This week was the beginning of something new in A.P. Lit, and possibly the most challenging task thus far. It is the multimodal project that deals with graphic design, lots of writing, video production and all the elements we have learned in this class so far this year. This week we just adjusted into our reading mostly, and figuring out who is playing what role to make this project a success. I am the video editor which means I will be doing a lot of the searching and even some filming of scenes which correspond to the message we are trying to get across. I think that being a video editor is a tough role; capturing a video that relates to our topic is not as easy as it sounds. It takes a bit of skill outside of reading and writing, which I can pretend like I have. Usually when my group faces a challenge somewhat similar to this we rely on our creativity to take us to where we need to be. Well, I don't think that will necessarily hold true for this project. There is some real skill required when working with html and such. This is a project that requires all of us to step outside of our comfort zone and be a part of some "intellectual risk taking".
0 Comments
This week I learned the importance of time management through a nagging project that has to complete by Monday. It is a hard thing to plan time to work on a big project, ideally spread in equal amounts of time throughout the week. I tried doing this toward the beginning but ended up getting derailed on Wednesday. This is a tough challenge but like most challenges, they will come to an end. Monday will come but there is a lot of preparation still required before then. Watching the other presentations from previous years has been helpful in leading me in the direction that I want to go. I will be so relieved to be done with this project and onto the next trimester.
In addition this week I built up my presentation skills to fit the needs for this presentation. This is a unique presentation, unlike any that I have ever set up before, being that each slide only lasts 10 seconds. I am eager to get going on the next trimester and finish out the year and really just be on to my senior year. This week was the week our projects were finally presented. Seeing some of the other people's projects first helped reassured me that mine was just as good or even better. I am very happy with the end result, i managed to put out something I enjoyed and will continue to watch for hopefully a long time to come, as it is currently the only video on my youtube channel and probably will be only one. This project reached far beyond school 'curriculum' and into something that other people from around the world, young and old, can see and enjoy. There are certain things I could have done better, such as further extending the piece, going further in depth and making it more artsy and more enjoyable to watch, but I am overall very satisfied with the work that I've done.
I am also pretty happy with the work that my friends did, it was a worthwhile project and those that do not get a chance to do something similar to the TIB are really missing out. This week in A.P. Lit was spent uploading and working with WeVideo to create a video that is true to myself in my beliefs. It will be a big relief to move on from this project onto something new. This trimester is proving to be quite a stressful time balancing this stuff with other class material. I have found that WeVideo is pretty simple to use but has its quirks too. I don't like that every visual, whether picture or movie has be saved to my computer and uploaded to the site, rather than a simple copy paste of the URL to the website. At the end of the day though, it is a great resource.
Looking at previous TIB projects, the bar is set pretty high from the other students. I still have lots of work to do, including a ton of pictures and audio to adjust. It will all be worth it in the end, when I know I will be confident when I see the end result. This is a project that i hope will have a lasting impact on others and myself and will be cool to see 10 years from now. One day's time... My video is now complete and is ready to be presented. I feel good about where I took my piece, and am excited to see it as well as the many others come tomorrow. This week, we spent our time working through "This I Believe" projects and will be recording my voice this weekend. This is an interesting project to me because I feel like someone will be able to look at my end product and feel impacted. To create that feeling in the audience, a wow factor must also be created, and that's a tough effect to master. I do know that my story is authentic and personal, as well as just what I wanted it to be, but won't be able to really impact other people. Seeing some of the other videos from people in the class really set the bar high, I was thoroughly impressed. In other words, the pressure's on.
In addition this week we discussed the elements of storytelling and what factor's engage an audience the most. I believe that a strong voice is the most compelling factor in a presentation - something that the audience can hold on to. I think that having a big, dramatic, overall question towards the beginning of a presentation is also necessary to guide the audience in understanding what you're trying to achieve. This week in A.P. Literature we carried out a very real debate about whether or not the government should provide protection against online tracking. In order to have this debate and be able to contribute to it required a lot of research and understanding going into it. My stance like many others was that yes, the government should help users not be tracked.
