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Reflection

The themes I used for this was Forgiveness and Acceptance, Private vs. Public self, and a little of Judgement - societal + individual. The way I went about presenting this was I did a video montage to music and a photo essay combined. I tried to incorporate the color red in a lot of the pictures to show a connection between The Scarlett Letter. During the beginning with the pictures I used a song called “Half Of Me” by Rihanna and it explains how she only shows the sides she wants to show, but not everyone gets to see all of her which is where the Private Vs. Public self comes in. I tried to combine her private and public life by putting a mix between her more calm family photos and then some pictures of her being a little more "wild". Then during the video sequence my first video of Rihanna talked about how she felt about Chris Brown after he physically abused her and how she felt and handled it, but also, how she went back and in the second video she talks about how she was more concerned about him, how he was doing and how she was more concerned about how the public would judge him. In those two videos the themes Forgiveness and Acceptance and Judgement - societal + individual both tied in and that’s why I had to use that last theme so that everything would make sense. I automatically knew who I wanted to focus this on as soon as I knew what our project was on. The process was fairly easy because i already knew the direction I wanted to take this in because of my love for Rihanna I didn’t have a problem coming up with my pictures and videos. The hardest part was trying to make sure it was clear to everyone and not just me. Another problem I ran into was how I could show the themes I used without making it seem like everything was all over the place. I tried to make it as clear and understandable for my audience as possible. The one thing I would change is how clear my videos came out because for some reason they seemed to be a little blurry on my laptop. I’m glad that I worked alone on this project alone because I got to do things my way without asking someone else if they wanted to do this or do that but instead I just got to do what I truly wanted and what I knew I could make into a great project. If I could do this whole thing over again I wouldn’t change anything. I enjoyed doing this project so much! 

Callie Monroe

Sexuality and Society

The Scarlet Letter and Juno Project

The theme of outer versus inner self is one that was represented in both the Scarlet Letter and the movie Juno. In both pieces, this theme was clearly presented and was a key component in the overall message of both. For these reasons, I decided to represent this idea in my creative project. I attempted to represent the idea of physically and emotionally displaying one part of your personality while concealing other parts and the repercussions of both.

In both of the Scarlett Letter and Juno, the characters that were able to outwardly express their emotions had an easier job overcoming any trouble that they faced. In the Scarlett Letter this concept was shown through the characters of Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmsdale. Hester was forced to express her emotions outwardly because she was marked with the Letter A, while Dimmsdale, who was equally as guilty, was enabled to internalize his guilt throughout the whole play. As a result Hester dealt with her feelings in a very manageable way while Dimmsdale bottled them up until he exploded. Through my project I wanted to represent this idea that how you portray your emotions on the outside can very often be the opposite of how you are feeling on the inside.

My creative piece consists of four different masks: two being the outer body and the other two being the inner body.  Each sets of masks represents a different side of the theme. One mask pairing displays a tranquil outside with a hectic inside and the other mask pairing displays a hectic outside with a tranquil inside. I represented tranquility by collaging my mask with natural and earthy elements. Nature is often associated with peacefulness and restfulness, so I thought it would most accurately symbolize a calm serene façade and/or emotion. I represented hectic emotions by collaging my mask with magazine clippings. I used mostly triangles because they have three sharp edges. To me, the edges displayed the clash and struggle that people often find when attempting to reveal their truest emotions. I also used a combination of warm colors (red and orange) and cold colors (blue and green) because they are opposite on the color wheel allowing for more contrast.

The biggest problem that I encountered while doing this project was finding a way to differentiate each set of masks from the other. I wanted them to all be connected, but I also wanted a clear differentiation between them. I found a way to do this by adding specific features. The outsides personas both have facial features to differentiate them from the inner personas and the inner personas are both separated into horizontal sections, the top representing a brain. I also wanted to connect both “tranquil” personas and both “hectic” personas to one another. I did this by adding small similarities to each piece. The outside “tranquil” mask uses a lot of red berries, so I connected the inside “tranquil” mask by adding a few berries. The outside “hectic” mask uses a lot of red triangles, so I connected the inside “hectic” mask by adding a red triangle.

