Macbeth Creative Project // Playbill // Isabela Curtin, Hasicya Austin, Kayla Kelly

Macbeth Playbill

Our Macbeth Creative Project was a Playbill.  My group decided on a playbill because we could express our ideas about the play with it. The first thing you see when you look at the playbill is a bloody sword and a crown. We chose this as our logo due to the play being about a bloody fight to the crown. After this, you see the title “Thane of Cawdor”. This title was chosen since Macbeth got promoted to Thane of Cawdor in the beginning of the play. Once he got promoted it started his downward spiral into insanity.

Another very important part of this playbill is the color scheme. Macbeth is a very serious play and to represent that is why we chose red and black. Below this, you can see our list of characters and actors. I am not going to tell you why we chose each actor for each specific character but I will give you a quick summary. I chose Liam Neeson as Macbeth because of his voice. I believe his voice has a more serious tone to it. For the porter, I chose Jim Carrey because he can act like he's drunk anytime.

The next section of the playbill is the costumes. We decided to go for a  more modern vibe in our play so we added the car and suites to our play.The second to last part of our play was the stage. One of the ideas that we came up with was actually recreating the stage from the Globe theater. By have the stage shaped like the Globe's we add a layer of authenticity to the production.

Our final area of our playbill is the ad for the Incredibles 2. This explanation for it is fairly simple. If you are going to watch a play, it is safe to assume you are more likely to want to watch a movie. This is due to movies and plays being similar. This add would target people who are likely to watch movies.

In conclusion, we hope you enjoy our Playbill!

Script and slide

Tech presentation (2)

In this presentation I learned a lot about how to make a slide appealing. I learned that having a good selection of colors and big text helps the reader see the information. Something else I learned through research was to keep fewer words on the slide and explain more. That is why I did what I did, I chose the colors black and yellow because they are opposites, black is a dark base color and the yellow is very bright and makes the words pop. I also chose to make the circle bleed off the page a little to catch the person's eye. My whole design of my slide was based around what I learned, I made sure I had few words but the words I did have stuck in your head and made you think about them.


The Castle///Sam & Vincent


For the Q2 Benchmark we had to come up with a creative project that will reflect on the book Macbeth book we are reading. Me(Vincent) and my partner Sam decided that we we going to recreate one of the Macbeth scenes Act I Scene III to be specific, and we went to Coxe park to film our short skit/// scene recreation. We had the help of our SAT Nat, and we also had the help of filming from Nickell.


We decided to film outside because we felt that the best thing to portray the actual scene had to be outside. We had our witches dress in ponchos and a hat because that's like the stereotypical way a witch would dress. For Macbeth and Banquo we dressed up as knights and later on with a crown, but overall everything was smooth and I feel we did everything to the best of our ability. One thing that you will also notice is that our acting is decent and that our scene it twisted to fit Macbeth into the office theme.

Macbeth board game

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IMG_6892

For our creative project, we chose to do a board game. By we, I mean David Forgrave, Hayden Myers, and myself. We started out with a simple design with the concept of the players starting at Birnam Wood and racing against friends to get to dunsinane and take over Macbeth. This connects with act 5 scene 4 when the English army  starts in birnam wood to hide themselves from macbeth as they make their way up to his castle. Up to four friends, playing either Macduff, Malcolm, Siward, or Young Siward would roll dice to see how far they go in the conquest against Macbeth. However, after planning this out, we realized that this board game was way too simple for our liking so we decided to add another interesting and creative component into our game.


We decided to add power cards into our game. What we wanted these cards do have is power up that you can use on yourself at any time to give yourself an advantage, but we also wanted to add power down cards that that could be used on any opponent that is in the lead, or just a friendly rivalry. These cards can be used at any time to give an opponent some sort of disadvantage.  We connected the cards to Macbeth by taking certain situations that happen in the book, and turning them into cards. For example, We took the scene when Lady Macbeth jumped out of the window, and turned it into a power down card that you can use on friends. There is a prince of cumberland card that will give a very good power to whoever owns it, but is able to be cursed by the dreaded “Macbeth” card. These cards are retrievable all over the map, on any yellow space.


