We are currently working on our multimodial presentation thing and I have not noticed until now how non-tech savvy I am. Literally like the only things I know how to use are Microsoft word/slides/spreadsheets, WeVideo, Weebly, and somewhat Google Drive. I am good with art, visuals, and writing, but only when it's hands on. I don't know what it is, but when I can feel the things in my hand, it helps me work better. Even with writing. Just the pencil in my hand connecting to the paper and feeling the piece itself helps the creativity flow. I just feel like I can't see things when I can't feel them. For the Pecha-Kucha presentation we did, I noticed a lot of people using their phones for notes but me, no, I had 20 cards and each card was sort of a que in remembering what I said right when I touched it. I need to work on it because we are advancing so fast in technology and I swear almost everything is online. I've always been a crafty person and I feel like hands on things are more efficient for me because I can actually see my progress so we will see how this goes.
0 Comments
It's week 13, and we have one week left of this trimester. For our final project in tri 2, we've been working on our pecha kucha presentation. We read two books throughout the trimester which coincided with a topic we chose, then at the end, we did a presentation where we had 10 slides of pictures and that we were supposed to relate to our books and topic. We had to present to the class with as minimal amount of reading off of a card/paper as possible. For me, this was very nerve wracking but I really did enjoy it. I was extremely nervous throughout but I practiced the life out of what I had planned to say and instead of me having a hard time remembering what to say, I had a hard time forgetting. Throughout the length of the class, we have been encouraged to take ourselves out of our comfort zones and I feel I did just that with my topic. It was something I really felt for, but at the same time, it was something I didn't normally voice loudly due to the fear I had of other's judgement towards my opinions. I felt everything I said was necessary. I most definitely would like to do something like that in the future, and I plan to because I found that it really made me see that everything will be okay if I talk and that nobody was really judging me the way I always fear they would.
Digital storytelling part 2. SInce I have switched to AP Lit, a lot has changed, but not too much. Right now my classmates are doing what I did last Tri, the This I Believe/ We Video project. Since I already did that, I am doing a different form of digital storytelling. Instead of telling my own story I am recording the story of another person, or in my case two other people. I am using the StoryCorps app, which you start by selecting questions, then asking them, and the app records the response from the other person. Later, you can take/add pictures. I am very excited to see my final product. I haven't barely had any time to start due to my work schedule interfering with the time that I can meet with my story tellers and interview them. My topic is very important to me and I am doing it for my family and my friends. A lot of artwork that I have done is along the same topic as well. I have done paintings and drawings of my mother and behind her or around her, put all the things she likes to portray her as a person. My family, especially my mother, as long as a great majority of Muslims in this country have had a lot of things said and done to them just because of the religious path they follow. My digital story will be interviewing my mother and one of her friends, asking them about their lives, growing up, their children, different things they like, introducing them as people, then getting to the core by asking them about their feelings on the election, and how it has changed this country and their lives. My hopes with this piece is that it will wipe away some of the red people are seeing, so they can see that my mother, our friends, and the whole Muslim community, is a community of humans, of people just like the people seeing the red, same as the people that they live next door to, same as the people that hand their food out the window. People that love their children, they have families, they have jobs, they have favorite actors, favorite foods, favorite sports players, they have feelings, and they are existing. They deserve the right as a living being, to live a safe, comfortable, This week we have been working on an activity about online tracking and whether the government should intervene and regulate all the information that industries have on us. We had two articles we had to analyze and two days worth of partner notes. On the final day we took a stance on whether we think the government should step in or not. I chose the opposing side. I don't really think industries can do a lot of damage with information unless they are going to sell it to some hacker or group that is going to steal your identity. These industries have our information for profit and to cycle information and advertisements through us in attempts that we will buy their products etc... I think the word tracking just scares people but they really need to think about how much damage an industry like Microsoft could do to your personal privacy vs. the Government. Especially right now in our country, I personally would not want the government having access to more information than they need. Yes they can get that information if they really wanted but I don't think that is a smart idea. There are a lot of groups right now in our country being targeted and I would hate to see something like 1984 (Orwell) happen and to have people slowly disappearing out of the internet then out of the physical world. We spend so much of our lives online and quite honestly we are getting to a point in time where it is impossible to have less than two ties to the internet, everything is there. I know the 1984 idea is quite a jump, but it is the reality of what is going on now and to willingly give the already corrupt system complete access to all of our information may mean significant harm to others.
We've been watching our plays this week. I'm watching Macbeth and it's hella confusing. It's taking place in WW2 but the language still has that Shakespearean style which makes it hard for me to follow thoroughly. I've had to sparknote a few acts to understand them but I kind of get the broad picture of what's going on. I do like it, it is kind of creepy at times but this version is quite interesting. My group and I have found a lot of scenes that fall into the Psychoanalytical theory that we chose. Macbeth was once this noble war hero and just because three women (that are actually witches) told him he would be King, he ends up racing for the throne and ends up developing quite a bit of paranoia and he kills a bunch of people counting women and children. We learned that Macbeth is said to be cursed due to the witch spell they speak. It is said that this spell was a real wiccan spell. I think that is really strange and learning that and me being a bit superstitious, it's kind of alarming. Besides this, I’ve been finishing up Beloved and compiling information from it to put into my Pecha-Kucha presentation. I am very excited to do it. I really found a lot of key points in the book that fit well into my topic. Even though the book does have supernatural elements to it, I’ve looked past those. I really think the “ghost” is this heavy grief weighing on the whole family because of the violence and abuse they had to endure. That is just my perception anyway.
