• 
  
• What did you set out to do?
• For this Benchmark I set out to make a music video to an inspirational song that included the inspirations of myself and others. I chose the song Walking On Sunshine, by Katrina and the Waves in Memory of the most inspirational woman in my life, Beth Hildebrand-Jordan. She passed away in August and this song has reminded me of her since.

• How does your work incorporate the art of storytelling?
• My product show the stories of how I gain inspiration to do the things I want in life. I also put at the end of the video a text to let people know that they can comment on my video and write what inspires them, so that I can learn their stories.

• What do you hope your audience gains from your work?
• I hope that my audience sees that some things can inspire them without even knowing that they are being inspired. You would be surprised at what you can find inspiration in, or what you can think about while you are doing little every day things.

• What did you gain from doing this work. 
• I gained a lot of knowledge about myself and about my family and friends from doing this project. It was very difficult for me to pick what was going to go into this project because some of my family and close friends did not want me to record them doing certain things but they did allow me to put in pictures of what their inspirations represent, so hopefully they will watch this and become inspired to make their own videos.

Writing on Facebook helps me connect to family and friends that I don’t see very often. Even writing letters helps me stay in contact with people that I can’t just pick up a phone to call. Writing keeps me connected to myself and to the people I care about. #write2connect.

“To Be Or Not To Be”: Spoken by Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 1

“To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;

This is the oh so famous “To be or not to be,” speech by Hamlet. It is different from his first two soliloquies. This is said out of reason, no frenzied emotion. He sparks a debate in his own mind, to see if it would be more beneficial to continue being, or to end his being. The socially accepted answer would be to suffer through the pain, to “man up.”

When hamlet recites the line, “The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” He talks about a demonic or violent, unfortunate serious of events. The slings and arrows from the outrageous fortune caused Hamlet to declare an internal war with himself. He says, “Or take arms against a sea of troubles,” to show that his war is endless. He then follows with, “and by opposing them? To die: to sleep;” this is his way of showing that he is fighting with himself. He cannot win. If he opposes one side he will die. The reasoning behind him saying these words comes back to when he was a child. He was not a normal child. He had to be sent away which made him even more crazy. When he came back the different thoughts in his head collided, causing a massive brawl in his thoughts to occur. 

The rest of the Quote shown above chooses to lean to one side of the argument. Hamlet tries to decide how things would be if he were dead. He thinks that others would want to die because his presence is gone. He does not understand that if he dies, he is the only one who will die. There is a “heart-ache” from him being alive. Hamlet does not believe that he will feel better then he does now. When he recites, “That flesh is heir to, ‘tis a consummation,” he says that it is his humanly right to accept death and all of its wonderful benefits. He wishes and desperately wants to take his life. He has made up his mind by this point and wants nothing to do with his life. But, he finally says, “To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub” which contradicts everything he just said. He asks for oblivion. He wants people to think that he is perfectly fine. He wants people to think he was dreaming the whole time and that he does not actually want to kill himself. He does not know what he wants.

Diario:

Cuando pensaba en creo que de, Hugo Chávez,  el motin, el petróleo, y aborrecible. Él era una figura negativa porque ha hecho muchas cosas malas. Me enteré de que Estados Unidos era sólo civil con él por su petróleo. Él sólo se quedó con nosotros porque quería dinero. Todo lo que le importaba era el dinero. Yo soy de la oposición. Yo nunca votaría por Hugo Chávez, porque él es un hombre desagradable. Él se aprovechó de su poder. Él es un terrorista económico.

Para usted, yo haría todo.

Para usted, yo viajaría el mundo. 

Para usted, yo cantaría una cancíon.

Para usted, yo lucharía contra un hombre loco.

¿Qué harías por mí?

¿Morirías por mí?

¿Te dejarías conmigo?

¿Comprarías me flores?

¿Comerías con mi?

¿Amarías para mi?

¡Buenos Dias! Me llamo Taylor. Yo vivo en Filadelfia. Me gusta escuchar musica mucho. Me encantas mis amigas. Yo tengo muchas amigas. Mi familia es muy importante. Soy soltera porque no me gusta relaciones personales. Estoy en el colegio. Asisto a la Academia de Ciencias de Liderazgo. Me gustan los deportes. Mi lugar favorito es la playa. Me gusta comer y correr. Me gusta ir de compras y me gusta nadar en la playa. Yo logrado mucho en dieciséis años. 

