Friday, June 6, 2008

English Reflection

What? - Describe what the work is about. For example, this presentation is about a country and the requirement was .......Make sure you talk about what was expected for this work and what time it took you to complete it. Was it a group project? What input did others ahve to this work?

This work was based on the Shakespeare unit we had. In the Shakespeare unit we studied a book called The Twelfth Night. As we were reading this book, we got many tasks which we had to complete. One of these tasks was to do some contemplation questions almost every weekend. For these contemplation questions, we had to answer the questions given in well written detailed answers. It was required for us to respond in great detail thoroughly. We usually got this work over the weekends, so I made sure I answered to the best of my ability and put in a lot of effort. It usually took up about 1 hour because I made my answers very detailed.

So what? - Now talk about why this piece of work is significant. Is it something you are proud of? Is it something you received a high grade for? Is it something developmental that helped you reach a new level in the subject? In other words why have you chosen THIS artifact for your portfolio?

This work is quite significant because I received full marks on it. It is something I am very proud of because English is one of the subjects that I dont find to be that easy. It requires a lot of work and effort as well. I got full marks on this contemplation, and the other ones as well which I was very happy about because I spent a lot of time on it. It is something developmental as well because it has definitly improved my skills of writing up well written responses. I chose this for my portfolio because it is one of the best pieces of work I have done.

Now what? - Now talk about how doing this work has improved you as a learner in the MYP program. Has it helped you organise your time and work efficiently? Has it demonstrated that you are capable of doing mathematics and so now you have a lot more confidecne than before? What are you now going to do with the new knowledge and skills you have gained from doing this work? How is this moving you along the path of life?

This work has improved me as a learner in the MYP program because it has really improved my writing skills. By doing these questions, I got used to writing up long answers and well written. It has also helped me organize my work well because I made sure that the work was in chronological order and made sense, it was basically like a short essay. I have more confidence than before because I now know that I am capable of answering in well long written answers and receive a good grade on it. I am now going to use these skills in the next essays and long answer questions that I get later on from English, or even any other subject.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Wikispace Evaluation

This term of IT has been quite productive for me. This is because I have learned many new things when using technology, and I have also explored many new websites which can be used later on. The websites we used this term were delicious, blogger, and wikispaces. Delicious is helpful because it helps you book mark the websites you want to save. When it comes to blogger, it is great for using in classes for writing up process journals. It has been very helpful for IT class because it helped me keeping up with what work I got done in every class. Wikispaces was a great website to use, because I now have learned how to create digital portfolios.

In terms of my digital portfolio, I think it turned out to be ok. It was my first time creating one and I think based on that I have done a good job. I worked very hard on it and put in a lot of effort as well. There are many strengths, however there is still room for improvements. The improvements that were suggested by the person that did a reflection on my portfolio was to add in more information to the pages, and put up the artifacts. At that time, my portfolio was not really complete which is why the stuff required was not there. However, now I have improved it and everything required is there. I was supposed to write up four reflections and I had to put up the artifacts with them. These are all on my digital portfolio. My navigation button is very clear as well. I have given a title to each section. For example, underneath "For the teacher", I put in all the work that was required to get done in the beginning when we first started the wikispace. We had to get the rubric, and plan done. I had no problem with my navigation button, my peer said that it is very clear and easy to understand, which is why I didnt have to worry about it that much since it is easy to use and get to which ever page the reader wants to get to. I did not change my home page, because my peer said that it was very inviting and it gives the reader a little bit of information on who I am. I agree because I put in pictures of myself, and some of my closest friends. In my opinion, it looks quite inviting and may be fun to view as well, rather than being boring. She also mentioned that my about me page looks great. I put in extra effort to it. I put up pictures of myself, and wrote about myself. I also mentioned my closest friends in Qatar and how they are. The improvements she suggested was to add in more information to the pages. At that time, my pages were not fully complete, however now my wikispace is fully complete. I put up all of my artifacts and reflections. I improved it by adding in more information about the classes. Also I made my navigation way smaller. This is something my peer suggested for me to do. There were way to many subjects, and I would have never been able to complete them on time. So I cut it a bit short and chose 5 of the most important subjects of school. I added in information on their pages, and also put up my reflections. Another thing my peer suggested for me to do was to change the colors of the about me page. However, I did not change it because in my opinion it looks more attractive that way. I tried doing it with one color, but it did not look as good as it does with the multi color. It looks more attractive, and that way the reader would be more convinced to read each paragraph. I took her suggestion where she said I shouldnt put up my video on the home page. I already had planned not to do this because there was already quite a lot of stuff going on in the homepage, and it would have looked a bit awkward if I put up the video on the home page. So I decided to put in on the About me page, where it fit in the most. Overall, I took most of the suggestions she gave me which improved my digital portfolio in quite a lot of ways. I improved my navigation and my pages as well by adding in more information.

My Strengths

Overall, during this unit I think I had a lot of strengths and I think it has been a successful unit for me. I learned many new things, and biggest of all I have now finally completed my own digital portfolio! I think I have done well by completing what was required for us to do. We were required to make up our digital portfolio with information about ourselves, and our school. I included all of this in my digital portfolio which is why I think it is successful. My navigation is very clear and it is easy to get to which ever page to you want to view. I made sure that it doesn't look too complicated and is clear for the viewer. The color theme of my digital portfolio is also good. I chose two main colors which are black and purple. It looks a bit dark, however in my opinion it is quite attractive because it is a unique color combination. My navigation is also clearly labeled with a title on top of it which indicates what the pages are about. For example, above my Home page, about me, and activities out of school, I wrote "Introduction", so that the viewer may know that these pages are information of a little bit about me. The next title I put was "for the teacher". Underneath this I put in my rubric and plan for wikispace, so that it is clear for the teacher to find when she is grading my digital portfolio. The last title I have is "School subjects". Underneath this I obviously put up some of the school subjects from school. In these pages I included some information about the school subject and a reflection and artifact to go with it. These are the things that were most importantly required for our digital portfolio. I have worked very hard on putting these things in, which is why my digital portfolio turned out to look good.

