Melanie's Blog

 "Im 17 and, I don't think it should have been a high school millionaire or cured an epidemic, to be  worth listening to." ( Kate Simonds).      After looking for 20 minutes for a TED talk , I came across one called I'm 17  by Kate Simonds. Kate Simonds is a 17 years old who stands up for the respect teenagers should get from adults, and how age doesn't  matter because we are all part of society. Kate says that some adult don't have respect for younger people just because we are "teenagers." Adults make us feel like we don't deserve to have control of what learn, and students lose their cite of their education values.  Credit:Pannell_2010 What it means to me?    This TED talked was something that I could really connect to and realized that this problem is bigger than expected. I sometimes feel like I am shut down by adults because I don't have the same brain mentality or because I am too young to unde...

Dear Andy Rabens,    My name is Melanie, I am a student at The American International School of Muscat. Currently in Language Arts class we have learned about who are child soldiers and what should happen to them after conflict have finished. This is why I am writing this letter, to give awareness and explain why organizations such as UNICEF , Invisible Child Organization and Child Soldiers International needs more funding. Conflicts happen world wide every day and children are dragged into them daily and turned into child soldiers. I suggest that we help child soldiers more worldwide after wars and conflicts are over. Child soldiers have had their childhoods ruined, they have been taken from their homes, and have had their families killed.They have nowhere to go but join the military for protection and the need of food. After doing some research about this topic, I’ve come to the conclusion of realizing that this is an extremely complicated issue. Especially since p...

   Media Lit  Today we started out new wheel class, which is Media lit. Throughout the class I brained stormed some ideas that I could do for my project in Media Lit. Somethings that I thought of where hip-hop dancing tutorials, donating to the WWF , and a cool fashion website. I'm really excited for what's to come in this class and the new skills I can learn and take for later on, such as making a website. I've always being interested in learning how to make and customize my own website. I really got inspired after seeing Layan's and Janine's web site , to do my own that could benefit other. Being creative is something that I love to do, so experimenting and working with other is something that I look forwards too as well. But I am a bit nervous to do my Ted talk. Lately I've watched a few Ted Talks and saw how people kept their audience engaged and strategies they used, hopefully I can apply those to the TED talk we will be doing at the end of t...

  Children Not Soldiers  Main Idea: Child soldiers should still be kept accountable for their actions but  shouldn't be punished in harsh ways. Introduction: My name is Melanie a TAISM student from Oman, Located in the Middle East. I write this letter to give an awareness that we need to help more Child Soldiers worldwide after wars and conflicts are over. Child Soldiers are children forced or recruited to join war or to serve as cooks, subsided bombers,messengers and spice. Child Soldiers have been taken away from their childhood, homes, or their families have been killed, so they have nowhere to go but join the military for protection or need of food. After doing some research about this topic, this is something that is very complicated and wrong, especially since child Soldiers are treated in harsh ways. The main question that is what many organization such as UNICEF of the UN have been trying to answer is what do we do with child solider after wars...

After reading this text I think that assuming that just because these man are in Guantanamo it doesn't mean that we should necessarily call them a danger to us. I think that children that are over 13 should have a more strict punishment since they are more mature and aware of what they are doing. Just like that have done to   Khadr' which   he is now in a   camp where he is housed is reserved for the most "compliant" detainees.   Outline Intro: How are child Soilders. ( Give examples of some of the places they are in/ wars)  Main Idea: Child soldiers should still be kept accountable for there actions but  shouldn't be punished in harshways.  Idea #1: They are being forced to join or its not their choice Evidence  - In  some countries, hunger and poverty drive parents to sell their children into service. What's more, children are often considered the perfect weapon: They are easily manipul...