Yo soy pequeña. Soy pelo naranja, y los ojos azules. Yo recuerdo, cuando mi pelo iba negro. Mi boca es grande. Al contrario, mis orejas son muy pequeña. Es por eso que yo no escuchar de vez en cuando. Se dice que un ojo es mas grande en el otro, pero me gusta mis ojos, porque mis ojos son muy bonitos. Mi nariz es pequeña. Yo tengo las piernas fuertes. Yo tengo la piel muy blanca, y necesito protector solar cuando voy a la playa. Quiero ser alto, pero yo no lo soy. El color azul se ve bien en mi ropa. Llevo el azul del color mucho. Me gusta vestir con trajes. Es como pretender que no eres.

Valgo mucho de la confianza. No me gusta la gente mentirosas. No soy falsa. Yo tengo un compromiso para mi enamorarse de un chico seguro, sensato, y inteligente. A veces sueño con salir con alguien como mi. Por otro lado, soy nerviosa porque soy sola. Soy mucha tradicional con ellos, mi familia, y mi culta. Tengo ganas de soy culta. Mis padres cuida para mi aprender con el mundo. Soy mucha madura para una chica. Viajado a dos países diferentes, con mi familia. He aprendido mucho sobre mí mientras yo estaba de viaje. Me gusta ver los diferentes tipos de personas en todo el mundo. Me enseña el respeto por los demás.

Yo soy una persona muy simpática. Estoy muy cariñoso. Me gusta ser amigo de todos. La gente me habla de sus problemas. Yo siempre estoy aquí para ellos. Yo les doy consejos. Mis amigos se sienten atraídos por mi amor no correspondido. Trato de ser fuerte en todo lo posible. No estoy agobiada con el asesoramiento. No me gusta discutir. Perdono a un montón de gente siempre. Mi amigo Jamie siempre está ahí para mí cuando necesito consejo. Ella ayuda con mis problemas. Somos la misma. Ella es agradable e inteligente también. Nosotros no discutimos mucho. Ella me aprecia y yo le agradezco. 

No soy tímido. Soy muy extrovertida. Me gusta divertirme. Tengo una gran vida social. Yo puedo hablar delante de mucha gente. Soy abierto. Estoy muy orgulloso de lo que soy y lo que me estoy convirtiendo. Creo que soy muy talentoso. Soy capaz de realizar muchas cosas al mismo tiempo. 

Mi vida es grande. Yo no tengo un novio. Estoy de espíritu libre. Me gusta bailar. Mi color favorito es el azul. Me gusta divertirme con mis amigos. Yo amo a mi escuela y mis maestros. No me gustan los días de lluvia, o la música triste. Yo no tengo novio, pero me gusta un chico. Es alto y guapo. Él es mayor que yo. Es mas menos o diferentes que yo, pero nos llevamos bien. Es raro, pero me gusta. El coquetea conmigo. Yo coquetear con él. Somos iguales porque nos divertimos juntos. Uno y su compañía son uno y lo mismo. No discutimos. Ayudamos a nuestros amigos y nuestras familias con sus problemas. Él es el adecuado para mí. Él me ayuda a ser una mejor persona. Él me ayudó a voluntarios para el servicio. No sólo ayuda a mis amigos, pero mi comunidad también. Mi vida es hermosa.

Jamie Murphy has a very interesting family, and I’m not just talking about their personalities. Her father gave Jamie’s mother the greatest dream in the world, a child. He was just supposed to be the sperm donor, which is normal for these kinds of situations. But Jamie, being the unique person as she is, also has a unique family situation.

While I was doing this project, I thought this was going to be easy and I would get it done and out of the way. I was totally wrong. When you interview someone, especially for a project, you have to have almost three times the length of interview before actually putting it all together. You need to edit things out, add things in, and make it all work. It was also hard finding time that you and the interviewee could meet. She has this and I can’t do it now because I have this, and it was just so hard to get it together.

            When you cross a boundary, you face a lot of different things. It is possible that you can lose friends and be judged if people do not approve of whatever boundary you are crossing. You can also be praised for how you stand out. In this case, Jamie has two loving parents that would do anything for her, when statistics show that she was only supposed to have one parent.

