12/11/15

This week is the last blog we are going to write before Christmas Break! This year has been kind of weird though because we haven't even decorated the house for Christmas. My family has been so busy with work and school that we can't find the time to get everything out together, because those boxes are heavy and I have a broken hand and can't feel my fingers. 

But I'm still kind of in the Christmas-y spirit because I am doing a Christmas show that opens tomorrow, my car only plays Christmas music this time of year that I totally sing-off key to because I'm by myself. 

It's still not the same though, for me when I was little, my favorite part was decorating the house with all the different Christmas trees, adding lights to the stairwell and of course Christmas scented candles. It's crazy how school, work, midterms and life gets in the way of us doing the things that we really do. I think it defiantly takes a way from the Christmas spirit. Don't know what I mean? Well, I have a story for you...

I worked on Black Friday, which is probably the worst day EVER for anyone who works in retail. My job was to put clothes back on the floor and find customers sizes, the amount of people that had an attitude towards everyone working, who was impatient, or had something rude to say to us was unbelievable, these people who were buying presents for their loved ones, couldn't say one nice thing to everyone working really hard to get what they needed. 

For everyone out there reading this blog, Christmas is the time of year to be nice and kind to each other(although we should be nice and kind to each other all the time) but spread the Christmas spirit and be kind to one another, pay it forward, say something kind about the people who work in your favorite restaurants or clothing stores. It's an amazing feeling to see someone who's been having a bad day, smile at a compliment. 

Since I haven't put up my Christmas tree, here's a picture of my online tree:)

PSA's are done!!!

It's PSA week! 

We are FINALLY done. It took a lot longer than I thought because editing everything how the whole group wants it took a lot of time. I didn't realize how much work went into making a short video. Choosing the right type of music, selecting the right type of shot, getting the person to do what you envisioned. It's really hard. I totally give kudos to one of the guys in my group because he did a great job putting the sequence together and making it look awesome. 

Ours is being shown on Thursday and I'm super excited to see what people think and say about it

Here's a little sneak peak as to what it's going to look like. 

PSA Film Week

Hey guys! 

So this week we were filming our PSA's that I was talking about last week. It was actually exciting to start designing the posters asking people to be in it and actually carrying it out with the filming. We had three students and one counselor be apart of the PSA.  We finished filming today and I think next week we are going to start editing and finalizing. I have NO CLUE how to do either of those things, so I have a lot learn about it and I am pretty excited! 

I guess I should tell you what the PSA is about....well like I said last week, it's about Copyright rules. Most people who make projects or reports don't really think about copyrighting laws (besides when they have to do a Works Cited page), but there is so much more, and that's what our PSA is trying to explain. 

Off topic....but last night I was apart of Miss LNC Scholarship pageant. There were 14 total girls in the pageant and everyone did so amazing, I'm so happy to have been involved with this with such awesome girls, I started some new friendships and learned more about previous friends.                            I was 2nd runner up and even got $100 scholarship and a really pretty sash! If you are in top 5 then you have to answer an on-stage question, which for me was really scary, because I have a tendency to trip up on words, but my question that was based off of my interview was about what toxic charity has taught me when I go on mission trips. I instantly felt relief because I am so comfortable talking about toxic charity and what it has done for me and even though I said um(which you aren't supposed to do) I was still really proud of my answer. 

My picture this week is a picture is a picture of all 14 girls who were involved in the pageant because every single one of us worked out booties off for last night and the second one is the sash that I get to wear today to school.

Thank you so much for reading! 

Blog 11

Exciting things have been happening in our DigCit class. We are starting our PSA storyboarding this week. My groups topic is Copyright laws, which for a PSA, is a pretty tough topic. But my group choose MY idea! I'm so excited that my group thought my idea is good enough to show to people. So while we have been finishing up on the storyboards, we also got to talk to Kevin Beatty who went to school and got his B.S. in film which is pretty cool. But he pretty much focuses on photography. 

He basically is a freelance photographer, at first hearing that he just waits for jobs freaked me out because he never knows where his next paycheck will come from. I'm the type of person who likes to plan out everything and if I don't then I worry. I totally commend him for living like that. What I really like about him is that he took the time to make a booklet of his work and personally sent it to potential work place, he sent it to about 10 different people and out of those people he got one response back. Even though he got only one response, it still got him a job. Adding a product that was his own work probably really meant a lot to the people he sent it to because he took the time and make another portfolio which made him stand out from other people. 

  I learned some new ways to stand out with my project and new ideas for being professional not just for my project but also in the real world. 

Community Showcase is over!

Last night was awesome! The community showcase turn out was amazing, all of the parents, friends and teachers that showed up and were so supportive of our projects. I was so nervous that I wasn't going to be able to explain my project and people weren't going to understand what I was talking about. But I had so many people say that they understood and and had never heard of toxic charity. Even Mrs. McNeilly said she hadn't really understood what my project was about until yesterday. 

At first I was really nervous about talking to people but I realized that when I'm talking about Nicaragua I'm not nervous. I guess because when your passionate about something you don't really have to force anything when your talking about it. 

