Overcoming the Mural

For our final action project in the course If These Walls Could Talk we had to bring to life the image in our groups’ swatches, and turn them into a mural inside of our school’s new building. For our entire last unit we focused on making plans to enlarge our mural and make those plans happen. We looked at all of the different options and tested out our different ideas to see what would be best for the area we were given to work in. Our options became more limited when it ended up that we couldn’t work in the actual space until 3 days before our project was due, so we are still in the process of finishing our mural, but we expect a great looking outcome, and for everything to be finished this week.

This mural is a tribute mural to GCE as well as a revolt mural showing GCE’s mission to reinvent education. It depicts a golden boat with 3 people inside going towards a huge wave. The boat is made out of a banner and has the words “Overcoming the Wave” written in it. There were a lot of steps going into making our mural into large-scale. We first made a sketch on a regular piece of paper, then we projected it and traced it on paper, piece by piece, for a total size of 112 x 352 inches, then we mixed paints to get the colors we wanted and painted the pieces of paper, as well as spray painting part of it. We currently still have to wheatpaste the papers onto panels in the new building, as well as add acrylic media as a final touch. For the paint we used mostly blue hues, with a touch of green. We kept a similar color for a lot of the mural and only changed the value and intensity. We also made our boat a shimmery gold to stand out and show victory. Our mural gives a strong and powerful representation of GCE, which is perfect for our space because it is in the entrance, so it is the first thing people will see when they walk in.

Working on the mural was a challenging but very fun experience, there were many bumps along the way and things to work through, but I was really glad to get to work on this amazing project because I think in the end it will end up looking great. There were four different roles during our process-- Artistic Director, Director of Operations, Mule, and Documenter. I had each role at least once, as did the rest of my group members, but in general I was someone who often organized things and kept people on track with what they were supposed to be doing. Throughout the whole process I was also always a part of the cutting, sketching, painting, and pasting. My favorite role was director of operations because I was managing what people were doing and making sure everything was going smoothly which is something I’m good at, because I’m someone who is good at organizing things and managing people to make sure they’re doing what they are supposed to. My least favorite role was being the mule because I don’t like doing the dirty work of running around and fetching stuff, I felt it was an ineffective use of my time because it would be more useful of me to help more with organizing and planning.

We hope that in the end our mural ended up looking as amazing as we planned. I would have preferred to get to work on the space directly instead of having to paint of paper and then wheatpaste. There are four panels in the space and working directly on the walls would have probably looked neater and we would have seen exactly how what we were doing would look, instead of having to wait and hope for the best. On paper you get a thinner paint look, and when you wheatpaste you can tell that the art was done on paper and not directly on the surface. Both options can look really great, just different.

Literary Portfolio

For the elective term of my senior year, I decided to take the class Book Bound, which is a course that explores the relationship between the reader and the materials used to read in this day and age. Many people these days read online or not at all, and we looked into how this affects our society. My class was assigned to read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a very well known book that is in the literary canon. I personally am not a fan of the book, simply because I strongly dislike many of the characters, and I am someone who prefers to read a book where I like and make a connection with the characters. I didn’t believe this was a book that belonged in the canon, but I understood why it was there. We also talked about libraries, because we were supposed to design our school’s new library. I pictured it with bean bags, work spaces, and hundreds of books. Unfortunately, we are no longer getting to be a part of the construction process as much as we had planned, but our suggestions are still being considered. I enjoyed the field experiences we went on because I got to experience all different types of libraries; there was a huge variety and they all strongly differed, which surprised me. For our action project, we put together a portfolio of our best work that we did throughout this course. I liked the fact that we are showcasing a digital portfolio, because it shows all of our work throughout the term, as opposed to just one assignment that might not be the best reflection of how hard we worked. I included my favorite project in my portfolio, which was the My Choice for the Canon Slideshow.

Storyboard

For this assignment, we were told to create a storyboard that tells a story about us reading, and more specifically, learning to read--it had to include at least 5 frames and captions. This related to our course because it had to do with reading, and it helped us make connections between us as individuals, and the act of reading. I selected this assignment to showcase because not only did I think I did it well but also due to how much fun I had with it. I think this was one of the assignments I enjoyed the most. When I began my project I struggled with what exactly to show in my story. In the end I decided to show my reading progression over time, from when I was a baby until now. I later also made revisions to perfect the images and add captions to help explain the story shown. I really love how it turned out in the end.

