Author Archives: Guannn

The Sandy Days of Brooklyn Tech

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The hurricane of 2012 known as Hurricane Sandy, can arguably be one of New York’s greatest tragedies. Hurricane Sandy devastated the city and left many people homeless and nowhere to live. As a result, Brooklyn Technical High School opened up as a shelter to take in people in need. Brooklyn Technical High School is a 12 story building that covers over half a city block. Each floor is divided into North, South, East, West and Center sections to better help identify rooms.  The first floor of the building is filled with classrooms and it’s also where the renowned auditorium of Brooklyn Tech is located. Every floor from the 2nd to the 6th is filled with numerous classrooms and the 7th floor of the building is used as a cafeteria for students.  From October 29th,2012 to November  12th, 2012, Brooklyn Tech housed over 300 patients from the adult homes Surf Manor and Chai Home. Many of these patients were of special needs. Although both students and patients staying in the shelters were impacted greatly by Hurricane Sandy, the effects were vastly different.
Brooklyn Tech became a full time shelter on October 29th 2012 and took in over 300 people from Surf Manor Adult Home and Chai Home Adult Home. These two adult homes were terribly flooded and the patients living there had to move away. These patients stayed in the first floor of the school and gym and were allowed access to the 1st floor, 7th floor and the 3rd floor for cleaning purposes. According to Daniel  Vladu, a volunteer for the shelter, “The shelter also provided cots, blankets, medicine, pet supplies, diapers, baby formula, and numerous other supplies. A clinic was also set up to treat people and deal with medical emergencies.” However,  the patients were not monitored carefully. ” A schizophrenic refugee from Hurricane Sandy has disappeared from a temporary city-run shelter set up at a Brooklyn high school,” according to an article in the NYDailyNews.  Some patients roamed free without any supervision and some were rumored to use the walls of some floors as restrooms.  The patients that lived at Brooklyn Tech during this time had a horrible experience.

Brooklyn Tech announced on November 5th, despite patients still living there, that students were to return to school the following Wednesday. Students of Brooklyn Tech had a mini vacation because of this storm. Students received eleven days off from October 27th to the Wednesday of November 27th. Brooklyn Tech, being a specialized high school,  is known for its harsh curriculums that students must follow and Hurricane Sandy relieved students of this workload for over 11 days and more. “After w e returned, we  barely got any work for the next week” said Brain Li, a current Brooklyn Tech Senior. The class periods for the next week were also cut by a third of its time and classes started much later than usual, allowing students to catch up on much needed sleep.

The Hurricane of 2012 was a terrible storm that vastly affected New York City but for the students of Brooklyn Tech and the people in the shelters, the effects were much different. The special needs patients that lived in the adult homes of Surf Manor and Chai Home literally lost their homes.  Patients were not monitored carefully during this time and a schizophrenic patient had even gotten lost.  The effect this storm had on students of Brooklyn Tech were the opposite. This storm was a blessing in disguise to many students. This storm gave students a work-free 11 day vacation and because this storm was so close to college early application deadlines, ”  National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) was working with colleges to grant extensions to students in the hurricane zone.”(School Library Journal article.) The one bad thing that resulted from this storm for students were the disgusting smell that emitted from the 7th floor cafeteria, where the patients were staying. However, Brooklyn Tech students only had to deal with this smell for a few days where as the patients had to live with it for over two weeks. Even the misfortunes of the students were much worse than those of the people in the shelter.

Hurricane Sandy affected New York City greatly but the effects on certain individuals were very different. The special needs patients staying in Brooklyn Technical High School from October 29th to November 12th had a terrible experience. The living conditions were terrible for these patients and they had no choice but to live with it. The students of Brooklyn Tech took one of the greatest storm in the history of New York City to be a boon. Students got days off, less work, less class time and more time to work on college applications. In fact, physical education classes were even cancelled the week of returning to school.  Despite the storm devastating the people at the adult homes of Chai Home and Surf Manor, it helped the students of Brooklyn Tech more than it hurt.