I think that I did a really good job of displaying the overall theme. It is clear when looking at my project that each mask represents an opposing idea. I wish I had done a better job of connecting the outside of the mask to the inside of the mask. If I did this again I would find a way to clearly display which outside mask belongs to which inside mask.

The creative piece that I decided to create was a rap/poem. The rap/poem has three parts. Basically they are describing the theme public versus private self and judgement put onto people from society. The first rap/poem it is describing the three most common things that African American males are known for or judged on. In the second rap/poem it is describing the three most common things that African American females are known for or judged on. In the beginning of each poem the male/female is describing how society views them negatively. Than later on in the poems it shows how they person actually is and the dreams or missions that they want to accomplish in the future. In the third poem, it is relating more to me and what I choose to show publicly and keep in privately. Another theme that ties into the third poem is secrets and how they can have consequences to them. The third poem is describing the struggles that I had to go through with my depression and self-harming. The reason I chose to write this poem besides the theme was because it made me relate to Hester and Juno. They both wore their “sins” on the outside (Hester – scarlet letter/ Juno – pregnant) and so did I (scars). All three of the raps/poems is meant to show the stereotypes that are put on people by society even though society does not know us individually.

My process for creating this creative piece was difficult. At first I wanted to do a dance than I switched into doing visual art and settled for a written piece. I wanted to being more of me into the project while still working around The Scarlet Letter and Juno. I am not the best writer so to want to do this type of project I know from the beginning would be difficult. Than I started playing around with the words and people that I know. Another issue that came up a lot was deciding whether or not to talk about my depression and self-harming. Most people see me as the happy, outgoing and helpful girl that is always there for her friends. Topics like this and others I don't really talk much about unless there is someone that can relate to me and they need advice. I do SAT for health but even when we discuss issues like these I still feel uncomfortable because I feel I am letter my guard down which I don't like to. It just came down to whether or not I wanted to put my personal life online for people all over the world to see.

Overall I am proud of my project because of the amount of detail that I put into the rap/poem. I personally am not a strong creative writer. I do write poems, stories and essays and when I can relate to the prompt or my beliefs agree with it than I can write a stronger writing piece. For this creative project, I was able to be creative with people that I know on a daily basis. There are people in my life who are womanizers or flirts or they are just another statistic so it was just easier to things to come to me. I am also proud of how I decided to put myself and the issues that I have gone through on paper and online. This is not just a poem that relates to the themes of the two literacy but it is also me being comfortable enough to share and allow other people to know me who haven't met me.

Even though there are a number of things I liked about my project there are also things that I could have done better on. Those things personally is the detail of the rap/poem for the female. Even though I am a female and issues surrounding females should come easy to me, it was difficult with putting that into a poem. Throughout the male rap/poem you see transition when the person switched, rhymes, more flow/beat with the words and more detail overall. For the female I feel as though that I hit the surface or picked stereotypes that are hard to describe.

If I could do this all over again what I would do different is the way I present the project. The first and second rap/poem is meant to be a bounce off of three different people. The first paragraph is one person, the second another person, the third another person and the fourth paragraph back to the first person. Basically a flow of different voices so you can recognize the voices differently and actually see the progress they made or showing you how the way society views them doesn't matter as long as they succeed. The format I would do differently is maybe an audio, video going between three people or having it down in person by doing a group project.

Many decisions had to be made about putting these pictures into place. I modeled this slide off of the Ikea advertisement with the cups. The cups had a nice contrast to the black background and the empty space made you notice them. I also used a black background with mostly white symbols to contrast the background. I kept a lot of blank space so you had no other choice but to look at them. The reason one picture was a different color is because I wanted your eyes to go there first. I wanted it to pop out at you so your eyes would start at the top, most colorful image and work your way down until you reached the bottom and realized that it spelled my name. Too much negative space, however, is a bad thing. I put another image that represented me in the negative space but made it slightly transparent so it wouldn't create 
much of a distraction for your eyes. This slide explains me through pictures, but without pictures of me. It explains me without words.

