Final Project: Who Do You Think You Are?

For our final project, we were assigned the task of learning about our family history and creating several projects to demonstrate our knowledge. To gain some background information on my mother's side of the family, I conducted a 25-question interview with my grandma, Kathleen Best. In this interview, she gave me the names of her parents and grandparents and the birthdays of almost every family member on the Best side of the family. She also explained her love for music and piano and how she feels that she passed her love of music to her grandchildren.

In a separate interview I questioned my father, Daniel Farnan, about his childhood. He grew up in Richmond, Missouri as the youngest of 11 children. He explained to me some of the challenges he faced with such a large family including having to share everything and not getting along with his siblings. He also said that his large family taught him valuable life and people skills and made him appreciate his mother that much more.

To help me with the rest of the projects, I sent an email to my grandmother and asked for help finding information about our family heritage and pictures of all our family members to use in my presentation. She provided me with nearly all the pictures I used in this project, as she had hundreds of old pictures laying around her house.

With all this background information I had collected within both sides of my family, I was able to complete a thorough family tree. I was not able to trace my family back very far, but with the help of my dad and grandma I was able to include every single living relative I know and trace my family back to my great-great-great grandparents on the Best side and my great grandparents on the Farnan side.

With the information that my grandma and my mother provided me with, I was able to finish a prezi consisting of mainly my mother's side of the family. I was not able to include all of my dad's family because I did not have near as much information about them. Instead I included a lot of information about each of my relatives on the Best side of the family.



After the completion of the prezi, I was able to display my knowledge of my family's heritage through an infographic. I included the countries of origin for both the Best and Farnan families as well as where my family members currently live and some hereditary diseases on both sides of the family.
 
Through this project I was not only able to demonstrate my knowledge of the online tools we have been using in Emerging Technology all semester, but I was also able to learn a lot more than I previously knew about my family history. It was a very interesting project for me to complete and I now know much more about where my family and I came from.

Tuesday, April 28th

Read THIS blog post by a teacher. I mean actually read it. Take it in. Think about it. And then, write about it. What do you think about it? What is the teacher trying to say? In your own words explain what "the main event" is.

I think this is a very powerful blog post written by a very intelligent teacher. He states that he has been losing sleep over his students because they are not understanding the main point of school. He says that in the long run, school is not most important for educating you, it is most important for teaching you valuable life lessons such as how to deal with people or how to learn respect or how to keep pushing through when you are challenged with adversities. He says that we will be challenged many times in our lives and school is how we learn to cope and deal with them. The "main event" is that we as students need to learn to push ourselves and do our best. The point of school is not how many math problems you can do correctly, it is about how you deal with the stress and pressure that school will inevitably bring. School can teach you many life lessons and you just need to be intelligent enough to learn from them.

Wednesday, April 22nd

Blog Post of the Day:

Tell me all about your stop-motion animation project with your group.

For our stop-motion animation project, we are having 2 cars race in a hallway in the school. We have our camera with a tripod to stabilize the photos and cars to take pictures of. We also have start and finish lines for the race. Maggie Boeckmann and I are in our own group of 2. Maggie will be taking the pictures while I move the cars around. We should finish taking all of our pictures today.

Friday, April 17th

GIANT blog post of the day:


Answer the following questions thoroughly on your blog.

What was your stop motion animation about? Why did you choose your video to be about this? Was it because it was easy, because it would be fun, or it would be challenging? Explain your reasoning behind your project (and be honest).

I originally wanted to use a completely different idea for my stop motion animation, but after i couldn't obtain the materials I would need for that idea, my younger sister helped me come up with a new idea. I chose to use shoes for my stop motion animation because I thought it would be a fun stop motion project and one simple enough that I could focus more on the technical aspects of the project, such as keeping my camera still and focusing the camera to ensure that I would have the best quality pictures I could get.

If you could rate your stop motion on a 1-10 scale. 1 being low effort and no very good and 10 being out of this world/mindblowing, how would you rate your project? Explain why.

If I were to rate my stop motion animation project on a scale from 1-10 based on effort, I would give myself an 8. I say that because although my project was not the most interesting one, I was still able to learn a lot from it and I feel that I fully grasped the purpose of the assignment. I also feel that I deserve an 8 because I did focus more on the technical aspects of the project rather than the story I was telling through it. This could be both a bad and good thing.

In hindsight, what would you do differently the second time around? Better lighting? Time management? Explain yourself.

If I were to do this stop-motion animation project a second time, I would create a better story that actually meant something. I would like for my project to have some meaning now that I full understand the purpose of the project. I would also add another source of lighting because although I thought the flash would have a positive impact on all my photos, it was a bit distracting in the end. 

