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My first project was basic shapes and collaging I used the red colors as fire to represent the many forest fires that we're killing our own environment with. This piece involved water coloring and the splatter technique to get the feeling of fire. The glitter might be a little hard to see but it's supposed to show the glow fires have.The second project shows the beauty in our environment, I wanted painting to stick out so I painted them black and added accents of color to give the eye something to look at. It's the good and bad of nature. 

I had so much fun with my first ceiling tile I wanted to do more. I made one big one and two little ones. The first one had a twist on an old 80's comic, I wanted to use bolder colors than the original comic it took a little longer to get the details in the face and the tear drop. I was proud of the way mines came out especially the girls hair. The little ceiling tiles are two of the few places I want to travel to because everyone does a Philly skyline I wanted to leave the borders of America and adventure out. Tokyo and Johannesburg are beautiful places so they were fun to draw and paint.

    Overall I had a lot of fun with my art assignments and look forward to creating a lot more. I couldn't have done it without the help of my lovely art partners in crime who helped cut out the many many pieces of paper for each background. Gave me the motivation to paint and even gave great feedback. I hope you enjoy my four lovely master pieces.

In my first Blog Post, I mentioned Online Predators. In a nutshell Online Predators are people who commit child sexual abuse that begins or takes place on the Internet. This needs to be brought up and have more awareness for many reasons. One; most children are not educated or not educated enough about this topic. If we could teach kids how to be safe Online, there would be a lot less of this crime going on. Two; some parents are not educated enough in this field. If more parents knew the signs of a predator, then more of these instances can be avoided or cut off before it goes out of control. And finally; our society is mostly based off of modern technology. This allows Predators to stalk in the depthness that is the internet and can get away scott-free. If we educate and teach more individuals about this issue, more events like these can be stopped. There has been cases where some police units are trying to bring up awareness, however it is not brought up enough on a global scale. So what are some of the signs of an Online Predator? According to the Washington Police there are several tricks Online Predators use including, but not limiting to; chatting privately, flattery, intimidation, asking for personal information, and sympathy. The main way predators lure in their victims is by ‘grooming’. “Grooming is how online predators manipulate children into meeting in real life with their sole goal of having sex with them. Predators will spend weeks, months, and/or possibly years "grooming" their victims before asking them to meet in real life.”

In my second Blog Post, to find out how much our students actually know, I gave out a quick survey regarding Online predators. Most people in fact did not know the first signs which are chatting privately, flattery, intimidation, asking for personal information, and sympathy. Participants stated that the first signs were asking to meet up or pictures. These are when the Predator already has you in their grip. So this means children are being taught what the most noticeable signs are, but not necessarily the first red flags.

For my agent of change I decided to bring my project closer to the SLA community. I wanted to actively show how to stay safe on the internet. I wanted to make a direct impact. My solution to this was to give a presentation about Online Predators and how to stay safe on the internet. So that’s what I did. I created a google presentation and showed some of my classmates and advises what to do Online and what to look out for. The video can be played below.

Doing this project was definitely an adventure. From having no idea what to do, to making a great presentation, to scheduling presentation dates, rescheduling. Overall it was challenging, but still felt like I made a difference, no matter how small. If I could’ve done this again, I would definitely done something a little more big. Maybe a presentation at a middle school or at TFI. If you still want to make a difference, learn the signs, be safe, and tell others. After all one person saved is another gained to spread the word.

Blog Post #1 shared the point of Black Lives Matter, people who stands up for what they believe in. Black Lives Matter stands up for what you believe in, and what I am doing for this Blog Post is exactly what I want to do.

Black Lives Matter, and Trayvon Martin

For me previous work, I’ve found a video that talks about different people who needs to respect the laws, a guy at the time who was 20-30 years old randomly stopped a Police Officer by the Law of Washington State/RCW. The law stated that anyone who has an unmarked vehicle, is hereby banned to drive. The cop had an unregistered unmarked vehicle and he was using it for undercovering. The citizen gave the cop a huge warning to the cop making him to register the vehicle. The citizen stated there is no mark or indication on the car and the Driver/Cop known as Deputy Canfield have been stopping people in the vehicle in an unregistered vehicle. Everyone needs to respect the law, even the people that are under the power as well.

