Final Project

During this project, I learned a lot about my family. I really focused on our race, because I think that it's a really interesting combination. One thing I learned about my family (in my Prezi, atleast) is that I get the same racial combination from both sides of my family, plus a little bit of Korean. I knew that I was part Scottish/Irish, English/Brittish, and a little Korean, but I didn't know that I got all but the Korean parts from both sides of my family. It's roughly the same percentage from both sides, too. I thought that was really cool! I also got to learn more about how both of my families came to America and that was really cool. Overall, I enjoyed doing this project!

Interview 1

Interview 2

Email Draft

Family Tree

November 24, 2014

What are you doing for Thanksgiving? Do you have any traditions? Go in to detail about your plans for the 5 day weekend.

This year we're doing things a little different. Since we moved here about three years ago, we've started figuring out what traditions we're going to start for Thanksgiving. We used to just have a nuclear family celebration, so just my siblings and parents, because we lived so far away from the rest of my family. Well now that we're a lot closer to my grandparents and cousins, we started alternating whose house we have Thanksgiving dinner at and what we do for Thanksgiving. This year, it's my grandparents from my mom's side's turn to host Thanksgiving, so we're going to Branson, MO, for a few days and we'll probably go to Silver Dollar City for a little bit. It'll be really crowded from all of the vacationers, but we'll go anyways. We go to Branson frequently, especially when it's warm because my grandparents live right on Table Rock Lake, but the only times we ever go to Silver Dollar City is in the winter when it's freezing cold outside for whatever reason. I'm excited to go back to SDC because if we didn't, we would probably go to another comedy show that they have on the strip, and we don't really think they're that funny. In fact, I don't even know why we keep going to these shows because we all pretty much hate them. So it'll be good to shake things up a little this year!

photocredz

November 19, 2014

Reflecting on the comments and grade of your stop-motion animation... what you would do differently if you had to do it all over again? Would you manage your time better? Find better lighting for your photos? Come up with a better idea? Explain what you would change about your video.

I would work on my camera angles and lighting. I noticed that my pictures were slanted at different degrees in almost every picture. If I could do it over again, I would pick a different way to angle my camera to ensure that the angle stays the same for every picture, so maybe on top of the locker pod or the tables or on the floor even. Attaching it to the back of a chair wasn't really a great idea, but it worked fine. I would also find out why the camera changed lighting in a couple of frames. That kind of irritated me, but I didn't notice it until I uploaded them and watched the whole stop motion. I think my idea was good enough and simple enough to play out, but if I could do it again (especially after seeing how cool some other peoples' stop motions turned out) I would probably do something simpler, like moving skittles out of the bag and arranging them in cool ways or some sort of food item dancing or something easier to work with and arrange than people.

photocredz

November 17, 2014

Tell me about your weekend.

This weekend was pretty uneventful. I just hung out with my sister all weekend which is pretty awesome because I never really see her. I went to my friend's birthday party on Friday night for a couple of hours and then I met up with my sister and watched Pitch Perfect. On Saturday, I slept in for the first time in forever which was probably the highlight of my weekend. I also went to church Saturday night with my family, went to the gym with my sister afterwards, then watched Pitch Perfect again. Then Sunday I did homework the whole day, went to youth group, then watched Pitch Perfect again. As you can tell, I really love that movie because it's freaking hilarious. 

photocredz

November 14, 2014

Tell me about your experience with taking your stop-motion photos. What problems did you run in to? What did you find difficult about the process? What would you go back and change about HOW you took the photos? Explain yourself.

Well the main problem I ran into was figuring out a good story line. We just kind of went with whatever, and it turned out pretty funny. I had trouble getting the camera angle to stay the same. I set up the tripod on the back of a chair, but it seemed to tilt every so often so it was kind of crooked with different angles the whole time. If I could change anything, it would be getting my camera to stay the same straight angle through the whole story.

photocredz

November 11, 2014

What is your idea? How is your idea innovative and creative? How are you going to execute your idea?

I'm not sure what exactly I'm going to do my stop motion animation on, but I plan to make one on some sort of inanimate object moving or doing something that it doesn't usually do, like a pair of shoes wandering the halls or some sort of food piling itself in a bowl. I plan to take my pictures either in class today if I get it down to one idea, or at home with my dad's tripod that I think he still has. I will probably finish it today if I get down to one idea.

