The Vision

In unit 3 of my class System and Models we learned about how to make a company or group work the best, and different methods that are used to have the best working group. This includes looking at measures like Total Quality or Six Sigma, then looking at Commons, which are resources that are shared but not regulated. We also looked at the different work environments and how they can change the amount of productivity in a company. For an FE we talked to the head of the school Eric Davis about the different functions of our school. For the action project, we had to take a system with in the school, could be anything, and talk about about it through SWOT. I will explain SWOT in the presentation below. While explaining it through SWOT we also had to show how it relates to different trends that businesses do, the Commons, and Maslow Hierarchy of Needs. We then have to figure out how to make this system better and explain why it would work. I chose to talk about the teachers and how they collaborate with each other. Something I thought was interesting about this project, was there have been times when they use what we say and implement in the school itself. Something I thought was difficult was coming up with a way to present all of this, because it didn't need to be a presentation, that is just how I ended doing it. I would have liked more time so I could have made it more interesting and creative.

 

A Civil Future?

In unit 2 of my class Equality, we learned more about what we did in the past unit, but focusing more on the present and future of what race, gender, and class looks and will look. For a FE, we had Elizabeth Dozier come in and talk about what she is doing to help the people of Chicago. We also we went to go see the new film Hidden Figures. This helped a lot at looking at how race put our nation very behind in the mission to get to space. For our action project, we had to create a newspaper article for the future, 2117, on an issue we see would be alive during that time. Then create a toy that we think that children would have to play with, and a law/policy that should be in place to that future issue. For my issue I chose the subject of class, and how when there is a lack of a business in a certain neighborhood it can affect a lot. Something I liked about was that it pushed my creative mind to try to think further than the here and now. Something I didn’t like was the openness of it, because it was a little difficult to think of what can happen in a 100 years. Please enjoy reading my news article!

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NVA Times

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Feb 28th, 2117

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Mariano Foods Stop Putting Stores in Low Income Neighborhoods:

History and Present: Back in 2019 Whole Foods and Mariano’s boards came together and joined as one company, sharing resources and profit. The new company blew out the competition, even putting Aldi’s out of business. After many years business has been slow and quality of products lowering from expansion of stores, the board decided yesterday that they are taking their stores out of low income neighborhoods. The president of the company has this to say, “We have for years been losing money from all these stores in low income neighborhoods they are placed in. We decided to put them in high income neighborhoods so we can make the quality of food as good as possible again.” Responses have been very negative from people in the neighborhoods they are pulling the stores from. An estimate of 1 million people have lost their jobs, and others have now to take a longer commute to get their jobs. Because of this, we are going back into our old ways of having food deserts where only fast food is the option for people in these neighborhoods. Sean Israel has this to say, “I had been working in that store for 5 years providing for my family, and now I have to work at Wendy’s which isn’t paying as well.” Sean is one of a million to have lost their jobs due to the company's decision to take their stores out. For further expectations, we will see from the company if this was a smart choice or it will make it worse for them. Many cities are worried that now we will be back tracking into the early 2000s because very hard working people can’t have fresh food available to them. Mother Jean Harris has this to say about her children, “I am someone who wants my children to always eat healthy. How are they supposed to do that now that Mariano Foods is taking their store out of my neighborhood. I can’t drive up to the suburbs to get that food.” This is a very tragic event for many people, with cases from losing their jobs and fresh food, to now having food deserts again.

NVA. "Pop UP Tea Ad." 2117 New amendment signed into order: 28th Amendment: Each state must have an equal amount of store and restaurant options in every part of the cities.

Response: Today is Feb 28th, 2117, my name is Valentin Lubinov. Living in this world is very interesting, so much better technology than the ones my parents and grandparents carried. I really don’t understand how they were able to survive that way. Because of Donald Trump’s election many things were set into motion over seas. A war has been raging for a while now, but it is mostly just threatening and no true action as been done yet. Racism is alive still although many people try to pretend that it is gone, but nothing is changing. Funny, my grandparents said something very similar to that me when I was younger. As for the Mariano Foods moving their business to high income neighborhoods only, many people have lost their jobs, including some of my friends. I think it will blow over, and the company will realize that they need to go to being everywhere. It really helped people with their jobs, I don’t really understand why they would do something like that. Then due to that they might sign the new amendment into place that says they can’t do that, so that these people can have their jobs back; I would be more than happy to see my friends get their jobs back. Our new President who is the second female president since 2020 is wanting to see a lot of change. For a long time, our society has been falling back onto old trends, like when I was reading about Donald Trump when he was president. I can’t believe a man like that became president. I am really glad that this president wants to make good change, and see more equality in our world today. As for the environment itself we are really trying to keep everything healthy but it is very hard with population we have the amount of needs that need to be met. Our new president, Mary Frank will make sure that we start to preserve land even more, and make sure that each town has some kind of park.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