Work Cited
Shapiro, Julie. “All City Schools Reopen for Class, as Some Kids Share Space with Shelters.” DNAinfo.com New York. 7 Nov. 2012. 19 Nov. 2013

SMITH, GREG B. “Mental patient disappears from a Hurricane Sandy evacuation shelter at a Brooklyn high school.” NY Daily News. 7 Nov. 2012. 19 Nov. 2013

Vladu, Daniel. “Http://www.bthsnews.org/2012/12/15/hurricane-sandy-an-interview-with-a-volunteer/.” Interview by Linda Nguyen. Http://www.bthsnews.org/. 15 Dec. 2012. 19 Nov. 2013

MONIHAN, Rachel. “With transit down and many schools damaged, New York City kids won’t be back to school until Monday.” NY Daily News. 2 Nov. 2012. 19 Nov. 2013

Bayliss, Sarah. “Many Return to School in a Landscape Altered by Hurricane Sandy.” School Library Journal. 6 Nov. 2012. 19 Nov. 2013

Li, Brain. “Brooklyn Tech Sandy days.” Online interview. 16 Nov. 2013

The Sandy Days of Brooklyn Tech – 1st Draft

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The hurricane of 2012 known as Hurricane Sandy, can arguably be one of New York’s greatest tragedies. Hurricane Sandy devastated the city and left many people homeless and nowhere to live. As a result, many schools became shelters for these homeless people . Brooklyn Technical High School was one of these schools opened up to become a shelter. From October 29th,2012 to November  12th, 2012, Brooklyn Tech housed over 300 patients from the adult homes, Surf Manor and Chai Home. Many of these patients were of special needs. However, despite Brooklyn Tech becoming a shelter, students were still mandated to go back to school on November 7th 2012 and this led to what is one of the most interesting weeks of Brooklyn Tech’s history for both students and the patients staying in the shelter.

Brooklyn Tech became a full time shelter on October 29th 2012 and took in over 300 people from Surf Manor Adult Home and Chai Manor Adult Home. These two adult homes were terribly flooded and the patients living there had to move away. These patients initially stayed in the first floor of the school and in the gymnasium. They were allowed to go to the 1st, 2nd and 7th floors and even use the 3rd floor showers located in the boys locker room. The general population eventually relocated leaving the special needs of the adult homes in Brooklyn Tech, dropping the amount of people to less than 250. The school set up a clinic to help those that needed medicinal attention and provided them with blankets, medicine, pet supplies, and numerous other supplies that was needed.  These special needs patients were rumored to do their “business” not in the bathrooms of Brooklyn Tech but on the floors and walls. Eventually, the school announced on November 5th 2012, that on the following Wednesday, students will be returning to school and these people in the shelter were relocated to the7th floor cafeteria.

Hurricane Sandy was a devastating storm for all of New York City. Despite this horrific storm, it had a silver lining for students. For students that despised school, this was like a mini vacation, except with a hurricane outside. Many students skipped school for over a week because of this storm and some schools that were sheltering people, had even more days off.  Students at Brooklyn Tech got 11th days off.  We had off from the Friday of October 27th 2012 to the Wednesday of November 7th 2012. “When we heard that school was cancelled for the 5th & 6th, we were all so happy! But had we known what we were going to go through the next week, I think I’d take back my two days of school” said Brain Li, a current senior at Brooklyn Tech. It was true. We knew about the people living in the Brooklyn Tech shelters and had heard rumors about it but we did not know just how horrible the next week was going to go be.  When we got back to school, we were told that each period was going to be cut by a third of its regular time. This seemed like a dream come true but the students of Brooklyn Tech soon realized that it was just the cherry on top of a pile of very disgusting feces. Students that had class on the 6th floor during these patents’ stay were really unfortunate. This is not only because they had to walk due to elevators being disabled but because of the horrible stench coming from the floor above them, where the patients stayed. “It smelled like feces and human waste. Those 6th floor periods were the longest periods I’ve ever been through in my life even though they were  30 minutes long. It was unbearable” said Brain Li, a current Brooklyn Tech senior.

Brooklyn Tech students attended school with 250 special needs patients living in the 7th floor cafeteria from November 7th 2012 to November 12th 2012. Because the 7th floor cafeteria was closed off from student access, students were forced to eat lunch at the auditorium. Each lunch period had over a thousand students and each period of lunch was a riot of students all trying squish their way into the auditorium before the last lunch bell rang. Imagine the dawn of Black Friday in front of Wal-Mart except with teenagers all trying to get a very stale turkey sandwich instead of a good deal. Despite students not being able to access the 7th floor, patients on the 7th floor were allowed to go around the school and even outside.  Students that were walking around during class hours would occasionally bump into these patients with special needs and it was a very scary and awkward experience. Students were told strictly to stay away from these patients and not to interact with them just in case. Patients were not monitored as well as they were before school began.  Mark Thomas, a 52 year old schizophrenic refugee, disappeared during this time and was not found until a long time after.

