Reflection Post

This project had helped me in many things. It helps create interest in reading, it improved my understanding in vocabulary, and it makes me understand the story including the moral. By reading the story, it taught me many things about passion. Being optimistic and hard working was actually the personality of the story’s main character. By reading each chapter, it makes me want to be successful like him. The book actually told some tips of being successful.

This project also helps me understand more about the life of a famous scientist, William Kamkwamba. He shows me how a child without education has a successful life by his own achievement. He started everything from zero. He got dropped from the school, and he doesn’t have any internet or any electricity like us at his time. He then even became more successful than many people in the present time. It was quite fascinating to learn and read about his story. All his experiences are used in the future. I would like to thank my English teacher, Miss Amy, for allowing me to do this project, I’ve learn many things from this book. From his life and his achievements, William became an inspiration to me.

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William's goals, dreams, and motives

William was actually just one ordinary boy, but he does have an extraordinary thinking that is different from the other people. As William grew up, he had a dream of being a scientist, a famous and a good one. He wanted to be a scientist because he wanted to learn more about the world. He also wanted to help his own people from suffering and his country to be developed. But it doesn't mean that he will be a scientist by just dreaming. William tried his best to reach the best school, he also tried his best to find out some knowledge by himself.
William's goals varies in many part. His goals are mainly about successfully help his people. But before that, he must've learn many things and try out many experiment to successfully built a windmill. Another of his goal should probably be about impressing his father and his classmates. It's obvious that everyone wanted their father to be proud. Just like William, he really love his parent and he wanted his father to find something interesting in him. He as a child also got insulted by most of his classmates, so his goal was also to change their minds.
William's people during his time was in a depression and lack hope. They got attacked by many disasters and now they left nothing, they don't even have electricity left. So William's main motive was to help this people by building up a windmill. He also have a motive of finding experiences and building amazing things. He wanted to know the work and use of many machines but he found the windmill most interesting. With his hard work, his responsibilities, and also his motivation, he finally met his goals and dreams. He finally made a creation of a big windmill that really help his people.

My Recording

http://www.mediafire.com/?t8t5dmnln85uijh
This is my recording when I summarize the story to Mr. Ein.

Timeline

 

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind Summary 4

William saved many people from the famine. Because of electricity, his people could now find happiness. They could now easily find and cook foods, everything is now easier for them. His people are now free from suffering. William was a hero for them. News spread from one person to another about William's achievement. People started to cheer after him and this motivates him more. After for a month, more and more people came to see William's windmill and see how he manage it. They first thought that he have those knowledges from school, but they soonly was amazed because this boy was able to do it without any education. The people talked to William mother and father and told them that their son had a bright future and how everybody needs to know about him. The people talked to a radio reporters and interview William on what he dream was and he said that he wants everybody to have electricity to use.

After that, William finally return to school thanks to those people who are funding education. He then got invited to make a presentation of his achievement. He also was given a laptop for him to be familiar with, and he saw many new things in there. At last, he travelled to America and visit the Windmill Farms. He also got accepted to many popular schools. Because of his invention, William was now honored and admired by the people all around the world. William doesn't only make an invention, but he also save many of his people's life. From a young uneducated kid, he had developed himself into a very successful hero!!!

Events of the Story

This was the event when William was still a kid. He was beaten by a person because he was thinking that he could use magic to win.








This was the event when William has to drop out from school because of not having enough money to pay the school fees.

This was the event when William successfully achieve his big dream creating a big windmill.

This was the event that William should remember the most in his life. It's when his invention was accepted by many people around the country because it saves many people from suffering.

A Boy Who Harnessed the Wind Summary 3

William wanted to be a great scientist. He actually already made a plan ahead. He was going for a school that has all the things he needed to achieve his dream. He felt confident and believed in himself, but things don’t go like what he expected. His exam grades are lower than what he think, he then must go to a lower class school which is the Kachokolo Secondary School.

 

Later after William was studying there, he was forced to drop out because the lacking of school fees which he doesn’t have enough. He then didn’t give up in finding knowledge and achieving his dream. He educated himself by borrowing some books from the small community library. After reading of some books, he found a picture of a windmill that reminds him about generating electricity. He started to gain more confidence and planned to build a windmill to generate power to his family’s home. Even though William was lacking the experience in engineering, the power of confidence keeps him up to begin researching.

William starts researching about the turbine and all those things that produced electricity. He thinks about his old idea (the bicycle dynamo) and then combines all his thoughts together. He finally picture out the windmill he wanted to build and all the materials he needed. Then without wasting more time, he went to collect some materials from the scrap yard. He was actually being teased by students while he was doing that. He first makes an experiment with his friend on a radio windmill. He really succeeds like what he aims for, and this creates an inspiration for him to make a better one.

