SCULPTURES: STORIES OF EMPOWERMENT
Content Area GoalsThis year I grew a lot in both Pure Data and in the Design Process. First in Pure Data I was able to learn basic ways of creating my own music or using some sample to play a track and then modify it the way I want. Since I am a percussionist and music is something I have always been attached to I thought Pure Data was going to be a pretty easy learn, which was not the case. From messing around with Dj controllers and grid controllers I thought Pure Data was going to be pretty much the same. Pure Data was completely different and really when more in a base of music and how to make sound. Instead of pre made songs/sounds you can just modify I had to make my own sounds. I made a drum set that had 16 measures where you could overlay many different parts of a drum set to make a beat. This was a tool I used to create one of the soundscapes for our performance. Another technique I used a lot on Pure Data was using the patches that Mr. Pool gave us and and mix match them together to make a patch that would fit my performance. For the club scene of our performance I was able to use a loop I had found on Free-Loops and speed it up using a sampler to get the sound I wanted. The design aspect of my group's performance was something I took in regard also while working with the soundscapes of our performance. I had to put myself in the audience shoes and find ways to tell the story using my sounds I created. I believe that I exceed the criteria for Pure Data and Designs because I did not just want to learn Pure Data for the performance but as a tool I can later use in life that I will feel very comfortable using.
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Cross-Disciplinary GoalsSome of the Cross Disciplinary Goals that I grew in this year are Collaboration and Responsibility/ Work Completion. Since there were 5 people in my performance there had to be a lot of collaboration in order to make sure everyone is on the same page. In most school projects I would say I take more of the leader and bail the team out if we are struggling but it was different during this project. Since the story that we were performing was not mine it was hard for me to put a lot of the work on my shoulders without knowing how the story actually goes. I felt like I played more of a coach/GM roll in this project which I learned a lot about. I was going to put the “team” in the best circumstances to win and let each player carry there own weight for all of us to success. I took them to the gym and let the lift the weights instead of always helping them lift the weights is one way you can put it. I had to learn to trust in my teammates and carry out my part in the project and motivate my teammates to carry out their portion. Not only did I have to worry about the Humanities and Engineering portion of the project but I had also the lighting and audio that I had to take care of. This really pushed me to make sure I had finished the regular class work to then find out how the lighting and audio were going to play out for exhibition. Because of the how I pushed myself too take care of more tasks I exceeded my goal in the Cross Disciplinary section.
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Self-Identified Goals
The personal goal i set for myself for this class was to be a good role model and helper in class. Being a good role model for my classmates is something I take great pride in. It's important for me that my peers have someone who they can look up to and can get motivated by. Also I wanted to be the student that my teammates knew they could come up tp if they were having trouble with the class work or homework and knew that I would do anything I would to teach it to them. I really grew in this area because I because more open with people and got to know more people and let them know that I am there to help them. I realized that even if i knew the material and wanted to teach the classmates I had to tell them that if they needed help I could help them. I also worked on the students that might not want to ask for help or are not really motivated to doing their help and trying to give them mini lessons on the work and see if that helps them to understand the material. Now that we are learning new material with Mr. Eric I also feel like I help students understand the material better or sometimes I am able to see a question in a different perspective that can help students understand the problem more thoroughly. I exceeded my goal in being a good role model and feel that most students in our class are confident nought to ask me a question or know that I don't bite and that I can help them out.
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Grade NegotiationMy most significant learning this semester was gaining confidence in running performances and putting together a performance. In my 4 years at High Tech High I had never performed some sort of dance/skit and it was a good experience for me. On the humanities side I grew in the dancing sake and knew that even if I wasn't a proficient dancer that I just had to do it with a little confidence it it would make the performance a lot better. That also plays a role in the engineering side of things because you have to have confidence in your product and know its going to work. Many times we had to record both soundscapes and visual and sometimes you have thoughts that you did one thing wrong or another thing wrong but you have to go with it and trust you did everything right. One of the biggest struggles I had in engineering class was trying to make the beats I wanted on Pure Data. It was tricky trying to get sounds to play from a file only when you wanted them to play and at the same time be able to pick when you wanted them to be played. I wish I had grown more in the Content wise and spent more time exploring Pure Data. Even if I think I learned so much on that program, that so much is very minimal to how much potential you can do on that program and how many more cool features it has. I think I deserve an A+ because I really strived to learn a lot in class and make sure I produced work that I was very proud about. I also helped my peers a lot and was a good “helping hand” for when people needed help. Because of of the work I put in during school and outside of school I think I deserve an A+.
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