Explain what makes your stop motion animation unique. How do you believe you thought "outside of the box" on this project?

In this project, I felt that shoes would be an interesting take on a stop-motion project because shoes are worn on people's feet and I thought it would be fun to make them move on their own. It was interesting for me to watch the final product because I tried to make it look like the imaginary person in the shoes was walking like a normal person like you or I would. It was fun for me to see the shoes come to life on their own and have an original idea that I hadn't seen before.

What grade do you feel you deserve on this project? Explain your reasoning.

I feel that I deserve a fairly high grade on this project because of the work I put into this project. Although I did not do a wonderful job of telling a great story through my stop-motion animation project, I used an original idea and made the best of it. I thought that my project was interesting and it ended up looking really good and as realistic as a pair of shoes walking by themselves could be. Overall I felt that this project was a fun and interesting one, and a good learning experience.

Tuesday, April 14th

Blog Post of the Day:
3 day weekend... how was it? Give me a good story or something funny that happened this weekend. Go.

This weekend was one of the best weekends ever. Saturday morning I got up at 5 A.M. to go to choir Contest at Olathe South where I performed in 2 ensembles and 1 solo. 7 out of Blue Valley's 8 ensembles got a 1 rating, which is the best out of 5. I was also given a 1 on my solo which means that I get to take my 2 ensembles and my solo to state in 2 weeks. Prom was also on Saturday and I went with a really fun group of all choir people. It was by far the best dance I've been to. On Sunday I woke up at 5 A.M again for a volleyball tournament. My team won silver in our bracket and I am very proud of our team because this was our last tournament as a team and my last tournament playing club. I had to say goodbye to my volleyball coach of 4 years. This weekend was a great and very eventful one.

Tuesday, April 7th

Blog Post of the Day:
Tell me ALL about what your idea is for your stop-motion animation. I need detail. Who is going to help you take photos? What props do you need? Where do you plan on shooting? EXPLAIN everything.

For my stop motion animation project, I will be using a balloon with a face drawn in marker. The balloon will be travelling around my house and doing different human activities that a balloon couldn't normally do such as eating breakfast, brushing it's teeth, and driving a car to school. For this project I will need a normal sized balloon filled with helium, something such as a weight to hold it to the ground so it doesn't fly away, basic household items for the balloon to use while getting ready for school, a permanent marker, and a camera to take all the pictures with. I will shoot at my house with the help of my siblings and one or two friends. I will use my own tripod for this project so that my photos are clear and easy to see. I will bring my photos no later than Friday, April 10th.

Monday, April 6th

Blog Post of the Day:
Tell me all about your weekend and please share photos!

This weekend was very exciting. I got asked to Prom and saw my family in Richmond, Missouri for Easter. On Friday, I got asked to Prom with roses and some volleyball puns. I am really excited to go! On saturday, I went to Richmond with my family to see my aunts, uncles, and grandparents on my mom's side of the family. We all went out to lunch and church for the Easter service. I got to see a lot of relatives and friends that I hadn't seen in a long time.

Five Frame Storyboard

Medium Shot: Photo 1

Medium Shot: Photo 2

Medium Shot: Photo 3

Medium Shot: Photo 4

Medium Shot: Photo 5

Wednesday, April 1st

Blog Post of the Day:
What do you love most about this time of year? Explain why you love it.

I love the weather this time of year. It's still cool enough to wear jeans if you want to, but it's also warm enough to wear shorts. It's just warm enough in the mornings to where it's a pleasant walk to the sophomore parking lot instead of a freezing one. Another thing I love about this time of year is that it's time for Solo Ensemble Contest for choir. We get to bring our ensembles from each of our choir groups and we also get to audition to bring a solo to contest. This year, I am in Classy Ladies ensemble, Sophomore Girls ensemble, and I am bringing a solo to contest. If we get a 1, the highest rating out of 5, in any of our groups we get to go to state. It is a very busy and enjoyable time for choir students. 

Edited Photos

Monday, March 30th

Blog Post of the Day:
Did you complete the photo scavenger hunt? What kind of fun pictures were you able to capture? Did you do all your photos at school or did you do some at home over the weekend? Share one of your favorites.

I completed the assignment using pictures from school and home. Because I was using my phone to take the pictures, I didn't get very good quality photos. However, most of my photos turned out pretty well. One of my favorites is a picture of old library books that I used for my "something forgotten" picture.

Friday, March 27th

Blog Post of the Day:
What do you know about photography and/or photo editing? Do you take photos? How do you take photos? Do you edit photos before posting them on social media? How do you edit them? Explain any background or knowledge you have about photography and photo editing. Do you like it? Do you have any interest?