November 10th, 2014

What is stop motion animation? If you don't know, look it up! Explain.

Stop motion is when you take a bunch of pictures with little changes in position in between each picture. When the pictures are played together really fast, it looks like a movie with fluid movements, just like a video would look. Even though there are several frames, it looks like it's all one moving picture. It usually consists of several frames played quickly with minor changes between each frame. This was how movies were made back in the day. This is usually common with things like clay models or legos.

photocredz

5 Frame Storyboard

November 5, 2014

Tell me about your idea for your 5 frame story board. What is the plot? How do you plan to make the story creative? Who's the main character? What is the beginning, middle and end? Tell me about your plan of attack.

Well I plan to take pictures of a story of someone eating something. The basic story line is someone giving someone food and them enjoying it together. Emma and Maddie will be my lovely actresses for this storyboard. The beginning is Maddie giving Emma a blow pop, which she wants so bad. The middle will be Emma drooling over her lollipop, and the end will be of both of them enjoying their candy together. The moral of this story is sharing is caring! Just kidding, there really isn't a moral to it.

photocredz

November 4, 2014

Yesterday you edited and uploaded photos to your blog. Tell me more about your photos. HOW did you edit them? Why did you choose the photos that you did? Explain your assignment.

My photos were pretty dull at first, and they were crooked. I fixed them by tilting and cropping, enhancing the sharpness on some of them and adjusting the brightness of them generally. Some of them I thought would look cool in black and white, so that's mainly what I did for those along with fixing the glare or spots where you could see the flash. I chose the photos that I enjoyed the most. I enjoyed them either because I thought they were cool or I knew that I could make them look nice with photoshop. I really enjoyed going out on the scavenger hunt, coming up with cool ideas of things to take pictures of.

Photoshop

November 3, 2014

This weekend was pretty busy and it went by WAY too fast. On Friday, I went to help out at my church's childrens' event called KiDFest and I worked the main entrance outside passing out flyers with one of my friends. It was really cold and we actually ended up working a double shift (so a total of two hours) and we pretty much froze to death. After that, we went to the Olathe North v. Olathe Northwest football game to freeze even longer with some more friends, but it was still fun. We had a bonfire and sleepover after that. Then on Saturday I went to Lawrence to have lunch with my grandpa for a few hours, then I went to church Saturday night and had a leadership meeting with the rest of the youth group leaders (aka my best friends) until about 10:30 when we left to go to the hospital to visit my friend (one of the other leaders) who had some sort of kidney infection that was discovered that night. Finally, on Sunday morning, I babysat all day long and went to youth group on Sunday night. It was a pretty good weekend! I didn't get much work done, but it's okay because it was still a great weekend!

October 29, 2014

What do you know about photography and/or photo editing? Do you take photos? How do you take photos? Do you edit photos before posting them on social media? How do you edit them? Explain any background or knowledge you have about photography and photo editing. Do you like it? Do you have any interest?

I actually have a really nice Nikon DSL camera that my Grandpa has had for a really long time. He finally got a new one and gave me his old one for an early graduation present. I am currently trying to figure out how to do everything, because I really enjoy taking pictures. I like playing with focus and blurring, but I'm no expert. Honestly I kinda suck, but I still think it's fun! For instagram, I usually don't add filters or anything, but I do square them like every other basic instagrammer to get the white borders around my pictures, and also to make it square enough to actually be able to post. I wish I had more time to do photography so I could call it a hobby of mine, but I've honestly taken pictures with that camera maybe only a dozen times. I really enjoy it, but like I said- I'm not very good at it!

photocredz

Global Issue Prezi

October 20, 2014

Tell me about your weekend. Share pics!

This weekend was really busy. I spent all day Sunday doing homework and going to church, Saturday I took my senior pictures and babysat right after until 1 am, and then Friday I went to see the rep show that my friends were in. It was a pretty good show! I thought it was really funny. After the show, my friends and I went to sonic and then target to get some face masks and cucumbers to have a "spa night," aka me just throwing cucumbers in everyone's faces. I really hate cucumbers so of course they threw them back at me. I was only there for a couple hours, but I had a lot of fun. After church on Sunday night, I also went to Petland with some friends to play with the bunnies. As you probably noticed, it was my first social outing pretty much since homecoming. I haven't had any free time to hang out with my friends because of homework and babysitting. I enjoyed my hectic weekend, but I wish it would've been longer like Olathe's. Olathe school district had a half day after the PSAT/P-ACT, no school Thursday through today. We do have this Friday off, though, which great.

