Friday, April 17, 2009

Time to Dust the Blog


Well, the ol' blog has been gathering dust as of late. I know everyone is working on new things, and I want to invite all to take a gander at what the Miller students have been doing since our discussion of Night. Once again, I want to say the student work done during our collaboration still amazes me. I am proud to have been a part of it. Miller students have been creating digital multigenre projects. To get a look follow the link.

Miller Student Projects

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Genocide



Learning about the Rwanda Genocide was very interesting to me. It made me realize how sheltered I am from many harsh realities, I didn't even know that genocide was still occuring in the world today. The movie Hotel Rwanda was really an eye opener. I never imagined that something like that could of happened only 15 years ago. Hutus running around with machetes hacking up every innocent Tutsi they saw, Tutsis being forced out of their homes and put into the streets filled with flying bullets and slashing machetes. Hutus were trying to kill off all of the Tutsis. They started to target the children so they could kill off the next generation of Tutsis. Everything I learned about the Rwanda genocide was shocking and sick. All of the madness and killing seemed almost surreal. How could anybody be so heartless and cruel. How could someone be so brutal towards innocent children? Then I realized It was a modern day holocaust. The Rwanda Genocide was no different than the Nazis targeting the Jews. The sad thing about the Rwanda genocide was that Tutsis and Hutus that were married were ripped apart. Families, homes and lives were ruined by the modern day holocaust.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009


In the movie Hotel Rwanda the Rwanda was genocide against the Hutu and the Tutsi. The Hutu killed all of the Tutsi they could. They killed millions of Tutsi during this genocide. Another genocide like this was the Holocaust. During the Holocaust the Nazi’s killed millions of Jews. This was close to Rwanda because millions of people died for no reason really. In both genocides there were one big group that were targeted. In Rwanda there were one big group that killed this was the Hutu, they killed the Tutsi. This is like the Holocaust because there were one big group that killed the Jews this was the Nazi’s.

Tutsi and Hutu people


Rwanda Genocide is mass killing of different groups that other people think that they are taking over like how the Jews were murdered by the Germans because they were different. The Hutu people went to the Tutsi homes and killed them with machetes and called them cockroaches. When two people from both the Tutsi and the Hutu were together it sometimes cause problems because of them fighting and with all the murdering. They were burning down the houses and shooting them out on the streets. The Hutu's thought that the Tutsi were trying to be higher power than them so they had to kill them to keep their power.
I thought the Rwanda genocide was very interesting. The Movie Hotel Rwanda was also full of great helpful information. I thought it was kind of confusing and hard to follow at some parts. I do not get how they could really tell the difference between one another. I know there where different body traits and different features but they did not look to different from each other.

Genocide


The movie Hotel Rawanda was based on a genocide between the Hutus and the Tutsis. The Hutus were the ones who killed the Tutsis. It all started because the Tutsis were blamed for the killing of the Hutu president. which they really didn't kill him they just blamed it on them so they had an excuse to kill the Tutsis. Going through what the Tutsis had to go through would just be horrible I could not go through that, being killed for no reason and cant do anything about it.
The Rawanda genocide was allot like the Holocaust but allot different to. It was a killing of an entire population but they were killed in different ways. The Jews were killed in camps and the tutsis were killed with machutes on the streets and left to die.

Genocide and Holocaust


The Rwanda Genocide was a killing of the Tutsi by the Hutus. We as a class watched the movie Hotel Rwanda, and it showed how the Hutus rose up and started to kill off all of the Tutsis. What struck me the most was probably how the Hutus used machetes to kill the Tutsis off so barberically. It just struck me in aw. The difference between the Rwanda Genocide and the Holocaust is that the Holocaust was organized. It had people in power and people who had jobs, and also it was undercover. The Rwanda Genocide was open and everyone around the world saw what was happening.

actions, human or beast?


The Rwandan Genocide was a horrible atrocity, but we all know that. the Hutu were just killing randomly, more times than people know the Hutu had to look at id to know for sure if they were killing a Tutsi. It also compares to the holocaust because of the rapid extermination of a single type of people. The Hutu wanted a reason to kill the "cockroaches" so they killed their own Hutu president. And then the had the audacity to blame it on the Tutsi. All the movie did for me was really show me how the genocide hurt so many lives and just really explained how violent the Hutu were in their way of murder. They couldn't even kill them in a regular way, they used machetes........now how does that make a person feel, to know that humanity-the superior race mind you-can succumb to such...i don't even know a word to explain how it was.

