Tech Savy or Ink happy?

We are living in the 21st century. A time when the pen and paper are becoming obsolete, and computers, Ipads, and many other forms of technology are taking over. Due to this i feel that it is important for us as students to take advantage and use these new technologies. Blogging has taught me a lot that i would have not learned otherwise. Through blogging i have learned a sense of independence and also began to take pride in my work. It is a whole new world of learning when the things we write are being put onto the internet for all to read. Blogging has transformed my writing from a mere assingment which i do for school, and into something that i enjoy doing, and something that i take pride in. I am very glad that this is the form of writing done in class. Aside from all the history i have learned through blogging, i have also learned a lot about blogging itself. All this information will be incredibly useful to me later in life. Blogging has provide a whole new medium of expression for me; no longer are my words being transfered from me to the teacher. Now the words i write, ang the thoughts that i expressar are being transfered from me, to whomever cares to read.

If i had to choose just one...

After a long 9 weeks, it is hard to look back and to choose just one blog topic and say it was my favorite. Looking back, there were so many blog topics that i enjoyed writing about. Whether it was the process of looking into the question deeper, and finding out more about it; or the actual process of writing the blog, most all the topics were enjoyable for me to write about. However, if i had to go back and choose just one as my favorite, it would be the very first blog topic. The question was ""History is the lie commonly agreed upon." What did Voltaire mean by this quote?" This topic really hit home with me when i wrote about it. It is so interesting to look back and to really try and understand what people throughout history have felt about how history itself is recorded. People such as Voltaire and Napoleon Bonaparte have been quoted saying how history is all a lie, and that people in the future may never truly know what happened in the past. This is so wrong, and so fundamental to the study of history. This is why that was my favorite blog topic so far.

The Immigrant Experience

The immigrants coming into the United States at the turn of the century must have had a lot of expectations. Coming from a place were they were being abused, and could not live a safe and fair life, they came into the United States in search of freedoms, and in search of opportunities. When they got off the ships that brought them here i would imagine that they were very relieved that they had arrived in such a place, and also very happy and thankful to be here. Going into Elis Island, the immigrants must have been totally in shock. The richness and beauty of Elis Island would be unlike what they had ever seen before. The immigrants would have been thrilled, and thankful for the opportunities they would have; however they did not know what they had in store. Once the immigrants arrived in NYC for there "new lives" they would have had a whole now world in store to them. A world of filth, and crime. Opportunities or not, the immigrants had a very tough life in the United States, for a very long time.

The Woes of Factory Workers.

The lives of factory workers were unlike the experiences of people today. In today's world, there are laws and regulations regarding the treatment of workers, and the conditions of work places; in the 1800s there was not. In "The Song of the Shirt" we can see perfectly what the lives of these man and woman working in factories was like. The people working in these factories, making clothes and other goods, were the poorest of poor. These people were immigrants, who could not get jobs anywhere else. Due to this, the factory managers were able to take advantage of there workers. They would work long days; and when i say long, i do not mean working a 8 hour day in a air conditioned office like many people in today's world, i mean 14 hour days. These long days were spent without air conditioning, or without ventilation of any kind. These people were worked without much food or water, until they were mere zombies of there work. The song states that there minds began "to swim." This is a perfect example of how awful the factories were. These people worked there bones dry, for little pay, and no benefits whatsoever. Was this the better opportunities they came here for?

Oh Hollywood

Hollywood is notorious for their use of stereotypes in there TV shows and movies. The show Gunsmoke was no exception. This show was filled with 1800's stereotypes, about cowboys, the wild west, and much much more. The main stereotype of this show that i found was the fact that every was a white male. This stereoype was crazy to me because the reality was that many cowboysof the time were black! It was not common to see black men on horseback rounding up cattle. This was a major false stereotype found in the show Gunsmoke. Also, the whole good also previls over evil thing, thats unfortunitly not true!! Many a time the bad guys would out run the good ones! Shoot outs were not always won by the good guys, merely the best shot. Its crazy to think that hollywood portrays these things. When in fact reality is oh so different from the movies and shows. However hollywood will be hollywood.

The True Life of a Cowboy

Hollywood often leads us to believe that cowboys were "Violent  gunslingers" or nomadic people who were somewhat of outlaws. When people think of cowboys they often think of the likes of Clint Eastwood or Jesse James. However these portrayals of cowboys are far from the trust. In reality, the lives of cowboys were hard. Though perhaps some truths can be found in the Hollywood portrayals, the majority of cowboy life was spent on cattle drives, and working for a living.


The definition of cowboy is one who herds cattle. This definititon alone goes against many of the stereotypes often given to cowboys. The word cowboy has grown to carry many negative connotations, such as being reckless, and wild. However these connotations are far off from the realities of cowboy life.


The true life of a cowboy was a lonely and a dangerous one. Cowboys spent most of there time on the "road" so to speak. They went on long cattle drives in order to round up cattle and bring it to ranches in order to be sold and butchered for meat. Along with that they would often have to go on roundups in order to find or in some cases save the cattle from dangerous places and situations.

Hollywood goes about portraying cowboys a much different way. Many movies have been made in which cowboys are made out to be "rough riders" and "violent" types of people. Movies such as The Good the Bad and the Ugly, and Wild West show cowboys as people totally different than who they actually were. Hollywood misses the point that cowboys lives were much more than shoot outs at high noon, and drinking and playing cards in the saloon. Cowboys lives were on the road, rounding up cattle, and fighting to survive the dangerous conditions.


Though many western movies are seen today as the best of all time. It is evident that they are not historically true. Hollywood added their own spin to the lives of cowboys, in order to add excitement and drama; however in reality that is what most of their lives were. After all, it is not easy living in a town with all men, no women to help out. This was probably a pretty exciting time, however not for the reasons Hollywood was looking for.

Photo Source: http://www.cartermuseum.org/collections/smith/collection.php

The Benefits of Gaming

Many people feel that gaming is an all around bad thing for children to do. They feel that playing video games is merely wasting time; time that could be used to study and do school work. However gaming is just as important to a child's growth and education process as the school work. I am not by any means saying that children should sit at home and play Halo or Madden 2011 all night. However there are games that can relate into what the children learn, and teach them in a way that they enjoy. Games such as Oregon Trail, and even other games like Call of Duty have elements in them which teach children as they play. Oregon trail connects directly with learning. This is a game that teaches the gamer what the families, and groups of people who moved west during the 1800's had to go through. We can learn just from playing this game, that westward expansion was expensive, dangerous, and not by any means easy. By merely playing this game one time, so much can be learned about this time period. For this reason i feel that "gaming" is not all bad. With the right games, the right message, and the right purpose, games can lead to scores of improvement in the class room.