Karly Bornstein Capstone

Digitalized Capstone: https://humansofsla.weebly.com 

Mentor: Meenoo Rami

Summary: My capstone is a blog inspired by the famous Humans of New York. I took pictures of SLA students and asked them questions to gather different stories.

Abstract:  I was inspired by the Humans of New York to do a Humans of SLA. Humans of New York is by Brandon Stanton. He walks around the streets of New York and has a conversation with strangers that catch his eye. I went around and asked students certain questions and then took their picture. I put all my pictures with their captions on a blog. I came up with some questions, and also took some questions from Brandon Stanton. By doing this, SLA's diversity and amazing community will be shown.

Bibliography:

1. Stanton, Brandon. "Humans of New York." Humans of New York. Brandon Stanton, 2010. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. <http://www.humansofnewyork.com/>. 

This is probably the most helpful website for me overall. This is where I got my idea to do my capstone. I’m taking inspiration from the guy who shoots hundreds of people a day in New York. His pictures allow me to see interesting ways to take pictures of people, not everyone had to smile. To start my chat with people, I needed to decide what types of questions to ask them. From this blog, I could get an idea of what kinds of questions he gets. It really depends on the person. For mine, I decided to do some more school related questions.


2. Whitaker, Lenyon. "Brandon Stanton: Getting to Know the Man behind Humans of New York." Metro, 14 Oct. 2013. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. <http://www.metro.us/newyork/entertainment/books/2013/10/14/getting-to-know-brandon-stanton-the-man-behind-humans-of-new-york/>.

This website is an interview on Brandon, and it’s really helpful to hear what he has to say about his big project. This was useful to me because I could see certain answers to questions that can guide me in the right direction. I question whether or not I’ll get good stories out of people, but he is almost a pro at it. Brandon approaches people in a comfortable matter. He talks about getting rejection from many people, and I don’t think I’ll have that problem as much because the people in my school aren’t that much of strangers.


3.

Gibson, Andrew. "How To Take Photos of People Like a Professional." Envato. Tutsplus, 19 Nov. 2009. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. <http://photography.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-take-photos-of-people-like-a-professional--photo-860>.

Even though I understand the basics of photography, I really wanted to look farther into how to shoot portraits. This source was helpful to me because it gave me some tips on certain detail to pay attention to. I need to think about different angles, along with how close I should be to their face, and etc. I can’t just have everyone in the same position, or same camera setting. Everyone should have their own individual story along with a unique picture. I am going to keep these tips in mind so I think about different ways to take each portrait.


4.This Is The Human Behind 'Humans Of New York' Mashable. YouTube, 15 Oct. 2013. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Bcm6kwWv09o>.


This youtube video helped my visual understanding of what he does. The story doesn’t always have to be happy. The story can be from fear, or a tragedy. I like the way he explains how he doesn’t try to make a quote fit with a certain picture. It ends up being a conversation with the person. Throughout my whole picture taking process, it’s really going to be about having a genuine conversation with the student or teacher. A limitation to this source is that the video is pretty short, and it’s pretty interesting to listen to so I wish I could be longer and explain Branden’s full background. I also want to know how he approaches people, does he just say can I take your picture? I feel as though New Yorkers could get pretty upset.


5. Wendler, Daniel. "Invitation: The Art of Good Questions." Improve Your Social Skills. Daniel Wendler, 2014. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. <http://www.improveyoursocialskills.com/conversation/invitation>.  


Taking away from the actual Humans of New York, this website helped me with some tips on talking to people. I was never that shy of a person, but from the pictures I’ve taken so far, I feel as though I needed to research how to get people to share with you. There were a few times where I would talk to some people, and they didn’t give me much, it was mainly one word answers. Some people just don’t like to talk to people at all, but others can share with you if you talk to them in the correct manner. After reading this site, I got some more ideas on what to ask people, because some of my starter questions were yes or no, and that doesn’t take you very far in conversation.


6. Gammage, Jeff. "Blog Celebrates Humans of Philadelphia." Philly.com. Philadelphia Media Network, 30 Sept. 2013. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. <http://articles.philly.com/2013-09-30/news/42505112_1_south-philadelphia-humans-hony>.

This source provides me with information about a guy in Philadelphia who does the same thing as the guy in New York. I think it’s interesting how different it is from the New York blog, even though they are the same concept. It has to do with each photographer and the kinds of people they choose to interview. His project is a imitation of Humans of New York. In the article, it tells me what Brandon Stanton does in New York in comparison to Chuck Putman. Chuck explains that it broadens the perspective and diversity of the city in ways that outsiders may not see at first.


7.

Bosman, Julie. "A Fisherman in New York’s Sea of Faces." Business Day: Media and Advertising. New York Times, 6 Nov. 2013. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/business/media/humans-of-new-york-by-brandon-stanton.html?_r=1&>.

This source is helpful to me because it gives another perspective and detail on Humans of New York. I need as much information as possible about what Brandon does, so I can follow in his successful footsteps. He explains how he makes himself as nonthreatening as possible. I found it interesting that the first person he ever shot was a guy who caught Brandon’s eye. He allowed him to take the picture right off the bat, and I think that really sparked Brandon into wanting to take more pictures. There are many interesting people in SLA that will catch my eye and will make my project really amazing in the end.


8. Cauterucci, Christina. "How Photos Can Make Strangers A Little Less Strange." NPR. NPR, 1 Nov. 2013. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2013/11/01/241822706/how-photos-can-make-strangers-a-little-less-strange>.

I chose this source because NPR is very reliable, and I also found this article to be interesting. Each article I read about Humans of New York, or Brandon, it gives me new information. They’re all written differently so I am able to capture a different perspective and new facts from each. This written piece was helpful to me because it explained where Brandon goes to take his pictures. He explains that he tries to stay away from the busy places where people won’t stop and talk to him. If the parks are the best for him, kids sitting in the hallway will be good for me. Getting a glimpse of almost all of the students at SLA will leave a great memory for me when I leave the school.


9.

Matarese, Jennifer. "Author Explains New Book 'Humans of New York'" Lifestyle & Fun. WABC-TV/DT, 15 Oct. 2013. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. <http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/lifestyle&id=9288389>.

I found this ABC website helpful because they provided a video with an interview with Brandon and he talks about how he tries to get a story out of people that is much different from his other ones, if he gets the same one, he needs to keep talking. His fans are really excited to see him walk around New York, and he has a certain voice that draws people in. I agree with him when he says that all New Yorkers aren’t rude, the crowds are rude. I don’t think anyone in SLA is rude, but there are many students who could be shy to talk to me and I hope I give off a good vibe so I can have a good project.


10.

Ehrenfeld, Temma. "How to Grow Close By Asking the Right Questions." Open Gentley. Psychology Today, 15 Oct. 2013. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/open-gently/201310/how-grow-close-asking-the-right-questions>.

This source provides me with information on how to talk to people in an effective and proper manner. I think overall I am a social person, but for this specific project I really need to be able to grasp people’s attention and make sure they understand they can share anything with me. In this article, it provides sample questions for conversation starters. They are formatted in a way where it builds “intimacy” and connection. The questions help the person answer comfortably, but also give a lot of detail. Each question I ask is very crucial because if I ask it the right way I could potentially get a really great quote from them.





Tiny y Ginger

Una vez, fuiste dos gatos llamados Tiny y Ginger quien estaban muy enamorados. Ginger era un muy gato bonita y Tiny era un guerrero muy amable y noble. Los gatos eran amigos desde que eran los gatitos. Porque porque sus familias eran ambos reyes famosos de la ciudad dos diferentes Tiny and Ginger entendemos. Aunque, esto es un problema porque estabas en las pandillas rivales. Ginger era de Chiraq y Tiny era de Filadelfia. Hace mucho tiempo entonces las dos ciudades fueron a la guerra uno contra el otro debido a un ataque terrorista. Chiraq enviado los gatos para herir a la gente con el fin de apoderarse de la tierra, pero la lucha continuada durante mucho más tiempo de lo esperado. 100 años más tarde Tiny y Ginger nacieron y la guerra todavía estaba pasando. las familias tenían mala sangre con los demás entonces sus familias nunca podría sobre acerca de su amor prohibido. Pero porqué los gatos es muy persista construimos una cueva con un muy complicado laberinto solo entendamos.

La cueva tomó meses para construir. los gatos trabajaron día y noche para terminar la cueva. era muy importante que ellos mantuvieron un secreto porque Si no lo hicieron ellos serían enviados. Ginger and Tiny fueron capaces de ver uno al otro en paz y por un tiempo nada era mal hasta que alguien descubrió la cueva. Los rebeldes de Chiraq tropezó con su cueva mientras uno de los enemigos de la ciudad de seguimiento. siguieron el enemigo dentro de la cueva, pero resultaba casi imposible navegar. Resultó que como has viajado más profundo dentro de la cueva los diferentes caminos empezados a cambiar cambiando completamente el conjunto ponen fuera de la cueva.

Esto sorprende Ginger and TIny, no sabían por qué o cómo esto sucedía. Estaban todavía capaz de conseguir a través de la cueva sin perderse. Las personas que entraron en la cueva nunca se escucharon de nuevo pero había problemas más graves a mano. Padre de Tiny luchaba contra Chiraq muy dura en la guerra y decidió que era hora de Tiny para probarse a sí mismo. Padre de Tiny le enviaba al frente. Cuando Ginger escuchó la noticia corrió inmediatamente a la cueva para reunirse con Tiny. Cuando Ginger escuchó la noticia corrió inmediatamente a la cueva para reunirse con Tiny. Cuando llegó allí sólo una emoción es la ira. Esto causó Ginger para perderse en la cueva y se dio cuenta que sólo el amor es lo que puede guiarla para la cueva a Tiny. Esta fue la última vez que se vieron antes de morir en la guerra. Ginger Estaba tan harto de todo lo que ella puso fin a la guerra y combinado de las dos ciudades para hacer uno ahora conocida como Tiny.


Powtoon: http://www.powtoon.com/p/eZ3w0jWndhz/ 


Blog #3: The vote on minimum wage

For my last two blogs, I researched and created my own study on supporting an increase in the minimum wage. Blog #1 was about the supporting/opposing views on minimum wage and Blog #2 was about what average people knew and felt about the minimum wage. Blog #3 is about what I can do to help this cause and actually putting myself out into the world instead of just giving facts and opinions. The way I helped was by spreading information on minimum wage to the citizens of Philadelphia for a vote in May.