Past and Present


After reading and watching videos on the Rwanda Genocide so many tutsi's were murderd by the hutu's. The main weapon used by the hutu's to kill the tutsi's was the machete. All of this reminded me about what the nazi's did to the Jews. Everyone said after the holocaust "never again" will something like that happen but it is now it happened in the 90's with Rwanda and also right now in Darfur. I couldn't believe what the jews had to go through in the holocaust and now seeing what has happened in Rwanda and what is happing in Darfur right now is very similar.

Hotel Rwanda and Genocide...


Before watching the movie, I knew very little about the Rwandan genocide. I knew that it involved the Hutus and the Tutsis. What I gathered from the movie was that the genocide in Rwanda was more in the open. In the Holocaust the Nazis tried to hide what they were doing. The Hutus broadcasted it over the radio. The choice of weapon wasn’t exactly what I expected. Instead of using guns, they used machetes. And they called the Tutsis cockroaches. It seems that the Hutus were ruthless and careless, while the Nazis appeared to show some, although very little, mercy. This movie for some reason did not evoke the same emotions in me as the Holocaust; I wasn’t sad or angry. But I did recognize the feeling of being helpless, useless. In all, it was a good movie. I learned more than I expected and saw more than I expected.

Chopping off Heads Picture wouldnt work

Watching this movie me gave a background on the genocide occurring in Rwanda. It was something I was familiar to, the mass killings of an inferior race. This movie stressed what it was like just to try and live another day. Almost all genocides are the same in that way that you have to do whatever you can, especially communicate, just to live. One major point that stuck out for me was that Hutu's killed the Tutsi's with machetes. How could you chop somebodies head off even if you were forced too. Watching these movies is tough. Mass killings is something that doesn't catch my attention. Something we can all learn from these movies is to never let it happen again.
-Kyle

Rwandan Genocide & Hotel Rwanda



The Rwandan Genocide was a mass killing of Tutsis. In Hotel Rwanda they showed a realistic view of what happened in Rwanda. The Hutus were the ones killing the Tutsis. The Hutus, if you think of social classes, were beneath the Tutsis. The Tutsis were more educated and had more political power. That soon changed over night. The Hutus broke out and started killing the Tutsis. What stuck out in my the most was how they killed and how they talked about them. The "cockroaches" were killed mainly by machetes. If they got away the Hutus had "marked" them for life. The Hutus also went after children because they wanted to take out the Tutsis future. Comparing it to the Holocaust, the Tutsis weren't tortured in camps like Jews were but by down grading and killing them you can say it was the same... a genocide.

Rwandan Inspire



Rwanda, before our class learned about it, I had no clue that it took place. When I saw what happened my heart ached. It hurt to know that men, women, and children were being murdered and there was close to no one to help. The United Nations were there but they didn’t really do any good because they didn’t shoot. So there basically was no one to help the Tutsi’s. One part in the movie really hit me was when a camera man got a story and very graphic footage on the murder that the Hutu’s were committing. One of the Hutus that helped the Tutsis (Paul) thought that it was great news, that after people saw what was happening people would help. There was hope. The news man said no, people will watch this while they are eating their supper and say wow that’s terrible, and then go on eating. They wont do anything to stop it. Its sick that innocent people were getting murdered and people just sat back and watched. The people tried to help couldn’t save them, because the weapons weren’t there and the chances for winning were low.
Rwanda and Holocaust were similar in some ways. A mass race was being killed. The problem was is that there were very few people who helped the Tutsis and the Africans, the Jews were helped in a little more ways then the Africans were. A man in the movie said something that really hit me in a way I never expected. He said they wont help you, your black worse than that you dirt, you’re an African. Those words are harsh but the problem was that it was true. It seemed as though people thought that since they were Africans they didn’t matter. They weren’t any different then the Hutus except that they were lighter skinned, taller and had more knowledge of things. That would be like us being if you are white you were a “Tutsi” tanner “Hutu”. The thing is many of the people could have been twins, but they were labeled. Over all it was very sad to watch people kill people with no sympathy, but with laughs. Instead of tears satisfaction. Instead of children, death, escapes none, help nowhere.

Genocide...



