photo-wa?

At the moment, I am interning at an upper school where I am working with kids in the art room.  There are two computers in the back of the room where kids can pull up images that they want to work with.  Every time class begins, half of the kids would be racing to these machines, climbing on top of each other trying to look things up and stuff.  I find it so odd though, that personally, this is the side of the room that I usually avoid. Aside from checking my email, listening to music, and storing my digital pictures, I do not really have another use for the computer.  When it comes to drawing and painting and other knick-knacks, I love throwing around all kinds of ideas to the students. I love seeing how students interact with materials, whether it be with oil pastels or with duck tape.  Now when it comes to digital part of art-making, I find that to be my weakest point.  I do not want to deal with that at all.  I once had an intro class to all of that digital stuff, and by a miracle of God, I managed to pass it.  Now (two years later), I find that I can not remember any of the things that I have learned in that class.  So when a kid confronts me with a question about Photoshop, I refer them to the teacher I am working with (Mr. Cuevas) and tell them that he can answer ALL of their questions.  I hate that I can not help much in that area.  It is almost a helpless feeling.  It is amazing at how much technology has fused with this new generation. I see kids making some amazing stuff with Photoshop.  It is definitely a great tool to have.  You can do all kinds of tricks with the program and come up with some pretty trippy stuff.  There is definitely a great advantage in having this type of knowledge.  However, it is not that simple to grasp.  All those commands and combinations that you have to learn…I would rather go blog about something (refer to my prior blog about blogging lol).  I ask people sometimes, how do you do it? how do you make these spectacular images in like thirty seconds? and they usually say, “well, when you practice on it almost everyday, it just happens.” I usually grasp things once I do them, but when it comes to Photoshop, it seems hopeless. Mixing Photoshop with my brain is like trying to mix oil with water.  But then again, if I practiced with it almost everyday, I think I could get it too.  Now I am confronted by a challenge…to make three images for a digital media class that I am in, and I am wondering on how I am going to make this happen.  This is the part where I breathe in deep…this is gonna take a prayer…

Proposal

I have an idea of making a tool to help teach art vocabulary to students who are still learning to speak english.  Even though art is more of a visual thing, you still need some kind of way to communicate about it in order to understand it better.  I still want to teach art, but I also want to help them excercise their knowledge of the english language. 

It is going to look like a very basic game.  I want it to be easy to use. The language must be simple.  So I think that I want to start with the names of each color.  I want it to have a like a row of circles (or column) and when you wave a wand over a circle, it turns into a color.  Then you click in the circle, and then you have to type the name of the color inside the circle. If it turns out to be correct, the circle will turn into a smiley face. If it is not the correct name of the color, or if it is misspelled, then it wont change. 

Now lets say that the person is completely stumped about one of them (either with the name or the spelling of it). If at the third try, they dont get the correct answer, then a hint will appear at the bottom.  It could either be something like this (Ex. gr_ _n).  There is really no point system here. There is no pressure in winning or losing.  The whole goal is to make the circle turn into a smiley face. I have always thought that that icon was a rather encouraging one, and that is how the process of learning should be. 

This game is actually quite versatile.  There is no age group in mind. Anyone could use it.  I specifically named a group of people who are learning english and need to learn these basic things, such as the names to the colors.  This game can also be used with young children that are also learning these same things.   I want it to be a simple game that teaches.

I am not sure how I am going to put this together.  I am thinking about maybe starting out with Photoshop.  Making the images and text first, then using some kind of program to animate the images.  Maybe I wont need to make a series of circles. Maybe it could be just one circle that turns into a different color when I wave the wand over it, but must click into it to be able to type the color in.  However if i do that, the student is going to be skipping through all the colors that they might not know every time they wave the wand.  I still have to make a decision about that.  I am not sure about what program to use in order to animate it.  So far this is the idea that I have in mind to construct as my final project.

blogging (ugh, such ugly word)