While I was editing this podcast, I realized that I had to be very careful with how you phrase the questions that you ask, because after I asked a question, Jamie would answer it in a way that didn’t make sense for my podcast. She would go on about a story that was not relevant to what I was asking. I had to ask her different questions in order to direct her in the direction that I wanted her to go in.

My strengths for this project were definitely editing, and asking questions to get Jamie to go in a certain direction. This was easy for me because Jamie and I are very close and I know how her brain works. She knew that if I asked a question that pertains to something, she knew how to answer it. However; I did have many weaknesses in the project. I did not really look at the time with this project. I kind of put it off, but once I got going, I really nailed it I think.

Taylor Thomas

            “Taylor, can you say ‘Can we have a talk after I drink a glass of water’?”

“Can we have a tawk after I drink ae gliass of wooder?”

My sister laughed at me. She looked out the window of the car. I do not mind that she thinks it is funny. I make fun of her accent as well. Her and I have very different backgrounds, even though we both grew up in the same area. She speaks very properly, because she goes to school in the suburbs. She is around people that “Speak with an outstanding vocabulary and superior pronunciation.” However, I grew up around people that speak with a South Philadelphia accent. I grew up around people who “Speek wit an ok vocabalary, and a Sou-Philly pronunciatian.”

            Casey was wearing an orange shirt that had yellow polka dots on it one day. I had gotten it for her.

“Do you like this shirt on me?” She asked.

 “Yeah Case, but tha poke-a dots don’t match tha piants.” I replied. She looked confused.

“Hello? Aure ya there?” I asked.

“What did you just say?” She asked. I repeated myself. She thought that I had said, “don’t poke the dots, don’t match the pains.” I can understand why that would make her confused. Since we have two different accents, it can get in the way of us having conversations sometimes.

            If Casey and I were to be in public together, people can tell that we are sisters when we aren’t talking, but once we both start to talk they are not so sure anymore. We both sound completely different. We only say a few words the same, if any at all. Some of the words are “Mom, Dad, and Straiten.” Our parents notice this as well.

I remember when we were little; Casey and I sounded more like each other. Before I reached fifth grade, we sounded identical. Ever since that year, it was never the same. During fifth grade, I would hang out with my cousin more and more. Today we are almost in separable.

I have a little bit less of a South Philadelphia accent then my cousin, so when Casey talks to our cousin, she has a blast asking her questions like, “Can you say ‘I have to go to Acme?” she would reply with “I gotta go ta tha Ack-a-mee”

Casey finds it so interesting that people can speak so much differently then she does. She is only in seventh grade and she hasn’t really been to places where people have accents. She grew up thinking that the way she spoke was the only way. She only saw people that spoke differently in movies and things.

When Casey was young, she met a man who had a very strong southern accent. She was baffled by how strong of an accent he had. He was a cashier for a grocery store. Casey had gone in with my mother to buy food. He was speaking to my mother and he said

“Good mo’nin ma’am. How ya doin on dis faun day?” Casey’s jaw dropped. She was confused.

“Sir, why are you talking funny?” she asked the man. My mother was very embarrassed at this point. She pulled Casey back and told her that was a very rude question. She did nokjt understand why so she repeated herself. The man laughed.

“Ahm from da souf. We talk lak dis down der.” He laughed.

Even though Casey and I live in the same house, we have completely different accents. We speak the same language but we merely sound different. In James Baldwin’s article, “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” He notes “A Frenchman living in Paris speaks subtly and crucially different language from that of the man living in Marseilles.” This shows that you can speak the same language and talk completely different. 

The way you speak and the vocabulary that you use has a big affect on your identity. Some people can tell where you are from and where you grew up by the way you speak. At times they are wrong though. Many people ask me if I am from South Philly. Most of the time I want to say yes, because I am there so often, yet I am from Roxoborough so I cannot say that.

There are many accents in my family today. Casey has a very proper accent, my older sister Devon is starting to get a North Carolinian accent because she just moved there. My mother has a half South Philly accent half proper accent, and my father has a little bit more a South Philly accent then my mom. Casey has gotten used to all of these accents almost but it’s still fun for her to ask one of us to say a phrase every once in a while.