What I pursued and learned more information about is the laws in the states There should be a change in the community we live in, because people are getting disappointed in the way that they’ve been treating and now it leads to chaos more people are following the ways of mankind.

#BLM Survey

This helps me inform the concept I am learning/researching, it gives us a valuable source of what is happening around the world that demonstrates the cause of these things. I believe that everyone who have heard about this topic is furious about this but we all have a same/different theory about this, we agree and disagree on what we are doing and who we are becoming, but if you actually look at the cause and effect of what’s happening from the past to the present, you would see a huge difference then what society had on us then before.  

This help me of my understanding by showing the concept of why we do this, we do this because we want what’s best for the future, we don’t want a cruel world where we look up to people by example and teach all of us from right to wrong, we want to teach one another respect and acknowledge the fact that we need to do the best we can to raise our children. So my understanding would be the leaders stepping up not just for kids, but for all of us around the world.

In the first blog post (which by the way you can check out here) the main things that I went over were things like teenage stress levels by the percentages which shown to be higher than those in adults, a brief summary of why stress really comes in to anyone’s life, and an explanation of what the project for the class was about. These were the main points that I brought up in the blog post #1, if you want to see them more in detail you can always just check it out from the link above.

And in the second blog post I went over just all of my research and findings from my original research that we were required to do. And I was able to pull up and notice a pattern in some of my research that was somewhat significant. If you are interested in reading the whole thing though, you can check it out here.

For my agent of change part of my project I made a bunch of homemade stress balls at my house to give out to the teenagers at my school well to help them relax in the time of need. But is a part of the way that I was able to get the word out let people know about teen stress and how important it was because I gave them out I told people about my project and why it was important to me. And my whole object to raise awareness to teens on some ways that they could reduce how stressed they are.

What I decided to pursue for my agent of change was a way that I could help teenagers be less stressed but have it also be a way that they could do in school. Because based on the research from my last blog post things that a lot of people did when they were stressed you can’t really do in school. So these would be things like: Sleep, get on social media, cry, etc. So an idea that someone gave to me that I decided to follow through with was making stress balls that they could use in school.

This image shown below is showing a student that is reading a book for class which they probably weren’t enjoying, so they whipped out the stress ball to make everything better!

I feel like my agent of change worked for the most part while it lasted there were some times when the stress balls backfired and actually just caused more reasons to stress because some peoples broke and it was just a mess every where. But I think that they generally helped people, even if people weren’t actually using the stress to squeeze to death, but some people were satisfied by just having it because it was cool I guess.

What I did wish that I could’ve done better was been doing all of this stuff earlier and planning it all out better. Because in the end I needed an extension on this project mainly because when I got stuck with my project and needed a bit of guidance, I didn’t really follow up with that and just waited until the last minute. And then even after I got an extension I waited until the day before necessary to get the agent of change ready, staying up until past midnight and what not. And I wish I would have done that earlier so that I could have thought of a way to maybe keep the balloons from popping a notable problem.

Extra pictures from agent of change:

While researching poverty for this project, I encountered many glows and grows. Some glows are my discovery of many organizations that battle poverty. Since poverty is the cause of hunger, many organizations are aware of this issue and are trying to help. Though, for my research, some grows are I wanted to find more about people affected by poverty so that I could involve them in my original research. I believe that if I had added that information, more people will be interested in the topic of poverty. A question that was left unanswered and I am still wondering about is why were parents not as effective as much as children.

Some challenges I experienced during my original research was finding an organization that would allow me to interview them. It was something that I could not do since no one wrote back to me. So I was left to do a survey. I actually found some shocking information. For example, many people knew that poverty is an issue but they didn’t know that poverty affects mostly children. If I can do this over again, I would continue to reach out to organizations and if that is not possible, I could get better questions on my blog post 2 so that it would answer my point.

