The Biting Beaver: Module 14

The log art challenge consisted of testing the human mind to identify patterns within a realistic situation. From the start, my immediate response was to identify similarities within the diagram where I discovered that each one had begun with a pencil resting parallel to the ground. The pencil is then manipulated in the second and third column, something that stood out to me as a clue to solving the puzzle. My final decision was made when I was able to identify that the final product of the wood was directly correlated with what the previous shape had been, eventually revealing the anser.

A Grasp on Something New

The growth mindset played a key role in my interpretation of the Odyssey Dramatic Monologue project where my decision of which character to address deviated from taking a more apparent route to choosing a character that would challenge me as a writer and analytical thinker. 

Choosing a character that would require less effort to research and portray is the first thought that jumped to my head as the project begun. I was confident that choosing a largely discussed heroic figure would surely provide the most substantial information to discuss later in the poem. 

However, to my dismay, this method had suddenly disinterested me. The frequently discussed gallant events these prominent characters had undertook was a topic that was too fresh in my mind, I needed something that was more foreign to me in order to spite more interest within myself. 

Although this decision included a consequence of taking a larger burden upon my shoulders to write a poem about a more dense and undiscussed character, I was anticipating the challenge. I later choose sorcerer goddess Circe as my character to discuss in the first person, I satisfying choice as this character was one that, due to my self doing, required more effort as a learner to interpret. 

This is a direct example of the growth mindset, that through my studies, I enabled myself to take a digression from what was the “easy way out” to a pathway that enabled myself be educated on more than what is directly in front of me.

Cyberbullying Affects on Education

The infographic design project is a presentation that discusses media influences on ethnicities, religions, socio-economics, politics, and other groups within the world. The presentation consists of a blank slate that can be manipulated and crafted to one's likings by using unique shapes, colors, and fonts. This design is imperative to conveying strong ideas to an audience that seemingly has no previous understanding of the material at hand.

My infographic creation fixated on how social media can connect to cyberbullying and how cyberbullying itself can be detrimental to one's school education. After researching and retrieving three sources I found most useful to answer my focus question, I saved them to my Google Scholar Library account. Google Scholar Library is a personal portfolio of websites that have been collected by the user that can be easily accessed rather than having to spend long amounts of time retrieving the sites. After collecting data and key facts about the subject, I created an infographic.

I begun the infographic by making the background color light green because the human eye is most sensitive to the color as it retains the most even wavelengths within the color spectrum, making it appear energetic and attractive. I then created two large spherical shapes colored in yellow and within the circles large white writing with curvy lines. This objective was to have a sense of symmetry and balance, the yellow also attracts the human eye as it has many similar characteristics to the color green. The use of bold white writing was to have a contrast in color and shade, making the word “Cyberbullying” appear sharp and clear. I continued by creating a heading that continued off of the word “Cyberbullying” and then finished by adding a dividing line to give the design a modern like theme, making the material appear contemporary.

After completing the heading, I began to insert the information gathered from the sites from the Google Scholar Library. By using evenly spaces icons that were presented in a fashionable order, I was able to convey my ideas in a more succinct and non confusing manner. Beneath the icons I would summarize the image with keywords and small sentences. When trying to explain images with longer summaries, I would again highlight and enlarge keywords in the initial colors contrasting color in an attempt to catch the reader's attention. By using minuscule graphs and charts that had noticeable incline or decline in data, I was able to convey aspects of the topic with only a visualization.

This project has deeply instilled a new talent into me that I feel is necessary to maintain throughout my academic career as it covers much ground in categories such as computer skills and capabilities, research, time management, article analyzation, and organization. These talents are essential in order to have success in difficult situations throughout school and careers.


Cyberbulling Affects on Education by Dash Liddibrown is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://www.canva.com/.

Persepolis Project Reflection: Overcoming What is Not Needed

Amid the Persepolis novel process, the greatest challenge was to not compare my work with others, as it only made me have a constant want to appear better rather than making me an improved writer. Many times I encountered myself providing my main focus on how I could make my novel appear superior to others, a foolish choice as there was no achievement if I was to succeed. I found myself entangled into an underground competition with no competitors, as I challenged myself based upon the appearance of others work. I thought to myself, wishing I had chosen that specific topic, or wishing I had used that technique with the black marker, all of this creating no progress whatsoever as I was not able to comprehend the fact that my work is a reflection of myself and not who I aspire to be. I set a goal, one that would allow me to not indulge myself into the so called competition but to realize that keeping to myself would be the best method to succeed in the project where the foremost ideas come from myself, not from others. This goal played out well as I completed the project with every aspect to my liking.

Despite the camaraderie among the class, the fear of being criticized through peer feedback is something I discovered within myself. After I had submitted my work to VoiceThread, my immediate reaction was “What did I do wrong.” The constant questioning consumed my thoughts as I was afraid my work would not be understood. However, once I had written my constructive criticism and opinion on my fellow classmates novel that involved the growth of a young muffin transitioning into an elegant cupcake, I came to the conclusion that the peer feedback was not designed to ridicule one another but was another voice that could potentially improve the project. I received the comments only to discover a document filled with lenient and kind suggestions that were thoroughly thought out in order that I could improve my novel, an underestimation of my classmates. I again created a goal that stated I should not fear criticism because it is the one key to improvement, the key to making me a more sophisticated writer.

