Diagnosing Failure May 2, 2010

[Vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/11333465]

First video is completed..!! Photos turned in..!!! On time may I add. Well my group turned in 18 not 20 but some is better than none. When this documentary project was first introduced to us I was not excited at all to do. I still am not excited. We have completed the first documentary and well I just dint like documentaries. Not a subject of interest of mines. Our first documentary was about failure. We asked a couple of students how many classes they have failed and why. Then we interviewed Mr. Sims (vice principal), Mrs. Liu (student service coordinator), and Mr. Correa (student service coordinator) and asked them why so many student are failing. This is how we began our diagnosis of failure in Mount Diablo High School. I learned a lot. Some review from some of Ms. Fonti’s lectures about education and the rest was new information. Mr. Sims went into depth in his interview. He speaks on how there is a concentration of needy kids and having them all in one place like we do in MDHS is an error in the system. If there is a concentration of needy people there needs to be programs to help support those people. The parents of MDHS students need to support the programs and staff, student, parents need to participate in school related activities. Al the people we interviewed spoke about MDHS’s reputation. The spoke on how we have a burden with this reputation. When we are told we come from a bad elementary school, than from a bad middle school, and now a bad middle school how are we supposed to react. We are going to believe what the tell us and act how they believe we do. This is where failure enters, many student don’t try because they think “oh I go to the worst school and everyone thinks that we are failures anyway why should I try to prove them wrong” (well no one really said those exact words but you get the point). This is called underachievement. Students are satisfied with only doing the minimal amount of work instead of doing the maximum they can. for example many student are satisfied with a C or D because its barely passing instead of trying harder to get an A or B. Mr. Correa spoke on hoe many student here do work to support their families and both him and Mrs. Liu agreed that they understand but the student needs to talk to people such as them to coordinate and find a solution so that the student can continue their education and working to support their families. An education is important for the long run and although now it seems to just be none important it will pay off in the end. Another topic that came up is relationships between students and teachers. There are many teachers that don’t take the time to really get to know their students and understand what it is that they are going through. This is very true and that is why I am great full to be in the digital safari academy because the teachers are there for us. They prepare us, educate us, mentor us they just do it all. There are also many non academy teachers that do as such but not many. There needs to be a community with relationships between student’s teachers and parents such as Digital safari Academy. Were they all gather to celebrate the work the students have created and just have fun. students like seeing there teachers in an environment that is outside of class room if that means maybe a football game or maybe student performances. Well I could write much more but I think Im going to cut it here. Hope you enjoy our documentary and stay tuned for the process and completion of the second documentary. Adios

PhotoEssay February 25, 2010

http://www.box.net/shared/adg7vv2h88

Click on the picture to go to my PhotoEssay

Soooo…I’m adding this review of my summary into this blog very late. I got sidetracked working on other more important work but tonight I felt like I needed to modify and add onto my blog. Well when I was creating my photo essay I focused on who I am and what I do. On the first page I focused judgment. On how people judge others by how they look when they really don’t know anything. I used a quote from Jay Z and Helen Keller. On the second page I put a set of pictures that shows me working on my school work and in the last picture it’s me tired and sleeping. This page focused on how right now school is such a hassle and some time feels like there’s no point but in the future all the hard work, man night up studying and years of learning will pay off. I used some quotes and some of my own words. On the third page I made a college of pictures of me and I used a quote from my identity song. This page focuses on the struggle but how there are always a bright side and a blessing in life. There are quotes about god and how in life there are many unexpected things but life go on.

I.D.entity February 19, 2010

Well yesterday was the Digital Safaris I.D.entity performances and I am just gonna briefly say a couple of things. First of all i was extremely nervous. Gaby G and I have been working extremely hard creating a this song and its video and it all came down to last night. We where first up and opening the show for the rest of my class mates i felt a great need to hype up the crowd and have them excited for the rest to come up. When your up stage you cant see anyone so that is a little calming. But it felt great being on stage I have never done anything like it and I think we did great. Everyone enjoyed it and i had random people i didn’t know coming up to me after to congratulate me. I want to let all my class know that they where great and DSA ROCKS ha-ha. I will be posting the videos from the performance and song later on keep tuned I will also post other work and projects I have done.

[Vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/9581131]

Gabby G, Nancy T, Anna

DSA Class of 2011

I.D.entity Audiance.. Full Room..!!!

AKQA December 2, 2009

Our trip to the city was great. We had the great opportunity to visit AKQA. We took BART and once we got there we walked all along embarcadero and got to see the beautiful water of the bay. It was a pretty long walk I just realized but it was totally worth it and fun. All of our DSA students were dressed up and looking great to make that first impression. Once we finally got to AKQA’s building we had to go around to the back because the front elevator. I am going to admit I though the place was just going to be a place full of office rooms but I was wrong it was very open so people could interact. The first thing we did was meeting with Mr. Ikamoto in a conference room. He talked to us about what the company does and about their customers. I found his life story particularly interesting. He isn’t originally from here but had a great opportunity to come to the states to study. I found it amazing how much he travels all around the world to do his job. After our meeting Kelly gave us a tour around their building. There was a whole room of offices and the people in there worked for Nike. That room was full of shoes, posters, and magazines. Then the kitchen are had a snack machine and everything in it only costs a quarter. How awesome is that? Well for lunch we got to eat on the roof. It was a beautiful day outside thankfully and the view was nice.

 There were a couple of things that I found really interesting. Most of the people that worked there and talked to us about their carriers told us that having contacts is important. Most of them got into the business because they knew people that were already in the field. I also learned that you don’t have to go to a top collage to get a job there. Overall all the people I met were very creative and very skilled.

Thankful-DSA November 30, 2009

I am thankful for being in the Digital Safari Academy. It’s a great honor being a student in this academy. It has been quite a challenge and a lot of hard work but its all for a reason. To prepare us for the life ahead and the responsibilities. I have learned a whole bunch of lessons that I will be able to use through out my life. The teachers are like no others. They care and work hard to make sure we succeed. All the projects we do have a meaning behind it. I enjoy working with all the technology and learning great skills. This academy is like a second family for many.

Histories Of Our Family November 13, 2009

Histories of Our Family was my first Digital Safari Project my sophomore year. While working on this project i learned that you should never procrastinate and that i needed to manage my time so i can get get things done on time and not rush at the end. Its much less stressful. The point of this project was to learn about our families and how it came to become. We used Final Cut to create our videos and Photoshop to create the invitations and edit all of the picture. We had to do a great deal of work o put this together so that they could be presented in front of an audience filled of family and friends. I was really nervous to present my project in front of everyone. especially because i was the first one on the list to go up. But i did fine and really enjoyed it. Everyone had created really amazing videos. Well here is my work I hope you enjoy it.

[Vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/7540892]

Photography ….=D October 29, 2009

The Photographer… XD

Anna =D

Lindsay =D

Silent Videos October 28, 2009

Soooo….. We were assigned to creat a silent video for class. To do this we had to go out and record with the big recording cameras. In my group I was the one recording. I also edited the footage and put it in order. Since i was gone for 3 days Evett and Salvador finished it. The added the written scenes and made any last changes. As you can tell Evett doesnt know how to spell villan. After that was done we tranfered our video into Garage Band and created our music to go with it.

(This is the silent verion. Well its suppose to be but it has the original audio.)

[Vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/7311823]

[Vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/7311922]

Camping…. October 28, 2009

So  I went camping with some class mates from AP Environmental Science  for three days. We went out to Big Basin not that for from Santa Cruz. During our camping trip we ate all organic food. Let me tell you organic food might be good for your health but it does not taste so great. Some of it was good and the fish was good too. The first day there we set up our tents. I took my tent and I stayed in it with Nhi, Rayna, Ashley, and Jordan. So the first night we just stayed out talking at the picnic table by our tent till Mr. Oliver yelled at us to go to bed because we were screaming. The reason we wee screaming was because raccoons started coming out and making noise at the other table. so we went into our tents to “sleep”. It was to early but it was o dark it seemed like it was past midnight. I hate it when that happens. So Nhi decides to wake us up at 1 am we havnt even been sleeping for so long. She has to go to the bathroom so we wake up to company her because its dark n scary out side. on our way to the bathroom we passed on of the boys tent and decide to wake them up so the can walk us over. Once we were all done doing our business we went back to our tent not even 10 min after we got in we heard noises out side. Then we heard the guys talking it sounded like they were right outside our tents but they werent. So the noises were the raccoons getting into the guys food. Next day we woke up early because Mr Oliver said we had to but yet he was the last one up. No that i think about he was the last one up each morning n then he would complain o us that we were behind schedule. ahahhah. Once we had breakfast we went on what i think the main part of the trip was the 9 mile hike. It was so tiring  but it was really beautiful. We walked 4.5 miles to a waterfall called Berry Waterfall and took our time there resting. I jumped over the barrier and got my way down to the water fall. The water was super cold but it was really pretty. I do not know how i made it back to the camp site but i did. It took forever tho. Everyone was so sore the next day. It was funny  everyones butt hurted. We talked about environmental carriers before we left with someone who works there. we wer all tired on the bus and hungry. Thankfully we hide a nice bus driver and she stopped at a center with fast food place. Everyone on the bus was eating McDonalds exept one. I really liked the camping trip i thought it wag really fun.

 

 

S.A.T. Vacab #2 October 2, 2009

(Heres a story i came up with using the vocab words. This was not easy at all and i think i messed up on some. But i did it.)

 

It all started out idyllic and happy. There was a happy amorous couple. They were very benevolent to each other and their neighbors. Nobody expected anything out of place and bad to happen but they were wrong. It all started to slowly change when Leonardo lost his job because of lazyness. Her job was a low paing one. So they stared to have  financial problem. They were exasperate each other by complaining about financial problems. One day they started to assail and Jasmine got so mad she scratched him and it started to distend. He left to his brothers house and told him everything. His brother recomended a divorce and to move in with him. A few days after the divorce they were watching tv and the news anchor said ” Top latest news, woman found dead in her home because of a volatile bomb hiddin in here desk”. A few minutes later there was knocking on the door, “Police open the door”. Leonardo ran up and opened the door. The police quickly ran in to man handle him and hand cuff him. “You are a suspect of the murder of Jasmine” said the police officer. “I didnt do anything i swear, i will prove it” said Leonardo. “You can corroborate in court next week” said the police officer. As Leonardo was sitting in his cell he was thinking about a decorous way to tell the judge he is inoccent. He started to expedite his thinking because he had very little time to think. He thought that he could find a pattern by juxtaposeing all of the information. He had lots of vacuous moments because he didnt know anything that had happened. He started to scrutinize his mind as much as he can. Then he remembered his brother went to Jasmines house the day befor. He started getting thoughts about his brother hidding the bomb but then he quickl thought that it was deride. His brother came to visit him and they started to discordant, then he got sent to his cell. His brother got really histrionic and nervous when he asked him if he had anything to do with Jasmines death. Leonardo was very fecund withthe evidence of the death of his ex-wife. The next day was court. He was so nervous and sweaty that the low light felt incandescent. A tall, hansome sage walked in. It was the judge. He got even more nervous. The judge told him to explaine why he claim to be inoccent. He began to speak and was convincing and didactic. A few hours later the conflict was still going on untillthe last DNA test came in. The results claimed it to be his brother. Police hurried to arrest him. Leonardos brother got sent to prson and Leonardovisits Jasmines grave every week feeling sarrow for what has happened.