For art our assignment was to draw an object and then decide how to put the letters of the object inside of the drawing. I decided to draw an eye. I think eyes have a lot of detail and their can be a lot of thing that you can put into it. I completed this proect by working on it every art class and sticking too it. I didn't change my object once I decided which one to do. I stuck to the one I was doing and worked hard at it.

For our Spanish benchmark of the 1st quarter, we had to make an imovie or keynote presentation, using pictures about our summer or any summer that someone could have.  We also had to write in Spanish a narrative of what our summer was like, and read the narrative while we presented our pictures.  Some of the criteria for the project was; there should be no words on the slides with the pictures, the narrative had to be 250 or so words long, and the pictures could be our own or taken from the internet.

For my slideshow I used pictures from my summer vacation.  I had traveled a lot that summer and had taken lots of pictures.  Some of the places I went were; Plymouth VT.  For sleep away camp, Niagara Falls with my sister and grandparents, Upstate New York to visit a friend, and Mason’s Island CT. to visit my cousins.  I also went back to Philadelphia for a week at a time in between my travels.  I used my pictures to describe all of these places to my classmates and teacher.

I do not think I would do anything differently to this project if I could do it over, I really enjoyed using my pictures, and using keynote.  This project was a good starter to getting back into Spanish, and I hope I will get to do more projects like this.

This assignement had two main lessons to be learned. The first was the easier of the two. We were to draw an object and somehow fit the objects's name into the shape of the object. The hardest part of that was trying to figure out what to draw. Our options were limitless. The second task was to then scan that drawing into our computers and re-create it using Adobe Illiustrator CS3. This part was quite complicated and took a lot of time and effort as most of us had never even seen Adobe Illustrator, much less used it.

For my drawing, I decided to create a five-petaled flower using the round center as the "o" in the word flower and the rest of the petals made up for the rest of the letters in the word. I was pretty proud of myself for thinking of making use of the center of he flower as a whole letter. I liked the fact that when I was done drawing it, most people's reaction was that they thought I forgot the "o" but a few seconds later thier faces lit up after discovering it. Using the Illustrator program proved to be quite difficult, but once I got used to it, re-creating the drawing wasnt so hard and I started to have fun with it.

If I were to do this assignment again, I would like to try to figure out how to cut curved sections off of the letters so that I could have tried to use a pre-set font rather than tracing my letters with the pen tool. Otherwise, I don't think I would do anything different. I like how my drawing turned out.

In my Spanish 1 class I learned the basics of Spanish. I learned how to greet someone, how to ask someone their name, how to order food, etc. We were given a scenario for our Benchmark. The scenario was that we were imagining we were creating a brochure for people who speak Spanish in order for them to be able to translate their Spanish words into English.

I made my brochure colorful to make sure that it was eye-catching so it can draw the reader to my brochure in particular out of many brochures. I took everything that I learned and used key things that a fluent Spanish speaker would need to know in order to get by in an English speaking country such as America. I also made sure my brochure was filled with valuable information.

If I did this project again I might add more topics into my brochure in order to infor the reder with more information.

Before

After

 Description: This project was about how to create an image from its word.We could choose anything we wanted to draw for this assignment. Some people chose to draw cities or even the world. However, I chose to draw lips. I don't really know why I chose to draw this but I found out the the outcome of this product turned out pretty well. I had difficulties with the letters trying to fit them into the shape of the lips so that it can curve and be angled in a sort of direction that goes well with the lips.

For this assignment, we had to create a piece of artwork, that displayed an image or object of our choics in a unique way. The name of the object or image had to be written or displayed some how or make up the image or object we were creating.

I created an image of a hand holding out an iPod, freehand.Showing allof the details of the Apple iPod. Then I sketched the words IPOD into the actual image of the iPod, with the circle of the iPod creating the O.

If I were to do something different in this project, I wouldn't have done the outline of the iPod first. I would have created the message(words) first and then created the object from that. To create a greater artistic image. 