I don't know much about photography and I have never taken a photography class before, but I have taken lots of pictures with my phone before. I know that you have to focus on whatever you're trying to capture to get a quality photograph. I also edit a lot of photos before I post them on social media. I know from this that you can't over edit the photos, or they will look fake. You have to limit your use of the editing tools and use them only to enhance the photos, not cover them up. I enjoy photo editing a lot and I am excited to use my editing in our next project.

Monday, March 23rd

Blog Post of the Day:
Welcome back! Go ahead. Tell me all about your Spring Break. Include photos!

I had an amazing Spring Break this year. My family and I went to Cancun, Mexico for 5 days and it was really fun. Our hotel was right on the beach and we had a beautiful view of the ocean. The beach was less than a one minute walk from our hotel room. My brother, sister, and I woke up early almost every morning to watch the sunrise over the ocean. We had an amazing time at the beach. Also, the three of us got to swim with dolphins, which was by far the highlight of my trip. When we got back home, I went to my cousins' farm in Missouri and brought back 4 baby ducklings that my cousins gave to us. We are now raising them until they get older. My Spring Break was lots of fun and I didn't want it to end.

Homelessness Prezi

Wednesday, March 4th

Blog Post of the Day:
If you were to help someone have the best presentation possible, what are the 10 pieces of advice you would give them?

1. Make Sure All Your Information is Relevant and Readable: The most important piece of your presentation is the information you are sharing, so make sure the audience can understand it.
2. Stand up Straight: If you stand up straight you look more professional and confident about what you are presenting.
3. Don't Just Read the Slides: Make sure you aren't just reading the information directly from the slides, you need to elaborate and further explain your information to the audience.
4. Engage Your Audience: Make sure the audience stays interested in your presentation so they will absorb more of your information.
5. Demonstrate Your Knowledge of the Topic: By elaborating on the slides and remaining confident, you can show your audience that you really know your information
6. Be Confident: Be confident in what you are presenting, you know what you're doing.
7. Use hand Gestures When Needed: It is okay for you to use hand gestures when you're presenting information, just don't use too many or you will distract the audience from your information.
8. Look Interested: If you are bored with your topic, your audience will be too. Let your facial expressions and body language demonstrate your interest in the topic.
9. It's Okay to Move a Little: You don't have to stand stick-straight the entire time, move around a little bit if that makes you more comfortable.
10. Stay Focused: Stay focused on your information, don't get sidetracked by the audience or other ideas you may want to share.

Monday, March 9th

Blog Post of the Day:
Tell me about your weekend.

Over the weekend I participated in Relay for Life, went shopping for Spring Break, and had a volleyball tournament. On Friday night I went to JCCC with a lot of friends to participate in Relay for Life. It was my first time participating in Relay and it was a lot of fun! After Relay, I went shopping for new swimsuits and summer clothes for my trip to Cancun. On Sunday, I had a volleyball tournament in Independence, Missouri. Our team played up a division in the 17s tournament. We placed third overall and I am very proud of my team.

Friday, March 6th

Blog Post of the Day:
If you were the Principal for a week at BVHS, what would that look like? What changes would you make? Why?

If I were principal at BVHS for a week, I would strive to make school an educational and fun environment. While it is important that we learn the information we need for college and our future careers, school should also be focused on enjoying education and spending time making relationships with real people. I feel that this is an important part of high school so if I were principal I would set aside time for just socializing. I would also incorporate fun activities that the students would enjoy into all classrooms so they would be able to better comprehend the information and enjoy learning. I feel that these changes would help our school and everyone in it.

Monday, March 2nd

Blog Post of the Day:
Tell me about your weekend.

This weekend I had a volleyball tournament and went to the World War 1 Museum with some friends for extra credit in AP Euro. My tournament was on Saturday in Lawrence and my team did pretty well! We got 3rd overall but we all played very well as individuals. On Sunday, my friends Kailey, Lydia and I went downtown to the WW1 museum. We looked at the main exhibit and took notes for the paper we are writing for AP Euro. It was a very educational trip. After the museum, Lydia and I lead worship for youth group at Legacy Christian Church.

Infographic

Tuesday, February 24th

Blog Post of the Day:
Use the internet to find an infographic about infographics. Place it in to your blog post. Read it and then give me the top 5 things you learned from it that will help you make a better infographic.