The week of that Brooklyn Tech was a shelter was definitely an interesting one for both students and the patients.  On the afternoon of the following Tuesday, the people in the shelters were evacuated and displaced from the school. Students were told they can start using the 7th & 8th floor facilities but this made a lot of people worried. The cafeteria was used for nearly two weeks of housing people and they had planned to clean it and let us use it right away.  Many parents demanded that it be checked out and deemed safe before students were allowed back into the cafeteria.  The 11 day break we received because of Hurricane Sandy resulted in a cut in our winter break. Students and staff of Brooklyn Tech all received a weird once in a lifetime experience to go to attend school while being used as a shelter and patients’ all got their back safely.

Work Cited
Shapiro, Julie. “All City Schools Reopen for Class, as Some Kids Share Space with Shelters.” DNAinfo.com New York. 7 Nov. 2012. 19 Nov. 2013

SMITH, GREG B. “Mental patient disappears from a Hurricane Sandy evacuation shelter at a Brooklyn high school.” NY Daily News. 7 Nov. 2012. 19 Nov. 2013

Vladu, Daniel. “Http://www.bthsnews.org/2012/12/15/hurricane-sandy-an-interview-with-a-volunteer/.” Interview by Linda Nguyen. Http://www.bthsnews.org/. 15 Dec. 2012. 19 Nov. 2013

MONIHAN, RACHEl. “With transit down and many schools damaged, New York City kids won’t be back to school until Monday.” NY Daily News. 2 Nov. 2012. 19 Nov. 2013

Bayliss, Sarah. “Many Return to School in a Landscape Altered by Hurricane Sandy.” School Library Journal. 6 Nov. 2012. 19 Nov. 2013

Li, Brain. “Brooklyn Tech Sandy days.” Online interview. 16 Nov. 2013

Project 4 brainstorming blog

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Project 4 initially had me very excited because it was the first project I know what I’m going to write about. The previous projects has really just been going step by step but this one I think I know for sure what I’m going to write about. I was going to pick Brooklyn Tech High School as my project 4 because the story I wanted to tell fit perfectly into this project. I was going to tell it through two vantage points, one being students and the others being the people in the Brooklyn Tech shelter. I already found sources and thought I was going to do well on this. I am pretty sad to find out that both speech & english project 4 has to be the same places. I originally picked Brooklyn Historical Society for my speech. I already had a good idea of what I was going to speak about for that speech on BHS. Now that they both have to be the same place, I have to pick between BTHS & BHS. I believe I would’ve done a very good job convincing people through my speech to put BHS on a walking tour and I believe that I would’ve written a pretty good essay on the two accounts of the Brooklyn Tech shelter thing. Now, I have to choose one and it’s very hard to pick between them because I have set ideas for both but they do not apply for both projects. I don’t think I can do a good job convincing people to put a high school on a walking tour. I think the speech will just be pretty boring. If I choose to do BHS, I don’t think I can write a good essay. I don’t even have a story about BHS, much less get two different accounts of it. I don’t want to give up such a good topic that I actually want to write about and pick BHS because it’ll allow me to give a better speech. This is giving me a pretty big headache picking between the two.

Reading Lucy Summary

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In the article, “Reading Lucy” by Jennifer Egan, Egan bonds with a woman from Brooklyn named Lucille Kolkin. They became friends and bonded at the Brooklyn Historical Society on Wednesdays and Fridays but lost touch later on in life. Lucy met a man in 1943 named Alfred Kolkin and married him soon after. Egan got the letters that Alfred and Lucy exchanged while Alfred was away for World War II. Lucy was constantly writing to Alfred. Egan hoped to learn more about life and the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II and Lucy’s letters gave her a first hand account to that. However, the more Egan reads these letters, the more it became for learning about Lucy’s life than getting information for her research. Reading these letters allowed Egan to actually feel like she was closer with Lucy and she felt connected to Lucy. Egan coneys to the reader how Lucy was feeling at the time of the written note and Egan even gives her opinion into certain letters. Egan is constantly quoting Lucy’s letters when speaking about her letters. This article shows that love between Alfred and Lucy through Egan’s narration and Lucy’s notes. The novel is filled with notes from Lucy to Alfred but the article ends with a note from Alfred.

