It’s over.

The project that once struck fear to my poor soul is now over and accomplished. And I feel good.

To end the biggest project of the fall, these are the hyperlinks I used to accomplish my eminent person project on Martin Luther King Jr.

Interviewee: Dr.  John A. Kirk, Chair and Donaghey Professor of History, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

My interviewee gave me some insight that I couldn’t obtain from the internet or receive from my book. Dr. Kirk informed be about Dr. King’s other movements and his influences.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.

This website contained the basic information I needed to have a better understanding of Martin Luther King Jr., such as his birth, his education, and his accomplishments.

http://www.biography.com/people/martin-luther-king-jr-9365086

This website also contained basic information I needed to know about my eminent person. This information helped me confirmed my information by using another source to compare my previous source.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/martin_luther_king_jr.html

This website contained famous and influential quotes spoken by Martin Luther King Jr. himself. I used his quotes for my learning center not only because they seemed quite interesting and very wise, but to further develop the character he displays to others.

http://www.thekingcenter.org/

This website contained information about Martin Luther King Jr. and his influences to the modern world. This website contains not only basic information on Dr. King, but latest news and events that includes Dr. King. This websites continues the legacy of Dr. King and I used it to recognize the influences he still has today.

Frady, Marshall. Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life. New York: Penguin Group, 2006. Print.

This book contains information about Dr. King from a point-of-view that was with him throughout his struggles and accomplishments as his civil rights movement was unfolding. This book was useful as it portrayed an in-depth version of Dr. King and told information that cannot be found on the web.

The information I managed to gather for my eminent person project was very useful as it gave me insight of Martin Luther King Jr. basic history, education, influences, struggles, accomplishments, and other content. These resources helped my accomplish my speech, learning center, and developing an in-depth understanding of Martin Luther King Jr.

Alrighty. So it has come the day where all my hard work will be show-cased to hundreds of parents, and past-TALONS kids who have probably done this project a hundred times better. The night were the grade tens will spend the day being nervous, frantically running over any  one who get’s in their ways, and the grade nines, who are running around like head-less chickens, worrying about the left over committee work they need to finish before the night starts.

And I am glad it is now over.

The day was a very long day, and only getting four and a half hours of sleep made me want to cry throughout the day. But luckily, I

my third poster

held it back. I had many things to do in such little time, and the fact that everyone felt the same way as me did not help a tiny bit.

So when I got to school that morning, I thought I knew what I was heading to, but man I was wrong. I saw everyone in there, frantically fixing whatever they need fixing, trying to make the best use of their times. I must admit, walking on something like that was quite scary, but I must admit, I had an idea of what I signed up for.

The day passed, and everyone was heading home. Except us. The TALONS kids who had to stay after school to prepare for one of the biggest nights in the TALONS year. Everyone immediately went to the MPR to set up the stage where the grade tens would be performing their speeches to the large crowd. I must admit, it’s pretty insane to present in front of so many people. Though everyone did wonderful, I’m not sure that I could do my speech as well as they did last year. But back on topic, it was great to see how everyone worked together. I really enjoyed the laughs I shared as we set up the chairs, and the humourous people who wouldn’t take a break to make others smile. It was very delightful. But soon after was when the real stress started to happen.

The focus point of my learning center

We had to go set up our learning centers, and I must admit, it was one crazy time. People were all over the place, extremely worried and crazed about their learning centers. But who could blame them, I was among the ones who were almost crying. Anyways, we had dinner soon after and then that’s when the real night happened. People started to pour in, and I must admit, I did not expect that much people at all! It was really impressive, and I was amazed on how many people were truly excited about the event. And as i stated before, the grade tens preformed amazingly! they were so in character, I was really impressed by everyone’s performance. I really enjoyed it, and I can confidently say that everyone else did too. But once the speeches were over, the real fun came in.