October 14, 2014

Below is a letter written to the editor who wrote the article 'Enforcement of dress code creates negative effect' that your blogged about last week. Most of you wrote on your blog that you agreed with the writer. What are your thoughts after reading the letter below and seeing a different perspective. Are they the same? Are the different? Do you agree? Disagree? Explain yourself.

I think looking at a different perspective really brings a better understanding about the whole situation. I like how this response clearly emphasizes that there's a time and place for certain attire. I do agree that the certain clothing the author desires to wear at school isn't just being outlawed for negative attention-drawing purposes. It is to teach us how to be (semi)professional. I believe the dress code is trying to teach us as young adults (and even young men) to have common sense in our wardrobe. If we try to get a somewhat professional job, or any job at all, and we are dressed in ways that break Blue Valley's dress code, there's a problem. I'd rather learn proper dress code here at school by an unknown teacher asking me to cover up than by not getting a job after an interview in which I wore clothing deemed as inappropriate for the real, professional world. Besides, BV's dress code isn't one that is hard to follow. It should be common sense that what's inappropriate is labeled as inappropriate. There is a lack of common sense now that the administrators and school staff feel as if it is necessary to lay out these guidelines, which I do agree with. I still feel as though the reasons they give for the dress code enforcement at BV doesn't provide ample reasoning to the students as to why they can or cannot wear.

photocredz

October 13, 2014

photocredits?

I don't think our classes today are actually preparing us for college, let alone life after college. It is important to learn about history and government, computers and such, but even math at times can be questionable. When in my future career as a social worker will I have to graph a parabola with a vertical stretch of 2 and a 3 unit shift to the right? These classes I'm in now seem to be pointless. I know I'll need it in college, but after college I won't (hallelujah for that.) This is just one example of how these high school courses aren't preparing us for the real world. Classes that would prepare us for life would be more focused on maybe how to file your taxes, how mortgages work, how many diapers you should buy on a weekly basis when you give birth to triplets, etc. These are some pretty weak examples of things we'll have to know in the real world, but will only figure out when the time comes. The courses in college will hopefully aim more specifically towards career paths. I hope to take courses regarding psychology, human development, how to handle emergencies and crisis, how to help during a grieving period, etc. In class, we would study specific scenarios that would help us handle other situations that are similar. 

Infographic

easel.ly

October 7, 2014

The following article was in the September issue of The Tiger Print. Read the article (even if you already have) and respond to it below. What do you think? Do you agree? Disagree? Consider all perspectives of the article while you respond.

This is a very interesting article. I agree with most of it, but definitely not all of it. Girls shouldn't have to be told what they can and can't wear. They should have good enough judgement to know that if their "bits and pieces" are showing, that they obviously need to wear something else. It's all about judgement calls. She's right in saying that teachers shouldn't make such snappy comments at the students, and we shouldn't have to worry about what an administrator is gonna say when walking past us workin our high-waisted shorts. This wouldn't be a problem if girls would realize how much of their body they are showing off. Administrators want to pull their hair out when they see young women wearing something that is so obviously screaming for a boys attention because, let's face it, most of the girls who break the dress code rules are doing exactly that. Girls should have good enough judgement not to have to be told what they can and can't wear. Due to the fact that our society is decreasing in good judgement and our latest fashion trends promote this, girls do sometimes need boundaries to their school attire. The thumb rule is a bit unnecessary and is a tad flexible. If your arms are long, sure the rule is unfair. In cases like these this rule can be flexible. If your shorts are barely covering your cheeks, then yes. Buy longer shorts. They're just trying as hard as they can to teach us young women to dress like we have some reserve and respect for our bodies. So if you don't think you dress inappropriately for school, then your find. Most girls should know if how they're dressing is appropriate for school. If you have to question if a teacher will comment on your lack of clothing, simply don't wear it to school if you don't want to hear it. Boys do need to learn how to control themselves in the real world, so these rules aren't teaching them that they need self-control too. There won't be an "evil ELA teacher" to walk you by the hand and cover your eyes when you see a girl walking around college campus wearing a spaghetti strapped shirt. In the real world, girls won't be told if boys will be "distracted" by their outfit and that they need to change. It certainly isn't fair that whats trending for the ladies isn't allowed at school, while the boys barely have any regulations what-so-ever. This issue calls for better judgement on both parties, not just the girls or the administrators. 

