Slide.

Script for Tech: 

Why did I chose how to place this slide.
My name is Amanda Thieu, this slide is to respresent me as a person, following regulations from the website presentation zen. For tech class 2012 we are being introduced to making visual slides than text slides. For example, we are learning to how use slide to capture the main image and make it stand out the most, trying not to let the text over power the image.


I placed my picture of the griaffe in three sections because it was too long to fit on one slide fully. I used the dark to light background, because it gave contrast to my picture and also the text as well. I am using the method bleeding a picture to create three separate sections because it looks neater. Since, humans are more comfortable seeing things from left to right, I placed the Giraffe's head first, it's neck next, and the rest of it's body last. I put the text at the bottom because I wanted the picture to be the main view of the entire slide. You can tell what the image is at first glance, and if you leave the image in just one main picture it would be terriably small. Making the image be the main point in the slide is very imporant. There are several reasons why I chosse the quote. Why? It respresents how some people are meant to be tall and others be short, it does not matter how you turn out. 



Amanda'sTechProjectpdf

Espanol 1

In one blog post on SLATE, post the photos of 3 different people who are similar-ish. Describe the hair and eyes (TIENE) and the likes/dislikes (Le gusta…) of ONE of those 3 people. Do not say the person’s name. People are going to read your post and guess which of the 3 people you are describing. Be thorough but don't just give away who it is.

Your blog title should be: Adivina (Guess!)

I Don't Know

I don’t know. That’s all I’ve been saying lately. It seems like I don’t even know myself. I don’t know how I feel. I mean I do, but I don’t at the same time. I don’t understand how you can know but not know how you feel. It’s confusing to me and I’d rather not even try to explain it. I don’t know what words to use to describe how I feel. I’m not even sure I could string together enough sense to make sense of what this feeling is. You just feel it, there’s no name for it not even a vast vocabulary could describe this. My only explanation is through metaphors and similes. It’s like light shining after a long darkness. Not an eye stinging early morning light, but peaceful. Like the warm sun shining over your face while the light flickers off of your irises and makes them look clear and bright. Its like that nervous butterfly feeling you get mixed with a little despise. It’s a weird plot twist that can but cannot be explained. There are emotions that conflict but don’t seem to come anywhere near each other.

 

Her long hair always seems to tangle and intertwine between my fingers. I love the way her fingers stroke the back of my neck, while I burry my face in her neck resting my chin on her collar bone. When she sees me her grey irises grow wide and her smile becomes soft. Looking up at my bedroom ceiling I think of the way her brown cheeks look. How there’s a faint red in those cheeks, and they feel like rose petals beneath my fingers. I know she’s not mine, and she may never be mine. But how long is never really? Never could end tomorrow, there’s a light in this woman’s soul. That just might put an end to the dark road I’ve been traveling on.


 Do I make sense? Or is this just too confusing. Its just one of those things you have to know personally to understand, but does that really matter? Because I know the feeling and even I don’t understand. I keep second-guessing myself on what this feeling means. I think from now on I’ll just call it “that feeling” ‘cause it’s really just that feeling. That feeling you get when something beyond what you were expecting happens, and in that moment the flutter of a heart beat against eardrums and constricting arms become home. I swear I could sleep in her arms forever.

 

Juno and Scarlet Letter Creative Piece- ISerrano

​Alienated from Society

My creative piece is a painting that is suppose to represent a woman being shunned by society for having a child. It's showing that no matter who may be standing beside you, the only important thing to the woman is whether or not she has the child. The two men standing beside the woman in red represent the male protagonist from the movie Juno and the book The Scarlet Letter. The sort of long hallway is to show the journey that needs to be taken by either woman. Juno didn't keep the baby but she still had to go through a lot to deliver the baby. Obviously the woman is red represents both Juno and Hester.  

The colors give more meaning to the painting because there are so little characters to tell a story. The color red played a major role in both the book and the movie (if you look hard enough) and in my piece it is used to represent sin in a way. The red lines in the black are all the people who have ever shunned Juno or Hester because of what they did. They are painted in red to show that they aren't as guilt free as they pretend to be. 

The pacifier. 

I find it to be too straightforward but I couldn't think of anything else to represent a baby.  It shines a white light on the woman. It gives her a reason to ignore the remarks that others give her. Her only focus is the baby and nothing else. Not even the two men standing beside her. 

The colors that the two men are painted in a suppose to give a hint into who the are. The man on the left has brownish-black shaggy hair and blackish-red colored clothing. This is Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. The man on the right has brownish curly hair and is wearing gold and red. This is Paulie Bleeker. 

One problem I encountered was that the color red can only be used so many times and I didn't want there to be so much. So I mixed colors with the red paint to get different shades. I think this worked well because it sort of shows different levels of innocence I guess. I feel like the way I just drew squiggly lines to show the high school kids and the villagers was childish. I definitely would find another way to represent the if I could do this project again.  But I do think I did well in portraying the message I wanted to well portray, even if it isn't drawn well. 

If I could do this project again, I would want to find a more metaphoric way to represent alienation from society. The way white and black worked off of each other is okay but it’s been done before. Which is why I found it to be an appropriate way to represent alienation. Doing the project again would give another chance into finding a different way to represent this. 

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Stuck in my own world.


“change please?”

She acts like she ain’t got no change to spare .She got on some suit with a big bag and sunglasses ,living the life but can’t spare a damn dollar.

If I was her, I wouldn’t mind giving someone a helping hand

I mean-


“excuse me sir but do you have a dollar to spare?”


That bastard knows damn well he heard me too. I interrupted my own thoughts just to talk to him. Him and that lady can rot in hell.