Later in the week we were asked to form an argument ourselves. Using the illustrating, authorizing and extending properties I came up with something I think is fair, but even right now could use some work. Online tracking was again the focus point for the argument. It would not be my first choice if I could choose any argument to create a stance on, just because online tracking is not clear and we don't know if it can be stopped or not, which is similar to the idiom, 'you can't dig yourself out of a hole'. Plus any sense in stopping it will take ages due to the elongated amount of time it takes to pass a bill and out it into action. This week was a smack in the face but I was able to adjust and settle in midway through the week and finish strong, creating an argument I thought suitable. These last few weeks have been spent differently in A.P. Lit than any others thus far. Much of our time in-class has been spent working on the Shakespearean Drama projects that we were actually able to present just yesterday. This project asked the most out of us, and I firmly believe that we gave it the most, and had fun working through it. What was especially challenging was incorporating art and music as well as really digging in to our theories in a paper. All in all, it was a very worthwhile experience and I do hope to take away the big ideas learned from here on out.
What led to the success of our presentation really was the well rounded ideas, perspectives, points and views that Eric and Kirstynn and I were able to come up with. We were able to produce something that worked for the group and worked for the guidelines, met and exceeded the expectations set for this project. Through incorporating a couple different takes on scenes from Macbeth, sometimes even through argument, all seemed to work out for us in the end. In addition, this week we wrote our Free Response Essay over independent novels. For the first time I felt confident about what I was writing and was passionate about what i was rambling on about. My theory of stepping outside of being a 'white' male and into others of minority and from a female's perspective was right in line with Native Son. It's awesome that this theory is so talked about in today's world-- with all the buzz around Trump and the massive protests taking place. I feel involved just because of this project; really proud of myself for thinking outside the box with this "critical" theory. In week 17, it felt great to return to school and A.P. Lit class. This week, we were able to hear from Dr. McDermott from CMU to tell us a little bit about Shakespeare and give us some insight moving forward in our Shakespearean Drama Projects. I found this as a helpful experience because of the little details about Shakespeare that I did not previously understand, such as the fact that Shakespeare wrote for the lower-class, and ideals of grudge and hardship are present in his works. Our group did not get a chance to meet with Dr. McDermott, but we should be able to contact her via email with the questions that we have.
In addition, we had the opportunity to continue working on our group projects. As of right now, we have a pretty good jump on things and feel confident that we will be successful in this unit. One difficult thing about this project is squeezing all the information we want to talk about in 10 slides or less. And the deadline. We have lots to do. I feel prepared to write this PoW essay, these two poems have to be my favorite thus far, both relate to each other like a one-two punch. It is an amazing feeling to read and fully understand and support an interpretation and put it in my own words. This week, we watched our appropriate movies, mine being Macbeth. This weekend allowed me to gather my thoughts about what went on and begin to apply it to our theory: the psychological aspect of Macbeth. The movie looked something like a modern day horror film, very creepy and very dark. I could think of many different possible outcomes of the plot. For example, without Lady Macbeth talking Macbeth into comitting the murder of Duncan which started the mess, would the story turn out differently? What would happen if Macbeth and Banquo avoided the witches prophecy and carried on as stonger-willed human beings? It seems to me like Macbeth and Banquo might have been war heroes but young boys at heart, being that they were so easily convinced they would rule the land one day.
From a critical theory standpoint there is a ton of stuff we were able to record in our Cornell notes. I am eager to highlight a few of those things and make them evidence for our paper. It seems like there are a couple different directions of a psychological analysis just because there is so much to that broad topic. Any direction our group choses should have lots of support from the story. In week 14, we returned to analyzing poems and constucting an essay at the end of the week. This week we looked at two poems that left me feeling miniscule in a big world. Both pieces, Sonnet 146 and Ozymandias made me question what purpose I have on this earth and where my life will take me. I found through these works that too many people spend a majority of their time here worrying about what they look like to people, worried about how they are perceived by others. When, all in all, our images and reputations inevitably fade away, just as Ozymandias' did. We found that what truly matters is our soul, for our soul is the thing that death cannot 'feed on'. In my imagination, our soul is made up of good and bad character, the heart and all the passions and goals we established as kids. A memory box, full of the twists and turns and the slopes of a single life. The soul is hugely important, it is the only remains we as humans have.
We also continued constructing our proposels relating to King Lear/Macbeth. I am interested to see how this play develops, so far Shakespeare has not disappointed. Writing about the psychology of the characters in Macbeth might be kind of tricky, it will require a deep understanding of the characters we want to talk about, some outside sources will be useful. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
March 2017
Categories |