The Difference a Mile Makes

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20131015_152217 20131015_152200 20131015_152203(0) 20131015_152220 20131015_152222 20131004_152523 20131004_152449 20131004_152501New York City is an enormous city with numerous smaller cities within it. Each and every one of these cities are different and sometimes these cities overlap letting us see the cities side by side. Sometimes they can be as far as a 15 minute walk from each other but the difference between them is huge. City Tech and Brooklyn Tech are examples of these overlapping in cities. Despite being 15 minutes away from each other, the New Yorks that they belong to are vastly different. City Tech is a little bit less than a mile away from Brooklyn Tech. To get to Brooklyn Tech, you first have to leave City Tech from the Namm exit and walk until you reach Polytechnic Institute of NYU. During the walk across the street, you can see that there are numerous commercial buildings in the area. There is the Supreme Court house and Marriott Hotel. The buildings surrounding this area are all no less than 12 stories high and are the work places of hundreds of employees. There are numerous train stations here which allows for a lot of transportation access to this area. When you reach NYU Poly’s campus, walk down the campus stretch. There is a lot of restaurants on the campus. Keep walking until you reach the Chase Bank. This bank is enormous but the two buildings across the street are even bigger. The Toren building and the apartment building left of the Toren are no less than 20 or 30 stories tall. Walk in front of the Toren Building and face North towards the Health Department of New York. Walk straight until you reach an Applebee’s. You will pass by the Institute of Design and Construction and the Long Island University campus. In front of the LIU campus, there isn’t a single house that the eye can see. A block east of Applebee’s, you will see another enormous building. It is another apartment building that has little restaurants on the ground floor. Another block east of that we begin to see the overlapping of New Yorks. There are houses made of brownstone and they aren’t giant commercial buildings anymore. When you walk two more blocks east, you will see Brooklyn Tech high school. This is where the two New Yorks overlap. Brooklyn Tech is a pretty big building. It has around 10 floors and houses over 5000 students and staff members. In a few of the photographs I took of the building, the building goes up for 10 floors and from the ground, the building is enormous. However, despite this building being so large, the buildings around it are completely different. They’re houses that look very old, almost antique like as depicted in the photos I took during my trip there. These houses are nothing like the previous buildings we have seen. This area looks very suburban where as a few streets back, there were buildings that made these houses look like ants. Previously the buildings were gigantic that housed thousands of people with space left to give but these houses are made for small families. The more you walk west of Brooklyn Tech, the more of these houses you will see. These houses represent a totally different New York than the New York shown a few blocks back. The juxtaposition of these two New Yorks show that despite these two places are so close to each other, the environment can be completely different. There are no more commercial buildings that go up for tens of stories. They are replaced with residential houses and small coffee shops. It quickly goes from a very urban commercial area to a suburban area with little old houses and a giant park. Brooklyn Tech and City Tech are both very significant buildings. They’re both schools but one is a high school and one is a college part of a university. Brooklyn Tech is a leading high school in New York City. Over 5000 students travel from all over New York City to attend this high school and hopefully get into a college of their choice. City Tech is a college that is part of the City University of New York otherwise known as CUNY. City Tech has over ten thousand students attending it and is a compilation of many buildings such as the Namm Building, Pearl Building and more. Being a college, City Tech prepares students for the future. Students that succeed in this college can go on to take a higher degree such as their bachelors or they can go out into the work force. Both of these places are significant because they prepare students for a future step in their life. I chose these two places because of many reasons. Brooklyn Tech is the high school I attended so it will always hold a special place in my heart. When I moved from Brooklyn Tech to City Tech, I was very surprised. The area of the high school I attended was very suburban. The houses around there made it feel like I was in a very residential area. It was very relaxing. When I got to City Tech, those small houses were replaced by enormous buildings such as the court houses and hotels. I felt very uncomfortable when I first left Jay Street train station to walk to City Tech on my first day. The walk to school was so much different than before because of the sheer amount of people that are hurried to either get to school or get to their workplace. Despite all of this, Brooklyn Tech may still be insignificant to many people because after all, it is simply a high school. Even if this high school holds no significant value to other people, it will to me because it was where when I first started building my own New York. According to Colson Whitehead “You start building your private New York the first time you lay eyes on it.” When I first laid eyes on Brooklyn Tech, it became a brick within my own private New York and that will always be something significant to me. “Our streets are calendars containing who we were and who we will be next.” This quote is also from Colson Whitehead and it describes why Brooklyn Tech is significant to me. This building is standing proof of who I once was and it contains memories o who I was during the teenage years of my life. I will always be able to look back at Brooklyn tech and see myself. The “me” from years 13-18 of my life will always be there and this is why Brooklyn Tech is significant to me specifically even if it may not be to other people. Brooklyn Tech and City Tech is just nearly a mile away from each other but they are located in such different places. The juxtaposition of these two buildings shows how one is located in such an urban area filled with skyscrapers and commercial buildings whereas the other is located in an area with just residential houses that look old enough to be dated back to late 1800s.  These two buildings will always be in my private New York and will show a version of me that I once was when I attended these schools and that is why they’re both so significant to me.