Weaknesses

Even though my digital portfolio turned out to look good, I think there are still many improvements I could have made to make it look better. For example, I could have added in more school subjects, as I originally had. However, I cut it short due to the timings. I still had to fill in a lot of information, so I just decided to cut down the subjects a bit shorter so that I could finish on time. This is another weakness I had throughout the process. I was not very timely with my work, so at the end I ended up suffering. I had to cut down my digital portfolio a bit shorter, which I think is not so good. There should be as much information as possible for the viewer to explore. I will remember in the future to be more timely with work, because that is the only way you can succeed in anything. You have to be very organized so that you can get all your work done on the right time. I could also possibly put in more design for my digital portfolio. For example, my navigation button looks a bit boring. I could have used a different font to make it look more attractive. Another thing I could have done was possibly add in animation, as some other people had done. On their homepages, they had huge glitter animation which made their portfolio look very inviting. I think I should have done this so that my home page would have looked even better. For my documents on my pages, I should have used a website called docstoc, rather than just uploading it straight onto my page. However, I was not able to because there were problems going on the website. It wouldnt let me upload, and I was running short of time. So this is something I could have improved. However, for my power point I used slideshare.net. These are some improvements I could have made for my digital portfolio. However, in my opinion my digital portfolio is quite good because it has everything that was required to. These are just some changes I could have made to make the digital portfolio look better.

My video

The video I created for my digital portfolio turned out to be great. It has everything that was required and in my opinion it looks quite nice. It has many pictures of me, my family and friends which is what we were supposed to have. We had to make a video about our life, which could give the reader a little bit of information about who we are and what we are like. I also included some clips of my school, because that is an important part of my life. I am very happy with it because I put in a lot of effort to it to make it look nice.

Homo Faber

In terms of homo faber, I have done what was required to. Homo faber interacts with the creativity that you have, and how well you think. I have pretty much demonstrated this in my digital portfolio because it shows how creative I can be. My home page and about me page can clearly show how well I can think and be creative because it has shown that I am pretty much a good thinker. I made sure that I was original, and didnt use other peoples ideas, which is why my pages turned out to look nice. I decided to use many pictures because that is clearly the one thing that gives the viewers and idea of who the person is and what they are like. Homo Faber can be very important because it interacts with the creativity of a person. This is something that we really have to use almost everyday in our lives. Even in other subjects of school, we are required to be creative. It is a benefit for us that homo faber was linked to our wikispace project because we now know how it is , and in the future we can be more creative.
My digital portfolio will have many impacts on my family and friends, or any other viewer. This is because it gives them information about what kind of person I am. The video first of all, will say it all. It includes many memories with family and friends which they can view and enjoy at the same time. The video is basically a short summary of my life. The portfolio itself is also very informative as well. It tells the viewer about my school, and what subjects I study. The school subjects may give them an idea of what kind of work we get everyday, because on those pages I included what type of work we did throughout the year. I also included artifacts which show my grades, and how well I can work in school. This portfolio is a great thing for family and friends because it gives them information about myself.

Overall, I am very happy with the work I have produced this term. I put in great effort into it and I am proud that I have now learned how to create a digital portfolio and now have one as well. I have also learned many new things out of this unit, which I never knew before. It was a great fun project and I really enjoyed doing it.

My Video

I have finally completed my video, and I have also uploaded it onto Youtube. After uploading it onto youtube, I made sure that I embed it right away onto my wikispaces. I put the video on my About me page, because there is already too much stuff going on, on my front home page. On my home page, I put up pictures of me and my friends, which I thought would be quite inviting for the person exploring my wikispace. The video I made for my wikispace basically has pictures. At the end, I put in a video of my cousins, and my school. I made sure that I could make the video as short as possible so that the viewer wouldn't get bored. If you add in too much information, then the viewer gets very bored at a point.

The video I have on my wikispace is actually the final video. Before that video, I had created another video which I was going to use. However, due to some technical problems, I couldnt use it and I had to start all over with my video. This was very disappointing because after putting in so much effort, I had to start all over and make the video over again. Since I had to make the video over, I changed some stuff about it. For example, I added in more improvements. In the beginning of my video I introduced my self and what I was going to show in the video. This was about 30 sec of talking. I made sure that I didnt talk too much because this could bore the viewer. After showing a clip of myself, I then mainly had pictures throughout my video. I added in many cool effects and transitions which made the video look more attractive and fun to view. I also added in a video of my cousins, which was a funny and memorable moment. I wanted to make sure that I included in some memories in my video. At the end, I had a few short videos clips of the outside of school. I didnt want to put in that many videos of school because the viewer wouldve been bored. I only added in 3, of the outside of school. I also changed the song. I added "Shake" by the Ying Yang Twins, instead of Low by Flo rida, because it was more original.

I made my video on windows movie maker. After making the video I had to publish the movie, so that I could upload it onto Youtube, and then my wikispace. After creating my video I had to upload it onto Youtube. This was the most annoying part because in the beginning it wouldnt let me upload it onto Youtube for some odd reason. I had to upload it a couple of times, and then finally later on it worked. It took quite a long time because there were so many pictures and also video clips in the movie. I am quite happy with what I have produced, and hopefully the viewers will enjoy it!