The self-portrait unit at Freestyle is meant to help students answer the question "Who am I?" through the pieces I've created. My Self-Portrait represents a part of me because it's dark and fairly simple. I associate darkness with comfort because it reminds me of staying warm inside on a rainy day, and I enjoy simplicity because I feel like a fairly straightforward person.

On my Self-Portrait website, you can see the different graphics I've created in WebAudio, English and Design using Photoshop and Illustrator, examples of my photography and writing skills, a list of web gems (interesting websites) that I want to share with others, pictures of my family and friends, and podcasts that accompany assignments from English. My website itself was created using Dreamweaver, and I used Photoshop to create the graphics for the buttons, background, and header.

This is the first multi-page website that I ever created. I learned all about creating and putting up websites, adding pictures, sound, and videos, formatting pages, using templates as a base for multiple pages, and navigating multiple applications that we use during this process.

The Narrative unit was all about being able to tell a story in different ways. We got a chance to experiment with many different formats for our short stories. We first wrote stories in English, then turned them into both a screenplay and a graphic novel. In Design we used Storyboard Quick 6 to create a storyboard from our short stories, and we learned 3-point lighting to produce a character portrait depicting a character in one particular moment of the story. We created an animatic using the scans of our graphic novels in WebAudio, then used the animatic as a basis for our animation. Our Narrative websites are also designed to incorporate images and themes from our short stories.

This project allowed us to develop skills related to storytelling through different mediums. We learned how to use Flash for animations, how to write a compelling and satisfying story arc and how to adapt it into a visually intriguing comic, and how to use props, lighting, and a background to create a desired mood in a portrait. I loved this unit--I was moderately satisfied with my original story, and I was very excited to learn how to use Flash and to animate it. I think I’ve learned some incredibly valuable skills in every class from the whole unit. It’s been rewarding to see the results of all the effort that I put into each assignment, and I’m proud of the work I’ve done this unit.        

For this unit at Freestyle, I chose to make a documentary about the Mountain View High Queer-Straight Alliance. The QSA is a club that meets once a week, and their goal is to provide a safe community on campus where LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Queer, etc.) and allied students can find support and not fear judgement from others.

This unit is composed of many different elements in English, Design, and WebAudio, and it has helped me in a lot of different areas. I had to learn how to conduct an interview, how to write the different pieces of a book, how to implement many different elements of design in order to have an aesthetically pleasing product, how to create a transcript and put together a slideshow with audio from both myself and interviewees that includes photos and background music, and skills like how to display the book and the different sections of my paper on a website. It gave me a newfound confidence in my abilities as a Freestyle student, and I have gotten to practice time management in order to meet all the different deadlines. Although it was a long process, everything seemed to turn out well and I feel like I can look back on my work with pride.

This unit is based off of a core concept statement that I randomly drew in English class. My concept statement is "the feeling of suspicion when listening to music," which seemed like it was going to be a challenge for me but ended up inspiring some very interesting ideas.

When I was brainstorming, I was thinking a lot about the mythical creatures called Sirens that lure sailors in with their voices and drown them. I felt like this fit the concept of suspicion while listening to music pretty well, so I decided to base most of my work on that theme. Once I had that nailed down, writing poetry and designing my Experimental art piece in Design became much easier. My favorite part about this unit was writing my first poem and writing a song. I was very surprised by what I produced, because I've tried to write songs before and was never incredibly successful.

Overall, this unit gave me a chance to explore mediums that I had never considered before. I was nervous about using this randomly-selected concept for the whole unit, but it turned out to be very useful and it really helped inspire me. I'm glad we got to finish the year by meditating and being as creative as we could be. There's a lot we can learn from ourselves when we don't set boundaries on that creativity!

This website was created to document the life and achievements of Danielle Cohen, a in incredible local woman. She serves on the Campbell Union School District School Board, on top of being a part-time software engineer, tennis player, mother, and more. In this project, I created a magazine article, a short commercial of sorts, a website, and other interesting pieces of media. They are all tied together by visual elements and reoccurring metaphors. Click below to see more.

My music video website will be completed in late January.

My narrative 2 website will be completed in late April.

My portfolio showcase website will be completed in late May.