For the board we didn’t want to have just one straight path going to dunsinane. Therefore, we added multiple paths that intertwine with each other so the players are able to land on opponents, while choosing their own route, and collecting cards independently. We decided to do this because we felt that one road was going to be mundane or boring. However, with multiple paths, there are some strategy aspects, and the game would become a little bit more interesting. When we designed our game we  wanted to have a party aspect to add to our game so it would look like a silly, cartoony kind of game, mixed in with things that happened all throughout Macbeth We decided to do this because we felt that one road was going to be mundane or boring. However, with multiple paths, there is some strategy implemented in the game.


In conclusion, we think that we designed the game that we wanted, and we have come out with a strong game that displays the ideas of Macbeth, while being able to give whoever is playing it excitement and a fun time with friends. We all worked very hard to design this game, and that hard work shows through in our final product. My entire group is very proud of our game, and we can’t wait to see what people think about it.


Macquest by Xin Yi Zou and Awa Diakite

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IMG_0669
The board game, Macquest my partner, Awa and I created was based off of the play, Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Our board game “MacQuest” is based off of the quest to find happiness and peace. Our four characters are Malcolm, Macbeth, Macduff, and Lady Macbeth. In Macbeth, these 4 characters are struggling to find a part in their life where they are satisfied. Malcolm has to currently live with the thought of the same man who killed his father, run the country he should be running. Macbeth is in a state where he can’t even come remotely close to having a peaceful life. He is anxious because of the three aspirations the witches showed, plus, Scotland hates him. Macduff lost his family who was brutally murdered by the people Macbeth sent to kill them. He is out for blood and will not be at peace until he gets justice and vengeance for his family. Lady Macbeth is so filled with guilt that she can’t go to sleep without that guilty conscience providing her uncomfort. No matter what “peace” may mean to each of these characters, they will not stop until they get it. Introducing, MacQuest.

Each of the colors of the game pieces symbolizes 4 different things in the play. Red symbolizes the blood from Macduff’s wife and child, he will be the red player. Blue symbolizes Neptune’s water that couldn’t wash Macbeth’s hands after the murder of Duncan, he will be the blue player. Yellow symbolizes the crown for the Prince of Cumberland, Malcolm will be the yellow player. Last but not least, pink symbolizes all the perfumes of Arabia that couldn’t take away the smell of blood on Lady Macbeth’s hands, she will be the pink player.

We chose to use this name for our game because it relates to the theme. All of the characters are fighting their way to the top. The character closer to the finish line is the one closer to peace, which, everyone is dying to have at the moment. For each character, peace is different. For Malcolm, “peace” is vengeance for this father and to rule Scotland the correct way. Malcolm wants to restore peace for his people and carry on his father’s legacy. For Macbeth, “peace” means to be free from worry and anxiety. For Macduff, “peace” means justice/vengeance for his family and to have Macbeth wiped off of the face of the earth. For Lady Macbeth, “peace” is to be free from all of the guilt from accompanying murder and keeping the secrets of Macbeth’s murders to herself. As long as these four are cautious on their journey, they will be able to finally be at peace. So, who will be the one to get the peace that they so desperately want?


Instructions/Rules of Macquest:

  • Players can choose to who goes first, but it has to go in a clockwise direction.

  • Everyone starts at the start space on each corner of the board game according to colored game pieces.

  • Whoever goes first must pick a card from “?” deck

    • If you answer the question correct, you are able to move the amount of spaces written on the card.

  • If you land on a challenge spot, you must pick a card from the challenge deck

    • If you answer the challenge question wrong, you must move back 2 spaces.

    • If you answer the challenge question correct, you are able to move the amount of spaces written on the card.

  • A different player reads the question from the card and you answer.

  • Players win when all of their game pieces are in the finish line.

Maren Lamb Quarter 2 Art Slideshow and Reflection

Final Artist’s Statement


The first project we were given this quarter was to do ten blind contour drawings. I did these in pencil on copy paper. It was really challenging for me to keep my eyes off the paper when I was drawing and really feel it out as far as spacing and texture. I had never done blind contour drawings so it was really strange getting used to it, but once I did, it was really fun. The second part of our first project was coloring in our blind contour drawings. I had a really good time with it, and I spent way longer than I should’ve filling everything in. I used colored pencil on certain paintings and marker on others. Both looked great but I liked the effect of the markers better. I used a lot of colors in every picture, but for each one, I liked to stick with a specific palette. One tiny annoyance with adding color to the drawings was that the pencil would smudge and mix with the color.

