Wouldn't you like some Culture Candy?

In the second course of my humanities class for junior year, I'm taking a class called A Nation's Argument. This class focuses on learning about the structure of an argument and also looking back at historical arguments that were written. The first unit of this course was called 1776 because we used the Declaration of Independance as a guide to teach us about how to correctly structure a written argument. The first action project for this course gave us a chance to write our own Declaration about which class we believe should be taught at GCE. When I first heard about this project, I knew I wanted to include travel and culture, so coming up with an idea wasn’t that hard. The only challenging thing for me was trying to display my passion for those ideas onto paper, but I overcame that challenge by sitting and thinking very carefully about which words to write. It took awhile but I’m proud of how patient I was. I hope you enjoy reading my declaration below!

I would like to declare that there be a class studying the many different cultures around the world. Knowing about many cultures and learning about how different they are from one another can teach people to accept differences, which would create a positive change in how some people see each other. There is a lot of unnecessary hatred in the world today, and most of it is because people can’t accept their differences.

The name of this course would be Culture Candy because I’m hoping people see this class as a treat. It would be a humanities course offered to the seniors during the spring term. I also want to include an aspect of traveling in this course, but to be more realistic, students would only be traveling around the city to get closer to the cultures we study. Students would really get the chance to explore and realize how many different ethnicities, races, etc have taken root in Chicago.It would be perfect for the spring term because it’s warmer outside, which makes traveling by public transportation both quicker and less painful. The guiding question is: “How will you use culture to better connect with people?”

Many people still do not understand other cultures and sometimes not even their own, and when they don’t understand, some are quick to judge. That makes it hard for many people to accept cultures other than their own. That is the one thing I want to get rid of. Once you actually have knowledge about another culture, you finally understand. Culture Candy would look into the history of some cultures and see how they developed into how they are now. 

I think this would be great for the seniors because it’s only going to be a few months before they go to college, and in college you meet many people coming from diverse cultures. There would be more cultural knowledge sticking with them. It would also work great for freshman. They’re going to be going to many different communities throughout their GCE career, so it would be cool if they had some background knowledge about some of those neighborhoods. It would also be a chance for them to learn their way around. Overall, my desired outcome would be that students come out of this class with an open mind, and instead of judging other cultures, they learn to accept them.  

To include the traveling part more, there would be 2 FE’s a week, traveling to cultural neighborhoods around Chicago such as, Chinatown, Greektown, Pilsen,etc. This would be a great chance for students to not only better connect with the cultures being studied, but to also learn their way around the diverse neighborhoods in Chicago. A teacher will accompany the students on 1 FE during that week, setting goals that need to be reached while exploring. The 2nd FE will be up to the students when it comes to figuring out what they want to do, but a teacher would still be there to supervise. 

I would definitely reach out to My Block, My Hood, My City, an organization that also focuses on the same goal as I do when it comes to exploring the city. I’d probably want to reach out to the Chamber of Commerce from each neighborhood that we visit to get some good history and background. Usually neighborhoods that are focused on one specific culture have a museum to celebrate that culture, so I’d like to partner with these institutions, as well. They can have hidden gems that are important to that culture's and community’s history. Going to libraries would also be helpful when it comes to research, because sometimes books can give you information that the internet can not offer. The Chicago Cultural Alliance would also be a great learning experience for students because they also focus on accepting cultural differences from first voice perspectives. The Chicago Cultural Center would also be a great place to partner with because of the art that exemplifies the culture of Chicago.   

P1: When you don’t understand a culture, it’s easy to judge.

P2: Once you understand, you’re prone to stop judging.

P3: Once you explore and do fun things to better connect, it’ll be easy to accept.

C: Culture Candy would be a fun class to teach and educate students on those topics.

RD. Syllogism diagram. 2016

I declare that there be a class that promotes traveling and teaches how to accept the many different cultures. This would give students an open mind and teach them to not be afraid to reach out to a different surrounding, along with getting to know other people, even if they are different from them. Imagine all the diverse people you’ll meet, along with amazing places you’ll go!

Lights, Camera, Action!

For the second STEAM course of my junior year, I'm taking a class called Light, Sound and Time. This course is giving us a chance to explore and learn how to see, hear and measure time. The first unit was focused on light and answering questions like how can we measure it? How fast does it go? And even going over what the real definition of light is. During this unit I learned that light can be both a particle and wave, depending on the situation. I also learned that light can bend, also known as refraction. For the action project, the class was assigned to build our own pinhole cameras and capture an image with it. The most challenging part for me was including the math with the project, but with the help of the teacher and some classmates, I was able to better understand it. I'm proud of how I stayed on task, and having my camera ready for the day we were going to use them.