"Hotel Rwanda" was a movie showing the tragic happenings that occurred during the Genocide in Rwanda. The Hutu's were killing the innocent Tutsi's. They didn't kill them with guns, they killed them by machetes. They were burning down the houses and beating people on the streets. There were hundreds beyond hundreds of people walking down the streets just trying to find a safe place to stay. Paul had to give the Hutu's everything he had just to save his family and friends. There was an estimated six hundred people staying at the hotel just so they could be safe, but what they didn't know was that they Hutu's would soon come for them also. Paul kept them safe for a while by bribing the Hutu's with money and alcohol, but he couldn't do it much longer because he was running out of supplies. One part that bothered me was when the Hutu's kept calling the Tutsi's "cockroaches". They weren't even doing anything wrong and they were being treated so badly. The Rwandan Genocide was in a way the same as the Holocaust. They were both simply a mass killing of the lower class. Also in Rwanda these people weren't put into concentration camps unlike the people in the Holocaust, but were still treated badly.

-Shelby E.

Hotel Rwanda & The Holocaust



What is genocide? Genocide is a term referring to violent crimes committed against groups with the intent to destroy the existence of the group. Which happened in the movie "Hotel Rwanda" as of the whole Holocaust. Innocent people were killed for no reason during both these times. Help didn't come during either events. No one stood up to the monsters that went around killing. I honestly think that people just kill others for fun. Which scares me to death because you never know if it will happen here or not. Who cares what other peoples backgrounds are like. In the eyes of God we are all brothers and sisters and should treat each other that way. But of coarse, people just have to kill others for their believes and what not.

Rwandan genocide



In the movie hotel Rwanda it explains a lot of what happend during the Rwandan genocide. Most of which i didn't know like how the tutsi peaple were concidered the higher class of the two ,the tutsi's and the hutu's. the whole reasoning for the Rwandan genocide was that the tutsi rebels killed the hutu president. and in return the hutus think that they should start a genocide and exterminating the tutsis. killing any tutsi they came across even women and children. at the hotel there was over a thousand tutsi and hutu refuges looking for safty. with the UN and part of the hutu army protecting them. the hutu' s favorite way to kill them was with a machete. And in relation to the holocaust they were a lot alike a group of people that thought that they were better than any other so they decide they need to exterminate them.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Similarities

The Holocaust and the Rwanda Genocide are similar and yet very different. But first I am going to explain some of the similarities. During the Holocaust the German Nazi's wanted to kill the Jews because of what they believed in. But yet at the same time in Rwanda the Hutu's wanted to kill the Tutsi's for basically the same thing. But in all actuality I think they are basically the same thing because in both they risked their lives and in both the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide several thousand people got killed .

"Hotel Rwanda".. and the Holocaust.


The movie "Hotel Rwanda" depicts the Rwandan Genocide. The Hutus are tired of being ruled by the Tutsis, who are the minority group. So the Hutus form a militia, and basically start killing off as many Tutsis as possible. The Hutus who are against this and the Tutsis who are still alive try to hide from the militia in one of the biggest and nicest four-star hotels there. They are eventually found and some are killed, but the manager of the hotel managed to bribe the Hutu militia with alcohol and money in exchange for a few more days of their lives until the united kingdom comes to help. With the U.N.'s help and the rebels that are against the militia's help, the Rwanda refugees at the hotel get transported to an actual refugee camp protected by the U.N. This genocide is much like the Holocaust mainly because of the fact that they were both genocide, but the Rwanda Genocide and the Holocaust are very different mainly because of the difference of the number of casualties; with Rwanda losing around one million, and Germany losing around eleven million.

Monday, January 5, 2009

reflecting!!

To be honest the whole blobbing process at first was a little weird. As the process went on blogging got easier. Next year and for years after you should keep this up. I think it helps with different kinds of writting and helps people express their true feelings and back their opinions. That was my a favorite part of blogging, being able to have your own side in the matter. Also being able to give your thoughts while getting opinions from every side of the issue. All in all blogging is a good experience.

The way I am



To be honest when our teacher told us about what we were going to be doing i thought it was stupid. I was already taking a holocaust class so why did i need to read books and do assignments in this class. But now this is over i realized i learned from this class and even though i hate reading i did not really mind reading "The Wave and some of the "Night"

Since we got to blog with kids from other school it made it interesting. We got to voice our opinions and be able to tell why we feel that way. Even when people disagreed because they didn't feel the same way we did. Some times it got out of hand and we took it to far but for the most part it was a good experience about the real world and how people do have different ways of thinking and feeling.

past and present

I believe the last semester was an…. exploration, an exploration into the minds and souls of the holocaust survivors. We, in the last 18 weeks, dove head first into heaven, hell and everywhere in between, from arguments to agreements, faith to no faith, god or no god, we have all done the best we could to understand the heinous crimes committed by the Nazi party, even though we may never know the full truth, we can at least say we gave it a try. That to me is all that matters. Most people don’t know much about the holocaust or what the word even means, and that is a very bad thing, I can’t remember who said this but “to learn from the past is to know that the mistake will not be made again”…now think about that, we learned that it is easy to get caught up in things such as in everyday culture: such as the wave and armed with that information we can insure the safety of perhaps millions of lives.

