Final Project - Hour 1

For our final in Emerging Technology we were assigned to do research on our family history and then present the information using the skills that we have developed over the time of the course. First, I made two transcripts, one for my mom, Michele, and one for my Great Aunt, Jeanne, with around twenty questions on each. Then, I sat down with my mom and interviewed her at home, and since my aunt lives in Missouri, I had to call her and interview her over the phone. Then, after the interviews, I decided to email my grandma so that I could get a variety of information from more than two people. My grandma did respond back to the email and gave me a lot of names for my great grandparents and great great relatives. After I gathered more information about my family history from some of my family members, I made my family tree using Family Echo. Then, after I got an idea of what my family tree looked liked, I picked 16 people off of the family tree who I felt were an important part of the family, who I also knew somewhat well, and put them on my detailed family tree using Prezi. After the making the detailed family tree on Prezi, I finished everything off with an infographic with where my family originated from along with some statistics. While doing this project, not only did I get to test and reuse my skills that I have been learning to use all semester in the course of Emerging Technology, but I also got to talk to some of my family members and learn a lot of new things about the history of my family.

Infographic:



Prezi:

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Read THIS blog post by a teacher. I mean actually read it. Take it in. Think about it. And then, write about it. What do you think about it? What is the teacher trying to say? In your own words explain what "the main event" is.

This blog post was about school and how he cares so much about all of his students.  How they are stressing him out, not because they have a bad grade, but because they quit.  He talks about how you will face much harder things in life than school, and that school prepares you for those hardships in life.  That when you quit in school, you are only setting yourself up to fail. The teacher basically said that as long as you're in my life, I will never give up on you, I will make it difficult for you to quit.  That you can do whatever you want, but when you come back tomorrow, he is going to give you a fresh start because you are worth it. He also basically gave them two options, no in between.  If you want to succeed, man/women up now so that you can deal with the hardships in your life. Or, you could step down and let yourself fail and die alone, depressed, and broke.  He acts like he is giving you two options, but he is really saying that you need to step up, no more excuses, and pick up that pencil because we are going to do this, together.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

For my group's stop motion animation, we are capturing a lunch boxes journey. So far we have taken photos of the lunch box coming out of the locker and down the hallway, turning the corner. We still have a good amount of pictures to take since we had a shorter amount of time yesterday.  Grace was taking the photos and I've been moving the lunch box and other items.

Friday, April 17, 2015

Answer the following questions thoroughly on your blog.

1. What was your stop motion animation about? Why did you choose your video to be about this? Was it because it was easy, because it would be fun, or it would be challenging? Explain your reasoning behind your project (and be honest).

My stop motion animation was based off of a Henna tattoo that I got sometime in August in 2014 for my dad.  It was just a really cool design that showed something of my past, something that is apart of me and represents me.  I chose to draw the design because it was just something I like to draw and sketch in my free time.  The drawing itself is easier once you memorize it, but drawing it little by little, literally, was a little challenging.  Then my biggest challenge was keeping the camera stationary (which I know that I failed that portion of the project and I would have retaken my pictures if I would have had more free time to mess around with out of school, and I really wish that I could of retaken them or started over).  It was hard trying to keep the camera stationary because I didn't have the tripod in class, so I had to do my best without.  Then I didn't finish all the way in class and I usually don't get to physically get to come home to start homework until about 8:00 - 8:30 pm. So I'm finishing homework from other classes, then by then it's 12:00 - 1:00 am and I'm having to take pictures trying my best to keep the camera stationary and then knowing that I couldn't do anything about the lighting because I was in two different places bot with completely different lighting. It was actually more on the frustrating and stressful side rather than the fun side and now from that experience, I probably won't make another one in my free time for fun.  

2. If you could rate your stop motion on a 1-10 scale. 1 being low effort and no very good and 10 being out of this world/mind blowing, how would you rate your project? Explain why.
In hindsight, what would you do differently the second time around? Better lighting? Time management? Explain yourself.