I worked at a phone bank with a group called POWER (Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower, and Rebuild) where we would call up registered voters and ask them about the upcoming vote on May 20th. We made the calls at Congregation Rodeph Shalom under the leader of Ethel Goldberg and a few other members of the synagogue. Like me, they all really cared about raising the minimum wage and getting people to vote. We worked in a small office where we called people on office phones. Everyone was given a script with three main questions to ask the caller, a voice mail script, and a call list of registered voters. Besides Ethel and me, there were three other women and my dad making calls; I was the only kid. Raising the minimum wage may sound easy because all you have to do is have a majority vote for it. But, it’s actually very hard because 1) Only 48% of Americans actually turn out to vote and 2) For this vote, in order to increase the minimum wage, 70% of Americans would have to support it.

Phone Bankers YATM
Phone Bankers YATM
These are some of the other volunteers working at the phone bank.
Ethel Goldberg
Ethel Goldberg
Ethel Goldberg; the woman who organized this event.
Script YATM
Script YATM
This is the script we used when calling registered voters. It asks three main questions and gives some backup information.
voice mail script
voice mail script
This is the script we used for voice mails. 
Edward
Edward
My dad also came along with me to help out with the phone banking. Here he is calling one of the voters.
Contact list YATM
Contact list YATM
This is a picture of the contact list. It featured the person's name, number, e-mail, and address. The other side has check boxes on it so if they talk to us we could give the reason why. There are also check boxes for if they pick up and talk to us so we can find out if they're going to vote on raising the minimum wage or not.

As you can see it is very difficult to change this problem which is why trying to get people’s attention about this cause is so important. Even phone banking is hard because their are many complications with it. For example, sometimes the person didn’t answer their phone, didn’t speak English, had a wrong number, or just refused to talk. You also had to make sure people understood what you were talking about. Many times, when people call about issues, it is confusing and vague so it’s hard to know what you are supporting. Fortunately the script was clear and short. For example, one part of the script explained the issue of minimum wage saying “Did you know that many workers at the airport make $7.25 per hour? This May, we get to vote for thousands of subcontracted city workers like them to get a raise from $7.25 to $10.88 an hour. This will mean a million more dollars in the pockets of working Philadelphia families.” Explanations like these made it easier for people to understand the issues and their stance on them. Making a change can be hard and takes a lot of work, so groups like POWER need all the help they can get.  

Even though this process wasn’t easy I did get four people to talk to me, which was pretty successful because they all said they were going to vote and support the minimum wage increase. However, even after making calls, I think there was a lot more I could’ve done to support this cause. I could’ve gotten more involved with other events like this or organizations that were doing similar work. During the phone banking, I sometimes felt like I wasn’t doing the best I could when it came to trying to get people to talk to me. It was hard because it was my first time making calls and I didn’t know how to talk to people who didn’t really care, or didn’t want to talk to me. But, considering all my obstacles, I think I did the best that I could and I’m glad I got involved with an issue like this.

This experience made me realize how important it is to get involved with the community and issues around the world. It’s really hard to make change and a lot people would rather just argue about the problem than actually do something about it. The fact is even though sometimes speeches and debates can help, the best thing to do is take action. It’s helpful to the community and even the whole world and it feels really good afterwards because you’re a part of the fight to make the world a better place.


Concussions in Young Athletes Blog #3

Welcome back to my third blog! For those of you who have not read my first and second blogs, click here for the first and here for the second. For those of you who have read them, thank you so much for sticking with me! Again, my name is Cacy Thomas and I am making these blogs because of my 9th grade English project called You and the World. In this project I am creating 3 blogs talking about an issue in the world I am passionate about. This issue is concussions in young athletes. As stated in my first blog I have had a few concussions in the past that have ended my athletic career before it even started. Anyhow, this piece I am writing at the moment is about what I have done to spread awareness and try to change this. But first I will tell you what has been done, and what is going on right now.

The ThinkTaylor foundation is run by a former professional soccer player named Taylor Twellman. I learned about this organization because I was asked to speak with him at a concussion symposium in 2012. You can visit his website here and see the symposium details here. As I was sitting next to him listening to him talk about his experiences, I noticed something. I was not alone in this. There were so many other people going through the same thing as I was. After talking about his story, he asked me to talk about what was going on with me. When I was finished I realized I wanted to help people like he is doing. Now I finally had the chance. I knew I couldn’t do anything huge like him, but I finally got the chance to do something. Because of this project I was able to present concussion facts, information, and my own story to my advisory. While I was presenting I could tell my classmates weren’t very interested in the statistics or facts. When I began to tell my story in depth that was what really got their attention. I noticed that this was the same in the concussion symposium. People reacted more emotionally to my story than certain facts. I was proud to be able to spread awareness of concussions through my experiences.


photo 1.JPG

A picture of my presentation during advisory


photo 4.JPG

A picture of my classmates playing “Concussion Jeopardy”, a game I put together for the presentation.



photo 3.JPG

A picture of myself explaining an answer in “Concussion Jeopardy”


Everything that is being done to support concussions in young athletes is amazing. It is preventing kids from becoming seriously injured and also letting them play the sport they love. I feel like the best way to make people aware of what is going on is speaking from experience. This way to change this issue is amazing. It makes people know the hardships others have been through because of concussions. It moves people to do something about it because now they know how terrible what’s going on is. This is the only way an audience can truly feel what happens to those who have suffered concussions.

Doing this project made me feel great. It finally gave me the chance to be like Taylor Twellman and inspire people to do something. I’ve made about 30-35 kids aware of the effects of concussions in young athletes. I know it isn’t much but it’s a start. And I learned that people react much more to personal experiences than statistics and facts. I feel like I could have done better by telling even more of my story in my presentation. I left out some things just because I forgot, however every detail  contributes and makes my story come even more alive. There is still a lot to do in the world of concussions. People don’t pay attention to facts they are told. They only pay attention when they or someone they are close to have experienced this. As Mario Manningham said,

“It’s part of the game… Until it’s you.”

I would just like to thank all of you who are reading this and have informed yourselves of the dangers of concussions in young athletes. I would also like to thank and acknowledge my English teacher, mentor, and photographer Ms. Dunn. All of you including Ms. Dunn have helped and supported me in completing this project. Everything I’ve been able to do has helped spread awareness of concussions. I am so grateful for everyone who has read my blogs! Again thank you so much and I hope you enjoyed my experiences with concussions and concussion awareness.

Fortson-Linton, Zaria Capstone

Zaria Linton

Mr. Hermann


Project Abstract:

My inspiration behind this project came from me always doing unique things with my house-hold items and imagination. This fits my interest because most of the clothing, jewelry, make-up and many other items or aspects of my life are often made by myself. By doing this project I hoped to learn a lot more tips on how to make certain items and I hope to keep this going way after I graduate. This project is a physical presentation. I filmed clips of each DIY topic from each video and posted them on my YouTube channel for those to watch. I wanted to learn not only helpful DIY tips in the process of making my own personal YouTube page but I also planned on learning how to edit videos easier and how to put music in the videos. I decided to do this project because I’m very skilled with making clothing and I also enjoy helping those who need it. I go on YouTube a lot to learn how to do certain things so I’d like to be the one to help those who need it. 



Bibliography

1). Small Biz Doer. N.p.. Web. 31 Jan 2014. <http://www.smallbusinessdoer.com/diy-video-how-to-make-your-own-video/


I chose this link because this shows me how I should prepare for each video I have to make I learn about writing a script and setting up the light Its really helpful, see

"" http://www.smallbusinessdoer.com/diy-video-how-to-make-your-own-video/



2) . Video Maker. N.p.. Web. 31 Jan 2014. <http://www.videomaker.com/video/watch/tutorials/673-4-common-lighting-setups-for-professional-video>.


This link gets into depth more about how to set up lighting. This link is very helpful because it helps me try to find a place in my house to film, what lights I should use and what lighting is the best for what subject I’m filming about.


3) . NMR. N.p.. Web. 31 Jan 2014. <http://newmediarockstars.com/2013/07/5-quick-and-easy-steps-to-make-your-youtube-channel-banner-art-stunningly-epic/>.


I chose this link because this goes into detail on how to make a good YouTube banner. This is helpful to me because I plan on using this channel after i graduate so a good banner will bring people onto my channel.


4). Mashable. N.p.. Web. 31 Jan 2014. <http://mashable.com/2010/04/26/branded-youtube-channel/>.


I chose this link because this gives me tips on how to make my channel branded and official. This is helpful because I want this to be really known.


5) . Beautylish. N.p.. Web. 31 Jan 2014. <http://www.beautylish.com/a/vxazv/diy-crayon-lipstick-recipe>.


This link was picked because this is one of the DIY activities that my youtube videos will be based on. This is helpful because this is one way I will show people how to make lipstick and i was unaware of this method until now.


6)"Wikihow.com." Wikihow. N.p.. Web. 31 Jan 2014. <http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Professional-Quality-YouTube-Videos>.


I picked this link because this gives me more tips on how to make sure my videos are well. The more tips I can find, the better my videos will be.


7) "Wikihow.com." Wikihow. N.p.. Web. 31 Jan 2014. <http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Lipstick-Using-Eye-Shadow>.


This was another way for me to make Lipstick since my first video will be based on this. The more ways I find to make this, the more I can help people who don’t have the items for the first way to make it.


8) Youtube (2013, March 23) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH5-d9D8KfQ


This video was helpful because seeing how other people do their eyebrows, which my second video will be based on how to clean and fill eyebrows, so I’m getting another alternative on how to do so.


9) "Animoto.com." Animoto. N.p.. Web. 31 Jan 2014. <http://animoto.com/blog/business/voice-overs-business-video-slideshows/>.


This link shows me how to do a good voice over in my videos, which is really helpful so I don’t have to record my voice while i’m showing them what to do.


10) "Pinterest.com." Pinterest. N.p.. Web. 31 Jan 2014. <http://www.pinterest.com/todaysplans/craft-ideas-diy-tutorials/>.


This shows me many other DIY ideas that I can do when or if I run out of DIY ideas that people gave me. This will help me because I have endless DIY ideas.


Physical Project:

Lipstick Tutorial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXWmKK-UTX8&feature=youtu.be

Nail Polish Tutorial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDLJrFE9aDc&feature=youtu.be

Shorts Tutorial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suLuiQZXTjQ

Shirt Tutorial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOC9MF8f0IE&feature=youtu.be

El Cuatro Piso

Erase una vez, era una escuela se llamaba Science Leadership Academy. La escuela era nuevo en el Distrito Escolar de Filadelfia, entonces la escuela solo tenía un clase de estudiantes en el noveno grado. Había que dos estudiantes, eran un chico y una chica, cuando entablaban un amistad con juntos. Después de dos años, los chicos se enamoraron y eran juntos. Ellos les gustaban eran juntos todos los días y hacían todos juntos. Ellos tenían los mismos amigos y los interés, entonces ellos llevábamos. Ellos eran muy felices juntos y tenían mucho divertido juntos. Cercano el último del undécimo grado, el chico prometía el se casa la chica después de la graduación.


