The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp is painted by a Renaissance artist, Rembrandt, in 1632. It was oil on canvas painting.

This painting shows a reflection of what was happening during the Renaissance, through the the facial expression and the experimental body in the painting. During the Renaissance, artists wanted to make their paintings realistic with more details. In order to do that, the keen observers looked that dissected bodies to observe the muscles and wrinkles. So, the body that is being dissected in the painting represents the realism that the artists started to paint with during the Renaissance. Also, the facial expressions in the painting shows that people during the Renaissance enjoyed gaining new knowledge. This is also related to secularism, people questioned the church, and started experimenting on their own. The dissection which is shown in this painting is one of the experiments. They were used for observing the body for details in painting but also for studying the body parts for cure for diseases. Therefore, this painting shows realism and gaining new knowledge during the Renaissance.

Driving Forces of Renaissance

I believe that trading and banking was the most important driving force of the Renaissance because of the money from trading and banking offered people in city states time to construct or renovate architectures and think about new ideas and knowledge.

Link to Image URL

What, is in a hug

Have you ever hugged somebody?

A hug means more than welcome. I wasn’t used to hugging people other than my family when I was young. It felt as if giving a hug was such a big thing to do. It was easy to wave hands and smile at them, but a hug? That was not my style of saying hi. Things changed when I came to a international school. A place where all people had their own beliefs and personalities, which gave me distance between them at first. What would show them that I really want to know them? What could possibly make them believe I understand them? No strong and powerful words can show such an understanding.

I started to break my boundaries and get to know others. I’m a sensitive person towards feelings, so I was really careful with the people when I started meeting them. It took me a long time, but I had to know answers to my questions and what creates connection between people. When I came to middle school, my life became so much more enjoyable. I’ve made a lot of friends from around the world and now have deep connections with them. Then I thought, hey! Now I know what created this connection and understanding between people. There was one thing that I did a lot more nowadays than before. Hugs, giving hugs.

Every morning, I started my school day off with a big smile and tight hug. Every break, I cheered my friends going for a test, with a gentle hug. At the end of school, I gave all my friends an enormous hug saying: "see you tomorrow!". Whenever someone felt sad, I gave him or her, a hug. They knew I understood them. If they hugged me, I would feel comfortable and loved. Hugs create this strong web between everyone. This web will defend itself from any misunderstandings. Even if it gets tangled or cut, I know and we ALL accept that hugs can quickly connect the web again. This, I truly believe :)

Picture source: http://www.boomspeed.com/1631951/hugs05.jpg

The Game of Battle of Hastings, 1066

The online game of battle of Hastings is mainly about using different strategies. You can play this game in Harold G's point of view or William's point of view. When the battle starts, some options of plans are given, you need to think and choose which strategy fits each occasion. In order to win this game, you need to choose correct strategy every time. What I enjoyed about this game was the different strategies that Normans and the English used. They were very brutal and tricky. However, since we studied what happened in Battle of Hastings in class, I was able to reach the victory. Also, I learned new strategies used in the battle of Hastings and if they were success or not. During The Battle of Hastings the English or the Saxons made a shield wall to protect themselves from Normans. Later on, the Normans were able to break the shield wall and retreat because Normans thought William (their leader) has died, and the Saxons broke the shield wall and chased the Normans to see if the death of William was fake or not. In fact, William was still alive! Eventually the Normans turned around, attacked the English and killed Harold G. William was won the battle of Hastings. I think this type of game is a valuable learning experience because we can learn what happened in battle of Hastings and the strategies that Normans and English used.

Catherine called Birdy

The historical fiction novel “The Catherine Called Birdy” by Karen Cushman is a hard journey of a teenage girl during medieval times. The novel contains three themes of power of church, gender equality and freedom from family restrictions. Catherine’s everyday is controlled by the power of church, each day in her diary is a different Saint Day. Also, the novel represents people as religious community in the medieval times, the Catherine’s visit church often and also for religious days such as Lent and Easter. The novel contains variety of events and stories related to religion, for instance heaven, God and angel. Another theme in this historical fiction novel is gender equality. Girls are treated worse than boys in the medieval times. In the beginning of the novel, Birdy complains about why she has to behave like a lady and why she can’t be a monk or a crusader. Birdy listened to a lot of lady lessons from mom, but she is an adventurous girl. However, she is forbidden to be a monk or a crusader or be active because she is a girl. Since Birdy is a girl, it’s tough for her to have freedom from family restrictions. She can’t marry who she loves, her father has to choose her husband and Birdy was forced to marry Fat Shaggy Beard by her father. All in all, life in medieval era was challenging particularly for a noble girl like Catherine.

image source: http://www.frontiernet.net/~mblow/images/Birdy%20images/birdy%20book%20cover.jpg

Does The Boy In The Striped Pajamas deal with the sensitive subject of the Holocuas in an appropriate way?