This week we started our group project on shakespear. We had a choice between Macbeth and King Leer. I chose Macbeth and I am currently in a group of 3. What we are doing with this is chosing a theory and watching the play that we chose and seeing how said theory applies. We chose Psychoanalytical which basically says that there are subconscious forces that affect the physical actions and choices we make. This is a great theory I think for myself because I just took Psychology so a lot of the studies and theories that we are using for our play are still fresh in my mind from that class. I think this theory will be very relevant to the play because MB is very much manipulated by his subconscious from questioning how he will become king, to becoming king. Not only is MB affected by his own subconscious, but by those of others. His wife for instance wants to be queen so she pushes him along on the rugged path to the throne. This theory is applicable to reality because people do things from normal to crazy in order to get what they want. They are willing to put others down and kill to get more power, so MB isn't too unrealistic in that department. People are also pursuaded by others. This is seen through something simpler like school cliques. Popularity very much changes the mindset of people. They dress a certain way, talk and act certain ways, and like certain things in order to impress others, and to get in that "group".
We are one week deep into the second trimester. I have switched into AP Lit and so far I love it. I really needed a challenge this year and second trimester was that doorway for me. We came up with a proposal for our PK (Pecha Kucha) and we are reading two books to provide support for it. I am very excited to do this because not only will it challenge who I am (by presenting in front of everyone) but I will be tackling a topic that is important to me and that I have always been curious to question. It is extremely prominent in our global society today. My question was what makes people believe that it is acceptable to treat minorities with cruelty, brutalize and wrongfully prosecute them, and feel nothing but hate for them just because of what religion they are, or what color their skin is? I think it is very important to recognize these things because people are being hurt and denied their basic human rights still in 2016! Today we read a poem by Langston Hughes from 1930 called Make America, America Again. How crazy is it that everything he wrote about is almost exactly the same as it is now to some people in not only our country, but the world. Other than that, I learned that I really need to expand my vocabulary because I just about failed our practice AP Lit test and most of it was because I didn't understand what words they were using. We got the practice test back and I plan to scan over that thing and process and learn every single word.
It's already week 9??? It's been going by way too fast. I've had way tos much fun in this class bonding with both teachers and students, I really don't want to start over. This year has been great so far. This week/ last week I started/ began reading 1984 by George Orwell. I'm in the first chapter and it is really good so far. Katie and I have been reading it outloud which we found actually very hard in place of reading silently. We're doing it so we make sure we're on the same page and staying in pace with each other so we can get it done at the same time and help one another. I haven't been doing so well in other classes this week though. I've been doing quite a bit of skipping which has resulted in me getting behind. The only classes I really look forward to are Psychology and English. I miss my art classes a lot. I have really been getting into poetry this year and I've actually been writing so much it's insane. I've been looking up some poetry slam nights and trying to piece together some confidence to attend one. I feel like this class has especially kick started my desire to write poetry. I used to write all the time and stopped and I'm so happy that I've started back up. I know I need to revise a lot of it, but I'm very pleased with what I've came up with. I feel very connected with my emotions unlike ever before. I feel as though this class and psych have clashed and helped me learn/cope with controlling my feelings and emotions. I'm very eager to see what the rest of the year has in store for me.
I'm so tired. I'm 100% ready to go home. This week has drained me off all my energy and that's because my 4th and 5th hour is stressing me out like crazy. I'm happy I got everything done in English so I can just read or write. I started 1984 by George Orwell and It's pretty interesting so far. This week I got to really know Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God and I answered my big question through her eyes. I don't read even a quarter of what I should, but when I do, I've found that I really enjoy taking the time to know the characters. Sometimes when a character catches my interest enough, I'll start to come up with different scenarios and question how they would react to or deal with them. I often question the ending of the book too. I didn't really like how T.E.W.W.G ended. The excitement finally built up and was tumbling ahead at the speed of a freight train then basically just slammed into a brick wall that was known as the ending. I don't know how but I would have changed it to give it a bit more of a clean, finished ending. I'm quite excited to get into 1984 and see how "Big Brother" is and how it is going to end. I hope it is overall an interesting book.
Week 7! Time has seriously flown by this marking period. This past week we chose a big question and then a book to answer said question. I chose Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. I chose this book because the main character was a mixed woman living in the 1930s and though I'm not living in the 1930's, I am mixed and every single history class I've ever been in that taught us about African Americans, I've always wanted to know... well what about people like me? So before I started reading this book I thought it was going to be like The Color Purple which in some ways it was but once I started reading it... it kind of chased my interest away unlike Alice Walker's book did. The dialect was so strange to me, they use ah instead of I and lak instead of like and I spent the first couple of days on the first chapter trying to decipher what they were saying. I got fed up with quitting and just forced myself to focus and I found myself not able to put the book down and I ended up finishing it really quickly. It was honestly a very good book and I recommend it to anyone looking for a challenge and a good read. I hope to find more books just like this, and I am determined to read them and analyze them thoroughly the way in which I did with this book. The next two books I want to read are Black Boy and Native Son by Richard Wright.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
March 2017
Categories |