Growing Up.

A Nation's Argument is a course all about logic skills needed to develop and sustain an argument. The purpose to our first Action Project was to create our own version of the Declaration of Independence. We had to propose an idea for a class that we will like to add to GCE’s courses. What I enjoyed most about this unit was learning information about my country, learning how to make an argument more strong and clear. What I struggled with was coming up with an idea for a course, and submitting my work on time. How I overcame these challenges was by scheduling my time more wisely, and relating my course to my own life. I hope you guys enjoy my idea for a new class at GCE!

I declare that there be an independent study where students are able to learn how to apply for a job, learn about time management, and money management. I think this course will be very helpful because it relates to the real world and also GCEs Philosophy, which is teaching their students how to be financially stable.

GCE is reinventing education by letting students have more freedom to find what they like, and possibly later make what they like into a career. GCE teaches us how to be financially, digitally, and interpersonally literate in order to keep up with the growing world. The five pillars of GCE is Accountability, Purpose, Autonomy, Gratitude, and Achievement. I have learned so much within 3 years at GCE, and I think the way I’m learning now is really important for my future because I'm so open minded and can view thing from all different angles. I think the traditional way of learning isn’t making change for our world. Another thing GCE teaches is dependence, the school teaches how to step out into the world, meet people, and make connections.

American teenaged students have the right to learn about how to apply for a job. This course will teach students on how to manage money, how to form a job resume, how to fill out a job application, and learning about job interviews and learn about time management. This will help students learn about the real world, learn how to handle money, and can prepare them for college. I think this independent study will really benefit students. It will give them the chance to learn about jobs, and the importance around money because it does control our world and our lives. We need money to survive in this world, it might be sad be its true. Since I was a Sophomore in high school I’ve had a steady part-time job at a nursing home. Having as job as a student is really beneficial because it teaches you at a young age the value of money. My desired outcome for this independent study is for students to walk out with a idea of how they can be independent, responsible, and able find what they want to do with their lives.

My course will be called “Growing Up” the reasoning for the title is because in high school students should begin to start taking care of themselves and start learning about responsibility. The three main key concepts students will learn are:

Responsibility- Being a good student takes a lot of responsibility but if students learn how to balance school, activities, and a part time job, students will learn what being responsible is like. As students grow the amount of responsibility will increase even more, so it's better to start learning earlier on so it can help them prepare for the future.

Money Management- When students start to earn their own money, they will gain a better understanding on how to handle it. Working hard for their money will help them appreciate budgeting and saving.

Time Management- Students will learn how to use their time more effectively, like completing reading assignments on the train/bus rides home. Students will also learn how to become more organized, such as creating their own schedule for work days, school, and activities.

Youth Job Center has been working for 32 years to start getting teenagers working when they’re in high school. Youth Job Center believes that education and employment have been identified as steps to break the cycle of poverty. I think their mission to help teenagers is really helpful. I think they will be good partners for this course. I agree with Youth Job Center about education and employment ending poverty because if a teenager gets their first job while in high school they will see that many jobs out there will not be able to fully support them, and to get a good paying job you have to work hard in school in order to achieve the goals that you want. High School is filled with opportunities and I think this course especially should be in GCE’s learning system. We are always meeting new people, and learning about different organizes that we might want to explore more about. School and employment will also inspire students to create their own businesses. Working as a teenager will give you the chance to explore career options before choosing a college major. I think the course should be a third period elective class because it will teach students how to find and apply to jobs, and also teach them how to manage money. As a final project students will be asked to to write a resume, record a good example of a job interview, and create an example of their own schedule. I think Jessica our school counselor, should teach the class because she is currently helping me with my savings, and she gives really good advice and information.

These website links are potential partners/resources for this class.

youthjobcenter.org
cityofchicago.org
chicagoparkdistrict.com
onesummerchicago.org
news.uchicago.edu
thechicagourbanleague.org

My hopes are that students walk away with more independence, learn how to manage their time better and start working.  

