¡Huelga! means Strike! We had a fake strike in Spanish to protest our long school days/ school years. A student did the math and found out that Drew's students are in school for about a month longer than other students. So if you attend Drew from Pre-K to 12th grade (like I have), you are in school for about a year longer than other graduates. Which is the main reason behind our strike. We learned phrases like "Si se puede" meaning "Yes we can!" We also learned a call and response "Viva la causa, viva" which means "Live for the cause, live." The strike was really fun because we got to go outside and actually use our new phrases. 

I really liked the performance. My song that SA did was Viva la Música. That was probably the best we had ever sung it. We were in sync, on pitch and the delivery was good.  I think JA did the best out of all academies though. Both of their songs were really good. I personally love 'Aint no Mountain High Enough' and the choral version wasn't too far off. The soloist also did very good. The Dance Evolution was so cute. The dance/rap breaks really brought it together. I wish the SA chorus wasn't so hype though because you couldn't really hear the performers well at parts. My favorite song of the whole performance was Sanctuary. I felt like we could've done better with the words at some parts. Personally, I think sopranos could've done better on the runs, but it's very difficult so we did good for what it was. I like how the sound grew as more people sang and can't wait for the next combined song. 

SingFest was a cool experience. We got to perform with tons of kids at Georgia State. I liked both our song choices and I liked our conductors. I feel like Wide Open Spaces left a lot to be desired. The conductor didn't really correct the mass group on things that Mr. Derringer made sure we did correct. Shine the Light went a little better. The energy was higher for that song, I feel like everyone enjoyed that one. I didn't really like the SingFest experienced in general. We didn't even end up performing for anyone. Still an experience.

This performance we had was very cute. This time, SA did Like a River In My Soul and Various Themes of FaLaLa. I like how good we sounded singing Like a River. A good chunk of the Choir already knew the song from performing it at Honor Chorus. Various Themes was really fun to do especially with the confetti canons at the end. We also did Christmas Carol which was the combined song with the Ea and Ja. I felt slightly unprepared with the words in Like a River but I was still able to catch on. I concert came out very cute and I'm excited about the next one.

LGPE is when we perform 2 songs from a specific class bracket (of choice) and get judged. On top of that, we have to site read an example within 5 minutes and get judged on that. We sang 'Like a River in My Soul' and 'Word was God'. I preferred Like a River in My Soul. I liked how the harmonies sounded. I liked how the song went from peaceful to intense and the resolution to the music. We ended up getting superiors from all judges including site reading which shocked us because we did not feel as prepared as we could. Superior is the highest rating you can get, I would say that's a success. 

First I researched how I wanted my painting to look and made sure I had the colors I wanted. Then I poured the black around the edges and left an oval shaped space in the middle. Then, I put the colors I wanted in one cup and I had white in another cup and poured them in the oval shape at the same time. I made a stem more visible down the middle. I took a straw and blew lines along the sides to make a feather look. I think the purple/pink color is more dense because when poured at the same time as the white, the purple wasn't visible until after I blew the white away with the straw. Which  means the purple/pink were more dense.

We did research on the statue of liberty. We learned that it started off as copper but went through oxidation over time. Now it turned into "Patina, " the green coating protecting the copper. We took copper sheets and heated them over a candle for this project. I accidentally ripped a hole in my first sheet so I just burned the whole thing till it turned rose gold. I wanted the second sheet to look like a smiley face. It didn't come out right but that was the vision.

We had to take art and chemistry tools and spell out "ChemVAS". We had to pick out transparent photos then edit them (if needed). Then we had to add texture to the background. I was kind of stressful trying to figure out different tools to use and how to make them look like letters. But overall mine came out very good!

We made an art piece related to what we learned about our periodic element. We had to make 3 sketches of how our element relates to us then pick one to turn into an art piece. I sketched the sky and air because they both have Nitrogen in it so that is what my art piece is based off. I decided to make it purple to make if different. I made it on a photo editing software. The hard part was layering up the clouds to make it shadowy and purple. The easy part was adding the birds and plane the changing the opacity. I could use the photo editing software in the future with Marketing to make a poster or something. 

