Personal Blog

     We started the week off with editing and reviewing our presentations for the one to one technology proposal.  We worked with Ms. Miller and Mr. Mechinech to make our presentations as best as we could before Wednesday came along.

     On Wednesday, we had our presentations for the school board.  I thought they went well.  The people that came to watch us seemed impressed, and they asked us many questions.  I felt like we were well prepared and answered the questions well.  I hope everyone that came to our presentations consider one to one  technology and everything else we presented.

     We were also given our midterm assignment.  For this assignment, we are suppose to find an occupation and do research on it.  We can research on Career Cruising, or just using a search engine.  Then, we will have to figure out how that occupation relates to science, social studies, and english.  When all of our research is done, we will need to put it into a project and make it creative for art.  This project doesn't seem too hard and I am looking forward to doing more research for this project.
     We are continuing our work with Constitutions.  This week, we compared different things that Constitutions from different countries include.  We took that information and decided what we wanted the Constitution for Libya to include.  I think that writing a Constitution for Libya will be fun.  Hopefully we will work on that next week.

Personal Blog

     This week, we finished reading the book Acceptance and we had a class discussion about it.  I thought that the discussion this week was one of the best discussions we have had.  It felt like everyone really got into talking about this.  Reading this book has really gotten me thinking about my college and career path.  Hopefully, by reading this book, getting ready and applying for college won't be as hard.
     We also worked on our presentation for the school board.  We are putting all the information we found about four different devices into a Prezi.  We are finished with all our research, and we are done putting it into the project.  I look forward to presenting this on Wednesday.
     We also have been doing more studying on the US Constitution.  We compared the US Constitution to other constitutions from different countries.  It is interesting to see the similarities and differences.  Now, we have been assigned a country, and with our group, we are doing different things with the country.  
     In art class, the commercial and the grid enlargement were due today.  I am really happy with both projects.  I thought our commercial was good, and by making it, I learned how to use a new program.  My grid enlargement is also good.  I never thought I would be able to draw something like that.  I am really proud of myself.

Personal Blog

     At the beginning of the week, after we had posted our link to our product testing lab on our blogs, we had time to look at other peoples projects.  We commented on them giving them feedback.  It was helpful to know what other people thought of your project.
     We also had some analysis practice this week.  We got different graphs, and we had to write an analysis for the data.  It was helpful practicing that.
     Ms. Miller also helped us with our sources and in text citations.  She reviewed our reference page and our in text citations on our project.  It was a good thing she reviewed them because there were some errors in our project with our references.
     We also learned more about the US Constitution this week.  We had to search through newspapers and find articles related to the four parts of the Preamble of the Constitution.  Finding articles was hard at first, but it got easier as we went on.  Then, we took a quiz online about the Constitution.  I thought that the quiz was easy, but it helped me learn some things I didn't know about the Constitution.
     We have been continuing to read Acceptance and having group discussions.  The discussions have been helping me understand the book better.  Also, they have been helping me learn what other people think about the book and college.  I think this book is interesting and is helping me think more about decisions I will have to make in the future.
     This week, we started to work on a new project.  This project is about different types of technology.  After we have finished this project, we are going to show it to the school board.  Our purpose is to find the type of device that will last through four years of high school.  We are doing research on laptops, iPads, iPods, Macs, and we are going to find other devices too.  We are going to look at their battery life, cost, storage, and other factors.  So far, the research is going well.
     On Thursday, we went to the Apple Store to do some research on different devices.  We got to test Macs, iPads, iPods, and other devices.  We were also able to asks questions to the people that worked there.  The information we learned at the Apple Store will defiantly help us with our project.  Going to the Apple Store was a good way to end our week.

Personal Blog

     This week in ILA, we did more work on our product testing project.  We also worked on our commercial for this project for art.  I had never used that program before, but I learned it fast.  It was easy to do.  Hopefully our presentation for the project goes well. 
     In art, we are also working on our grid projects.  They are starting to look cool.  I never thought I could draw something to look as close as it does to a picture.  This project has been taking a long time, and I hope we finish them soon. 
     We have also been reading the book Acceptance.  This is a non-fiction book about kids preparing for college.  Reading Acceptance has gotten me thinking about college.  I think this book ties in well with this class.  On Wednesday, we had a class discussion about this book.  I liked doing a class discussion rather than doing a discussion in small groups.  I hope we continue to do discussions like that.
     To end the week, we had a test.  The test included all the things we have been learning about, the scientific method, APA citations, and cabinet and agencies for different situations.  I didn't think the test was too hard, but some parts were harder than others.  Some of the instructions on the test were a little confusing.  Hopefully I did good on the test.

Product Testing

The purpose of the product testing was to see what brand of nail polish was the most durable.  Here is where you can find my groups results:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OfnBFADvWUfbDwxTw8Am1G1tVSk-SdaBgHDbpi_2KKA/edit?hl=en_US

Personal Blog

     This week, we focused mainly on a new project.  For this project, we had to work with one other person and we have to compare different products.  In my group, we are comparing different brands of nail polish.  I think this project is challenging, but not too hard.  The hardest part, I thought, was doing the research.  I couldn't find many things on the topic I was doing, but I think everything else we have done so far was not too difficult.  On this upcoming week, we will be finishing up this project.  I hope everything works out the way it was planned.
     Another thing we did this week was practicing the scientific method.  It was good to refresh my memory by doing this.  I thought it was nice how on Google Docs, Mr. Mechenich could comment on what we did wrong.  I thought that it was better that way than handing a paper back with what we did wrong.
     I think I got a lot accomplished this week with my group on our new project.  I hope I continue to do that in future weeks.