Subtle Heroism

Someone who I have always valued deeply as a friend, companion, and hero is my uncle, as he has gained the ability to refrain from fatal tendencies that not only saved his life but saved others.

At a young age, my mother's brother indulged into the on the edge lifestyle of a teenage adolescent, where he spent his time living dangerously as a way to cure his unhappiness as his mother was constantly working, which disabled them to have daily face to face communication.

As a young adult, he began smoking as injecting pernicious fumes into your lungs was the contemporary theme of the early nineties. Following the footsteps of his mother, lighting an igniter and seeing the dark fumes slowly leak through his lips became his everyday habits. 

His lifestyle turned from light to dark as an addiction was erupted for the malicious substance, something many people were unaware of in the current time period. Insecure about the gender role and lack of relationship he maintained, his addiction increased and he thought his life was inevitable for corruption and failure. 

Decades later his mother passed away due to mouth and lung infections, all as a result from smoking, I was fourteen at the time. This made his unhappiness reach a pinnacle, yet something changed. 

He realized the more unhappy he is the more he smoked, and realized if he continued his pattern he would end up exactly like her. From that point on he not only never smoked a cigarette again but deeply instilled the consequences of smoking into his nephews. 

This refraining saved his life and saved the potential grief in his family members, to me an act of heroism. A hero is one who places others needs in front of theirs, or doing something that will positively affect others. 

Someone who is not a hero is one of our current politicians running for presidency, Donald Trump. He claims to make America great again, which seems like an act of heroism, yet is not accepting of the underprivileged or any minority that includes ethnicity, gender, or social status. Making America great again does not mean eradicating difference which does not make him in my eyes a hero.

Image Credit: consciouslifenews.com

The Not So Beautiful Game

(The beautiful game referencing a nickname for the globally renowned sport "soccer")

Clear eyes, full hearts, a bright mentality, we had it all. Our orange jerseys shined bright on the field, a fire like glow that set us apart from the others. Our strikers were fast, our defense were strong, we were eager to compete, to push our limits. Not a second went by without a hustle. 

We played under the colossal beam of light illuminating every blade of grass on the field. Although we were determined, we were not the best, with all the bright faces smudged with grass and jerseys twisted and mangled, the score was still seven to zero. 

In spite of our determination, many of us were new to the beautiful game. Simply kicking a leather ball into a net was not all that was required from our team, as one can not simply win a game by himself. What set our team apart besides from the traffic cone looking jerseys was our mindset and our ability to enjoy the game at a level of competition that did not make us uncomfortable. 

From the first to the last day of practice, we played with determination in our eyes and a sense of humor that livened up the team, a new style that not only instilled in our players but our coaches. Our teams ability to not take a loss personally was our best quality as we lost almost every game, and every time trudged back into our team bus without a word of dismal or hatred. 

On the rare occasion of a win, we would respectfully thank the team for their hard work and participation. I not only treated this team with respect but I treated them as a family, a team that has evoked feelings from me I have not experienced in a long time. From this year on, the Polytechnic junior varsity boys soccer team will not be known for their losses, but for a certain mentality that led us to greatness.

Image Credit: Fastactiontraining.com

As The First Semester Whizzed By

As the year begun, my goal was not to achieve supremacy in my academic studies nor was to produce an intellectual perfection, but was to do my best work. My initial approach to the new environment (so I thought) of brainy and practically from another world students, I had thought the year would be unsuccessful for me as I would be the one student who was not top of his class and without straight A’s. However, as I ventured into the weeks of quizzes, tests, research papers, and homework, I realized that setting and pace and keeping a calm and undisturbed mindset would pave the best path for me as a student. With that mindset at hand, I feel I have done considerably well considering my progressive and not academically vigorous background as a learner.

Approximately two months into the school year, I had received one of my first excellent grades in English class. The assignment had been to annotate three short fairy tales where I received a 95%. That week we were later given six assignments for homework. That excellent grade had given me motivation, I had a sense of what it would be like to be one of the brainy or out of the world students. I set my mind to the assignments, worked diligently and effectively, later receiving five A’s and one -A. Though these may not have been the most extravagant assignments, they were those that gave me a motive and incentive to achieve what I assumed impossible for myself.

For my first semester of one of the most rigorous and academically stimulating private schools in the United States, I feel I have done quite well. However there are some subjects I would have hoped to achieve a higher standard in. I entered Poly having come from Sequoyah School, a progressive growth oriented community containing approximately two hundred students. The mindset of Sequoyah was completely contrasting from those of Polytechnic as if they were opposites. Having said that, there have been subjects that I have struggled in of those including mathematics. Poly is known for their unique and well renowned math program where the extremely knowledgable teachers and faculty put together a track students could follow, a track different from the norm. Entering into a new environment and mathematical system, I had struggled at the beginning, but have recently begun to understand the criteria in a more comprehensive way. Although I have not achieved the ideal score for me, I have plenty more semesters to understand what I have not been able to.

The E-Learning class begun as a clear and understandable class that introduced new techniques and skills to the class. Throughout the months of E-Learning, I have found the assignments to become progressively more unnecessary and those that take up time I could be utilizing in a more sufficient way. E-Learning takes me well over an hour to complete, a large amount of time I could use to study or work on larger projects. This class is an intricate idea although one that is slightly gratuitous.