 I could be like them too if it wasn’t for being born into poverty. I could’ve made something of myself to. Oh hell.. who am i kidding? I’m only Emmit Perry Jr.. 

The guy who sits outside on 16th and Chestnut

‘til the security “escorts” me to leave.

If I had just a few dollars,I know that I could do it.

“Change please?”


She did not just call me a dirty asshole.I know I’m better than that

So what I can’t afford that Gucci and Lucci shit that they wear. I’m still a person,

When my mom lost the house, I thought that we would simply go to a shelter til we get back on our feet

But now that she’s gone,who do I have?  Who’s willing to help me?

That’s what’s wrong with America now. Those who have everything, are willing to give nothing. 

 

And look who it is. Another homeless guy storming across the street to where I am. As if this is not my territory. I’m in need, he’s in need, hell, we’re all in need, just of all different things.

He keeps talking to me and drowning him out with my own thoughts is becoming harder and harder

“Why’d you give me this? I’m sure it’s taken you forever to get $10.”

Without an answer, he continued to walk as I followed him to the nearest alleyway.


Oh my god. well I damned. The homeless man is the same woman that walked by me and called me an asshole. She placed all of her disguise in her brief case and left out of the other side of the alleyway as if nothing ever happened. Now I have to make sure I’m careful with this, because this could be my last chance to be the person I wanna be.



“okay sir”  

I don’t even feel like giving the security any issues right now, so I’m just gonna walk til I find somewhere to sleep.

Scarlet Letter/Juno Reflection

Choosing this type of creative project was very enjoyable for me because I really enjoy creative projects. I was sure wanted to incorporate my artistic abilities into a successful project that will reflect similar themes from both The Scarlet Letter and Juno. After developing a series of ideas for my creative project piece I narrowed my choices down and can with the conclusion of showing the theme of Identity through small cutout snowflakes that join together to develop one larger snowflake. Through this my creative piece would identify the uniqueness one snowflake has as it conjoins with others to display a connection.

After choosing the creative part it was my job to figure out how to incorporate a theme from both the book and the movie into a theme that can relate to my choice of choosing "Snowflakes". One of the things I find that really caught my attention about snowflakes was that not all snowflakes were identified with the same pattern of design and all had their own unique self pattern. Relating back to the theme "Identify - Definitions/Redefinition" it stood out to me as both a reader and view of both the book and movie that many of the characters within the story lines both symbolized "finding ones true identity" and "Uniqueness". I intertwined a red snowflake to represent the the color blend of uniqueness and how it makes everyone who they are.

In order to creative this project, I first sketched the outline of how I wanted my snowflake design would look like in my sketchbook. After several hours of coming up with different designs to show the trend of unique patterns in each individual snowflake I then ended my sketching process with one larger snowflake from the smaller snowflakes that I have created. Once the sketching process of the project was done I then began to use about 25-30 sheets of white printer paper and began to cut out about 20 larger origami snowflakes and cut different shapes into each one to make a each one different. One I have completed this I cut the red snowflake and placed it in the middle. After all that I attached all the snowflakes then I was able to have a finished project.

Overall, with the outcome of my project I am very delighted. I believe that my creative project portrays the aspect of being different and finding ones true identity and effectively conveyed a theme for both stories. 

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Creative Piece. (:

My project, a collided master piece of a puzzle dealing with conflicts between relationships and responsibilities, is only as confusing as it first may appear. The final product shows a series of names from a few of the main characters, each was given a color that is connected to a line that connects to some type of relational problem, which in return gives each person a set responsibility. Even some people, who have the same relationships can intertwine and create their own relationships. For example, Paulie has a yellow line coming from his box, and this yellow line connects to different major struggles or topics within the movie Juno, and each topic gives him a responsibility. It's his personal relationship to that responsibility. BUT, Paulie's line may also intertwine with some of the character Juno's personal relationships, thus creating a relationship between the two. Which also can create similar and different responsibilities. It's a bit confusing to understand, but the main idea of my collage is to show the depth of how much their is to each and every person in any story, movie, and life. Nothing is easy. Even the simplest task can be the most stressful. It's remarkable how much people can go through and yet everyone still survives. Death is the easy part, but survival and struggle is the most complex and tiring process, ever.

At first, I didn't know how to create my point. I had the idea of lines, and how each could create specific ties, but I didn't know what should go where or how to put who, where. Understand the complication? In the end, I viewed it as one of those silly magazine quizzes that tells, What Kind of Kisser Are You?  &Each response would give off a new ending to a different answer. My idea was very similar to that. In fact, it was driven from that exact brain thought. &Ever since I created my puzzle. I feel as if I did very well at connecting the people and their relationships and responsibilities, as well as explaining why each is the most important to each other.

As furthering into my project, I made sure to include my connection to each as well, and on the index cards wrote down the responsibilities I have to face with each one. Though, nothing is perfect and I din't connect to a few of them. But that's what makes life! We all can connect to similar, but not all the same relationships and responsibilities. 

Though, while doing the project I came across not being able to fit my full explanations on the index cards, so I ended up only writing MY responsibilities. Rather than writing out everything from everyone. But to fix that problem I simply added in a longer paper version of their explanations and pasted it to the board as something to look at when curious as to how someone can relate or connect to a specific person/topic. 

 I could do the whole project over again, I would most likely use a lot more characters and a lot of relationships, thus creating something even more insane! The more complex it looks, the more depth it can really have. &It's the depth that i was going for. 




The explanations for each part:

Proving Someone Wrong/Right:

Myself: In my current life I'm struggling almost every day to prove my parents and all the people around me that I can make it. I've heard so much about failure, drugs, homelessness, and suicide… people don't believe in me, especially my parents, but it's my responsibility to prove them wrong. &Prove their hearts right about the success they know they want me to have. 