For my research, I wish I had interviewed Lily Palmer because of her recent experience with Dress Codes. I think her story would have made a great contribution to my project and i'm really upset I didn't have the time to talk to her. I wanted to know how it made her feel, what emotions was she feeling when she was called out for her attire, how she reacted, and how is she going to prevent this from happening again.

My original research went really well. Many people did my survey, so I got a lot of insight on what people think about feminism and how they feel about it. If I could do something differently I would have released my survey sooner, and I would've made my questions mandatory to answer because a lot of people skipped questions on my survey.

My project had a pretty good impact because a lot of people learned about feminism and what it really is. Many girls showed up for my photo shoot, and many people shared a picture with the hash tag #MoreThanADistractionSLA. What really shocked me is most people posted pictures of themselves in black and white with the hash tag which was weird and random, but it was something that made my project stand out. It basically created a trademark for itself.

If I had the chance I would do this project again because it was something I enjoyed. I also liked that I got to do my work based on a topic I am very passionate about because it gave me the chance to reach my full potential and do a good job on it. I really hope that my project has, or will make an impact because feminism is something I strongly believe in, and knowing that I made or can make a difference makes me feel 100% more motivated to fight this issue than before.

I think interviewing Mr. Lehmann was awesome, because I was working to help my cause, (school funding) and at the same time work in my own school, which I think is cool because I can see the change from inside out.  Also, I am glad all of my work got to be internal to the school because it gives me a deeper sense of pride, knowing that I am directly affecting the people around me.  However I hope it can affect the whole school district, and if I continue with this cause throughout my high school career or even further, possibly, I change the way schools are funded completely.  I also am glad that I am now well informed on this topic.  It is a relatable topic amongst all my peers, and I should have understood the problem better, becuase up until now did not know why there was a problem at all.  However, I am able to explain our school funding fairly well now.  

Something I am not happy with is that the organization I tried to work with responded at first, but when I tried to solidify a time to work with them, they were silent.  Also, getting posters printed and put on the walls have been a struggle, and I am just resolving that now.  I wish I had found out more about the politics of how the schools are funded, and what measures can be taken to change the system.  If I had known who to go to or an organization that dealt with that, that would have been nice.

I think my original research went great.  All my interview questions were answered and provided much of the information I wanted to know.  The only thing I can think of for it to have been better, would be to interview more people for a variety of answers and more information.  Putting up posters is something I like to do and hopefully will have some impact, but if I were in a different, more powerful position, I would have liked to make a bigger impact.  

I am extremely impressed with my You and the World project. To me it seemed like a mini Capstone project. By far this is the best benchmark project I ever had in SLA. I remember when it all started which was in the beginning of the quater. When Ms. Giknis was explaining the benchmark I got really excited. There were so many topics to chose from. Idea after idea ran through my mind and surfaced in my notebook. Bullying and depression were the first few topics that I wanted to choose. That’s until I came up with stereotypes. I thought this topic was great for me because it was not a topic that everyone had already considered. Every time I told someone about my topic they gave me a weird looked and asked more about it.

 I did my you and the world project on animal abuse and neglect. I wish that I would have found a lot more because I did not find at much as I planned to find. One thing that I wish that would found is more information about factory farming because it came to me at the last minute and I did not have much time to work on it. Also, I wish I found at least eight topics on animal abuse because I only found at five topics. Another point that I to mention is that I want to know more about why animal abuse is not taken as seriously to most issues in the world today.

 My original research went bad but also good in a way. The reason why I say this is because my goal was to gather  how much my school knows about animals abuse. Instead, I gathered how much my school did not know about animals abuse because the majority of the people who took my survey failed. Although, I did find out how many people were not educated which informed me and that is a good thing. One that I would make change is the difficulty of my survey because it might of been to hard. Also, I would of interviewed someone who works at the ASPCA instead. I would of done this because now it seems more easier and informational than a survey.

I actually had more of an impact that I expected. I thought that nobody was going to bother to look and visit my website but instead a lot of people did and it educated them. Just look at my website blogs for example. I received comment that “It was a very informative website. Before entering this website I thought that animal abuse was simply just pet owners hitting/starving there pets. Now I am aware of the different types such as animal testing and circus abuse. In addition, I hoped for people to get educated and from my comments I learned that a lot of people did.

