Child Advertisement

These last few weeks, as you know, I have done presentations to several groups of children, most recently to the junior high kids Tuesday. While we were thinking of ideas, I thought back to our presentation to the elementary students, and what made them jump and yell and scream with excitement. From what I had seen, it was what got them involved. Things like asking questions and involving them in activities seemed to raise their interest far more than us talking, and rewards like candy exacerbated the reaction. This seemed to hold true again to our presentation with the junior high kids, which was a simple game of question and answer. After those, we posed to them several riddles, which, if they got right, would gain them a small piece of candy. All of the students seemed interested and engaged with the activity, with an enormous participation rate. I could barely keep up with all of the students raising their hands. So, recently, I decided to see if advertisements elsewhere backed this up. While looking, I found an article entitled "How Marketers Target Kids" on mediasmarts.ca, which seemed to fit perfectly with what my line of thinking was. The article begins with how much influence that the children had on their family in a variety of subjects. For instance, in the choice of food for breakfast and lunch, the child has an average of 96% of influence on where the family eats. The list goes on: clothing purchases (95%), software purchases (76%), family entertainment choices (98%), and family trips (94%). This surprised me, as I knew children exercised influence, but I never realized how much influence that they actually had. The first method that I saw wasn't very related to my type of advertisement, it involved setting up brand name recognition from early stages of life, and my project starts, and possibly ends, this year so that strategy was out. The second strategy, however, related more to my project. It is referred to as "buzz marketing", and it is where a company gets a "cool" person to try their brand in the hopes that it attracts more customers later. In my project, this could be something to try. Getting one kid to join may influence their friends, and their friends friends, and so on. We have a few signed up already, but the downside is I do not know who the sixth grade cool kids are, and we have little time with them still in school. If I continue the camp, however, this may have its merits as now in retrospect I can know that this is a strategy. The final related section of the article that I saw fit perfectly. It went with what we had been doing all along, and it all opened up with the title "Commercialization in Education". This is when a company offers a school money to come in and advertise with posters and presenters in order to promote their products. Aside from offering money, this is exactly what we had been doing. We went to a school, did our activity, handed out our flyers with the Oregon Park District label slapped on there, and gave our speech. Unfortunately, I saw no alternate strategies for advertisement excluding the use of the internet. I feel that at this point, having little time at the end of the year, needing to plan other parts of our camp and do final organization that this strategy is unlikely, but again, if I do this next year, it will likely be incorporated into my strategy and put on every flyer and poster that we put up in order to reach a higher variety of kids with more consistence. Overall, looking up these strategies was a positive and helpful thing to do, and though it may be too late for me this year, next year it could help me and others that I inform of this.

Elementary Presentation

This past week, on Wednesday, my partners and I led a day of fun for the children at the elementary school. The day mainly consisted of a scavenger hunt, which was followed by a brief presentation to the 4th through 6th graders. We spent the last two weeks designing the clues for this scavenger hunt, leading them on a merry journey around our Park West. The actual scavenger hunt itself did not go as planned. We had a plan in which the clues were set up in their designated positions, in envelopes, which the students were to take one of. This didn't quite pan out. Our first complication was us setting up our clues at the position that they led to. The clue that should have led the kids to the tennis court was at the tennis court. After scrambling in the wet grass to fix that mistake, which I ended up doing on my own because my partners had to go to their classes, I ran into another complication. The baseball fields we had planned on using for some of the clues were locked shut, and I could see the kids streaming from the first clue location. So I found a table near the baseball fields and laid their clues there, sending a frantic text to my partners of this information. At the last clue location the kids had caught up to me, and I was completely exhausted. I threw down the rest of the clues where they were supposed to be and ran up the hill with the other kids. As the other groups slowly made their way to the hill I passed out candy to the winners of the race. Luckily, we found at the end that the children enjoyed running around outside more than anything. Many had taken more than one clue, so after each round I replaced them in their proper position. I would like to mention one child in particular, simply because he impressed me. This child did a quadruple cartwheel down a large hill. The other reason besides me being impressed with him was that he was a good example of how the kids were having fun out there. I was very preoccupied with making sure that everything was perfect, but after a few rounds I discovered that if the scavenger hunt was set up properly or not, the kids would still have fun. Many rolled down the hill, played ninja, talked, laughed, and chased each other around. The presentation was brief, so while describing it I too will be brief. We had three slides on our powerpoint, which had pictures of the kids from the scavenger hunt that day. The slides had few words, just titled with what the camp was, why they should do it, and how to sign up. I myself had trouble projecting to the students, as we had no microphone so it was different than usual, but Kelsey on the other hand did very well. She ended up doing much of the presentation, as the kids looked as if they were losing interest. Next time I would want to prepare more, and now I will have it in my head if I ever do a scavenger hunt that the clues do not go where the clues themselves lead. All in all, our day went well, and when I asked a few kids  afterward, several said that they were at least considering signing up.