This assignment was about getting familiar with illustrator. It is an
extremely useful tool for the computer that, ever since I have learned,
has helped me put those finishing touches on my projects by being a
useful tool to editing pictures. The first step of this project was to
draw a picture with the name of the object incorperated into the
picture. For example I drew a grape vine so the letters g-r-a-p-e-s are
scattered within the grapes. Also I drew a 2nd patch of grapes with the
word uvas visible because a popular place to get grapes is in spain,
and since they speak Spanish in spain I wrote it in spanish. The next
step was to scan it onto the computer and trace it so that everything
is outlined and the letters look fancy. The final step is to take that
sketch and make a final copy which is completely animated. If I could
redo this project I would not draw grapes because it takes a lot of
time on illustrator to make each individual grape.

Jason Davis

In quarter one for English, we focused the majority of our class time on the book, the Freedom Writers Diary. For our benchmark we had to pick a chapter from the book and write a five paragraph essay on why the book should not be banned. We had to have an intro and thesis, a body, and a conclusion. We had to be persuasive so that when people read it they would see where you’re coming from.
What we did for this project was we had to choose a diary from the story, and then describe why that diary should be taught in schools. I chose diary entry number 24, which was about a young boy that was evicted out of his house and was sleeping in a strangers house with no bed. It was up to us to persuade whoever was reading this essay that this was a book that should be taught in schools. I feel that I did very good on this and I am glad to have read the freedom writers diary.
   

Jason Davis

In quarter one for English, we focused the majority of our class time on the book, the Freedom Writers Diary. For our benchmark we had to pick a chapter from the book and write a five paragraph essay on why the book should not be banned. We had to have an intro and thesis, a body, and a conclusion. We had to be persuasive so that when people read it they would see where you’re coming from.
What we did for this project was we had to choose a diary from the story, and then describe why that diary should be taught in schools. I chose diary entry number 24, which was about a young boy that was evicted out of his house and was sleeping in a strangers house with no bed. It was up to us to persuade whoever was reading this essay that this was a book that should be taught in schools. I feel that I did very good on this and I am glad to have read the freedom writers diary.
   

Through the 9th grade study of The Odyssey, we explored how the story was crafted to teach its audience basic lessons of the time, (i.e. "How to be a real man."  "The importance of loyalty in upholding social order.")   Further, we tracked and analyzed how archetypes were used within the story.  From this study, we looked to the modern version of this lesson-based, archetype-heavy story, the Fairy Tale.  Students were then asked to create an illustrated fairy tale story book.  Lastly, they had to reflect on their experiences developed through their own authorship, and then connect those experiences to a deeper understanding of Homer and The Odyssey.

The final versions of these stories are in hard copy.  If you'd like to read them, head over to school and ask one of our students to show you. 

Science Benchmark Overview
During Quarter 1, the Science Benchmark that my class was assigned was a 3-piece research project about a scientist. The first part, which was due October 8th, was the application. For the application, a group of two students had to answer eight points: who the scientist was, when he or she was around and the events of that time period, the problem and questions the scientist faced, the research and solution the scientist produced, what work that scientist built upon and who built off of him or her, the scientist’s impact on society, the awards or recognitions he or she received, and the citations. The second part was the presentation. For that step each group had to present the work they did within a three-minute time limit. Finally, the third mandatory step was to create a profile. For the profile, a picture of the particular scientist, the year or years associated with his or her work, the name of the scientist, and 3-5 brief bullets about the scientist must have been included.

I was assigned to be Aaron Johnson’s partner. We divided the eight points we had to answer for the application between us. I had to do the last four points. A few days before the application due date, my partner and I came together and pulled all of work together. Once it was combined we peer-edited, self-edited, and gave it to the teacher to mark. Now that our application was completed, we worked on the presentation. Because we only had three minutes to give a long list of information, we organized the slides on Keynote in order of importance, and we made sure that we knew the information well so that we did not waste time on reading from the slides. Also, we did a lot of practicing so we knew who had to say what and when. For the profile, we made approximately four rough drafts before our teacher decided it was ready. After everything looked easy to read and organized, the final profile was hung on the way to be used later for a Scientist Timeline.

For this benchmark I honestly gave my all to get the work completed. However, on the application I did get a rough start. At first, I was reluctant to get too deep into the research, so if I had another choice I would definitely dive straight in. That way I would have had more information to show and add to our application. Also, my partner and I should have done the research less separately. If we had worked together more then the information could have seemed as though we did it as one group – not two people.

