FINAL PROPOSAL:
We need to learn to and then teach others how to cherish and appreciate nature. We are going to do this by making a film. The footage in this film is going to be from our experiences and outings we have planned in different parts of Southern California. We want this film to be the product that shows what we’ve learned and inspires others to follow the steps we took to learn how to appreciate the world that we live in. This includes taking care of these environments to preserve them for future generations so that other people can have the amazing experiences that we had the opportunity to be a part of. We have a personal Canon camera, gopro, access to a school drone, and two polaroids to gather footage professionally. Our parents are taking us to Joshua Tree and Palomar Mountain for camping trips over the weekend. We will also be taking trips to the beach in our free time. Our teachers also will be taking us on a trip to the tide pools at Sunset Cliffs to gather footage during school. We have considered all of the safety precautions we need to take. Our trips outside of school to gather footage have nothing to do with the project. So the safety precautions we take there will have nothing to do with the school, our teacher, or this project. In the instance that Eva and I couldn’t go out to one of the camping trips we would plan the trip for another date because we have two weeks of extra time designated towards mistakes and editing if we need more time.
Prototype of my finished deliverable:
Personal Progress Report/Individual Role Update:
What am I in charge of and what have I done?:
I have been in charge of bringing the camera materials and taking quality video. I have had to work on the shakiness of the footage from my shaky hands but that has improved using tripods and flat places to rest the camera on. I typed the final proposal, though both my partner and I filled out the proposal brainstorming document together.
What am I going to do next?:
We are starting to work on our film and gather all of the footage and put it into iMovie. We still have a few more trips planned but then it will be hardcore editing time after that.
What have I learned so far during my open exploration?:
I have learned about what it means to spend time outside. It amazes me that just a view, looking at something that could very well be there everyday could have such an impact on me, make me feel in such a heart-swelling way. I have started to learn about cherishing the world around us and how to use my time on Earth most efficiently. I have a lot of great opportunities and it is time to utilize them!
I have been in charge of bringing the camera materials and taking quality video. I have had to work on the shakiness of the footage from my shaky hands but that has improved using tripods and flat places to rest the camera on. I typed the final proposal, though both my partner and I filled out the proposal brainstorming document together.
What am I going to do next?:
We are starting to work on our film and gather all of the footage and put it into iMovie. We still have a few more trips planned but then it will be hardcore editing time after that.
What have I learned so far during my open exploration?:
I have learned about what it means to spend time outside. It amazes me that just a view, looking at something that could very well be there everyday could have such an impact on me, make me feel in such a heart-swelling way. I have started to learn about cherishing the world around us and how to use my time on Earth most efficiently. I have a lot of great opportunities and it is time to utilize them!
Overall Group Progress Report:
We completed our proposal weeks ago and have gone on our school outing with a teacher and gathered footage. We have done another beach trip in our own time to gather more footage at Ocean Beach. We have a trip planned to Joshua Tree during Thanksgiving break on Monday the 21st. We are very excited to gather footage of the stars. Although, we do need to learn the camera settings and modes to get that film. I have tried previously and never got the proper instruction to take those pictures. they turned out all blurry. But my friend she could teach me how to do it. I am very excited and we are staying in a really cool house and then I am visiting my aunt on the way home in Palm Springs.
Semester Reflection
- Did your semester go the way you had imagined? Why or why not?
2. List and elaborate on at least three areas of personal growth.
I would like to improve on my focus. I notice myslef unotivated to do things that I don't want to do. I would like to grow my willpower so that I can do what I need to do when I need to do it.
I would also like to improve on my responsibility that I mentioned before. I want to be held accountable for my actions and I think that I need more attention for that to be proven. I want to know how to make the right decisions and I probably need major guidance to learn how to do this.
I also would like to pay more attention for pleasure reading. I want to want to read rather than watch TV. There wasn't specific given reading time in class so it was about how much you wanted to read. I chose a book about something that I am very passionate about adn I still didn't choose to read it even though I had all of the means and opportunity. I want to learn to read for myself. Actually, during Christamas break, on the plane to Reno, I read a large chunk of a book tht I absolutely love that I had gotten for Christmas: Eat, Pray, Love. I get excited about reading this and I get annoyed with people that interrupt me when I'm reading this book which is fairly odd for me reading.
3. List and elaborate on at least three areas of academic growth.
I relied on myself to get my own work done. Teachers weren'treminding us when things were due or the requirments so I had to do the best that I could do. It was about what I felt was important and honestly I had to guess on a lot of things which was really hard for me because I like certainity. I like to ask questions and I didn't have of much of the opprtunity to do that this semester.
