Family Tree- December 15th, 2014

In Emerging Technology my final project was researching my family tree. I started out by interviewing my mom and dad. Here is my mom's and my dad's interview. Then I emailed my grandma to try and find out more information on my great grandparents. You can find the email here. With the information I gathered I was able to make a family tree using familyecho.com. After that I created an infographic that represented a small piece of my family history. My final project was to make a prezi of my family history that included pictures and information.

November 24, 2014

What are you doing for Thanksgiving? Do you have any traditions? Go in to detail about your plans for the 5 day weekend.

I am not doing much for my Thanksgiving break. Both my brothers are home from school and we have a big meal on Thursday. Every year over Thanksgiving we put up all the Christmas decorations as a family. It never goes well; it usually ends up with me and my brothers fighting and them trying to boss me around so they don't have to do anything. I will have practice on Thursday but after that I plan on relaxing all break. Who knows I might even go get a massage. My break is pretty much a bunch of family time. My favorite part about Thanksgiving is that I get to help my mom cook the meal.

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November 19, 2014

Reflecting on the comments and grade of your stop-motion animation... what you would do differently if you had to do it all over again? Would you manage your time better? Find better lighting for your photos? Come up with a better idea? Explain what you would change about your video.

If I had a chance to redo my stop motion animation video I would try and make the lighting better and also try and find a way to make my camera stay steadier. I didn't know how to keep my camera steady, so I laid my phone on the edge of a chair and took my pictures from the ground. Next time I would probably use a tripod to keep my camera more steady. I would also probably try and make it a little longer by adding more pictures to it, also in closer increments. I liked the idea I used, but next time I would probably try a different idea. Overall it was a cool project that I probably never would have done on my own. 

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November 17, 2014

Tell me about your weekend.

This weekend I went to the football game with a bunch of friends. We ate at Chickfila because it's a tradition. Unfortunately the football team didn't win, but it was a really great season and I'm going to miss going to the games. For my birthday my brother got me Hunter Hayes concert tickets. So, on Saturday night my brother and I went out to eat at Buca di Bepo on the plaza. Then after that we went to the concert! It was so much fun!! I love country music and he was so good. Then on Sunday I just relaxed all day and did my piles of homework that I had.

November 14, 2014

Tell me about your experience with taking your stop-motion photos. What problems did you run in to? What did you find difficult about the process? What would you go back and change about HOW you took the photos? Explain yourself.

I found taking the pictures difficult, I am not a very artsy person so it was hard for me to understand how to do it. At first I couldn't figure out exactly how to take the pictures. I would probably change the angles of my photos. Overtime I think that my motion animations would get better. I also didn't know how often to take a photo, so if I ever do this again I would probably try and take more photos in shorter frequencies. Mine animation will probably look not very good, but after seeing my first one completed I could probably improve with practice.

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November 11, 2014

Explain your stop motion animation idea. How is your idea creative? How are you going to execute your idea?

I have decided to make a smoothie for my stop motion animation. I plan on making it look as if I am cutting the fruit and pouring the other ingredients. I then plan on making it look as if the fruit is jumping into the blender. After the smoothie is made I will make it seem like the smoothie is then drank in mere seconds. I plan on taking all my pictures after school today with the help of my friend Adam Houghton. I promised him I would give him the smoothie afterwards if he helped me.

November 10, 2014

What is stop motion animation? If you don't know, look it up! Explain.

Stop animation is when an object is being slightly moved between frames to make it appear as if the object is moving. This makes it seem as if the object is in constant motion. One example of stop motion animation that I did as a child is when you drew pictures on sticky notes. Then when you flipped through the sticky notes it seemed as a the bike was moving or that a flower has grown. It is also done in recent movies, such as The Lego Movie. 

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5 Frame Storyboard

November 5, 2014

Tell me about your idea for your 5 frame story board. What is the plot? How do you plan to make the story creative? Who's the main character? What is the beginning, middle and end? Tell me about your plan of attack.

I plan on showing how I tie my shoes. Everyone always makes fun of me because I tie my shoes using two bunny ears. Haha! I will go step by step and show how I get to my final product of a tied shoe. I will be tying Emma's shoe, so Emma and I will be the characters in my five slide story board.. I will start out with Emma's shoe untied and finish with her shoe tied! It's a pretty simple story, but I plan on making it more creative by editing it in Photoshop. 

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November 4, 2014

Yesterday you edited and uploaded photos to your blog. Tell me more about your photos. HOW did you edit them? Why did you choose the photos that you did? Explain your assignment.