Made with Storyboard That 

  

Literary Journal 

For this assignment, we were put together in a group and told to create our own literary journal. This included pieces of writing from all group members, as well as images, and some external submissions. This related to our course because it has to do with all different types of literature and shows the huge variety. I selected this assignment because it shows not only the work I have done, but also my peers’, which I think is just as important as my own. When going about this project we began by splitting up the different tasks among members and making a time frame for deadlines. There were some challenges along the way - as there often are with groups - about miscommunication and timing, but in the end we got everything we needed and published our journal. I was really proud of my entire group for getting to that point. To get it ready for our blog there were some final touches I needed to make, and some page setup changes, and afterwards it looked as great as we had planned.

Literature Poster 

For this assignment, we had to make a poster based upon a guiding question we created about literacy and reading. We then had to research the answer to the question using valid sources. This poster is to help promote reading and literacy, especially in the new library space, which is what our entire course was about. I thought this was a very important thing to add to my blog because it brings up the issue of illiteracy which is shockingly still a big problem in our world right now, and because I gave a lot of facts and data that I think people should know. I want to encourage reading to everyone as much as possible and I think this assignment helps to do that. I decided to make my poster on a design site called canva.com. At times it was difficult to size everything and make it look the way I wanted, but I overcame that and made it as perfect as I could. I’m proud of the final product because it all looks really neat and eye-catching in my opinion.

AG Literature Poster 2016

Slideshow

For this assignment, we had to chose a book that we believe belongs in the literary canon, explain why, and present/defend the book as best as possible. This project was about the canon which is an important concept in literature. The reason I chose to publish this assignment to my blog is because of how enthusiastic I was about both this project and the book I chose. I want to get the word out even more about this series because it really is amazing, in my opinion. I chose the book series The Night World by L.J. Smith and made a slideshow about it, including all of the components that were required to teach others about the book. I struggled very much to find a good video to add to my slideshow because there were very few that related to the series and the audio books don’t portray the books very well. To get my slideshow ready for the blog, I just perfected it as much as possible by fixing any typos and grammar mistakes. I’m really proud of this project because I’m helping to spread the world about a book I love very much. The audience seemed to really like the series and asked a lot of questions about the plot and characters, many of them agreed that it should be included in the canon.

Overcoming The Wave Of Mediums

For the second unit of If These Walls Could Talk, we studied different types of media used from the 1920s to the present, such as wheatpasting, block-printing, acrylic media, and many more. This was something I really enjoyed because I got to work with a lot of different types of art media and technique that I never have before. We looked at different murals that used these mediums such as work done by Banksy who is known for spray paint murals, or JR who uses different media in each of the countries he visits. For our action project, we were assigned to work in a group to create one image, and then each member of the group chose a media to work with. Afterwards we had to each chose two sections of the finalized sketch, to create material swatches using each of our chosen material. At some points, my medium was difficult to use because it’s pieces are bulky and they were difficult to get in the small spots that had more details, but I managed to overcome that struggle to create a really cool image. I’m really excited for the next unit, to see the bigger, final version our our mural.

AG
Overcoming The Wave
12/2015
12” x 5” and 12” x 4”

Coarse Pumice Gel Mixed with Acrylic Paint on Canvas Paper
In our image you see a small boat, with four people inside, rowing towards a big wave. This is supposed to symbolize GCE’s mission to reinvent education and the school going against the traditional education system. The people inside the boat represent our community, because we are the ones who actually make this vision possible and make it happen. They represent both the students and the staff. The wave represents the traditional education system we are working to change and improve.

BKJ, NVA, MF, LL, AG . Sketch . 12/2015

We didn’t come to create this image right away, however, it was a long process that didn’t just take one day. We started by looking at all our group members' sketches from the first Unit, in order to figure out the best elements from each image. We started out with MF’s Japanese wave because we really liked the details and how is looked. We also really liked LL’s layering, the simple message behind NVA's cellphone image, the detailed banner from BKJ's sketch, and the use of silhouettes from my sketch. We then tried to think oh how we could put these all to use into one image. We brought our images together, and decided on a silhouette of a person, pushing the wave over a symbol, we hadn’t yet decided on, that would represents traditional education, and a banner at the bottom that holds a sort of caption. We researched the meaning of the Japanese wave and found that it meant strength, which we thought is symbolic of GCE. After talking to our teacher, we decided to simplify the image and to switch our symbols so that instead, traditional education is the wave, and the thing it is above GCE. We decided the perfect thing to put in was a little boat with four people, swimming towards the wave. This was to represent GCE and their fight to go against standardized education and reinvent the system, and like I stated earlier, the people represent the GCE community that makes the idea of our school happen and come to life. We also decided to make the boat out of a banner, and write inside of it the title- “Overcoming The Wave”. This mural is both a revolt mural against the education system in America, but also a tribute mural to our school for all that they do for us and make happen. We recognize the battle they fight and appreciate all the work that is done to help make all this possible, and we want others to realize and appreciate this as well.