In technology class we discussed how to make efficient slides on PowerPoint that do not have much on them, but say a lot. The idea for this script is for me to be able to be able to explain a slide that is about myself without getting choked up. 

This slide (believe it or not) was inspired by a IKEA sign, since like most they make a point by saying little to nothing. My slide can be considered “glance media”, since in only one quick glance you would get all the information you need to understand it (I am a fencer and I am the best you will ever know). “Bleeding” is when you take a photo and cut part of it out of the frame, this would not work for this in my opinion since you need to see the full picture to know I am fencing. You may also have noticed that the first thing you looked at was was ‘You Will Ever Know’ on my slide since it makes you have to look back and read the rest.

The picture I chose was not random, it is the perfect picture to get the point across about who is the best. The photo was a action shot which causes the viewer to train his eyes on to it, also it bring forth excitement. The slide portrays a bright photo which draws the attention of the readers right after they have read the statement. The only flaw is it holds no emotions, just me fencing, but other than that I is a superb slide.

For this creative project I decided to branch out and create a photoset with all original concepts and photos by me. The concept of all 4 photos is that of displaying different emotions through color. As seen the pictures aren’t all very straightforward when it comes to connecting them to themes, which was the main purpose of this. I didn’t want these photos to only be seen one way but to have different meanings to them. I also wanted to present something that I knew would capture both the book and the movie but also more than just one character from both. What better way to do this than by using photography?

I think that a big aspect of this was being able to not only capture in through my eye but to be able to display what I saw in order for others to understand. I really enjoyed the process of this because as a whole I really enjoy photography and displaying more than just a pretty picture through it. Even though my finished product was something that I'm really proud of I think that steps to it were a bit stressful. It got hard once it was time to shoot. I had trouble being able to focus,even though I could have used auto focus I tried to keep it all manual in order to make it a learning experience. I also saw myself having trouble when it came to picking which pictures to display. Even though it's only 4 pictures I ended up taking at least 40 of each, which in the end only made it harder for me. Even though this process was hard I really enjoyed it and the coming up of the concepts of using colors since that was also used in the movie. In the end I wouldn't change anything about it. 

“Oh What’s Another Ten Pounds ” – JUNO

            Through out the movie Juno to me was on a journey. The journey to find her true emotions. Through out the movie she faced various challenges that deep down inside affected her. As seen on the photograph there are various colors displayed. Starting from Black, Royal Blue, Tan/Orange, Green, and finally pink. All these colors representing a side of Juno present through out the movie. Also as you can see the colors that are most seen are pink and green while all the others are in the shadows. I did this to show that no matter what she went through in the end she was able to find that balance in order for her to trust Paulie and let their love blossom.

Black – Protection 

Blue – Security

Tan/ Orange – Courage 

Green – Healing 

Pink – Happy/Sense Of Well Being/ Romance

“ Thou Hast Escaped Me! “ – Chillingworth

 This photograph is more of a contradiction. Through out the book all Chillingworth wanted was success. However in the end we all know that’s not what he got. Which is why in the photo the emotion being displayed by the little kid is anger. He wasn’t able to succeed which is why in the end he died. He died because he drowned himself so much in his revenge that in the end when it was all over he no longer had anything to live for.

“My Little Pearl” – Dimmesdale

“Aww, It Kind Of Does ” – Vanessa

Intro:

In technology we’ve been focusing a lot on media technology and how it influences our culture today. The slide that I’m presenting describes me!! We’ve also been talking about how to catch someones eye using different types of media, like powerpoint or video.

