Unit 4: Social Media

"Do you guys even do anything in N.E.W?" Is a question I get asked a lot. Unlike any other core this one is special because of the way the subjects are taught. No, there is no teacher in front of us giving a long boring lecture about how the body works. Yes, we are a project based core that uses technology in order to be recognized by community members as well as globally. N.E.W (Next Evolution in Work-based Learning) is not a traditional classroom structure yet breaking that structure.  During my experience in N.E.W school I have learned new skills I never knew I would need that definitely changed the way I do things. In this core I learned to be more independent, think out of the box, and be able to work with other people. During this unit I learned a lot about writing ted talks and narratives, exploring social media, and immunology.

My writing is not as strong as it should be. Writing ted talks and narratives was a big struggle for me and something different that I tried out. I enjoy watching ted talks and how knowledgeable the people are preforming, inspiring me to do the same. I started my ted talk with a question to try to engage my audience as well as shared my story about confidence. It was a struggle for me to write my ted talk because I really did not know how to start or end. Watching other peoples ted talks that tucker provided us with and student ted talks really helped and gave me inspiration on how to write it. When I heard that our class was reading the novel To Kill a Mockingbird  by Harper Lee I was very excited because my sister always mentioned it was her favorite book yet I do not enjoy reading. When Tucker read the book to us at first I had to go back and read it myself to understand it more. The Narrative was hard for me as well as writing as a different character. In my narrative I wrote as Jem from the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and added dialogue. Tucker provided us with information on how to write dialogue since it was very new to us as well as helped me to implement it in my essay. I never thought I would be writing ted talks but it was a new task that I completed and believe I did the best I could on the narrative as well. 

Teenagers use social media on a daily basis to post pictures not a lot use it to find experts or get information for projects. Here in this technology class we learned to use pinterest and twitter to connect to experts about our topic. Our teachers taught us how to create  boards on pinterest and how to tweet on twitter. I never thought I would use these both to find experts and that is what I did. I found experts on confidence, social media, and mental health that helped me on my topic. I also used technology to create my videos with high school students about their views on social media and confidence I got in contact with them off of social media as well. My unit project was around this social media unit and how it affects confidence. I was very intrigued on statistics that I researched but I was not surprised.

At first I was struggling a lot in science but I believe I see a lot of growth from my first month in this core to the last month. I have improved a lot in this subject and became more intrigued in what I was learning.Science as well is not one of my strongest subjects. I learned a lot about vaccines and viruses this unit that really interested me. It was cool to find out what type blood people are and I never knew the process until we did it in class. It all fascinated me to find out how the blood clumps and why. I also learned about how your body reacts with a virus. The immune system has cells that attack a virus and has a whole process to get rid of it. This system has its own little army attacking the virus. 

At first I felt stuck not being able to improve in this core because it was hard for me to work independently at times when I had to create my own solutions. This unit was probably my favorite out of all of them showing me new skills I can use in the future. I made a great choice for core that really helped me strive as a person as well as a student. This year really helped me shape my own learning and how I would process all the information I was given. This core has helped me think bigger, has given me confidence to strive in projects and get out into the community. I was taught many lessons in this core. There was some bumpy roads but overall my accomplishments would shine over the flaws. This was yet my best year in high school, being in a pilot program with two of the best teachers Tucker and Neto that inspire me everyday. I appreciate all the hard work the teachers put into this program, it saddens me that I will not have another year in this core.

specific immunity sketchnotes

TED Talks- Whats so funny about mental illness?

Ruby wax started off with a statistic that 1 in 4 people suffer with depression she then added she was that one person. In the middle of her talk she began to tell her own story about her breakdowns. The visuals she used were a brain and drawings. Wax urges to put an end on the mental illness stigma.

Death penalty: fact sheet

3 interesting information:
- A new study in California revealed that the cost of the death penalty in the state has been over $4billion since 1978
- in 2010 poll
death penalty 33%
no opinion 6%
life with parole 9%
life without pain 13%
life without parole plus restitution 39%
-Executions since 1976 by method used
  1276 lethal injection
  158 electrocution
  11 gas chambers
  3 hanging
  3 firing squad

2 conclusions:

In conclusion this graph above shows the percentages of race of defendants executed. This graph is showing there is 55.6% of white people (808) defendants executed. The white race has the higher percentage and followed by the black race.

