I. Final exam requirements for A Raisin in the Sun
II. Outline of characters and quotes -
Jaydn selected Walter as the character she was going to use for her final exam analysis and with considerable assistance from me selected a quote to center her analysis on. I chatted with her and helped her develop her paragraph on the characterization of Walter in A Raisin in the Sun.

During today's Chemistry class, we continued working on balancing chemical equations. We completed several examples.

During today's Geometry class, we continued working on the introduction of Chapter 4.

The North Korean army invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950, crossing the 38th parallel, which was the border between the two countries. The South Korean army and a division of U.S. soldiers who had remained in South Korea were pushed all the way to the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula. The U.S. counterattacked by landing Marines at Inchon, thereby cutting the supply lines to the North Korean forces. The North Korean army retreated out of South Korea. U.S. and United Nations forces followed them into North Korea and pushed the North Korean army all the way to the Chinese border. The U.S. and United Nations forces were pushed back by the Chinese and North Korean forces into a stalemate. The war had lasted from 1950-1953. Today, North Korea remains a communist country and South Korea remains a democracy.

Following V-J Day, or 'Victory in Japan Day' on August 14, 1945, the Allies assumed control of all Japanese territory. This included the Korean peninsula, which was divided at the 38th parallel between the zones of Soviet and American occupation. Unable to reach an agreement over a permanent government structure for Korea despite intervention from the United Nations, the Republic of Korea, also known as South Korea, was formed in August 1948, while the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or North Korea, was formed a month later.

Allied occupation of Japan began on V-J Day, and lasted until 1952. American General Douglas MacArthur was appointed supervisor of the occupation by President Truman, and he effectively became the viceroy of Japan. Under his leadership, Japan was democratized and liberalized through land reform and other methods of social and economic restructuring. In May 1947, the new Constitution of Japan was enacted, reducing the emperor to a purely symbolic figure holding no real power. It also forbade Japan from settling international disputes through war. Generally, the liberally-reconstructed Japanese government was welcome by the Japanese people who were eager for change.

For our final assessment on the play "Our Town" Jaydn is comparing the theme of the play with the theme of the poem,"Leisure." Today, we worked on completing the opening paragraph by introducing the characters,Emily and the speaker of the poem .After we discussed and reviewed our outline notes, Jaydn completed a paragraph explaining the theme of the play using supporting quotes. We discussed how the next paragraph will address the poem and compare the two. We will continue working on the essay tomorrow.

The Iron Curtain was located in Eastern Europe, and the nations of East Germany, Poland, and Romania, among others, were behind it. Nations on the capitalist side included Britain, France, and others in Western Europe. The term "Iron Curtain," signifying the strength of the invisible barrier, was popularized by Winston Churchill. At the end of World War II, Stalin agreed to let nations hold free elections, but through falsified elections and other measures, he ultimately went back on his word. The Iron Curtain contributed to Cold War tension between the U.S. and U.S.S.R., signifying separation between democracy and communism and leading to new alliances. Although the Iron Curtain refers to a figurative, political border, the Berlin Wall—built by the U.S.S.R. to keep communist citizens from fleeing to democratic territories—was physical. In 1989, Poland launched a revolution against the Soviet Union that eventually spread to other Eastern European nations. These revolutions and the economic slump of the Soviet Union ultimately led to the dissolution of the Iron Curtain in the early 1990s. But how may we be seeing Russia repeat some of these actions today with the war in Ukraine?

Today Jaydn learned that there is a woman running for the 2024 presidential election. Her name is Nikki Haley and she served as the 116th governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017. She was the 29th US ambassador to the United Nations for almost two years, from January 2017 through December 2018.
Haley was born and raised in South Carolina and earned an accounting degree from Clemson University. First elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 2004, she served three terms. In 2010, during her third term, she was elected governor of South Carolina, and won re-election in 2014. Haley was the first female governor of South Carolina, the youngest governor in the country and the second governor of Indian descent in U.S. history. She was the first female governor of Asian American heritage. In 2017, Haley became the first Indian American member of a presidential cabinet.

Today we hear the term "woke," in the news a lot. What does it mean? It actually derives from the concept of learning new things in life - to be "awakened." A new Ipsos Poll finds a majority of Americans are inclined to see the word as a positive attribute, not a negative one - 56% of those surveyed say the term means "to be informed, educated, and aware of social injustices." Jaydn concluded that this is a positive concept.

After studying the poem "Leisure" , we continued making an essay outline comparing the theme of Our Town " and the theme of the poem. Jaydn on our shared Google Docs page made some annotations to the poem noting the use of repetition and discussed the relationship between the theme and the repeated phrase "no time." She then on her outline added her own thoughts about how people spend their time in unproductive or destructive ways and drafted sentences focused on why and how people should redirect their attention in life. We then worked on incorporating her thoughts into an introductory paragraph which Jaydn completed. We will continue the essay writing exercise next week.