I'm not going to lie, this week for me, has been awesome. I love telling stories through film. This is my forte and I can't believe how much creative freedom we were given. It was so nice to be able to show off some of my talents, but this week for me wasn't just getting to mess around with stuff I love to do, I learned a lot too. I learned that each of us has our own way of telling our stories, that everyone has their own idea of what telling a story should look like and it really opened my eyes. Mr. Schoenborn in my opinion, should get an award for mixing it up a bit. Sure, my opinion is probably a little biased because off my love for filmmaking but honestly, who cares? So many teachers these days stick to what they were taught, and sure old school methods still work but why do we have to stick to repetition of old teaching? Why can't we mix new and old? I guess I'm just a little frustrated with standardized learning because I see things different than others do and growing up being told to conform has always been a bit of a struggle for me. The way Mr. S ties draws students in is sometimes silly to us at first but seriously if you really think about the way he handles himself, the way he handles the class, you start to see the genius in giving more responsibility to students. Getting to create our own rubrics was cool too, I sort of overlooked this when we were actually doing it but in hindsight, it's clear that creating my own rubric really helped me know what needed to be done in order to get a good grade. This week so far has been really fun for me and I really appreciate how the class is being taught.
www.filmmakingstuff.com/ "Every great film should seem new every time you see it" - Roger Ebert
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Although I was gone quite a bit this week, I did try and keep up by using the class schedule on the class website so I wouldn't fall behind. The introduction into how to tell a story was interesting, although I found it sort of difficult to keep myself on task when I was at home. Reading Mr. Schoenborn's journey to becoming an educator was pretty interesting. I've done quite a few interviews with teachers and educators when making commercials for the MPHS future teachers club and I think doing that has given me a much greater appreciation for teachers and educators. Learning about his experiences was a little different than the interviews I was used to and I really enjoyed getting to know more about his story. We watched TED talks about how to tell a story and I chose to watch Scott McClouds's talk on the deeper meanings of cartoons. Before watching his talk I thought cartoons were silly, political sometimes but overall silly. Although I've never been a huge fan of cartoons, I did really enjoy his talk, although I will admit he lost me quite a few times. His way of explaining story was a completely knew to me, before hearing his talk I saw storytelling as just reading, writing and visualizing it through film. I never gave cartoons much of a chance, now that I've heard his talk I don't think I'll read them any more than I used to but I did gather a much better appreciation for cartoon artists' work. We were introduced to the idea of digital storytelling and I could immediately tell that I would most likely excel in this area due to my interests in cinematography and digital media productions. Overall this week whether I was at home or in school, I learned a lot more about storytelling, learned to appreciate it more and really got excited for the week ahead.
www.storycenter.org/ "If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten" - Rudyard Kipling This week has been sort of chaotic for me. I was sick a lot, I did a lot of work online to catch up and I struggled a little more to find my creative side again. I've found that although this year I have a lot of creative classes, I'm gradually burning out of ideas due to all of the creative things I've been doing right from the get go. I wrote an awesome creative writing piece this week and every time I read it I still can't believe I wrote it. Sure it was pretty short but man it was such a great feeling that I had when I was writing it. Getting to use this week to actually contemplate our belief we're writing about was nice, I especially liked the freedom because it took the pressures of deadlines off my shoulders and really helped me appreciate the writing time more. I had fun reading my table buddies papers, they were so different than mine but in the end we all had similar paths to getting to our beliefs and I can't wait to see what their final product looks and sounds like. I really appreciate english more and in the past I've been discouraged by teachers who think very linearly and it's been so frustrating for me. I just feel comfortable and I like it, I guess there's no other way to put it. Class has been made easier by the unfamiliar and as weird as that sounds I really like that this class is literally nothing like any other English class I've been in. I'm a little frustrated with myself currently because I really want to read my SSR book but it's been so hard for me to really dig in and I'm not really sure why. Every time I sit down to read my book it flows so easily and it's so fun to read but life seems to throw distractions at me a lot lately and I can't find time to just enjoy my book. Overall this week I've learned that I need to manage my time better and also take time for me instead of always being so willing to lend a helping hand.
www.forbes.com/sites/annlatham/2015/11/08/8-secrets-smart-people-know-about-time-management/#77048945279a "The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes" - Andre Gide This first week in English 12A has been full of new ideas for not only myself but for the class as a whole. Tying in the online aspect of reading and writing, Andy (our teacher) did a great job of using classroom resources to engage myself and others in the class. Using different approaches to his teaching benefited everyone as it was more hands on and in some ways much more in-depth than most other teachers' approaches to starting their class off on the right foot. Having laptops in the classroom is a good way to keep us focused on the task at hand, I've noticed that a lot of us seemed more comfortable writing. The me as a reader me as a writer activity sparked a lot of interest for me, it was different talking about myself as a reader and writer in third person. Although I wasn't comfortable with the idea at first, it definitely opened my eyes a little more to the possibility of reading and writing, making me appreciate my creative tendencies more. The activity we did on the first day of class was fun and engaging and it didn't feel forced at all. I've done a lot of reflecting lately due to me turning 18 recently and that activity of using sidewalk to represent each year of our lives thus far was simple yet intriguing. Hopefully everyone else is willing to learn a few knew things this trimester, it would be cool if everyone else was as interested and invested as I hope I'll be. This class so far has reassured my interests in technology and storytelling and I'm excited to see what's to come in the future.
Malcolm X wrote personal journals and it was eventually put together by a few people after his death and although it doesn't entirely relate to this specific post, it does relate to our reading and writing activity I mentioned above. I found his need for learning how to read and write inspiring and hopefully it makes sense to you too! accounts.smccd.edu/bellr/ReaderLearningtoRead.htm "The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well." - Ralph Waldo Emerson |
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May 2017
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