For my material, I chose to use coarse pumice gel mixed with acrylic paint. I chose this because when experimenting with many media in class, this was my favorite one. I enjoyed working with it, and even more so, the way it looked when it dried. Aside from just enjoying this medium, I also just thought it would look really cool for the foamy part of the wave. It makes that part of the wave seem to come out, and the crunchy part is almost like the bubbles that create the foam. I had a vision in my mind of the final mural, and that is what I saw for that part of the image. In the end I think my image was pretty cool because of the way it created the three-dimensional look I was going for, and it was really interesting to look at. However, I didn’t think this would work for the entire image, when everything has that “pop” it takes the attention away from from all the important elements in the image. That’s why it’s important to only have it for part of the image.

    

          AG . First Swatch. 12/2015                AG . Second Swatch. 12/2015                 AG . Close Up Of Swatch. 12/2015

In the end, we really like the way everyone’s swatches looked and wanted to use each of the media that were chosen by the members of the group. We decided for the majority of the wave we would use both the semi-gloss soft gel, as well as regular gloss soft gel. For the foamy part of the wave my medium- coarse pumice gel. We decided the sky would look best in just acrylic paint, that the boat would be spraypainted, and the people be as well, but with stencils, not free handed. We think using all these different media will help draw attention to the key elements. Our boat will be a glittery gold that will really stand out and show that the symbol for GCE is the most important part of our mural.

BKJ, NVA, MF, LL, AG . Collaboration One . 12/2015

BKJ, NVA, MF, LL, AG . Collaboration Two . 12/2015

Walking With The Dead

For our first unit of If These Walls Could Talk, we learned about the history of murals. We looked at art during different periods in time, from Prehistory to the Italian Renaissance. We examined all their different techniques and styles of art. We were then assigned to design our own murals that fit the needs of a community of our choice. I really enjoyed the things we learned in this unit, because it was interesting to see how art evolved over time.

AG

"Walking With The Dead"
11/2015 

 11”14” 

 Printed Images, Glue, Paper

Today, we know Lincoln Park as home to a zoo, a conservatory, stores, restaurants, schools, and homes. But before that, Lincoln had had a vast history. It was first established in 1824, back when the area was primarily forest in which the US Army built a small post. In 1837, Chicago became established as a city with today’s Lincoln Park neighborhood as its northern boundary. Over time more settlers came, and the area began to transform into more of how the neighborhood is today.

Lincoln Park has changed a lot throughout the years and holds many memories and secrets. But what’s the biggest secret? Very few people know this, including Lincoln Park’s own residents, but during the mid-19th century, this area was a cemetery where more than 35,000 people were buried. What’s more, is that while many bodies were exhumed and relocated to other cemeteries, about 12,000 bodies still remain. That’s right, under all these homes and schools there are dead bodies buried.

This is why I decided to create this mural as both a tribute to all the people buried in Lincoln Park, and as something that will bring awareness, since most of the residents don’t even know about the cemetery they live over. I find it sad that people who lived in Lincoln Park have just been built over and forgotten about. No one deserves that, and this mural is to honor them and the lives they lived.

This mural is not only to honor and bring awareness to all the people buried in Lincoln Park, but also to bring the community together. Right now, Lincoln Park’s community is pretty torn. For example in the election for Alderman, the votes were split almost exactly 50/50. This means the community has very strong opposing sides, so this mural is supposed to remind them to step back and remember that we are all the same and to help them come together. As grim as it in, in the end we will all die and be buried in the same Earth together. Just like the people before us who were buried in Lincoln Park. So, instead of arguing and being against each other, they should spend time together and live their lives to the fullest.

I chose to mimic the style of Prehistoric cave paintings in my mural because a lot of Prehistoric art dealt with the the spiritual world. People from Prehistory believed that spirits and live people were basically the same and could still communicate. While I’m not so sure about the bodies buried in Lincoln Park communicating with the current residents, I do think that the people who have passed are the same as the people who are alive. I also mimicked the colors used at that time, or rather the lack of colors- my mural is only black and white to make it more simple and to show, even more so, how we are all the same.

