End of the Beginning

What this senior year has taught me is that there isn't a true end for our education in life and the relationships we all have made with each other throughout the experience. There is only an end to the beginning of it all. We now have the tools for success, it is in our hands.

I find it kind of funny how no matter what the staff may say about not bringing beach balls or things like that to graduation, and students still bring them. This just goes to show that the graduating class has a mind of their own. If they want something to happen, they won't let some guy in a suit tell them they can't do that, innocent as it may be. I'm just as guilty as anyone else that brought something to toss up as my friend and I snuck in two bags of tortillas (yes in our pants) to toss up in the air. It wasn't to spite the principal or to make a mockery of the ceremony, but to just simply have fun with people I usually never would have laughed with and to celebrate a little early. Having minds of our own is more or less what makes things happen in this world, to move forward.

So to the class of 2014, it is now up to us to make these coming years truly count, lets make it our own. You can really do whatever you put your mind to, and if it is good in nature and you truly want it, it will happen.

Masterpiece Essay

Harms 1

Taylor Harms

Doctor David Preston

Expository Composition

1 June 2014

                                                Entering the Other Side

            The beginning of senior year would fill each student with excited, anticipation, and ambition for the year to come, some students more than others, but it was universal. Coming into the Expository Composition course I was under the impression that we would be doing a lot of reading of articles or books, to be responded to later on. Singing up for it the previous year, I just basically picked a class enei-minie-moe style, but I couldn’t have chosen any better as I now have learned. I had no idea of what was about to come. When Dr. Preston explained what the course would really consist of, I was shocked. Never would I have imagined a course that actually encouraged electronic usage in the classroom and the internet as a basic medium for most of our work. He would remind us still that there may be substitutes for mediums and the method of learning, but there is no substitute for raw hard work and the most basic and efficient style of learning: when it comes natural. When it is relateable and doesn’t feel like our previous connotation of the word “learning”.

        

Creativity: The Spice of Life

Writing is one of those things where you have to be in the mood for it. One day I can be totally into a topic and the next I fall flat, all because of the little things that made up my morning or just my overall level of motivation that day, but when I'm home I always seem to do well because I am in my own little area.

Creative writing is when an author just writes to entertain themselves or a targeted audience, using their minds as the basis for the story. It is important and fun to do this every so often because it makes you think a different way. It makes you able to generate situations and events in your head in order to achieve a theme or end result. This can help you to understand your own life, knowing what needs to happen in order to achieve an end result, or a goal. It does the mind good to analyze the order of events on paper, in order to be able to do it in your own life.

In relation to my masterpiece, creativity is what will set apart all the different projects. Everybody has their own subjects and things to present, and anybody can just slap together a slide show, but I don't believe in that. I believe that to truly understand it, and to make others understand it, everybody needs to present it in the way that enabled them to truly understand it, to bring everyone else down to their own level.

Masterpiece Interview

Here are the questions I asked three classmates in regards to their masterpieces:
1. What is your masterpiece on?
2. Why?
3. What is the significance of this project in your life/career?
4. How do you see this work helping you in life outside of school?
5. Has anything surprised you in your work?
6. What do you need to successfully complete your project and present it?
7. What have you learned that's worth teaching someone else?

Here are their responses:
Carlos Serrano
1. Boxing
2. He is passionate about it.
3. He would like to make a career out of it.
4. He would like to become a professional and to teach self-defense.
5. He was surprised about the amount of cardio involved.
6. He needs to record himself.
7. He has learned self-defense which is useful for others to learn
Alfredo Arriaga
1. Needs to find something to do.
2. Feels he needs direction right now.
3. Its significant to have a direction and purpose.
4. Collaboration to find inspiration.
5. It isn't that easy.
6. Find something to do.
7. To teach to start thinking early.
Jake Dickens
1. Becoming a wide range veterinarian.
2. He loves animals and has a passion for helping them.
3. Help him figure out his exact path to achieve this.
4. Be able to have a career in it.
5. It is MUCH harder than becoming a regular doctor.
6. He needs to finish documenting his internship.
7. If you want to learn about it, you need to go all in and go for it because there is a lot to learn.

Help Us Help You

If you haven't been keeping up with my or my colleagues blogs, we are currently doing our masterpiece on Architecture, and our project in response to our visit to Cal Poly. We will be doing what so many students have been talking about for years: a classroom made for students, by students. We will have the literal dimensions and renditions of the current classroom (Room 608) with drawings from every perspective, and we will completely destroy it and start from scratch. Now I don't want to give too much away, but our new classroom to be revealed on the day of the Masterpiece Gallery will be something revolutionary, and hopefully a precedent for the design of future learning spaces.

Now it wouldn't be completely made by students if there are only a few opinions on the project, so please feel free to comment or contact me, Matt Berumen, Alfredo Medina, or Cecelio with any ideas you would  like to see in our classroom of the future and don't worry we will still cite our source.