For those of you who weren't able to come last night but wanted to see my poster here it is!

Thanks for reading!

Figuring it out...

Community Showcase is next week! Now that I've done a 180 on my project, I'm ready for next week to talk about it and talk about everything involved with my project. I've written all my interview questions and now I need to get in touch with everyone who I'm interviewing and find a time to shoot it! But first I'm focusing on the showcase next week. I picked up my poster board and glitter letters and I'm ready to get started on it! I plan to fill the poster board with pictures and memories from mission trips that I've personally been on. I'll probably add a short story about my mentors and obviously what my project is about. The digital part I haven't quite figured out what it is going to be, whether it's pictures, stories, or memories from Nica. 

But I think what's most important is a catchy title....which I don't have(Any ideas??)

Thanks for reading!!

Roadblock Week!

This week has been kind of stressful week because I had to change my Genius Time project, so I had to redo my proposal idea and send it in. So I've had a really hard time trying to catch myself up and make sure that it still shows my passion thoroughly. I finally finished my second proposal yesterday and felt really good about where my project is going to go. 

I will being doing a video about toxic charity and my experience with third world countries. I will be conducting interviews from people who have gone to mission trips with toxic charities in mind and also a company in Nicaragua who spreads awareness about Toxic Charity. Next week, I will start to write all of my interview questions, and start scheduling my interviews to get everything started! 

I learned this week that just because there is an obstacle in your way doesn't mean everything has come crashing down, it just means you have to rethink how you want to impact people.

Blog week 7

This week we talked about the impact of your life and comments on social media. We talked about how colleges have been now using social media to see what kind of person that could potentially be on there campus. I was looking through my social media and wasn't to proud of some of it because I think it doesn't truly portray who I am, which makes me want to watch and rethink about what I put up on my social media. So now every time I go to post something I check and recheck to make sure its showing who I really am. 

#WEAREALLUNCOOL     (check out this campaign)

Thanks for reading!!!

Setbacks for my passion project

This week I had a meeting with my church who are potentially going to be helping me with my passion project. There are some problems that have come up which at first caused me to get really bummed out cause I thought I needed to start over. I haven't fixed the problems yet but I don't plan on completely throwing away my project. I know that I have a lot to do and get done if I want this project to work but I am very hopeful that it will get done. I know I have a lot of people that are willing and excited to help this project become a success. You can't expect everything to be perfect all the time, then it becomes no fun. 

Thanks for reading!!!     

Professional Development Presentation

Sorry I'm a little late on my blog...I've had a busy couple of days. 

We presented our project last friday to the teachers at professional development, which was very nerve-racking because I have had most of them so it was weird to feel like we were the teachers and they were the students! 

Anyway I think the presentation went really well. The teachers seemed to be really interested in the different apps that we were showing them to use in the classroom. Our group talked aboout using schoology discussions between students to help each other understand concepts when they are out of the classroom. 

I hope that we get more opportunities to do stuff like that because it was really fun and I think it really helped the teachers. 

Thanks for reading!!!

9/18/15

This week I only made it to Fridays class because I was in a car accident and needed to take a couple days off for the shock to calm down. I only broke my hand in three places so I'm glad that is the only thing that needed medical attention out of the whole accident. 

But we have a lot of exciting things coming up for DigCit! We are going to be working with the teachers on a half day and teach them some new technology to use in their classrooms. Also we are working individually with teachers or clubs to help them with different projects. 

Hopefully I can make a full week for a better blog next week!! 

Twitter Chats

This week in class we learned about twitter chats. We are going to be apart of twitter chats ourselves. I think twitter chats are a good way to get other peoples opinion and get people talking about different issues(in 140 characters). 

I think I could use a twitter chat in my passion project to get people talking about toxic charity. I would be able to ask questions about what people know about it and get their opinions too. I think twitter is an amazing way to communicate, people from all over can input their opinion and learn about different topics or issues going on in the world. Why you ask? You only have 140 characters to get your point across. So its very hard to get off topic in one tweet. 

I hope everyone has a great week! 

Passion Project released!

So Shark Tank presentations are done and I'm finally ready to tell you what my Passion Project is! 

Originally, I was just going to do an awareness video on toxic charity and the effects it has on Nicaragua. I wanted to partner with C-IT and have them send me information on everything that was going on there. I messaged them the other day to ask for permission...and they loved it! I was so excited. Later on that day they asked if we could Skype so they could propose an idea to expand on my project. So they told me a story about a 16-year-old girl who lives in Santa Matilda was trying to do high school. Keep in mind their high school starts at 7th grade and the village of Santa Matilda does not have a high school so the closest one is in Chichigalpa, so along with school supplies, they also have to pay for transportation. Anyway, this girl was not able to continue with her education because they didn't have money for her to travel to school. So here is their idea to add on to mine; instead of sponsoring a student for their school supplies which won't even be used if there is no school, sponsor a teacher. One teacher is $50 per month and the school needs four teachers so that students can continue education. So what I want to do is hold a fundraiser and raise the money to pay for the teachers to come in and teach, because Nicaragua HAS teachers, but obviously they need money to pay for travel, food and their family. I'm not sure what the fundraiser will be yet. Then Mario and Rydder will videotape the process, from the beginning, middle to end. Different students will share there stories and what they learn in there class. 

