Staying Organized

If anyone knows anything about me, it should be 1) that I dance and 2) I need to stay organized. I hate it when anything school related is all messed up. I don't let anyone touch my stuff, and even worse write all over it.
I am always very stressed and I would rather not let the stress be added when I can't find anything for an assignment that is due the next day or when my study guide is all crinkled and I can't focus on the writing. That is why I usually type out all of my study guides and assignments so if my stuff is messed up then I can reprint it out and and it will all be good.
When I type out everything for my school work, I also have to have a certain size and a certain font. Every single time it needs to be size nine and Times New Roman font. Then if I need to make a study guide certain things have to be underlined, bolded, or even italicized. There is no in-between with me.

So if you know me personally you should know by now that you should not touch any of my things when it comes to my school work, I take my school work seriously and odds are I will probably take out all my stress on you.

Saying Goodbye to Computer Lit

I don't think its a secret that Computer Lit isn't my favorite class or subject, but i'm happy to say that I learned a lot from this class. I may not always remember everything about this class or perhaps some of the content but I can always look back at my past assignments for memories and a small refresher about writing a business letter, or making up a resume.
Throughout this class I have been exposed to many new things that I would never have thought of I needed until now. Being a sophomore, half way to a junior, i'm going to need all of these skills coming up soon to apply for jobs and even colleges. Even if this class was considered a computer credit, I still learned a lot about life decisions and what I will need to become successful in life.
I'm going to miss a lot of things about this class. Maybe not some of the assignments, but lets be serious, it's a high schooler just taking a class for a credit. But i'm going to miss my classmates i'm taking this class with, Im going to miss the teacher. (until I take another class with her) What I take away from this class is always going to help me in the long run so I want to say thank you to my teacher and goodbye to this class.

My Dance Team

If you can't already tell by at least one of my blog postings is that I love to dance. Dancing is my passion and I won't ever want anything to happen that it would be suddenly taken away from me. Right now in my life my dance team and my fusion dance carroll competition team is the most important thing outside of school.
This year when my dance team went to state, our energy was high as well as our hopes. We danced our hearts out on that gym floor in front of our classmates, parents, and most importantly our coaches. We gave it all we have and we walked off the floor after our performance and all of us were out of breath, coughing and I wouldn't be lying if one of us threw up. Thats how hard we pushed our bodies. After our performances, we had to sit around and wait for awards.
The awards didn't go as well as we thought. Both of our dances had gotten division ones, which is great, but this is the first year our coaches went home without a trophy of any place. Then we looked at our scores and we realized that our kick score was higher then our hip hop. We barely got a division one in our hip hop. This was the second year in a row that the judges didn't like the style we took to compete. Last year they wanted girly and hard hitting hip hop, and this year they wanted clean and boring. The dances that beat us were good, but they lacked personality. They lacked what we had the most of.
Even though we didn't do as well as we wanted to this year, i'm still so proud of my team. We had a long year and our season is yet to come to an end. We spend two hours in the morning together and you never know what the day is going to be like but with our heart, soul, and passion we have for dance, everything will work out. It always does.

Below there is a link to our official dance team site where you can find out more about our team and even watch a couple past dances.

CHS Paws Dance Team

Presentation Platforms

My partner and I decided to make a screencast on how to use Prezi. We chose this screencast because it always felt like a fun way to give presentations and it was something new besides google docs. Our screencast would be appropriate for all ages since it is a basic understanding to get people started off. I loved learning how to use Prezi since I always thought it was a good type of presentation to use and it made things a lot more interesting than just going from slide to slide. The only thing I would change is more of an ability to customise it. If we could choose different colors for everything that would be great and help out with the way you want your presentation to come across.
 For our presentation on what to wear for a job interview, we used Google Docs. We chose Google Docs for the fact that we knew how to use it and it was simple and quick. For the age group I would choose a younger audience just so they wouldn't get so distracted and for the other fact that it doesn't look as professional. I never loved Google Docs for the reason being that it always seemed boring to me and there wasn't much to choose from. If I could change one thing about the platform, it would be how it overall looks. It looks to boxy to begin with and too straight forward. It needs more variety in its content overall.
Both Prezi and Google docs are good platforms to use and they do have a lot of similarities. Such as they can both look professional (that depends on how you use it) and they both have something different that makes them stand out. Such as Prezi zooms in and out on pictures and slides and for Google you can add animations to your text and pictures. But the major difference for me on these platforms is how they come across. Prezi looks alive and fun while google docs has no personality along with it.

Presentation difference

There are so many different presentations out there its hard to keep track of them all. There are many that are very simple and straight to the point, but others have the ability to do so much more but are more complicated on how to use them. One presentation I want to start using is Prezi. I have an account but I have no idea how to use it! I can get the main parts but other sections are very hard to understand. That is my only issue with Prezi. I love how you can have music along with it and how it zooms in and out of everything and it flows very smoothly. I did a project for 9/11 and Pearl Harbor but I still never learned how to use it. I wrote the script and my partner did most of the creative work. Prezi seems like a very nice site that I would love to lean how to use for future presentations in my class.
One presentation that I am done with is Google Presentations. Yes it is easy to use and they can look good, but I need something new. You can add affects and videos and lots of pictures. But what I'm tired of is that its too straight forward. It looks too simple for the kinds of presentations our teachers are looking for. I used to get graded on creativity but you can only do so much with Google Presentations. Everything is old and outdated. I want something more exciting! I want something that will keep everyone on their toes to where my presentation is going to go next.

How Schools Can Use Social Media

A lot of the time kids will complain on why social media is not accepted throughout the school district. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, are all frowned upon using during school. Most of the time these sites are banned. You are no longer able to see the front page of the website. The school blocks theses sites for a reason, but is their reason valid enough? There of course is worry about online bullying and students posting inappropriate things, but what about all the other kids who just use it for good purposes and that have never been a problem with it before?

I believe sites such as Twitter and Facebook should be allowed at certain times during school. I'm not saying they should be used during class time when the teacher is talking or when you are told to actually do your work. I'm stating that they should be allowed during a study hall or homeroom. A lot of times kids will sit bored in study hall with no  homework and they do not have a book. I see no problem with going on Twitter during that time. That time is spent how you want to work and if you decide to go on twitter during school, its up to you to decide if you want all that homework after school and it will be your responsibility to get it all done. Most teachers have created Facebook pages (like for speech) and they want students to join the account. Or they might even tweet last minute information for games or practices. If teachers are going to use it as a source of information and communication, of course it should be involved in school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6qib_6JxE4

Moderating Pictures

  Point is a very difficult thing for anyone to learn, even if you have a natural talent. Thats why I wanted to choose this picture because even if you can't see her face or any of her technique, she still looks beautiful. Also this was just a very simple picture and you could have the opportunity to do a lot to it, or just add simple decorations.

It doesn't look like I used much on this picture, but if you look into the details, you can see that her muscles are more in depth and you can see details much easier. I also put red streaks all around her not only because the red looked great with the contrast of the black but also because it represents a lot for a dancer. The color is the color of blood which if you are on point shoes, thats what your feet will be doing if you don't take care of your feet correctly. It also means that dancers are strong and powerful.