I believe The Boy In The Striped Pajamas deals with the sensitive subject of the Holocaust in an appropriate way. The author, John Boyne wrote the book in a child's eye view, use of words to explain 'the other side of fence' and he also showed what people were seeing by thinking, not inferring information to represent the confusion of people. The book is in Bruno's point of view, a child's point of view. This boy portrays the German people or any other people who didn't know so well about the Holocaust. John Boyne did a fantastic job to explain those brain-washed people. There were a lot of explanations about 'the other side of fence'. Those skinny, bony people with old and disgusting pajamas were crowded in a small place. By using the window in Bruno's room and also the place with Shmuel, the horror/gory was deeply explain. Also this historical fiction has a lot of foreshadowing in the character's view or thought, it's never told what's going to happen, but it is referred to the following chapters which leads to 'the final solution'. As Bruno said in the novel, they were in the other side of fence but we weren't so different.

Picture source: http://isurvived.org/Pictures_iSurvived-4/auschwitz-fence2.GIF

Holocaust Museum

Go to http://www.ushmm.org/
Click on education for student
Then click on Holocaust a learning site for students
Or just go straight to http://www.ushmm.org.outreach/en/

From there, click on the Final Solution
Read the article

1. What are the stages before the final solution?
2. Look at the picture of people separated by a fence
   What do you see in this picture? How do you feel when you are looking at this?

Go back to Holocaust a learning site for students
Click life in ghettos

3. How and why were Jews treated this way?
4. Look at the map
Why are most of the concentration camps in eastern Europe?

Go back to Holocaust a learning site for students
Click at the killing center

5. Why did the Nazis use the Zyklon B to Jews? Why would they want to use it to Jews for that reason?
6. Look at the photos with Jews' clothes which were stuffed in the warehouse
How do you feel when you see this picture? What do those clothes represent?

Go back to Holocaust a learning site for students
Click at Auschwitz

7. About how many people died in Auschwitz?
8. Why would they use Jews who are humans for medical experiment? What do you think about this? Do you think a normal, alive person can be used for medical experiment?
9. Click on the second photo (the photo with Jews working in camp)
What does this look similar to? What does this picture symbolize? Describe the people in the photo (clothes, faces, etc…)

10. Do you think that this disaster will happen again? Are we still having problems with Jews nowadays somewhere in the world? Why do you think Jews were discriminated around the world? Explain.

ISKL statement - Power of Void

The International School of Kuala Lumpur provides an exceptional education that challenges each student to develop the attitudes, skills, knowledge and understanding to become a (silence) highly successful, spirited, socially responsible global citizen.

Between these words in ISKL statement, I put the word 'silence' to create tension and curiosity for listener. The listener is very interested in the future of the students in ISKL, and if we pause where the word silence is, the listener will be curious and anxious at the same time. When the curiosity is formed, people will ask questions. The word 'silence' forms tension because there is no answer.

Part Two

Composers can create tension and release in their music by putting a pause, a rest or a surprise silence in their music. When there is a pause, the tension is created and makes people curious about the answer and reasons to this silence. They think what is going to happen after this silence. The silence will be few seconds but for the listeners, it will feel like more than 5 minutes. The void is created when the elements of music is taken away. Then the release of the silence (when the elements of music returns) will give the answer to the listeners.

The Black Spot

I would call this story "The Black Box" because the black box is the main subject of this story and it also creates tension and curiosity on what is in the black box. In the story, there were a lot of foreshadowing that helped me predict what was going to happen. When Mrs.Hutchinson shouted "It wasn't fair!", I noticed that she wasn't happy at all when her family was selected in the lottery. This infers that the lottery in the story is not same as the lottery nowadays. The people don't want to be chosen for the lottery. Also from this text "it was no longer completely black but splintered baldy along on side to show original wood color.", I realised that the black box was antique and I knew that the lottery was a ritual from a long time ago.

These foreshadowing and questions that are popping in my head pulled me into the story. I couldn't wait to read the last paragraph. Instead of lines and words in the last paragraph, I saw a BLANK space. As a result, more questions appeared and created great tension. The second when Ms.P ripped the paper that had the end of story, The power of the void exploded and I thought I was going to die! There were so many clues in the story about the black box but there weren't any accurate answer. Then A paper that said "Do not open until 5pm and follow the instructions" Some papers had a black dot on it but mine didn't. I was kind of disappointed because people around me had the black dot and I thought something more special was on the paper.I did follow the instructions, I opened the paper at exactly 5pm because I was very curious about this mysterious paper and there was a SURPRISE! There was the ENDING OF STORY and some questions to answer for this blog. Obviously I did follow the instruction by writing this blog post.

The black box, the black spot and the blank paper...The black box is somehow the main object of this story and this caused the most tension for me. What was this box? What is in there? What makes people so curious about this box? Why do they want to change this box but they never do? These countless questions were suffering in my head until I received the rest of the story. The black spot is the climax of the story. Whoever gets the black spot is chosen. One thing that made me so anxious is that people didn't want to be the chosen one. I thought people want to be chosen for something good like the lottery. The blank paper is something that made people feel comfortable and happy. The people didn't want to be chosen. The blank paper was more like a winner in the lottery. more than 300 winners and 1 loser.