Created by JV, 2016*

I Know Where The Light Goes.

Light, Sound & Time is a STEAM course where we dive deep in our surroundings. We want to know more about the world around us, how we see the world, how we hear, and how we capture time. In this unit we focused on light. We studied how fast light travels, where light comes from, and how we capture it. We learned about light, the visual spectrum, and the speed of light. We talked about the human eye and how it relates to a camera, and how both can receive light in the same way. The purpose of this Action Project is to build a camera, use it, and capture pictures with it. What I enjoyed most about this project was building the camera and having the chance to work in a dark room.

Created by JV Photo From Pinhole Camera, 2016*

Created by JV Camera, 2016*

In pinhole cameras the light travels in straight lines which is called the rectilinear theory of light. This makes the image appear upside down in the camera. My camera is made out of a cardboard box, duct tape, and a piece of an aluminum can to create the lens. My camera does not demonstrate refraction because refraction is the bending of light waves when they travel from one medium to another. My camera just has air, it doesn’t have two mediums to make refraction. The inside of my camera is black because black absorbs light, whereas white reflects it. If the inside of my box were white the image wouldn't develop because there would be too much light bouncing around inside. To develop our images we had to place photosensitive paper inside of my camera across from the lens. I had to make sure no light was getting through. I placed my camera in front of objects that I wanted to take a picture of. Pinhole cameras have a shutter speed, which is the length of time a camera shutter is open to expose light into the camera lens. My shutter speed was 4 minutes. After the shutter speed I had to go back into the dark room, and place my image in chemicals in order to develop them. My device demonstrates wave vs particle because when the light goes through the pinhole lens, it acts like a wave being filtered. When light is being recorded onto the photosensitive paper it acts like a particle. Light is a type of energy formed by a combination of electrical and magnetic rays, this is also known as the electromagnetic spectrum which also relates to my pinhole camera. The electromagnetic spectrum is the entire range of light that exists, this spectrum chart is the reason we can see color, and are able to have pictures.

Our first Field Experience for Light, Sound, & Time was going to a dark room that we were able to use thanks to the Latin School Of Chicago. We had the chance to set up what we wanted to take photos of using our pinhole cameras. Unfortunately my pinhole camera failed. I think it’s because my camera wasn't light-proof enough. Light was coming through from the sides of my box. If my camera had an actual lid that I was able to take off and on I think my photos would have came out a lot better. I did four trials. Down below are all the measurements of my camera. My sketch is similar triangles to represent my camera, measurements to an object and the light ray connecting them. I had to calculate the sides and all angles. I learned so much in this unit and can't wait to see what the rest of the course is going to be like. Below is my photo that I took with my pinhole camera. The photo didn't develop because there was too much light.

The measurements to my camera are:

Lens to photo paper: 3.5 inches
Height to pinhole: 5.5 inches
Height to object: 7 inches

Created by JV, 2016*

Global Collaboration 2.0

If These Walls Could Talk is an Art History Elective that investigates murals as means of a way of communication. During this course I learned about different techniques that are used to make a mural. This class really taught me a lot about art and how art can be a different way to communicate. For my last Action Project I was placed in a group, and we were challenged to come up with a mural that we would install in our new school space. In our mural we wanted to represent the students that are currently attending GCE. We collaged all the student faces to create new faces. The purpose was to show how GCE is considered a community to us. What I enjoyed most about this project was creating the mural, and how it came out. Overall I really enjoyed taking this class.

Name: JV 
Title: Global Collaboration.
Measurements:Media & Techniques: Stencil, Wheatpaste, Block print.