The second project we were given this quarter was to paint anything we wanted. I decided to paint a beachscape because I promised my classmate Thea that I would make her one to hang on her wall. My paint of choice was watercolor, and I got watercolor paper from home to use. I didn’t really use a reference. It took me about two class periods, and the only challenge I faced was trying to get the right color out of the murky watercolors in the pans. The third project we were given was to recreate a piece of art. I recreated two works by Henri Matisse, Goldfish and Portrait of Madame Matisse. I begun with Goldfish, and wanted to use oil pastels, but found that there weren’t many at school, so I worked on both projects at home. I really like the effect of the oil pastels in lieu of paint. My works are not exact copies of the paintings; I just kind of did a rough sketch and got to work. The only downside, in my opinion, to oil pastels is they can get very messing, and I did my best to try and make everything pretty clean.

The fourth project we were assigned was to make an illustration based on a piece of writing. I immediately knew what I wanted to do. I chose a lyric from She’s Gone by Hall and Oates: Think I'll spend eternity in the city; Let the carbon and monoxide choke my thoughts away, yeah; And pretty bodies help dissolve the memories; They can never be what she was (was) to (to) me. This stanza has always formed a certain picture in my mind for me so I decided to paint it. My materials of choice were a small canvas I brought from home and acrylic paint. I made a sketch of what I wanted the painting to look like on looseleaf and translated it onto the canvas, after painting a background layer on. I was kind of pressed for time painting it and it did not come out how I wanted, especially given what a specific vision I had before. It didn’t quite catch the mood of the song, and I couldn’t use exactly the right colors. So that was pretty frustrating. The fifth and final project we were assigned was to edit photos showing depth of field. I used Snapseed to edit my photos. I think some of them came out better than others because they lent themselves better to Snapseed’s lense blur tool. I also played around with the pictures’ lighting and color. It didn’t take long to edit each picture, so I was able to do a lot of them.

Q2 Art: Lotus Shareef-Trudeau

This collection focused mostly on using colored pencils as a medium for my pieces. Colored pencil drawings were fairly new to me, as I had not previously known any of the techniques that we have learned to utilize the pencils. This entire quarter has been a learning experience and a growing opportunity for me. I realized that I like working with the primary colors and blending them to make secondary and tertiary colors, rather than using, for example, a green pencil, because it gives me a lot more room to create different shades and hues for my drawings, as well as play with the light. Though I still could use a lot of practice in with colored pencils, I am very excited to be able to add some new skills to my tool bag.

Keith Hodge Senior Art Q2 assignments

 

Well the first thing I created was the blind contour and that was very interesting to do because I watched the video and did it with my not so good eye so they would out of whack and shape. The 2nd thing we did was the color pencil technique and I really liked this one because I really followed step by step and mixed and matched with the colors which turned out really well. I really liked the color because it showed me that I can tone two color pencils and make two colors as well as one color has a light side as well as a dark side. With the self portrait in week 5 and 6 I almost have my head shape down but not quite maybe one more crack at it and I can get the shape of my head correct. The fruit color pencil drawing looked really good and I think I got better the more I did it. Lastly for week 9 and the blind drawings that got my imagination going because I made a hand playing a trumpet,Hungry man,bumper cars,a fish eating a fish eating bait and lastly squidward as Captain magma.


Q2 Art Slideshow Presentation

​An Artist's Statement

I made mostly drawings this quarter with colored and graphite pencils, with some charcoal and pastel on the side. My source ideas usually came from either movies I loved or music I loved. On of the big techniques I used to create my art was the idea of even shading with bold colors. My favorite medium for art is my pencil on some paper, the less color the better. This quarter, I learned how to draw a piano! I only used pencil and charcoal in order to make it, but it was super messy! Most of my class time was spent working on these drawings, so I could relax later. Something cool about the week 7 and 8 assignment was that I actually have a hobby to take my favorite songs and draw them the way I see them. This was one of the easier to plan assignments for me! My artwork is open to interpretation, but speculation on what my artistic choices could've actually meant are welcome! P.S., be sure to wear something you don't care what happens to for charcoaling. I learned that the hard way. :)

Party Like the Dead: Macbeth Creative Project

Macbeth project
Macbeth project
What we will be playing at the banquet:

Harry Potter - Double Trouble

  • We chose this song because the lyrics are practically verbatim to Act 4 Scene 1, where the witches give Macbeth new prophecies, and it shows how Macbeth is pretty evil.

