ACID Day 1 - 1/23/10

The day started off with the students pairing up and listening to a song on Youtube. They had to talk about why they like the song and then share their reasons with the class. Garrett and Marleny picked "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion.

The students then learned about 4/4 time signature and learned terms such as bpm (beats per minute). Bronson and Garrett stomped and clapped in participation for Chris' example to get them thinking about multiple layers and counting beats.

The students ended the day by putting together the "Secret Song" and blogging about their ACID experience so far.

SHP Class 1/9/10 - First Session

Jamarra, Gavin and Madeline met Zon at the elevator by B109. Zon led them to the third floor to get their laptops in room 3139. After each student grabbed a laptop, Zon led them back to the elevator to their room on the second floor, room 2147.

The room was unlocked. Everyone walked in with their equipment. Zon told the students to start up their laptop as she ran to the ITA instructor office to get a Dell computer screen to project her PowerPoint from her laptop to the students.

When Zon was finished with setting up, she introduced herself with her PowerPoint slideshow. In there she had information about her family, school, Multico, and her dance groups.

After the intro PowerPoint, Zon went through another PowerPoint about the class and her expectations and goals. There were also information about managing files and various ITA accounts.

All the students had to give up their cellphones. Zon requested that cellphones should be placed in the middle of the table, that way it'll be less tempting to use it. The whole class discovered that they all had red phones.

Finally after two slideshows in a row, the students got to go onto the internet. However, they had to enter in their net ID and their password. The students couldn't remember their net IDs and passwords. Luckily one student, Gavin, remembered he wrote down his password on a piece of paper in his wallet. Jamarra and Madeline was struggling and told Zon that they should be in their binder. Zon then took a trip to the basement to search the cabinet in B109 for their binders, but before she did, she ordered the students to create a gmail if they haven't and email her about their blog.

She didn't find the binders at all in B109. She talked to AJ before she was going to leave. AJ told Zon to check B203 and if they aren't there the students should call the help desk. Zon also couldn't find the binders in B203. When she got back to the classroom, she gave Madeline and Jamarra the phone number to the help desk.

After about ten minutes everyone was logged in and were directed by Zon to their first SHP Class quiz at Learn@UW. When the students finished the quiz, Zon went through the questions and answers with them. They all seemed entertained by the Barbie and Ken question.

Zon explained to them how important their blogger and gmail were and that they'll need to check it regularly from now on. Some of the students had forgotten about their previous blogger and were asked to create a new one. After creating a blogger, the students then sent the link through their gmail account to Zon.

When all the students finished setting up their accounts they were given a five minute break.

Upon returning to their seats, the students noticed on the screen an in class assignment. They were assigned to create a PowerPoint introducing themselves. They had to include information about their hobbies/interests, ITA, goals, their technology story, and anything else they wanted.

Fifteen minutes after the students began on the assignmnet, Gavin says he was done. Zon looked over his PowerPoint and suggested that he add to his PowerPoint and try to sell himself. He tried to go back to work, but complained about how he didn't want to talk about his family.

At 2:15pm the students were told to save all their PowerPoint in the ITA desktop save place in the a folder called SHP Class under their 2012 class folder. The saving was successful!

Zon gave them another PowerPoint show introducing them to their BTW. The students seemed intrigued and nervous. Zon reassured them that it'll be easy if they are committed and fully put all their focus into being certified. She then shared her story about when she was in ITA. All the students were surprised by how Zon felt when she was in ITA. She shared with them many things and one of them was about how she didn't work hard enough to be certified because she didn't use up all her resources. She then asked the students if they knew how to check their scores for their permit test, BTW and road test. The students said no. So she led them to Panda and explained to them what each thing meant. Some of the students were surprised to see that they had passed a BTW. Zon encouraged the students to be certified in as many things as possible.

After a nice tour of Panda, Zon gave them some questions on a PowerPoint slide to prompt them to write in their blogger.

AT 3:55 the students were told to finish up and publish their blog. They cleaned up and shut off all the Macs and brought them back to 3139. As the students put away their laptops, Zon gave them a friendly reminder to check their gmail and said goodbye.

Storytelling through Digital Audio Day First!

An exciting new unit for an exciting new semester! Elizabeth started off the day with the learn@UW quiz - the class had a few difficulties getting connected to the internet and remembering their passwords, and poor Diana had trouble again not being added to the learn@UW class, but soon things were running smoothly!

Throughout the Education section, Elizabeth explained a little of the rationale behind this unit. Storytelling through Digital Audio she explained is really mostly about . . . telling stories!! She connected this for students to ages past as cultures have been passed down for generations aurally. She also explained the excitement of letting our imaginations run wild through audio storytelling - no longer will the class be restricted by the limitations of props and sets to tell the stories they desire! Now, they can tell stories at any time, any place, anywhere! Their imaginations are the limit!