Un día, la chica quiso pasar el rato con sus amigas durante el fin de semana. Ella no pasó el tiempo con sus amigas en mucho tiempo porque ella siempre era con el chico. El chico no quiso la chica ir con sus amigas porque él tuvo un mal sentimiento sobre la situación. Pero, la chico no escucho para el chico, porque ella pensó él fue paranoico. Entonces, ella fue con su amigas. En la mañana en escuela, las amigas de la chica dijeron el chico que la chica se murió en una accidente de auto. Después, el chico era muy deprimido y llorando para la chica. Pero, él era enojado por las amigas de la chica porque una amiga se fue manejando el carro y fue la causa del accidente.


En un otro día, durante el funeral de la chica, su padre dije el chico que la chica le gustaba el cuarto piso porque lo un bien lugar pasar el tiempo. Cuando el chico regresó a la escuela, él habló con Señor Lehmann sobre dedicar el cuatro piso para la chica porque el chico se enamoraron la chica mucho y él quiso para la chica. Señor Lehmann dije que si para la dedication. Después, todos los estudiantes de la escuela asistieron al evento para la dedication. Señor Lehmann y el chico hablaron sobre la chica y cuando ella era muy fabuloso y una buena amiga.


Durante el año que viene, haría un anuncio dije que el cuatro piso cerrado por la chica. Nadie que dar un paso en el piso porque dando un paso en el piso más que dando en la chica. El cuarto piso no usen hasta el dia hoy porque la chica es dedicado en el piso.

YATW blog post #3- Blog For Change

Hello again.  If you do not remember me my name is Jason Greene.  I am a 9th grader at Science Leadership Academy.  In English class we are finishing a 6 month project called You and The World.  During this project we have to find a issue we are passionate about then go into the world and try to make a change in it.  My topic is public education in the city of Philadelphia.  I am passionate about this issue because I grew up in this city and went to public school in the city for all of my life.  In my first blog post I introduced the issue.  Link for that blog is here. In my second blog post I talked about the original research I did on the subject.  Link for that blog is here.This is my third and final blog called the post for change.


During the last part of this part of this project was a part called Agent of Change.  This is when I go out into the world and try to make a change.  I went to my elementary and middle school, J.S Jenks in Chestnut Hill and volunteered for half of a day.  I got to volunteer in Mrs.Croak’s classroom.  She is the 6th and 7th grade English teacher.  While there I helped out in the classroom, stapled papers together and answered some questions about high school the 7th graders had for me.  While it was fun to see lots of old friends and teachers it was hard to see how the budget crisis affected the school.  This last year some teachers were laid off.  Because of this the remaining teachers either had to teach a new grade or teach more students.  Mrs. Croak also said the school only gave her limited supplies like one case of paper to last her the whole year. Only about 10 to 12 laptops work on a daily basis. The students also had to buy the three books that they were going to read during the course of the year. I left the school around noon to head back to school.  No teacher should have to go through that. Budget cuts hurt and we need to find a solution.


Displaying photo 1.JPG

Sign outside the school

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The three books students had to buy for school

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The advance group reading ahead

How can only one box of copy paper last a whole year?


I am not the only wants a solution to this problem.  The School District of Philadelphia is facing another shortfall for the 2014-2015 school year.  If they do not get the funding from the city and state they will have to make more cuts. There have been protests to stop the cuts and get more funding for the schools.  So far there has been no solution.  I think protesting is a great way to get your voice heard but at the end of the day we need to get results. According to superintendent William Hite the district needs almost 210 millions dollars. Most of the money would come by extending the one percent city sales tax hike and a two dollar per pack tax on cigarettes.  Without more funding up to 1000 more layoffs could happen and class sizes could go up to 41.  To make a change we need funding.


Public education is this city is a very important topic and it is not going anywhere anytime soon.  We can not expect the students of this city to be the best they that they can be if they don’t have the resources. Recently, a seven year old boy passed out while at school in South Philadelphia.  Because of the budget cuts there was no nurse at the school that day.  The counselor ran to the boy and called 911.  He died later that day at a hospital.  Maybe if there was a full-time nurse on duty that day he might have lived. We can not let this happen again.


This whole project has been a great experience.  I never did a project like this before I am glad that I got to this. The whole process, from the first to the last blog the project went very smooth.  One thing that I feel like I could have done better was when I was volunteering at Jenks.  I wish I could have volunteered there for the whole day but I couldn’t.  I feel like if I stayed there the whole day I would have done better.  I would like to thank Mrs. Dunn, Mrs. Lucy,  Mrs. Croak, Mrs. Lynskey and everyone that filled out my survey earlier in the year.  Thank you.


La Silla Azul

Erase una vez era un silla azul. Todas las otras sillas eran rojo, entonces la silla azul estaba diferente. También él estaba único porque no estaba azul por todo su vida. Cuando él era niño, era rojo como las otras sillas. Este es el leyende de que pasa para el silla cambió entró azul.

Era un dia normal. Tommy era encima de una mesa cuando los luzes encendió. Un minuto después un estudiante movió Tommy y el era en el suelo. Durante el día muchos estudiantes fue a la clase de VK. Este es la clase de Tommy estaba. Los estudiantes ponió sus pies en las piernas de Tommy. Tommy le gustaba esto porque esta significa el trabajo de Tommy y el le gustaba tenió el sentimiento de estar útil.

El día pasado a normal pero después de la escuela, estaba estudiantes en el cuadro. Tambien estaba un profesor que se llamado VK. En este hora nadie sentía en Tommy, pero sentía en su amigos.

Un niño puntió a Tommy, “¿Podemos usar el blanqueo en esto?”

“¿Porque?” VK dició.

“Por que quiero saber que va a pasar.”

“OK, vamos.”

En un seguna Tommy era encima de la mesa de laboratorio y todos los estudiantes era alrededor de él. Tommy tenió miedo pero no podió hablar. VK vertió el blanqueo en el medio de Tommy. Algunos estudiantes boqueió y Tommy querió hacer el igual pero no podió. Hació un fuedo en el piel.

“¡La silla cambia a azul!” Un estudiante gritió.

“Es muy interesante,” VK dició, “¿Quieren saber porque?” Todos los estudiantes quierión. VK dició, “un segundo, quiero todo el silla estar el color igual, sí.” Ello usió un cepillo para extender el blanqueo. Todo el piel de Tommy cambió en el mismo color, el color azul. VK empezió explicar porque eso pasar, pero Tommy no podió escuchar porque tenió demasiado dolor.

En el proximo año, Tommy olvidió este evento. Tommy olvidió porque todos los estudiantes tenía amor por Tommy. Cuando clase empezió todos los estudiantes attemptió tomar Tommy, porque él es más interesante de los otros sillas. Aunque los otros sillas no le gustaba Tommy, porque él estába diferente, Tommy estaba contenta porque tenió un trabajo.

Tambien de la amar de los estudiantes Tommy tenió la amar de los professors. En el primer día de escuela, después del verano, todos los professors tenió un lucha para Tommy. Los professors le gustaba tenió un silla diferente en sus cuadros.

Aunque Tommy experienció dolor muy extremo, él vale la pena porque ahora tenía attención y amor.

 

Powtoon de La Silla Azul está aqui


Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Unknown And Hidden Facts Blog #3

   Hello all, I see that you’re back again to check out my blog post #3. If you’ve forgotten, my YATW topic is Alzheimer’s And Dementia. In my previous two blogs ( Blog #1 & Blog #2 ), my blogs were all based off of research. Blog #1 consisted of research that I searched for and found, Rather than in blog #2, which consisted of original research that I specifically made myself. This blog is the total opposite of the two. After all of the extended research that I conducted, it’s time to now share my Agent Of Change.

  First, before I’d like to get into the Agent Of Change aspect, let’s talk about what's going on with Alzheimer’s and Dementia around us now. As recent as two days ago, there was a story published online a website that goes by the name of www.express.co.uk. The article is entitled How to beat Alzheimer's: Experts reveal seven golden rules to fight the disease”. This article discusses things that have been studied and has shown how effective a strong and strict diet along with exercise can help prevent these horrific brain diseases. To spread awareness about the two, Alzheimer’s awareness month is literally in a few days. Starting in June, wear your purple to support the cause.

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Alzheimer’s awareness information from the Alzheimer’s Association


 There are also walks that people of all ages can participate in. Although there are not any walks in my local or tri-state area that’s also easily accessible to me, there are walks that support Alzheimer’s/Dementia all around the United States. Check out some of the upcoming walks below.


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Alzheimer’s awareness walk dates across the country


  The simple fact that you can show your support for a cause by wearing a color is great. It’s free and shows your appreciation for awareness of the disease. Also, if walking is appealing to you, thinking about participating in your next local Alzheimer’s Awareness walk would also be a great way to help out.


  When pursuing my Agent Of Change, I wanted to do something that would be fun, interactive, and have my peers highly engaged. After much thought and consultation with Ms. Dunn (My English Teacher) and my SAT (Student Assistant Teacher) Victoria, I finally figured out what exactly I wanted to do for my Agent Of Change. I chose to have a mini memory booth during my lunch period one Tuesday afternoon. With the help of my peers, I had 4 laptops set up with different memory games. Along with the games played, I’d give a brief description of my YATW and what Alzheimer’s & Dementia are. Also just to be generous, after playing the games, I’d give out candy.


IMG_0997.jpgIMG_0989.jpg


 Even though my Agent Of Change didn’t involve me in raising money or things of that nature, I still feel just by me spreading awareness to my peers can be just as active. When first being assigned this project, I just thought of it as a regular English Project. I was wrong. This YATW Project is unique in its own way and allows you really get involved and be apart of a great cause of your choice in one way or another. I learned from this project to take your time out to research things, and you can actually fall in love with a concept, and you too can be an Agent Of Change.


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 Until there is a cure for Alzheimer’s and Dementia, I will not stop supporting the cause. My family has been touched by the disease(s) and I will continue to spread awareness. A little help can go a long way. One thing that I would like to particularly do is participate in one of the walks by this time next year.Also I would have loved it if I’d have been able to also fundraise to give back to the associations.


  I would first like to give special thanks to Ms. Dunn for creating this engaging project for my classmates and I to complete and to stay intrigued in for basically our whole Freshman year. I’d like to also like to thank every website that I received information from to post all three of my blogs. The next person that I would like to acknowledge is my mother. She provided me with such great information from our one on one interview. Next, shoutout to all the people that participated in my Agent Of Change. Without you guys, this blog would have been blank. The final two people that I’d like to thank are Victoria Odom and Kayla Cassumba. They both helped with contributing thoughts and ideas when I was confused on what to do next. Along with Kayla being my photographer for my Agent Of Change documentation. Thank you to every reader of my blog, and dont forget to wear your purple!