I hope to continue this fundraiser after this class, because if we get a job for people then they can teach other kids, who could go on to the university or another job with a specific skill. So it will start a cycle and eventually they could become self-sufficient. That is my goal. 

Along with this post I am adding pictures from my previous trips to Santa Matilda, for Madame McDaniel who wanted to not just read about my experience but "see" it to! 

Thank you so much for reading this weeks post! I would love to answer any questions you may have about the project or anything else!

8/28/15 The Importance of Santa Matilda Nicaragua

The time has come for us to actually give a proposal for our Passion Projects. We have done so much to help us give an idea of what we want to do. Most people have come up with their ideas and they sound so cool! Next week we are going to present our proposal in a Shark Tank style presentation in front of the class.....which makes me so nervous. I am still working out the kinks to my project so I'm not going to say what it is yet, but I do want to share why this topic is so important to me.

Like I said, I've been to Nicaragua twice now and the people there have captured my heart. But leading up to my first trip, I was so nervous. There was a language barrier, I mean I was in French, not Spanish so I had no clue how to keep a conversation with someone who couldn't speak English. Basically right up until we got on the plane, I had so many doubts about what was going to happen this next week. But the first day we rolled into the village of Santa Matilda on the cattle truck, I looked out to the church and saw all of the kids there, holding posters and little gifts that they had made. We stepped out and the kids who were standing so still waiting for us, immediately ran for the different members of our team. A little girl named Gloria ran up, jumped into my arms hugged me and made sure that I didn't put her down for the next couple minutes. That day I knew that there was something that I needed to learn from these people. 

We went on house visits the next day which were so tough. Each of the stories were so different and people were going through so many things like one lady who had cancer while taking care of her grandchildren. Their stories were so different but they all had something in common, they weren't complaining, they invited us in and just had a conversation with us, they never begged us for anything, in fact they were worried with how we were doing, making sure that we had enough water and food. They never wanted us to feel bad for them, and they gave all they had which was much more than any dollar amount that someone could give me. 

After all of that I'll shorten it down of why Nicaragua is so important to me, the people of Santa Matilda(the village that I worked in) give so much to other people. Coming back, it was like reverse culture shock, where most people wouldn't give you everything they had to you, and I'm not saying that everyone is like that here or like that in Nicaragua. But if you look at the material things that they have compared to the material things that we have, we would beat them out no problem, but the amount of love and care that they pour out to complete strangers compared to us, they would beat us out so much more than you would think. 

Next time I promise I will have my Passion Project worked out. Thank y'all for reading my post this week.

My 1st blog! My Heartbreak Map

This week in class we worked on our Heartbreak Maps. We had to pick what we love, what breaks our heart about it and what are some possible solutions to fixing it. For my heartbreak map I put in the center for what I love is service work, and my kiddos in Nicaragua. I have gone to Nicaragua twice now and have fallen in love with all of the kids and people that I have met and worked with, their stories have completely broken my heart. One of the main problems that I have seen is teen pregnancy, girls as young as 11-12 are pregnant because that's the culture they have grown up in. This means a lot of girls are unable to go to school and get an education, instead they may have to get a job to provide for their family or have to stay home and take care of their family. When the translators were talking about how the children live and how everything works in the village, I fell apart. A lot of girls who are unable to get pregnant become prostitutes to earn money for their families. I began to think "Why would children be okay with doing this to themselves?" and then after a long time of going through different opinions in my head, I finally asked my translator, he told me that they don't know any better, there is no education that tells them that they could be doing so much better with their life, that's a norm in their society and its a way for a family to earn a little bit of money. 

My translator Mario has come up with "Empower" which is a company that teaches not only abstinence till you are married but self-confidence and self-worth which was absolutely amazing to sit in and watch. It is a student lead meeting and is a couple weeks long and if you teach for other kids, you are eligible for a scholarship to an university.  Their big thing is using Nicaraguan teens because they are able to connect easier than an adult can. 

So far I haven't really come up on a solution for what breaks my heart. Hopefully, if this becomes my passion project, I'll have some sort of answer for you.   

  I want to make sure that none of you that are reading this feel bad for people in third world countries because I assure you, they don't need it. They may not have all the things we have here but they are some of the happiest people in the world, they give everything they have to anyone and everyone. Walking around in one village, an older lady had just gotten back from getting mangos that she was going to cut up and eat, we had stopped to ask her some questions and she invited us inside her "house" and asked us to stay and talk to her for a little while. We stayed there for a bit and as we were leaving her home she asked us to take the mangos as a thank you for visiting with her. She had eight mangos in her hand a gave us all eight. I was blown away, this lady had just gotten back from picking all of these mangos and she gave us EVERY single one of them. 

Thank you so much for reading my first blog!