photocredz

October 6, 2014

Tell me about your weekend! If you don't have anything fun to share, tell me about the city you live in. What do you love about Kansas City? Do you have a favorite place in the city? Favorite team? :) Favorite event? Explain.

This weekend I spent so much time doing homework. I have barely any time to be social because I have so much homework. This year so far I've had more homework than I have over the past three years of high school. So my whole weekend was filled with lots of studying and lots of homework. My parents actually bought Royals tickets for last nights game, but they only bought two because they didn't want me to be "distracted from my studies." They love me so much. In that little social time I had, I went to church and youth group, but I also played with my dog. She's a great dane so they don't have winter coats at all so this cold weather is really freaking her out so when I was doing homework late Saturday night, she came and hopped up on my lap. That was basically the only exciting thing that happened to me this weekend. I know, it's sad. Very, very sad.

September 30, 2014

What is an infographic? If you don't know, go look it up. Read about it and then in your own words tell me what an infographic is. What do infographics do? How do they work? What makes a really good infographic?

An infographic is a form of visual aid that portrays (visually) important information regarding a specific topic. For those visual learners out there, infographics help to organize the information in a way that is usually easy to understand. They're usually formatted like graphs, charts, or some other type of animated or creative design. Good infographics usually include lots of colors and eye-catching images.

photocredz

September 29, 2014

Tell me about your Homecoming weekend! If you didn't participate in the Homecoming festivities, what did you do? Share pics!

This weekend I went to Olathe East's homecoming with a group of my friends from youth group. There were about ten of us girls who went together and a couple of us stayed up pretty late that night at my friends house and went to church together the next morning. We danced the whole time so of course my feet are incredibly sore. We took our pictures before outside and it was pretty hot and humid where we were so by the time we finished, we were already super sweaty and gross but at least we got our pictures! I think it's safe to say that I'm pretty exhausted.

September 24, 2014

Imagine Mr. Bacon has asked you to suggest one way of improving Blue Valley High School to make it a better place for students. Think about the changes that are needed at your school. Pick one change you feel would really make a difference and explain what it is and why you'd make the change.

I would extend the passing period time. I don't think 6 minutes is enough time to rush to your locker after every class. According to a study that Mr. Mowry showed our class, your brain requires certain stimuli to maintain learning throughout the day. Having every seven teachers teach something to you for an hour and having to absorb so much information can be tiring for our brains. Our brains require physical stimuli (walking around in the halls) and a break from all the learning, which would be us socializing for just a few minutes or talking to someone about something rather than what we learned about in the previous class. I would make this change because longer passing periods would increase our attention in class as well as give us enough time to actually walk all the way to our lockers and all the way back to our next class.

photocredz

September 23, 2014

What are your favorite apps on your phone or tablet? Why?

My favorite apps on my phone are definitely Spotify and Netflix. I listen to music all the time so Spotify is like my best friend, and I love not doing my homework and watching Netflix so it all works out... but really, I love watching movies and TV shows from start to end, so the Netflix app is a convenient way to do this because no matter where I am, I can pull up a movie or show straight from my phone! Then of course my next favorites are all my social media apps like Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, GroupMe, Facebook, and so on. I absolutely love these apps, but they all consume so much time, so whenever I actually do have free time, these are all my go-to apps on my phone!

photocredz

September 22, 2014

What is email? When do you use email in your own personal life? List reasons and ways that people use email. What do you know about "email etiquette"?