I edited five of my photos. In some of them I changed the colors, and sometimes I just made the pictures brighter and more clear than they were to begin with. I choose these five photos because they were my favorite of all the pictures I took. I especially like the edit option of making it look like someone sketched the picture instead of it being taken as a picture. For this assignment we took pictures in different forms, such as canted, long-shot, and medium-shot. We then took the pictures and edited them to change the picture a bit. I really like my end products and am surprised that I could be this artsy.

Picture Scavenger Hunt Edits

November 3, 2014

How was your weekend?

I had a really great weekend! I started it out strong by going to the football game on Thursday night, and of course we won as usual. On Friday I didn't do the whole Halloween costume thing, but I did hang out with some friends and we went to IHOP for dinner. On Saturday I just hung out with my family, we watched K-State kick but in their football game! Then on Sunday I to to sleep in, loving the time change! My brother and dad went to the Chiefs game so my mom and I had a girls day. We went shopping and went out for lunch. We also caught up on our favorite TV show, Nashville. Overall it was a pretty relaxing weekend.

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October 29, 2014

What do you know about photography and/or photo editing? Do you take photos? How do you take photos? Do you edit photos before posting them on social media? How do you edit them? Explain any background or knowledge you have about photography and photo editing. Do you like it? Do you have any interest?

I love looking at photos, but I have never been any good at taking them. When I want to take photos I usually just take them on my iPhone. I usually just use the filters that are set up on instagram before posting them to social media. I did some photo editing in my 7th and 8th grade computer class, but none really since. I would love to be able to learn more about photography so I can learn how to edit and create beautiful pictures. I like photography because it is a form of art that anyone can be good at, especially since I am awful at drawing pictures. 

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Global Issue Presentation

October 20, 2014

Tell me about your weekend. Share pics!

This weekend I went to the pink out game on Friday. We killed Gardner ,but it was so much fun! On Saturday my family and I went to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate my birthday. It's my favorite restaurant and of course I got cheesecake. My mom and I also went shopping to try and find some winter dresses for basketball season. I found a couple cute ones. On Sunday I had a basketball game with the schools fall team. We played Miege and we won; it was so exciting because I hate Miege so it is fun to beat them. Although I am going to have some great bruises now. Overall it was a pretty relaxing weekend and I am so happy it is only a four day week. 

 

October 14, 2014

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 Above is a letter written to the editor who wrote the article 'Enforcement of dress code creates negative effect' that your blogged about last week. Most of you wrote on your blog that you agreed with the writer. What are your thoughts after reading the letter below and seeing a different perspective. Are they the same? Are the different? Do you agree? Disagree? Explain yourself

As I previously stated in an earlier blog I only agree with some aspects of the article. I agree that there is a right time and right place for everything. I also respect the administration and their rules. However, what bothers me the most is that some teachers enforce the rules and others do not. It needs to be all or nothing because it gives students the wrong idea when one teacher tells them it is fine and the other is asking them to put a sweater on. It is the students choice whether they want to follow the dress code or not and if they do not want to they can go to another school. Sometimes I feel that the dress codes are too strict though, I mean most stores don;t even sell shorts that would follow the thumb rule.

October 13, 2014

I would have more real world class topics, such as learning how to pay bills, how to work well with others. I think there are too many tests in today's school system. Once you are out of school you never need to know the skills on how to take a test correctly. I would also allow he students to choose what classes they want to take based on their own interests. I don't like how students are forced into taking arts classes even though they don't plan on pursuing a career anywhere near that subject. High school should be about finding out what you want to pursue later in life by taking classes that interest you, but how can students do that when they are being forced to take certain classes to be able to graduate.

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Infographic

October 7, 2014

The following article was in the September issue of The Tiger Print. Read the article (even if you already have) and respond to it below. What do you think? Do you agree? Disagree? Consider all perspectives of the article while you respond.

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 I have read this article many times because most of my friends have been talking about it. The new dress code law is the topic of many of my friends and I's discussions. Although I don't completely agree with this article, I do agree with the aspect that girls are always being the ones to change what they have to wear. If you look in our school dress codes more than half of the rules apply to only girls. As a girl it is annoying that we have to constantly cover up ourselves so we don't seem "slutty". Girls should get to decide if they want to be seen like as that. If a girl wants to dress slutty so people think she is that's her choice. As stated in the article it's unfair to girls with longer limbs, aka me, because they have to get extremely awkward and long shorts just to reach the thumb requirements, when shorter girls just continue to wear the shorter shorts. However annoying it is for me, as a girl, to deal with this dress code I can see why the administrators are enforcing this rule. Although, shouldn't it be up to the girls parents what she can and cannot wear to school. The worst parts is administrators are paying so much attention to the thumb rule that they now don't care if girls wear tube-tops or spaghetti straps. They need to enforce all or nothing. Some girls get asked to cover up by a teacher for wearing to short of shirts when the next girl is wearing a tube-top and doesn't get in any trouble at all. 