1. The bar graph is the most commonly used graph in an infographic. 

2. Sans Serif is the most commonly used font for infographics.

3. The average number of sections used in an infographic is 2.

4. The most popular base color for an infographic is white.

5. When connecting ideas, lines are more commonly used than arrows. 

Monday, February 23rd

Blog Post of the Day:
Tell me about your weekend. Give me a story, something funny that happened, an experiencing you had, the way you felt, etc. Include photos!

Over the weekend, I spent time with friends and I went to Richmond, Missouri. On Friday, I went with some friends from choir to see FNL at school. The show was really funny and I enjoyed watching it! I spent most of Saturday hanging out with friends. We played videogames, pool, and ping pong. On Sunday, my family and I dove to Richmond and spent several hours there. We were looking through my grandma's attic and found her old record player. Then we played her old records for a while. After we left Richmond I led worship with my friend at Legacy Christian Church. We sang for our youth group, which has about 40 high school students in it. This weekend was much less busy than a normal weekend because I didn't have volleyball. Overall I had a very relaxed weekend. 

Friday, February 20th

Blog Post of the Day:



If students were to only take classes that would prepare them for their life, they would need to know at a young age what they wanted to do as adults and stick with it. That way, their classes could be fit to their own needs. If a student wanted to be a musician, they would focus more on musical classes and not have to take geometry or European history. If a student knew they would be a mathematician, they would not be required to take musical theory or emerging technology. The schedules would be uniquely formed for each person as an individual. If this were the case in all school systems, the students would actually care about what they were learning and all of the information they were learning would be applicable to their future. If I were to be in this type of school system, I would take basic science classes like biology and anatomy, but I would also take a variety of musical classes such as choir and chamber singers because that is what I enjoy doing. That way I could study music, but also have the structural foundation of an actual classroom through science classes. We would spend class time listening to helpful lectures and doing hands-on experiments in the actual classroom, and in music classes we would sing and work on a lot of different pieces to widen our musical capabilities. These classes would be similar to the ones we have now, just used in a much more helpful way.

Wednesday, February 18th

Blog Post of the Day:

Copy and past these over to your blog and tell me a little about yourself. If you have a picture or two that might represent one of your answers make sure to include it.

My favorite food: pasta
Foods I'd like to avoid: sushi, spinach
My favorite things to learn: singing, performing arts
My favorite color: light blue
My best friends are: Lydia, Natalie, Audrey, Kailey, Kelsey, etc.
My favorite games to play: Apples to Apples, Life
My favorite books: The Fault in our Stars, The Hunger Games
My favorite movies or TV shows: A Walk to Remember, American Idol, The X Factor,The Voice
My favorite holiday: Christmas
Things I do well: sing, perform
Things I need to practice more: math, writing
My favorite place to go: farms or country roads
My favorite family activities: boating, camping, going to the lake
My favorite thing to do outside: camp
My favorite chore: cleaning my room
My least favorite chore: cleaning the bathroom
What I want to be when I grow up: not a clue
A place I want to visit: Paris, France
My favorite part of the year: Summer
My favorite part of each day: sunset

Tuesday, February 17th

Blog Post of the Day:



Tell me what you believe this cartoon is trying to say. Do you agree or disagree with this idea? Try and look at this from two different perspectives. What is your perspective? What would be an adult/teacher's perspective?

This cartoon is trying to say that in comparison to other students across the world, students in the USA have difficulty focusing on one task and get easily distracted when it comes to studying. This cartoon shows students from China and India that are fully engaged in their studies, but are distracted by the USA student. This could also be trying to say that the USA is distracting to other countries and that we are the problem. I agree that some students in the USA get distracted when it comes to studying and that we are often multitasking instead of focusing on one task, but not all USA students are like this and there are some students from other countries that do the same. From my perspective, the cartoon is designed as an insult to students of the United States, and it is showing how we can't focus on anything. From a teacher's perspective, this cartoon is an insult to the teachers of the United States. It is saying that while other countries can control their students and make them learn, the USA teachers let students get away with too much and the students suffer the consequences.

Tuesday, February 10th

Blog Post of the Day:

Think about the quote above. What does this mean to you? How could this apply to your life? How could this apply to your school work? I would love to give you less work in class if it meant you were going to focus harder on the work. Do you think you would get more out of it? Would that work for you? Why or why not?

This quote is saying that if you have a smaller task to work on, you can focus on it more than if you had a lot of different tasks to complete. I could apply this to my life by choosing to focus on one thing at a time and put all my focus into it, then moving on to the next task. I could apply this to my school work by working on one subject at a time instead of trying to do all my homework at the same time. I think that if we completed smaller tasks in this class then we could focus a lot more on the task, and not have to worry about how much we have to do. We could spend more time perfecting the task instead of rushing through it because of the little amount of time we have. This is a helpful quote to remember in a lot of aspect of my life.