SCRIPT:

I made my slide look the way that it did, because it reflects my personality who I am as a person. The slide is purple, because purple is my favorite color. What influenced the pictures on my slide is the activity’s, and friends I’ve made for most of my life. I also included things that interest me during the winter seasons, thats why I included the picture of a steaming cup of coco. The picture of the green frog represents cut the rope a game I’m fond of. Another item I added was a smily face. I added this, because I’m always happy and feel as though happiness is the key to everything. I added my friends,  because they make my day everyday when I come to school and i love and appreciate what they do for me. This is my slide, this is me.

I will not photoshop the truth

I will not crop the truth, truthfully speaking the truth

I will not resize the truth for the fittening of your frame

I will not resize or rotate or flip it so that when you first hear it, it feel less offensive

I believe that scars are lessons learn so I won't even fix any blemishes

I won't add any special affect in order for me to look more like you

Somehow, he then touched me.

When he was supposed to be loving me,

It triggered my mind leaving me confused with what state of mind I was in

What I didn't know was that I was about 8 going on 9

And I didn't have the opportunity to decline what would be define as my first sexual intercourse

I went from learning my 1, 2, 3 to learning about birds and bees

Child life was no longer as easy as learning A, B, C

I wanted to know why

I was looking and searching for a sign

I felt used and thrown away like paper cups and plastic utensils at 8 going on 9

My heart was beating out of my chest

And that night, I slept with him, went to school the next day and smile like nothing happened

I just wish for that one moment, someone would look past my outside and look inside

Nothing comes out of my voice, but inside of me, I wanted to scream "Can anyone see that I'm hurting?!"

Took the pain, stored in the back of my mine, and purposely forgot the combination

There is light at the end of this tunnel

We don't see the end, but God sees it clear

For every boy and ever girl who feels defenseless

For every man and every woman who feels like the enemy is beating them senseless

For every tear that rolls that your face and swallow of cry in the middle of the night so no one can hear

For every face that is barried in pillows to hide the tears

Christ is your breath of life and can be your inhaler.

If there's an opportunity to make a difference in your life or someone else life, you do what you can and make the best out of it. If there's a point in time where an obstacle comes along and you don't know what to do about it, you have to suck it up and do what you have to do. Between all those obstacles and change in life, you grow stronger as a person and become independent. Through the characters of Juno from the movieJuno and Hester from The Scarlet Letter, both characters shows their independence and strength with handling their obstacles even though society is continuously pushing them down.

            Just like Juno and Hester, I, myself can relate to them on certain level. Growing up was hard for me. I had many challenges in life; wishing and hoping that it could go away. Juno dealt with pregnancy at a young age and it caused her to be more independence and learning how to deal with things on her own. Just like her, my past helped mold me to be more independent and not depend on anyone, but God. God was my everything. Anything that was happening, I kept my mouth shut and dealt it on my own and never asked for help. For example, in the movie Juno, during her pregnancy, Bleeker would ask her if she needs any help and she would constantly push him away and take matters in her own hands. Throughout my life, people put their hands out for me, but my mentality was just "no, I can do it on my own." As in the book, Hester's surrounding was constantly pushing her down and looking at her in a pity form, which I thought was mean, but Hester, as a character didn't let that bother her. She's the one who knows the truth and she's not going to photoshop the truth to please others.

            And that brings me to the next point. It was hard for me to decide what kind of creative project I wanted to do because I want to do everything! But I also wanted to be the best of the best. At first, I was going to draw, but since I'm not the greatest artist in the world, I decided to express my creativity in a written form. My spoken poetry is about how my past has taught me how to grow stronger mentality and trusting in God. The basic theme that I wanted people to understand from my poem was that you don't have to please society. They can believe what they want to believe, but at the end of the day, you know the truth and that truth creates who you are today and there is hope at the end of the tunnel. This poetry represents who I portray myself on the outside, and what's really happening behind closed doors. Society doesn't know about my past and what I go through everyday, so they expect me to be happy and act like everything is okay. That's why I always walk around smiling, but at home, the pillows are the sponges to my tears. Those tears gave me an opportunity to see the light and I want my poetry to help others gain hope.

