Every year my school does something called 'Tech Lends a Hand' where the entire school is split up and sent to different places where we would do volunteer work , such as cleaning cat cages, working at the library, and raking leaves at the Senior Center which is where I went. As I mentioned one of things we did to help the Center was raking, as well as weeding, pruning, and talking with the seniors. While visiting the Center in the morning, me as well as the rest of the freshman gardened for three hours. In those three hours I learned how to work better in a team that is outside of a class room. We traded off jobs, helped on another out, and even finished our smaller tasks, so we could help one of our classmates out with a job they had been given that happened to be very time consuming, and a bit boring.
Overall I had a great time and can't wait for next years Tech Lands a Hand.
0 Comments
In my class Creative studies we had to study Romeo and Juliet, and after doing that we got to pick our groups and what we did as long as it revolved around Shakespear's play. In our version of the play there are two high schools Montague and Capulet high and their rival football teams, in Verona school district. We filmed it in the style of the Office and Parks and Rec, because we took a modern comedic take on Romeo and Juliet , and just like in these shows, Shakespear's characters often break the fourth wall by turning and talking to the audience. To still keep ties with the original work we have one character who speaks entirely in Elizabethan, and characters insult each other using insults from that time. There a couple of characters and scenes left out, but generally we did the entire play, so please enjoy! (Also make sure to subscribe to Anika Fair, she was the one who filmed and edited this video!) This semester in my BioFitness class we had has make a ‘wellness plan,' where we had to pick three aspects of wellness to focus on and make a plan on how we were going to carry out with them, hence the name ‘wellness plan’. Among other things I chose ‘stress management’, and the reason I’m choosing to talk about this one, is because stress management is the main one that I wanted to focus on this year. I’ve always been an easily stressed person, but coming to high school has only made it worse. I actually read an article on Health Harvard that says when too much stress is provoked it can lead to health problems, such as a low immune system, increasing susceptibility to illnesses, but also high blood pressure - a major risk factor for heart disease. To make sure I never reach a point where my stress is causing me major health problems I have developed my own coping methods. Almost always the root of my stress is caused when I feel that I have too much to handle, so when I start to feel overwhelmed I run through my head and try to find the root of my stress and from there I separate whats out of my control and what is in my control and I what I am capable of doing. From there I prioritize what needs to get done. I know that in the school years to come they will get harder, and that my stress will never actually go away or “disappear”, however knowing this basic coping method, and trying new ones every week (like exercising, diaphragmatic breathing) will help me tackle my stress and know how to handle a stressful situation when it arises. In fact websites like Health Harvard have articles saying that a little stress is good, it can give me the motivation I need to finish a project or this article for example on time, and invokes the fight or flight response, however I don’t want it to get to the point where stress is having a serious effect on my health. Here is a poster I made in my BioFit class that, about an easy FREE way of coping with stress, for more information please visit the website at the bottom. Throughout my freshman year at New Technology High School I think that some things have stayed the same, but I feel that in many departments I’ve grown. Like for example I think I have gotten better at critical thinking. English is a strong suit of mine, but reading a sentence or paragraph and trying to decipher the symbolism the author put behind it had always been a difficulty of mine. It’s something minor I’ve grown in yes, but through this year in class having to read the Odyssey and perform a play about the lesson/ values it teaches really helped understand how to find the symbolism the author wrote.
Recently my BioFitness class did a project on invasive species, and my team chose English Ivy, something that is very common and we see everyday, but is very deadly and a threat to our ecosystems. For more information on English Ivy, and how it is a threat, what to do about it, and overall what my team learned, please visit our website!
http://englishivy-informative.weebly.com/ Recently for my Computer Science we were given a mini project with CsUnplugged where the gave my team and I a topic -ours was error detection- and we had to teach our class about it. So what is error detection? Well to give a brief summary it starts with one computer transmitting data in a sequences of 1's, and 0's known as bits ,and as we know sometimes when the data is being transmitted it does not go as planned, and the data is changed. To recognize that the data has been changed is error detection. How it does this is a single row, known as parity bits is added to those 1's and 0's (bits). A single parity added to the row of bits allows the computer to detect where and when an error has occurred, if a bit has been changed and if there are an even amount of 0's.