The purpose to the Action Project is to plan and install the mural my group and I came up with. The mural is really bold and unique. The color’s really stand out, the faces pop up and the flower prints are eye catching. The media and technique that we used to create our mural was block printing, which is one of the oldest types of printmaking technique. One of my group members made two block stamps. She used a linoleum sheet and carved out the pattern. This techniques was my favorite to use because it’s not as messy to work with like other techniques were. I came up with the idea to create a checkerboard pattern with the stamp on one of the walls, and it came out really nice. Stencil flowers were spray painted onto three walls. Stenciling is accomplished by cutting a design onto a thin sheet of cardboard. The stencil is used to reproduce the design multiple times. Lastly, we used wheatpaste, which is an adhesive made from flour and water to adhere the faces to the wall. The wheatpaste was also applied to the top of the images and works as a sealant. Our color scheme is inspired by Shepard Fairy’s Obey street art. There is a lot of red, black, white, and grey. We taught that the colors would bring out and enhance the black and white collaged faces. We also thought the color scheme would look good on the walls our idea is so different compared to the other groups.

The mural definitely transformed the stairway. Before we started working on the mural the stairway was so dull and ugly. The walls were a weird shade of green and was dusty and dirty. The mural is so bold and just catches your eyes instantly, it really brings the staircase to life. The roles that I claimed while making the mural was was the Director of Operations. I was responsible for managing time goals, materials and clean-up. I also worked as the Mule and was responsible for communicating and making sure my group had all the materials they needed. The Documentarian is responsible for documenting the day’s process, and lastly the Artistic Director is the person responsible for making sure the mural is being done right and will turn out perfect. My favorite rule was the Artistic Director, I like everything to be perfect especially when it comes to an art project so I would try and voice my opinion on how things should look or how we should place something. But at the same time, this role was difficult because my group members were very picky and did not want to change the design of the mural. It was hard working with my group because if I had an idea on how to improve something, my group members would always disagree.

If I could change anything about the project, I would want to change the timing. I feel like this course was really rushed and not well organized. I think we should’ve started the mural making way sooner than we did because some groups including mine couldn’t finish or couldn’t do the murals perfect like we would have wanted them to turn out. I would want to change my group, we did not work well together, we didn’t communicate well, and just overall as a group we would always clash ideas and get frustrated with each other. All members in my group envisioned the mural to come out differently and some wanted it their way or no way, and I think as a group that’s not fair. I think if my group would have communicated more we would have gotten along better.

What is reading worth, and what is worth reading?

Book Bound is a course that I was taking this elective term, which course pushed me to explore my own relationship with reading and how it affects my life, and also others globally. During this course, I learned many things, but the main one was how important literacy is and how literacy can change due to our social and academic lives and the growing world. What is reading worth, and what is worth reading? This was my question throughout the term. I think literacy should become a greater topic all over the world and more humans should be able to read and write. In Book Bound, I also learned about the literary canon and how only the greatest books are picked to be on that list. The Great Gatsby is in the canon and I read that book for this class. I think The Great Gatsby is a good book; it has a good meaning to it, but I don’t like the writing. 

There is only one Action Project for this class, and part of the reasoning for that is because as a school we are currently building and designing our new school building. In Book Bound students were supposed to design and build our dream library as a part of our Action Project. But the moving process is taking longer than expected, so that final piece of our work isn’t fully reflected here. These assignments, however, do show the thinking I’ve done about reading, the canon, and the purpose of a school library. The Action Project for this course is a digital portfolio that shows my learning and experience of the course. The Action Project includes 4 assignments that I chose as my best work, which I think was super easy. I enjoyed it a lot, but I just wish we actually got the chance to help come up with a design and build our library. Overall I enjoyed this class and can’t wait to see what the library will look like.

For this assignment, I was asked to promote literacy, especially among our youngest readers. I picked my favorite children's book, and read it aloud to bring the book to life, and also grab the audience's attention. I picked The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. This assignment relates to our course because it’s promoting literacy to a younger age group by sharing a book, which is the main purpose of this class. I picked this project to include on my blog because I enjoyed making the video and I got a good grade on it, so it's only right to publish good work. What I am most proud of about this assignment is that my little brother liked my video.