 This is my Element Tile. We got assigned an element to look up some information about them, then we had to include at least the chemical symbol and atomic number, and they had to be a  3"x 3" square. First I rolled my clay out into a flat slab. Then I measured out the 3 inches on both sides and cut it out, then turned in the clay to be reused. Then I used the coil method to create the R shape. Next, I made an A shape then carefully carved the hazard sign into it. Then I scored the slab and the shapes and blended it. Then I attempted to carve out the 88 for the atomic number but as you can tell that didn't work out well. After it was fired in the kiln I began glazing, and I used lemon yellow and shady gray. I did 2 class periods worth of coats to make sure the color came through. An area of difficulty was glazing it because it didn’t look like the color was coming through the way it was supposed to. Plus it’s spotty because the colors are a little. An area of improvement would be not taking so long to do the project, it took longer than it should have. Ceramics relate to chemistry because when clay is wet it has a certain water bond that switches up when it heats up in the kiln. The water gets sucked out the clay causing a reaction that can't be reversed.

Deeply Rooted was a 10th grade project for the 2nd quarter, which sought to answer how symbols can reflect cultural differences and similarities. We researched the use of different symbols around the world and came up with our own symbols that reflect our modern lives. In Art class we created hand made paper and Borax crystals which we used to make symbols. I chose to make a 3 layered heart, which symbolizes how deep and layered my heart is. Folding and gluing the paper was difficult because the paper was thin so next time I would like to make the paper thicker and possibly have the pulp (a mix of blended paper and water) already dyed the colors I wanted because the dye was dark. I also made 2 crystals. One was of an H (my initial) and one was of a candy cane. They didn't develop right the first time because we made it when Dr. Kurt was absent. When he returned, he corrected the mistake and they came out good.  On the day of the showcase, our work was featured alongside performances representing cultures around the world.

I did my 2D media on the Repetition principle of design. I made the butterfly design and based it on the Marilyn Monroe design. I folded the paper into 6 and then drew the butterfly design onto each section. Then, I used watercolor paint to color each one differently. At first, I was going to use oil pastels but decided the paint would give me more variety. I didn’t get to the outside but if I had time I would paint that a different color too. I like how it came out. 

Charcoal is made from burning wood. It doesn't turn to ash because of oxidation, because the oxygen had been cut off. Each day we added a slide for each drawing we did. We did a Gesture drawing, Chinese Landscape, Half Portrait, and Eraser Drawings. The class also did a still life but I was gone at Beta. Each day we explain what you were doing with the drawings. My favorite was the Eraser drawing because it was the easiest personally. All you had to do was color the whole sheet in charcoal, blend it out, the erase based on the reference item. My favorite part about charcoal was how easy it is to use. My least favorite part was how messy it is. 

The topic of my podcast was, Where do we find polynomial functions in real life? My partner and I chose that because everyone asks, “when do you use math in real life.” Listening to our podcasts explains that. I’m proud that we were able to help people understand math more. We could have recorded earlier instead of on the due date. Not only do engineers use polynomial functions but so do people every day while grocery shopping. 

The topic of my podcast is "When are logarithms useful to professionals? " We chose it because teachers always say we'll use math in the real world so we researched how polynomials specifically were used, then we shared it on our podcast. I want people to know that logarithms can be used in medicine, Archaeology, with Coroners, and determining the age of different artifacts. Polynomials in the school sense aren't hard at all, and neither is Algebra 2 in general. 

The topic of this assignment is adding and subtracting fractions. I chose it because it's fairly easy for me to learn. There are normally 2 types of problems, Ones with already common denominators and ones without. I prefer ones with already common denominators because they are simpler. I want others to know that topics like these in Algebra 2 can be challenging if you don't pay attention. Some advice is to make sure you know which of the 2 problems you're solving at all times.