Grado: 11th

Edad: 17

Estado civil: Solo

Profesión: Estudiante

Leo le encanta su casa. Le gustaria cambiar cosas menores en su casa. Leo tiene muchos cuartos en su casa. Leo tiene 18 o 19 cuartos en su casa, pero quisiera tener menos cuartos. Leo es un hombre de familia. El quiere tener hijos y una esposa.

Diseñado por: Aniya & J’Lynn

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/abuse_neglect/

I am choosing animal abuse because there are a lot of people around the world abusing animals. There are too many people using animals to take advantage of them just because they may make one small mistake. Some people would make up an excuse saying that they would hit their pet just because they were not listening to their owner. Also thousands of animals would be abused each day just because they were with the wrong owner. The most abused animal is the pitbull. This one pitbull, she was a girl and she was homeless until one night a stranger had came up to her in an alleyway and tied a wire very tight around her mouth. Her nose had to be surgically removed. It is really sad that humans would be so cruel to hurt or attack a sensitive animal like this.

Now wouldn't you like to see a dog happy or sad. Why would anyone want hurt a poor little puppy or kitten. Some people say that it's hard to train an animal or they don't like how their pets react to certain things. That's why ASPCA would help. Nobody could ever make up an excuse hurt a dog physically or mentally.The main reason why I chose animal abuse is because too many people think that animals shouldn't be treated as well as humans. Sometimes I really just wonder why humans would take their anger out on poor little animals, and why would they do that, why hurt little animals at least you could confront the people that hurt you instead.

You can actually help the fight against animal abuse. You can spot animal abuse by just walking down the street. If an animal has untreated wounds it can get infected.  An owner could be seen giving it's pet dirty water. If you look closely to a dog's neck it might be a scar on it's neck from the collar being too tight. I think animal abuse should be stopped by arresting the owners that abuse their pets. It is not fair to the animals that have to deal with this in any time in their lives.

I enjoyed the activities that I’ve involved myself in with the You and The World project. It actually changed my outlook on life a little and discovered that even small actions can make big changes. Many individuals have their own story about their success, downfall, etc., and through this project, I progressed in a way that also changed others as well. Even though the You and the World project has ended, I still want to delve into the subject of social anxiety and fear of public speaking.

While researching my topic, I made discoveries that I’ve never knew about. It really helped my knowledge and perspective about people who suffer from social anxiety. I knew some things that pertained about the disorder, but it was basically information that I had because of knowledge I had about myself. What I would’ve tried to do differently was try and learn more information. The information I’ve gathered mostly consisted of factual evidence and scientific reasons as to why people suffer from social anxiety and have fear of public speaking. My goal during the time period of which we were supposed to research was to find an online community in which people actually shared their experiences and had first hand experience. It was already kind of late, but I already found a website that contained posts from people that share their story and get help from others who also suffer from social anxiety after researching.

Conducting original research was pretty difficult, having people reply to your emails and comply to your schedule wasn’t easy at all. I sent out a lot of emails to people that had specialties in dealing with the human mind and those who suffer from social anxiety. None of them replied, so I resorted to interviewing some people that I was recommended. I also tried to go to a mental institution to request for an interview with someone face to face. It didn’t go pretty well, no one was available. Although it was pretty disappointing not being able to get at least one response, I think I did pretty well with working with what I have.

The Agent of Change part of my project was completed with Jhazzelle and TK. I think that I could’ve done a better job with the 3rd part of the project by having presentations. Mental illnesses aren’t taught in health classes in schools, and talking about it to a group of people should help them understand it more. Or even just have knowledge about the topic. I could’ve made a brochure and/or poster and passed it around. Overall, I think that I did a good job with spreading awareness about my topic.

Reproductive freedom is a problem in this country. Politicians (mostly male) everywhere are trying to limit women’s access to birth control and abortion clinics, and are passing regulations and laws to make sure schools teach abstinence-only sex education.