Our team showed this through a comedic video- we thought if we used comedy it would be a way to engage people- and in the video we did a card game that represented bits, where we laid the cards out in a 6 by 6 grid. One side of the card was white, representing 1, and the red side represented 0. We had one person turn away, so they wouldn't see someone flipping the card, and when the turn back they had to figure out which card had been flipped. They would figure this out just like a computer would, by looking at the 6 by 6 grid and detecting which column had an uneven amount of 0's in it. Once they figured it out they would flip the card back just like how a computer would change a bit back. I think the most important thing I learned from this project is that you don't need a computer to learn and/or teach about computers. Here is my video if you would like to check it out! https://drive.google.com/a/nvusd.org/file/d/0BwBd7w4lRj2EbHF6TjlHeFdFblU/view?usp=sharing For my creative studies class we recently watched the Cohen Brothers movie, O' Brother Where Art Thou. I had actually been wanting to watch this movie for awhile, so I was excited when they said we would watching it during class, and though it was different then I imagined it to be, I still enjoyed the movie.I appreciated the way the movie looked, that acting, the soundtrack and overall movie was enjoyable for me. While watching it I saw parallels between the movie, and the Odyssey being that the movie is based of Homer's Odyssey which is the reason why our class watched it in the first place, since we have been studying the Odyssey .For starters they both, despite the the hundreds years difference in which were written, follow a hero's journey "formula". An example would be both start with a call to adventure, the three jailers running away, Odysseus beginning his way back home, both have a "supernatural aid", and both of our main characters face many trials. But the similarities get more specific than that, because as Iv'e learned over the course of this project many many shows, books, and movies follow the hero's journey.
Lets begin with our main character, Everette. From the beginning of the movie I was able to see the resemblance between him and Odysseus. Both men were resourceful, quick thinking, and a bit too prideful at times, but along their journey both were able to redeem themselves by acknowledging their flaws. Everette also faced many trials similar to Odysseus as I mentioned earlier. The women Everette and his fellow jail mates find bathing in the river could be seen as the sirens, who try to lure and distract them. The man with the patch over his eye could be seen as the cyclops, and Everette and Odysseus each encounter an ironic blind prophet. Lastly Everette and Odysseus have one main goal and that is to return home to their wife and children and take back what is theirs. Overall I feel that the movie was very good and I could defiantly tell the similarities between Homer's Odyssey and O'Brother Where Art Thou. Admittedly I wasn't a fan of the Hess collection, I was glad to go and it was interesting to see the museum just didn't strike me as something that stood out. I preferred when our creative studies class went to the Di Rosa at the beginning of the year, there was so much art to see, all of different styles while the Hess, like I said I was grateful to attend and I appreciate the artists work, it seemed like just another art museum Now that being said I know the world is not centered around me (sadly) and so I know we didn’t go on the field trip just so I would be entertained. We visited Hess because we are in our final phase of a project we have worked on since January, that focuses on the Hero's Journey more specifically the story of the Odyssey and Odysseus's own hero's journey within that. Our final last piece to end this project is to with our creative studies group create an interactive art piece, and the Hess just so happens to mainly have interactive art pieces. So because of this we also were told to look at the art and find what part of the heroes journey do we think it represenst, because not only does the art have to be interactive it has to represent the heroes journey in some way. So for example, this piece : I saw to me looked like " crossing the threshold " though millions of people could have different opinions I could still argue that to me it looks like "crossing the threshold."
Them being upside down could represent the person in the painting entering a new phase or world different from their own and their look of surprise could be them still getting use to this ‘new world’ they have now entered Anyways anyone could comprehend it their own way, but that's what can be so great about ar,t one single art piece could have all entirely different meanings to different people. Although the Hess wasn’t my favorite I enjoyed being able to go and appreciated the work and dedication the artists put into creating their art-pieces. If I had been sent home after being told I had less than an hour to pack my things, I would try an only pack what I deem essential. There is the obvious of packing clothes for extra warmth and food to eat, but I would want to take something to remember my loved ones. This could be a photo, a small item someone gave me, T-shirt, anything, just something to remember the people I care for when I'm just about to be sent to a place where I could possibly be separated from them or not see them for awhile. Before I would leave I would try and contact as many people that I love and care for before I was sent away .
I know during this process I would be in a state of shock and be crying and upset but also I would be wondering hoe someone could just send me away from a place I have known all my life, and a place where everyone I care for is. I’m going to be honest, I don’t get enough physical movement as I should, and at first I was going to do walking, since one, I walk a lot, and two live in a area of town where it’s very easy for me to walk to many places, such as downtown.
But I decided to do hiking since it’s something I do often enough with family or friends, it’s something I like and I enjoy being outside. Since I was young we have gone hiking around the Bay Area, such as places like Mt Tam, but there has been times where I have been backpacking up east in California by Cache Creek. Hiking is not only a great workout for me personally, but also when I’m hiking my head is clearer, and I forget my stresses. True when hiking depending on where I am, I can still hear the sound of cars, but it’s still nice and refreshing be surrounded by nature, and away from the city. I also feel a sense of accomplishment after finishing my hike since most of the time, the result is a breathtaking view of a river or mountain, etc. It really all depends on where your hiking. This is my first post for our new BioFitness semester, hiking is definitely something I see myself doing in the future, in fact I’m going hiking next weekend. Thank you for reading. |
AuthorHey guys! I don't know how many of you are reading this since this isn't a tinder bio, but I'm Isabel and the main purpose of this blog is for school. Its a portfolio I'm going to use to document my four years of high school-maybe even after! Archives
June 2017
Categories
All
|