After a brief review of saving files (including having the students create their very own folders for this class) and an intro to equipment use of the H2s and H4s, Paul took over the class! Paul, an experienced actor, got the students in a circle, and proceeded to take the class through breathing and relaxing exercises. Students got a chance to forget what others were doing around them (for the most part!) and just relax, making funny faces and noises to 'loosen up'. At one point, Paul asked how many students had done acting before; several raised hands! Next, Paul led the class through an acting game - Paul started the game by making a startled sounding noise - then everyone had to go around the circle quickly and imitate what he had done, with the same energy and emphasis :) Then, as soon as it came full circle, Paul did it again and then Taylor, who was to his right, made up her own noise that the whole circle imitated. Jose had a little difficulty in the otherwise all-girl group imitating the high pitched squeals some classmates were able to produce, though he was able to hold his own with a low-pitched growl that the girls weren't able to recreate quite as well! Overall, everyone was able to come out of their comfort zone a little and enjoy a little unconventional education!

In the Exploration section of the class, Paul led a discussion on old-time radio broadcasts, using old epidsodes from the Golden Age of Radio (the example used in class was Doc Savage - listen here: http://www.archive.org/details/otr_docsavage_fearcay). He also had examples of modern re-enactments of radio drama (from the videogame, Fallout 3: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D733CF970DB1143C&search_query=herbert%20daring%20dashwood). After listening to the Fallout 3 clip, Crystal queried, "Was that a girl or a guy?" Paul had explained earlier how often times in older radio shows, actors would really have to double up characters! Apparently this sometimes includes overlap between male-female roles! Though also, Elizabeth chimmed in, this could be for comedic effect :)

Afterwards, students commented on the storylines they had witnessed a little through these clips. A general class consensus was that actors need to be positive and have a good attitude - Keke commented that "you need stories that you can relate to". Paul connected this well to relatablility in story, explaining the reason that Shakespeare has endured in popularity for so long: his stories really touch the heart and soul of what makes a good story.

Anny raised her hand during the discussion and brought up the fact that characters are really important in audio, more so than in movies where you can rely on images. Here you really have to rely on quality of storyline and fun personalities to keep an audience interested.

Keke remembered a bit of what non-diagetic and diagetic sound as Paul began to explain them to the class before showing a clip from a South Park episode that illustrated the point. Good job Keke! Elizabeth certainly didn't know what those words meant when she was preparing the lesson ;)

Later, Paul explained to the students how to think of and create story ideas through the "Create Scenarios" activity, giving them 20 minutes to think of story ideas individually. Students asked a few clarifying questions going in, Michelle asked some good questions about what kinds of stories were apropriate to get some ideas, but then everyone got to work. Paul told everyone to send three story ideas to his e-mail by the end of the day.

Diana's beautiful word document :)

Afterwards, Elizabeth released the class to experiement a bit with the H2s and H4s - the class split themselves up into groups of 3 or 4 and each group got either an H2 or H4. Anny, Tenzin, and Diana seemed especially excited as they talked about recording each of them saying 'hello!' in the different languages they all speak! Crystal, Malibu, Taylor, and Michelle each went around and recorded their name and favorite food. Overall, the class got good experience using the equipment and extra excitement about using professional level recorders for their projects.

After a break, everyone came back to hear about their live performance projects for next week - after getting into groups, they were to come up with one story idea from all the different ideas they already came up with from the 'create scenarios' activity earlier in the day. Over the next two weeks, they are to write a script together and come together next class ready to run through it and be recorded!

After going through the PLC schedule and working a bit together in groups, the students ended the day blogging about the day and what they are thinking of doing for their live performances. Yay! Another successful ITA session! And next session will be the live performances!

ACID Spring Day 1 - 1/9/10

I started off the afternoon with asking the students how their winter break was. We then settled in and walked through my example portfolio. I gave them the text to my resume to get them started.

AJ came in and talked to the students about our expectations of them and how their performance hasn't been up to par. The mood slipped to a slight sullenness.

After AJ finished laying out our fair expectations, I talked to them and got them on their way to finishing their portfolios. I went around the room and helped the students make sure all their links were consistent, worked and were relevant. Other problems I saw a lot were image resizing and making the pages look neater.

Bronson had an issue with accidentally turning his computer off today that made it hard for him to finish in time. I don't know what exactly was up with Garrett but he did not accomplish as much. Most of what he accomplished came toward the end of the day when I called him out for not doing much for 2 1/2 hours. 4 out of the 6 students were working pretty diligently.