Money, Money, Money, Must Be Funny, In The Rich Man's World

For our second unit of Economics, Wealth and Wages, we looked into how wealth is accumulated and how it is distributed. We gained knowledge on how to invest our money and increase our money as much as possible, and we were assigned to put this knowledge into use for our Action Project by making a portfolio. This project was challenging because it required a lot of planning and calculating but I really enjoyed it and plan to use some of these skills in real life.

For this project, we received a scenario where 18 years ago, our “guardian angel” set up a college savings plan for us with an initial investment of $8,500. They then would continue to add $50 each month ($600 yearly). After 18 years, at an average annual interest rate of 7%, compounded annually, the plan is now worth $50,556.80. We then had to decide what we do with the money after cashing it out and depositing the money in a brokerage account to invest on our own.

My investment philosophy is to invest when a stock is lower than the annual stock rate, for example when Disney’s stock dropped in July of 2015, and cash out when it’s really high up, but also to wait a long amount of time, because the more years you wait the more likely you are to profit. I also don't care for big fluctuations and prefer stability in my investments, the more fluctuations the less likely I am to invest.

According to a risk assessment quiz I took, by Rutgers, I have an average tolerance for risk. I agree with that result. While, I am willing to take some risks, they aren’t usually aren’t very large risks. If I don’t feel it is almost certain that I will profit, I am not willing to invest my money. I’m more willing to invest in something that I will make less of a profit on it it’s less risky, than to invest in something that I would make a much larger profit on but that has high risk.

AG Screenshot Risk Assessment 2015

I chose three investment goals I have over different periods of time. 1 year, 5 years, and 25 years.

1-year goal: Own a used car - Jeep ($6,500)
5-year goal: Rent an apartment for one year without having to work ($12,000)
25-year goal: Pay off all my student loans ($120,000) Own a house ($400,000)

When choosing which companies to invest in I looked at how well they have done over the course of 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, and since the company first started. I also paid attention to fluctuations and how big they were. If a company’s stocks would change constantly, I automatically crossed them off my list. If they were a sure and steady company for years and continued to have a steady increase the past year, I took a closer look at them. This way I could be almost positive that I would make a large profit and I knew that they would be the least risky. I also was only willing to invest in companies that don’t do anything that harms animals, people, or the environment. I decided that when it comes to money, I think the most important thing to look at is what will make money, not what is the nicest or friendliest, but I also have morals and harming others isn’t acceptable to me.

The two companies I chose were the Walt Disney Company and Amazon. The reason I chose these two companies is because I felt could invest in them both no matter what time horizon, since they both have had a steady increase over the years and I think they’re a safe bet no matter what time frame you choose.

• Walt Disney Company has a great competitive advantage over other companies in the entertainment industry. They have one of the largest shares in animation, television, film, theme park, and merchandising industries and over 10 years of a steady growth. They also offer dividends, $0.66/share biannually, but what’s more impressive is their steady growth, with an ROI of over 200% in just the past 5 years. They are constantly releasing new movies, TV shows, merchandise, and attractions. 

Disney Stock Price. 2015. Via Google

• Similarly to Walt Disney Company, Amazon has a competitive advantage over other companies in their industry. It is the largest Internet-based retailer in the United States. They are not likely to fail because of how many different things they offer, such as entertainment or retail. There is almost nothing you can’t find on Amazon and they find you the cheapest prices which is something consumers love, so I doubt they would drop in the market anytime soon. While Amazon itself hasn’t profited that much, people who invest in them have because of their good business model that customers like so much. Like Disney, they have had a steady growth over the years and also have an ROI of over 200% which is incredible. 

Amazon Stock Price. 2015. Via Google

I then organized my investments into three portfolios, one for each goal.

Portfolio I- 1 Year Goal

$3,954.24

      4 shares of Amazon @ $563.91 ($2,255.64 total) (57.0% of portfolio)

      15 shares of Disney @ $113.24 ($1,698.60 total) (43.0% of portfolio)

This grouping of Amazon and Disney has an expected ROI of 64.4%. After one year, I should have enough money for the car I want- $6,500.