In my advisory class, Math Camp, we had to pick a math subject that we were interesting in learning more about. Then work on it for the entire class practicing the subject and getting good at it. We only met once a week on Mondays, we would give ourselves homework, or just use our class time to work on it. My subject is Card Counting, which is very popular when playing Blackjack aka 21. The point of the game is to get 21 in your hand to win, in casinos you are playing against whoever is at your table, and mainly the dealer. Card Counting is used to win the game, or have a better chance at winning, usually used to make sure you know what to bet when playing at casinos. This is related to math because in order to count the cards you need to be able to add and subtract very fast, it is very important to be able to remember things and adapt very quickly that is happening in the game. It is something that uses a lot of very simple math, but in such a fast pace that it can help you win a lot of money when you come out a casino. Hope you enjoy learning Card Counting and hopefully get good at yourself!

                                                                                                     

Now first thing you need to know to be good at Blackjack in general is basic strategy:

Blackjack Institute. "Basic Strategy." 2002

This chart shows you what you should and shouldn’t do when playing. This is an easy way to keep yourself ahead of the game. Now for counting cards it is very simple. Whenever a card is played you make sure you know how that affects the count. So I will tell what card does what.

• 2 through 6 = +1
• 7 through 9 = 0
• 10 through Ace = -1

Now that you know that when the deck is being played you just add or subtract numbers now. Say a 6, 5, 4, 7, ace, and 10 are played, the count would then be +1. This is because the 6, 5, and 4 made the count +3, but because the Ace and 10 were played it was dropped to +1. The count is very helpful in that it can tell you what to bet, and if you should go high or low. The main thing you should always know is that 10 has the most cards in a deck; you have the 10, Jack, Queen, and King. That is 16 cards out of 52 cards. Meaning they are the most likely to be played. You have always have to remember what is being played so you can also change your moves, because if a lot of 10 cards have been played then the chances of you getting another 10 are very low.

Lastly there is a thing called True Count, this is basically when you are playing a game with more than one deck. The way this works is, say your count currently in a game is +3, and there are 2 decks being played the true count would be +1.5. You divide the count by the amount of decks that are being played. This isn’t the easiest thing to do though because all casinos use a different amount of decks, and they have shuffle machines that can change everything in an instant. There is even a machine that keeping the true count is impossible because you can’t focus on how many decks are being played when it is constantly shuffling the cards.

Can I Help You With Something?

In unit 2 of my class System & Models, we learned about groups of people and how they come together, and how they go apart. As an FE we went to Mariano's and divided into groups to look at people and see what people go towards most in the store. As for the action project, we had to, with a partner or not, pick a subject we would want to do a lab report on. My partner and I choose to make an experiment to see how employees come up to us based on our gender, and see if there are any trends. Something I liked about our project was that we go to choose anything we wanted and got to use ourselves to our advantage when doing the experiment. Something that was difficult at first was choosing our subject, because my partner and I knew we had to do some extra stuff for our experiment since it was more than one person. Please enjoy looking at my lab report, and seeing how employees come up to people!

Marching for the World

In my class Equality, we went over the basics behind race, gender, and class, and all the ways in our world we aren't equal with these three subjects. We did have a guest speaker, Elizabeth Dozier, where we got to talk about issues in our city, Chicago. For our action project we had to make a history book chapter on a big event and show how to relates/effected race, gender, and class. The event I chose, was a very recent one, the Women's March, which happened on January 21st, 2017. This was a march for women's rights but turned into something much bigger. Something I liked about this project was that we got to choose any event, and really show how it connects with race, gender, and class, especially because it was so soon. Something I didn't like was that it had to be like a history book because the format of a text book is very hard to really copy, so I really had to play around with everything and make it look nice. Please enjoy reading my chapter in a history book for the Women's March!