Purpose of Design

There is and will always be a constant struggle between the essences of form and function. Something beautiful may not always be the most functional and something with pure purpose often times doesn't have the best looks.

Why? Why can't form and function coexist? Well they can. They exist in those tools or things in our lives that are successful. Take the iPhone for example. It has the power of the entire Internet and still fits in your pocket and has an appealing design, which leads to its success. Now the same can not be said about school. The typical school is based on rectangles, cutting off the outside, and security; and this leads to a place resembling a prison, making students and even teachers not even feel wanted. The very place they spend their days, seems like it doesn't want them their. How is learning supposed to happen if students can't feel comfortable enough to open up to new ideas. Although we can't change the literal structure of the school, we can change how we see it. We can solve the issue of isolation by going outside, boring shapes by arranging desks in new and interesting ways to stimulate student collaboration, and security by...... Well the high fences have no remedy, but it could help to know that they are only there for your safety.

Everybody has their favorite place to work and study, so why not add elements of those places to the classroom. Classes should have maybe couches, or an area outside to read or write. The schools of the future will need to literally be a home away from home so that students are comfortable enough with their surroundings to open up to see what the curriculum has to offer.

Five Steps

1. Apply what I learned at Cal Poly
2. Work with fellow students
3. Design a space of my own
4. Do further research
5. Connect with college students

Learning Space of the Future

This past Wednesday (4/16) I traveled with a few fellow students interested in Architecture up to Cal Poly for about 4 hours of collaboration and team work with real 3rd year Architecture students. It was a really amazing and eye opening experience of both college life and what really goes on in their studio. Coming in, I already felt welcome and like a fellow colleague. Also, I came with the assumption that it would just be another class with the typical student relationships, but I couldn't be more wrong. They are truly one big family. I could sense just how connected they were with each other because it is similar to being on a team, spending the bulk of your day together. They would tell us about how much fun they have in the studio even when they are hard at work at 2 in the morning, with other classes in just 6 hours.

How to Raise a Moral Child

There is absolutely no doubt that children are impressionable upon their parents or other forms of parents and role models. All too often a child's behavior is reflective upon their parents, usually focusing on one of the two; the one they identify with most. These behaviors can be good or bad and a child's social life can be determined by how their parents are. It's simple science and psychology really. When a baby (animal or human) is born, it has a natural instinct to find out how to survive from its parents or other figures they see as role models, and this is a root problem of peer pressure as well; they identify with the group, so they yearn to be like them.

One of these fundamental behaviors is cooperation and team work as it is natural in the wild; a necessity for survival many times. And from this interaction comes a symptom of generosity and morality. Having an understanding that doing good things, is a good thing. But how does a child know what is a good deed to be repeated and what is a lapse of good judgement that should be avoided?

The Crossroads Between Should and Must

One of my life long themes is that everything happens for a reason. Every little event and choice made accumulates at the present time to make you the person you are, in the situation you are in. Novels capitalize on the eternal theme of "good vs evil" or following your dream despite what others say or even just being yourself.

Look at My Brain

Today in class, Shane Cheverez defined intelligence as the ability to learn and to solve problems using critical thinking, which is exactly how I would have defined. This is a sign of hope to all of the high schoolers in despair feeling they have low intelligence just because they don't get straight A's, but that is a whole-nother conversation.
I digress.
Anyway, how does my work in this class show my creativity, ability to collaborate and think critically? Well coming into this class, I hadn't really put a lot of serious effort into finding what I had wanted for a future career. I just began to listen in on everybody else's conversations on this, and they were in the same boat as I was. All we knew was what we liked to do and a couple of possible general fields, but with no way to really connect our passions to a definite career.

Through trial by fire, the Expository Composition program has helped us to finally find our home. A place to put our passions and talents to work. I had a general idea too, and when I found on that a few other students had the same one, it got me excited for it, and it was exciting to see everybody start to come out of their shells. We collaborated by feeding off of each other's energy. We thought critically by thinking for the future. We problem solved by using a combination of the two. Our inner thinking is best stimulated by sharing.

Preview of Coming Attractions

Today we talked in our groups about what we wanted to do for our final project, and there is a consensus that it has to have something to do with our big questions, paths of inquiry, and all of our resources. Basically we will have to show case how we have found ourselves through this course, which for a lot of us, will be difficult due to our abstract ideas.

Mine are pretty concrete though. Child Psychology and Engineering are two broad areas, but they can be made easily understandable with the right explanation.

Needless to say, I will pride myself on just how well I show the class that nothing in school is pointless. Everything has its purpose in the real world; be it learning how to grind out a boring work day, or to prepare yourself for that big meeting. Even dealing with teachers you hate translates as well into kissing ass to your future boss whom everyone hates, but depends on. Everything in nature has its place, just like everything in our human world.