The Lion King Soundtrack - I Just Can’t Wait to be King

  • We chose this song because Macbeth really wanted to become the King of Scotland after he heard the witches prediction of becoming King.    

Michael Jackson- Ghost

  • We chose this song because in this scene, Banquo’s ghost appears. This song can foreshadow the appearance of the ghost.

Ballroom Party - Sleep No More

  • We chose this song because it relate to Macbeth’s sleep/sleep-no-more motif. It doesn’t exactly relate to this scene, but it is still a reoccuring theme.

Queen- I’m Going Slightly Mad

  • We chose this song because in this scene Macbeth hallucinates and sees the ghost of dead Banquo

Imagine Dragons- Thunder

  • We chose this song because this relates to the supernatural motif, and all of the scenes that are stormy

The O’Jays - Back Stabbers

  • We chose this song because it relates to Macbeth betraying his King in earlier scenes

The Eagles-  Witchy Woman

  • We chose this song because it is about the three witches, also following the supernatural theme

Mulan Soundtrack-  I’ll Make a Man out of You

  • We chose this song because it related to Lady Macbeth wanting to be “unsexed”, and when in this scene, Lady Macbeth is scolding Macbeth for going crazy at the party “Are you a man?”

The Radio Dept. - Strange Things Will Happen

  • We chose this song because strange things have been occurring ever since Macbeth was told he would be King. For example, Macbeth hallucinates a floating dagger, as well as the ghost of his dead friend.

Michaela and I wanted to do this project because we wanted to do something very creative. We decided to make an invitation because we got to choose songs to play, foods to serve, and a fun design. In the book, in Act 3 Scene 4, there is a feast to celebrate the crown of Macbeth. There, Banquo, a friend Macbeth killed, appears as a ghost. We chose do both a paper invitation and video invitation because we want to provide an invitation to all  generations. For the foods, we researched popular foods in the time period, as well as some things from the play, like roasted fowl and deviled eggs. For the songs, we chose songs that had to do with motifs from this scene, and the entire play.

Michaela profile: 
https://scienceleadership.org/people/mberger21

Slideshow & Artist’s Statement - Emmett Tsai-McCarthy

This quarter wasn't necessarily a first for me when it comes to new mediums of art, but that doesn't mean that they were well practiced.  Doing an entire art piece with paint is definitely something I'm not used to, and it shows in my work.  The defined edges, the lack of blending and smooth colors, clear signs of a beginner.  This was also the first time I ever really TRIED shading.  I didn't really like how it turned, but it was definitely better than it would've been if I didn't get help from my brother.
I also realized that my photography is... not good.  The picture's are either too blurry or have too much outside lighting (meaning light from lamps and such).  I think the best art piece I shot this quarter was the "Ding Dong" one, but I don't really like the quality of that picture either.  I'm dying for a method of drawing on the computer.  That way, I don't have to take pictures with my phone's crappy camera.  From what I've seen, the drawings also look a lot slicker / nicer than they would if I used a paper and pencil.  It might even help me with shading, but I doubt it'll help much.  
Overall, even though I felt like I did better work than I did last quarter, I was a lot more disappointed with it.  As I mentioned before, this mainly stemmed from my lack in usage of the mediums we were asked to use.  But at the very least, this was an eye-opener on how much effort I must put into what I do now if I even want the chance to get into an art college.  