I think everybody everywhere believes that an abortion is not a pleasant procedure, though it is very safe. However, I think it should be available to women everywhere without some of the limits like the twenty-four hour rule, forcing the woman to look at the screen during the procedure, and the requirement for a guardian’s signatures for under-age women. For the people who are pro-life because of religious reasons: women were put onto this planet by God with the unbelievable ability to carry and birthe a child, and I think the choice of what to do with that should be up to her. I wrote more about this in my first blog post.

For my original research, I was able to speak to Adrienne Ralston of the Options Industry Council of America, a non-profit organization. Ms. Ralston’s work is to educate today’s youth about sexual health, and its dangers, options, and circumstances. I greatly enjoyed speaking with Ms. Ralston, and I learned a ton. We spoke for over an hour and I asked her many questions, and it was amazing to receive the insights of somebody who’s immersed in the reproductive freedom and choice world every day.

One of the first questions I asked her was about what ways Philadelphia is successful when it comes to educating people about reproductive freedom. She answered that Philadelphia has a very involved community of people, organizations, and companies that are focused on educating the public - especially young people. She said that, compared to other places in the US, Philly is a great place to be to learn about reproduction rights and resources in general.

However, there is still a ways to go. I followed the previous question with one regarding specific topics about which people lack knowledge and education. She responded that STDs and HIV infections were overlooked and underestimated topics in our city, and not thought about nearly enough. Philly apparently has five times more cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea than the national average, which is scary to think about and is a result of the ignorance about these things.

Ms. Ralston and I spoke about many other things, but those were two that I thought I’d share. It was a great experience to hear her thoughts, and I would not change a thing about it. There were no obstacles, other than the beforehand communication. I wasn’t sure what to expect when we set the interview up, since I’d never met Ms. Ralston. I was very lucky - it went smoothly and easily, and I had fun. As of now, I cannot think of anything else I wish I had asked her. I am curious to find out more about the different ways people can help reproductive freedom and sexual education, and I hope that I have or will inspire others to do the same.

For my agent of change, I will find a petition that needs many signatures and help to get names from my community onto that. I’ll try to find one that is about sexual health in some way, whether it’s about abortions, sexual health insurance, or contraception.

Screenshot of the end of our phone call

Screenshot of the recording of our conversation

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Adrienne%20Ralston%20Talk%20Copy.m4a?_subject_uid=400656945&w=AACJJYVCA094wdN0LIBZeoWlYPxXJktVKVS9jyeJovy1kQ (link to Dropbox recording)

PIC: Reflection

Looking back on my Passion, Information, and Change project on the Syrian Refugees, I think I did fairly good work. My first blog post was Research, in which I did all of my base research. It’s where I found the first facts I needed for my project, so I could begin working on it. I wish I had found more on why the issue was occuring in my first round of research, however. I felt like I needed more on that, and I found very little on it. All in all, however, I think this part was very successful and I learned a lot about my project through the first research section. My second blog post was on my Original Research, where I contacted Melissa Fleming of the UNHCR for an interview. This was a rough part at first, as I couldn’t find someone to contact, and I didn’t know who I would do my interview with. I knew a survey wasn’t going to help me, and there was no real way for me to do field observation, so I had to do some sort of interview. Finally, however, I found Melissa Fleming, and got in contact with her. She kindly answered my questions, and I had the information I needed. While it was difficult at first, this part was generally a success.

My third blog post was on my Agent of Change, and this one went decently. For my agent of change, I did a bake sale with the assistance of a classmate of mine. We successfully sold everything we had, however this only netted us about fifty dollars to donate, which, while big for a single bake sale, was not very much to donate. If I could redo my project, I would do multiple sales, as to raise more money, so I could donate more money to the UNHCR to give to the Syrian Refugees. Other than this, though, I think this third part of my project went well, and, while could’ve had some improvements, was also generally a success. All in all, I think my entire project was a success. I think there was things I could’ve done better, such as more in depth research, better interview questions, and more money raised. I do think that I did do a good job on my PIC project otherwise.