BLOG, it kind of reminds of one of the sounds I once made when I had to throw up after eating bad spaghetti.  In a way it kind of is, word vomit.  Spitting up all kinds of words and phrases that you just keep inside you anymore.  It seems like the more outlets we find to express ourselves, the more words we have to keep producing to sustain all that input that we put into these outlets.  Like this BLOG.  I did not open this account because I felt like it. It was actually a school assignment.  I have to respond to my assignments in BLOG form. It is bad enough seeing my hardcopy quiz being handed back to me filled with red X’s.  Now if I screw up on my BLOG, the whole world is going to know and some snobby, nosy, little know-it-all is going to be passing judgement on me in some stupid comment.  It is annoying. I do not care about what people think, but I do believe that my business should my own.  If that is one thing I fiercely guard, is my privacy.  I do not know how people do it. Post up their whole lives and their deepest and darkest secrets up as if nothing.  Just how much do they value themselves? That they need to hear the opinion of a stranger to make decisions about their lives.  I do not understand this.  Now, as for my teacher making me BLOG, I understand that having a larger reading audience will pressure me into improving my writing skills and punctuation.  However, it does nothing as to what I do with the content I put in.  I am writing about a whole bunch of nonsense that means nothing to me, its only purpose just being to fulfill some school assignment.  I am burning my eyes out every time I look at this screen.  If you must know, I love to write. I love to say what is on my mind.  I write because I want to. I save my precious words for the moments when they will count the most.  I am not going to waste them on you, on this assignment, or anyone else for that matter. For heaven sakes people, get a life!!

–The BLOGGING student.

digital media stuff

Growing up, the term of “digital media” was almost non-existent in our vocabulary.  It was one of those “futuristic” words that we thought we would have like in year 2094, along with the jet packs, gravity-defying boots, and flying cars that run on water.  However, digital media, that word came to us a bit sooner than expected.  Now it is everywhere. It used to be a commodity, now it is considered a necessity. It is how we get around, our means of communication.  Now it is everywhere, in the images and noises that we face everyday, but was is digital media exactly?

It is easier to understand after you break it down some.  According to the dictionary, “media” is actually short for the word “medium”.  It is the tool, channel, or form of transmission by which you deliver or store information on.  It is basically every form of communication that we have out there, like our cell phones and our e-mails, that among the million other gadgets and tools that we use to get or store our information on.

The “digital” part of the term comes from how this information gets organized when we send it through any form of media.  Our information gets processed in digits, and these digits get organized in codes that look like this (000111 11 000110).  To us, they look like a bunch of 0’s and 1’s but when they are composed in different formulas; the computer interprets it into words and other numbers. This type of system is what is referred to as a Binary Numeral System (bi- as in two, the system uses two digits, 1 and 0 to create the codes).  This is the system that the computer works by to compose the information correctly and organize it.  The computer is not human. It can not distinguish emotion in tone of voice, or understand the urgency of getting a very important message across. It needs this system to process our info with these digits so that it gets interpreted into the words and characters that we compose our messages with.  That way when you send a message to your friend, they won’t receive a scramble of words and characters thus making the message incomprehensive.

It is amazing how all of this how all of this happens in just a matter of seconds, and it does not just do this with one message; it does it a million times a day, all over the world.  Digital Media is keeping the world connected, with our cell phones, computers, television, internet, etc.  It is something that keeps growing and changing, and now who knows what it is going to morph into next.

bLINg! bLINg!

I live in Prince Georges County.  I went to middle school and high school there, and I am pretty sure you guys have heard of some of my experiences as a student there.  Not exactly perfect, but oh well, I still graduated.  So anyways, I do remember that there was this one time that I was bored in class, and I started to stare at the lights.  I started to wonder about who paid for this electricity bill (see, that is how bored I was) and from there, a bunch of other questions started flooding in.  Who pays these teachers? How much does a desk cost? How much is the internet bill for the computer that the teacher uses to watch youtube videos on? (and he was just an entrepreneur teacher, I mean, come on teach something for real).  So anyways I didn’t really look up anything, until now that I actually had to do this.

Turns out Prince Georges is not as broke as I thought.  Actually the Executive of our Prince Georges County, Mr. Jack B. Johnson is putting in a new proposal to fully fund the schools. So now the executive and the council of the county will be pulling out their wallets to our every educational whim (or so they say).  $12.7 million will be going to the schools that are lagging behind, and $69 million will be used to boost the pay for school employees.  So Mr. Executive will be fully funding the schools.  However in order to do so, there are going to be a couple of cuts in other places.  Also the tax on the county’s telecommunication, and other phone services will rise.  Not so happy news for some people, but the schools really need this, so I think we can all live with this…especially if we dont want our future people turning into bums! Thats exaggerating a bit, but yeah, this funding will make a vast improvement in our schools.