I feel like my poetry is pretty good. It doesn't have much, but each words has a powerful meaning. I poured my heart out onto this keyboard, and I hope that my audience can see the pain and effort I put into it. I don't regret anything I have done. Everything has been on time and I have used my time wisely. I mean, there's always a spot to improve. In this case, I don't feel like I have any. If I were to ever do this project again, I think I would challenge myself to draw a masterpiece. That was my first intentions, but it didn't pull through. 

Introduction:

In Technology class we’ve been talking about the different ways to make a slide interesting and in a way that will catch a reader’s eye.  I used presentation zen to get the information I need in order to make my slide. I put some of the advice to action in my slide shown below.

SCRIPT:

My slide looks the way it does, because on presentation zen, a website with slide advice, it recommended that you use bright colors, so I used a dark background with bright blue and pink to add a contrast. The soccer ball represents one of my hobbies, playing soccer, as well as a personal trait, I have a happy personality. My name being big and bright has to do with the fact that the slide is about me. My slide’s letters and  picture is very bold, so people can look at it and know what it’s about. That process is called, ‘Glance media’.

Conclusion:

I chose the bright soccer ball as the picture on my slide, because soccer is one of my main hobbies, and something I love to do. Also, because it has a smiley face on it and I have a happy personality. Being happy makes life more exciting, that’s why it’s important to include it on my slide. The bright colors are there to one, engage the reader, and two because I love bright colors, they help bring out my personality.

Trying to make a slide visual can be difficult. You never know if it’s good enough. You try to fill in all the spaces and make sure it doesnt look empty by trying to make pictures bigger or put more pictures on there without making it look cramped together. 

I chose to put a busy background so that the spaces in between wouldn’t look blank, empty and boring. I put pictures in my slide that describe what I live by.  The first thing i did was put a picture of myself that would best fit the other pictures i would later add. When i was thinking of what to put in my slide, i started thinking of things i did in the morning and one thing was put on make up so thats where the Mac Collection comes in. 

I tilted my pictures different ways to make it look more appealing so that people would want to know what they were about. I used repetition so that it would be clear of what i really liked. I clearly love Marilyn Monroe and beside the pictures, the quotes describe a what i look to for self motivation. I added ballet into my slide, it’s something that i have a strong passion for. It helps me escape the struggles and frustrations of everyday life. It’s peaceful and graceful and relaxing. I also incorporated a part of my culture into my slide which is where the Jamaican flag plays out.

My slides describes me in my simplest form and it goes with the good points i need to make a good slide. 

In the second quarter of Technology class, students were given a project that had been based their Coat of Arms from English class. The slide could include anything wether it’s your life story, your interests, or it’s something makes you. The only thing the slide really had to do was to display a message or a story. As apart of my slide it tells what makes me. 

      “Life on a vintage point”. It describes how I look at life, taking everything, turning it, flipping it, twisting it, looking at it from the other side. It makes me understand things from every perspective. My slide basically tells what makes me, as you can see I'm a dancer and a musician. My slide contains a collage of photos of pointe dancers and instruments. The photos are crop to display the understanding of life on a vintage point. Majority of the photo’s are unilluminated and under lit but there is one picture that is a bright yellow. That bright yellow photo displays a contrast to all the other photos, it resembles how life has been mysterious to me but all of a sudden a bright light has pathed the way. Many of the photos bleed off the slide and also onto the other photos to bring an image to mind that all things connect even in the most awkward ways. The title is not that big and colorful because I don’t want to take the context and the focus away from the photos. The background image is also dark and under lit to blind in with the unilluminated photos. I have included a famous quote from Dr. Seuss and put it inside the bright yellow photo to bring a contrast within a contrast. 

  So I thank you for your time, and I hope that you enjoyed my slide. And I always remember that you are you and there is no one youer than you.