My second project is a slideshow of a book that I think should be placed in my school library/be placed in the literary canon. I had to present my slideshow to my class and they voted if my book should be placed in the canon or not. I picked the book Tree Girl by Ben Mikaelsen. This assignment relates to the course because I had to pick a book and talk about why I chose the book and also talk about the theme, characters, plot, and why the book overall is considered good enough to be in the canon. I chose to place this assignment on my blog because I think did a good job on the slideshow and the book I chose is really interesting. I think a lot of people will enjoy reading it. The slideshow was easy to make; I didn’t face any challenges but I did make some revisions on some grammatical errors that I had. What I am proud of is how my slideshow came out, and some of my peers in my class were interested in the book that I chose. 



This assignment was to create a literary magazine. We were placed into groups and had to pick a theme and make a literary magazine out based upon it. My group's topic is Thanksgiving because the holiday was coming up when we were assigned this project. This project relates to the class because we had to make a literary magazine ourselves by writing or visualizing anything we wanted about Thanksgiving. I chose to add this project to my blog because I think my group and I did a good job on the magazine. The challenges that we faced as a group were communicating with each other, figuring out how we wanted the magazine to look. The magazine went through some minor revisions. What I am most proud of is how the magazine came out, it looks really clean and simple.

 The literacy poster illustrates the importance of literacy and the pleasure of reading. I had to pick a guiding question and research about it to make a poster that will be displayed in the new library space. This assignment relates to the course because we had to ask a guiding question about literacy. I wanted to know: What is the literacy rate in Chicago? I think this is a good topic to talk about because there are people living in Chicago that are illiterate. This is a real problem because Chicago is a popular city and with all the gun violence and police shootings and the “Chiraq” nickname, I think the literacy rate should start going up so Chicago isn’t seen as a “bad city,” and so that ALL of its residents are able to read and write to have better lives. I chose to publish this project because I think it’s a really important topic. The challenges I faced with this project was the poster; I didn’t know what to draw or how to show my guiding question in my poster, so that people would really get my message. I am proud of how my poster turned out I like the color scheme and how it looks.

53% Created by JV,  2016*

Tagliatelle

This elective term I took Italian again, I really enjoyed it and I learned so much more. My Action Project for Italian, I made a video of me explaining in Italian how to make Tagliatelle which is Italian pasta made with flour and egg. I had fun making the video and I'm proud of myself that I can understand and speak a bit little of Italian.

 

Global Collaboration

In the second unit of If These Walls Could Talk, which is an art history elective I learned about murals in the 20th and 21st centuries and how different materials were used to create the artwork. I also learned about different artist that lived during those years and how materials changed over time. Specifically, I learned a lot about contemporary artists like JR and Shepard Fairey, who are two of my favorite artists. For the second Action Project, we were put in a groups and had to come up with an idea of a mural that will be installed in our school’s new space. We experimented with different artistic media and techniques to create materials swatches to help us determine which would work best in creating our final mural. In the end, we chose wheatpaste and mosaic because we all like how they looked on the swatches. I enjoyed creating my swatches and working with the technique I chose. However, working in my group was challenging because we all had disagreements and we had a hard time working with each other. But at the end, we all came together and found what we wanted.

Created by JV, RD, GN, MV, DR, 2015*

Name:JV
Title: Global Collaboration
Date: 12/10/15
Measurement: 3.4 by 11 and 3.4 by 11

The image that my group and I created is a series of three faces created using the facial features from the members of my group. In the background, we incorporated parts of the globe to show how we are from all over the world. This is a tribute mural that represents us as students at GCE, how we are a community and to show us as global citizens. We wanted to create something interesting yet eye-catching. We chose to use JR’s Face2Face idea, which is to print out black and white faces and wheat paste them to a canvas. The swatches that we did all came out good in fact, they came out better than I expected. I worked with wheatpaste also known as flour paste, which is like a gel adhesive made from flour or starch and water. It has been used to create all different types of artwork. It is really easy to work with, all I had to do was apply paste to the surface, put down image over paste. Apply paste over the image this seals the image and protects it. Wheatpaste is my favorite type of medium to work with because of how simple it is to make and how inexpensive it is. I appreciate being able to make it myself with simply water and flour and the glossy finish it leaves on the printed images. 