Purple Awareness Ribbon


Roberto Abazoski Capstone

​  For this project, I teamed up with two other SLA students, Ryan Doyle and Juan Rivera, my two mentors, Mr. VK and Ms. Dunda, an organization called Phresh Philly, and an engineering class at G.W. Carver HSES to design and build a self-sustaining greenhouse. This greenhouse would be able to prolong the life of plants that grow vegetables such as cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and onions as well as keep them watered adequately to mitigate the amount of times someone would have to go back and water. With the grown produce, SLA students would be able to sell it as a method of fundraising for sports or trips. The locally grown produce is organic, not genetically modified, it promotes healthier eating, cuts back on transportation costs, making it more affordable for anyone even stores to buy, and also provides valuable life skills for anyone interested in gardening.

Bibliography

Bellows, Barbara. N.p.. Web. 30 Jan 2014. <https://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/viewhtml.php?id=59>.

Provides real numbers in terms of light transmission based on the type of glazing (walls of the greenhouse). It also gives some information on the temperature certain plants live in, so we can plants seeds based on the temperature that can be accomplished in the greenhouse. Along with that, it also covers the other areas of greenhouse building such as in insulation, solar orientation, and etc.

 

Poly-Tex: Greenhouse & Display Systems. N.p.. Web. 30 Jan 2014. <http://www.poly-tex.com/>.

            This website is useful for its many greenhouse designs. It offers inspiration to go off of into creating our own design. Poly-Tex also sells greenhouse kits, so it includes a materials list with every greenhouse. That shows us the necessities for every successful greenhouse as well as some cool things we can incorporate into our design such as wiggle wire, which is a solution in holding 2 or more pieces of plastic sheeting together.

 

Ross, David S.. N.p.. Web. 30 Jan 2014. <http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/hortcult/greenhou/building.htm>.

            Information on planning and designing the greenhouse. It gives advice on location, foundation/floors, ventilation, heating, cooling, watering systems, and much more. We will need this source to plan our designs effectively and create a well-functioning greenhouse.

 

"Greenhouse Types and Structures." Yavapai College. N.p.. Web. 30 Jan 2014. <http://faculty.yc.edu/ycfaculty/ags250/week04/greenhouse_types_and_structures/Greenhouse_types_and_structures_print.html>.

Focused towards the structure of greenhouses. They explain what should be taken into consideration when designing through an engineer’s standpoint. It includes weighing light transmission and heat insulation to be costly effective all around.

 

"Talking rubbish – Turning trash into treasure." Making Sense of Things. WordPress, 14 11 2011. Web. 30 Jan 2014. <http://makingsenseofthings.info/2011/11/talking-rubbish/>.

An article about sustainable living in a Palestine. They reused recyclable materials in order to create a self-sustainable greenhouse, and how they reused other types of waste which basically emphasizes the title “turning trash into treasure”.

 

"Greenhouse Elements." Just Greenhouses: a hay needle store. N.p.. Web. 30 Jan 2014. <http://www.justgreenhouses.com/greenhouse-supplies/greenhouseelementsarticle.cfm>.

            Information about maintaining the soil in order to maximize plant growth. In the source includes solutions if the pH of the soil is more basic or more acidic, so it can be neutral again. Tells why plants in greenhouses require less water than plants grown outside. It also emphasizes the importance of circulation and control for humidity.

 

The Greenhouse Catalog: Your Year-Round Gardening Source. N.p.. Web. 30 Jan 2014. <http://www.greenhousecatalog.com/>.

            An online store where materials for greenhouses are sold. This gives a greater insight on what materials are out there and what we can and should use.

 

Solar Heater. YouTube, 2008. Web. 30 Jan 2014. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqObr-M39Ug>.

            One way to reduce costs and save $300 for a heater, we can reuse metal cans, spray paint them black and then put them in an enclosed box with a glass on top. Black absorbs all all the colors and generates heat. That heat can then be transferred into the greenhouse and contribute to raising the temperature in order to make the greenhouse sustainable during colder temperatures.

 

Whitman, Ann , The National Gardening Association, and Suzanne DeJohn. Organic Gardening For Dummies. 2nd Ed. For Dummies, 2009. print.

            Organic gardening book for beginners. Provides basic gardening skills, explains the dynamic of soil and how to keep it healthy, teaches how to compost, how to manage pests, and etc. Basically, this book provides everything we would need to know in order to have a successful garden.

 

"Greenhouse For Less Than $100?!?" Fabulessly Frugal A Coupon Blog Sharing Amazon Deals Printable Coupons DIY How to Extreme Coupon and Make Ahead Meals. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.

One of the biggest challenges with building the greenhouse is the cost of materials so we need to find a more cost efficient way to build it. This source is very helpful in choosing cheaper ways to construct a greenhouse that will perform the same as one that someone would pay close to a thousand dollars for around one hundred dollars.

 

http://www.hgtv.com/topics/greenhouses/index.html?layout=desktop

"Greenhouses." How To Build a Greenhouse | Tips for Creating Your Own Greenhouse. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.

This source provides multiple designs that focus on personal preference of the plants we want to grow in the greenhouse since every greenhouse is not built for the same reason it will help us in deciding on our final design.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZooEVu4JhI

"Heating Your Greenhouse." YouTube. YouTube, 05 Jan. 2012. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.

This video is explaining something that will be very important in our design. Heating the greenhouse so that plants will be able to grow in the colder weather. This is important so that we expand our growing ability to the whole year instead of a few months a year.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REFdF6z9aYk

"Insulating Your Greenhouse." YouTube. YouTube, 26 Dec. 2012. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.

This video focuses on the insulation of greenhouses and since we are working on a tight budget we have to cheap ways that will work in making the greenhouse successful. This means we will have to use a good material that traps heat inside the greenhouse since it will be in the sun all day.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlEczaE0-eg

"Insulating Your Greenhouse." YouTube. YouTube, 26 Dec. 2012. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.

This video explains how to construct double walled insulation which is 2 thin pieces of plastic that will cover the greenhouse. The plastic will be about an inch apart an air pump will constantly pump air into the space between the plastic pieces causing it to stay about 3 times warmer in the greenhouse during the colder seasons.

 

"Irrigation & Watering." Greenhouse Megastore. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2014. <http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/category/irrigation-watering>.

This site sells a bunch of different products that we can use to water our plants automatically so that it will be considered self sustaining so that it wont require constant attention but will still give us great growth results.

 

"Rainwater Capture on a Greenhouse." YouTube. YouTube, 31 May 2011. Web. 30 May 2014. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kN_hyHoKhg>.

This video is explaining the use of a rain capture for a greenhouse which collects rainwater and uses it to water the plants. This is very helpful for us since we want it to be self sustaining we wont have to worry about making sure the pumps always have water during the seasons that have a lot of rain.

 

"Greenhouse Growing: Tips for Basic Greenhouse Cultivation." Mother Earth News. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2014. <http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/greenhouse-growing-cultivation-zmaz11zsto.aspx>.

This site provides tips for for growing in an indoor environment like a greenhouse. It is helpful because we need to know how to treat the plants since we are new to gardening it also explains what plants grow the best during certain seasons.

 

"Tending a Greenhouse." How to Grow in a Greenhouse: Organic Gardening. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2014. <http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/tending-greenhouse>.

This site breaks down the process into steps that explains how we should construct the greenhouse and how temperature regulation is very important to the health of the plants since we want to make the greenhouse be functioning all year round the temperature inside will be one of our biggest challenges.

 

"How to Maintain a Greenhouse." WikiHow. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2014. <http://www.wikihow.com/Maintain-a-Greenhouse>.

This site explains the steps that are nessecary to keep the plants alive on their own and since we wont be able to tend to them everyday we need a good way to be sure they stay healthy.It also exlains how we will have to choose smart plants that can grow in the same cimate since the greenhouse will all be the same temperature.

 

"The GreenHouse Catalog." Helpful Greenhouse Information. © Copyright 2013 Corrugated Plas-Tech, Inc.. Web. 31 Jan 2014. <http://www.greenhousecatalog.com/greenhouse-information>.

In this website is helpful because it tells you all the important things that need to be put into a greenhouse in order for it to work and grow all the plants properly. It speaks on the heating, watering, ventilation and everything that has to be set in order for it to work and grow. The amount you give it and how long it is given to the plants.

 

. Greenhouse Information. © Copyright 2013 Corrugated Plas-Tech, Inc.. Web. 31 Jan 2014. <http://www.advancegreenhouses.com/Greenhouse Information.htm>.

This website lets you know of the different types of greenhouses and which ones work the best compared to the others. Also speaks about the benefits and the reasons that they are used the way they are used. It also speaks on the different types of kits and materials that are used in order to make it all run and work.

 

"Greenhouse Growing." Greenhouse Gardening Advice. © Copyright 2013 Corrugated Plas-Tech, Inc.. Web. 31 Jan 2014. <http://www.greenhouses.net/>.

This blog has a post on anything and everything you might need to know when making the greenhouse.

 

http://ohiofloriculture.osu.edu/sites/drupal-ohioflori.web/files/file/greenhouse-energy-savings-part-II.pdf

This website provides many energy saving tips in order to maximize the greenhouse’s efficiency.

 

Nicholas Murray Capstone

Nicholas Murray

Mentor

Larissa Pahomov, English Teacher

My capstone is a collection of short stories about teenagers dealing with life.

For my capstone, I used inspiration from myself and others in order to create stories with one sole purpose. I wanted each one to show that no matter how hopeless someone's situation may seem, they should never lose hope in themselves or others. I took the most basic themes from the stories I had heard and my own, then applied them to my own stories.  I have learned that even though people’s stories are unique from one another, they tend to always have something in common. My goal for this is to create stories that would not only entertain the people that read them, but that also stayed with them, and I believe I did just that.

The link to my capstone is here.


Below is an excerpt from my first chapter of my collection of short stories. 


Today feels no different from any other day. Why would it? You have no reason to believe otherwise. You just think it is going to be another pointlessly dull day. Your alarm has just yanked you from a dreadful dream. Why was it dreadful? You can no longer recall, but you are sure you will have the same dream tonight, just to forget it the following morning. All you know is that you just want to go back into a deep slumber. Despite your desire to go back to sleep, with much effort, you pull yourself out of bed.

You look around your room in search for something different. Anything would suffice really. You just want something different to happen this morning. Maybe an owl carrying a letter addressed to you. You think about how epic that would be. To your disappointment, nothing happens.  It’s just another dull morning. You get out of your bed without making it neat and presentable. Why bother? You're just going to get back in it later. You then head downstairs  towards the kitchen.