Academic Update #4

Recently, I have accomplished much more in my completion of the academic standards set forward by our Open teachers, especially English.

Last time in Math I had told you about my completion of chapter 9. This week, I have completed the first half of our chapter 10 study guide. Alex and I decided this time, similar to last time, to simply go straight to Mr. Davidson, who gave us, as he calls it, a "crash course" in the topics. This has proven to be effective in the past, as we always pick up what he lays down quite quickly. This led us through the first half, and we are relying on the help of a peer, Dylan, for the other half. Dylan has completed all 10 chapters and the final, so along with Rosie, who has done the same, he is the peer to go to when one needs help on math. We hope to finish the study guide, and possibly another this week. The test and final will be taken over the next two weeks, closing out Math for good.

In English, much more has been accomplished since last I told you. I finished my rough draft of my essay, and had it peer reviewed by Alex and Dylan. This prompted many comments towards my intro, conclusion, and formatting of my paragraphs. I spent time with them talking it over, and we finally discovered what was being missed in my paragraphs. We had first thought that I was simply missing a topic sentence leading into each paragraph, but later Alex discovered that I put my topic sentence as the second to last sentence in nearly every paragraph. My intro and conclusion were almost completely scrapped, which I was fine with because I can learn from the mistakes I made here. During this week I also completed two sitting responses, of which I have now only one remaining before I have reached all of my standards, excluding research standards. I hope to finish my other discipline specific paper, likely based off of an AP Gov't and Politics assignment, and then focus on reaching specific standards such as research standards. 

This upcoming week I will be presenting to students in the elementary school in the hopes of influencing them to join our camp. I will likely blog about that soon after it has been done. All in all, I am very confident in my ability to finish all of my standards in both Math and English, as they are progressing at a pleasing rate.

Academic Update #3

Progress in my classes has been achieved, and as I had promised to blog after such had been done, here I am to tell you all about it.
As I said in my second academic update, Chapter 9 did indeed prove to be the easiest chapter. Alex and I finished off of a single lesson with Mr. Davidson after school, and we look to move on to the final chapter next week. After the brutal chapter 8 it felt very good to zoom through a chapter as fast as we did. It gave me personally a sense of motivation as it was quick progress on our board of standards, and for chapter 10, we are going straight to Mr. D in an attempt to replicate what we did this chapter. We will have the last chapter done in the next two weeks at most, and then begin work on our final. In math we are moving at a steady and thankfully far faster pace than before, and I feel that we will finish this year strongly.
In English however, there is a little less positivity towards the subject and far more seriousness. I had spent far too much time working on math and my Anthem essay, and now find myself with very little time to finish this literary analysis paper, along with several sitting responses, paragraph level argumentations, and a discipline specific paper all before the end of the year. But, with careful planning and well spaced time I fully believe that it can be done. Last week I outlined my paper over the book Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, and got a body paragraph done along with my intro. This week will be stressful, but after it is over I will have made great strides towards finishing the list I made above. This week I plan to not only finish my essay, but get three sitting responses done. This will require dedication and time, but as long as I have both it can be, and will be, completed. Also during this week I recently decided to create a list of the standards I need to knock off the board before the end of the year, and will be putting those standards into the work I complete in an effort to furhter organize my English end-of-year strategy. After Chapter 10 and my essay are completed I will get back to you on how my experiences in those things went, along with a plan for how to finish off my year in Open.