Email is basically a more formal way to text. I personally don't use email on a daily basis, but it does come in handy in some cases, such as contacting a teacher, an employer, a college or university, etc. People use email either to formally discuss something, or to advertise something. Email subscriptions to stores I like are life savers. I love getting notices about upcoming sales and such, but other than that, I rarely even check my email. I also hate junkmail and spam mail. They're probably the most irritating things ever. Email etiquette is the way an email should be formatted or worded. It is kind of the "norm" for how you email. One usually doesn't say "Hey what's up? yeah I'm just hangin out n stuff," in an email. Email Etiquette usually involves a greeting in the beginning such as "dear" or a "hello," and usually ends with a "thank you," or "sincerely." Emails should not include any grammatical errors and should always be appropriate and proper. These are just a few components of Email Etiquette.

photocredz

September 19, 2014

Now that you've been in Emerging Technology for several weeks... what do you think? Do you think the web tools (Drive, Evernote, Bubbl, etc.) are helpful to you? Do you think they will be helpful throughout high school or even college? Explain.

So far, so good! I never used to use all those Google features (Google Docs, Slides, Drive, etc.), but now that I actually know how to use them, I use them all the time. Evernote is also extremely useful. Instead of having to print off articles one by one, I have them all online so I can have as many as I want. This will definitely be helpful later on if ever I need to write a research paper or have to do a research project. These tools will be VERY helpful, especially in college when organization can tend to get a bit chaotic... I look forward to having all of these useful tools in college to make my life easier!

photocredz

September 17, 2014

Do you enjoy writing? When do you enjoy it? What kind of writing do you enjoy? Why do you think the ability to write is so important no matter what kind of writing it is? Give an example that you enjoyed writing or hated writing. Why?

I do NOT enjoy writing. I think that if writing wasn't a part of school or if I had discovered it before writing papers was introduced to me, I probably would have enjoyed it. I used to read a lot when I was younger and all throughout middle school, so that is why I don't always complain about reading because I love it. If writing had been like this, I probably wouldn't complain so much about having to write in English class. I don't enjoy writing as much as I could because AP English has pretty much ruined it for me! Although my writing skills seem to be improving, my desires to write are not. The one day in particular that I hated writing was the day of the AP exam last year for English. I had to write three solid essays in two hours. It was a rough day. I despised writing on that day in particular. However, there are some occasions that I do enjoy writing. I enjoy journaling or writing creative essays from time to time, but I would not consider myself a Writer. 

photocredz

September 16, 2014

Reflect on this quote. Give an example of a time in your life that this might have been the case.

photocredz?

To me this quote means that you always need to be prepared. If you don't prepare for a test by doing your homework or if you don't practice all the plays for a football game, you simply won't be ready or prepared. One time in forensics (competitive speech) I waited until the week of my in class performance to start memorizing my speech. When giving a performance, you can't have any notes or anyone to prompt you if you forget your lines. Mr. Riffer wants to see that you are prepared and what you would do in front of a judge. Well I was unprepared. The night before I felt semi confident that I was well memorized, so I went to class the next day and found out the hard way that I failed to prepare, therefor I was prepared to fail. Because I did not prepare properly, I was halfway through my speech (and I was rocking it so far) I drew blank. I could barely even remember what my speech was about! It was one of the most embarrassing failures I have ever endured. That taught me that this quote really is true. If you aren't prepared, you won't succeed. Simple as that.

September 15, 2014

What did you do this weekend? Share pictures if you have them!

This weekend was very stressful for me. I had a ton of assignments that are due this week that I've procrastinated on for so long, plus the ACT, and to top it all off I babysat from after school Friday until late last night. This wasn't an ordinary babysitting job. Consider babysitting a 3 year old with major ADHD, two very rebellious middle schoolers, six little dogs, and four chickens. It was quite the weekend. The ACT went surprisingly better than last time (even though my stress level was about maxed out) so I think I improved my previous score by a few points. I also went to church last night and we prayed for a girl who the day before had fractured her wrist in gymnastics and had an appointment to get a more permanent cast on Wednesday. The doctors said it would take six weeks minimum to heal, but we prayed for her last night for about five minutes and she was doing cartwheels all around the church. Seeing God's miracles was a great way to end a very stressful weekend! 

photocredz

September 12, 2014

What is the importance of research? Why do you need to know how to research? What have you learned in high school about researching topics and finding quality resources? Have you had a helpful teacher that has taught you to research? Explain.