-7-year-old girl, Angie on a hospital bed

-7year-old Cary, her friend talking to her

 (Angie laying on hospital bed, Cary sitting on a chair doing homework)

Angie, what did you get for number 7 on that math worksheet?

(Pause)

Are you sure? I got 2 not 1. You have to minus 1 not 2, silly. Mrs. Valley yelled at Kenny today in Religion class. Kenny took Sean’s notebook and threw it on the floor, so Mrs. Valley grabbed him by his shirt, took him outside and started yelling at him. She said that he is always a disruption to her class and that he never listens. She told him that she was going to send a note home to his mom. He was so scared!

Excuse me, nurse, can you get her a glass of water? Thank you.

(Nurse comes back with water. Monologue is spoken to the nurse now)

Ang, are you sleeping? (pause) Good. She needs to sleep. She’ll be really tired if she doesn’t sleep, if she’s going back to school on Monday. I don’t know how she’ll do it if she can barely sit up, let alone walk around for a whole day.  I wish I could sleep. I’m so tired, but I have to wait for my mom to pick me up when she’s done work. I know that cancer isn’t easy for anyone, but I just wish her cancer was curable. My mom was talking to her mom and they were talking about her cancer eating. It was eating something.. Oh! It was her brain. The cancer was eating her brain. They said that her brain was gonna turn to mush in a couple of weeks. I hope it’s not to mushy when she goes to college, cause my sister says college is really hard. Angie will have to think really really hard when she goes if her brain is all mushy. (beep beep beep)

(panic) Nurse? What’s that beeping noise? Is Angie okay? What’s going on! Help her! Take the needle things out of her arm! They’re hurting her! Help! Angie! Wake up! Angie! (back to nurse) Help her! She’s not waking up! Get her mom! She’s in the waiting room! (calls Angie’s mom) Michelle, Michelle! Hurry something’s wrong with Angie! She’s not waking up! She has to be okay for school Monday. (pause, long beep) the beeping stopped. She’s okay right? There’s no more beeping. She’s okay… Angie? Why won’t she wake up? Did the cancer go away? Did the cancer make her brain mushy? Is that why she won’t wake up? (Starts to cry) I hate cancer. Tell her cancer to stop making her sleep. She has to go to school to see everybody. Angie, Angie! Get up! We’re gonna go to school. Come on! (Mom walks in) Mommy, Tell Angie’s cancer to stop making her sleep! (pause) Angie I have to leave, mommy says we’re going home. I’ll come back tomorrow to see you okay? I love you.

(end scene)

Taylor Thomas Silver.

It felt like a few seconds of sleep until my eyes crusted open. I looked around not knowing what was going on. I couldn’t remember how I got to where I was or what happened. The anesthesia still hadn’t worn off. I looked down, and saw a big purple cast on my foot. I started to remember what was going on. This was the beginning of a long cycle of surgeries. This was only one of four.

I was in fifth grade. My foot started to hurt when I walked on it. I told my parents and they just told me that I probably hurt it in gymnastics somehow. After a couple weeks of it hurting, they finally took me to get it checked out. It turned out that I had an extra bone in my foot. The medical term for it is a calcium deposit. When I first found out I was scared, I didn’t know how to take this information. I knew that I should have been sad or upset, even scared, but for some reason I was almost excited. I mean, I never had anything major in my life before, it was exciting to know what it felt like to have the attention.

I missed out on three summers, and three months of a school year because of having surgeries. It always bummed me out because I couldn’t go swimming with my friends or even take a walk with them in the summer sun. I could only sit in the house and watch movies, because I didn’t have the energy to get up. I felt dizzy just walking from the couch to the bathroom. I needed help every step of the way.

I remember when I found out that I was going to have my second surgery. I was with my dad in the doctor’s office. He told us that I had the same thing happen to my left foot that happened to my right foot. I was kind of disappointed because it meant I would have to miss out on another summer. When I got home my mom asked me what the doctor said, so I told her. She started to cry because she didn’t want me to have to go through it again. I told her that I didn’t mind it that much. I was stupid for saying that, because the last two surgeries I had were just terrible.