Spanish Benchmark Overview

For my Spanish 2 Unit 1 benchmark, my classmates and I were assigned to write completely in Spanish about what we did over summer vacation. The other choice we had was to create a story about activities that someone did over the summer. For both choices we had to include 5‐7 different activities or events that happened, and the story had to have a minimum of 200 words. After we finished writing the story, we had to create a presentation, preferably using PowerPoint of Keynote, including pictures to help the audience follow along with the story. The most important rule was that no English could be included in the story or the presentation.

For my project, I decided to create a story that told about a girl’s many failed attempts at activities over the summer. During the class time that my teacher gave to us, I used a dictionary to write all the activities that my story would include on a separate word document in bullets. I then used the time to come up with a story line. Instead of first writing my story in English and then translating it into Spanish, I used those activities that I already translated and, while using a dictionary, began writing my story. When I finished, I gave it to my Spanish teacher and my father, a fluent Spanish speaker, so they could check over it and give me advice on how to fix it. Then on the weekend before the project was due, I worked on my presentation on Keynote. I pasted pictures that represented the settings and the actions that were involved in each scene, used text boxes to add in the exact words from my story that accompanied each scene, and recorded my voice as I read aloud the story in Spanish.

If I had the chance to do my benchmark again, I would make a few changes. First, I would have asked for help from my classmates so that I could get the opinions of more than just two people. Next, I would have spent more time on making my presentation interesting and easier to follow. I definitely could have read over my story a final time and gone to my Spanish teacher after class so he could go over it again with me. Finally, I would have liked to write my paper in a way that seemed as if a fluent Spanish speaker had written it by using different phrases and better vocabulary.

Geometry Benchmark Overview

For the Geometry Benchmark, students were divided into groups of three or four people and each group was assigned a topic related to geometry that had to be presented in front of class. Within the presentation, each group had to include the shapes of geometry that were used in the topic they received, the materials, the methods, why geometry is used in that topic, and the reasoning behind it all. On the day of presentation, each group explained their topic to the class as if they were teachers. For individual work, each member of the group was responsible for submitting a journal explaining how the group was working and how we were working and a pamphlet that included all the information we found.

For my benchmark, I worked with Ryan and Julia Boyer on the topic of “Geometry in Architecture and Engineering.” For our work, we divided the points we had to address between the three of us. The point I was assigned was the reasoning behind it. I explained that strong shapes were used because of their durability and because they were very appealing. Also, I explained that proportions, symmetry, patterns, congruency, and compatibility all worked together to create the fantastic buildings we have today. So that the class could see for themselves, I showed two pictures of some very beautiful buildings that were made of many different shapes and patterns. The main point that I wanted to get across was that architects and engineers used geometry because it was a combination of art and math.

This was a group project, and the grade we received depended on the work of the entire team. However, I believe our grade suffered slightly because we did not combine and go over our total work until the very last second. Also, we did not get a chance to practice or organize what we wanted to say because we were losing time to work. I know for certain that everyone in my group worked on the project very seriously, but we did not work as a group. If we had one more chance to present, I believe if we practice, our presentation could captivate the entire class.

The King Tut Diner was a skit that me and my grouppreformed. It consisted of 5 different pieces, the script, seating chart,invitations, menu, and the press release. Each had to be very detailed and haveresearch and time put into it. The main characters were the Bureaucrat (Noble),Priest, and Farmer. Any extra characters that were consistent with AncientEgypt.

            Thecharacter I played was the scribe. He is the official documenter and advisor tothe King. My part in the project was to collect, edit, and add onto thedialogue from each individual character. I liked working in teams. Its great tocollaborate and bounce ideas of each other.

            IfI could do this assignment again I would try to get the other stuff out of theway in time to work on the actual visual piece. Like the props, sound and theskit itself.

            Mi Verano in English is My Summer. This is a story,fictional or non-fictional, that depicts a summer event. All the words of thisproject had to be in Spanish and it had to have either recorded audio orspeaking during the presentation. My story is completely fictional. Its about ateenager that travels from a Spanish speaking country in Africa to America. Theteen goes to Florida for a motorcycle racing championship event. After the racethere is a whole scene with a shark and a rioting group of animal protectors. Afterthe teen returns home in time for the release of a popular movie.

