Who do you think you are?

For the final, we were asked to research our family tree and find out more information about our family. To complete this task the first thing I did was interview my Grandpa on my Mom's side to find out more about our family from Italy. Here's the link to the interview with him
Interview with Grandpa

I then interviewed my Grandma on my Dad's side to find out more about my family from Czechoslovakia. Here's the link to the interview with her
Interview with Grandma
By using the information I gained from the interviews I began creating a family tree on family echo, here's the link to that
Family Tree on Family Echo
Then I emailed my dad to let him know what I was doing and to ask for help to gain information and pictures. Here is the link to that
Email about project
After that I created my infographic using the information from my interview with my Grandpa. I decided to create my infographic all about my family tree on my Mom's side and all about my family from Italy. After doing the infographic I created a prezi all about my family on my Dad's side

 

11/24

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

Since my parents are divorced one year I'm with my dad and the next I'm with my mom. When I'm with my mom my whole family on that side including my aunts, uncles, and cousins go to Branson, Missouri and stay at Big Cedar and then go to Silver Dollar City the day after Thanksgiving. When I'm with my dad we normally go to my aunts and then that night we go to the plaza light ceremony which is always really fun to say. This year I'll probably go ice skating with friends on Tuesday and then on Wednesday it is my dad's birthday so we will probably go out to dinner. On Thanksgiving we normally go to my aunt's house around noon and eat lunch and then watch football  and then at night we will head down to see the plaza lights. Hopefully this Friday I'll go Black Friday shopping because I've never been and I've always wanted to experience it. Then on Saturday every year we always put up all our Christmas decorations at my dads and watch the movie Elf and then on Sunday we put up our Christmas decorations at my moms. I always look forward to the long weekend. 

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11/19

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 definitely change the location of here I did my video even though it had really good lighting  the backdrop looked really really dirty so it made my video look bad, instead I would put a white poster board for the background. I also would use a tripod to make camera stable so that way all the pictures would look the same and hands wouldn't be in the pictures. I liked my idea because it was fun doing it and I think I manage my time pretty well so it turned out pretty good in my opinion. 
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11/17

Tell me about your weekend.

I had a pretty good weekend, on Friday I went to a friends until I babysat my neighbors. On Saturday I went to Catherine's house and then we went to the cheer competition with some other friends. The cheer competition was really fun because I got to see people I'm friends with from other schools and Blue Valley did really good! After that I went to my six year old sister's first competitive gymnastics competition which was really cool to see because when my sister wasn't competing I watched the higher levels. On Sunday I celebrated my Grandpa's 70th birthday party by going to brunch with my whole family at Gas Light Grill. After that, I went to a friend's to study for my math test and then I went out to dinner at Kyoto's to celebrate my birthday early with my dad and some friends because my dad is going to be gone on my actual birthday. 

 

11/14

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.

My design for my stop-motion pictures was quite easy so it made my process easier but it ended up taking a lot longer because I had to place every single skittle down one by one and take a picture but luckily I had people helping me so they placed the skittle and I took the picture. I think I would use a tripod next time to take the pictures so then I wouldn't have to hold my phone the whole entire time because after awhile I got really tired after awhile. 

11/10

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

Stop motion animation is a technique to make objects look like they are moving. This is mainly used in claymation and puppet animation. They appear like they are moving because the movement is broken up into different increments so they can be filmed by an individual frame. One of the best movies that use stop motion animation is The Nightmare Before Christmas. 

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5 Frame Storyboard

11/5

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.

My five frame story board is how to wrap a present, I did this because my sister's birthday is this week so it sounded like a good idea. I am the main character in my story and I thought it was pretty creative because my mom took pictures while I was actually wrapping the present so you get to really see how to wrap a present. The beginning of the story is gathering all the materials, wrapping paper, tape, scissors, a bow, and the present itself. The middle is cutting the paper and taping the paper. The ending is placing the bow on top! 

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11/4

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.

At the beginning the first thing I did was adjust the saturation on the picture then I either used white balance or highlight the picture. After that I used the fill light and sharpened the image. In some of the pictures I popped the main colors or I focused the main part or I sharpened the image. My favorite image I edited was the empty hallway, I made the yellow in that picture pop and I blurred the end of the hallway using the distort effect. For the Coke box I sharpened the image to make the box more red and then I made the light that was reflecting off of the box bigger because I thought that was a cool feature of the image. On the eye picture I made the skin darker so the main focus could be the eye itself. On the recycling bin I sharpened the blue and added a lot of saturation to the picture. For the picture of the person, I made it black and white than added some color. I chose those pictures because I really liked them and I thought they would be really cool after I edited them. 

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5 Edited Pictures

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After

11/3

Tell me about your weekend - details please!

I had a really fun weekend, on Friday I went to two Halloween Parties, the first was a bonfire and the second was more party like. On Saturday I went shopping with some of my friends and then babysat my neighbors. On Sunday I went to church and out to brunch with my family and then came home and worked on homework and picked out stuff for redoing my room!

10/29

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 don't know very much about editing pictures and taking pictures. I love taking pictures because I like going back and looking at them later on. I normally just take pictures with friends and normally use the instagram effects to edit my picture before I post them. I do like taking pictures and I wish I was better at it.  