Quarter 2 Art Slideshow + Artist Statement

In the second quarter of Senior Art I focused mainly on strengthening my abilities with color pencils and practiced new techniques. This time around, I kept all my pieces on standard letter paper (8.5 x 11) and exercised my skills using specific materials. In the studio I spent my time understanding colors, blending, shading, and highlighting. I find that I prefer working on canvases that allow me to make mistakes to learn from and correct. I would like people to know that it’s okay to not like my art, I’m not satisfied with every piece I produce but that doesn’t prevent me from putting it out. Art is subjective and everyone will have their own opinions, that’s completely fine with me. Lastly, I want to say that majority of these techniques are new to me, I know that my work isn’t the best; I’m not trying to be the best.


School Selection Results

School Selection results are now live! 

Please log on to philasd.org and click on School Selection button to see your results.

Families have until 1/29 to make a decision.  If you need any assistance logging into the website please contact the Office of Student Placement by calling 215.400.4000. 

Thank you for considering SLA. 

Quarter 2 Art Slideshow

As I walked into quarter two I was more aware of the expectations of the class and I was able to excel my projects better this quarter. Throughout the time consuming projects we received I did struggle to work with some things however I was able to work through things each time and each  struggle made things easier for my next project. I learned how to have better time management and how to have more respect for my own artwork.

I have learned how to master time management by finishing all my projects on time and still being able to work on other homework assignments or class assignments I was behind in. If you don't have good time management you won't be successful in a independent class like art because you'll never be aware of how to use valuable in class time. I have also mastered to be very patient. Before I would get angry because some classmates finished before me but I noticed that good hard work takes time and I should be mindful of it.

I learned new color pencil techniques and shading techniques through this quarter as well. I enjoyed learning new techniques because it challenged me more to finish my projects. Even when I wanted to give up I didn't and I remained finishing strong.


Lesbian Feminism

Lesbian feminism emerged as a result of exclusion from the women’s liberation movement. Lesbianism was largely ignored because many believed that it would undermine the credibility of the movement by reintroducing sex into the feminist agenda and a lot of women preferred the sexual respite feminism granted and thought including lesbian feminism would eliminate said respite.

Betty Friedan founded the National Organization for Women in 1966. She also was a feminist who wasn’t all for the integration of lesbian feminism, though, her exclusion wasn’t entirely unfounded. Her concern, and that of other straight feminists, was that the first thing that would come to the minds of men would be “‘mannish’ or ‘man-hating’ lesbians” and that, consequently would “hinder the cause”. A lesbian agenda would compromise political power and image that feminists worked so hard to gain and create. However, she failed to realize, or perhaps care, that these so called “man-hating” lesbians were women, too, and they wanted and deserved the same things that every woman in the country was fighting for. All they wanted was to aid the cause.  Friedan, eventually, went so far as to refer to lesbian feminism as the “lavender menace”, which further infuriated lesbian feminists and practically lit the fire of persistence in the heart of movement.

In the ten-paragraph manifesto titled The Woman Identified Woman, written The Radicalesbians, a lesbian is defined as “the rage of all women condensed to the point of explosion...She...acts...to be a more complete and free human being than her society-,...cares to allow her...these needs and actions...bring her into painful conflict...until is in a state of continual war with everything around her, and usually herself.” This quote pretty much sums up the amount of strength that a lesbian has to have to simply be there self-a luxury every heterosexual doesn’t even acknowledge on a day-to-day basis. On top of this she must also battle the challenge of owning up to herself semi-acceptable identity as a woman. Everyday that this woman decides to show herself she shows the political and societal defiance of ten straight feminists. On May 1, 1970, at the “ Second Congress to Unite Women” lesbian activists rushed the stage, conspicuous in there objective to be heard. To their surprise, they were almost immediately joined by members of the audience who wished to aid in their cause.

Initially, the women’s liberation movement wasn’t an all-inclusive cause. The heterosexual feminists that dominated it, succeeded in being seen as the men they fought so hard to be venerated in relation to, in the way that they regarded lesbians as nothing more than a discredibility, because that wrongly placed and forced stigma/stereotype. However, after many protests and the cooperation of open, understanding minds, lesbian rights soon became, and continue to be, recognized as “‘a legitimate concern of feminism.”’