Academic Update #2

I have definitive news to report on my academic work thus far in Open. I have waited to blog until two requirements were reached, those being finishing the dreaded Chapter 8 and finishing my English essay over the book Anthem. I would like to thank my math and English teachers, respectively Mr. Davidson and Mr. Sitze for guiding me in the finishing of the goals I set forward. I would also like to thank Alex Sitze for collaborating with me in our math ventures along with reviewing my paper for English so as to provide an outside eye to errors I may have had. I will go into more detail of what I accomplished in math and English below.

For math, we struggled a great deal in finishing Chapter 8. As mentioned in my first academic update, we planned to learn by the book before taking the pretest. Upon reaching the pretest we encountered a problem on it that has been dubbed by students before us in Open as the "Hobbit Problem". This problem took multiple attempts, all of which failed, before I reached the level of desperation to ask Davidson for help. He showed me in this that I had the process correct, and was simply doing bookkeeping errors, along with square rooting things in an incorrect fashion. Upon learning this, I was able to understand and eventually even enjoy doing this problem, simply because I understood what I before had not. Upon getting this assessed, which we did separately from the actual test, both Alex, who had worked with me on this, and I achieved a green star symbolizing our mastery of the problem. Last Thursday we finally took the test, after some strenuous review over what we had forgotten over spring break and the Hobbit Problem oriented classes, and it went well. We were being tested over multiple conics: parabolas, circles, hyperbolas, and ellipses. We both received green stars on nearly every standard assessed, and plan to move to Chapter 9 next week, along with hopefully finishing it, as it has a reputation as the easiest chapter. Our math, though seeming slow for a while, has now picked up and I am glad to have finally put some stars up for it.

In English, I also finished my essay over the book Anthem, by Ayn Rand. With the competition deadline I planned to have finished by looming, I buckled down and typed the essay, at a far more pleasing pace than anticipated. I had planned to leave a week for editing and peer review, but I left myself with nearly two. After typing over half of my essay in one night simply because I didn't want to stop, I was very content with what I had accomplished. I had it reviewed, edited, and turned into Mr. Sitze with ample time before the competition deadline, which is a first for me. I usually am far behind on schedule with essays, and I was quite proud of myself for having done it well and ahead of schedule. I had done the essay over a single quote as well, as an experiment to see how well it would work. Unfortunately, this did not go as well as expected, and I have no plans of doing so again. For my final essay, I am reading Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad. Earlier this year I had read the book Lord Jim by Conrad, and had quite enjoyed it, so I have high hopes for this book as well. I plan to have it read within the next two weeks and hopefully the essay done within the two weeks after, possibly three. I will return when I have further progress to report on my academics, but I feel I currently am in a strong position to finish this year well. 

District Presentation

This last Friday, March 27th, the Open Program students and teachers presented to all the teachers in our district. We spent weeks preparing for this presentation. We were trying to decide several things: what we would present, how we would present it, and who would present what. We varied from videos to standing presentation for the formatting, and settled on a live presentation from Mr. Davidson, and all of the Open students. Unfortunately, three Open students could not make it to the final presentation. Ellen Reckamp and Allyse Ketter both had vacations that left that day, as it was the day before spring break. They both prepared videos about what they were discussing, which had a few difficulties during the live presentation, but they were purely technical and solved quickly. Despite us just being a small group of only 9 present highschool students, the teachers listened. They asked questions that proved this, delving into what is going on in Open, and a few asked if it could be implemented in lower grades. The third student who was missing on that day, Nicholas McCourt, did not have as much warning that he would not make the presentation on Friday, and I myself ended up taking his place to present about the challenges the Open Program faced. I found the topic I presented to be appropriate, due to my fear of public speaking. The presentation practice in class was itself was a challenge, and presenting in front of all of those teachers was incredibly difficult. Nevertheless, I stood my ground and discussed our challenges.
I often wondered about why I was so nervous presenting. Because of this, I recently did some research, especially on being nervous. I found an article by Olivia Mitchell, which describes three possible reasons for nervousness in speaking. These three reasons are based off of our brains, which she describes as Old Brain, Mid Brain, and New Brain.