I had a chemistry class before but it wasn't like this one. This semester's Chemistry course was very mature and self-reliable. It was vital to understand the lectures and make flawless blog posts at long lengths that you don't have enough information for and you have to start repeating things in other words to maker it longer because you have nothing else to write about. This made me understand difficult and college-level assignments. (I think)
I grew a little bit by having the freedom to do what I want when I want. Sometimes I chose to finish all of my work and that's how I turned in most of my assignments on time. I also chose to do the work that I knew was important first. I learned prioritization. I usually get very stressed out when there is a lot of assignments thrown at you even if you have a lot of time to complete them. But, I like organization and prefer to be given one assignment at a time and when i turn it in perfectly at it's due date, I can put all of my focus and efforts onto the next one. I worked on calming down and tried completing things one at a time but I had to learn prioritization. It was difficult but it taugh me to relax and do what I can when I can. I just tried to go with the flow and stay calm and hopefully I could complete everything. I became very less uptight this semester(I think this may have been because of my teacher).
4. Did you accomplish or move closer to accomplishing any goals you had at the beginning of the semester? If so, explain how, if not, explain why.
I didn't have many large or even small goals for the semester. I knew I wanted to work on my reading and help myself become stronger and calmer by reading good books to make me feel happy and healthy. I think that quality books can honestly change your life and reading means a lot to me and I just wish I made the time and used my extra time to do this for myself. Maybe I can work on this next semester or in the summer.
5. State and describe two goals for next semester. One in an area of personal growth and one in an area of academic growth. Additionally, very specifically explain how you plan to accomplish them.
My personal goal for next semester is to meet new people and try to work with them. I did not expand my horizons very much this semester, really not at all. I didn't work with people that I didn't knwo unless I was forced to. I am going to be friendly and less shy. I really want to meet new people because I have friends who came into their first semester open-minded and made great friends that I think they will keep. This is what inspired me to have this goal.
My academic goal for next semester is to pay more attention in class. I want to stay in touch with my teachers and make sure we are on the same page always. I know I need to exceed the limits at high tech high. I know that I can get by easily at high tech high but it is imprtant to me and my mom that I do better than the other students because it's important for me to puch myself to keep my brain at it's high processing level. My mom always asks me to ask for extra work, and next semester I just may be motivated enough to do that.
6. Did you engage in our project and the work that surrounded it to the best of your ability? If yes, cite and explain examples, if no, reflect on why that was, and what could have been done differently to get you to engage.
I engaged in my project work with my full self because I chose my own pat of exploration. This allowed me to do what I actually want to do in school. I do think that I chose something a little bit too easy for myself so it was pretty easy to stay engaged as well. It was very easy to stay engaged when I was having fun in Joshua Tree and Julian with my friends and family. My film turned out great. Although it took a lot of work, I am very proud of my final product.
7. If you could design and execute your own semester, your own project, what would it be and why? What would you hope others would learn from it?
I love the outdoors included in our projects this semester. I definitely want to make my whole project about outdoors. I would plan to take camping trips in the desert, beach, and forest. We would make poems while in the wild and make a book of beautiful poems and haiku's. These poems would show the feelings that these places make us feel. We could study the science of what the natural world we are experiencing means and make poems about what the science means. This is fairly similar to my exploration project but instead of a film, a book of poems which can be equally or even more powerful depending on the quality of the work. I think we could aslo gather a lot of great footage while out on those trips and we could have those film groups following around the explorers to make a film to show people everyone's experience. I think that could also give a lot of background to viewers and readers. This is almost exactly as our open exploration project for the end of the semester. I think that films are a very important at high tech high and I love to include mature films in our projects. This would be very fun and ideal. Because this was so similar to our semester project, this means that our semester project was a mad success!
8. What feedback do you have for us, Andrew and Adam? How could the project have been better? How could our individual classes have been better?
Andrew's class was a mess. Lectures were all over the place adn very confusing. Half of the team wasn't given the information needed to complete the assignment. It was ver frustrating to try to talk to Andrew because he cannot pay attention to you if you have something important to say. Adam seems very busy all the time and sometimes he is MIA. But when you really need help from him, he gets down to it and gives you the real help that is needed. I liked how there were to-do lists on the board. That helped me stay organized. I appreciated this a lot because of the lack of organization in other places like oral directions.
One thing you may need to work on is being a little more avalible for the students. Because a lot of time numerous students had trouble locating you both.