This week we finished up our multimodal media project. Everyone had their books finished so we focused on completing our slides notes, recording videos, creating the weebly page and writing the actual content. The biggest thing I learned was how to really bring all of our different pieces together. This project had many different aspects and mediums through which we were trying o convey our message. We wanted to fully capture the environment and the impact it had on us while we were reading, but we had to go about it in a different way. We didn't have two hundred pages of a story, we had to use visual keys and imagery and video as well as our words to get our point across. It is easier to involve the audience because it is so visual and interactive but the more difficult part is making everything work in unison to create that atmosphere. Since I was the wild card I tried to help out with everyone in different ways, I really committed to taking notes and talking through all of our decisions with my group. Learning not only how to make each of our different medias work together but also our different ideas. As we explored farther into our "Big Question" it helped me to relive the book and really remember the things I learned from it. Although it's pretty obvious that our point of reference affects out decisions, it can be easy to forget in daily conversations and observations. It's a good reminder for me to be aware of people's different experiences and how that will impact their view point and decisions. It is also interesting to look back onto my own life and the decisions I've made. We make think we know ourselves but reflecting on our actions can help us to understand ourselves even more.
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This week I had finished my reading of The Alchemist over the weekend so I worked on the google slide notes. Some of the pictures I had taken did not really relate to what our big question was but I kept it because it still supplies background information. Looking back, if I do something like this again I will definitely focus on analyzing the text for more relevance to my topic. Going back through the pictures and taking notes helped me to refocus on what we're studying. This week we began our Multimodal Project with our groups. My group is Sophie, Lauryn and Haley and we chose to read the book, "The Alchemist". Basically, all we did the whole week was read. We assigned roles to everyone but then we started reading and taking notes on our book. I actually really like the book, it's a lot more interesting than I expected it to be. I'm actually learning things about life which I didn't expect. The boy, Santiago has a really unique way of looking at life. He observes others and nature and uses those observations to learn about life. The advice he was given from the old king is always in the back of his mind as he responds to different omens and chases after his own Personal Legend. I like it because it breaks down how easily people will give up on their dreams, a lot of the times unintentionally because they create a synthetic happiness. It is reminding me and encouraging me to keep pursuing my original goal for my life.
This week we worked on our independent reading proposals and prepared our presentations of them in a pecha kucha format. I chose to focus on the topic of the american dream since I read "The Great Gatsby" and "The Grapes of Wrath". The topic was interesting because I realized how little I knew about the "American Dream" and that it really isn't as idealistic and wonderful as it was advertised and portrayed. To achieve it was difficult and near impossible without sacrificing some other part of your happiness. Creating the slides caused a little confusion for me, I have no idea why but I got it into my head that we had to have twenty slides not ten. I even remember watching past years and wondering why we switched it to twenty but I just went with it and didn't ask my classmates so that was silly. I also realized as we were creating the slides, how important it was to pick the right images for your slide. The image you pick sets the mood and if it doesn't match the mood you are trying to portray, it can cause confusion and distraction for the audience. A key part of this project is going to be timing and making sure you are fluid with your ideas and it matches up with the changing images behind you. Everything needs to work together. This week we finished up our videos and then watched them. I thought they were due on Tuesday so I had my finished and was able to read in class instead. I really enjoyed watching everyone's videos and it was awesome how much some people were willing to open up about and share with everyone. Most of the beliefs my classmates talked about I already knew they believed in, whatever they chose to share about, for the most part didn't surprise me. The part that was interesting was the backstory, the journey to that belief. This project was not only good for growing our storytelling skills but it also allowed us to gain a better understanding and respect for one another and the things they are passionate about. I was really looking forward to my video being played. I personally have watched it over and over again. It's not that I think I did an outstanding job on it or anything, it's just really meaningful to me. The song I chose was one that my sisters and I grew up singing all the time because we were the ultimate little Taylor Swift fans, so it held a lot of sentimental value and always makes me feel a bit nostalgic when I hear it. My favorite part and the biggest reason I keep watching it is because of the pictures and memories it holds. I remember most of those moments and if not then I remember my parents telling me about them so I love being able to take a short trip down memory lane. And I'm so happy I got to share one of my most valued parts of my life.