A pinhole camera is a light-proof box without a traditional lens, but with a pinhole instead. Once you open the shutter, it's allowing light to be transferred to the photosensitive paper inside. It's important that the inside of the box is completely black, that way you won't get any light reflections. The black light does not reflect but absorbs most of it. This wouldn't be an example of refraction because the light isn't going from one medium to another. Refraction is the bending of light as it travels through different mediums.This would be an example of light equals energy because the energy (light) is letting the particles create an image with the chemicals on the photo paper. That would also be an example of particle vs wave. A lot of light waves are coming through the pinhole, so that would be an example of one part of the electromagnetic spectrum.


The object that I'm going to photograph is 25 cm tall. The height from the bottom of my camera to the pinhole is 12 cm and it's 13 cm across from the lens to the photopaper. Below, I have a drawing depicting what it would be like if I created similar triangles with those numbers, along with my calculations. I also included some pics of my camera.

RD.Calculations (2016)

RD. Pinhole camera (2016)

When we finally went to a dark room to test out our cameras, I was actually shocked with what I got. A lot of people that tested out their cameras before me, didn't really have anything show up on their photopaper, so I was a bit worried. When I finally tested it out, my shutter speed was 4 minutes. Once I went to develop it, I saw an image emerging but all I got was a checkered background. Next time I think I would place my camera a bit closer to the object I want to capture in order to actually get a full image.

RD. Pinhole camera result. (2016)

The picture below shows how the object photographed actually comes out backwards inside the camera.

Mermaids.

In the digital media class, we were assigned to post about any topic we wanted to. This will help the teacher understand whether or not we understand the correct format of blog posting. I decided to blog about mermaids because they have always been really interesting and cool to me.

Waterhouse,William John. The Mermaid, 1901. 

Face2face.

For the elective term of my Junior year I decided to join the If These Walls could Talk course. This class lets us explore the history of murals,and the different techniques used to create them. The first 2 units were there to prepare us for the 3rd final action project, which was to actually create a mural. We were put into groups of 5, which meant that our diverse ideas had to come together to create one. At the end, my group members and I agreed to make collaged faces that feature the different facial features of students at GCE. The background would be stenciled mandala flowers filled in with spray paint, along with silver and white block print. Before agreeing on this, sometimes we wouldn't all be able to agree on an idea, which created a challenge. We got through that with some good communication. I'm proud of how hard I worked when it came to actually putting the mural together, even going to the length of coming in on a weekend to work on it. I hope you enjoy reading my artist statement below, along with my personal reflection video!



Artist statement
 The purpose of my group mural is to highlight the unity within the student body.We did that by creating collages that feature the many different facial features of students at GCE. We created stencils of mandala flowers and block-prints to create a background. On top of the stenciled flowers and block-printed pattern, we wheatpasted the collaged faces we created. The faces are in black and white, so we added color by spray painting the stencils in red, gold, black, and white. The block print done in white and silver creates a wallpaper-like backdrop. Before we started, the walls by the staircase were a very boring green. After our transformation you’ll come face2face with some weird looking faces that’ll get you to wonder for a bit. You’ll also be amazed by the stenciled mandala flowers. It was an interesting journey as we worked through all this. There were a couple changes as we were working, but we knew they had to be done in order for us to be totally happy about our art. For the first 2 days of working on this mural, I was the artistic director. It was my job to critique and watch over whatever any other of the members of my group were working on. The 2nd job I had was being the mule. It was my job to get whatever materials my group needed. My 3rd job was being a documentarian. I was the one taking pictures of the progress of our work. I didn’t really enjoy being the artistic director because that was my job for the first day, and there really wasn’t anything that I was able to critique. I enjoyed working as the mule the most because I was quick on my feet, allowing me to stay energized while working on the mural. Although mostly everything ran smoothly during the creation of the mural, I would have liked to change one thing. It would be for everyone to be a little more open to other people’s ideas. That was the one thing that was holding the group back and created some temporary bad energy within us. It was a bit of a drag to work on a mural with a bad mood, but once that energy was removed, it was way more enjoyable. We got to that point by understanding everyone’s idea and listening to what each member had to say.
Personal reflection of the proccess script
In the If These Walls could Talk course, we studied the history of murals and the different techniques used to create them. For the final action project, the class was put into groups to create a mural that is going to take up some space in the new building. My group and I worked hard to create weird yet interesting looking collaged faces. Once we got into the space we’d be working in, the real fun started. To me, the most exciting part was collaging the faces. I had many laughs as I mixed everyone’s diverse facial features. We did all the not so fun parts like scrubbing and taping the walls off in the new space first, and then we were able to paint. The painting part was very relaxing. Once all that was done, the cool part had finally came. We were able to spray paint the flower stencils on the wall, along with stamping the block prints. Once the first stencil was spray painted, I got the boost of confidence we needed because we knew it was going to come out looking very cool. It was my first time spray painting and I enjoyed it very much, I also found it to be relaxing.