After completing all of our swatches, my group chose to use wheatpaste and mosaic in our final mural. My group chose to work with wheat paste and mosaic, we choose these two because we liked how the swatches came out and we think the final piece will look good with our combined faces wheat pasted on the canvas and having a mosaic design around the face representing parts of the globe. I think our final mural is going to come really cool and I can’t wait to see it in our new space.

Created by MV, Mosaic.

Created by JV, Wheatpaste, 2015*

Wicker

My elective term class is called, If Theses Walls Could Talk. Which is a art class that I am taking to learn more art history; and learning about murals, to help us build our new school space and add murals in our building. We learned about Prehistory, Egyptian, Greek, and Renaissance art to better understand how art came about and how it changed over time. The first Action Project we had to create our own mural based on an neighborhood in Chicago, we had to create a mural that show what we think that neighborhood needs. I picked Wicker Park because I really like that area, and I wanted to do a tribute mural for it showing all cools pieces of art that I have seen and putting all of them together to make one mural. What I struggled with this project was staying trying to stick with one topic. What I enjoyed was making my mural. 

JV

11/2015
Wicker 11” x 14”
Photoshop. 

Wicker Park is a Chicago neighborhood located northwest of the Loop, south of Bucktown and west of Pulaski Park. Wicker Park is named after two real-life people. The first actual “hipsters” because they created the coolest part of Chicago and this area became well known because of Charles and Joel Wicker were two Chicago businessmen, who helped build the city during the late 1800’s. The two brothers bought 80 acres of land off Milwaukee Ave around 1868. And they donated 4 acres to Chicago Public Park. But in 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed some of the area. After the fire, the neighborhood started building new houses and created many jobs that helped European immigrants.

Today, Wicker Park continues to grow as a community. Not only does Wicker Park have cool murals all around the neighborhood. Art is also a big theme in the area, I feel like art brings the community together, and brings life and color. Many artist live in Wicker Park but they don’t get recognized for the amazing work they are doing. Wicker Park is filled with the coolest hipsters that stay up-to-date with fashion and have cool looking styles, which brings a unique life to the area I think it brings youth together instead of going against each other. Since Wicker Park has clothing stores more teenagers tend to shop in that area, and by that many meet new people which is the culture of the neighborhood. Wicker Park also has really good restaurants, which brings more people to come check out the neighborhood and also bring more business. Wicker Park is becoming a big tourist spot. Wicker Park was named the #4 hippest neighborhood in the country. The total population in Wicker Park is 52,131. Every year in July the Wicker Park Fest is held, which brings people from all around to enjoy music, food, and good vibes.

The mural I chose to do is a tribute because I want to show my love for Wicker Park, I also want to make Wicker Park more known. I feel like a lot of people in Chicago don’t know about this area and a lot don’t know about why murals are made and what the purpose of art in a neighborhood. I like how Wicker Park has such good vibes and feels like a community so many people are just walking around and talking. I want to show how I feel in Wicker Park and how I see it as such a cool part of my city. My mural is going to be created using photoshop. I will be putting all the murals that I have seen in Wicker Park to create my own and to show the work of the ones who created these murals in their neighborhood . I think this will be cool because I will be using the purpose of the Renaissance as inspiration for why I am creating this piece of artwork. The Renaissance was a new era of life because before art was just flat, it had no depth everything was the same size. Paintings became more cool by adding depth and a horizon line, creating a art piece that is appealing to the eye with colors, depth, and style. I want to use a lot elements like that in my mural, I plan to use colors I want to use these sets of eyes, that are to show everything I see in Wicker Park. I want to repeat images to create depth and make it look unique. Im also going to use this art piece of this little character that I see all around the neighborhood. I think he look really cool and I only see him in Wicker Park. I added "We Can Donut" because my favorite donut shop is in Wicker Park, and I also added a girl in the confer to represent fashion. I really like creating my mural and I think it looks pretty cool.