Once in the kitchen, you look at your wide variety of food to eat. You have four boxes of Pop Tarts, each flavor you are either sick of eating  or was never good in the first place. The same can be said about your choices in cereal and Hot Pockets.You stop trying to look. The previous day you went into your step-dad’s wallet and took twenty bucks. Not just because you could though. You're not a bad person. You just feel he does not deserve it. He has a job that pays well enough, but he leaves the cooking and most of the shopping to your mom. So why not? He can be useful for once. While in the kitchen, you decide to go to the stand on the way to school. You wasted so much energy coming downstairs for nothing. You walk upstairs sort of pissed and go into the bathroom.

After you wash up and put on clean clothes you are just about ready to leave.  You head for the fridge and make lunch. You then pick up the first alcoholic thing you find  and fix it with any normal non-alcoholic drink. You do this every so often to take the edge off of life. It is the only thing that helps lately. You then put the juice away with your lunch and gather all your things. You check for the usual things like your keys or phone. You feel for the money in your pocket, then head for your door. Before opening it, you say goodbye to whoever is in the house. You don’t hear anything, which either means they’re still sleeping, or just ignoring you, which you have somewhat gotten use to. You open the door and leave in  a rush, since you don’t want to miss the bus.

You have a long bus ride ahead of you, and you don’t know what to do with yourself. For a while you just sit there thinking about the things in your life. You try to think about the good things in life, but recently there has not been much good going on. You hate thinking about it so you just try going to sleep. Even though it is a dreadfully terrible idea to sleep on public transportation, you know how to position your belongings so they do not get taken. You fall asleep. At least that was the plan. You just cannot stop thinking about the troubles in your life. It irritates you to limits unknown. You take out your lunch box and drink some of the juice you put inside. For you, some is a big chug. What’s the harm? It helps you think. You then pull out one of your favorite books to lose yourself in.

You love this book to death. You wouldn’t care if everyone else hated it. You like just about any book. You do have standards after all. Reading is your passion and it is one of the few things that you enjoy anymore.For a moment you observe the condition of the book. You wish it looked as new as when  you first got it. Sadly,  it is worn out after so many uses. This makes you feel some sort of way but the condition is not as important as the content. You begin reading. You become lost in the story and you enjoy it. You love books because you can be someone different. You become someone who is needed by others. You love feeling this sense of purpose in life. You wish you were in that world. You wouldn’t even mind that you are stuck in the book with your future and past set in stone. If you were in the book, people would care about what happens to you. They want to know who you are, the things you accomplish and what you stand for.

You don’t want to leave. Despite that, you get that dreadful feeling you are only a few blocks from school. Reluctantly you close your book, put it away and pull the string for the bus to let you off at the next stop.



Below are my annotative bibliography


1) Asher, Jay. Th1rteen R3asons Why: A Novel. New York: Razorbill, 2010. Print.


    I chose this source because when I originally read it, I found it to be a powerful, meaningful, creative and thought provoking piece of literature. That is the type of writing I am aiming for in my short stories. I also chose this source because it is based around the issues that troubled a certain teen who is the driving force throughout the entirety of the book, despite the fact that she had died before the story even began.  I hope that by reading this book, my writings for my capstone will be improved, to the point where people would even compare it to this great piece of work.


2) "Anxiety Disorders: Types, Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention."WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.

<http://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/guide/mental-health-anxiety-disorders>.


To write my book I do actually need information about what I am writing. In my story, many of my characters suffer from a form of anxiety. I was not sure what disorders were classified as anxiety, so I wanted to clarify that issue. I also wanted to know the major symptoms of anxiety in general and to have an experts view on how to improve one’s anxiety. I hope that this research will enhance my writings about what most people go through when they have a type of anxiety. Even with those characters that do not have anxiety, I can give them a slight element of it.



3) "Types of Depression: Major, Chronic, Manic, and More Types." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.

<http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/depression-types>.


To write my book I do actually need information about what I am writing. In my story, a few of my characters suffer from major or chronic depression. Even though I had a good idea of what depression was, this source laid it out for me step by step and made it easier for me to write about it. It was also interesting to know the signs that people need to look out for if someone is suffering from depression and how you can help those who suffer from it. This writing has improved my writing about this type of topic.


4) Ambardar, M.D. Sheenie. "10 Ways to Improve Depression and Anxiety without Meds."The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 29 May 2012. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.

<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheenie-ambardar-md/emotional-health_b_1542521.html>.


Scene I had already had a source that told me all I needed to know about depression and anxiety, it did not make sense to find anymore sources that were defining what they were, since half of this book will be my interpretation of what someone would go through in certain situation. For that reason I chose this source to show me more “natural” ways for those who suffer from anxiety or depression to help make their situations more bearable. I believe that medication is not the only way to solve problems. Even if my character do not use this method, I can still bring it up in my writings.




5) Stossel, Scott. "Surviving Anxiety." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 22 Dec. 2013. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.

<http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/01/surviving_anxiety/355741/>.


I have a lot of information on the topic of anxiety from experts which is enough for me to write good pieces of work, but I also needed to hear about anxiety from a “person.” Someone who lives with it everyday  and had the strength to write about it and post it online. That is why this is one of my sources. It is best to get your information straight from the source.


6) "Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Fact Sheet." : National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.

<http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/reflex_sympathetic_dystrophy/detail_reflex_sympathetic_dystrophy.htm>.


I sought out this source for the sake of one of my stories that did not necessarily focus on the psyche of the teenagers in the story. It mainly focused on the physical condition of the main characters and how they deal with the cards they are dealt. One of the characters are based off of one of my peers and to write a good story I need to research the injury that they had sustained. I found this source to be extremely helpful because my peer verified that what was on it was accurate. Hopefully I can use this source to its full potential.


7) Perks of Being a Wallflower. Dir. Stephen Chbosky. Perf. Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, and Ezra Miller. Mr. Mudd, 2012. DVD.


Perks of Being a Wallflower is a perfect source for my book. It covered all the things that I plan on covering and more. It talked anxiety, depression, being singled out, bullying, relationships and other deep topics. There is also a book which would also be a good resource, but I wanted something more visual to look at for my storytelling. I wanted this because I wanted to be able to see these characters look as things fall apart around them, and when new doors open for them. If I could just see how these things happen, I could write about them more descriptively.


8) "Coronary Artery Disease-Surgery." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.

<http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/tc/coronary-artery-disease-surgery>.


I sought out this source for the sake of one of my stories that did not necessarily focus on the psyche of the teenagers in the story. It mainly focused on the physical condition of the main characters and how they deal with the cards they are dealt. One of my characters has a heart disease, and this specific one is one of the most deadly ones. I wanted to make sure I accurately portrayed how this person would act and what trials they would need to go through. Even if I do not use the actual surgery in my story, I can still have this as a refernce.



9) "Coronary Artery Bypass Graft ." Coronary Artery Bypass Graft. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2014. <http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Coronary-artery-bypass/Pages/Introduction.aspx>.


I sought out this source for the sake of one of my stories that did not necessarily focus on the psyche of the teenagers in the story. It mainly focused on the physical condition of the main characters and how they deal with the cards they are dealt. One of my characters has a heart disease, and this specific one is one of the most deadly ones. This source explained the treatment needed for this disease if it got more severe. Even if I don’t bring this disease up by name, I still have a reference to what it is like to live with it.


10) Card, Orson Scott. Ender's Game. New York: Tor, 1991. Print.


I found this to be one of the most important books I read in preparation for my capstone This was the sort of reading I need to inspire my future writings. I found ender’s game to be very thought provoking and well written. Despite it being a different genre from what I plan on writing, it is that element that I want in my stories, thought provoking and well written. Hopefully I can use what I learned from this book to enhance my own stories. I also think it is good to read a genre different from what you are writing. It enhances how you envision a situation in your stories.

Seamus Kirby Capstone

Name: Seamus Kirby

Mentor: Mark Miles - I asked Mark Miles to be my capstone mentor because of his experience in computer programming. Mark Miles is a former professional programmer, and teaches computer science classes at my school, which meant he had a lot of knowledge about computer programming.

Abstract: For my capstone, I chose to create an computer orbit simulator in the computer programming language Processing. I am majoring in Computer Science in college, and hope to become a computer programmer after college, so I wanted to come up with a capstone that had a heavy emphasis in computer programming. Originally, the only thing I knew I wanted to do with the project was create a scientifically accurate gravity simulation, but as I worked on it I came up with things to add to improve my project. Throughout the process of creating this project, I learned a lot about the physics of gravity, and vectors, and was able to improve my programming skills.

The Finished Project:
Click on your operating system below to be brought to a page to download the appropriate version of the project:

Bibliography:

1. "Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design*." Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.


This source taught me a lot about the design of spacecrafts. While my program is most likely not going to involve actual spacecrafts, it was interesting to learn about the things engineers had to consider when building things in space. It also gave me a lot of ideas for things that I could put into my presentation for my capstone, because it talks a lot about the physics and dangers of space.


2. Braeunig, Robert A. "Basics of Space Flight: Orbital Mechanics." Basics of Space Flight: Orbital Mechanics. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.


This website was extremely helpful because it went into a lot of detail about the math behind orbits, and space. It talked about conic sections, orbital elements, the types of orbits, and many other things. This was helpful because the main thing I needed to make my program realistic was to take equations directly from physics and try to model my program after them.


3. "A Brief History of Space Exploration." The Aerospace Corporation. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.


This source gave an overview of the history of humanity’s endeavors in space, from the first satellite to the Mars rover. I will most likely use this information in my presentation, but it will be useful if I decide to incorporate the history of space into my program in some way. It was also interesting to see the progression humanity made with space flight, and how what we put into space evolved as we learned more and more.


4. " create New Sketch." OpenProcessing. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.


Open processing is a forum for people to post programs they wrote in processing, which is the same language that I am writing my orbit simulator in. It is helpful when I am struggling with a bug, or adding a feature, to look at programs on this site to see how people solved the same problem. It also is useful to look at to try and get ideas for my own program, based on what other people have done with the language.


5. Elert, Glenn. "Orbital Mechanics I." - The Physics Hypertextbook. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.

This website goes in depth about orbital mechanics. It includes many of the essential formulas and equations that are used in orbital mechanics calculations, making it very useful for simulating a scientifically accurate orbit. It also explains many terms that are used when describing space or orbital mechanics, making it helpful when I try to research other sources.


6. NASA. NASA, n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.

NASA is one of the world’s leading pioneers in space exploration, and many of the things I learned to put into my program were originally discovered by NASA. The NASA website also has many things that I plan on putting into my presentation, including the history of spaceflight, and many other things.