She began with Old Brain for an explanation. Old Brain is our natural survival instinct where our pack mentality comes into play. We do not want to stand out from the pack, the pack being the audience in this situation, so we fear to say something offensive or silly. Saying these things would separate us from the pack and so we fear to speak. Mid Brain is our fear from past experiences being blown out of proportion. This is when we had a bad experience from before and believe that everything following this will be the same bad experience. For this she suggested to compare it to something such as cutting off your own little finger. When considering that against giving a speech, the speech is far more appealing. The last fear she mentioned was New Brain fear. New Brain fear is trying to meet the demands of the audience and being afraid of being unable to. Her suggestion for meeting this fear of being unable to meet demands is to learn your topic so as to avoid being unable to answer questions, improvise if you get lost, and so on. In the presentation itself I did better than I had expected though.

For first semester, I talked about deciding on a project and acquiring our skill, along with the communication that went along with that process. In second semester, despite being done with the project decision and the acquisition of skill, I told the teachers that we are still challenged. This semester, it is our own challenging instead of the teachers. We have to adhere to our schedule by our own motivation, which provides challenges by the bushel. And of course, in all of these challenges, of course to me the most difficult was standing up there and talking to those teachers, even if it was only for a minute. Attached below is a video of our presentation, and I would like to extend a special thanks to all the teachers who helped design the Open Program, because without it there would have been absolutely no way I could have presented this last Friday. Thank you.

Here is the video:https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4KcrH0tHsbFajBHWTRhUzd5SmM/edit

Academic Update #1

In our second semester, we have implemented a completely open academic schedule. In addition to the work being done on my project, I have also been working to complete my math and English standards. These are being accomplished partly with the help of the teachers, and partly without. I am working at my own pace, keeping up with self set deadlines, and collaborating with peers throughout this process.

Math:
          In math, our standards are entirely covered by completing all ten chapters of the book. I have completed seven of such chapters, and am currently working on the eighth with Alex Sitze. Until this point we had been working by simply doing the pretest and using the book to learn all of the problems on such, but with chapter 8 this changed. It has a well earned reputation as the hardest chapter, and as such we decided to learn it section by section instead in the hopes of more thoroughly understanding the material. This chapter took a large degree of toil to work through, and often left us staring blankly at the papers we were working on. We now only have one last hill to climb, and this has been shown to be the biggest of all. Alex and I will be working on this last beast over the course of an entire week, if his project (creating,hosting, and organizing a school talent show) complies.This problem is a conics problem in which we must find the intersection of two circles. In the problemwe are given two sets of points that are the centers of the circles, the radii, and told to solve for the intersection of the circles. This requires isolating a variable, plugging the result into the other circle equation, solving for the now singular variable, and then finally plugging that back into the original equation to find the coordinates. I have already taken a few attempts at it, and gotten different answers each time, each of which were wrong. The struggle will continue; however, we have resources in our peers and teachers. After we finish this problem we will tighten up any weak areas in our knowledge and take this test after several long weeks.

English:        
         In English, despite a great deal of struggling with procrastination due to distant deadlines, I have finally begun to outline my paper over the book Anthem, by Ayn Rand. In this time I have taken classes of my choosing with Mr. Sitze, giving me a better understanding of developing unique interpretations through quotes. In this I have also done several practices towards paragraph level argumentation that have opened my eyes to being able to write better. I have learned the MLA setup for quotation, have used parallel structure correctly, and have learned a proper format towards setting up a argumentative paragraph. During this I have done five argumentative paragraphs that have been reviewed with Mr. Sitze, and I feel far more confident in my ability to develop a claim in a paragraph using a quote.I searched for the quotes to do so in my essay currently, and settled on a single quote to base the entire essay over. This is a new area for me, and I hope to grow in my ability to adapt to essay related changes that will be thrown my way in later years. I personally highly enjoy the method of learning that the open program is facilitating; the ability to work at the pace I choose has allowed greater understanding of subjects I may have had a hard time on in a specifically allotted time period, and allowed me to move quicker through the subjects that make sense to me quickly. I will write another blog detailing my open academic status when there is progress to report over my English and Math standards.