His work starts to improve more and more. Now William was creating a big windmill. He took the fan, blades, bolts, and dynamo for creating it. He also took some materials found in the scrap yard such as the broken bicycle, a tractor fan, melted plastic pipes, bamboo stalks, and scavenged copper wires. With these stuffs he makes his proudest creation, his first big windmill. Although William met some errors and mistakes in doing it (such as accidentally blew up some parts of the machines because he forget to insert the dynamo), he still finally create a windmill that was able to generates electricity. Let’s see in the next summary how the whole world reacts to William’s achievement.

A Boy Who Harnessed the Wind Summary 2

After a year past, Africa starts to develop more. It was starting to adopt the culture and technology of the West. William was in many type of events while he was growing up. He saw the death of his uncle and his family suffering. Later after that, he started to learn hunting. Setting up traps to catch animals(usually birds) and ate them. His culture was actually not that different to others during that time, they just used different materials.
 
William starts growing up each year, he first get to learn at school with excitement, and he reached the time the new century starts. Malawi and most parts of Africa doesn't have as much electricity because their people can't actually afford it in that time. Floods and things started to come more to his country. After that happens, rain started to disappear and the period of drought cursed their land. The president, Muluzi, also had left Malawi without a country leaser. He had misjudged the country's priorities and created a hatred and death that swept the country. This was a great disaster to the people, they were now suffering and needed help.

During the time of those troubles, William got some idea of converting electricity after discovering the bicycle dynamo. He started to study harder of it. In the same period of time people are searching for new food and they are very hungry. Everyone was suffering later on and William realized something. He learned that his own problems didn't seem much important because the hunger was belonging to the entire country. Christmas starts, let's see what more will William learn from his people and how could he help them. The beginning of a protagonist who utilizes the wind power and a crude windmill to create the electricity was starting.

A Boy Who Harnessed the Wind Summary 1

A child named William Kamkwamba was born in the time that magic was ruling the world, which means that people are still believing about magic. Science in that time are not yet known much as these present days. Many stories about magic was passed down from generation to generation. William was a half Yao who lived in a Masitala village at Malawi with his family who lived on a farm. When he was just six years old, he was misunderstood by one trader about stealing the gumballs. He felt of being cursed by that man and was very scared of the power in magic (he was thinking that a wizard would took his life). A wizard in that time was quite a powerful person who uses magic. His father calms him down and took care of his problems. His father was not scared of magic, He believed and trusted in God. Even though he have heard about many stories told by his father(William's grandfather), He still stood strong and fear no magic. After William listened his father's story and teaching, he started to put trust in him and understands the truth. His father was actually telling him to respect the wizard, but to remember that with God on his side, the wizards will have no power.
William was actually like today's kid. He played child games, watch movies, and do some activities with his friends. But there's many things he had experienced that is quite different from us. His father always warned him against playing with magic, but he still doesn't care much. Finally he learned about his consequences. He was cheated by a person named Shabani who promises him about a magic. He thought it would work but he was then beaten by another person in a fight. He was wounded and this was his first experience in magic. He still doesn't understand much about this real world, there is much more things to explore.

Title: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Spectator Sport: What a Good Day

A beautiful sun shining on my little eyes had woke me up from a horrible night. I got out of my soft huge bed and shouted out, "Today is my good day!" With a high passion, an assertive boy ran down his wooden stair to have a delicious breakfast. I hugged my lovely mom as I walked to my fantastic school. I also did talked to my long chin friend and a panda-looking friend, we have fun together in the white decorated hallway. Everything went well until our difficult algebra period. Our didactic teacher gave us a shocking surprise quiz. Everyone in the peaceful class began having an insane looking on our innocent teacher. Luckily, I passed the hard-core quiz, but the naughty ones who fail could only ask our calm teacher for some mercy retest.

After our confusing test, we went to our amazing chemistry period, we got to do some risky experiment with a poisonous acid today! If we don't follow the basic instruction, we will be ruining some healthy parts of our lovely body with that horrible acid. One of our intrepid classmates got a high interest in it and he played it like flying an airplane toy. He accidentally dropped the transparent slippery flask with that scary acid inside. It dropped right on top of his tall smelly legs. His small black eyes popped out starring at his elephant legs that was damaged horribly. With a light-speed second, he screamed into my smooth little ear with the max volume of his strident terrible sound. Everyone got shocked as they splashed the cold pacific water on both me and him who was standing beside each other.

The biting acid was now washed away as we both soaked wet. We looked at each other and laughed at one another happily. "What a naughty busy-body friend you are!" I cried. The last exciting period had gone safe and well. Now it's a nice time for me to get back to my awaiting home. After getting back my beautiful home, I talked to my kind mom about today's surprising quiz and a shocking life risking event. Today is such an incredible day for me!

Credits:
(POP QUIZ) http://cflhomeless.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/coalition-pop-quiz-homeless-facts/
(DANGER ACID) http://www.flammablestorage.co.uk/acid.html