Blogger


This last semester we started the blog. At first I didn't think that I was going to like it but after I realized there was no homework if we do it it wasn't so bad. Thats not the only reason I liked it though i liked getting into arguments with people and then resolving them, also after doing the blog I learned allot about who other people are and how they react in an argument. I didn't just learn about other people though, the blog also taught me many things about myself.
Blogger was good and bad. I think it was more good than it was bad, it was good because it was a different way of learning. We got more out of doing it on the blogger because it made us think a little more and we had more fun doing it rather than sitting in class writing papers and listing to lectures. The only reason that i can think that it was bad was because it brought the bad side out in most people. To wrap the whole thing up my opinion is that the blogger was good.

So, This was a pretty fun semester. When I first found out about what we were going to be doing, My first thought was, great this will be as lame as it could get. As time went on it didn't turn out so bad. It was very intense at time hearing different peoples views on The Holocaust. When we first started this I didn't care for the idea because I didn't think i would be interested in The Holocaust, But it was a very interesting and I learned of new stuff about it. And to share ideas with each other in groups made it that much more of a learning experience. Over all I thought it was a lot of fun and it was better than doing homework everyday.

-Wade Taylor

my thoughts


The whole blogger experience was good and bad. It was a good experience because we got a chance see what students in a different state thought of what we were all learning about. which really it was pretty much the the same thoughts threw out all of us. it did seem like we had gotten twice as much work done in a shorter period of time, it was faster than doing normal school work. i thought it was going to bad and really boring but I guess it really wasn't a bad experience but it wasn't always the most enjoyable thing to do.

blogger response



I really liked using blogger because it was very helpful to me to get some feedback on what my group or what I post on the blog. Getting feedback I think was really important because it helps you become a better writer and some people need that feedback. I really liked getting the feed back because I knew what I had to fix if I needed to fix anything. I really also giving feedback because I think that if no one were to give feedback on other people’s work then they would think that they couldn't make their work any better. So I think that blogger.com has really helped me because I can make improvements on my work as long as I have feedback on my work. Some people may criticize you for your work but you have to learn to ignore that or to change what you have written in a post. I think getting feedback for other students your age is a great thing to do.

Jackie Grady McCool Junction

I think the book night was a good book to start with blogger. I enjoyed the groups decision but didn't like the assignments that went along with them. I also enjoyed learning more about the Holocaust. We learn more and more each year and gets more interesting every year. I like how we got to comment other groups post, even though we couldn't say some things that we wanted to. Over all I think that blogger was a good experince. There were both positive and negative experiences. We had some easy assignments and some hard ones but I think blogger was fun to learn how to operate it.

Blogger:The Good & The Bad

My thoughts on the blogger and what my experience were, are all good. I like the blogger because it was easy to talk about subjects and get down to the point. When you talk about subjects in person, like in a class room, they change according to how peoples reactions are. But on blogger, its more like you state you opinion with out changing it to what other people would like it to be said. Everyone can put what they really think without the influence of other people. So I think it is better this way. So in the end, I had a good experience with blogger, and I would like to continue with this.

Response To The Blog


I have to admit that I really didn't like blogging at first. It was hard for me to blog because I don't do it very often. For me it was a pain trying to put how I felt about the situations into words. I have so many mixed feelings about the Holocaust. I was scared to know what others would think of my opinion. After awhile I started to like it. I liked the input everyone would give. And I liked the fact that you could get a different look to everything. And if you didn't agree, you could have a debate. I liked hearing everyone's opinion. I started to really like it because we were interacting with others that we have never met before. Instead of our classmates that we know and have heard their opinions like one hundred times before, we got a new view. Many different opinions from people we have never met. It was a really fun way to learn. I would suggest that this continues because I think that others will benefit from it and really enjoy it like I have. It was also a great experience to open the mind and except others opinion and learn how to, even if you don't agree, respect their opinion. It was really hard to try to comment on someone's post that you didn't agree with. You didn't want to start a fight so you had to think hard about what and how you wanted to put your opinion into words. Which for me that is a good way to improve your writing. Overall, I think that the blog has been a great experience and I really liked hearing everyone's opinions and advice that they have given. It takes courage to express your opinion.
Andrea Root

Blogging...