Take a look into our class!

For the elective term of my Junior year I decided to join the Book Bound course. The purpose of the course was to give us a chance to explore different reading material, along with our relationship with it. We also dove into how literature plays a huge role in our education. Personally, I was very excited to start this course, because I enjoy reading very much. I was even more excited when I found out we were going to be reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I had some mixed feelings about it by the end, but it definitely made me feel some different types of emotions, which is what a good book is supposed to do. I learned that point as we analyzed the canon. The canon is a compile of books that are thought of as important and inspiring. The first time it was mentioned in class was the first time I have ever heard of it, and I think it’s an interesting concept. For the action project, we were assigned to gather up a portfolio with 4 of our best assignments that we completed for this class. We were asked to revise them and make sure that we were confident about putting those 4 on our public blog. During this course, we were also asked to envision what an ideal library would look like for us. I love being comfortable when reading, so I would for sure add a hammock, and a few chill stations at the library. Although I would add that, I would of course add what a library actually needs , which is why we went to another high school library to get a better understanding of what we need. We also went to Open Books, a super fun, cool looking book store. I enjoyed the decor because it portrayed a fun, creative environment, which is why I consider that FE my favorite. My favorite assignment for Book Bound was creating a literary journal with 2 other classmates. I enjoyed it the most because we were able to write about whatever we wanted to, which gave us more freedom, which let us have more fun with it.


I included my first reading experience storyboard as one of the 4 assignments. The purpose of this was to illustrate our memory of learning how to read. This was assigned during the first week of the course, which focused on our personal relationship with books and reading. I picked this one because it was fun being able to show people my first encounter of doing what I love the most now. In the storyboard, I included the story of my mom encouraging me to read. I included the basic exercise she would assign me to do when it came to practicing. I also added how it was a bit of a struggle for me because I get discouraged easily. The biggest challenge for me was trying to remember everything about my first experience, but with the help of my mom’s memory, I was able to compile some pretty great flashbacks. To get this assignment ready for my blog I had to look back at some at and revise some of my work. Once I looked at it, I realized that I was missing one important part of my journey, which was the ongoing encouragement from my mom. I also made sure to fix any grammar or spelling mistakes. I’m proud of how I was able to add some humor into is because it was actually a pretty fun, confusing, funny journey.

Add caption

In this course we studied how many people are functionally illiterate in the world, and the number is actually overwhelming. I’m adding the flier I created to promote reading and how it really helps you out when it comes to grades and overall cognitive function. I chose this one because I included some very good facts that do prove that reading makes you smarter and improves academic success, so it’s mindblowing knowing there are still people out in the world who can’t read for a number of circumstances. I wanted to make my poster visually appealing, and since I’m not the best at art, I decided to go about this digitally. Along with interesting facts, I also included some cool pictures that will maybe bring more attention to the poster. I want people to read it and finally see how important reading is for the brain. When I started, I had a hard time deciding which topic to pick to promote reading, but after pondering I decided to go with a simple yet factual one. I had to look over my poster many times to make revisions, because I knew many people were going to be looking at it. I fixed spelling mistakes and even took out a whole paragraph because it was just the same information being repeated. I’m proud that I spent quite some time researching facts, and that I took time to make it visually appealing.

During the beginning of this course, we learned about literary journals and magazines. The class looked at how there were different types of journals including those published digitally. For this assignment, the class was put into small groups to create a digital literary journal about whatever topic we wanted. I worked with MF and TS, and it was good because we all shared the same interest. We were able to agree upon making the topic of our journal be about the supernatural. We compiled scary poems we wrote ourselves, along with some art we created. While gathering all this, we learned about the overall layout of a literary journal. One thing that a literary journal requires is external submission. For me, it was challenging to get one and it took some time to find a person to agree to create some material that could work. I went over this magazine a bunch of times, trying to find and fix mistakes, and I did make tiny revisions but no significant ones. I’m proud that my group members and I divided up the work equally. We also did pretty good when it came to communication and were there for each other when we needed feedback. I hope you enjoy going through our spooky pages!
As I stated before, this course looked a lot into the literary canon and the requirements that need to be reached in order for a book to gain a spot in it. For this specific assignment, we were asked to choose a book that we believe deserves a spot in the canon. We were asked to create a slideshow including information about the author, a summary of the book, and reasons why this book would be a good fit for the canon. I decided to pick the book, The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. I chose this assignment because I really enjoyed breaking down the book in order to show proof as to why I believe it’s good enough for the canon. This is the one assignment that didn’t present me any challenges, and I think it’s because I love this book very much, so I enjoyed telling others about it. I did make sure, though, that I looked over this slideshow many times because of the large amount of writing it included. I read this book at a pretty young age, so I’m proud that I was still able to remember details about it. I’m also proud of how I presented my information because by the end, many people agreed with the idea of it being good enough to be in the canon. I hope you enjoy my slideshow below!