7. "Orbiter Is a Free and Realistic Space Flight Simulation Program for the Windows PC." Orbiter Space Flight Simulator. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.


This is the website of a program that is similar to my idea. I was able to use this program to see what they did, so that I could model my capstone off of it. It helped give me ideas, and was a generally helpful resource.


8. "Reference. The Processing Language Was Designed to Facilitate the Creation of Sophisticated Visual Structures." Language Reference (API) Processing 2+. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.


This resource is the reference page for the programming language processing. It gives explanations for how to use all of the main methods in processing. I used to debug my program, and to learn how to use new methods that I had not used previously. It also contained sample code that I could draw from for my program.


9. "The Space Race." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.


This source gave me a lot history and information about the space race. I will use this information in my presentation, and I may add it into my program if I choose to include information about the space race. It is also a good resource on many other historical information I choose to include.


10. "Top Questions." Stack Overflow. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.


Stack overflow is a forum for people to post problems they have while programming, that people respond to with solutions. When I have a problem I can either post the problem I am having, or search the site to try to find others with the same or a similar problem. People also post sample code on things that I need references for, which I also take advantage of from the site.

Title Screen
Title Screen
Instructions
Instructions
Ingame
Ingame

Autism Matters

Hey guys, welcome back to my third and final blog on a heart touching topic, autism! Now if you have not seen blog #1 and #2, feel free to click on the link or read more for the summary. As I had talked about in my previous blogs, I’ve been researching on autism but mostly focusing on kids with autism. It is such a huge problem, not because the children are affected by autism, but how they are not given the attention and help they deserve. Autism is not just a diagnosis or disabilities, it’s someone’s lifestyle, they are overcoming their struggles every single day. Imagine how kids are doing in school, are the teachers giving the extra help they need and are they getting bullied?


As it shows, this topic is very important to me and all the families who are affected by autism. I had cover the topic autism from head to toe, on what it is, who are affected by it, how it’s important to me, and now are you ready to hear about the fun part of this? I figured I needed to do something to help make a change, a change  to help spread autism awareness, and I did! As a way to give back to what I support and a way to end my project.


Before I begin to tell you about what I had done, I want to just talk a little about what I had seen others do or are currently doing to help spread autism awareness and research. There are fundraisers happening, volunteering for a walk, donations, etc. Money raised are going to help researchers research and understand more about autism. With better understanding and research, doctors will have better view on autism itself and on ways to help a child who are diagnosed.


I believe that any type of way, or even the smallest effort to help spread awareness have such huge impact for better understanding and change towards autism. Yes, fundraising, donating, and walking are very helpful and amazing, but remember  being supportive of the cause, knowing it’s real, and being mindful is a way to start a change from the heart.


I had made autism awareness ribbons, but with the help of the idea from my amazing English teacher, Mrs.Dunn, and the help from my mom, sister, and boyfriend. The ribbons were sold during both lunch periods for $1 each. It was fun and had went great, because there were so many supportive peers, from 9th to 12th, buying the ribbons and wearing them to support the cause.


It was so heart touching when I saw them wear the ribbon and was just being as supportive as they all can be. $83.00 was raised from the fundraiser! I felt so happy, no other words to describe my feeling. It was a moment where I had realized I can help make a change, even if I am teenager, and not to forget the help from loved ones. I learn a lot about myself through this journey in making a change. Although this was not my first plan, which was to actually be able to help out kids with autism for a day in a real classroom, I am still very happy. It had made me put myself outside my comfort zone and be out there talking to others.


I felt like I could have done better with the fundraising part, I have to admit, there were some points when I was selling the ribbons where I did not socialize to the people buying it as much as I had wanted to. It was something new for me, and because I am not the most out there type of person. I will learn from this experience and push myself further the next time! This is not over, there are still many things others and I can do to help keep up autism awareness spread, and make it worldly known.


I would like to acknowledge Mrs.Dunn my English teacher for helping me throughout my process with this project. I never felt once that I was alone doing this. Also, my mom and my sister, they had helped me make the autism awareness ribbons, otherwise I would not have anything to sell. Last, but not least, my boyfriend, who was so supportive during my project, from blog #1 to #3 and even helping me sell the ribbons at lunch. Hold on, don't think I forgot, I acknowledge everyone who had read my blogs, who had bought my ribbons, and just supporting me along the way, thank you.



Click here for my annotated bibliography.


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20140520_212133
The autism awareness ribbon. 
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Seniors who had support and bought the autism awareness ribbon. 

YATW #3: Buy American Some More

Hello again, fans of activism. My name is Cameron Samodai and I’m here to talk to you about buying domestic and locally made products. If you are the type who eagerly reads blog posts, you may know that I have posted about this issue twice before. In my first post, I pointed out the disturbing labor conditions occurring in electronics factories, along with the damage you are doing to the economy by buying imported goods. In the second post of the trilogy, I revealed my independent research on the subject. I released a survey to my classmates, many of whom answered the questions I posted.


Since that post, I have put my money where my mouth is and purchased American made goods in place of imported ones. I have three examples of purchases I made to show you.

Imported Shirt

American Shirt

Rather than buy shirts from the above company at $15 each, I decided to support a smaller business and buy shirts from the below company at $19. Not only was I supporting a domestic business, all of their shirts are American made from American cotton.
Imported Switch Plate

American Switch Plate

Both wall plates are made of the same material. Unlike the shirts, the American made switch cover is less expensive than the Chinese one. We bought 5 of these. The difference in cost is enough to choose one American-made shirt over one foreign-made shirt.

Imported iPhone

American Moto X

It may be hard to find the actual prices of these phones (typical cell phone company sneakiness), but if you look on the right you will see that the 16gb iPhone is $550 without rebate and the 16gb Moto X is $400 without rebate. That savings of $150 is enough to cover the difference between 30 of those shirts we looked at before.


While my project did not necessarily involve directly changing others, I utilized my role in the global economy to support what I believe. Think of every purchase as a vote. By buying their products, you are telling those corporate executives that “Yes, I wholly condone your business practices.” If a product is suddenly $0.13 cheaper to make and that causes more people to buy it, the company sees that as an endorsement of whatever unsavory business practices they used to save those 13 cents. Don’t underestimate the power of your money.


I find it very interesting that there is not always a cost penalty for buying American made, and I hope my evidence is convincing enough for you to believe that the pros far outweigh the cons of buying domestic. When you are buying something, make sure to check where it is made. Make sure to recognize that everything matters, and you have a role in the global economy.

YATW #3 Women in Engineering

Welcome back to my third and final blog post!  This blog post will focus on my agent of change which was a presentation to my advisory.  In my first blog post from way back when I introduced my You and the World topic, Women in Engineering.  I talked about some possible reasons that there was such a large difference between the men and women in this field among other things.  In my second blog post I used quotes that were said in my original research to see what others thought about the problem.  I also included new research I had found.  For instance, how more girls participate in physics in single sex schools than in co-ed schools.

When we were asked to think about our agent of change projects I didn't know how I wanted to go about it.  Finally, I decided that the best way to help my issue was to make people aware of it.  From doing my original research I saw that there were a lot of facts and people having to do with women in engineering that weren't known.  While making my slide show for the class I included the information that more people in my survey were unaware of, like who Ada Lovelace is and even the percent of women engineers worldwide(13%)  I also included the song, Rosie the Riveter, which explained about the fictional character during WWII.  You can learn more about her in my first blog post.


By doing my agent of change project I brought more awareness to my YATW issue.  I think that that’s the most important thing to happen for women in engineering.  Many people don’t know the number of women engineers worldwide to men.  There are also girls and women who are under the impression that they can’t enter into certain careers because of gender bias.  It’s important, for young girls especially, to not feel as though they don’t have the opportunity to be what they want to be and do what they want to do.

Although I am proud of the presentation I gave to my advisory there is definitely some things that I could have done better.  Being a high school student, I know how boring presentations with just a person standing there talking can be.  The videos I included made me just speaking slightly more interesting but I think that it would have been better if I included a more indepth activity to do with everyone at the end.  When teens and kids can get involved with something it sometimes stays in their minds longer and makes it more interesting.  Hopefully the people who saw my presentation will still remember it and will spread the word about the difference between the number of men and women in engineering.  

I was very nervous when we started this project in the beginning of the year.  I didn't want people to think that my writing was bad and my ideas were boring.  Once I started doing research and learning about women in engineering I was so intrigued that it didn't matter.  The YATW project is all about researching and doing something about an issue you’re interested in, not someone else.  I would like to give a quick shout out to Kayla Cassumba for taking pictures of my presentation, Ms.Dunn for giving me ideas, and anyone who’s read these blog posts.
YATW presentation

¿Por que hay tress?

Había una vez una escuela llamada SLA. Era un nuevo tipo de escuela a donde los estudiantes aprendían de una nueva manera. Todos los niños recibían  computadores personales que podrían traer a casa. Era el primer día cuando mudaron todas los sillas al edificio nuevo. Mudaron todo de los pasillos y lo pusieron dentro de los salones de clase. En ese día también empezaban a pintar las paredes de colores diferentes. El día fue muy emocionante para todos. Los maestros estaban alegre por tener un edificio tan bello para su nueva escuela.También está ban alegre de que el edificio de tenía personas ocupando el espacio, fui un largo hacía mucho tiempo de que no habían ocupantantes.

Después de que fueron todos los humanos, las sillas empezaron a hablar juntas. Hablaban de todos los maestros, cuáles fueron sus favoritos y menos favorito, cuáles fueron los más interesantes. También se dieron cuenta de que todos eran muy similares. Todos eran del mismo color, tamaño, no se podía distinguir uno del otro. Esto no les gustó a la silla. Decidieron cambiarse de forma. El problema fue que también no sabían cómo cambiarse. Ellas decidieron que era una buena idea pintar uno y otro. Había pintura en el pasillo que usaban los maestros para pintar las paredes. Todos ayudaban a hacer diferentes diseños y figuras con diferentes estilos y colores. Dejaron que se secara durante el noche y cuando vino la mañana todos despertaron con alegría. Cuando vieron que hacía falta la pintura, no se alegraron tanto.