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Global Issue Prezi

10/20

Tell me about your weekend. Share pics!
 On Friday I went to the pink out game with my friends which was a lot of fun. On Saturday we had a volleyball tournament and we played up so it was kind of scary but we ended up beating all the sophomore teams and losing to Blue Valley West in the finals, after that some of my friends went to Jose Peppers then to a friend's house for a bonfire. On Sunday I went shopping with my mom then watched Halloween movies. 

10/14

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.


After reading the letter I see the bigger picture of this whole situation and I'm glad I saw this from a different perspective. I do agree that are times and places for certain outfits like you said and I think that some people don't understand that. I also agree on Mr. Bacon's standards because we are trying to maintain a professional environment that will help us prepare for the future. 

10/13

I think that the perfect curriculum would be to prepare everyone for the future, the real working world. Classes that would benefit us in the long run instead of learning about stuff that we won't ever use. There are some classes that are definitely resourceful but then there are some that aren't even relevant for the future or the career you want to pursue.

Global Issue Infographic

10/7

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.

I agree with this article completely. I can really relate to the girl who wrote it because just like her I also have really long legs and arms and I get punished by having to wear long Bermuda shorts which I really don't like because they are very uncomfortable and I they look really weird on me. I don't think that we as girls should be punished for wearing the things that we want to just because of the guys. Instead, I think the guys should be punished for it being such a "distraction" to them. On the other hand, I can see why an outfit could be a problem especially if it is extremely inappropriate then an administrator needs to reinforce the dress code rules. Other than that I don't think that we as girls should be punished. 

10/6

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 was fun I went to Jose Peppers on Friday with a lot of my friends then went home after so I could go to bed early because I had to get up at 6:00 for a volleyball tournament. We got first place and went undefeated, after the tournament I went to a friends house. On Saturday as a family we went to the pumpkin patch! After the pumpkin patch I went home and watched the royals win again! 
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9/30

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?

Infographics are when there are diagrams or pictures that give you information but do it in a fun way. Infographics help visual learners because they help process the information and explain it better. 

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9/29

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

I had so much fun this weekend at homecoming, it was a lot better than I expected! In the morning, me, Morgan, and Lauren went to get our nails done together then we went to Nordstrom and ate lunch then got our makeup done together. After that we all went and got our hair done. For pictures and dinner I had to go with my date's group of friends, we went to Lionsgate for pictures then Gaslight Grill for dinner. Overall, it was a really fun night!!

9/24

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 say having more three day weekends, even though most kids say that, I;m not saying this just to have more free time for my social life but a three day weekend helps so much to get everything organized. Between sports, homework, and extra curricular activities there is barely anytime to do everything, I get so stressed out when I get home from my sport at 5:30 at night and still have at least two hours of homework to do. By having a three day weekend that allows everyone time to get caught up on their work and also work ahead and students can have more time to catch up on sleep. I bet by having more three day weekends grades will improve and kids won't be as stressed out. 

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Public Service Announcement

9/23

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

My favorite apps are instagram, twitter, and Netflix. I'm very addicted to all of those and whenever I am on my phone I am either texting or on one of those apps. I love watching shows on Netflix like, One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, and 90210. I also like looking through everyone's pictures on instagram and twitter, especially this month because I love seeing everyone's homecoming pictures. 

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9/22

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 another form of communication it is similar to regular letters except you get emails instantly. I only use email for sending myself documents to work on at home from school. My parents both use email very very much during the day for work purposes. 
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9/19

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.


I really like the web tools because I like how I can access them from  home but with Microsoft word I would have to email them to myself. It is so much easier and they will really help in the future for when I have to work on projects at home. 

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9/17

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 don't really enjoy writing like short stories or poems for ELA but I do like writing research papers and papers for other classes that have actual facts in it. I really don't like having to make up stories because I'm not very good at it but on the other hand I do like writing and adding real specific facts to them because then I know they are right and the writing is good. Writing is very important because you get to express your feelings and thoughts. One time when I hated writing is whenever we have to do the poetry unit for ELA I absolutely hate poetry. 


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9/16

This quote means that if you don't prepare you will end up failing because it is all about preparing for things so you don't fail. In life you can prepare or not it's your choice to decide if you want to fail or not. I have experienced this multiple times like when I don't study for my tests and I end up doing worse then I would like.

9/15

What did you do this weekend? Share pictures if you have them!
On Friday, I went to the Bv game wit my friends and then afterwards I went to my volleyball team sleepover. On Saturday, I went to my sisters soccer game and then my mom and I went shopping for shoes and jewelry for homecoming. After shopping, I went to J. Alexanders with my friend Caroline Carr. Then on Sunday I went to church and to brunch with my family. 

  

9/12

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 you get to learn about many different topics. It will also help you all through your life especially after high school, in college. In high school I've learned about finding credible sources while researching, always citing your sources, and doing an outline for your research so it can be easier to find stuff. 

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Global Issue-Poverty

Poverty- Maddie Brown

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For my global issue in Emerging Technology I have chosen poverty. I have begun researching the issue and you can find my research questions here.