            Thesteps I took for this project weren’t very complicated. I first came up with abasic story with three different events. Somewhere down the line the wholestory got altered and is now my final summer story. I found pictures that wererelated to the story. The photos I found were partly the reason why the storygot changed. I made it so that my story fit the pictures I found and went fromthere.

            Iif could do this project again I would probably add a lot more into it. I wouldadd more detail, fix up the grammar and make it longer. I would most likelyfocus on making easier to understand.

English Benchmark

    For my English class, our class read the novel, The Freedom Writers. After reading the book, our class learned about all of the speculation around the book and how it was being banned from numerous schools and libraries. Our benchmark project was to write a five paragraph, two-page essay on reasons why the book shouldn’t be banned and how it was a good source to learn how less fortunate families live and how they survive.
    In my essay, I wrote about how the book contained disturbing images but how it gave a positive message. The book has characters who have been through hard times and have witnessed murders, but they somehow manage to come to school every day and live their lives with somewhat positive attitudes. This takes courage, energy, and strength. I personally don’t feel like the book should be banned because it gives more fortunate readers the opportunity to read about other people’s lives.
    If I were to change my essay I would’ve stayed on topic and given more examples from the book. I think I could’ve made the essay a little bit longer had I done this. I also wish I had more time to make the essay stay on one particular part of the book. Instead it scattered around the book.

The Scientist Portfolio was a collection of information onone specific scientist. The info that we needed was the D.O.B., work and fieldof study, events during their time period and any awards that were either givenor named after them.

            Thescientist that I was assigned to was Guglielmo Marconi. One of his inventionswas the radio. Me and my partner both split the information we needed toresearch. After that we sent each other the info we found and then put it ontoa profile form. That was uploaded on to our school site. There were two otherpieces that were included in our grade, but this part summed up all of theresearch and information that was put into the other two.

            IfI could do this project I would probably work more into detail about hischildhood and the rest of his life so that I would know him better and more indepth of his reason to study phisics, and micro-waves. 

Science Benchmark

    For my science class, groups of two had to write an essay and make a powerpoint slideshow of their assigned scientist. The essay had to talk about their work, personal life, and various facts about them. The slideshow had to have various photographs and images that had something to do with the scientist. Along with the images were different facts about the scientist.
    My partner Elisa Hyder and I made a powerpoint project on the famous scientist, Gregor Mendel. Elisa wrote the essay while I made the slideshow. We both gave equal contributions and got all of out work done on time. The slideshow has different components that touch on Mendel’s family, his research, his associates, and his experiments. The slideshow and essay both talk about Mendel’s unpopularity. He wasn’t famous until years after he passed away. Numerous scientists copied his work and received credit for it. But eventually it was clear that it was Mendel’s work and his family was given the respect they deserved.
    If I could change one thing about my project, I would’ve given more explanations in the slideshow.  I remember wishing it was longer and had more detailed bullet points. These are my thoughts on my history project on the great scientist, Gregor Mendel.

           TheFreedom Writers Diary is a very inspiring book. But there are those that deemthe book to be foul or bad for today’s teen. This essay argues the fact thatthis book, The Freedom Writers, should be allowed in all schools and availableacross America and the whole world. The essay is focused around one entry inthe book- Diary Entry # 9.

            Forthis essay I was instructed to first construct a brain map – or “brain vomit” –and to just put all of my ideas onto a thought web. From each of those topics Idug deeper and thought harder for each. The main question I use was ‘Why’. Whydid the person do this or chose to not do that. Each question brought me closerin depth into the book and into my own thoughts. After that I took those ideasand topics and started to draft my essay. Then finally revise it into my finalcomplete copy.

            IfI could do this assignment again I would keep the main frame I had before andbuild from that, so that I could go even deeper. And to also sharpen and narrowmy topics to focus on the basics of human nature and the similarities to everysingle person alive today. I’m glad that I got the chance to read this book andeven hear from one of the famed Freedom Writers in person.

We didn’t really have a math benchmark so I choose to do the mini project. The min project was like an open book test. You could use the web if needed. It wasn’t really a group project but you could have worked in groups if wanted. The mini project was used to inform us about how to find the circumference and area of a circle, and how the circumference and area of a circle is similar to the circumference and area of a rectangle.
For the mini project we had to do it on a sketchpad document. So I went on moodle and downloaded the sketchpad document. I first started working on it with the group I set with. We worked together, collaborated, and combined our answers. When ever we needed help we ether asks Mr. Rochester for help or search the web. The mini project also helped me understand sketchpad a little more.
If I could do the mini project again I would make sure to check my answers again. I did good and knew most of the answers by heart but hesitated about how I got the answer. Beside that I think I did good.