Work Cited

 Whitehead, Colson. City Limits from The Colossus of New York. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

 

10-7 speech class summary

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In speech class, we had a discussion of the patterns of organization that we can use during speech. The patterns are chronological, spatial , causal, and topical. These patterns all have a specific use and all are used in specific scenarios. Chronological order is usually for how to speeches how to. These are going by order from what happened first or according to time sequence. Spatial is when you are trying to describe something but must use a specific order. For example, if you are trying to explain the order of operations to someone, you tell that person PEMDAS. You would not go in different order because that does not make sense and will end up confusing them. If you were just trying to explain operations, then the best choice will be to use Topical. You can pick any operation and tell them during any time because order does not matter in a Topical speech. Spatial speeches require a specific pattern while a Topical speech does not concern with order. The last type of organization is casual.  Casual speeches go by cause to effect or vice versa.  We also learned about sources. Some sources include newspapers interviews and surveys. The crediblity of these sources will be up to us to determine if they are reliable or not. We were also given the assignment of having to have a outline for our upcoming informative speech. We must have sources for our topic and this is basically what we did that class.

sentiment

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sentiment – noun – an attitude or opinion

Soruce http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sentiment

For instance, three cemeteries- Palisades, Weehawken,and Holy Cross—  attracted among the strongest Twitter sentiment on the list.
From : The Saddest and Happiest Places of New York City According to Twitter

The author was trying to speak of strange anomolies in the study in the article. The strongest feelings of the strange anomolies according to Twitter users is the previous said cemeteries.

verdant

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Verdant – Adjective –  green with growing plants

Source : http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/verdant?show=0&t=1381809816

Dense urban jungles and resplendent verdant parks. – The Happiest and Saddest Places in New York City According to Twitter

The author in this article was trying to compare the two extremes of New York City by giving it’s cons and pros. Verdant  happened to be describing the parks he was using to describe and he meant parks that are filled with greens and plants.

Happiest and saddest place in NYC

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I believe that the happiest place in NYC is Time Square. This may be a very cliche choice because when people mention NYC, the first thing that comes to mind if the beautiful Time Square of New York City. I truly believe it is the happiest place in NYC. I have nothing but happy memories from Time Square. Time Square is where people go to have a good time, there are tons of events to do and in the night time, it shows us where NYC’s nickname “City That Never Sleeps” derived from. Even through the AM of the day, there is still so much to do. The lights from the skyscrapers are still shining and the amount of people out in Time Square is still enormous. Time Square is always going to be my first choice for the happiest in NYC.
The saddest place in NYC is Marlboro housings of Brooklyn. These housings are pretty much considered the projects. The crime rate in this area is unbelievable. I know this because my friend is currently living in Marlboro housing and it is not an ideal place to live if given more choices. It isn’t sad because it is a bad place to live in but because no one seems to care there. People do not care for the area they live in. No one seems to make an effort to make the neighborhood a better place. I am not looking to offend anyone with my choice of Marlboro housing but it is just my personal opinion.

Library Session Homework

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For October 2nd’s English and Speech class session, we went to the library on the 4th floor atrium. The library has a lot of helpful tools for us students to use whenever we need to. One of the most important things that students need to do is activate their ID and use it as a personal library card. I will try to get my library card activated as soon as possible. During our library session, we learned to research topics. We were given the Brooklyn Theater Fire as a topic to research and we found a lot of information on the internet. We learned to determine which articles of information is credible and which can be biased. When we tried looking for the Brooklyn Theatre Fire in the library catalog, we hit a dead end. I tried numerous search options and I found nothing. I even looked in all of the CUNY libraries and I got nothing. That was pretty disappointing because I didn’t expect to find zero items on that topic. However, the library still has thousands of books for us students to rent and if there isn’t a book available it’s probably at a different CUNY. The class session overall was informative and it’s going to help alot when I need to research a topic for a future class project or speech.