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October 6, 2014

Tell me about your weekend! If you don't have anything fun to share, tell me about the city you live in. What do you love about Kansas City? Do you have a favorite place in the city? Favorite team? :) Favorite event? Explain.

This weekend because there was no football game on Friday night, a bunch of my friends and I got together to watch the royals game. Before watching the game we went to Winsteads and ate. My friend Georgia and I even shared a Skyscraper milkshake. The royals even won!! It was awesome, but the next morning I had to get up at 6 to go to work. I'm a field marshall at the soccer complex and let me tell you it was freezing on Saturday morning! Then on Sunday I went to the AT&T store to find about my new phone I'm going to get for my birthday. Overall, it was a great weekend! The royals and Kansas State both won their games!

September 30, 2014

What is an infographic? If you don't know, go look it up. Read about it and then in your own words tell me what an infographic is. What do infographics do? How do they work? What makes a really good infographic?

An infographic is a tool that displays information in fun ways by using pictures. They are a graphic representation of facts, date and information. They are used to present complex information quickly and effectively. They use pictures to dry the viewers eye to certain things that are of the most importance. Different colors and pictures are really good because it enhances the viewers senses, and pulls their attention to a certain thing. 

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September 29, 2014

Tell me about your Homecoming weekend! If you didn't participate in the Homecoming festivities, what did you do? Share pics!

Homecoming was so much fun. I got to finally take pictures with one of my best friends. This is the first time we have gone in the same group together. For dinner we went to Kyoto's and I caught everything the chef threw at me, which is surprising because I thought I would be really bad. We went to the dance for a while, and then went to an after party where we just hung out. It was so much fun to get to see all my friends in their cute dresses. I got an updo for homecoming and it took me like 20 minutes to get all the bobby pins out of it.

September 24, 2014

Imagine Mr. Bacon has asked you to suggest one way of improving Blue Valley High School to make it a better place for students. Think about the changes that are needed at your school. Pick one change you feel would really make a difference and explain what it is and why you'd make the change.

I would suggest having security officers out in the parking lot after school. The officers could help the traffic flow way easier, and help prevent accidents from happening. The security officers could stop the car lanes and allow students coming out of the parking lot to get in. I feel this would benefit not only the students but the parents who come to pick up their kids as well. By having security officers help with the traffic flow students could get out of the parking lot quicker and safer. I feel that this a necessity that the school should explore.

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September 23, 2014

What are your favorite apps on your phone or tablet? Why?

I use quite a few apps on my phone, but my favorite my far is Pandora because I love music. I am constantly listening to music from when I get home from school and I even fall asleep to music. Other than Pandora I use Twitter and Instagram a lot. I like Twitter and Instagram because it helps me stay up to date with what is going on with my friends. I like being able to see what other people are doing. However, sometimes I just can not check Twitter because there is too much drama going on. Pandora is by far my favorite because I can listen to songs that I do not own without paying for them. 

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September 22, 2014

What is email? When do you use email in your own personal life? List reasons and ways that people use email. What do you know about "email etiquette"?

Email is a way to communicate with others on the computer. I do not use email that often, but when I do use it I use it for email things to myself. When I have a project that I need to finish at home I would email it to myself so I could work on it later. I used this technique before I learned how to use Google Drive of course. My mother uses email all the time at her work. She uses it to communicate with her co-workers and share documents that need to be worked on by multiple people. I know that in emails you should you Dear ______, and at the end use Sincerely __________. Other than that though I am not very familiar with email etiquette.  All of my email accounts are Gmail as well, so I am not familiar with any other email accounts, such as yahoo. 

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September 19, 2014

Now that you've been in Emerging Technology for several weeks... what do you think? Do you think the web tools (Drive, Evernote, Bubbl, etc.) are helpful to you? Do you think they will be helpful throughout high school or even college? Explain.

