Weekly Review Blog Post, 10/5/12

With week seven coming to an end, I'm still proud to be a Gaston Early College High School student. This week has been fun, yet suspenseful, as we wait for our school building to be finished with construction. Hopefully, we can move into our educational humble-of-ode within the next couple of weeks.

iPhone, May 11, 2008

To start the week off with a bit of a change, I was introduced to a new peer blog editing system. Instead of commenting directly on my partner's blog post, I created a word document that told them what they needed to fix before their blog post was taken as a grade by our teacher. I think this new editing system benefits everyone's grades, writing skills, and contentment.

The lesson that our teacher taught us on Tuesday is a lesson that everyone with access to the digital world needs to know about. Our lesson was focused on "sexting". Our teacher talked to us about the dangers and consequences of "sexting", and to help us understand better, she gave us vocabulary terms and definitions.


Self-disclosure: sharing private, sensitive, or confidential information about yourself to others
Reciprocate: to give in return
Sexting: sending or receiving sexually explicit photos or videos by text or other devices


We also learned about the health risks of using technology improperly on our Digital Driver's License classwork. We learned that posture, eye-sight, and reputation can potentially be ruined if you don't use technology in a safe way.

Pink phone, May 12, 2008

 The consequences of sexting can be very detrimental to a person's reputation. If a nude picture is exposed to the public of someone, the person in the photograph can feel embarrassed, ashamed, and betrayed.

Often times, people commit suicide because of the bullying and harassment that they experience, all because of one bad decision to send a sexually explicit picture. Sexting is a terrible idea, and it can get you in serious trouble.

The best day this week was definitely Wednesday, because we got to use a website called Make Beliefs Comix for the first time. The purpose of  my comic is to broadcast the dangers of sexting and the benefits of building online relationships. I made two comics, each representing different scenarios. This flawless website is easy-to-use, colorful, and definitely comprehensible. If you're interested in making your own whimsical comic for free, visit Make Beliefs Comix!

                                                         Tutorial to Make Beliefs Comix

I think I speak for the whole class when I say that Thursday was a very challenging day. Almost everyone could've done better on the grammar test that we completed. It was very difficult because we couldn't use the helpful notes that we took in class on our test. Although there were many poor grades in the class, I'm glad that a multitude of students vowed to study harder and longer for the next grammar test.

Overall, this week has been fun and challenging. Everyday, I remind myself of how blessed and grateful I am for being at this amazing school. Hopefully, next week can be just as great as this week. Happy blogging!

Week 5 at Gaston Early College High School

Another week at Gaston Early College High School has passed by, leaving it's students and faculty members in awe of the challenging, yet fun, program that we call our school. Week five has definitely been challenging, with all of the tests and homework, but nonetheless, it's been great.

To start the week off with a change, we were assigned new peer editing partners. We have those partners so that they can give us positive feedback and suggestions on our Thursday current event article posts and our weekly review blog posts. We were also given a new peer editing grading rubric and new stems words.

Digital citizenship, May 25, 2012

The best day that I had this week was on Tuesday. We took a typing test, reviewed our grammar homework, and best of all, we were introduced to an online program called Digital Driver's License.

Digital Driver's License is a cool website that teaches us about Digital Citizenship, Email Etiquette, and much more valuable lessons about the online world. The lessons are actually fun, and I greatly value this flawless website. I completed the section 'Respect Yourself/ Respect Others'.

Another great tool that I was introduced to was online photo editing. I learned how to take a photo and add frames, captions, effects, and backgrounds to it. It's really fun, and I know that it will come in handy throughout my high school career when I'm doing projects online. The photo editing website that I used is called PhotoFunia. The photos below are the photos that I edited. Also, there's a brief tutorial on getting started with PhotoFunia.

Original photo for PhotoFunia editing/ woman. December 22, 2009

The original picture is represented in a negative way.

The original picture is represented in a positive way.

                   Tutorial to PhotoFunia

                        

Tracks we leave, February 17, 2010

We also received definitions to accompany our lesson unit on digital citizenship.

Reputation: a general impression held by others and the public
Persist: to continue on and endure
Context: different factors that surround information that help determine its meaning
Tag: words and terms that describe a photo or video. Also known as a 'caption'

Overall, this week has been amazing. I'm glad that I'm starting to get the hang of being in a completely new environment that we know as high school. I hope next week can be just as good as this week, and as always, happy blogging!