Incomplete Project Blog Essay

If you do not think you will be able to finish your independent portfolio projects an alternative is to write an analytical essay for your blog to be presented with your senior or junior portfolio. In order to accomplish this you first need to define the thesis of your essay.
The thesis of your essay may be about the project or the subject of your project. For example, Shane would like to interview people about their different experiences in education. He could chose to write his essay about the small school movement in New York City while using some of his research in the paper. For example, asking teachers to compare their experiences between large schools and small schools might become part of his project. The thesis question of his essay might looks something like "Are small schools good for New York City students?" and his answer will depend on how his perspective develops through the research.
The paper is not meant to replace your project, but to help you organize the research you have already conducted about your topic. For example, Kanisha wants to create a portfolio of modeling photos based on Tyra Banks. How could Kanisha develop her knowledge about the model turned talk show host? Her thesis question might be "How did Tyra Banks achieve success through the media?" Again, her answer, will form a thesis statement supported by paragraphs of facts and opinions and a conclusion. Kanisha's thesis might be "Tyra Banks may be the next Oprah Winfrey having transformed her career from a supermodel into a talk show host." Kanisha then would support the statement by analyzing Tyra's rise through the modeling world into a supermodel, her work on America's Next Top Model, and finally her success in day time television.
These are only suggestions and Kanisha might want to write about how Tyra became a model or write a general essay on modeling as a career using Tyra as an example. Shane might want to write his essay about how people experience educations in New York. The topics of your thesis questions should reflect your interests, but develop a deeper academic research connection.
Your first assignment is to really think about your thesis by coming up with five different possible thesis questions. You must email me your list of thesis questions before class next Monday and list them in order of importance. I need to be able to respond to your thesis questions with feedback before you begin to write your essay, and I need to know which one your are most interested in. It has to be a question that will allow you to use your basic research and interviews so that you may begin to form a coherent thesis statement and support it with facts and your own opinions.

The final essay will be posted on your blog supported by relevant images and links to your sources. We want to make the essay and interactive and dynamic text that takes full advantage of the Internet.

Digital Collage

Today and tomorrow you will continue to experiment in Adobe Photoshop by creating a digital collage for your blog. The collage should include a background, a minimum of 5 images you find on the Internet, a text layer, a layer effect, a filter effect, and a drawing/painting layer. The theme of the your digital collage should relate to the theme of your project and convey why you care about the project in the first place. There is a list of tools and tips on the board to help you, but we will revisit the project soon. If you are really struggling with Photoshop ask Gavino or Gary for help as they have been very good working in the program.

Procedure:

• Open up Adobe Photoshop in the applications folder.

• Create a new file 600 x 600 pixels. (File>New)

• Reset all the palette locations using Window>Workspace>Reset palette locations.

• Use the Paint Bucket or Gradient Tool to create a colorful background for your image.

• Open up Safari or Firefox and COPY and PASTE 5 images you discover on the Internet that you want to include into your digital college into NEW FILES. Save them as image1, image2, image3, image4, image5.

• Use the marquee and lasso tools to select areas of the images that you want to include in your blank canvas. Use the feather tool to soften edges on 2 -3 of the images.

• Remember, each time you paste in Photoshop it creates a new Layer. Make sure you select the layer you want to manipulate.

• Arrange your images using the Move Tool (black arrow).

• Apply a Filter effect to at least one of your image layers.

• Create a new Painting layer using Layer>New>Layer and try and use the paintbrush/drawing tools to unify parts of your collage.

• Use the Type Tool to add a relevant phrase, quote, or word to your collage.

• Apply a layer effect to your type using Layer> Layer Style > and choose one of the options.

When you are finished working for the day on Thursday SAVE the file as yourname.PSD in photoshop format.

When you are finished working for the day on Friday SAVE the file as yourname.psd and then SAVE FOR THE WEB as yourname.JPG and choose the JPEG option.

Post the file to your blog using the IMAGE option in your post and UPLOAD the image. It will appear in your post. Title the post Digital Collage. Please post your image even if you are not done. I will be checking them over the weekend and need to see whatever progress you were able to make in class.

Holiday Reading Assignment

"When others trust us, they give us greater leeway because they feel we don't need monitoring to assure that we'll meet our obligations."

This is a nice quote from the reading that connects directly to the idea of self-regulation.  When you are given a project or an assignment, there is an expectation of trust that you will complete the work.  It connects also to your project, your goal setting, and my trust in you that you will meet your goals instead of coming up with excuses.

When you come back on Monday after the break, please bring back the reading on trustworthiness with a written response to the idea that stands out to you the most.  Which one do you think is the most important, difficult, or challenging?

• Honesty

•Integrity

•Reliability

•Loyalty

 

Based on the do now, which was to define honesty, integrity, reliability, and loyalty in your own words, write a one page response on how your definition or understanding of ONE of  the terms connects to the text.  

• What is similar or different about your understanding of the term and the definition in the text?
• What do you agree with or disagree with in the text? (pull a quote)
• Describe a moment in your life where your own honesty, integrity, reliability, or loyalty was challenged (write about the term you selected).  What was the situation?  How did you respond? 
• Why does trustworthiness have four parts? What makes it so complicated? Based on your understanding of all the terms, try and make a connection between the one you have selected one of the others.  
  

You can write your response on the back of the packet.  Please bring it with you next Monday.

Goal #2 Reflection and Goal #3 Setting

Today, leave a comment on Goal #2 explaining whether you met the goal or not.  If you met the goal, be prepared to show your evidence.  I will be checking during class today.

After you have finished reflecting on your previous goal post your #3 project goal.  You're third goal should be something that you can complete over the holiday and come prepared to show next Monday.