Dealing With Strange Love:

Myself: I've been with the same guy since freshman year. On and off, on and off. We stopped being "official" in junior year. But he won't leave my life. His family thinks we're still dating. We talk to other people, but in the end of the day… I'm the one he will spend all Saturday and Sunday with. We're so close and so in love, but we're not public. &That is my fault. It's my responsibility to make his happiness everything. So one day, we can be public. 

Juno: She is faced with her growing independence and thrive to do things on her own, but her deep affection for Paulie keeps her pulled away from both. It's her responsibility to try and accept her affection for him, as well as maintain a baby with a man who wasn't and technically isn't her boyfriend, just a baby daddy. 

Hester: Her relationship is the most conflicting of all. She has a child with a man who can't have her children. Hester is married and her strange love for Reverend Dims only causes trouble. They both share the responsibility of keeping the community peace, but caring for a daughter who only wants them to be free of those restrictions. 


Stranding For Beliefs:

Myself: As restricting it can be to be a teenager, I have beliefs and things I won't take lightly. I an intertwined with what I will always strand for, such as freedom, liberty, and love. Expression of opinion, and equality. Nothing is equal, but with peace comes equality and tranquility. I am responsible for making my future, and the world around me as tranquil and happy as possible. It's my career, and it's my future. 

Pearl: She believes in the unrestricted love of her parents. Her relationship with her mother and father are bonded by her inability to affectionate them if they can't affectionate her together in public. &She won't stand to allow it. Her responsibility is to not conform them of the nonsense they deal with, but try and set them free. 

Mark: He is tied to a woman who won't allow him to be himself, its his responsibility to break free of those chains by either setting his wife straight with, "If you love me, this is how I am. &This is how we need to be," or by leaving her and expressing himself in his own life.. away from a woman who chains him down with her adult like, life. 


Child Care & Management:

Juno: She is pregnant. She is having a child. She is a teenager. The baby is hers. The baby forever will have her DNA and blood, but the responsibility is cut short. She is to only deal with the management of being in school, passing, stress, and giving birth to a baby that she will only give away. She is all for it, but the inner stress could potentially lead to fatal trauma. 

Hester: Hester was faced with having a child that was not her husbands, and dealing with the stress and humiliation from the community of adultery. It's painful, and can cause loads of judgement. But her child grew beautifully, and it's only the struggle now of being a single mother as well as a leader for her life and an inspiration of the community around her.  

Vanessa: For Vanessa, the baby is only a mir relation to what she can't have. A way for her to be a complete person and a mother without enduring the pain. but it's her job to make sure the pregnant Juno is happy and healthy, as well as take good care of the child after it's born.. knowing it will not fully be hers. Especially being a single mother.


Secret Fond of Love Triangles: 

Juno: Juno is not actually in love, nor is there an actual "love" triangle, but there is a triangle of conflict ion with interest. For example the relationship leads around, Vanessa being married to Mark, but mark finding interest of entertainment and young life with Juno. Not affection, but interest. This could, and would have caused an uneasy feeling with Juno and Vanessa. But it was more of Mark finding his inner freedom and leaving the baby behind. It's the responsibility of acceptance. Vanessa accepting being alone. Juno accepting the child only having one parent. &Mark accepting that he has to either be a man with his life, or go on as a man. 

Hester: Hester had a real love triangle. Being married to Chillingworth, yet had an affair with a Reverend. Then Chillingworth being the doctor for the Reverend. They are intertwined with relationships, but their responsibilities in these relationships differ with independence. Hester has to deal with pearl, and doesn't may much mind to love. But Reverend has to deal with the communities pain, as well as his own. &Chillingworth is the only one bothering the both of them with their responsibilities making his own to ruin or open their secret. 


Maning Up to The Table:

Myself: I'm afraid. Beyond afraid of life changing failure. Afriad of asking of for help, for receiving help, for going after improbable situations, and it's fear that restricts us all. I have a relationship with fear. Not fear of the unknown, for I know my future will turn out great. it's just getting there. It's my responsibility to man up, and take charge at the fear. End our relationship before it ends me.  

Paulie: He has a baby coming. He has a girl who he's not with. &he's A okay with her saying don't worry. He needs to man up, take charge, and say no… It's in my life. Regardless of Juno's independent strive. It's hard..especially when you're so young.

Mark: He has a baby coming that's not even his, nor does he probably want it. His relation goes to his wife who wants the baby. &The freedom he cries for. It's hard, but he took responsibility for loving right or leaving right.


Strive Independence:

Myself: I was always chained to the form that my parents wanted me to be. I was always chained to what school, peers, and what my community wanted me to be. &I'm not anything that anyone wants me to be. My relation is to breaking those chains free and becoming myself. I'm getting there, slowly, but productively. As myself I'm already making a difference in the world around me. 

Vanessa: She has to be a single mother, that's independence enough! Having love, then accepting that it's that time to strive for passion within this innocent child.

Juno: Denying Paulie's help even show's her independence. It's not needing independence, but her responsibility is seeing that sometimes people need help. Maybe even emotional support, but it's always hard to notice that. 

Hester: She was teased, and "tortured" with humiliation. Living a lone with her daughter, and love stricken, she has found her way in life with being on her own. Living peaceful and against the world, she has to survive in the a community where men normally rule as independent and woman are house toys. This gave her a lesson of survival and being to herself. That's how a strong woman does it. 



Trying To Maintain The Rage Of Purpose:

Myself: I have purpose. it's within nature, it's within the core of this Earth. My purpose is great and it's a long hard road to it.. it's a tiring one too. I'm not where heard even the half way point. Maybe a diploma could mark that, but it's still an extreme struggle for depth and meaning. 

