History Reflection (9-15/9/13)

Monday: Today, we reflected on our Bal Gangadhar Tilak assignment and analyzed if we've chosen appropriate information from the text source. Most of my points were mentioned and fitted the answer. We also looked at Tilak more as he played an important role in the Indian Independence Movement and served as its first popular leader, according to Wikipedia.

We also looked upon factors that motivated the split and reunification of Bengal and its causes, particularly for divide and conquering purposes, suppressing uprisings and the allowance of concessions. We also touched upon the reactions from the British and Indian perspective regarding the Bengal partition.

Lastly, we also noted on the impact of the 1st World War on the Indians and the British Colony.

Reflection on Gandhi, "Person of the Century" for Time Magazine

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi has been known as a "Mahatma" (Sanskrit for 'greater soul') and also a "Bapuji" (respectful way of addressing elder men in India) in his life. A moral icon to many yet an icon of mere novelty to some.

Gandhi is known for is non-violent movements, his leadership in the Indian National Congress, religious tolerance and Swaraj( self -governing) but I can't help but to notice how these ideas were originally derived from Bal Gangadhar Tilak, whom is also a source of inspiration to Gandhi as he applies acts such as boycotting as practiced by Tilak before. This make Gandhi seem like the 'finisher' of a task instead of a pioneering leader like Tilak, whose ideas where shunned because of its 'extreme' value during his time.

Moreover, Gandhi's forceful "insistent on absolute regularity boldly appears as acts of novelty at times as he indulges in "faddish dietetic experiments" as if trying to show off or make a point, obvious. Through acts of defiance against British manufactured goods and sewing his own robes, bathing in ashes etc., Gandhi's "(Call) for a nation that would turn its back on technology to prosper through village self-sufficiency" simply appears as a "backward, romantic vision of a simple society" that may not be pragmatic.

However, these acts could be a symbolic way of showing a deeper meaning as Gandhi describes, "Action is my domain". Hence in this sense, his public acts aim to perhaps, ignite an  epiphany for others and to allow them to ponder on the drastically and exaggerated acts. These simple acts, act as great symbolism and inspiration to others.

Psychology reflection (2-8/9/13)

Tuesday: Today in psych, we were assigned to prepare a presentation of behaviorism. It would be nice to not start off every class just based on the activities provided on the psych google site as I enjoy listening to teachers. So far, we've been doing some group tasks and I would need to self study as well to understand what exactly that we're doing. We're just doing activities but we have to on our own part read on the subject as we haven't learnt much about the subject.

Friday: We are now starting to give presentations on the topic of the Introduction to Psychology and the presentations made by my peers on Prezi were really helpful. Most of the information was not mention in the textbooks we have and that gave me a clearer idea on the Introduction. However, that was all we did this week.

History Reflection (2-8/9/13)

Monday: Last week in English, we were assigned to make notes on the introduction of Nationalist & Independence Movements. The task was lengthy as I made 4 pages full of notes. It also highlighted how often we take "introductions" for granted and not reading them as for History, it gave a clear overview and background information of the case studies that we will be diving into later. It makes me feel prepped and set for the learning that is to come later on.

As my choices for IB this year is HL History, English and Psychology with a side of SL Biology, maths and ab initio Spanish, I realize the importance of taking notes constantly especially for History, English, Biology and Spanish. Hence, the importance of actually taking the journal blogging as an important part of my 2-year journey in IB as I want the information as fresh as possible constantly in my mind to avoid cramming later on. Many of my subjects also require a lot of reading hence:

 note-taking+revision+reflection is incredibly important.

I haven't seen much of the effect of my practice yet, but I do see that it works a little in Spanish as I remember most of my vocabulary.

Tuesday: Today, we talked about the case studies we are going to study which are India, Indochina, Algeria and Ghana. Mr. Andres has been very informative and interesting. We went through the common terms in the introduction of "Nationalist & Independence Movements" which clarified new and old terms such as colonialism, neo-colonialism and Marxism.

We also refreshed on OPVL as a strategy in answering source-based questions and learnt how learning about popular historians and their background would help in V which is value and L as we would know what factors are VALUABLE and what factors could be BIASED.

Wednesday: Today, we watched short documentaries on Queen Victoria's Empire and learnt reasons as to why Britons emigrated to different colonies especially India for reasons such as wealth and exploration. Mr. Andres again highlighted the importance of doing background research on famous historians such as Lawrence James to apply the knowledge to answering source-based questions.

Thursday: Today, we looked at the structure of a History Paper 1 which is divided to 4 parts. We learnt what usually appears in each section and tried to apply our Origin Purpose Value Limitation (OPVL) method in answering two source questions about British rule in India.

After studying the backgrounds of the Historians who quoted these sources, I realize the extra points that we could garner by adding the knowledge of their background e.g. career, nationality etc. to discover the value and limitation of their claims. We also learnt how the features of a quote source e.g. book title, page support in terms of figuring out what the focus is and the importance of that certain quote.

Learning to be creative with OPVL would help a lot in answering Paper 1 as I previously struggled in answering source-based questions creatively. I now know how to apply generous information to gain more marks while staying focused on the main idea of the question.