Overall, I think this project was a great way to get teens to start thinking about problems around the world that we usually don't think about. Also, this ¨ You and the World¨ project was also a good way to get teens involved in outside of school programs. Some of us even got to meet new people during this project. On the other hand. this was a very hard project. I wish we were introduced to the project ahead of time because this would of gave us more time to think out better ideas and things we wanted to do. In the beginning of this project, I was excited and was really to have a good project. Near the end of this project, I was so exhausted from this project. I tried so much to go with my first Ideas, but things went downhill. I also wish I could of found a person to come in and talk to the class. I would hope that more people are open to my brochure. I wish I could of got deep facts that would truly hit a person that would make them want to change. I wanted to get stories from people who has experienced drug abuse and addiction. My original research didn't go as plan because of time and I was unable to find a center that agreed with me. I would choose a different topic which would probably mean a different original research. I don't know if people actually used my brochure, but I hope that if people are really having problems, they go to get resources. I want people to sit down with a person that may know is going through this stage and talk about possible solutions to become a better person. I want people to know that the start of their better life came from me. If this interest you, take time to check out my brochure.

Descripción

Emi es una persona bastante tranquila y muy responsable. Pero es un poco impaciente y tímida. Ella es simpática. En mi tiempo libre ella le gusta escuchar musica y leer libros. No le gusta nada fútbol. Su color favorito es rosa. Su comida favorita es macarrones con queso. Su deporte favorito es baloncesto.

La Casa Sueña

Emi Gerveni tiene muchas expectativas cuando ella habla acerca su casa sueña. Su casa es muy grande, colorido, y ocupada! Ella tiene su casa sueña cuando ella es viente cinco años y su tiene un marido y niños. Su casa es cerca de la ciudad y playa!  La casa es moderno y tiene tres pisos. En la primero piso, hay una cocina grande, una sala, dos baños. En la segundo piso, hay tres dormitorios, dos baños, y dos balcones. En la tercera piso, hay un teatro, el piso de bailo, un bar de la comida, y un balcón. La casa sueña de Emi es muy interesante!

Primero Piso

Cuando tu caminas dentro, el baño, las escaleras, y la cocina grande está las primeras cosas que tu ves. Por el pasillo, hay está la sala y el otro baño. La puerta en la parte de atrás está el patio trasero. La sala tiene un sofá, una mesa, un televisión, y una puerta. La cocina grande tiene una nevera, una mesa del comedor, un lavabo de la cocina, una despensa, y una estufa. Los cuartos de baño tienen un inodoro, una puerta, un lavabo, y un espejo. Las escaleras van a segundo piso.

1.) La puerta

2.) El inodoro

3.) El lavabo y el espejo

4.) La nevera

5.) La estufa

6.) La despensa

7.) Las escaleras

8.) El lavabo de la cocina

9.) La mesa del comedor

10.) La television

11.) El sofá

12.) La mesa

Segundo Piso

El segundo piso tienen dos escaleras, tres dormitorios, y dos balcones. En los pasillos, hay estan los lavadoras y los armarios. Todos dormitorios tienen una cama, una puerta, y un vestidor. Dos dormitorios tienen la puerta que van a el balcón. Las escaleras por el pasillo van a tercera piso.

1.) Las escaleras

2.) Los lavabos

3.) El inodoro

4.) La ducha y la bañera

5.) El balcon

6.) La puerta

7.) El armario

8.) El vestidor

9.) La mesilla de noche

10.) La cama

12.) Las lavadoras

13.) La televisión

Tercera Piso

La tercera piso es más espacioso de el primero y el segundo pisos. La tercera piso tienen una sala de cine, un baño, una sala de baile, y un bar de comida. La sala de baile tiene tres ventanas, un televisión, una puerta, y un espejo grande. La sala de cine tiene seis sofás y un televisión grande. El baño tiene un inodoro, un lavabo, y una bañera. El bar de comida tiene tres heces y un mini nevera. Las escaleras segundo van a el segundo y el primero pisos.

1.) Las escaleras

2.) Las ventanas

3.) La televisión

4.) El balcon

5.) La puerta

6.) El espejo

7.) Los sofás

8.) El inodoro

9.) El lavabo

10.) La bañera

11.) El bar

12.) Las heces

13.) La mini nevera