Raising Digital Awareness

When building a website or blog, there are many things you should consider as to the amount and quality of content. What makes one so appealing is its purpose and value it serves. Websites enjoy traffic because that is how they get their product, which is viewers. They feel that the viewers are looking for something, so it is important that they view your site because you want them to see your ideas. As for my blog, I am doing this by providing genuine content that does has some value because it is just that; genuine. There is room for improvement though. I could post more often and with things more personal, with more insight to general ideas. I feel that human interaction is the most important thing because that is the fundamental purpose of the internet, and blogs themselves. Make your blog your own creation, and the traffic will take care of itself.

Literature Analysis #3

Splinter Cell "Fallout" by Tom Clancy
1. The novel starts out with Sam Fisher, a spy, doing training in San Francisco. He is then called in to travel to Maryland because his brother, Peter, was found barely alive, riddled with a deadly disease caused by a Plutonium Hydride chemical. Obviously an assassination, he is now fueled by vengeance as he must now stop a Islamic Fundamentalist and North Korean plan to eliminate the West, by destroying its oil supply with a strain of petroleum eating fungus.

Masterpiece Test

To prove my worthiness in my masterpiece field, I will need to demonstrate my knowledge of the fundamental purposes of my fields, not necessarily the technical items, but why they are so important, showing I have what it takes to be worthy of pursuing it. Experts prove their worthiness by their beliefs. They express what they believe through what they do. They are a role model by both what they say and do. A test that I need to pass would be one where I can prove how I could integrate my interest in child psychology, with Civil Engineering.

Test:
1. How can certain school designs affect how students learn?

2. What is one thing cities are designed around?

3. If you were working at an Engineering firm and you had connections in the schools giving ideas for a future school, would you design it with that in mind, or design it based on cost and personal preference?

Resource of the Day 3/17

Today's resource isn't so much about engineering or psychology, but about a passion of mine. Hiking, but more so, backpacking. A lot of people get these too mixed up but they are fairly different. Hiking implies a day trip, during a camping trip usually as something to do. Backpacking, however, I feel is more intense lasting at least over one night, carrying everything you need over many miles in usually hardly maintained

Resource of the Day 3/15

Here is a complete occupation guide to Civil Engineering from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A new thing I learned from looking at this is that Civil Engineers usually specialize in a few different subjects, but one that stood out was Geo technical Engineering. This is a branch of Civil Engineering that ensures that the very foundation in which projects are supposed to be done is stable and substantial. A very important part of any structure.
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/civil-engineers.htm#tab-1

Maybe He Knows What He's Talking About...

Today's (well yesterday) in class essay assignment was a welcomed challenge. I hadn't done a full 2 and a half page essay in 35 minutes in awhile, not since last year when I was prepping for the AP test. I felt that I definitely understood the prompt, and it felt good to finally feel prepared for a test like this. I read the articles and paid attention to the lecture, and I'm glad I did. Typically I just zone out and wait for the period to be over, but it was interesting so I paid attention.

Anyway, I felt that I did fairly well on it overall. I understood the prompt, and how to get it done. Before, I hadn't really seen myself as much of an entrepreneur, especially in regards to my masterpiece topic. When Dr. Preston explained his version of an entrepreneur, it clicked in my head that everyone is in entrepreneur in the exchange of thoughts and experiences that hold value for other people. Now, everything makes a bit more sense. Although I'm still confused as to what exactly he means by a 'project', I now see a bit more value with what he says about everyone having a 'product' to sell.

Resource of the Day 3/11

Today we look at a fusion of my two fields. This is how I could apply civil engineering and design skills to help students in the learning process. Believe it or not, the environment in which a student learns and lives is absolutely influential on their success in the future. This study conducted throughout 2008 tested the effects of three different school designs, each with different methods of lighting, classroom capacity, and hallway traffic systems. I think it is truly interesting that there is a correlation between the effective education of students, and the very structures in which they learn.
http://sdpl.coe.uga.edu/research/TannerResearchAward.pdf

I, Entrepreneur

The expert that I had previously designed the 10 questions for, has no name. I haven't found that one expert that I truly admire and respect. Frankly, I don't really want to have that one amazing idol that makes everyone else look bad. I enjoy diversity. I feel that the entire community of Engineers or Child Psychologists collectively make one sentient being. If i just have that one person, I am only seeing the successes of the things that one person has tried. I want to know the successes of all things tried and put to the test. However, the entire community of either field is filled with entrepreneurs. They are hired because they have a quality that the company needs. Being hired to a firm or starting your own is simple economics; supply and demand. In the real world, an entrepreneur is the supplier, and the public, the demander. Services are exchanged based on need and functionality and the ones that have true value are the ones that stick around. Take Apple for example. It had a very bumpy start and nearly went out of business, why? Because they didn't provide the correct supply of what it was trying to provide. When it finally met the expectations and later surpassed them, it sky rocketed to the computer giant it is today.