Advanced Essay #2


Insecurities with myself vs the world around me


When my parents first migrated from the beautiful atmosphere of Morocco to the United States they were astonished to discover that their assets were very useful to their adaptation to the new environment. They won the lottery and came from Morocco with their diplomas and have gotten more in the US. In my household we speak Moroccan, Reefiya, Berber, French, and Spanish. I was born and raised in Kensington, Philadelphia. The majority of the race are hispanic/latino. I went to school in Kensington and made most of my closest friends here, and are now family to me.

After attending Elementary school and 6th grade in Kensington my mother realized I wasn’t receiving the education I should've been receiving, she wanted my siblings and I to have a goal in life. She began working with the School District Of Philadelphia, which allowed her to notice the differences between schools. I was in cyber school for 7th grade until my mother found another school I could attend. For 8th grade my mother took me to McCall which was how I found out about SLA. I struggled a lot when I was put into McCall, the teachers were no help all they did was put me down. All the students were already taking Algebra 2 meanwhile I haven't even gotten to Pre Algebra.

When I first attended SLA it was a whole new different experience for me, I was so insecure to talk because I knew my grammar was off and I was afraid they’d think I was not smart enough, as the way I was seen as in McCall by my classmates and teachers. I saw a huge difference between my friends at home and my classmates at SLA, everyone here has a goal and knows they're going to reach it one day. Most of the people I'm around don't have goals and aren't really thinking about college because they need to help support their family.  I noticed simple differences at SLA, like how their are barely any fights and especially how the teachers treat the students with such respect and value.

“There was christy blogger who at sixteen was dealing and according to rumor was a pimp as well.¨ This quote has resonated with me and I feel like I can relate to this story the most because the kids who come from certain areas do not have a large choice in schools and do not know of many. Most of the schools don't care about the students and their education because they know the school ratings are not as high. The treatment of the students is also terrible which causes them to feel less the what they are.
My youngest sister had an advantage she is only 4 and my mom placed her in a daycare downtown with children who have parents in really high positions. I noticed the difference in how she speaks vs my brother and I. I hear her using complex words and choosing her vocabulary wisley. One morning we were having breakfast and my sister was telling a story, as she was speaking she sounded so mature it would be impossible to think she was still young and at that age.  

It reminded me of how she is adapting to her surroundings and learns from the environment around her.

I learned a lot at SLA and being here has shaped me into the person I have become and the person I am molding myself to be in the future. I have gotten better at many things since my first year here. Attending SLA has showed me a lot about who I am, the world, and has expanded my thoughts and ideas on different topics.


Tyreek's Rise in Basketball

I haven’t always been a good basketball player. Many of my friends believe that I’m a solid point guard and very talented at that position. I earned two nicknames. I was called either Russell Westbrook or LeBron James. Many people admired my playing style and skills, but obviously I haven’t always been this good. At a young age, my left knee was not healthy and for years I suffered through knee pains. My mom often wondered why I was limping. She thought I was just walking funny at first and ignored it. After awhile I started complaining about my knee and that it hurts to walk. She didn’t know whether to believe me or not because I had a history of playing around a lot at home as a kid.

After 2 years, she finally made an appointment to see what was wrong with my knee. It turned out that two bone joints in my knee were rubbing together which was not good. I don’t remember what the medical term was but I understood that it was very serious. The doctors said this had to be like that all my life, but as I grew the pain started to grow as well and I felt it more and more. The doctors then suggested that I should do physical therapy for about 2 months.

After I completed it, my knee still had problems. A month or two later, I went back to physical therapy again. That also did not work at all. Being in and out of physical therapy twice sucked for me,I felt like my knee could never get better. I was tired of having knee pains especially when I’m active. I did various exercises that I was instructed to do at first, they were difficult but after awhile of getting used to them, they became easier to do.  When I was in 7th grade they suggested that I needed to have surgery to stop the pain or at least decrease it. I went through with the operation.

It was a Friday morning, I could remember my parents and siblings being there with me in the hospital sitting in the back waiting for the doctor and nurses to come take me to the operating room. I was laying down on the stretcher, waiting. One of the nurses explained what was going to happen and gave me medicine to drink that would make me fall asleep also with some juice to get rid of the funny taste it had.

As the the two nurses were talking to my family I started to feel sleepy, after about 10 minutes and I was out cold. When I woke up, I was laying down in a different area still feeling sleepy just a bit. I looked to my side and saw my mom approaching with some juice to give me. She asked how I was feeling.