This whole blogging experience has been pretty interesting. I didn't expect to enjoy it so much. I learned a great deal more than I thought there was to learn. There were some things that didn't make sense to me, but then again I think there were things that no one understood. And there were countless things that made me angry, but still learning them was well worth my while and if I had the option of doing it over again I know I would.
The books we read were also really interesting. I am not the reading type but I did like the books. Night was probably one of the most difficult things I have had to read. It was just so different reading someone's actual account of what happened. The Wave was really good too. And the fact that its based on true events makes it that much more intriguing. Who would have thought you could recreate what Nazi Germany was like in an ordinary high school? I was seriously speechless at the end of the book. It was that good.
In all, I think that what I have learned in the past semester will stay with me. Not many people get to have this kind of experience in a school setting, but it made learning about the Holocaust interesting. It wasn't like every other time we have had to learn about it. I started out thinking, "Oh great, here we go again." But then it was something completely different from what I had expected. So, I guess you could say that I really did enjoy the semester.

The good and bad of the blog


When we first started the blog I didn’t really know what to think. It was different for me to have other students from a different school out of state comment on how I did and try to help me do better in my work. I started to understand how it works better as we got more into the blog and interacting with other students. When we started going more into writing responses or other assignments, I started to like it. It helped me to be able to say how I felt about the topic so I wasn’t scared to say how I felt. I learned many different facts when we read our books or looked up interesting information on the Internet about the topic. There were some parts of the blog I didn't like. Sometimes I didn't like how people commented and I know we all have our own opinions about a topic but sometimes it puts me down. I soon to like the blog more as we go on and I think that it would help me later on with my writing.

Reflect




The blogger was definitely interesting, and never dull. I liked doing the responses to the questions, because we were answering questions to history. I mean we weren’t there in that place but the book gave us a feel of the pain they went through. The blogger gave me an outlook on the holocaust. You got to write what you felt and you got to look at other peoples’ post who maybe made the situation more clear. It was fun being in groups, because then you can have a bunch of different opinions. Like say there could be people that have a very strong faith in God and maybe a couple that don’t, that would make the post very interesting. I like how you could put down what you felt and either people liked it or they didn’t. It really showed opinions. Sometimes it made it a little tense though.
Dislikes. I really didn’t have that much against it, but sometimes I felt when there was a real powerful question people didn’t answer the question to the fullest. Also when people did write good posts sometimes groups would kind of shoot posts down. Not all of the time, but I must say we were all very head strong. I didn’t like the tension that I felt that was going on sometimes between groups. It made me a little intimidated to write some things that I felt because I felt that I would get rejected. I’m a person that doesn’t like criticism I know it had to be done, but I can be very sensitive in that subject J.
Otherwise the blogger was okay. I mean you got to see very many sides of opinions that definitely weren’t pointed out before, but sometimes opinions are opinions and we all seemed to forget that a little when people wrote what they felt.

*Lindee Jackson

The Blogger Experience.


My Blogger experience was... eh, o.k. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't the most... exciting. It was better than most of the stuff that we could be doing, like writing essays or doing grammar assignments. I also liked the fact that we were collaborating with a school in a different state, which is cool. I was hoping to get to know the people from the other school a little more, get to see how different they are from us, but I didn't really get the chance to. I did like the actual thought of blogging at school, since most blogs aren't allowed in school (i.e. myspace, facebook, etc.). All in all it was o.k. for those reasons, but other than that it's just blah.

Blogger Experience!


To me the blogger was a fun and great experience! Talking with others about the assignments and then going onto the blogger and stating our opinion was fun. You learn more about the people in your group and others backgrounds, like where they came from and what they believe in. I learned more about the Holocaust in the past semester than I ever knew and the book Night really helped! If I didn't quite understand something that went on in the book, my group was there for me to explain in a little better. Then when we went and posted our response to everything, we got even more people helping us out, stating their own opinions and what not. Which usually opened my eyes up even more and I tried to understand where they are coming from. Some of the posts became a bit harsh, it seemed like another war had started. But that is the whole reason for this blogger., learning and discussing about assignments. So to me this blogger was a great experience and I learned for it! Now, when someone doesn't agree with me, I take their opinion in and think things over ans see that they are right as will in some other ways!