The Q1 Spanish benchmark was about every thing we learned doing quarter one. We learned eight different topics in quarter one. For the Q1 Spanish benchmark we had to make a survival Spanish guide for a person who had never studied Spanish before. We had to choose six of the eight topics we learned that we think would be importing to know when you’re lost in another country. We also had to choose how we was going to present each of the six topics. We had to use ether pages or word templates to make a brochure.
For the Q1 Spanish benchmark mark I choose the six topics I wanted to talk about. After choosing my six topics. Then I brainstormed how I was going to present my topics. Next I tried to do a brochure on pages but I had some problem. So I did it on word.  It came out better then I thought it would.
If I could do something differently on the Q1 Spanish benchmark I would change my six topics. They were good but I feel that the only reason I choose them was because they was the one knew. The project was based on what you think was importing. But beside that I think it was good.

The Q1 science Benchmarks was based around the History of Science. We were separated into groups of 2 based on the scientist we were interested in. There was three part of the Q1 science benchmark. We had to research that scientist and fill out a form called SLAward. Then we had to make a 3 min presentation explaining why our scientist deserves this award. Then we had to make a profile of our scientist to post up on the wall.

For the Q1 science benchmark I worked with Jareese Long. Our scientist was Julius Robert Oppenheimer. I had choose to do the SLAward and she did the presentation and profile. I research J. Robert Oppenheimer and fill in the application telling about his life, and accomplishments. Then she made a slide show and the profile based on the information I had. Next we presented our slide to the class. After presenting we voted for who we thought was the best. We got a B on the SLAward.

If I were to redo the Benchmark I think I would have explained a little more about my scientist during the presentation. The presentation was the most important part of the project and I think we did well but we could have been better. I would also work with Jareese on the slide. We only had one slide because she didn’t wanted the slide to have too much detail and that put my on the spotlight because I don’t like talking.

              For our Biochem benchmark we had to research a scientist and represent our result ifront of the class. To do this presentation we researched our scientist with the website and put the websites in an APA style format in our presentation and also in our scientist application. We collaborate in doing this research with our partners. My partner is Amaris Romero. 

Our application includes the name of the scientist, their background information, what named after the scientist, the scientist's Impact on Society (the question he/she had, what he/she discovered, what other's thinks after this happened) , Shoulders of Giants (how does his/her discoveries helped others), Research and Solutions (his/her experiments and failure, also the questions that he/she have to do this experiment. The scientist my teacher assign to me is Madam Marie Curie. 

For my presentation, I did a power point because our teacher only gives us a 3 minutes presentation, we summaries most of the information that we found through the websites. My presentation layout is the black and white picture of marie curie, and the font is in bright color so that the audience would be able to see what this presentation is about. 

For my Spanish benchmark we were to create a Spanish-speaking guide. It had to be in book form, booklet form, or brochure form. As long as it would be able to teach someone Spanish and English.
My project I created a book form guide. I used an avatar that I had on a website called, www.meez.com, where you can make an avatar and have it do all kinds of things. And dress it up too. You can make you meez shovel snow, be a cheerleader, anything you wanted it to be. Kind of like an alter ego for everything you wanted to be that you might not be able to. But thanks to Jing I was able to take pictures of my meez doing odd jobs, eating, reading, having fun, chilling, just being herself and added it into my book making her the main character that taught the reader how to speak Spanish and English. It was the most outstanding project that I have ever done.
If I could ever do this project over. I would change NOTHING! It made me feel so spectacular when I did this project for Spanish. I felt like I had done something out of the ordinary. When I walked into the class with everyone’s project all dark and plain. I came in with something colorful and creative. It was something different. I was just squirming in my seat waiting for my Spanish teacher to say we were going to start presenting the projects. So I would change absolutely nothing about my project.

For my Benchmark of the 1st Quarter for Biochemistry, we were instructed to make a presentation based on a scientist that we found interest in. The scientist were almost all inventors. We had to include the contributions they made to the society because our main focus that semester was about scientist and their contributions. We also had to present their lifestyle (including childhood memories, schools, etc).