Chillingworth: Oh he has purpose beyond belief! His purpose is raged with ex love, and back stabbing, and disbelief. The betrayal done to him drives him in a raging sexual way to condone the Reverend & Hester for the dirty they have done to him. But for anyone who only has ONE purpose… what happens when it's complete? Life means nothing. 


Survival:

This goes towards everyone… The main point in life is to survive. It's to put worth an effort that will last the many years you live, in order to not die. It's so easy to die, but it's not so easy to survive. I strive to survive living on my own. It's not easy going to an insanely hard school, paying multiple annoying bills, working 3 crazy jobs, and living the social life I live. It's not easy for anyone in Juno to deal with  a pregnant teenager, the depth of love and acceptance, as well as marriages falling apart due to the call of freedom. As well as in The Scarlett Letter, Hester is strong for even being able to be on her own in a community where no female is taught independence but to depend on the big strong men of the community. As well as Dimmesdale and Chillingworth striving to find their purpose, or complete their inner mission for whatever reasons as to being as good as possible for God, or surviving the embarrassment of betrayal and so forth. 


Inner Stubbornness & Acceptance: 

Myself: I am not as much stubborn as I am accepting, but there are some things such as conforming to what this society wants me to be that I wont' accept. Or that I won't talk to my parents first, or that I wont' allow someone to boss me around, regardless of authority. I take orders from people who are kind, and out of curtsey ask rather than demand. It's my responsibility, to learn to accept the way this life is and that as I get older only one person cannot change that demand. It's not that it's something bad to accept either, I just have to learn to let go, rather than hold on to the stubborn feeling that is only a waste of an emotion.

Pearl: She is the definition of stubborn. Though, I believe her stubbornness turned out to work greatly in the end, it also caused a lot of pain. It's not her stubbornness that is wrong, but it's her unwillingness to accept that not everything can go her way or the high way. Though, she is young, if not taught young..she will stay that way forever. 

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Scarlet Letter and Juno Creative Piece amillatt

 

The themes I emphasized in my project were societal judgment and public vs private. I basically created a blanket, one side represents the negative thoughts of society about Juno and Hester and the other side represents each characters positive qualities. My idea for this piece was to show how society can sometimes cover up a persons inner good with their harsh words and actions. I tried to make the design speak for itself and not have to write anything more than adjectives. On the societal judgment side, I made the background black and I put a large scarlet letter in the middle. The adjectives are written in black and red sharpie and in capital letters. The reason for the black background and the black and red sharpie is that this side is the darker side of society, the more harsh and cruel side.  I wanted to write the words in capital letters because I feel like society is yelling it at these two girls or making it so obvious about the two characters decision that it is like yelling. Lastly I created the scarlet letter to represent that side because society judged the physical aspects of each character (Hester the Scarlet Letter and Juno the baby bump). Some of the words used on the blanket were “ Hussy, Harlot, Immature, whore and irresponsible.”  because people in both the book and movie associated the characters and real people in their situations with these words.

            For the other side of the blanket, I took a completely different approach. I decided that I wanted this side to show the great quality that each character has on the inside. I made the background bright yellow and the words are written in different colors because I wanted the audience to see the positives and know that this side represent the good. I created a heart and sewed that in the center of the project because the heart represents something that is covered, but still the most important part of you. Those aspects of the characters are covered or ignored by society because of their situation, but they are still important. Some the words I decided to use were “caring, passionate, wise and forgiving” because I thought these words were applicable to Juno and Hester.

            The first step was o go to the thrift store and by all the components: blanket, yellow sheet, white sheet, red fabric, shapies etc. Then I came up with the words I wanted to use by looking at my notes from the Scarlet Letter and Juno.  After that I cut out pieces like the heart and “A”. Lastly I sewed everything myself on the blanket. The project took about 7 hours in total to complete because it did take a while to sew on the A and the heart. The only issue that I had was sewing because I hadn’t sewed something so large since I was 10 years old. My fingers were also soar after hold the needle for such a long period of time.

            The part of the project I feel that I did well on was the idea behind the project. I thought that it was different from the projects that we did in class and the ones that my peers were creating. I wanted to make my project different, which I did. The only aspect I want to improve on it the aesthetic part. I imaged it would look ten times better in my head, I felt like if I had another week I could have spent more time perfecting the minor errors. I am not saying I hate my blanket, but there are some parts that I wish I could have fixed.

            If I had to do this exact project again I would have changed a few parts of the original design. First off I would have made the blanket longer so that I would fit more words on it. I would have also added some pictures from the movie and some cartoons of the book because I feel like it would have added something different to my project. Lastly I would have added more detail, like have a colored border around the words because that would have made it more visually appealing. To conclude I enjoyed working with both Juno and the Scarlet Letter, they are both timeless pieces that I teach our generation a lot.

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Ruben Burenstein Creative Project/Essay

My creative piece focuses on the theme of society interfering with relationships by keeping the individuals apart. To portray this theme I first wanted to make a photomontage of me doing a puzzle, but that idea was scrapped as I realized it would take too long. I ended up making a collage that featured mostly people found in magazines or newspapers. The pictures from the collage were split into two categories, people that represented a relationship or togetherness and people that represented society. The people in the society pictures were almost always in a crowd or angry. I put the pictures representing society in the middle of the collage, and then cut the other pictures up and put one half on each side of the collage. This was to represent couples being split up, or kept apart because society was between them. I also included two quotes from The Scarlet Letter that I thought showed a part of how society would view Hester and Dimmesdale’s relationship. The quotes were “Upon his congregation” and “Beloved minister”. When making the collage I bolded “his” in the first quote because it shows how possessive they are of their minister and the things that he stood for. I think that this emphasis on the quote brings more meaning to how people look at Dimmesdale and how much would have gone wrong if the secret was let out. I chose the second quote because it shows how big a part of the community he is, meaning a scandal of that magnitude could really mess up the community.