In technology we are learning about slides. Going into this topic I felt like I was not going to learn anything because I have been using a laptop and making slides for the past five years. I quickly learned that I had no idea how to make a good slide. The first website we looked at as a class, completely changed how I look at slide design. I originally thought that a slide needed to be captivating and have a lot going on as to draw the viewers attention. I now know that a slide needs to be simple and powerful, so that it gets the point across without being confusing.

I designed my slide this way because this is what I felt was most important about me. As we learned in class the point of the slide is to catch the viewer’s eye, and to get the point across. My favorite thing is sports, and I wanted the point of the slide to be that it is about me. Also I wrote “I am Jesse, I am awesome”. I meant that in the least full of my self way possible. For this reason I made sure to make the words a different and brighter color than the background as to draw attention. Also I made my name (Jesse) bigger than all other words because it is the most important. I made sure to not use a lot of pictures, and also not to bunch them close together so that they are not jumbled and confusing. I also chose to include separators between the pictures as to establish that they are different, and to draw the viewers eye to each picture individually. 

I learned a lot about slides, and I will use this knowledge to make my projects more captivating and interesting from now on. I think that this way is better, and I am glad that I learned it.

In technology class at Science Leadership Academy, I was given an assignment to make one slide that describes who I am. The class was given several slide presentation websites to read and use to educate ourselves on how best to present ourselves. We then had to write a script describing why we made the design choices we made. My slide is simple and colorful and reflects on what I’ve learned. Hope you enjoy!

I started by setting my background color as an aqua blue, which is my favorite color. I then picked a font recommended on the Zach Holman site that is bold, sans serif and easily readable. I set the color of the words as white to create striking contrast to the background blue. I aligned the smaller text box about my craziness slightly off center to the larger text box with my name. This created some contrast in font size and caps lock, and also draws ones eyes towards the corner. I colored each letter in the word crazy a different color to make a rainbow pattern, which repeats in the corner of the screen. Some empty space was left in the top right corner and the bottom left corner to balance the slide and leave breathing room for the viewer. The bottom right corner holds my main graphic, a rainbow that continues past the edges of the slide. The rainbow flows out to the sides and towards the corners. The color and the shape help represent my identity in which ever way the viewer perceives it.

 learned many new and worthwhile facts about slide design that will help me for the rest of my life. I hope you learned something too about slide design and about me. Thank you!

Our tech teacher is having us create a slide based off of a former project, our coat of arms, in which describes everything about ourselves. This project is a way to show the right way to design and present a powerpoint. Little details make a huge difference when it comes to power points. The following script will describe why every decision of the design of this power point was made. There will also be many vocabulary words included in order to portray reasons behind everything. You will then see another slide, similar to the first one but with some major changes. You will see the differences I made in my slide after being critiqued by my classmates. I will also reflect on this whole project process.

When beginning my powerpoint, I decided that the size and shape of my name would be very large and bold. The whole slide is about me, I figured that the important piece to introduce would be my name, which is why I made it stand out. Also, after learning that the human eye starts at the top right hand corner and works it way around clock wise, I decided the alignment of my images would follow that pattern. I decided to make the contrast of my photos very light so that they didn’t overpower the words, even though they would be larger. All of the pictures have the same contrast in order to show repetition. I left the slide background to be empty, since there are several images. I decided that the color and shape of all of the words would be bright and bold to give you a main idea of the picture so you won’t sen so much time staring at them, and also to make them stand out from the images. All of the words in my slide are sans serif, to make them catch people’s eyes. 

This project helped me learned so much. I hope the script helped you understand the powerpoint a little more, and also help you to understand why everything was done. 

SCRIPT

I used the black background because I knew that it would help my other words pop out. It made the contrast even better. I used the visuals (pictures) because I know that it would help send out the message. I picked the size of the pictures because I did not want it to be that big, but also not that small. The words I put on the screen are all words that describe something. The something is the family. I picked to me each word a different colore because the words have a certain mood. The mood was the color I picked. I did not put the words in close proximity because I wanted them to all be spaced out from each other so the reader could let them all set in. I aligned the pictures because they are all equal to one another. This is why I did what I did.