Describing my day in Italian.

For my health and wellness class, I decided to take Italian again because I think the history and language of Italy is beautiful. For the final project, we were asked to create a video of us either describing a recipe, our day, or a painting in Italian. I decided to create a video laying out my day. I added pictures and did a voice over to make it come to life. It was kind of a challenge to bring about the sentences, but with a look back to my binder, I was easily able to compile some up. I hope you enjoy hearing about my day below!

Bringing faces together.

For this Elective term, I chose to take a class called If These Walls Could Talk. This course gave students a chance to explore the rich history of art, more specifically murals, and we also are given the chance to create some art ourselves. For the second unit of this course, which is called Materialized, we studied all the different materials and spaces that are used for murals. For this second action project the class was separated into 3 groups of 5, and each group had to come up with a design for a mural using the techniques and materials we learned about during the unit. Each person was assigned a portion of the sketch that our group came up with, and experiment with a medium. At the end we all came together to decide which technique would work and look the best for our final mural. It was a bit challenging at first when it came to agreeing on a design for our mural in our group, but at the end we all agreed on something when we realized that we can involve a little bit of everyone’s ideas. I really enjoyed this unit because I didn’t know much about art materials or techniques, so now it’s cool when I see a piece of artwork and I’m able to identify what kind of material or technique was used to create it. I hope you enjoy reading about the design, materials and purpose of our mural below!


RD


Title: Global Collaboration


12-15-2015


Measurement: “11x3.4”, “11x3.4”


Medium:Watercolor paints on canvas paper


The members of my group and I all started to throw ideas at the table, and at first it was rather difficult to come up with an idea on what we wanted our mural to be about. With a little bit of disagreeing and finally agreeing, we were all able to finalize an idea. At the end we finally agreed on the idea of using JR’s Face2Face concept. We loved the idea of taking pictures of our group members and being able to capture some kind of emotion. The first idea that we came up with that went along this concept was having half of all of the 5 group members faces onto one huge canvas, but then we realized that it was a bit too simple. Then we thought about having 3 faces, one using our baby features, another using our features now, and the last one predicting how we would look in the future. It was an interesting idea, but we really weren’t buying it. Finally, we stuck to the idea of having 3 faces, but each one of those faces would portray the emotion of sadness, silliness and happiness. Those emotions would be made up by facial features of the 5 of us.The background is interesting because these 3 faces are being surrounded by Earth. The whole purpose behind this sketch was to represent how GCE students are becoming global citizens, and to also pay tribute to GCE students.

MV, DR, Global Collabration Sketch. 2015

While visualizing this mural in my head, I had the idea of using watercolor to complete it. When I experimented with it in class, it was very simple and easy. I liked that with watercolor, you can easily make your painting detailed or you can go with a very light color and make it a very loose painting. I liked the idea of having the green and blue in the background being very light, but the face being very bold. In my head it looked pretty good. As I was using this medium though, my idea didn’t look so hot. My vision of having the background being covered by a light green and blue looked kind of sloppy, as well as the face being very bold, especially since my group and I decided that we wanted the faces to be black and white.The process was easy, but it wasn’t meant to go with vision of our mural. My group agreed with me that it looked a bit sloppy, which is why we decided not to go with watercolor.

RD. My swatch with watercolor. 2015

RD. My swatch with watercolor. 2015

Once everyone came together with their swatches to choose which medium would be the best, we decided that wheatpaste and mosaic would be the most effective. We liked the way the mosaic gave texture to the background of our future mural. We also discussed how mosaic would add some sparkle to our artwork,which would make it more noticeable.We also realized that wheatpaste would be the easiest to glue our collaged faces.At the end our mural would be the 3 different emotional pictures filled in with the different facial features of the 5 of us, giving it a collage look. The water and land in the back would be displayed my using the mosaic technique, which looked way cooler than the watercolor technique.

MV. Happy face swatch. 2015. 

JV. Wheate paste swatch. 2015