Portfolio II- 5 Year Goal

$2,033.74

      2 shares of Amazon @ $563.91 ($1,127.82 total) (55.5% of portfolio)

      8 shares of Disney @ $113.24 ($905.92 total) (44.5% of portfolio)

This grouping of Amazon and Disney has an expected ROI of 490%. After 5 years I should be able to have enough money to pay rent for an apartment for an entire year without having to work- $12,000.

Portfolio III- 25 Year Goal

$44,980.21

      39 shares of Amazon @ $563.91 ($21,992.49 total) (48.9% of portfolio)

      203 shares of Disney @ $113.24 ($22,987.72 total) (51.1% of portfolio)

This grouping of Amazon and Disney has an expected ROI of 1056.06%. After 25 years I should have enough money to pay off my student loans- $120,000 and own a house- $400,000.

Total Investment Portfolios Value- $50,968.19 (This is $411.39 over how much my guardian angel gave me to invest but I have my own $411.39 to invest already saved so it’s ok👍)

If you look at my Stock Sector, you see that I have chosen two companies that are very different and would branch into two very different sectors. A sector is a type of business that a company deals with, basically the category or industry, for example Disney’s Stock Sector is entertainment. The reason I chose entertainment and retail was because, while I doubt either of these sectors would fail anytime soon; if they were to for some reason, some of my money would still be safe in another stock so my loss won’t be as detrimental.

With each portfolio I tried to put in as close to a 50/50 balance in each company as I could, so that if one were to fail I would still have half of my money. I put the majority of the money I’m investing into my 25 year goal, since that is where I need the most amount of money.

Financial Advisor Nathan Aldinger came to speak to our class and a big part of what he does and what he talks about it financial planning. He also talked about how things happen a lot that you just can’t account for with the government, banks, and just money in general. You can never really plan something because you don’t know what might happen. So I think it’s important to keep that in mind while investing, because even if everything were to go perfectly in the stock market for me, I never know if something like what happened in Greece will happen in America, where I won’t be able to get my money out of the banks. I think it’s important to have another back up plan with the money I make on my own, not from my guardian angel.

Three assumptions I made while doing this project were that:

• These companies will continue to flourish and their stocks will continue to rise at a steady rate.
• That nothing major will happen with American money or the value of the dollar or my bank (Chase)
• That Disney’s recent drop is just an anomaly and won’t happen multiple times.

If this scenario were in real life I would definitely choose to actually do this project and put in it the stocks the way I did. The only thing I would change is the time horizon, because I would rather focus on my long term goals rather than my long term goals, so I would most likely just cash out the majority of the stocks after 25 years if not longer.

Works Cited

• Amazon.com. (2015, October 16). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15:35, October 16, 2015
• Douglas Satterfield. "Core Values: Amazon.com." Theleadermaker.com. N.p., 15 June 2014. Web. 16 Oct. 2015
• Investopedia. "Who Are Amazon's (AMZN) Main Competitors?"Investopedia.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2015
• Peter Roff. "The Man, the Medium and Message." US News. U.S.News & World Report, 06 Aug. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2015 
• Rutgers. Investment Risk Tolerance Quiz. 2015. NA
• "Company Overview | The Walt Disney Company." Company Overview | The Walt Disney Company. Web. 25 Oct. 2015. 
• "Why The Walt Disney Co Is Investing In This Startup." The Motley Fool. Web. 25 Oct. 2015. 
• "Potential Competitive Advantage over the past 10 Years." Walt Disney Company (The) (DIS) Economic Moat. Web. 25 Oct. 2015. 
• "Spider-Man Arrives at Disneyland Park November 16 in the New Super Hero HQ." Disney Parks Blog RSS. Web. 25 Oct. 2015. 
• "Growing Dividends Are Great News for Investors in The Walt Disney Company -- The Motley Fool." The Motley Fool. Web. 25 Oct. 2015. 
• "Walt Disney Co." Google Search: NYSE:DIS Quotes & News. Web. 25 Oct. 2015. 
• "Amazon Never Makes Money But No One Cares (AMZN,AAPL,WAG,AZO)." Investopedia. 14 Mar. 2014. Web. 25 Oct. 2015. 

Childhood Taken Over By Technology...Or Is There Some Hope?

For our final unit in Journalism, Text, we learned about written journalism and how it has been used to connect us to here and now. We studied essential skills, values, and concepts of written journalism in our century, and we learned about spot stories, in which all of the information is gathered “on the spot”. For our Action Project, we were assigned to cover our own spot stories at an event that we each chose to attend. This was a unit I enjoyed because I’m someone who loves to write, and I liked being able to improve upon my writing skills.