In conclusion this graph above shows a 2010 poll by lake research partners 61% of these voters chose a different punishment other than the death penalty. Many people have own opinions on what they think is right and wrong. the majority picked life without parole plus restitution followed by 33% of people voted for the death penalty.

1 question:
How do they choose who will they inject and why do they they still have death penalties for the innocent?

TKMB ch 11-12

Why does Jem have to read to Mrs. Dubose? What is actually happening as he reads? Why does Atticus say Mrs. Dubose has “real courage”?

Jem has to read to Mrs. Dubose because he destroyed her garden. When he is reading she keeps correcting him and she also falls asleep. Atticus says she has real courage because she faces challenges that are impossible and she knows what to do.

There are clear gender roles during this time period. How are girls and boys supposed to act? How to these expectations complicate Scout’s life?

She is told to dress like a young lady because she dresses like a tomboy. Neighbors and her aunt judge her on how she dresses, Scout has an attitude and refuses to dress like a young lady.

Why doesn’t Dill visit in the summer?

He does not visit in the summer because he is living with his dad and building boats.

Discuss the kids’ trip to church with Calpurnia? What do they notice about Calpurnia during this adventure? How are the kids treated at the African American church? What do they find out about Tom Robinson while they are there?

The kids were treated like outsiders. Calprnia was more educated than the other people at the church.

Assesing our peers

Our teacher always make our grading rubrics this time we turned it around to have us students make the grading. This is what my group came up with to grade our peers during there presentation of there solution.

Unit assesment: Environmental

Environmental unit 
   In the environmental unit I have learned about many environmental issues from teach backs, labs, research papers, field trips and books. Before starting this unit, I did not know about a lot of the environmental problems we had, this unit helped me be aware of what was going on around me. Knowing what is happening gives me an eyeopener. Thank you to this unit I learned about ocean acidification letting me think out of the box to think of a solution and make a research paper letting me become the expert. My favorite part of this unit is joining the field trip to bodega bay where it gave me and my partner the motivation to create our solution. I also enjoyed adding to my passion blog, talking about something I enjoy doing is my favorite.

   When we were told to pick an environmental issue we would like to research, my partner and I looked at many of them thinking they will all be hard to create a solution for. I did not have any idea what ocean acidification was before this unit until we were told to pick an environmental problem to write a research paper and create a solution. I furthered my research on this problem, learning it was a very big issue. My research paper was not as good as I wanted it to be and was one of my hardest papers to write because of the lack of my credible research. My partner and I thought out of the box when creating our very own solution. We got out of our comfort zone and decided to get contact with experts about this issue. We are very proud on what we have created and this unit gave us the opportunity to believe we can create anything if we put our mind to it.

    The bodega bay field trip was a very good experienc and I learned a lot in both of these places. the bodega bay trip was my motivation to construct the model for our solution for ocean acidification. This is the place where Olivia and I got confirmation on what could work. We then got in contact with a geologist that worked in this research center and he was kind enough to help us get our hands on some eelgrass that we needed to construct our solution. Without going on this field trip I feel like we would not have had the extra push to create it.

   My passion blog is what I have been most proud of. I enjoy having the freedom of writing about something I enjoy doing. In the beginning it was hard for me to come up with something because in being in a new core I felt like I had a restriction on what I can write about. It did not feel right to me that I didn't have to write about anything specific. Later on I realized that the blog does not have to be specific I can write about anything as long as it goes with my theme of soccer. I absolutely love sharing my knowledge on this sport and it has been easier for me to write them.

 In conclusion this unit was amazing teaching me new things about what is going on around me. Without this unit I feel like I would not have been able to go out of my comfort zone or think out of the box. This unit was defiantly an eye opener because we do not realize what we do to our own earth on the daily basis. By being taught these issues of the environment it might change our ways of living to help our earth a little more.