We all ran to our learning centers, and I must admit, mine cannot compare to the other

A poster of mine

amazing learning centers there were. I didn’t realize this at first, but portraying a activist is not as easy as it may seem. So my idea may not seem to make the most sense, it seemed to be the most practical. I laid out my learning center to seem as if it was a polling booth. The reason I made my learning center like this was because it seemed to me that Dr. King would be a great leader, so I wanted to show my audience that Martin Luther King Jr. would be such a great leader, that he should run as president (Prime Minister in our country, but Dr. King was American) And in my learning center, I had balloons on my desk to catch people’s attention, and I had streamers running across my learning center and my table. I also had a couple of posters I made myself behind me so it seems like I was trying to advertise Dr. King. On my desk, I had a couple of brochures with very basic information on him and for my hands-on activity, it was very hard to find one, since as I said before, portraying an activist is quite difficult in my opinion. But I decided to create my own personal survey that people could have filled out and answered what they would like to see the world improve on in the future. I am proud of my learning center, but I personally knew I could have done better.

Then next thing you know it, the night is over! everyone started to head home, and the TALONS kids all helped each other to clean the mess we created and head home since all of us was so very tired. As I said before, it was very nice seeing everyone come together and helping each other, even when everyone wanted to head home and sleep forever. Sooner than later, we all held hands, and complemented on each other on how well we did during the night. And everyone did truly amazing. It was overall, a very great experience that I will learn from, and always remember.

Another poster of mine

I do believe I have met most of the goals I have set for myself. I wanted to become better at gathering the

My posters

important information of my Eminent person, and I believe I did well, because when I presented my eminent person to the audience, I noticed I wasn’t just rambling on with useless facts that no one wanted to know. I noticed that I was concise, and fluent. I still could have improved my writing skills in my speech, and portray my learning center better. But what I will always remember from night of the notables, is the fact that even though when times get a little stressful, there are always people who can make others smile. And besides the teachers of course, I would like to thank all the grade nines for their amazing work in their committees, and for those who knew how to smile when others are on the verge of crying. (like myself)

Night of the Notables 2013: A night to remember.

Decorations

Streamers

Brochures

Balloon

Front Table

Overall Learning Center!

As we all know, a very important part of our Eminent project is conducting an interview on a person who is an expert on our Notable Person or in his/her chosen field. I originally thought this was going to be an easy task.

Oh boy I was wrong.

Since I know that Dr. King is very well known for his contribution to this world, I thought finding a person to interview wouldn’t be as much of a challenge compared to my other peers who have chosen people I haven’t heard from before. So being stupidly-confident, I only emailed two professors I managed to find on the world wide web. One professor dedicated his entire life to the works of Dr. King, while the other person I emailed was a professor in human rights. After a matter of days, one of the professors emailed me back saying that he wasn’t available for any interviews,. which was very unfortunate because he is highly respected in his chosen field. The other professor did not email me back at all. I started to worry. I’m was surrounded by people who were fully prepared, got their interviews, and were ready to take on the world. And while that was happening, I panicked quietly to myself, wondering if I would make it alive.

But instead of just sitting around and doing nothing, I told myself “Why don’t you actually email more people?” so I told myself “That’s a great idea!” So that’s what I did. I spent a couple of hours searching for professors and authors who would benefit my Eminent speech project. And at the end, I managed to email 10 individuals in total, hoping that at least one of them would respond and help me in completing this project. I mostly looked at universities who had professors that were respected in their chosen fields, authors that wrote books on Martin Luther King Jr. and his work, and people who contributed to the completion of the Wikipedia page about Dr. King. It seemed that no one would answer, and that I was totally screwed.

This was the email I specifically sent to the individual I interviewed. (All the other emails I sent had the same layout and structure)

Azaly Addam Rahman
Gleneagle Secondary School
1195 Lansdowne Dr Coquitlam, BC, V3B 7Y8

Nov 9th, 2013

Dr.  John A. Kirk
Chair and Donaghey Professor of History
University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Sub : Social Studies – Martin Luther King Jr.

Dear Dr. Kirk,

My name is Azaly Addam and I am a grade 9 student at Gleneagle Secondary School in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada.

In the month of November, I have a project in which I must research and present the life of a notable individual for Social Studies. For this project, I have chosen Martin Luther King Jr. as my notable person, as his contributions deeply left his mark in world history. I admire King’s dedication and determination to create an equal society, something I believe  is very important.

For further development of my project, I would like to interview you in any process (emails, phone call)  for your expertise of Martin Luther King Jr. and your view of him and his contribution to this world. My request is asking a lot and you would be going beyond the call for your assistance in my project. All you must consent to is answering a few already-prepared questions done by myself that would benefit my interpretation of King. Any insight granted by you will be beneficial towards accomplishing my assignment and will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much for your consideration and your time,

Azaly Addam
125-aaddamrahman@sd43.bc.ca

And I was mostly right. 9/10 to be exact.

