The Reflections unit was by far the most unique. 2020 has been throwing us tons of curveballs and changed the ways we have to learn every single day. The whole Reflections unit was done online through zoom classes and individual work. I was very saddened by this because I really enjoyed Freestyle because of the in person connections and community that we had built on the campus last year. Although it was definitely a herd situation, we all got through it and was still able to produce amazing work. The teachers at Freestyle really made it easy for us to understand what we were learning through zoom. The unit was mainly about learning about ourselves. Through a lot of projects like the “This I Believe” essay, a lot of english work on developing our minds and also preparing for college applications.
English (10 things I learned)
- Forgive others for their mistakes
- Time management is very important
- Don’t take your privileged life for granted
- Live to your fullest everyday
- Don’t care about social expectations/stereotypes
- Don’t let others effect you decisions
- Do what really makes you happy
- Love yourself before anything else
- Explore different cultures
- TRAVEL
MANDALA
One of the first Digital Media projects we worked on was the Mandala project. We got to explore more skills in Adobe Illustrator and made our own little mandalas. We all made a black and white version to be printed onto a texture, and also a colored one just for display.
Mandala Artist Statement
I think I valued a lot of things in my personal Mandala. it was one of those projects which I could really put my interests and show it using my artwork. I put a lot of thing that I love in it. Also, things that inspire me and keep me going. I have hidden positive messages in there to kind of show who I am. the numbers 8 and 24 are also hidden in there for the recent passing of Kobe Bryant earlier this year. I think the whole sports world was dramatically affected by his death and he meant so much to everyone including me and my family. I used this project to express a lot of my feelings through the artwork.
I learned that I have a lot of thoughts in my head that I don’t really share to a lot of people. But the project was able to help me get that out of my head. I learned that sometimes its hard to express my feelings and thats actually why I love art so much, no matter what shape or form it is in. It’s always an easier way to express things you can’t say.
THIS I BELIEVE
The This I Believe section of the Unit was very cool. We first started off in English class and wrote a short essay about “this i believe”. It’s a concept of us writing about something that we believe in. But we all had to write it in our creative ways. After we polished our essays, we then used After Effects in Digital Media to create a video showing the things we were talking about. Using After Effects is definitely one of my flaws and this project helped me understand the program a lot more.
I Believe your bully is your best friend.
I think that we’ve all been bullied in our lives. It doesn’t have to be the stereotypical middle school, highschool bully. Think about it. Your mean boss, that one neighbor who always bothers you, or the guy on the other soccer team that dominates you everytime. The point is, we all have been looked down at and it never feels good, but I think that it's a good thing.
Early middle school, I was constantly bullied, and it was always by the same group of guys. The process was weird, the kids that you try to be friends with end up making fun of you, I had just moved from China a couple of years before and my english wasn’t great. I was constantly being made fun of because I didn't understand them. They took advantage of that and bullied me in front of others and played pranks on me. One time they even took me on a scavenger hunt on my bike, they had told me to meet them at a starbucks, only that they were at another coffee shop. I ended up biking to both shops to look for them but I never found them. It wasn’t very nice, but I learned from it. It’s kind of funny, 4 years later, these 3 guys are my best friends.
The act of bullying has been around probably since human existence, I’m sure it happens with all living beings. I think a lot of people take bullying in a negative way, which is okay. It isn’t nice to make fun of others for being who they are. With the right attitude though, we can all turn bullying around. It took awhile for the guys to start liking me. I’m not sure what it was, I just kept pushing. Despite the occasional teasing, I tried my best to enjoy my time with them, they were the only people I had. Over time, my english got better, and my spatial awareness was just more efficient, so maybe they couldn’t take advantage of me anymore. And I’m sure with maturity, those things just stop.
I’m kind of glad they bullied me. Without that, I would have never learned to be so confident. I learned how to not care about what others say about you, I learned how to love myself, how to be myself, and how to love and forgive others. I think the experience of having a bully is very special. Most people don’t get treated like that, but when they do, it's just another speed bump in the road. You learn from it and become a significantly better person because of the experience. So next time you see your bully, give them a hug.
PHOTOSHOP
Also in Digital Media, we experienced with a lot of new things. It was honestly one of my favorite project works. We learned how to composite different photos together as well as using the Wacom Tablet to create digital water color and paintings. We also learned how to take our regular photos into painting style.
Photoshop Painting
This assignment was one of my favorite Digital Media assignments up to date. We got to really explore the possibilities with using a Wacom tablet. the learning of using water color and different paint brushes in Photoshop felt really real. I’ve personally experiences with real water color with real brushes and on real paper, and after trying to do it digitally. I thought it was really cool how if you make mistakes it would be easy to fix unlike real life.
I learned a lot of different Photoshop skills like having layers and drawing over a photo and making it look like a painting. Learning how to create fillers and black layers was really interesting and I think I could really use that in the future for other project or for other clients.
Photoshop Photo Conversions
360
FILM
In Film class, we made a 2 minute video of our reflections. I talked in my video about the act of procrastination and waking up. Since its my first year in the film class. It was really fun to experience all the little things that are taught in the class. Mr.Taylor does a really good job of explaining everything.