I would probably give my project a six or a seven.  I know that I made mistakes along the way with it being my first time trying to make a stop motion animation, but I wouldn't pull an all nighter just to redo something that I didn't enjoy making in the first place.  I really love to watch them and I think that they're cool and all, but I don't enjoy making them myself. I know that I made mistakes with the lighting and having the camera stationary.  Next time around I would probably just scratch the whole Henna tattoo design and just do something more fun and less personal like the human skate board or making a food.  If I were to keep this design, I would say that I need to do all of my pictures in one location, use a tripod, and just in general, keep everything more consistent.  

3. Explain what makes your stop motion animation unique. How do you believe you thought "outside of the box" on this project? 

I wold say that my stop motion animation is pretty unique.  I took the Henna design that I got and added to it with more details so it's an original design that most likely no one else would ever have or use.  I wouldn't say that I "thought outside the box", it's just that my dad is always on my mind so it was one of the first things that popped into my head and I wanted something that I could do at school and use my class time wisely for since I knew that I wouldn't have the time to do it at home.  If I would have had more free time at home, I probably would have chosen something else to do like something to do with lacrosse. 

4. What grade do you feel you deserve on this project? Explain your reasoning.

I know that I don't deserve a hundred because of the lighting and stationary mistakes that I made, but I also don't think that I deserve a horrible grade because I still worked hard on it, and just not being able to do it all in one location (at school) and not having a tripod to use (the tools that I needed to do the project properly), it turned out worse than I would have liked it to and by then there was nothing that I could really do about it which killed me inside because I'm always striving and wanting to achieve to the highest that I possibly can, make it better than I possibly thought I could make it, but I didn't do that this time and it's driving me crazy and I sort of feel guilty about it, but it's too late to fix it now.  I mean I want a good grade on this, but because of my mistakes, I probably don't deserve the best grade on this one. 

Monday, April 14, 2015

3 day weekend... how was it? Give me a good story or something funny that happened this weekend. Go.

I'm honestly speechless.  I have no words or thoughts to try to explain my weekend.  There wasn't necessarily anything good that happened over the weekend except for me getting to spend time with my mom and getting to sleep in. I went out to lunch with friends one day too.  Otherwise, the weekend wasn't that great.  Not only because of Reat's one year anniversary, which it still was sad even though I personally didn't know him, but then it's also a reminder that in about two months I'll be facing the same one year anniversary but this time it will be with someone who I was really close to, my dad. It was just and overly sad and devastating weekend.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Tell me ALL about what your idea is for your stop-motion animation. I need detail. Who is going to help you take photos? What props do you need? Where do you plan on shooting? EXPLAIN everything.

My idea for my stop motion animation is to do a drawing of a Henna tattoo that  got at the beginning of this school year.  I really like the design and it has a special meaning to me, plus I've also already learned how to draw the design so it would be something that i might be able to complete to my standards and not leave my self so disappointed.  It's a good idea to use for a first top animation video.  The henna tattoo is the word Dad in fancy letters in place of where the drawing of an angel would be.  Then angel wings are drawn out to the side of the word Dad. You add a halo to the top of the name and then put the date he passed away on underneath the word.  I'm still deciding if I'm going to do anything after I'm done drawing, but my plan is to just do the drawing for now and see how it goes with just drawing it.  All I need is a higher up stand (tripod) for my phone (would use my computer screen), a pencil, and a piece of computer paper. I plan on trying to take the pictures right at my computer. 

Monday, April 6, 2015

Tell me all about your weekend and please share photos!

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This weekend I honestly did practically nothing except for homework. The pictures above are not from this past weekend, but from a project that I was working on over the weekend. In ELA we are doing a time capsule writing project and we have to pick twenty different writings to complete and turn in. These pictures are from my Then and Now paper. In this paper we had to choose four pictures. One baby picture, one from elementary school, one from middle school, and then one from now. working on the writings is basically what I did all weekend. I took some breaks and went outside to play wall ball with my lacrosse stick, and then I also mowed the lawn. We didn't really do anything for Easter this year and we didn't have any family come over either, but we did make a little Easter dinner for ourselves.