Hey bloggers. When you really stop and think, they’re has been a lot of great leaders in the past century and even further back. Leadership is a quality that I believe some are just born with and therefore are destined to be great leaders. One person that was a great leader in fact, I think, one of the greatest was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was a great leader back in the 1960s when African Americans were told that they could not go to certain places and do certain things. Soon, many people, both blacks and some whites, started to take a stand against this. None of them believed that this was fair. However, taking a stand was very risky and often got many people killed because police officers would shoot or beat anyone who was trying to take a stand. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. also felt that it was unfair to tell blacks what they could and could not do just because of the color of their skin. So he took a stand and decided to lead people to freedom. He was,I believe a natural born leader so he had some leadership qualities. He was:
charismatic
peaceful
and very intelligent
These attributes were helpful when he gave speeches and lead walks protesting. Never once did Dr. King get violent because he didn’t think it would get him anywhere. When he spoke, he was calm and peaceful with the words he chose. He was charismatic and was able to convince people why they should fight against the unjustice in America. He was so good at grasping people’s attention he probably could have convinced you to jump off a bridge. This most likely came from his father who was a preacher in church. Also, his amazing intelligence got him very far especially when he spoke to people. He knew how to be convincing and make a good point. Sadly, Dr. King was killed in 1968. He is remembered as a big part of American history and is one of the greatest speakers of all time. Do you know anyone else in your life who is also a great leader? If so please leave a comment and let me know. Have a good day!!
Hey bloggers. So I have a puzzling quote for you: “Do great leaders make history or does history make great leaders?” When I first heard the quote I wasn’t really sure what to think. Whenever I think of the word leaders, I tend to think mostly of the U.S. Presidents. One great U.S. President was Franklin Delano Roosevelt
President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
He was president from 1932 to 1945 and he was elected for 3 terms in office which is now not allowed for the President. My great great aunt, Annette was about 14 when he was first elected president. She and my great grandma often told me how great a president they thought he was so I started to do some research on the former President. I found out that one of the reasons people thought of him as a great President because of what he did to get America out of the Great Depression (which trust me was not great…very tragic). So that got me thinking, if he wasn’t President during one f America’s worst tragedies, would people have thought he was so great?I mean the only U.S. Presidents that people usually hear about were President during a tough time in American history.
A picture of FDR's home in New York...and a bunch of tourists in front of it.
There’s Abraham Lincoln who was President during the Civil War or John Fitzgerald Kennedy who was President during the Cold War and is also known for his mysterious and still unsolved assassination. In my opinion I think that history makes great leaders. Let me know what you think if you have an opinion on the quote at the top of this post. Leave a comment and let me know if leaders make great history or if history makes great leaders.
Hey bloggers! Have you ever thought about an object that means a lot to you or someone else? Maybe it has amazing historical significance? For more info. on an object with significance go to my post titled “Not Just Some Baseball Cap.” Anyway in class these past few weeks, we’ve had to do bring in an object and give it significance to American history. We were put into groups and were each assigned an event in American history. My group had the Whiskey Rebellion. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there for the first week of our class doing this project because I was sick with the flu. When I came back I wasn’t totally sure what we were doing but one of my group members, Hayley, helped me get back on track. The group had come up with a story about a piece of burned wood that was supposedly from a family that was affected by the Whiskey Rebellion. A teenager and his family had their house burned down and his father was killed. The only memory of the father left was a piece of charred wood from the house that the father built. Very very sad story .
I think for what I was there for, making up the story seemed to be the easiest part of the project. That could just be me though because I’ve been telling stories since I was ten months old. Anyway I think the hardest part is working in a group because not everyone knows what they’re supposed to say when we present our story. When we had a dress rehearsal on Friday, I went a little too far in my lines and said something that Hayley was supposed to say. Luckily I’ve been practicing and remembering my lines so that I know exactly what to say. Another one of the group members was absent for the rehearsal and the other didn’t know what to say at all. I think the project is an awesome idea and I hope that my teacher, Mr. Bogush, carries on the lesson to the students next year. I learned a lot about being a good group member and even though you miss some of the project, you should always try your best to help in anyway you can. I also learned that any object can be important to someone when you give it significance. If you’d like to see how the project came out, listen to our presentations live on Wednesday January 19, 2011 and bid on our objects. Have a good day!!!
