My portfolio blog

My ceiling tile has a lot of meaning for me. It is an anime character named Natsu, from one of my favorite animes called "Fairy Tail." Behind him is the fairy tail symbol. Natsu has fire magic so that's why the fire in in the picture. Whenever I see this symbol or Natsu, it reminds me to be strong and work hard towards the goals I want to achieve in life. I am very proud with how it turned out, and I like my art style. I drew everything by hand and eye, no tracing. Next in my self portrait I challenged myself to again not tracing and using hand and eye skills. I started out with shapes and made my way into detail. It was difficult at first. In fact I have another picture of the same thing that I drew of myself, on a smaller paper. They look different. This portrait looks just like me, but the other had better details in the shading. I absolutely am prod of my work. 

Ben Fink's Art Gallery

For this semester, I created two pieces of art, which I then took pictures of and put in my slideshow. My first piece of art was a painted ceiling tile with an art design of my choice. Due to my passionate stance on love, peace, and compassion, I drew a large heart with a peace sign embedded into it, the sun and moon to represent equality, a smile to represent happiness, and a plus sign to represent positivity. My second piece was a rough self-portrait on a piece of poster paper. 

E1 U1 Serenity, Derek, Emmett, and Michaela

Emmett is really Barack Obama. Michaela is confused and speaks to him in a rude manner. What does his bodyguard, Derek, do in defense?

Emmet and Serenity both want to go outside even though Michaela warns them of the bad weather. Will they suffer the consequences?
Derek wants to invite Michaela to his game, but she can't get the day of the week right!
Derek and Emmett go out for some Coco Colas. Maybe they should have been more careful about who their waitress was...

Spanish project video #1 (karen, Mayah, Emily, Grahm)

A group of high school students are in the middle of working out at the gym. Mayah is struggling while Grahm is flying through the push-ups and sit ups, Emily is watching and cheering on the both of them. Although Mayah only got to 10 and Grahm got to double the amount, Emily believes that they both did amazing in their own ways.


Spanish project video #1 (karen, mayah, emily, grahm)

A group of high school students are in the middle of working out at the gym. Mayah is struggling while Grahm is flying through the push-ups and sit ups, Emily is watching and cheering on the both of them. Although Mayah only got to 10 and Grahm got to double the amount, Emily believes that they both did amazing in their own ways.


Circus "Freaks"- 5 Minutes of Science

For my five minutes of science, I decided to focus on circus “freaks”. Most commonly known for their sideshow attraction in the late 1800s and early 1900s, we don’t think about them much anymore, but they are still a very large part of our entertainment industry. From people like Andre the Giant to Peter Dinklage, it is clear we still find something interesting about people who look different than us. And as American Horror Story: Freak Show shows, we still view these “freaks” as just that. They are separate and apart from us, something we enjoy marvelling at, but not welcoming into our own society. That is all fine and good until you consider that millions of people are considered “freaks”, for whatever reason. They cannot get jobs or a steady income because of their appearance, and when they do find something, it is often a capitalization of their birth defect, making them into something less than human.


These “freakish” types of birth defects can be caused by any myriad of things, from chromosomal abnormalities to genetic mutations to tumors to exposure to things like viruses, alcohol, or drugs in the womb. For example, gigantism is commonly caused by a tumor on the pituitary gland that causes it to secrete to much growth hormone, somatotropin, making them grow much taller and much faster than the average human. Something similar happens with dwarfism. While there are multiple types of dwarfism, the most common is achondroplasia, which is caused by a genetic mutation that makes the pituitary gland create less cartilage and slow the use of the growth plates much faster than they should. And those are just two of the most common.


While most “freakish” birth defects are survivable and have minimal side effects, depending upon how bad the birth defect is, some of them can be crippling. Some conjoined twins can never separate from each other, making life very dangerous for them. People with microcephaly can suffer side effects from something as mild as a shortened stature to something as severe as seizures. Not to mention that people with visible birth defects, like people with hirsutism, extreme, male patterned hair growth on women, or cornu cutaneum growths, human horns, are incredibly unlikely to get a job or the emotional support they need as humans without expense treatments and surgeries.


As someone who has studied many of these birth defects and more, at the Mutter Museum and beyond, I have found it increasingly more disturbing the way society treats these people. We allow ourselves to make a profit off of them and marvel at them in fascinated horror, but we refuse to let them work in the same offices as us or try to accommodate any side effects from their “freakishness”. While we may not stick them in side shows anymore doesn’t mean we treat them anymore humanly. We force ourselves to ignore the issues they are facing for reasons they can’t help in favor of our own comfort. This treatment needs to end and end quickly. We have been treating “freaks” like this for over a century; isn’t it time we learn?



Works Cited:

M. (n.d.). Hirsutism. Retrieved October 30, 2016, from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hirsutism/basics/causes/CON-20028919

McGurgan, H. (n.d.). Gigantism. Retrieved October 30, 2016, from http://www.healthline.com/health/gigantism

Memento Mutter. (n.d.). Retrieved October 30, 2016, from http://memento.muttermuseum.org/

M. (n.d.). Microcephaly. Retrieved October 30, 2016, from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/microcephaly/basics/causes/con-20034823


Creative Writing Project Q1

Welcome to my project and thank you for your interest in reading it. I hope you really enjoy it in it's entirety.  My piece is a poem called Can you feel my name? Which is a creative poem showing how feelings are attached to the name your given.When reading this poem I hope you all  learn that your name even if you don't necessarily like it should be worn with dignity and you should love it because it's yours and no one else's. 

http://watsonsandrasla.wixsite.com/website

E1 U1(Timothy Williams, Sierra Radford, Mackenzie Hopkins, Chandrea Lack)

Video #1) Hello viewers. In this first video you will see how we incorporate the use of the Alfabet (Alfabeto) in a classroom setting. As you will see in the video the shown people are reviewing a quiz and the answers. Enjoy !

Video #2) In the next video you will observe how we will use our understanding of proper communication skills in a Spanish setting.

Video #3)  In the third video you will examine how we use our knowledge of speaking and talking about the weather in a Spanish Weather Channel setting.

Video #4)  In the last video you will identify how we use communication to wish our friend happy birthday in a classroom setting.