Todas tuvieron una reacción diferente a la pintura pero todos sí tuvieron una reacción. Unas cambiaban de tamaño, unas de densidad. La más pequeña de todas cambió de patas. Algunas sillas ya se podían mover, todos trabajaron juntos para intentar a arreglar las otras. Cuando volvieron los maestros estaban en choque. No podían creer lo que pasó. Ellos hablaban de qué hacer. Deberían salvar todos las sillas o solo una?. Intentaron sentarse en todas, muchas de las sillas colapsaron cuando se sentó un maestro. Los maestros hablaban y decidieron sólo salvar las sillas que podían usar. Habían tres diferentes tipos de sillas que podrían salvar. Uno con las piernas en forma de un “Z”, otra con las piernas en forma de una “U” y la último con cuatro piernas firmes. Desde ese día había tres diferentes tipos de sillas en la escuela de SLA, todas con las piernas de diferentes formas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FzQkF2o_fE


Blog #3: The Syrian Refugee Crisis, A Chapter That Will Not End; Written By: Gabrielle P. Kreidie

Three years ago, a civil war erupted in a nation known to the world as Syria. A pernicious difference between those who run the government under the leadership of President Bashar Al Assad, and twenty two million people who made up the population of Syria, started during the days of the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring began in Tunisia, where in December 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi burnt himself in front of law officers . The Arab Awakening, as it is often referred to, moved on to the rest of the Middle East, Northern Africa and surrounding countries, as it attracting the news of everyone in the world. As the more and more people that got involved with both nonviolent and violent protests against their government in these countries, the less and less anyone focused on the suffering, ordinary people and the new set of millions of refugees were now facing.


Throughout the past seven months I, Gabrielle P. Kreidie a ninth grader at Science Leadership Academy, have researched the ever growing conflicting of the Syrian Refugee Crisis. My first two blogs, Blog #1 and Blog #2 talked about the research I found, in addition to interviews I have conducted, to figure out even more about the refugee crisis than what the media lets on. Refugees are heading to neighboring countries, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, as well as finding asylum in countries such as Bulgaria. There are more than nine million Syrians who have fled their homes from the Syrian Civil War, with over two and a half million registered as refugees in other countries by the United Nations. As the fighting gets worse and worse, the more amount of Syrians who die increases and the amount of hope for liberty and privacy for Syrians decreases exponentially.


photo 1.JPG

The image shown above is the set up for the Syrian Refugee Panel. Mr. Khorchid, a Syrian businessman (far left), Gabrielle P. Kreidie, moderator (left) , Mr. Reaume, a member of the Qatar Foundation (on computer, skyped into the conference), Mr. Kreidie, a professor at Villanova University for Middle Eastern Studies and founder and executive director of the Philadelphia Arab-American Community Development Corporation (right), and Mr. Przbylek (a member of the Nationalities Service Center).



More than two and a half million Syrians refugees, not including the Palestinian refugees who fled to Syria in the 1970’s until the conflict upheld and they lost their homes again, need our help. Not one person would dare place their self in Syria, as of right now, it is certainly dangerous for any man, women and child. Yet, we do not need to put ourselves in complete danger in the case that we want to help our fellow humans who are suffering in the hands of their treacherous leader. You can help them from thousands of miles away, just as I did.


For the final component of this project which I have started promoting since the beginning of the school year, I organized a Syrian Refugee Panel. This panel allowed students from all over my school to understand the issue facing straight in front of us and allow all sorts of educated people on the crises to speak their views. The panel included a professor for Middle Eastern Studies, a Syrian businessman, an employer of the Nationalities Service Center in Philadelphia, and an employer of the Qatar Foundation. The panel was incredibly successful and I was told by my fellow peers that they learnt a lot, which was my goal all along.



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Mr. Khorchid talking about the problems his family and other families are facing in Syria. Mr. Reaume focused on the troubles refugee camps were facing.


The easiest way to help the Syrian refugees is, what I did at my school, spread the word on the crisis to all sorts of people. Very few all over the world know exactly what is happening to the Syrian refugees, having the ability to be educated on this topic and then present your knowledge to others is one of the greatest ways to keep this very serious issue in the minds of all. There are many other ways to get involved, you can go to the World Food Program for additional ways that you can help the Syrian refugees, as well as Save the Children and UNICEF. There you can donate money and find fundraising ideas to campaign for the Syrian refugees.


The Syrian refugee crisis is becoming more and more aware in the news force lately, from a very powerful superhero, celebrities. Celebrities, as famous as they are, are able to highlight important issues with millions, if not billions, of people paying attention to all that they do. Harvey Weinstein missed the 2014 Cannes Film Festival release of a movie he distributed, Grace of Monaco, to stay in Jordan and talk to children refugees from Syria about films. Angelina Jolie, an ambassador to the United Nations, has made multiple trips to hosting countries for Syrian refugees, and continued to highlight the issue in the news. Even the popular Pope Francis, on his recent trip to Jordan and the Holy Land thanked the Jordan government for holding half a million Syrian refugees in their country and earlier this year has called for an “urgent end” to the civil war.


photo 4.JPG

Mr. Kreidie focused on the history of the conflict and the international response for the crisis. Mr. Przbylek focused on what we did in our region to help Syrian refugees.


This project has allowed me for the past year to focus on a honestly, important issue. Being Arab- American, I know the struggles my family is facing thousands of miles away, while I live in the United States of America living a pretty relaxed life compared to all of them. I am one of the lucky ones, in terms of not having to deal with civil wars right outside my door. My dream is to work for the United Nations and to give people around the world the greatest amount of help while they are suffering. I hope to open schools in refugee camps and campaign for money for vaccinations for every person in the camps. I have seen, through this project, that I have a tool to change the world in my hand: the internet. Sure, this blog may not be breaking news on CNN, yet as long as one person sees it, the message will be received. Thank you for taking the time on checking this blog and researching the Syrian refugee crisis. The end of the crisis will come, only if we step up and speak aloud.


Thank you to Miss Dunn for everything! You are one of the greatest teachers I have ever had and one of the kindest people I know, and one with great amount of shrewd!


Tamatha Lancaster Capstone


Abstract

For my capstone, a fellow classmate and I decided to do a dance club for the school. At first we were doing it for SLA Center City and then decided that it would be nice to also extend the club to SLAB. First we decided what songs we was going to dance to and then came up with some dance moves. We were going to have our club as an after school activity every Wednesday at Beeber but at the end, it turned out to be one of their mini-courses for the 4th quarter. So then we came up with a lesson plan on what we was going to do with the students and what we wanted them to get out of it. We decided that we were going to teach them a couple of dances and then as their final project, have them come up with a dance on their own. During the process I’ve learned that patience is really important to have because we had to wait until the students and teachers cooperated with us. And that leadership skills were needed for this club because we were working with ninth graders who think they know everything.


There was a website for my Capstone, so click here to view the website.



Annotated Bibliography


Teaching Dance & Running the Club

Modern Dance, Techniques and Teaching.

Shurr, Gertrude, and Rachael Dunaven Yocom. Modern Dance, Techniques And Teaching. New York: Dance Horizons, 1980. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 29 Jan. 2014.


http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzEyNjE5NV9fQU41?sid=5820ffc4-8575-406b-81a7-e253d34a4581@sessionmgr113&vid=6&format=EB&rid=2


This book teaches you how to teach people the techniques of dancing. It also gives you a couple of classic moves to enhance just about any choreography sequence. It is important to know how to teach people because it puts your members at ease as well as yourself. If you know how to treat people the whole process goes a lot smoother.


Time Management

Tator, Rosemary, and Alesia Latson. More Time For You : A Powerful System To Organize Your Work And Get Things Done. New York: American Management Association, 2011. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 29 Jan. 2014.


This will really help us out. With this piece of information we can learn how to manage our time and how to get things done effectively. We can maximize our time and not waste weeks completing a single task.


http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzMzMzM1OV9fQU41?sid=5820ffc4-8575-406b-81a7-e253d34a4581@sessionmgr113&vid=20&format=EB&rid=1


The Management of Clubs, Recreation, And Sport

Sawyer, Thomas H., and Owen Smith. The Management Of Clubs, Recreation, And Sport : Concepts And Applications. Champaign, Ill: Sagamore Pub, 1999. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 29 Jan. 2014.


Because we plan on making a club, it is best to know how it works and what it takes to make one. This book teaches you the ways to keep a club going past a few weeks. It also tells you techniques in how to keep club members interested and itching to come back which is really what we need to keep this capstone alive.


http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzY2OThfX0FO0?sid=5820ffc4-8575-406b-81a7-e253d34a4581@sessionmgr113&vid=11&format=EB&rid=1


Hip Hop Choreography


Jam, Mega. “'23' ft Miley Cyrus choreography by Jasmine Meakin (Mega Jam).” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 1 Dec. 2013. Web. 28 Jan. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtU13wWKBUU>


This youtube video is a dance video of one of the people one of us is subscribe to on youtube. She is a dance instructor and she puts all of the rehearsals she does onto her youtube page along with the tutorials of her dances. We selected this video because it will help come up with some dance moves we can do. It helps to figure out what music is best to dance to. Viewing this video will allow us to see how other people dance and what they think are good dance moves.


“Dance Team- Dance Technique.” Varsity. Varsity Brands, n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2014. <http://www.varsity.com/event/1170/dance_technique>


This website gives us information about the techniques of dancing, it gives information about different turns foot alignment and tips in improving your dances. This information will allow us to dance the correct way with the right alignment and body position. Knowing this information before we actually start dancing will save many injuries to us and the people who are dancing with us. We could use this information on our website because if people want to copy any of our dances, they first have to know the techniques we used.


Williams, Brenda. “Where Did Dance Come From.” ezine articles. Sparknet, 2014. Web. 28 Jan 2014. <http://ezinearticles.com/?Where-Did-Dancing-Come-From?&id=1144971>


This article by Brenda Williams is about dance and where it comes from. She goes to say that no one actually knows how it originated but it’s an important part in ceremonies, rituals, and celebrations. While reading this article I learned that dancing was first seen in Egyptian times, in their wall paintings. This article doesn’t help with how we dance but it does help us to know where it come from. Also it will help us with our website because “knowing” where dance come from can be the introduction to our website.


AdrianVanOyen. “50 Epic Dance Moves.” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 25 Nov. 2012. Web. 28 Jan. 2014. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dodGzOjBOHA>


We chose this video because it showed us what not to do as a dance. This is kind of important when it comes to dancing because you want to make sure that you don’t look crazy when you want people to take you as a serious dancer. So doing doing some of these dances in public will not accomplish this. This allows us to get away from the “bad” dancing and towards the better dancing.


Jam, Mega. “‘Where Have You Been’ Rihanna  choreography by Jasmine Meakin.” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 7 Aug. 2012. Web. 28 Jan. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpuDjCf8HVE>


This video had some intriguing moves that we would like to learn and then put together with our own dance moves. It helps to learn from other people who are more experienced than us because we can learn so much and enhance our own knowledge of dancing.


Jam, Mega. “‘I’m Out’ Ciara ft. Nicki Minaj choreography by Jasmine Meakin.” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 7 Sep. 2013. Web. 28 Jan. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00f1-gh1WYg>


This video had some intriguing moves that we would like to learn and then put together with our own dance moves. It helps to learn from other people who are more experienced than us because we can learn so much and enhance our own knowledge of dancing.