This week I recorded my voice and then ended up changing my entire topic. I recorded my voice on Thursday and then I kept listening to it over and over again, I added parts and even began to go completely off-script and just talk about it. But, no matter what I tried, I didn't see how my audience would be able to connect with this story. For me, the story was important and impactful but my audience wasn't full of runners or athletes and may not understand the depth of which running means to me. I decided to go back to my first idea, family. I immediately got very excited to share this with my classmates. Family means more to me than any accomplishment or hobby and it is something most people can agree with. I realized that a story isn't just one defining moment, but my story is my whole life. Picking bits and pieces that represent different periods in my life, that help to tell my story and to share my beliefs. I also think I have a pretty amazing family and to share that with my peers and maybe inspire them to cherish their families, especially in this limited amount of time we have left with them. I've been working on this project all weekend, to make up for all the time I spent this week on my other topic. I've been watching a ton of family videos and I really think it's going to turn out good. Although I was initially dreading this project, I'm really excited about it now.
This week was basically devoted to working on our "This I Believe" projects. The whole week I had been listening to other examples and watching videos from past years, trying to get some direction on my own piece. I have written my essay for running and how I had to persevere through failure but I'm really not sure how I feel about it. My original plan was to do something about family but I wasn't sure what angle to come from or what story to use since there hasn't been a life altering moment where I realized how much I loved the or anything. They've always been important and have been consistently there for me so I just wasn't sure how to show how I came to that belief since I've always held it. I decided to go with my second option of running because I had a defining moment of failure when I became injured, there was a story to go along with it. I'm not sure about it right now but I still have another week of tweaking it so I'm not too worried This week we debated about online privacy and how much we were willing to sacrifice for more and how much we were sacrificing without it. It was really good practice for forming an opinion on a subject with limited sources. Based on the documents we read through we had to pick a side and decide if we wanted less of more government interference. Then we got into groups and debated the issue. I definitely think our team won but the information we received gave us a better basis for an argument. The whole issue with online tracking was really interesting since it applies to our everyday life and could potentially really affect us. I also found on my phone in the settings that there is an option to opt out of tracking which I thought was interesting considering the fact that the articles we read through made it appear like there was no sort of regulation in place. Overall, this project really helped me form an opinion quickly and stick with it. I learned how to create a better counterargument and was forced to pick a side instead of floating in the middle, agreeing with different parts of both sides. We also worked on beginning our "This I Believe" project which I am not excited about to be completely honest. Makes me a bit nervous to pick something and to share it with the whole class but I'm up for it. The first few days we worked on finishing up our group presentations and essays then presented our projects to the class at the end of the week. This week the biggest thing our group learned and had to do well was managing our time. Trying to decide which to focus on; essay or prezi, each day was important to making sure we were successful. We put our top priority on finishing our essay. We had a skeleton plan for our presentation but since we hadn't edited our essay we couldn't decide yet what information to put or to keep out of our presentation. Finishing the essay just meant rearranging and rewording. We all collectively talked about and wrote the intro and conclusion but for the body paragraphs we each took a slightly different idea and wrote our own paragraphs. We had to decide our to tie all of our ideas together and how to make the essay flow. Choosing what was important and added to our essay and what was pointless was fairly easy. At the point of revision we all knew where we were going with our essay, we had a little more direction and we had our big question. It was time consuming, I really took time to evaluate each paragraph and did a lot of rewording and adding/removing of sentences. We all had different timelines in our heads, so there was a little panicking by some of our group because things weren't moving as fast as planned. We talked it out and were able to adjust and learn to be a little more flexible. We met at coffee shops to work on things we didn't finish in class and really stayed focus so we could get it done and with quality. This week we began to watch Macbeth. It was definitely a struggle for me to keep because the language is so different than ours now. I really like Shakespeare, the plots and the stories are always really good it's just hard to follow along. Not many people talk very formal anymore and nobody talks in Old English. When you are so used to English being used one way it is hard to make that mind shift especially when you can't go at your own pace. However; I got the jist of the play and understood it for the most part. My group's notes varied from helpful to us just typing in all caps about how confused we are. It was a pretty dark and disturbing movie because he literally kills everyone so he can be king. How can being king even be enjoyable at that point? No one respects you, all your friends are fake because they are just trying to avoid being killed and you have to live with the guilt of killing your friends and innocent people. |
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March 2017
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