As mentioned before I was going to do a photomontage based around me making a puzzle. The puzzle itself would have had a meaning towards the theme, but there would have also been creative ways of putting together, like making pieces almost connect but then being torn apart because of society or something blocking the path. I started to do the puzzle over a weekend, but I realized that it would be very hard just to complete the puzzle by itself in that time, and almost impossible to do the creative aspects of putting the pieces together. I brainstormed other ways that I could represent this theme, and came to the conclusion that a collage could represent it well.

 It took me a few days to get started on the collage because of surgery, but I started cutting out pictures of people whenever I could. I spent a lot of time cutting most of these images to make sure that there wasn’t much outside of the lines. The cutting of the pictures took the most amount of time for everything. I wish that I had spent a little extra time getting more pictures to cover every part of the background, but I think the amount that I had was pretty good. I think that my way of representing the theme with the collage was unique, having the people in relationships physically separated by society was interesting. I do wish that I had gotten more clever pictures to represent society, but I think some of the ones that I do have are good at what they’re there fore. I feel like I could have planned out exactly what pictures were going where better, because there were some that I would have liked to be seen but are instead mostly covered by others.

If I could do this project again I would try to find some way to do my first idea. I would look for puzzles that represented my theme, but were less pieces or easier to put together. I think that this idea is much more creative than a collage, and I would have enjoyed doing it more. If time was still a big issue, I would do a collage again but try to organize it in a more creative or interesting way. With more planning on the layout I could make a more though evoking piece for whoever is looking at the collage. 

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Scarlet Letter/Juno Reflection

For this project I worked with Alysha. We created a trailer to an episode of True Life in which we followed a day in the life of Alysha. In this video Alysha is revealing her true self by wearing a t-shirt which has all of her personal history written on it. To begin, we chose not to tell any of the students used in the video what the project was. That we received honest reactions, not fabricated rehearsed ones. When we did the interviews with students Alysha and I told the them what the project was and that we were looking for honest comments on how they felt about t-shirt. We never imagined that the students would say such harsh things however, it only emphasized our purpose which was to examine how harsh the high school environment can be and how to show how a high school student feels pressured to his their true self as a result.

    At the beginning of this project Alysha and I set forward clear goals. We planned on having the shirt done by Tuesday, video done by Thursday, and process paper done by Friday. For the most part we stuck to these goals. One of the hardest parts of the project was coming up with a plan as to how we would like to execute the video. From the start of the project we wanted to focus on the theme of public and private self. I really enjoyed Brett Chapman’s project from two years ago so, I used that as inspiration for creating the shirt for our video. We started the project with the idea that we would have Alysha walk the halls in the shirt and we would record the reactions of people around her. As we began recording it became apparent that we needed the input of Alysha’s viewers in order to get our point across. We ended up recording over 20 minutes of video only to use about 4 minutes. We over recorded so that we could decide later on how our video would flow. When Alysha and I sat down to edit the video we immediately thought of the television show True Life because in that show high school students with issues are profiled and their peers give their perspective of the situation. We used that as a basis for our project. From there the rest the project just fell into place. I believe the hardest part was editing the video because lacking imovie meant that Alysha and I spent hours in search of a  suitable alternative.
    I’m really proud of how polished the video turned out however, I wish we could have made it longer. I think that our purpose was understood but it was such a fun project that making it longer would have been even more fun. If I could do this project over I would have taken time on creating the shirt. The shirt fulfilled it’s purpose but if you look closely some of the words are spelled wrong and it just doesn’t look as polished as it should. Alysha and I had a lot of trouble finding a shirt so, we kind of had to settle. In some ways, I think that the dirtiness and rushed look suits our video’s purpose because the video is meant to focus on the dirty truth. We never tried to clean up the video. We allowed the actors to curse and to say offensive things because we wanted the rawest and least sugar-coated emotions. I think the shirt was a symbol of this rawness.  
    In the end, I am happy with our final product. I believe our video shows a significant amount of effort, time, and thought. I am happy with the level of polish our video has while still allowing for rawness. I believe that Alysha and I effectively conveyed the themes public vs. private self and acceptance in our video.

Una Carta para Ti.

Querida@____________



¡Hola! Mi nombre es Todd Samuels pero todo el mundo me llama TJ. Mi familia soy de Filadelfia. Tengo catorce anos. Mi cumpleanos es el diez y nueve de enero. Ahora es mucho frio en Filadelfia porque es tiempo de invierno. No me gusta invierno es demasiado frío. Me gusta para escribir música. Odio tener que limpiar, especialmente alrededor de la casa. 




¿Que no te gusta hacer? ¿Que te gusta hacer? ¿Que tiempo hace hoy en _________ ? ¿Cuando es tu cumpleanos? Y Cuantos anos tienes tu?





                                      

Regrards Tipo, 

Todd Samuels Jr. or TJ

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E1 U2 Carta

Querido....,

¡Saludos desde Filadelfia!  