“Good", I said as I tried to pull my back my covers to see my leg. My mom at first tried to tell me to relax until it was time for me to go, but my eagerness to see overcame me. I struggled to pull the covers back until my mom helped me. I took a look at my leg. It was covered in bandages and a big black cast to keep it from bending too much if I moved it. My leg was as stiff as a log. The nurses and doctor came to greet me once again. They said the operation was a success. They said I wouldn’t be able to bend my leg or walk on it until my stitches healed up after completing physical therapy for 3 months. I used crutches for two months as well. They grabbed a wheelchair for me, my dad wheeled me out and into his car to drive home.

I missed a whole week of school because the doctors suggested I be on rest for about that long. I really wanted to go to school and show off my toughness to my friends. I often became so bored because I stayed in my bed the whole week and I couldn’t go anywhere but to the bathroom and my mom often had to help me hop there because there’s about 4 steps to go up right outside my room leading up to the bathroom and I mostly never had the energy to make it by myself. When I walked into class on morning with my crutches, everyone stared at me as I headed towards my seat. My friends that I sat at the same table as asked me what happened. I told them about the surgery. They asked me a lot of questions about it including how it felt afterwards and I answered all of them.

I later discovered that the surgery meant that I couldn’t play basketball for awhile. Basketball was definitely one thing that contributed to my knee pains in the past because it’s a sport that requires a lot of leg movements such as running and jumping which could put a lot of pressure on my knee joints and cause too much pain for me to handle at times. I loved the sport so much though and I was good at my position. Since I was taller than most of my friends, I was a big man or played center. My role was to mostly stand near the basket to grab rebounds, score, or block shots.

During the process of healing, It felt like what others would refer climbing Mt. Everest as; very impossible. I went to physical therapy twice a week for 3 months as instructed. I did every exercise that my therapist told me to do. The first few weeks were focused on getting me to be able to bend my leg, the next few was strengthening it, then getting me to walk normally, and the final few were a mixture of all. I had to do many different painful leg exercises to get my knee back in shape. Although I couldn’t still yet bend my leg far enough to make my calf touch the back of my thigh and the doctor said I was medically cleared, I still was determined to make it better. I continued to do the exercises at home like my physical therapist suggested I’d do. I finally stopped when I felt like I didn’t need to do it anymore. My mom said that I shouldn’t stop if I didn’t want to run into anymore problems. Being so naive, I didn’t listen. I felt great and I could finally get my calf touch to the back of my thigh. I thought nothing could go wrong.

After the process of recovering I needed to get better at basketball. I didn’t play at all for at least 3 months so I had to be really rusty. I practiced a lot when it got warmer outside, but I noticed that there was a difference over time as I played. My vertical jumps and running jumps weren’t the same anymore. The operation did help decrease my pains, but it also decreased my leaping ability. I felt horrible because my friends were starting to grow and that meant that they could touch what I used to be able to touch when I jumped. I felt so small compared to everybody.

What actually hurt me the most is that the doctors said it would be a miracle if I were to grow to be over six feet tall. It hurt me a lot. I knew what that meant for me. I had to do what I always tried to escape doing since I started getting used to how I played basketball. I had to be a point guard if I wanted to be in the NBA. All point guard are required to have above average ball handling skills, very high basketball IQ, and be able to shoot jump shots sometimes. They’re basically the leader on the court for their team. I sucked at dribbling, I wasn’t that smart on the court, and I couldn’t shoot at all unless it was close to the basket or sometimes a mid range jump shot. Going through knee injuries really make it hard for you to play the same way in a sport such as basketball. I used to love driving to the basketball for layups often since I was usually stronger and faster than my opponent.

Things changed as I started to shoot 3’s more and more. I was scared to get  hurt. I was never known to be a good three point shooter in basketball and I can admit I was terrible at it at first. Driving to the basket definitely is very scary because you could potentially injure your leg somehow. That’s why I started shooting 3’s more. I needed to make some big changes though and I needed to make them fast. Just standing at the three point line to shoot 3’s wasn’t going to cut it for me. It was time to be aggressive. I started training with my nephews who were around my age all the time to get better. I did get better, but not high level point guard status.