The topic I chose was Multiplying and dividing fractions. I chose it because I liked it just a little more than I liked the adding/subtracting version. I prefer multiplying because the process is just a little shorter. All you're doing is finding the GCF (Greatest Common Factor). Then, multiply and cross out repeating values on the numerator and denominator. Finally, you find the excluded values which are just the denominators from the original problem after you flip the sign. A piece of advice is to pay attention to if you multiply or divide because you have to keep, change, and flip when dividing.

Geometric Sequences are sequences whose consecutive terms have a common ratio. I want people to know that they're 2 different ways to find geometric sequences. You could either take the 2nd term and divide it by the 1st term. That's called the common factor, then you take the CF and multiply it by the last term given to find if the sequence is geometric. Or you could use a formula but I think the first method is better.

The topic I chose is the properties of log. I want people to know that as long as you have the formulas, the topic isn't hard at all. I would suggest converting questions from log form into exponential form to get the answer because it usually sets the problem up better. Make sure you really pay attention to the problem because it's easy to get confused.

My group was given pages 33-63 to read and then create a lesson plan to teach my class. The goal was to learn the information in the book without having to read it individually. I definitely think this way made it easier. 

We had to create a video talking about how we feel prior to writing our book. I spoke about feeling excited if the book comes out well, but I was worried about procrastination and not following the "page per day" schedule. And all of my worries came true. I did not end up completing my book but hopefully, I will come back to the idea of finishing it later in life.

We had to make a rap that included the name and descriptions of 7 different figurative languages—Onomatopoeia, Alliteration, Simile, Metaphors, Hyperbole, Assonance, and Personification.

 In my reflection video, I talk about how long but informational my speech was. I mentioned how fast I was talking and how I didn't look at the audience out of nervousness. A lot of the other speeches were too long, which pushed the times back a lot, but overall, the experience was an 8.5/10.

For the final in geometry, we had to make a stain glass. It had to include geometric shapes. A parallelogram, Rhombus, Square, Rectangle, and 2 congruent triangles. The inspiration for my design was a Christmas tree. I used Lines (Horizontal, Vertical, and Diagonals), Shapes (listed above), and Colors (Red, Green, Yellow, and Black) for my 3 elements of art. I used Repetition, Unity, and Variety for my 3 elements of design. The stain glass connects to proofs because once you have all the measurements from the shapes, you have to make proof statements. For example, with a rectangle, the proofs would be opposite sides are congruent, opposite angles are congruent, and consecutive angles are supplementary.

Deeply Rooted PBL- Tree Festival

In world history, we have been learning about ancient civilisations like ancient egypt, ancient mesopotamia, ancient china, ect. This particular project was about  making mud bricks and teepee. We had to make them as if we were in ancient times so we made mud with dirt, straw, and water. Then, we used a brick mold to make the brick shape. Lastly,  we lifted the mold to let the brick fall down in shape. For the structure, we put bamboo sticks together and wrapped/tied them together with twine. We added branches and flowers to make it look pretty. My part was to add straw to the mud before mixing and to  hold the structure apart while others tied it to make sure it was sturdy. I observed Nadia mixing the mud, Kemyah packing the mud in the mold, and dawn taking the mold apart. I observed dawn wrapping the twine around our structure. I learned that people have it really easy nowadays with building structures. It was hard for us to make 1 mud brick, imagine how hard it was for people back in the day. This relates to other classes because in World Lit. we had to create an epic based in an ancient civilization. Then in Geometry, we had to take the epic we made and turn it into an Animation. 

1. What is the Columbian Exchange?

The Columbian exchange is a trade of foods, goods, and diseases between Europe and America.

2. What defining events caused the onset of exchange?

The explorations and how Columbus "explored" America

3. Explain three items there's transferred/exposed to the other hemisphere. 

West: Potatoes, Turkey, Pineapples

East: Rice, Honey, Diseases

4. Name one meal that you love that includes ingredients from the two different hemispheres. 

Spaghetti (parts of the ingredients are from both sides)

5. Explain what you did in the PBL project to help your group. 

I brought the onion we used to cook with the meat. I also browned the meat and helped plate the food. Lastly, I described the Columbian exchange and presented the food to the judges.