McCool Jct. Post
By Jackie M.

Blogging...


I admit at first I didn't really like the blog at all, but once we got going with it, it was something that seemed easy and fun but didn't turn out to be what I thought it would be. I think the blog has helped me understand more about The Holocaust and genocide. By interacting with students from a different state gave me a different outlook on what we were doing. We talked about so many different ideas from the book Night to the happenings in the Holocaust. It helped me learn so much more about the history behind the Holocaust that I never knew before. But there were times I had mixed feelings about the blogger. I liked interacting with students from a different state because they have different opinions and ideas, but at times i just didn't like it at all. Sometimes the assignments seemed so easy, but yet they were so hard for me to write up. Also some people would almost get competitive while they were giving each other comments. I mean there's nothing really wrong with that but its your own opinion don't be so harsh about every little thing said. Everyone has a right to voice their own opinions and sometimes it almost felt you couldn't or people would comment you badly. I'm not trying to pick out the people who might have done that, but thats just how I felt. That's their opinion so they can state it to, but maybe not so meanly. Over all blogger seemed to be an interesting learning experience in my eyes.

-->Shelby E.

Learning to do the blog was a new experience for me. I wasn't sure what to think of it. I thought it might be tough to start a conversation with a person miles away from me who was reading the same book but we did. It was a new way of learning that I could adapt to. Overall, I liked being able to communicate with people far away from me. If I wanted to defend my point and start a cyber fight, I could. If I were to grade this new experience from one to ten, I would give it a seven. I would say to continue doing the blog just because it's a new way of learning. The End.
-Kyle

My Experience on Blogger


I had a very good experience on Blogger. I think that being able to interact with other students and your own classmates is a positive thing. Other people's criticism helps me to improve as a writer and expand my horizons. Being able to post our own thoughts and feelings on various subjects was also a good experience. Discussing touchy subjects such as genocide, idealism, and religion was really amazing. I never had been part of such a deep conversation. Talking about faith, religion and death was almost overwhelming at first but once I got used to it, it was a really mind blowing thing to talk to others about such sacred subjects. On blogger everybody's opinion is stated loud and clear. Sometimes in the classroom certain people get overpowered in discussions and some people have strong opinions that they aren't afraid to state. On Blogger that doesn't happen. There's something about typing words instead of saying them that gives people the courage to say what they feel, so everybody's voice is heard. Being able to log on and post or comment at home was also very useful. Overall Blogger was a good experience that I believe was worth my time and effort.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Bloging: the Good, the Bad, and the Wordy

I have to admit that when we were first given this blogging assignment I had not the slighest clue as to what blogging really was. And after I learned exactly what our assignment was about, I was absolutely certain that I would hate it. I was sure of this not only because of my hatred of computers ( a hatred that is recipricated on the part of the computers as proved by the many papers, applications, and variious other items that have disapeared into thin air right after I had saved them), but also because of the darkness of the topic we were to discuss and the conflict that was sure to arrise due to the nature of that said topic. I am a very opinionated person, but I do prefer to usualy keep my opinions to myself and avoid conflict whenever possibe. So the very idea of blogging did not appeal to me at all in the begining.
Over time, however, I surprisingy came to somewhat enjoy it. I found that I relish in having an opportunity to express my views on a subject, and see how others view it when we are all almost equally knowledgable of that subject. The posts were usually quite meaningful and heartfelt, and the debates were heated and, in my opinion, did not seem to get out of hand. I also came to realize even more the importance of studying the Holocaust, not only to hopefully ensure that history is not allowed to repeat itself , but also as a way of honoring those who had to go through the horrors of the Holocaust whether they be living or dead.
Still, even though I recognize the importance of being knowledgable of and discussing the Holocaust, I wish we would move on and cover something new. I do not like dwelling on something so depressing, nor do I like feeling so strongly about something that I can no longer do anything about. As far as actually reading the book, Night, I felt that it allowed us to get a better view of how the Holocaust effected a single idividual, that it was well written, and that, overall, it was a good book. However, I would not have read it if not instructed to do so because, as I said, I do not like to dwell on things that are so sad and depressing.
Overall my expirience with this blooging asignment was a much better than I had anticipated. I have learned a lot. Not only about blogging itself but also about the Holocaust as a whole, Elie's plight, and how different people view different things. And, Mr. Neuberger, I too, like this a heck of a lot better than that horrible research paper. :)

-Shelby Smith