At the end, I managed to get an interview! There are no words that can portray the joy I have for receiving an email from a professor all the way from London! And the best part?! He emailed me back in a matter of hours!

John.

He spelled my name wrong, but it still counts! So I decided to ask him three questions with one follow up question that would end off our interview. So these are the three questions I asked him:

Dear Mr. Kirk,

thank you very much for your response. I greatly appreciate your time and efforts to helping complete my project. There are a few questions I would like to ask to further my understanding of Martin Luther King Jr. and what be believed in.

Firstly, was there anything Mr. King stood and fought for besides equality among African-Americans at the time?
Secondly, was Mr. King supported by his peers and friends for his thoughts of fighting for freedom?
And finally, was Mr. King influenced by anyone particular to achieve his goal of equality among the colored-people?

Thank you again for your time and help.

And because he was so amazing, he responded in a matter of hours again!

By some and not by others, and at different times in his civil rights career. A good deal of his personal support network, outside of his family, came through the organization he led, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

Best, John.

And it did really help. His answers gave me a new perspective of Dr. King, that he did much more than what average citizens remember of him, and that he his inspirations and support like everyday people. I knew I shouldn’t waste more of his time, so I decided to send him my follow-up question:

Dear Mr. Kirk,

thank you very much for your answers. They are very helpful to the completion of my project. I would like to ask one follow-up question to your answer for my first question (Firstly, was there anything Mr. King stood and fought for besides equality among African-Americans at the time?) Why do you think Mr. King isn’t as memorable for his other campaigns, yet is strongly remembered for his role in fighting for African American equality?

Thank you very much for your answers and responds.

And in a matter of hours:

Best, John.

And by the end, the interview was over. This man not only saved me, but he also saved my project.

So after conducting my interview, I’ve come to learn more from my interview itself than the information I received. For the future, I must remember that I should never-ever assume anything, and that assuming will only cause me more stress. I learned that interviews are quite difficult, and that you always need to be prepared, from the people you send the email to, to how well you layout your questions. I hope that I can learn from my mistakes and conduct a better interview in the future. But my interviewee helped me see that Dr. King has done more to the world that people unfortunately do not recognize. This information helped me see how Dr. King was not only very dedicated about equality among coloured people, but other topics he felt very passionate about.

I am very glad that I managed to find an interview, and now next time, when I have to do this again, I will remember this: email more than two people at one time!

Oh dear, just a week until the night of the notables! I can honestly say that this has been one of the most busiest months ever!

There are a lot of things to worry about at the moment about Eminent, but the one that has been bugging me the most for the longest time is my learning center. Having a Eminent person who’s known for fighting for equality isn’t the easiest person to set up an engaging learning center for. Especially when he fought for race, compared to something else that can be presented by demonstrations. Time is running out and I have to decide on how I am going to present my Eminent person in an engaging and informative manner.

But no matter how I will present my eminent person, there are certain things that I want those who come to my learning center to learn once they leave and continue on to visit the next person. These things will help my audience understand why Martin Luther King Jr. is considered to be an eminent person.

1. Martin Luther King Jr. influenced the lives and changed the thoughts of many using strictly his process of non-violent resistance. This is something important for my audience to know since it is important that they know that words can be more effective than actions. To show this thought, I might have a chart in which I compare leaders and they process of fighting for what they believed was right (non-violent and violent). And on this chart, my audience will see the changes in society throughout time, noticing which leaders used violence or not.

2. Mr. King didn’t finish grade 9 nor grade 12, yet graduated with remarkable diplomas. This is something my audience should leave knowing because it is important for them to know that education is NOT everything in one’s life, and to accomplish great things, you must be passionate and hardworking. Once again, I would most likely compare Martin Luther King Jr. with other eminent people and show their accomplishments, as well as their knowledge and education. (Dedicated to academics and non-dedicated to academics). And hopefully, they will understand that leaders do not need to be solely dedicated to their studies to do extraordinary things.