¡Hola! Mi nombre es Brittany. ¿Qué tal? Estoy estrancquila  y  increiblemente cansada. ¿Cuanto años tienes tú? Tengo catorce años. Cuando es tú cumpleaños? Mi cumpleaños diez de Julio. ¿Qué tiempo hace hoy...? Depende dal dia es hace bastante frio en Filadelphia. Me fasina mucho cosas! Yo escuchar música casi siempre. Voy a escuchar cualquier género.  Me gusta mucho comer y dibujar. Me encanta cocinar con mi mama y loco familia. Uf, no me gusta nada ayudar en casa para nada. ¿Y tú, qué te gusta hacer? Soy muy extraña y boba sin embargo mi seria a veces. Soy un poquito perezos pero bien habladora con mi amigos. Soy ni alta tampoco baja. Bueno, me voy porque tengo que hacer mi tarea. Responde cuando puedas.



Con cariño,
Brittany Atkinson:)

Un Carta para Ti

Querid@,

¡Hola! ¿Comò esta? Mi nombre es Gabrielle. Soy vivo en Filadelfia, una ciudad entre la ciudad de Nueva York y la capital. Es una cuidad grande. ¿Qué tiempo hace hoy en ___? En Filadelfia hace mucho frio.

Tengo catorce años, ¿Cuañtos años tienes tú? Soy morena y delgada. Soy divertida, simpática y sociable. Me gusta ir de compras y pasar un rato con amigos, por lo general con mi mejor amiga Sheyla. Me encanta bailar ballet y escuchar musica. Los fines de semana, me gusta ir al cine y dormir. No me gusta nada estudiar o depende del día ir a la escuela. a menudo me gusta cocinar. ¿Qué te gusta hacer?

Bueno, me voy porque estudiar. ¡Hasta luego! Responde cuando puedas.

Con Carino,
Gabrielle.
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Scarlet Letter and Juno Creative Project: Silence.

Although I enjoy the range of approaches a creative project allows, when assigned to me I tend to stick with what I know best. Usually, that results in a written and performed monologue or some other type of theatrical piece. Two themes that I found to be particularly interesting throughout this unit were the confines of religion and culture and and fear of the "other". I noticed that these two themes can not exist without the other. Religion and culture create the "others" that are feared and that fear is then multiplied as the number of "others" increases. This became the foundation for my project.

Initially,  I was working alone. Because of that, I struggled to create a single character that embodied both themes. After some soul searching, I combined forces with Aja to create a dual monologue. Our first idea was to have one character who was a recovering drug addict, meet a woman who was struggling to find herself within the Baptist church, but that idea fell through when we began to loose sight of the themes. 

Drug addicts are often ostracized from society because they have made the decision to take part in rituals that result in self harm, mental instability, and addiction. They are often misunderstood because of the stigma created by religious and societal opinions because both rebuke the use of addictive drugs. These addicts, are then forced to live on the outskirts of society and find a way back inside. We decided to focus only on the recovering drug addict,  Emily, and tell her story from two internal perspectives. One character, Present Emily, is speaking to an audience of recovering addicts and she tells the story of how she ended up in rehab. The other character, Past Emily, is still in the process of realizing the wrong in her actions. 

Figuring out how the characters would interact on stage was difficult;  considering that the two characters were the same person and at no point would be directly talking to each other.To close the gap, I decided that we would use space to show the progression of time and when a character required a physical being for communicate with, they would talk to the other actor who would be still and silent. Also we played around with the use of tense in the piece. As the characters shifted into their final positions in time, the tense of their dialogue changed as well.  Throughout the process of writing the dual monologue, I think that it shifted from being a story-like piece to one that was more technical and more interesting. 

In the past I had the opportunity to work with Aja, but never on this type of project. The two of us have completely opposite writing styles and there were quite a few discrepancies about the tonality and overall structure of the piece. Along with those discrepancies came busy schedules, confusion about what we were doing and why, and a bit of negative feelings toward each other. Despite that, I trusted Aja's ability to create and perform our  project. I think that it was the disagreements that we had that helped flesh out the ideas that were at the forefront and create something of which we were both ultimately proud.

If I could do this project over and was working alone, I would have used the technique of breaking the fourth wall as I had planned when writing a monologue. This technique makes the audience feel uncomfortable and I think that when dealing with a topic such as drug addiction, it is necessary for the audience to feel what the characters are feeling through dialogue, movement, or their place  in the room.  However if I were to redo the project with Aja, I think I would  add more lines for Past Emily, because her story about bullying and what lead her to using drugs. 

Overall, I think that I created a thoughtful, creative piece of which I am truly proud. I enjoyed the writing process, but the performance is what I am looking forward to most. 


Click here to read Silence.

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This image is of the two of us mid-performance. We chose to perform the piece as a staged reading. ​I am on the left and Aja on the right.

Juno and The Scarlet Letter - Creative Project

The book The Scarlet letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the movie „Juno,” written by Diablo Cody, both explore the theme of internal destruction. To illustrate this theme, I decorated an old cigar box. The exterior of the box is decorated with a wood carving while the interior has the appearance of it being burnt. The box is meant to mirror the them of internal destruction because from the outside there is no visible sign of damage, however on the inside there is. 

In order to construct my creative representation of ‚internal destruction,’ I first had to find a box and plan out how to represent my theme. The design on the exterior of the box is symbolic because the cherub was a common design placed on puritan gravestones. The cherub was used to symbolise immortality, which I found paralleled both the story of the The Scarlet Letter and „Juno,” because while the character will eventually die, the story lives on forever. The idea for the roses on the exterior came to me because roses were a common symbolic theme in the The Scarlet Letter. The carvings on the outside of the box symbolise the continence of life or spirit, from the outside, nothing appears to be wrong. However, if you open the box, the interior is blackened as if it was burnt. The box symbolises ‚internal destruction’ because only after you look on the interior of the box, does it look like something is wrong with it. 