Research is very important because, in order to find accurate information on any situation, one has to research. It's not good to walk around your whole life being ignorant to history or current events or whatever it might be. Throughout high school, it has been strongly enforced on us not to use Wikipedia. There are many rumors about inaccuracy on that site, so I avoid it because of those rumors, not necessarily because it is inaccurate. It's one thing to walk around full of ignorance, but it's another to walk around full of false information. It is very crucial in the "real world" to be well informed, and research plays a big part in this. 

photocredz

Global Issue Selection

For my Global Issue Project in Emerging Technology, I have chose Animal Cruelty. I have begun researching the issue and you can find my research questions here.

photocredz

September 10, 2014

Today, kids don't do anything. When I was a kid, I didn't have an iPhone. I had a job and money and a car. I didn't need a boyfriend in middle school. I only dated when I was out of highschool! I honestly think that's the best way to keep these middle school girls from getting pregnant: don't have a boyfriend that young! Anyways, I didn't sit around with my eyes glued to the TV screen or on my cell phone. I was out and about, hanging out with REAL people who you could see right in front of you. We didn't text, we had actual conversations every few days. If a guy wanted to ask out a girl in high school, he wouldn't just text her "hey bae, lets get something to eat some time." He would have to ask you to your face with actual words in person, or over the phone. Kids these days are just too lazy to do any of this stuff because they have all this technology sucking their brains out of them. It's a shame.

photocredz

September 9, 2014

Tell me about the global issue you selected. What do you already know about the issue? What are you looking forward to learning about it? Explain.

Well I chose Animal Cruelty because I love animals and I felt like this would be a good topic to establish a well informed opinion on for myself. The only background knowledge I really have is that some people believe animals have rights, just as humans do. Some stores are even starting to advertise that they do not test their products on animals so I would like to learn if and how this affects their sales. I also know that there are some puppy shelters that advertise that they are no-kill/kill shelters. I'm really looking forward to be more aware of the problems that animal cruelty cause.

photocredz

September 8, 2014

What did you do this weekend? Share pictures if you have them!

Friday night I went to the Varsity Football game at SMN with some friends, and then we went to iHop for two hours afterwards, which was pretty fun. On Saturday I accidentally slept in until 1, so I felt like it was a good excuse to be unproductive the whole day. I went to church Saturday night, and afterwards I stayed up pretty late doing homework. Sunday night was our youth group's first Sunday night service and it's always a good time with them soo it was a pretty good weekend. :)

Here's a picture of my friend who came to the football game with me, even though she doesn't go to either school.. She's pretty fun.

September 5, 2014

photocredz

Watching Netflix: A

Procrastination: A

Texting: A

Taking More Ugly Pictures Than Attractive Ones: A+

Loving Animals: A

Underwater Basket Weaving: F

Waking Up On Time: F

photocredz

PSA

September 3, 2014

Yesterday I asked you to "think differently" and push yourself to be uncommon with your PSA project using Google Slides. Why do you think I asked you to do that? What is the point? Why not just use bullets and headers? Explain.

You probably wanted us to learn how to be creative with this program. If we ever need to use this format of presentation in our college or work career, we won't want to just fill every slide with bullets and titles. The audience we are presenting to would be bored out of their minds if this is all we had on there. For example, if we are throwing a pitch, we want the presentation to stand out from every average slide show that our audience has seen before. We really have to BE CREATIVE if we want it to be successful. We have been taught very well throughout highschool to just throw some facts onto a slide and call it a day. We should be able to do so much more than this, especially since the use of technology like this is becoming more and more widespread.

photocredz

September 2, 2014

Tell me all about your Labor Day weekend. What did you do? Include photos!

This weekend, I, despite my excessive amount of homework, went to Table Rock Lake in Branson, MO, with my parents to visit my grandparents. We go down to the lake every few months, but since it is starting to get colder and colder, that was probably the last weekend we would get to see my grandparents. It's about a three and a half hour drive, which isn't all that bad.. The only thing that makes it worse is when you have a sixty-pound, five-month-old Great Dane "puppy" wanting to jump in your lap every fifteen minutes or so. The whole weekend I was there, I was doing homework. I had many many assignments to complete for today and the rest of the week that I barely had time to relax. On the bright side, I was extremely productive! I actually got more assignments done this weekend than I would on any regular weekend. It feels nice to be productive every once and a while.

photocredz