My cousin Bridgid came down the shore with me about two days after my third surgery. I had so much fun just sitting in the room with her. It was nice just to have someone with me instead of being trapped in the house all day. When I was with her, she could push me around in my wheelchair at the boardwalk. She did a lot for me that week too. I am so grateful for her. She would get me a water or soup if I needed it. She even made sure that I was comfortable before I fell asleep.

I could never walk by someone who has a disability, and they look like they are struggling. When I see someone in a wheelchair, or on crutches I always ask if they need any help with anything, because I have been there. I know what its like to not be able to do anything for your self. I know what it’s like to not even be able to take a shower with out help, or get dressed by your self. I can honestly say that there were a few times in my life when I was completely helpless, besides when I was a baby. I have been in that position in a store, where I could either chose to walk on my crutches or sit in the disabled motor scooter. I am very thankful to my doctors, my parents, and my friends who have helped me through my difficult times. The reason I always want to help people who are in wheelchairs or on crutches, is because I have been there. I know what its like. It sucks and there is nothing you can do about it. The only thing you can hope for is a little bit of help. That’s what I try to give it. 

                                    This quarter in art, Green Stream was introduced to one-point perspective drawings. To start to figure it out, we had to take baby steps. We first started with drawing horizon lines and vanishing points. To do this we drew a strait line across the paper horizontally, this was the horizon line. To draw the vanishing point, we had to pick a point on that line to put a small dot. After that, we watched tutorials on how to draw orthogonal lines, which come from the vanishing point

 After all of these tutorials on how to draw certain objects, such as doors, windows and ceiling tiles, we were able to start drawing the big picture! We had to start by drawing a box as one of the walls. By doing that we were able to find the ceiling, walls and floor. I messed up at one point when I was drawing the items in the floor because I didn’t put them into perspective. I started over and finally finished!

 I feel like Sara Nesbitt did a really great job on this assignment. She was able to finish the project in time and make the correct lines and proportions. If you would like to view Sara's drawing click here. My drawing is shown here.

               1.  Mi familia es grande

2.   Mis padres se llaman Pedro y Marta.

3.   Mis hermanos tienen 15 y 12 años.

4.   Nuestros abuelos son de las Filipinas.

5.   Nuestro casa está en el centro

6.   Nuestros primos se llaman Marquitos y Juan

7.   Su hijos son adorables.

8.   Su esposa es muy bonita

9.   Su marido es mi hermano.

10.   Su tíos viven en Delaware.

El hermano de la Señorita.

La casa de Miguel.

La tarea de Mel

La mochilla de Morgan.

file:///Users/tthomas/Music/iTunes/iTunes%20Music/Movies/Names%20-%20Mobile/Names%20-%20Mobile.m4v

the file wouldn't upload.

My first slide used the rule of thirds because the words from my favorite quote are at the top and bottom and my beautiful smile is in the middle. It also used contrast because the words from the quote are blue and red.

I thought that my slide was perfect the way it was, so I decided to make a new slide. I still wanted to focus on smiling so I stacked the smiley face on the left hand side. Still using the rule of thirds I put Smile in the 2/3 and 3/3 portion of the slide. I contrasted the black of the background with the purple, red, green, blue, pink and yellow of the smileys.

These slides use the large words, the rule of the thirds, and contrast. I thought that this was the best way to get someone's attention and to make people notice them.  This way everyone will be able to look at them and clearly understand the message, to smile.

When speaking with the President, you would speak in a proper voice. You wouldn't say "Hey dude! What's cracking" You would say "Hello Mr. President how are you today?" However you might say "hey! what's up?" to the President's daughter.

     In order to do this you have to know

     1. What is formal and what isn't.

     2. Who you are speaking to.

     3. When to use Tu and when to use Usted.

When asking the Presidents daughter her name you would say "Hola! Como te llamas tu?

Tu is the Informal way of saying you. Usted is the formal way of saying you.

So when asking the president his name you would say "Hola! Como se llama ud.?

1//2

       ~ W(doublay beh) I(ee) L(ele) S(seh) O(o) N(ene)

In order to ask the weather in Español, you must know...

     1. The question to ask

     2. The weather terms

     3. When to say Hace or Está

What's the weather today? = ¿Qué Tiempo Hace Hoy?