Delving Past Hip Hop


GreatAmazingWorld. “Best African Dance Lessons Tutorial Video- Dancing on the Clock.” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 4 Jul. 2013. Web. 28 Jan. 2014. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIPEVHGjdP4>


This source is especially useful because it delves into more than just hip hop dancing. It is important to look at where dances came from and most hip hop dances have African roots. With that being said we will be looking at the root of dancing so we can fully understand modern dancing. If you know where your stuff comes from it is easier to understand and perform the modern stuff.


fitforafeast. “Salsa Basic Dance Step- learn Latin Dance Lessons for kids.” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 1 Nov. 2009. Web. 28 Jan. 2014. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F758q-jifJI>


Having a knowledge of dances from different cultures only enhances our techniques. It gives it a flare and steps outside the box of just hip hop. It’s important to not only understand the dancing you like to do. You have to know about multiple dances because each dance style is influenced by another so it’s best to know multiple to better understand what you’re doing.

Session #3

Session #3-Mp3

Group Members Present: Jalen S. Robbie M. Sarybel M. Rose K.

What your book club discussed:

This session we talked about chapters 7,8,9&10

How you discussed it:

We continued to do what we had been doing. We chose to pull out important things from the text. This time we also tried to connect outside examples alongside the ones given in the book. We also talked more about how we felt about the chapters as a whole. 

Any points of conflict/disagreement in discussion:

Again we all were pretty much on the same page about everything that we talked about.

Questions that came up as a result of the discussion:

We really wanted to know if there were more clear ways for us to know if people are lying then what the author said. It seemed that a lot of the times he was talking in a way that a statistician would but not an everyday consumer. We were wondering if there could have been more clear ways for people who don't know statistics to figure out the truth. 

*links to Robbie's articles:

http://www.cut-the-knot.org/do_you_know/misuse.shtml

http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/science-questions/10-correlations-that-are-not-causations.htm#page=2

​ Childhood Obesity: The conclusion and growing awareness




Childhood Obesity: The conclusion and growing awareness



Hello.   My name is Luke Watson-Sharer. Hopefully you read my first 2 blogs about childhood obesity. If you haven’t check them out here: First blog, Second Blog. Childhood obesity is not only a U.S. issue but a worldwide issue.  The obesity crisis expands every day.  Obesity not only affects a child’s physical health but also their emotional well being.  Obese children not only limit their life choices but may also lose self esteem. Obesity can lead to heart disease, suicide, cancer and even death. What can we do to help? We can raise awareness and provide encouragement.   That’s what the agent of change is all about.


There are many ways to raise awareness. I’m glad to contribute to raising awareness.  Others who can raise awareness are companies and community campaigns. Currently,  the NFL is contributing to getting kids more active with NFL60 where they promote 60 minutes of activity of sports or running each day. Also, hospitals and some food companies promote low calorie foods or options. Advertisements by some food companies promote healthy choices like salads to low fat options.  Community groups can create exercise groups to asking schools to provide low calories and healthy options.  Individually, you can create a flyer on childhood obesity or healthy eating to distribute in school. There are many ways to raise awareness about  childhood obesity and support people trying to lose weight.


With many ways to change and create change, there are many possible components.   I support the changes in exercise and eating to support decreasing childhood obesity.  As I wrote in my first blog, childhood obesity leads to negative physical and emotional health.   With my second blog,  it provided results from surveys that helped me thrive and want to make a change. Positive ways to encourage change are through a variety of exercise choices from group sports to walking instead of taking the bus.  There are also ways to increase healthy eating including eating fruit instead of cookies and not overeating.  I support increasing awareness of childhood obesity because it’s  positive for all children and teens.   Decreasing childhood obesity  prevents potential diseases, suicide, the loss of self esteem and encourages a better physical and emotional health.


For my agent of change I helped get the word out by presenting to peers and adults statistics about childhood obesity. My powerpoint is here: Powerpoint. I explained what each blog post was about and showed how childhood obesity works and current statistics.  The surge in childhood obesity has dramatically increased in the last two decades.  I was hoping my message would send a message to my class and would help them encourage friends and family to be more aware and, if they are obese, to get help to become healthier.

IMG_5931.jpg Me presenting my project.



I have made a change happen. Outside of taking in childhood obesity as a problem whenever the topic comes up or in situations I can talk about it, I drop knowledge on the topic. I felt comfortable doing the project and without personally becoming attached to the project because I am not overweight.  Therefore,  I could keep a distance from the topic while also having friends and family who need support in losing weight. After completing the project, I learned more what it is  like to be in their shoes and gained compassion.  It is difficult to change eating habits, exercise habits and lose weight.   I now have a passion for fighting childhood obesity by increasing everyone’s knowledge and supporting friends trying to lose weight.  Next, I can go to a  park and start a weekly football game or a basketball game. I can organize a play group with kids on my block or at church to get them moving.  This can  help kids burn calories that are not needed. Nevertheless, there is a lot to do.  I will continue to look for ways to support the fight against childhood obesity.


My adventure in helping increase awareness of childhood obesity has just begun. Raising awareness and causing a change is the most beneficial thing to do.   I’m glad that I know I made a change and helped spread the word and support others who either need to lose weight or want to encourage others to get healthy.


I hope the millions of people I've touched have the optimism and desire to share their goals and hard work and persevere with a positive attitude.” - Michael Jordan

Bibliography: Annotated

My Third Bullying Blog

  Hi, my name is Ali. I am doing a project for English called you and the world. It is a project where we find a topic we are passionate about, and I chose to do bullying.  The reason I did is because it is causing suicide. So I made two blogs (Blog 1 and Blog 2). The first on was about the statistics of bullying and suicude, and how it will grow if we don’t stop it. On the second blog, I explained the effects of bullying and suicide, and talked about why some of these bullies are killers. i just did something called the agent of change. For my agent of change project, I did a presentation to my advisory about bullying. I talked about how it was the cause of some of the U.S suicides.

  The amount of suicide bullying caused is beyond ridiculous, and I wanted to let people know about it. I do have ways this can be changed. I feel good about doing this presentation because I did show my advisory the effects of bullying. One way I did that was that I showed my advisory a CNN story about a girl that commited suicide because people not only spread innappropriate photos of her, but they called her nasty names and cyberbullied her. People got emotional after seeing that. We, as an advisory, discussed the effects of bullying and suicide. When I presented, I did stutter a lot. I also chose a video before completing. The result was excellent, but it could have been bad. Also, I wish I practiced before I presented. Those are things I would change. But I did cause some change because I opened people to the facts about bullying, and discussed that with my advsiory. That put the topic back in everyone’s head. Not only that, I shared a young victim’s story. That hit the advisory hars, as they were sad too see that. So, that is how I made change


photo 2.JPGphoto 1.JPG

    These pictures are of me doing my presentation about bullying and it’s effects. During this presentation, I asked the students for their answers for the questions. I liked all of the answers that I got from the students. In these photos, I am either speaking or taking answers to the questions I am presenting. I wanted to get the group’s answers to questions such as “Why is suicide important?”, and then give my reason.

     The thing left for us, as a nation, is ending bullying for good. It still exists, and I need to do all I can to make bullying extinct. No kid should go through this, and no person should feel suicide is needed in order to escape the pain caused by bullying. It is ridiculous that such a thing is even happening. So far, Cartoon Network has a special called “Stop Bullying”, which encourages anti-bullying to the youth. Also, WWE has a partnership with Be A Star, which is an organization that encourages and promotes anti bullying. And because of it’s partnership with WWE, this message is presented to millions of people, many whom are children. Even better, the wrestlers themselves are speaking against it constantly. I love the things being done. Sending anti-bullying messages to millions of kids is very important. Kids need to know that verbal and physical harm is unacceptable, especially since it is literally murdering today’s youth. Not only that, there are thousands of websites going against bullying.

      I do want to thank Ms. Dunn for giving the class the oppurtunity to make these projects. If it weren’t for that, this project would not even exist. I also want to thank my advisory and the other students that joined that day. They were very polite as I left them a reminder that bullying is awful and sending kids to the graveyard. I also must thank my mom. She was a huge help during the process of this project’s creation. There is still bullying. But luckily, this nation is doing it’s best to stop it. And that is an amazing thing.


Bibliography



   

  

YATW Blog Post#3


Hello again, My name is Brandon Jones and I am writing for a third time on African American students and standardized test scores. Since my last 2 blog posts, here and here, I have relentlessly be following this impending issue. I have been looking for what can or is being done about the Black and White Test Score Gap and I feel as though my efforts have been prosperous. According to this website, closing the test score gap would do more to promote racial equality more than any other tactic the United States has ever used. Also by eliminating the gap, there would be an increase in black college graduation rates, thus making them equal to white rates. Absence of the gap would also discourage colleges from using racial preference as a means of admittance along with racial disparities in both men’s and women’s earnings.

Closing the gap would require the endeavors of both blacks and whites. Sadly however, it is estimated that this would take more than one generation to accomplish. I agree wholeheartedly that we as Americans can achieve this goal. Though I disagree with the problem taking a whole generation to fix. If we actually try and work hard, I am optimistic that the elimination of the gap can be seen in the near future.

For the Agent of Change aspect of my project, I wanted to raise awareness around my school. Me and another student created a series of posters that had information such as graphs and positive messages to grab the attention of all of the school and faculty passing by. I thought this was a great way to inform people of my issue. Though being subtle, they can have a very powerful impact. Creating these posters informed me that in 2004, it has been proven that black males have been the least likely to earn a regular diploma.

Although I created the posters, I feel I could have done more. I believe that I could have taken action myself and helped out children who were struggling in any subject by tutoring and giving advice in any subject. Even though I didn’t get to it, I planned on reading to a group of younger kids at my local library. I wanted to do this so I could get kids reading at a young age so that it would be easier for them to succeed on standardized tests and in life. What we as Americans can do, is to get all of our children to develop a craving for knowledge so that doing well in school is a desire instead of a struggle.

Closing the test score gap goes much deeper than a competition between races. Closing the gap will unite all of us as a whole and destroy any boundaries between skin colors that our ancestors have so desperately put up. What we are doing now is doing nothing but setting a bad example for future generations. We need to change and we need to act.

In conclusion, I’d like to thank my parents and Ms.Dunn for giving me guidance on writing this blog post. I’d also like to thank my friend and classmate Damir Hunley for helping me designing and putting up our posters. As the late Mahatma Gandhi said, “ You must be the change You wish to see in the world.



*Pictures

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* Student looking at the poster

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* One of the posters on the wall in the hallways