3. Without Martin Luther King Jr., the world would be a very different place. I feel that this important for my audience to know to understand the impact that Martin Luther Kings Jr. made. To present this to my audience, I believe I will use modern photos and videos of areas of the world that lack equality, and present it as a alternate world with no equality. People will relate to the scenes and photos and will have a better understand of the difference Martin Luther King Jr. made.

These ideas are still just outlines, and could chance in anytime. What I’m most worried about is how to present all of this information and have hands-on demonstrations. Maybe I will compare our current world to an alternative world if Mr. King did not exist. My ideas are not yet concrete, and are still being decided.

As the Night of the Notables heads near, helping others seem such a harder task to do. As everyone is doing their own things, and worrying about my own project, people seem to be over-stressed and it would be wise of me to bud-out of their business unless they ask for help from me personally. Hopefully, accomplishing Night of the Notables will not only help me specify important information about my eminent person and help me keep focus on my person, but it will help me become more open with others I am not as open with. Hopefully, the night will help me communicate with people easier and make my presentation and overall speaking skills better.

I am not sure if I’m worried, or so worried I’m excited.

On Thursday, October 24th, the TALONS learning group decided to go on a field trip to the wonderful city of Vancouver to extend our learning of not only our Eminent person, but the city.

A building in the city of Vancouver

First, my group went to MacLeod’s Book store, a shop where sells all sorts of books who

The narrow hallways!

would interest any readers who are looking for a change to their average book-buying methods. I found this store quite exceptional as it seemed to be filled with work that cannot be found anywhere else. Besides the very crowded shelves filled with books and the narrow paths that lead you to each section, the book store was very well-maintained, which made it easy to find what subjects that you needed. The Book store had a very good atmosphere which made me feel quite curious about everything in this world. I spent most of my time in the book shop looking for any books on my eminent person, Martin Luther King Jr. Though the book shop had books about a lot of subjects, it seemed to lack information about my eminent person. After I asked for help, there seemed to be only photo-biographies on him which is quite unfortunate on my part. I ended up not getting anything.

Shelves just stacked with books at the book store!

The second part to the filed trip was the Vancouver Public Library. I arrived only to find the

The pillars of the library

library much bigger than what I expected! I noticed the library was a much more populated area compared to the book store and it seemed more common than independent book shop. However, the library fulfills its purpose to teach. The library is much more organized and open compared to the compactness of the book store. Being a library, all books has sections and were organized digitally. Though more productive, lessened the feeling for curiosity for me personally. I managed to find a biography novel on Martin Luther King Jr. written by a close companion of his, Marshall Frady. The libary was quite amazing with its easy-to-find system and exceptional design. The library consisted of seven levels; each filled with specific topics.

Before going on this trip, I was expecting to find books and information on my eminent person of it. However, as the day passed, I took this day to be a day to bond with my TALONS peers as well as just enjoy the atmosphere of the city on a weekday. On this trip, I realized that taking a break out of our busy lives to enjoy the things we like to do is important to keep our heads sane and keep our motivation going. The research trip helped me realize that information on Martin Luther King Jr. is easier to find in modern biographies on him, as the book store, which contains many old books, did not have the information I needed, while the modern library

The wonderful city of Vancouver!

had books on him which I found useful. My intentions were to originally find books on the trip, but I seized it to be a bonding moment. I incorporated my word -selfless- throughout my time on the trip by helping others find books if they needed help or if they needed someone to talk to.

Overall, I really enjoyed this trip and would like to experience something very similar to this in the near future.

Martin Luther King Jr. (Born Micheal King but later changed it) was an activist, minister, humanitarian,  and  a leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement.

Born January 15th 1929 Atlanta Georgia, United states; Died April 4th 1968 Memphis, Tennessee, United States .He was 39 when he died from an a bullet to the head)

Micheal King was born to father Martin Luther King Sr. and mother Alberta Williams. Martin Luther King Jr. had an older sister named Willie Chirstine King and a younger brother named Alfred Daniel Williams King. Martin Luther King Jr., though had a father who was a reverend, wasn’t always as faithful as was suppose to be as a child, questioning the bible. However, as he grew older, he accepted the bible’s morals and became a seminary.

Martin Luther King Jr. attended Booker T. Washington High School, but only attended the tenth and eleventh grade as he entered Morehouse College without formally graduating.

King Jr. graduated Morehouse in 1948 where he graduated with a bachelor’s of the art degree in sociology. He was later enrolled into Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania where he graduated with Bachelor of Divinity.