What I did was make a keynote on George washington Carver. Since it was a group project, I was in charge of pulling together the presentation. My partners worked on finding the facts. Overall, I think we did very good.

If I could do the project over again, I would shorten the presentation. Other than that, my group was easy to work with and easy to complete. I wouldnt do much different.

English

For theEnglish benchmark I had to make a thesis and then had to prove that my thesiswas right. I had to make sure that the thesis was good and a good thesis has tobe not a “duh” moment, something that people cant see and know right off the back.Also it had to go off a topic such as glory and gender, also it had to be aboutthe book “The Odyssey”. In conclusion this benchmark was different then otherthesis projects ive done in the past.

In thisbenchmark I had to pick a thesis topic. I chose to go with glory. The thesisstatement that I chose was “The people in the book who kill and parsed for itbut really that are just killer that enjoy taking other life’s”. With that Ifound quotes that could prove it within the book.

I did howeverhave trouble with the benchmark. The problems I had was choosing a thesis thatwas not a “duh” moment and also that I was able to explain my thesis. I changebetween 4 different theses before finally choosing one. That is really the onlyproblem I faced but that one could have lead to others .In conclusion thisbenchmark was not easy.

Our project had to be about the science since the 17th century. We worked with a parter that is in our stream. We had to do research about the specific scient that you and your partner chose. We had to make a presentation that was persuasive to Mr. Best and the rest of the class for them to vote for our scientist for the SLAward. The SLAward is like a recognition to all the things that a scientist did for our world.

My scientist was Charles Darwin. We were told to research Charles Darwin and say why he deserves and is worth of the SLAward.

If I had to do this project over again I would follow the planed schedule in order to have all parts fully completed and submitted on time

the benchmark that we had to do for history involved pairing up with other people and creating a whole day for if King Tut arrived in the city of Per-wadjet. we had to divide the jobs as if we ran a catering job and each person had to work on a part of the catering that we could make so that King Tut was pleased. You had the designer, the chef, the money personnel etc.

My part for the project was the head chef. I made meals that King Tut would generally eat, like beef, duck or fish. The meals that I made also included the wines favored in Per-wadjet including red wine. The meals were prepared as if I was there so that King Tut would enjoy them as much as the guest.

Somethings that I would do different next time would be to separate the way things were done so that the people in my group could do even better with their ideas. I would also make sure that we better divided our time for the project. 

Math
For the math benchmark of the first quarter, we were put into groups and our assignment was to design the floor plan of a house using real life dimensions of real life objects and scaling them down, and drawing them on a large piece of paper.  Some of the requirements for the project were; a title, your group names, and a scale were required on the large piece of paper.  For extra credit my group also colored in out objects to make them more pleasing to the eye.

I worked in a group with Will F., Ayanna R. , and Francesca B.  We each had a different room to create and I did the bathroom.  In the bathroom I had a sink, toilet, shelves, a bathtub, a shower, and a sauna.  The other rooms in our house that we had were a living room (Francesca), a bedroom (Ayanna), and kitchen (Will).

If I could do this project again I would have maybe spent a little more time making it extra good.  Some of my group members were absent on some days that we had to work together so we were not as prepared to present as some other groups.  I really enjoyed this project and learned a lot about working in groups and about scaling down objects.

English
We had two parts of our benchmark in English.  One part was writing a 5-paragraph essay about a theme in The Odyssey by Homer, Some of the themes were hospitality, glory, gender roles, and the gods and their influence on mortals.  The second part of the benchmark was a 500 word creative assignment about a character searching for glory.  The creative piece had to include vocabulary words from the Odyssey and 3 epic similes.

My thesis for the 5 paragraphs was about hospitality, and the laws of it in the ancient Greek world, or rather the lack of them.  My thesis was: Hospitality is different from person to person and doesn’t always follow the same laws; therefore no traveler can assume a standard form of hospitality.  For my creative piece I wrote about a blind child at a boarding school, feeling left behind and forgotten by her family and her yearning for a friend.

I felt very confident about this benchmark and very proud of my work.  If I could do it over I would do nothing different except maybe I could use more editing and proofreading.  Overall however I am very proud of these writing assignments and hope for more like them.