In eighth grade, I joined the basketball team. I was very excited to play because it was my first time playing in any league. Well let’s just say it didn’t live up to my expectations. In the first game, We played a team who had mostly tall players who were at least 6 feet tall or taller. Our tallest player was 5’9”. I started that game at power forward as planned. I was being thrown around like a ragdoll in that game. There were many rebounds that I could have grabbed but didn’t because I wasn’t playing hard enough to grab them from the taller guys. Deep down, I was scared to get hurt.

We ended up losing that game and I also lost my starting spot to a friend who was one grade under me. It was tough dealing with losing my starting spot because that’s what I wanted. I did end up accepting my role coming off the bench  after the first 3 games or so. I may have not been a good rebounder for my team but I did play outstanding defense. In one game, I stopped a guy who had to be at least 6’5” from scoring to help us take the lead. We won the game even though it was really close. I did play good in a blowout win the previous game. I finished with what I could only remember was four points and two blocks. It was the only game I scored in and it made me gain my confidence in playing like myself again. I worked hard during the summer to gain a consistent jump shot and better dribbling ability.

A year later, I had already emerged as a good player in my first year of high school. I impressed a lot of my peers. It all happened that day. It was July 30, 2016, As I walked in through my front door from hanging out with my friend, I noticed that both my parents and stepmother sat in the living room as if they were expecting me. I greeted them and ran upstairs only for my mom to call me back down when I was halfway. She clearly wanted to tell me something important.

She told me to sit down next to her. She reached for my hand and held it with hers. I thought she was going to tell me that we were going out somewhere special. I was actually the words I never thought I’d hear. She said “Your brother, Lance. He’s dead.” All I can remember is a strange feeling that I’ve never had before explode in my body. I quickly rushed upstairs to the bathroom and slammed the door shut, locking it afterwards. My chest felt like someone reached in and snatched my heart. I loved my brother really much. He was the reason I even started playing basketball. He taught me a lot about basketball. He was my mentor and now I felt like I was on my own. I do remember our last one on one conversation about it. He wanted to know what position that I wanted to play so that he could teach me how to play it well. I wasn’t sure of my answer at the time, but he told me to start seriously considering it at my age. After his death, I didn’t play basketball until the middle of September.

Moving on from the situation was very tough. I still struggle with the thought at times. One thing that I know for sure is that I have family and friends who have my back no matter what. I’ve had talks with them before about situation. I haven’t opened up fully to anyone about it. I managed to keep all my feelings to myself. The main thing that fuels me to be a great point guard was him. I strictly was against having off days when I played. In the book “The Yellow Birds”, the Bartle faced many changes during his time at war in Iraq. His best friend was killed and he had to live with that. He showed signs of PTSD but tried to resist help.


Remix Slide- Aigner Turner

IntroTech- One Slide Presentation
From the critique of my slide I learned that I should make my slide about what truly matters to me.  At first I had stuff that makes up what I am, but then I realized I should something that I truly value. From doing research from the sites you gave us, I learned that the size of a single slide can take up room so the slide won't look so spacy and to use bright colors to make it pop. Some sources I used was zachholman.com.

Art Portfolio

I have created a ton of drawings this quarter. Most of them were with coloring pencils. Coloring pencils being the main focus this quarter, I feel like I have enhanced my coloring skills. Each of my art drawings were all time consuming but I was satisfied with the outcome. Not only that but with using the charcoal pencils, I feel like my shading skills has definitely helped me draw more efficiently. Last but not least the blind contour drawings were definitely a roller coaster. A challenging task but once accomplished, it gave a new perspective on art.

Soccer Slide and Script

REAL TECH (2)

The topics of my slide are soccer and technology. These are two big subjects in my life. I quoted the captain of my soccer team, Jori, who stated, “The grind never stops”. I made the text blue and gold. Not only do these colors contrast with the background, but they are the colors of the union soccer team. I made the part of the image inside the computer screen colored so that oneselves eyes would be brawn to the main topics. This also added a futuristic effect. My background bleeds off the side because it is more pleasing to the human eye. Finally, I used the rule of symmetry, which means that the sides of my slide are not identical and the background is not centered.