King Married his wife, Coretta Scott on June 18 1953 who he had four children with; Yolanda King, Martin Luther Kind the Third, Dexter Scott King, and Bernice King.

King Jr. became a pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, when he was twenty-five years old, in 1954.King Jr. soon after on June 5th 1955, he graduated with a Ph. D for Systematic Theology at Boston University.

Martin Luther King Jr. was strongly influenced by the christian faith and its morals of being equal. Within most of his speeches, he references and uses passages from the holy bible. In April 1959, he traveled to India, as he was strongly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s success with non-violent activism. Once his trip was over, King Jr. deeply understood non-violent resistance. King Jr. admired Gandhi’s morals, as he King states in his speech after being award the Noble Peace Prize in 1964 “in a magnificent way by Mohandas K. Gandhi to Challenge the might of the British Empire…He struggled only with the weapons of truth, soul force, non-injury and courage.”

Martin Luther King Jr. was given many awards such as the Noble Peace Prize in 1964, Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 (posthumous) and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004 (posthumous)

Martin Luther King Jr. is considered notable for his contribution to American history and its history of American Progessivism. Before equal rights, The United States treated coloured people as second-class citizens, lacking them equality and fairness. Martin Luther King strive for change and strongly influenced the people of the states to change and create an environment where all citizens can and will be treated equal.

In 1955, a woman named Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white individual on a bus. King Jr. later led The Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted for 385 days. People saw King Jr. to be a national figure and the best-known spokesman of the civil rights movement because of his role in the bus boycott.

As he was trying to make a change within his society, King Jr. had faced many obstacles, as he was a coloured individual, and as stated before; coloured people were not treated equally. He had to face millions of people who not only disagreed with him, but felt hatred for him due to his colour.

  Writing his most famous speech I Had A Dream and presenting it in   front of thousands of people portrayed risk-taking as he knew what the consequences could have possibly been. Knowing equality was not high in the area, he still chose to fight for what he believed was right.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s contribution to this world is highly significant. He fought for equality for his country and stood up for those who couldn’t. His impact was the start of equality within the states. I strongly believe he will be remembered for man years as his contributions caused coloured equality in his country.

King Jr. would be extremely proud of his personal success as he created a world of equality. Him knowing coloured people now have rights and are being treated equal would make him feel quite noble.

Martin Luther King Jr. made the world understand being equal. Throughout the world, equality is being shown within society and since the United States have a strong influences over countries; The states, knowing equality due to Martin Luther King Jr., teaches other countries to become more equal with not only coloured people but other nationalities and differences.

Martin Luther King Jr. would have fought for more rights in more Southern states, such as Mississippi, as that was an extremely racist area in the past. King would have focused on freedom and rights in the states and influence the whites to treat coloured people with rights.

I like this person not only for his risk-taking character and his claiming voice, but for his dedication to create equality for coloured people, and his morals of non-violence protest. I personally admire his effectiveness of changing how people think without causing harm to others.

Martin Luther King Jr. taught me to become more accepting of others and that taking-risks and fighting for what you believe in is very important. Though he knew the intensity of being coloured, he still chose to fight for others and stand up for what he believed was right, which is truly inspirational.

I wanted to study Martin Luther King Jr. more because I want to understand more of his morals as a human-being and his strategies to maintain people’s thoughts without becoming violence.

King Jr. felt that he was in a time where white people were not treating others with equality, and that everyone deserved equality. For that reason, he fought for equality within his society and stood up for what he thought was right.

I will better understand strategies of influencing mass crowds without demonstrating violent actions. but besides the person himself, I will understand better on how to take notes on individuals as well as make myself become a better writer and classify the differences of object to subjective facts.

In completing this Eminent Person Study, I would like to see myself become better at gathering information and deciding which information is relevant to the point I am trying to make in my writing. I would like to stay on topic on my speech as well as stay focus and understand the key morals and accomplishments my person had and made. While maintaining my writing goals, I would also like to offer help to those around me and take time off my own work to assist those who need help or needs something to be done by me.

(Fun Fact: Martin Luther King Sr. was also named Micheal King until he chose to change it as he traveled to Nazi Germany in 1934. He changed it in honour of Martin Luther; A German reformer)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.#Early_life_and_education