Monday, February 9th

Blog Post of the Day:
Tell me all about your weekend! I sure hope you have photos to share.

Over the weekend, the school musical, 42nd Street closed. We had a show on Thursday, Friday, and two on Saturday. I had a lot of my friends come watch the show also. My weekend was exhausting because I stayed at school until at least midnight every night of the show. After a late night of striking the stage on Saturday, I had an early volleyball tournament at 6:00 AM on Sunday. This weekend was one of the most fun weekends, but it was very tiring. 

Taylor Farnan · Post

Wednesday, February 4th

Blog Post of the Day:
You haven't had a chance to tell me about your Sweetheart weekend yet - tell me about it now! Include photos if you have them. Even if you just laid around on the couch and watched Netflix, tell me all about it.

On January 31st, I went to the sweetheart dance with a couple really good friends. My best friend Lydia and I asked two guys from our youth group and we had a blast. We went to dinner at Red Door Grill so dinner wouldn't be too fancy, then we went to the dance at Blue Valley High School. after we left the dance, we decided we wanted to go bowling and laser tagging. We didn't really want to change so we just went bowling in our dresses and suits. It was a really fun weekend and one that I will never forget!

Monday, February 2nd

Blog Post of the Day:
What is email? When do you use email in your own personal life? List reasons and ways that people use email. What do you know about "email etiquette"? EXPLAIN.

Email is a messaging system that people use online. It is often used to communicate more professionally to people at work. People my age use email mainly to communicate with teachers and receive special offers from stores. Businesses can send coupons or deals to people that subscribe to them. People often have email accounts so cluttered with coupons and deals that they can't be used to talk to actual people. Email etiquette is often referring to the language you use while talking to people via email. I know that you should speak professionally with greetings and proper grammar if you are emailing a coworker or teacher.

Wednesday, January 28th

Blog Post of the Day:

Finish this sentence "10 years from now I will be...." (explain)

10 years from now I will be living in my own home with my loving husband and children. I will have 2 kids and 2 Great Danes. I will have a successful career, but still be able to make plenty of time for my kids. My house will be a small, 2 story house with a big back yard for the kids. My family and I will be very happy 10 years from now.

Tuesday, January 27th

Blog Post of the Day:
Yesterday I had you choose a global issue and you wrote about it on your blog. Today on your blog I want you to tell me about two different perspectives of your global issue. Are there people for an against your issue? Do people disagree on your issue? Is it a topic that can cause controversy? Look at the issue for two different perspectives. Tell me about those perspectives.

Some people are completely willing to help the homeless and see them as people that need the help to rebuild their lives. They work on mission projects or donate money to local organizations to do as much as they can for the issue. However, there are some people that are against helping the homeless. Some people look down upon homeless people and don't want to help them because they think they will abuse the opportunities given to them with the use of drugs or alcohol. When in reality, most homeless people simply want help getting back on their feet.  

Homelessness

1. Without doing any research, what background do you currently have on this issue?
2. What do you want to know about this issue?
3. Why did you choose this issue? Had it effected your life? Is it something you are passionate about? Explain.

I know that homelessness is a very present issue in all societies today. It affects millions of people all over the world. I want to know how everyone can take part in ending homelessness. I chose this issue because I have done various mission projects with my church that dealt with helping the homeless. We did things like serve them meals and just sit with them and talk. I would say that I am passionate about this issue because I have tried to help a lot with it. I would like to learn as much about it as I can so I can know how to help.

"Homeless Chinese Sleep Next To A Trash Bin In Beijing." UPI Photo Collection. Global Issues In Context. Web. 26 Jan. 2015.

Monday, January 26th

Blog Post of the Day:
Last week I asked your to "think differently" and push yourself to be uncommon with your PSA project using Google Slides. Why do you think I asked you to do that? What is the point? Why not just use bullets and headers? Explain.

It is important for our PSA's to be original and different from others to capture our audience's attention. If we all have the same header and bullet layout, the audience will be uninterested in what we have to say. If we have an interesting format for our information, our audience will be more likely to remember. So if we are original with our PSA ideas, our presentation will have more of an effect on people.

Texting & Driving

Friday, January 23rd

Blog Post of the Day:




Kids these days are always on their handheld computers having fake conversations with each other. With their "lol's" and their "ttyl's" they aren't even speaking English! I remember back when the only way you could talk to someone was by actually speaking to them, saying real words. The only games we played were monopoly and tag. Kids these days with their candy smash and mad birds never get to see the sunlight and play like a normal kid. Kids these days need to put down their computers and live a real life, not an electronic one.