The second marking period ends next week, and we will be having project conferences to evaluate your progress.

• Leave a comment on last week's 2nd goal.  Did you complete it?  What is the evidence?
• Post a 3rd project goal on your blog to complete over the holiday.  

Self-regulation and continuous learning

Working independently or within a group is something that requires a lot of each you. In order to be successful in college you must be able to set and meet goals to become a self-directed learner. What does that mean?

Imagine it's your first day in class in college and a professor says, "write an 800 word paper on Government due in one month?" How would you do it? What are some steps you might take to meet the professor's demand? Write down some of the steps you would take to accomplish this paper. Add the most important one as a comment on this post.

Self-Regulation is an important part of assessing your own progress on any given task. To self-regulate you must take control and responsibility your work.  Hopefully, in college and with your own digital portfolio project you will be pursuing an area of study that you value and would want to learn about outside of school.  To help you self-regulate you have to set some basic goals, know when they have been met, and if they meet necessary standards. 

Part of of this process of self-regulation first requires you to think about your own style of learning. A self-regulating student or worker doesn't wait for other people to get them started, but uses inquiry and experimentation to accomplish their own goals.  Answer the following questions on your blog in a new post.  Copy and Paste them into your blog and answer the questions honestly and thoughtfully:

1. What is the best environment (home, school, work, library, etc.) for your learning? Where do you work the best?
2. Where do you choose to study? (If you don't study, why not?)
3. Where do you choose to work creatively? Where do show your individuality?
4. How do you work with others (school, teams, work, family etc.)?
5. What is your favorite way of learning (listening, looking, doing, experimenting, etc)?
6. What do you think are your talents or strengths (drawing, writing, speaking, problem solving, etc,)?
7. Where do your personal interests lie (sports, arts, music, dance, socializing, etc.,)?
8. When do you check for accuracy and precision in your life or work?
9. Are you persistent in developing your work or accomplishing things in your life?
10. What will you work on independently in class tomorrow?

Self-regulation begins with your own internal reflection on how you learn and work best. Once you start to realize your strengths you can start to work towards those on your own.  When you become a self-regulated learner engaged in continuous learning, you would have something to do everyday in school even if there were no teachers to tell you what to do.  

Searching for an Expert and an introduction

Today, before you do anything else, write a brief and polite introduction to any potential experts on your topic area that you may end up interviewing.  In one paragraph, introduce yourself, your project, and the purpose of your email, which is to ask the expert some questions you have about your project/topic area.  The introduction should be well written in proper English with no slang or texting shortcuts.  It should have a greeting "Dear expert (for now)", a body, and a salutation "Sincerely, your name".

Send me your introduction and your 7 interview questions to mr.powhida@gmail.com.  Then, for those of you who do not already have someone to interview move onto the next step. I will review your introduction and questions and send it back if there any corrections/changes.  Then, when you discover some experts to contact you can send out your questions.  

How do we find experts? While there are some experts in the school that you can contact, everyone in here can start searching for an outside expert to ask for help and briefly interview with your questions. In fact, one of the best ways to gain new knowledge is to interview a person. That way, they share their knowledge in their own words, which means they are putting that knowledge in their own words from their perspective. This is a higher order of thinking that just giving you a list of facts and/or advice.

To start your expert search, you should begin by searching locally in Brooklyn and New York City in general for people with careers related to your field. For example, Brandon might search for chefs, television, New York

Let's look up the results that pop up and see if we can find contact info like an email address for Brandon.

Now that you've seen it's possible, spend some time trying different combinations of keywords in Google and see if you can find as many contacts to email your interview questions.  Save any contacts you find in your Google Research Worksheet in a new box and label it Expert Contacts Include the person or business's name, email address, and area of expertise.

Finding An Expert

Many of you are struggling with the idea of how to start your project, because there is an overwhelming amount of information on the Internet. As you know, information is nothing unless you are able to comprehend, apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate it. In order to help find some guidance we will be searching for experts, or people who have already applied the kind of higher order thinking you will have to, to help us out with the project. 

We happen to live in a city of experts. In terms of your projects, many of you will be able to find help and ideas within the school and others will have to look beyond the school walls. How you do find an expert? You search for people and contact information in the industry you are researching and you reach out to several of them until someone responds. I was contacted by a student at the Young Writer's Academy to talk about my work as a writer in Brooklyn. I sat down for an interview about my writing process. The student found my email on the Internet and contacted me. I responded because I thought it would be good for the community. 

Before you start searching for an expert on your project (or area of interest), you will need to think of several questions to ask your expert. For example, Milaida  wants to make a film about her dancing. She might ask an expert on film "Why did you get into film-making?", "What are the basic steps to making a film?", or "How can I plan out my film?", "What should I learn about editing?"

Before we move on to writing our questions, you need to search for a published interview with someone in your field or area of interest.  For example, Kenyetta could search for an interview with a famous Jamaican or Jamaican-American to find out if they talk about their background and culture.  Nephteli could search for an interview with one of her favorite dancers or choreographers.  Jeff could search for an interview with a famous graffiti artist like Shepard Fairey or Banksy.  When you find a good interview, copy and paste the link into your RESEARCH WORKSHEET in google docs.  

Each of you needs to write a series of at least seven questions for an expert about your project. They should not be yes or no questions, but ones that will help guide your work. Add your 7 questions to one of the boxes in your Google Research Worksheet.  

If you finish your questions early, start searching for people in your field of interest or if you know a faculty member that might be able to help.  So, if you are making a video/film search for "Brooklyn, Film makers, production companies". If you are doing fashion, search for "Brooklyn, fashion designers," If you find any contact information, save it in your RESEARCH DOCUMENT in google docs.