I chose to use a box to represent ‚internal destruction’ because the theme reminded me a bit of Pandora’s box. Pandora’s box was filled with everything bad in the world, so it embodies destruction. However, from the outside, the box could be very misleading. I had decided that burning the inside of the box would be the easiest and most effective way of illustrating destruction. To burn the box, I just used a candle and held it really close the the box, to avoid burning a hole in it. I chose to carve the exterior design because I thought it would look more polished in the end than if I had painted it. Carving the wood was much easier than I had originally anticipated, however, I did have to get a little aid from my mother when it came to the roses. I think that the exterior could have looked a little better, had I had more prior experience with wood carving. I’m sure that if examined more closely, one could tell which parts of the design I carved first because I definitely got better throughout my wood carving. 

Overall, I think my creative project went well and tat it represents ‚internal destruction.’ The interior of the box has the physical appearance of being destroyed by fire, while the exterior shows no evidence of destruction. If there was one thing that I would change, it would possibly be the wood carvings on the exterior. I had struggled to come up with a design for the outside, and I got my inspiration from puritan graves, which resonates more with The Scarlet Letter than „Juno.” If I was to do this project again, perhaps I would make the exterior designs more symbolic of the innocence of both Reverend Dimmesdale and Paulie Bleeker, instead of just Dimmesdale and his puritan community. 

I am satisfied with how the box turned out because I believe that it does accomplish the mission of a creative project that represents the theme ‚internal destruction.’ While there are multiple ways of showing this theme, this box is both a more literal interpretation as well as symbolic.



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"True life the almost true life of Alysha Ortiz" - English Project

Our creative piece is about the meaning of showing public vs private self and showing the acceptance of difference. We went to crafting our piece by wearing a shirt of past things that happen. Our process was easy due to us knowing how judgmental our world is it was easier to catch people action. Only problem or issue we went along with was getting people first expression. Due to this school being a project based school People I’m assuming thats why the reactions was not as fully as we extended. I believed the aspects of the project that I done well is brining a message on what we was trying to do. Aspects of the projects I feel I could have done better was the way I spoke I could have planned it instead of freestyle it. If I can do it all over again I would have change the way I reactivated. 



*This project is on a video however due to certain difficulty with the program we are not able to upload it.*

Creative Project Vincent Russell

Table of Themes:

Forgiveness and acceptance:

[ retribution … clarity ]

Love

[ love … thick&thin ]

Outcast

 [ weird … scorned ]

Public vs. Private

[ expression …  erosion ]

Motif's

[ runners … habits ]

Colors

[ red … maroon ]

Emotions

[ anger … disappointment ]

Birthing life

[ imp … hospital ]

Relationships

[ knowledge … peace ]

Since this is a creative project I wanted to take some thing normally bland and show it in a different light. Word art seemed to be a good fit for the idea I had. I choose a guitar because I thought it represented expression and that was a main theme throughout both texts. The reason the guitar isn’t too colorful is because of the combination of the puritan times and the indie/soul of Juno.  choose themes such as; Love, Outcast, Forgiveness etc, because they show the brunt of the media without going into detail. Branches of the themes are the words, which associates with the theme through different angle and perspectives. I choose words that were on a level that anyone can understand it, while trying to go advanced with other words. Overall, this project is shows expression through words using different themes.

The process of creating this project was tedious, but not too much. The themes represented, were some of the many of things we discussion about when reading/watching The Scarlet Letter and Juno. The words are what I associated with that idea, or what I what I would feel in those situations. The only real problem that happened was trying to put the words into an image. It was difficult trying to find something that can represent both media, but I’m happy I choose the guitar.

I am most proud about how all of the pieces fit together with each other and building on each other. Everything has a purpose and each part rely’s on the whole. Although, maybe the words I choose where a bit too mundane and should have opted for more complexity. If I was to do this all over again I would probably change the representation of it. My original idea was to do a stained glass window, but that seemed too time intensive for the amount we had. As a whole I feel this creative piece is a well portrayal of the themes in The Scarlet Letter and Juno.

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The Phases of a Tortured Heart

The theme of my creative project is “secrets and their consequences.” I got this point across by making a succession of heart drawings that could represent how secrets could affect a person. The first is a heart that has a lock and chain on it. As a caption for the picture I have, “Hold them back, seal them away.” This symbolizes someone who has a secret; they would try to hide it from the world, and in the process, they would hide themselves and their true feelings away. The second heart has a lock pointing towards the lock and chain. The caption I have is, “Prying eyes see through the lies.” This symbolizes people who may try to see past the exterior of a person and potentially find their secret. On the third heart, the lock is unlocked and the chain is falling. The caption is, “Collapse in character, lapse in security.” This symbolizes what happens when someone is afraid that someone may know their secret. They may become paranoid and start acting out of character because they are afraid they could not hide their secret. The fourth heart is on fire. The caption is, “The guilt burns; the heart’s an inferno.” This symbolizes the guilt someone would experience while holding the secret. It would feel like the secret is burning them from the inside out. The last picture is a pile of ash. The caption I have is, “Destroyed from the inside out, scorched soul, blackened reputation.” This symbolizes someone after they have held their secret for so long. Either they would feel terrible about holding that secret or someone would find out about their secret and no longer trust them; it would ruin what others think of them. 

The first thing I drew was the heart. I didn’t mean for it to come out as detailed as it did, in fact I only wanted it to be a simple line drawing, so I would be able to draw it over and over again. Since it came out as shaded as it did and I didn’t feel like I would be able to replicate it, I had to find another way to produce my transitional pictures. On a separate piece of paper, I drew an outline of the heart. I did this for each different drawing. I drew the object that would lay on top of the heart or around it; the chain and lock, key, and fire. I cut the pictures out and lay them on top of the drawing to take pictures of them. The corners of the little pictures kept curling up, however, and it would have been difficult to scan them with my scanner because the pictures would fall off. This caused me to have to find another way to get the pictures onto the hearts. I thought about tape, but it would show up in the picture. So I decided to try using plastic wrap. I pulled the plastic wrap taut around the heart picture and glued the little pictures on top. It still showed up a little in the pictures, but it looked better than I though the tape would. 