Yes, I think that all of these tools will be helpful throughout college as well as the rest of my high school career. Evernote makes researching way easier and less painful of an experience. I did not want to take this class in the first place, but now that I have I feel like it will help me with all different subjects because of the new techniques I am learning. I have never used Google drive before  but I love it now and use it whenever I get on a computer now. I am really glad I decided to take this class this year because I think it will also help me in my future and current CA classes. 

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September 17, 2014

Do you enjoy writing? When do you enjoy it? What kind of writing do you enjoy? Why do you think the ability to write is so important no matter what kind of writing it is? Give an example that you enjoyed writing or hated writing. Why?

I do not enjoy writing very much. Mostly I don't like it because I struggle coming up with ideas for stories. This is why I like doing informational writing, where there are specific facts I can give. I truly dislike creative writing, where I have to come up with a story line all on my own. However, I think writing is an extremely important tool to have because you pretty much use it in every profession you could think of, such as doctors, teachers and even accountants. It is strange because I love reading so much, you would think I would like to write too, but no I don't. I think I will enjoy this project because it is about a topic I care about and it is informational essay. 

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September 16, 2014

What did you do this weekend?

This weekend I went to the Blue Valley football game with my friends, Hannah and Madison. I screamed so much I lost my voice. Unfortunately, the next day I had to get up early and take the ACT. It actually was not as hard as I expected it to be. Then after I took the ACT, I went to the boys Varsity soccer game because I am a manager. We won! However, we went to penalty kicks for the third game in a row! I am sick of them. They have another game tonight and I hope they do not go into PK's again. Sunday I just hung around the house and watched the chiefs lose again. I also started feeling sick on Sunday and that is why I missed school yesterday. 

September 16, 2014

Reflect on this quote. Give an example of a time in your life that this might have been the case.


In life most of the time if you do not practice or study for something you end up doing bad. For example, if my basketball team did not practice every day then when it came to game time we would probably not win the game. I agree with this quote entirely, I am a strong believer in preparing for everything. My mom always tells me "Anything in life worth doing, is worth doing well." She always tells me there is no point in doing an activity, my homework, if I am not going to try to do my best. I am also one of those people who stresses out if I do not prepare myself.

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September 12, 2014

What is the importance of research? Why do you need to know how to research? What have you learned in high school about researching topics and finding quality resources? Have you had a helpful teacher that has taught you to research? Explain

The importance of research is to find accurate information that you feel comfortable sharing with others. You need to know how to research so you can have a strong knowledge over your topic, so that any question you are asked can be answered correctly. I have learned throughout high school that not every website you find is a creditable source, meaning you can not trust the information given. I have not really had one particular teacher who has made researching more helpful or interesting, but the library staff at our school makes it much easier for someone to be able to find the information they need for their project. Good research can make or break a good essay or project.

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Global Issue Selection

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For my global issue in Emerging Technology I have chosen child abuse. I have begun researching the issue and you can find my research questions here.

September 10, 2014

Kids these day take things for granted. They expect everything to be given to them, and don't work for anything. They complain about so much when the trials they go through aren't even as hard as what we went to .They need to learn to be able to be entertained by different stuff, like the outdoors; they shouldn't spend all their time on technology. Although I do feel that kids have a lot more pressure to be perfect, and intelligent these days. Overall from when I was a kid, it is so different.

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September 9, 2014

Tell me about the global issue you selected. What do you already know about the issue? What are you looking forward to learning about it? Explain.

My global issue topic is Child Abuse. I have always been very interested in learning about child abuse. I want to understand why the abusers do what they do and how it affects the children? I know that most children are abused and never report it and I also know that it is hard to take a child abuse to court because you have to have a child testify, and children aren't always reliable. I want to learn more about child abuse because when i'm older I want to be a pediatrician with a psychology major as well. I want to be able to help abused children get well again. To be able to do this I need to learn about child abuse.

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September 8, 2014

What did you do this weekend? Share pictures if you have them!

I started off the weekend strong by going to the Blue Valley football game, which we won 29-0. Then on Saturday I had to get up at 6 to go to work. I am a field marshal at the Overland Park soccer complex. My brothers birthday was also on Saturday, so we we went out to eat as a family. We got to eat at Stroud's; they have the best Cinnamon rolls ever!! On Sunday I went shopping to find a dress for homecoming. It took forever but I finally found one I liked. The rest of my Sunday was spent watching the Cowboys and the Chiefs get destroyed! I could watch football all day if I had to. 

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September 5, 2014

Time Spent Free Reading: A
Movie Watching: A
College Basketball Junkie: A
Sleeping Late: A
Stress Management: F
Test Taking: C
Eating Vegetables: F

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