Hey bloggers. Have you ever really thought about what it means to be a leader before? Its hard to be a leader for me. I don’t think I have all the characteristics it takes to be a good leader. You have to be patient and be able to grab people’s attention and make them want to do what you’re trying to tell them. I ‘m probably better with getting people’s attention. I think that’s my strongest point in leading. The whole patient thing….I don’t have much of it which usually gets me into trouble. I think that most leaders or at least the best ones are born leaders.
Some of my friends are really quiet around a lot of people but they can take charge and are good leaders when they want to be. I remember that last year in the seventh grade, my science teacher tried to get us to bring out our leadership skills. My friend Jes (check out her blog)was always really quiet last year. We were doing a class project that required one leader and everyone decided she should do it. She didn’t want to but when she got up there she lead the class really well. I was able to follow her well and that project that we were working on turned out awesome! I was a leader for that same class with a different project. It was difficult to lead the class because they were a tough group. We finished the project and it came out pretty well but I kind of wish that Jes took over that project too. I think that most people can be a leader and most people are at some point or another. I never thought I ‘d lead and even though I wasn’t good at it, I still did it. I wouldn’t consider myself a leader at all though. Like I said before I don’t have that whole patience thing. Are you a leader or have you ever done a good job as a leader? Leave a comment and let me know please!! Have a good day!!!
Our nation's leader Barack Obama with the First Lady Michelle Obama
One of my favorite Disney commercials next to the one in my post “Not Just a Baseball Hat.” Check it out. This is how I feel before we leave for Disney World each year!!!
Hey bloggers! Have you ever owned somehting that meant a lot to you and when you show your friends that item, it means nothing to them? You’re like “Hey check out my awesome hat!” and you’re friend is like “Yeah whatever!” It’s kind of annoying. But that’s because you have to give that item some meaning. Show what it’s really about like a memory or an awesome back story! Make you’re freinds feel something and they might be more excited about it. If I told you that this hat means more to me than anything else I own, you probably would think that everything else I own is trash. I mean look back at the picture, the hat is beat up with grass stains and dirt with holes on the side! It’s way more to me than that and here’s why.
This hat is a rare Disney Vacation Club hat that was made specifically for the DVC’s 15th anniversary in 2007. My family and I are part of the Disney Vacation Club and have been since 2003. The Vacation Club is like a timeshare at Disney which allows us to go to Disney more often like say….once every year. Ever since the third grade I’ve been known as the ”Disney Freak.” I’ve been called that and various other things relating to that for about 5 years. At first I enjoyed being called that but by 4th grade I’d had enough. I was tired of people thinking that the only reason I liked Disney is because I was just plain wierd.
The real reason I love Disney is because it reminds me of my late grandparents on my father’s side. Both of them loved coming to Walt Disney World with my dad and his brothers and you could almost say that my grandfather was a little like Walt Disney himself. They always wanted to see their grandkids in Disney World, but never got the chance. My grandmother passed away before I was born so the only grandparent I ever new from that side of the family was my Grampa George. We had a sort of bond when I was little. He always took care of me and taught me many things. I loved him so much and was heartbroken forever when he passed away from lung cancer when I was six. Nothing was ever the same anymore and even though I was only six, I felt like something was missing. After my grampa passed, he left my family money and it was just a little more than needed to buy the Vacation Club. In a way, buying the Vacation Club was sort of a tribute to him and my grandmother. The hat was an actual object that would allow me to be reminded of them forever. Everytime I go to Disney I always feel like he’s with me and that I can learn a little more about him. I didn’t realize all this until I was about 11 years old. From then on anyone who teased me about it, I’d laugh and shake it off and always think of my hat and my grandparents.
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He Says, She Says