 

 

Reflecting beyond tommorow

I really enjoyed watching the movie with this teacher. It is truly very inspiring.  It kind of breaks a lot of generalizations of what you would get when you first think of a classroom with a variety of ages, and who are all also stuck in the same room. At first, I thought that I was going to be a watching a documentary with a frustrated teacher and a bunch of monkeys.  However, the calmness and stability of the classroom really makes an impression on you.  You learn a lot just by watching him conduct his class, dealing with each child.  He invested a lot of his time, actually his whole life into making sure that these kids come out rightly educated.  It is not an easy task to deal with so many age ranges. But his years of experience are very apparent throughout the documentary. 

His skill as a teacher is something that only time can perfect.  So when I look at it, I realize that I still have a lot to learn. This dude basically dedicated his whole life into teaching.  His home was the school. That starts to make me wonder, just how much time must I dedicate to master my art of teaching? There is so much more to life that I want to do and explore.  I think about this teacher, and I wonder what will happen when he no longer teaches?  He didn’t really mention a real family, or a son or daughter to care for him.  He was always on his own.  That is quite is a sacrifice to ask from oneself.  You only live life once, but I guess that if you live it for something that you feel is worthwhile, then once must be enough.

3. Pondering…pondering still…and im done

Well, I was going back to the discussion that we were having in class.  It is quite obvious that one element can not survive with the other.  A student-centered classroom still needs the guidance of an instructor as to what they will need to work on, and a teacher-centered classroom still needs to the interaction of the students to cement what was learned.  The only way to assure a productive learning environment is to combine the two. I find that most of the classes are usually structured in that form anyway. For example, this class.  Selila teaches her stuff (that’s the teacher-centered part , yet the class still needs to interact to fully get the point across (the student-centered part .  If Selila didn’t do her part, we wouldn’t really have an idea of what to talk about.  When students (us) get to discuss the topics that Selila presents, we get to examine all the angles of the subject.  What is right? and could there be a better way? We (students) are all sitting on the same side of the room, so its easier to share certain views on whatever topic is given.  So as you can see, one can not work without the other.  Besides, I wouldn’t waste all my time in school, if all I had to do was stand on the “sidelines” and tell someone what a pretty picture they are making.  We are teachers for a purpose, to give them what we know, and hope to God that they can make the best out of what they learn from us.

2. I agree to disagree to agree lol

I did not exactly agree with every single point that was made in that article about what is expected from teacher.  It seemed a bit way too idealized and some things were just unrealistic (ex. “…recognition of the importance of academic achievement as measured by standardized achievement tests.  It sends the clear message that the foremost goal is academic achievement…” pg. 14)  That statement really does clash with me.  A test will not measure my intelligence. Maybe I know a whole bunch stuff that the person who made the test does not know.  It does not appear in black in white on the test, but trust me, the test will not hold everything that I know.  So it is not going to give an accuracy on how much I have achieved, therefore it willl not appear as “a clear message” that these people are hoping for. It just does not work that way.  So I am in total disagreement with this statement.

However there is a very valid point that i saw on the article, “A child’s education is successful if the child is exposed to the right attitudes by teachers, even if he or she does poorly in measures of learning on reading, math, history, science, and so on.” I find that to be the very reason why I passed some of the classes back in high school.  Sometimes it is the very enthusiasm of the teacher for her science that drives the student to get better at it.  The curiousity in watching the enthusiasm in a teacher wants to make you understand what it is about a subject that brings that out in them.  You know when a teacher cares, and when they don’t, and if they don’t care, then that means you do not have to care either.  The right attitude does trigger the best result in a student.  So I gives my thumbs up on this statement.

1. mean kids

  The syllabus (or whatever that was that we had to read) spoke at the very beggining about creating an atmosphere of trust and security.  Now I know that that is what every school strives to be for the students that go to their facilities, but the truth is that, that is just very unrealistic.  No place is safe. Sometimes even the homes that many of these students abide in are not the most pleasant places to be in.  Everyone is different, raised differently according to ethnicity and religion. I was saying in class that maybe one thing may seem normal to you but it may seem ridiculous to others.  The thing is that kids don’t know when to stay quiet sometimes.  They gather up their buddies and continue to ridicule peers.  Kids have a way of creating their own hiearchy this way, finding the most acceptable or cool, and making everything else inferior.  So there is a lot of pressure going on for the ones who aren’t as high up there as others.  This is in every school, it does not matter if its the best school in the world.  The youth society have their own form of organizing.  Many times, violence can result from contrasting groups or cliches.  So with this type of environment, there could be no trust or security.  Although, it was a very pretty idea from whoever wrote it down. 

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!