Childhood Taken Over By Technology...Or Is There Some Hope?

AG Technology Taking Over 2015

“Give that back! Why would you take that away from him?” a father yelled at his 9 year old daughter for taking away an iPhone from her 3 year old brother. Meanwhile, the small boy is screaming and crying off to the the side. This familial moment, which nowadays seems to happen all too often, is a prime example of what I worry about most when I think about today’s youth (by which I mean younger than me).

To clarify, I’m referring specifically about young children in this generation, children whose lives will be changed forever because they will never have the opportunity for a childhood that isn’t taken over technology. People my age are already technology obsessed - I’m not any different - but at least when we were younger we had childhoods where we actually played, childhoods where we still played outdoors, and with each other, with actual toys, not all-tech all of the time. Today’s youth have childhoods that don’t involve these things, but instead are corrupted by technology, disconnection, less socialization, and what I consider to be a much duller experience of being a kid.

On October 18th, I had an opportunity to witness both phenomena in action at this year’s annual Fall Harvest Festival at Wagner Farm in Glenview, Illinois. I was there volunteering for community service hours and had been assigned to supervise the Arts and Crafts section of the festival. The event was comprised of many different sections and opportunities for creativity and okay: the farm contained a large field with a farmhouse, a historic center, many different educational exhibits, and there were other fun, hands on activities such as wagon rides, apple cider making, animal petting, pumpkin picking, tours, and a lot more. Being in the crafts section, I got the opportunity to witness a variety of “interesting” artistic talents in my young “students” that day, but my mind also kept returning to our glaring difference in childhood experiences - tech or no/less tech.

This isn’t a concern to me alone. Fellow twitter users will recognize the trending hashtag “#TodaysKidsWillNeverKnow” where people nostalgically share the different games, books, or experiences in general that this and future generations of children don’t and won’t ever know because of how overcome they gave been by technology. Everything is just at their fingertips, and it’s there without any waiting. It’s amazing that technology has gotten so advanced, but what ever happened to jump rope, freeze tag, passing notes in class, mash, mood rings, Twister, the Barbie Cash Register or Hot Wheels? Do kids even still want treehouses? The most my generation had, technology-wise, when we were growing up were Gameboys, slow internet that would take 15 minutes (if you were lucky) to start up, flip phones that you had to record your ringtones on, cableless TV, and CDs. Movies weren’t “instantly streamed”-- you went to Blockbuster to rent them with your family and then you would spend some time rewinding the tapes to the beginning before returning them to the store. You couldn’t look up the definition of everything on Google in a couple of seconds -- you had to flip through the dictionary. You didn’t just take a million pictures on your phone -- you had a disposable camera, where every picture was taken with precision and care because there was no redo or delete button. And then went and developed the film -- it didn’t just upload quickly to your computer. But “Today’s Kids Will Never Know” and that’s just downright sad.

What I witnessed at the Fall Harvest Festival, however, was a relief to anyone who worries that technology is taking over today’s children. Kids were actually playing with toys, each other, animals, and the outdoors. They weren’t all sitting with tablets and cell phones and Gameboys. In fact, aside from the one incident I overheard with the child crying over the iPhone being taken away, I didn’t see any kids playing with any tech, which made me feel extremely relieved. One of my fellow volunteers said “I’m surprised we had this many kids coming in; I thought most kids nowadays just play on their phones.” The children and parents in my section were genuinely excited about the crafts we had set out to make. We created apples out of yarn and leaves out of paper, which might not sound like the most exciting things to do, but the kids actually enjoyed it, their little smiles along with exclamations of oohs and aahs, were proof that this was certainly a highlight of their day. We helped children of all ages - some of them so young that they even struggled to loop yarn around cardboard - who stuck with the crafting and did their best. An excited parent exclaimed, “It’s really nice to get to see the kids play with things hands-on for a change.” Whether her comment and this whole experience confirms my worries or proves them wrong, it was nice to get to spend a day with children, playing and creating, just like I once did.

Self Defense 101

For my third period elective of the Fall Term, I chose to take Self Defense. In this class we learned many different techniques to defend ourselves and about personal safety.  For our Action Project we were assigned to make a video showing at least one of the things we learned in this class. I really enjoyed this class and liked getting to learn techniques to defend myself; I honestly feel safer walking down the street thanks to this class. Sometimes the maneuvers were challenging, but I was able to get past every challenge and successfully master the moves.