people say.

The Woo Strength means I can go and meet new people without getting scared. Also it means I am a good talker when it comes to important things.

The Command strength means that I’m in control. I agree because I am often very commanding when I am playing sports.

However, I am not such a commanding person when I’m not playing sports.

Adaptability means that I can adapt well to a new group of people. It also means going I’m easy going.

All of these strengths describe me well.

Cherokee Indian Project

This week we worked on our project about the Cherokee Indians with both groups. You can see some photos and writings here:


http://digitalheritageproject.blogspot.com/

Note from our teacher, Karla Held

* This semester we've worked on journalistic writing. I have a background in journalism and enjoy seeing my students get published.
We covered a wrestling match one Saturday and EJ's article was good enough to get published in the Waynseville paper, the Mountaineer.

You can click on this link to see the article:

http://www.themountaineer.com/cms/display/Sports/pageDisplay.php?page2display=1233730800*4-The%20Den%20was%20full.php

Karla Held

SOAR Language Arts Teacher
2008-2009


You can read some of my published articles here:
http://www.karlaheld.com/portfolio.html

EJ's report on SPARTA for history class

SPARTA
By E.J Kornhauser

The ancient Greeks generally referred to Sparta as Lakedaimonia; these are the names commonly used in the works of Homer and the Athenian historians Herodotus and Thucydides.

During the Corinthian war Sparta faced a coalition of the leading Greek states: Thebes, Athens, Corinth and Argos. The alliance was initially backed by Persia, whose lands in Anatolia had been invaded by Sparta and which feared further Spartan expansion to Asia. The helots were originally free Greeks from the area of Messenia and Lakonia whom the Spartans had defeated in battle and enslaved. In other Greek city-states, free citizens were part-time soldiers who, when not at war, carried on other trades. Since Spartan men were full-time soldiers, they were not available to carry out manual labor. Helots were used as unskilled serfs, tilling Spartan land. Helot women were often used as wet nurses. Helots did not have any voting rights, although compared to non-Greek chattel slaves in other parts of Greece they were relatively privileged. Relations between helots and their Spartan masters were hostile. Each year when Euphors took office they routinely declared war on the helots, thereby allowing Spartans to kill them without the risk of ritual pollution. This seems to have been done by Kryptes, graduates of the Agoge who took part in the mysterious institution known as the Krypteria. Around 421 BC, the Spartans murdered 2,000 helots in a carefully staged event.
Spartan citizens were debarred by law from trade or manufacture, which consequently rested in the hands of the Perioki, and were forbidden to posses either gold or silver. Spartan currency consisted of iron bars, thus making thievery and foreign commerce very difficult and discouraging the accumulation of riches. Wealth was, in theory at least, derived entirely from landed property and ground allotted to the Spartan citizens. But this attempt to equalize property proved a failure. Full citizens, released from any economic activity, were given a piece of land that was cultivated and run by the helots. As time went on, greater portions of land were concentrated in the hands of large landholders, but the number of full citizens declined. Citizens had numbered by 10,000 at the beginning of the 5th century BC but had decreased by Aristotle’s day (384-322 BC) to less than 1,000 and had further decreased to 700 at the accession of Agis IV in 244 BC.

When male Spartans began military training at age seven, they would enter the Agoge system. The Agoge was designed to encourage discipline and physical toughness and to emphasize the importance of the Spartan state. Boys lived in communal messes and were deliberately underfed, to encourage them to master the skill of stealing food. Besides physical and weapons training, boys studied reading, writing, music and dating. Special punishments were imposed if boys failed to answer questions sufficiently. At the age of 12, the Agoge obliged Spartan boys to take on an older male mentor, usually an unmarried young man. The older man acted as a substitute father and role model to his junior partner; however, it is certain that they also had sexual relations. At the age of 18, Spartan boys became reserve members of the Spartan army. On leaving the Agoge they would be sorted into groups, where some were sent into the countryside with only a knife and forced to survive on their skills and cunning. This was called the Krypteria, and the immediate object of it was to seek out and kill any helots as part of their larger program of terrorizing and intimidating the helot population. Sparta is the only city-state in Greece to have given women any sort of formal education.
Many women played a significant role in the history of Sparta. Queen Gorgo, heiress to the throne and the wife of Leonidas I, was an influential and well-documented figure. Herodotus records as a small girl she advised her father Clemones to resist a bribe. She was later said to be responsible for decoding a warning that the Persian forces were about to invade Greece; after Spartan generals could not decode a wooden tablet covered in wax, she ordered them to clear the wax revealing the warning. Women, being more independent than in other Greek societies, were able to negotiate with their husbands and bring their lovers home. Men both allowed and encouraged their wives to bear the children of other men, because of the general communal ethos which made it more important to bear many progeny for the good of the city, than to be jealously concerned with one’s own family unit.