4:58pm, COME ON! (Peeking into the paper) For me, it felt like more than an hour passed to reach 4:59pm. Any faster? The second when the the big needle pointed at 12 and small needle turned to 5, I ripped two staplers on the paper and read "THE ENDING OF STORY" I knew it! Somehow I knew that I will find out the ending of the story. If there wasn't the ending of story, I would still go and ask teachers for the ending. I wasn't really focusing on the "assignment part", I could still make questions and predictions in the end of story. The time when the answer was given, I felt as if i was in heaven where I saw and knew everything. My prediction was the chosen one was going to be killed. It was kind of right because they threw stones at Tessie which is basically killing her. If I related more clues and forshadow in the story to make predictions, I'm sure I could make a better one. The auther left these voids in the story because the readers want to think and make predictions and questions. Also, it's boring when the author gives away every details.

No title, The title is suppose to give ideas to readers about the story. My first huge tension was created when I saw blank space in the title page. No ending, It's good to think and make predictions but there was nothing! Though people enjoy predicting, they still want to know the answer. Text clues, they were my heroes, they gave me ideas about this story and led me into the rest of the story. Mystery paper and delayed ending, The silence for 3 hours, I wasn't suppose to open this paper. What is this? The silence, the time when question ghosts flies in my head and the power of void ruled the entire band class students. From this short story, I realised that void can be created from anywhere, and wherever it happens, the power of void will rule the entire space...

"The most seemingly mundane activities can be inspirational when you look beneath the surface." Steve McCurry

Steve McCurry, a tremendous photographer, was born in Philadelphia in 1950, he worked at the newspaper for two years and traveled to India for freelance. He started his career as a photographer when he crossed the Pakistan border into rebel-controlled Afghanistan just before the Russian invasion. When he sewn films and photos into his clothes when he emerged from Afghanistan. He won countless awards of photography. McCurry explores themes of humanity in difficult circumstances, the human spirit, hope, poverty, determination, love of parent and child and war. Steve McCurry’s photos focus on people’s eyes and those eyes tell the story of the person. "If you wait, people will forget your camera and the soul will drift up into view."

As I was looking through Steve McCurry’s photos in his website, this photo of a child holding a gun with unsoiled eyes captured my eyes. His clothes are cluttered, brown and dirty. His skin is faded dark brown and it’s not emphasized in this photo, it’s slightly fainting. It’s not noticed at first when a person looks at this photo. His clothes and skin symbolize the weakness of this little boy. Although he has a gun, he has not enough power, he still has fear as a young child. Most of people will think that this boy is strong and he has gone through all the dangerous occasions that he is not afraid of anything anymore. If I just look at his face, his eyes and the gun which are positioned in the center, I can never guess what he is terrified. There is a huge contrast of colors between the eyes and his skin. He represents the children who live in a war place or danger zone.

The cloth that he is wearing on his head looks like a tent or a cave. A tent or a cave has defensible walls. However inside of the cave, there is nothing but dimness, gloomy breeze wondering around, rushing as fast as it can to get out of the walls. The focal point of this photo is the eyes. The eyes are the cleanest part in the photo. If I stare at those eyes, I might fall into that. I might be able to feel the spirit, and know the stories behind him. I could communicate with his eyes and his dried tears, the tears make his skin look pale brown, becoming weaker and losing the meaning of life. Steve McCurry positioned this boy in a plain background but showed the boy’s skin. I think he used the skin as a background. The mixture of foreground which is eyes and gun and the background, the skin introduces to the viewer to imagine a story about this boy and think deeper.


Steve McCurry captures the spirit of the person. He wants the viewer to read and analyze the photo: to feel the soul and be able to communicate with the focus point. His photos have more ideas then just spirit and emotion. When the viewers stare at the photo, they can hear the voices, smell what’s around them, see what’s next to them, feel the danger and taste the word of a fear that pops up their mouth. I learnt that to analyze a photo, I have to look at foreground and background, color contrast, size and position. Also, I need to be able to make inference about the photo. The photo will look more realistic if I infer some ideas in the photo. The photos inspire people to look back or look around to see what actually is happening in this world. There are gazillions of people who are in the same difficult circumstance as the people in the photos. Since the photos makes the viewers to actually think and be part of the scene, the viewers will understand more about them and stand up and act for the people in difficult circumstances. I believe that McCurry’s photos will endure forever. The viewers will never forget the eyes in the photo. The eyes will grab on to the viewer's heart. A great photo has a focus point that symbolizes the main idea. McCurry’s photos tells us journey of the people in the photo. From a scene, the viewers can notice the whole journey. Not just the scene but the whole story will last forever in our hearts.

couldn't upload the photo

Steve McCurry's website-galleries-child soldiers-8