Marleny's Photoshop Page:

Garrett's Resume:

-Tony

Today we allowed the students to work on their Behind the Wheel projects, after a short review with the Jeopardy Game! The students did particularly well, with David answering a lot of questions correctly. Jose asked some good questions after the game, giving Chris the chance to go over some of the basics, like layers and how to use filters.

Once that was finished, the students went to work. This was their last Saturday session to complete their projects, and it was clear they understood that. They all worked hard, ignoring their break time for the most part and asking for help when they needed it, from both the instructors and each other. Diana's splash page came out very nice:



She shows good use of color and photos in this, and she was able to integrate all the pages into a nice uniform concept. When I saw this I told her I could imagine it rotating around a central axis, moving each picture to the foreground as the mouse moved over them, and she said that was exactly what she wanted.

David made a website for his mom, who is a DJ for a local station. He even used a photo of her:



Like Diana’s site, this has a uniform concept that makes good use of color and artwork that is relevant to the subject matter. He’s thinking about making it into a real site, which I told him was a great idea.

All in all, it was a very successful final session for the Photoshop class. The students worked very hard in this unit, and had to learn a number of difficult concepts. They stepped up to the challenge, and learned a lot that they’ll be able to use in future projects. Way to go, everyone!!!

Session VII: Finishing the BTW and Road Test!!

Since the Luncheon is next weekend, Chou gave the students three different ways of presenting their work:
1. One person represents all of the Illustrator students
2. Everyone works together to present their work
3. Each student introduces their own

Upon hearing their choices, Doundup immediately nominates Jon. And when Cristina felt that it would be nice to see all of the students take part in the presentation saying that it would be "fair," Bronson replies, "No. That wouldn't be fair." Though he knew that it was, he just didn't feel like going up in front of a lot of students to present his projects.

After giving the students information, they immediately started working on their BTWs.
Because Tenzin's session's image looked just like Gumby, she (along with Michelle) started creating an "original cartoon" website. Doundup's constant sneaking to watch anime inspired his website. Ninah and Alli finished their BTWs early with the brushes/art and city skyline (respectively) website. Jaylah's website included some of her favorite celebrities. Krystal worked on a buddha themed "OMMMM" website. Garret worked on with Nike while Taylor worked on with a shoes theme. Madeline "thought outside of the box" and created an image where a man was spewing out knowledge such as HTML out of his mouth. Like Alli, Jon created a a skyline/city - Chicago themed website. Bronson couldn't think of something so he kept tapping some beats. When a music website was suggested, he finally put forth effort in his work. It turned out quite nice.

The students went to work knowing that the time to showcase their work to parents and other important figures is closing in on them.

After their breaks (which came later because working distracted everyone), they did their Road Tests and then were let out early because PTE employees were going to use their room at 3:00PM.

Session VI: Review and P-Day II

Today consisted of more review for the sophomores... but a Jeopardy kind of review!

Which didn't really excite the students all that much, but they participated nonetheless.

Similarly, the set of twins in the sophomore class answered the majority of the questions (just like how the twins in the junior class answered all of the questions in the Excel class). Because they were the only two talking, Chou and Cristina enforced a new rule which states that any one person cannot answer two consecutive questions in a row. And when they did, the points didn't count. This gave the other students a chance to think about and search Illustrator for the answers. As a result, the teams ended up with a tie game!

However, this tie did not come so easy... The Back team was losing (by a landslide) before we implemented the rule about consecutive answers. When Ninah and Alli couldn't answer anymore, Jon and Garet began to search around Illustrator.. then Taylor and Jamarra, and pretty soon the majority of the class was searching around Illustrator. When it came time for the last question, the Back team was leading by 100 points, and they were to choose the last question. Unfortunately for them, the Front team won the last 100 points and tied with the Back team. They were all winners!!

After the game, Chou showed the students a speed drawing of two girls, a realistic girl who was transformed into an animated version, and an animated version of a girl from scratch.

***

As Cristina introduced a detailed BTW to the students, the students were all questioning what kind of ideas should they use...

Cristina then interjected with the news about the Showcase. When the students found out about going back to the elementary schools, some of them said, "Spongebob.." which led to the reason why SOOO many freshmen last year did a showcase with Spongebob just ... randomly present somewhere. Ninah and Alli said that's because "they told us to."

Doundup had continued on with randomness (which stemmed off Bronson), but was directed towards a more ninja/bloody theme which suited him quite well.

Michelle was interested in (what almost all of the high schoolers are crazy about) New Moon.


While Tenzin played around with a realistic cave that turned out to look just like Gumby, so Cristina showed her who Gumby was and she created eyes that look just like him.






***
The students went back to work while occasionally asking questions until it was time to retake the permit test.

They began their blog and A.J. came and talked to them about the Showcase (again).