I think, despite all the challenges I had to overcome, that the heart drawings came out well. They were not what I had pictured, but I am still proud of how they came out and how I figured out a way to overcome the challenges.

I feel like I could have found a better way to add the pictures onto the heart. Though the plastic wrap was efficient, it still shows up a little in the pictures. If I would’ve had more time to edit, I would have tried to add the pictures on digitally, so they still had the stand out effect that I aimed for after the heart came out very realistic (cartoonish vs. realistic), but so that it looked much cleaner than it does.

If I could do it all over again, I would try to make a simpler heart drawing, so it would be easier to replicate it and add things onto it. If I were not producing the heart drawings, I would make a succession of different drawings instead, this way I would not have to be worry about the sizing of the picture and how similar they look to the others, as I had to do with the heart drawing. 

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Self Reflection and Video : Loren Jenkins

Contemporary dance is a term that combines many dance forms such as modern, hip-hop, Jazz, African, and ballet. The techniques are expressed with the music. It follows the beat, which can change at anytime also speed; rhythm and direction are mostly used in this form of dance. We chosen this category from the list because it would be unique to express the feelings in the book with the modern day music that we all listen to. Each song in the mix goes directly to all of the main characters in the book. The mix starts off with Rihanna song Unfaithful. We start it off with this song because in the Scarlet Letter Hester was not faithful to her husband. She had sex with someone she was not married to and got pregnant. In the song lyrics mention that one unfaithful girl is cheating in her relationship, and her spouse knows something is going on. He stays because he is loyal to her even though she is not to him. If Chillingworth were to leave the society would have been against him for leaving his wife. Our Second song, which is Daddy’s Little Girl by J-Cole, we dedicated to growth of Pearl. She was a reckless child that even her own mother couldn’t handle her. She was an outcast; nothing was normal with her. No one could tell her what to do due to her being in her own world. She would rather do that then to be in the world of a society that judges her and her family. In the mix our last song is Save me By Nicki Minaj for Hester and Pearl. They have both lost something in their which was each other and Dimmsdale. They are all asking for forgiveness at the end when the y finally realizes that they needed each other In the long run.

            We created our piece by first picking the songs that we thought would fit the type of dance and the themes that we wanted to include. The actually used three which are movement, internal destruction and responsibility in relationships. We chose these three because each one of them fit each of the songs that we chosen to do. One did come to one problem, which was trying to find a clean version to our J-Cole song. Unfortunately, we didn’t so we tried our best to choose the best less explicit lyrics in the song to dance to. We also ran into difficulties when we where trying to find a way to set our dance to the audience. We overcame this by working together to agree on a set up that turned out to actually be easy.

            I feel so good about this project. We have spent a lot of time on this dance for the last week. Working in all class period and even staying after school to make sure our dance was polished completely. I feel very confident and comfortable doing this dance. Even though I feel this way I know that I will have some bubble guts to try to get over before the show. Something that I would have like to do different is choosing the songs. They are great for the project, but when looking back at it I know there where other songs that I could have chosen to use.  I am very excited to perform this dance and hopefully everyone will be delighted to see our final piece. 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11615626/DSCF4321.AVI
*VIDEO LINK IS ABOVE*

Lizzie's Slide

This slide demonstrates the essence of me, Lizzie. Obviously it has my name "Lizzie Vellozzi". My full name is Elizabeth but I chose to put Lizzie because that's what everyone calls me. The sepia toned picture is of my best friend Sophie and I. Finally these litte pictures around the edges are music notes made out of superhero logos. This combines some of my favorite thing, superheros and music. I actually want to make a career out of making and producing music, so I thought it fit perfectly. And I just love superheros, and thus, the superhero music notes were born. I didn't want to clutter my slide with too many things so I thought that these few things really summed up who I am. And that, is my Lizzie slide. 
The Lizzie Slide

My self slide

I did my slide like that because it's reflecting some of the things I like to do and where I am from. I like singing, playing the guitar, and playing soccer. I like doing other things too but I feel that those things are the things I like doing the most.. I am from Haiti and I had many bad experiences there especially with the earthquake in 2010. I still can't forget about it because it was so terrible. I am grateful to be in the United States and I want to do the most of it. Soccer is my favorite sport and I'm pretty good at it. I also like basketball but I like soccer better and I would like to be a professional soccer player. I really like singing and I want to be a professional singer. I feel like by just looking at this slide, people can learn many things about me.
My technology slide

Media Fluency - Eamon Kelly

I decided to make my slide look like this because I want people to know about my creativity. My brain is always flooded with original and detailed ideas that I can use for any of my hobbies. I love to use my imagination when I read, write and make films. Not only do I express my creativity in my writing and film directing, but I also use it when I play music. I play the double bass and piano. Often, I would attempt to compose one of my own songs to define how I am feeling at the moment. Also, I would use my compositions to include in my films to see how my final project looks and sounds. Whenever I put my imagination into words, I feel like a successful teacher. My creativity is my strongest trait.

EamonSlide2

My Slide- And all.


My slide is a little crammed, and this is because I have a lot to say. About me, and about my person. My slide reflects who I am and what I like. I love art, music [all except country] bad ideas, and all colours EXCEPT yellow.Lima beans are gross, and poka-dots bug me; they are isometrical, I am much more of a stripes person.

My slide seems childish- but then again so am I.
Slide