Nut Graf

Nut Graf: slang term used for parts of news stories that include a small summary of your story. It's also used to tell a reader why they should keep reading. The term can also be used as nutgraph or but 'graph, but as long as you understand the idea that's being conveyed.

A nut graf that supports your story by giving assisting material to the readers, or directing them to it, is a strong, good one. It's also a strong if it helps lead the rest of your story and gives readers a reason to continue reading. An important thing about a nut graf is that it substantiates your piece, which is done so through it's smooth transition, and reason to read.

My First Interview

1. What's your name? - My name is Skylar Lancaster.
2. What grade are you in? - I am in 12th grade.
3.  What do you like to do in your free time? - I really enjoy reading and making art in my free time.
4. Why do you believe you got the student of the month? - I believe that I became student of the month because of all the hard work I do in my classes, and by the fact that I spend a lot of my time helping others.
5. Do you do anything to help out around in the community? - In my community, I love to go help out at animal shelters and food banks. I also donate any extra clothes and books that I no longer need. 
6. What are some tips you can give others to help them also become a student of the month? - Some tips to become student of the month is to just always be working hard; you've got to be willing to set a good example for others and help others out.
7. Have you helped around at school? - Yes. 
8. And if so, what have you specifically done to help out? - I have helped around the school by volunteering for different organizations. I've even helped make our campus more beautiful by planting new flowers and tress.
9. What are some clubs or school activities that you do? - I am apart of art club, student counsel and play on the tennis team. 
10. Which subjects are your strong suits? - My strong suits are science and English.
11. Which subjects do you have more difficulty with? - I have a bit of difficulty with my math classes.
12. How do you get over challenging classes? - I over come my difficult classes by always coming prepared to class and asking questions, especially when I'm stumped on something.
13. How does receiving this award make you feel? - Receiving this award makes me feel very proud of myself and accomplished.
14. How do you feel about your classmates? - I look up to my classmates and love helping them out because they all deserve to get good grades, as long as they work hard.
15. Was being student of the month a goal of yours? - Yes, being student of the month has always been a big goal of mine.
16. Is there anyone in particular who helped you reach this goal? - My mother particularly was someone who really helped me reach my goal as student of the month.
17. What are some other goals you may have now that you've accomplished this one? - Now that I've accomplished my goal as student of the month, my next goal is to get into the collage I want to go to.
18. What makes you different from the rest of the other students? - I'm different from the other students because I find school to be a really great place, somewhere where I can really learn; I know most students don't really find school appealing.
19. What do you want to do once you graduate? - Once I graduate I plan to go to collage and study bioengineering. I hope to have my own lab some day.
20. Is there any teachers (or other adults) that really helped you to become the student of the month? - My science teacher, Mrs. Fray, really helped me to become student of the month by letting me know about any school-related events that I could attend.

SLO Practice

1. C
2. A
3. C
4. D
5. B
6. C
Caption: On March 17th, in Canada, Prime Minister Justin Tradeau  walks with empowering figure, Malala Yousafzai while she waves at her fans as they snap photos of her. After  her many brave actions in honor of her country, Malala has found herself traveling to Canada to become an honorary Canadian, she is the sixth person to receive this honor and is also the youngest. 

Inverted Pyramid

Student of the Month Interview

1. What's your name?
2. What grade are you in?
3. What do you like to do in your free time?
4. Why do you believe you got the student of the month?
5. Do you do anything to help out around in the community?
6. What are some tips you can give others to help them also become a student of the month?
7. Have you helped around at school? 
8. And if so, what have you specifically done to help out?
9. What are some clubs or school activities that you do?
10. Which subjects are your strong suits?
11. Which subjects do you have more difficulty with?
12. How do you get over challenging classes?
13. How does receiving this award make you feel?
14. How do you feel about your classmates?
15. Was being student of the month a goal of yours?
16. Is there anyone in particular who helped you reach this goal?
17. What are some other goals you may have now that you've accomplished this one?
18. What makes you different from the rest of the other students?
19. What do you want to do once you graduate?
20. Is there any teachers (or other adults) that really helped you to become the student of the month?

School Uniforms

1. You could interview; different students, teachers, and parents.

2. 
- What is your name?
- What is your association with the school? 
- What are your thoughts on school uniforms?
- Do you really think school uniforms are necessary?
- What benefits do you think the uniforms will have on the school?
- What do you think is to be done if a student cant afford a uniform?
- Do uniforms really affect student's learning environment?
- What part of this idea do you agree with most?
- What part of this idea do you disagree with?
- Do you think teachers and other staff members should also wear uniforms with the students?
- Should the district or students' families pay for the cost of these new uniforms?
- Will you help to enforce this new dress code?
- Do you know how/why this idea was brought up?
- What do you think the school uniforms will be like?
- Do you think this will get in the way of students expressing themselves?
- How will the school plan to handle those not in the dress code.
- Will these uniforms change daily routine?
- Do you think these new changes will be negative or positive? and why?
- Anything else you would like to add?
- Is there anyone in particular that you can point us to for an interview?

Architecture Preview #2

Krzywy, Poland 

Details

Light 

Pattern

Angles and Shapes

Surroundings 

The Basket Building

Details

Patterns

Surroundings

Nautilus House

Details

Light 

Patterns

Angles and Shapes

Surroundings

Stone House

Details

Light

Surroundings 

Habitat 67

Details

Light 

Patterns

Angles and Shapes

Surroundings

Front Pages of the World

My favorite newspaper front page was "The Desert Sun" because it has a much different layout compared to other newspapers. 

1. "Coachella Evolves: Antarctica dome,  punk rock tent, food" was my favorite headline because it shows that this newspaper isn't exactly like other newspapers.
2. There was already a limited number of stories on the cover, but out of those, only one or two really caught my attention.
3. All of them have their newspaper name bold and on the top of the bag. There's also a eye-catching headline accompanied by a photo. 
4. There are some newspapers that focus on either more on text, or on the image. Some include graphics and colors. 

The Lone Star Dispatch newspaper

1. Our school paper is rather colorful and more lively compared to other papers.
2. What stands out for me is the overall usage of graphs, cartoons, and images that helps pull in more readers
3. About ten articles in the newspaper caught my attention.
4. I feel like if there was something extra special about the Lone Star Dispatch that made it stand out compared to other papers, then it can definitely improve.
5. It does follow very similar guidelines as other papers.
6. I believe it's neat that our school a newspaper that is very much like a real-life magazine and kinda prepares you for seeing those in real life.

Architecture Preview #1

The Basket Building was built by The Longaberger Company in 1997. The building is located in Newark, Ohio, and is open for the public to visit. The building cost $30 million and two years to make. Seeing as this building is the Longaberger Company Headquarters (a comapny dedicated to baskets and other), it seems ideal to make the building shaped like a basket.

I picked this building because, usually when you see interesting buildings you expect to see fun and weird designs. With the Basket Building, it's fun to see something a simple basket being the shape of a building.

Krywy Domek (Crooked House) in Sopot, Poland was built in 2004 by Szotynscy & Zaleski. The building is open to the public. There isn't much on the price it took to build it. The two architects were inspired by fairytale illustrations and drawing by Jan Marcin Szancer and Per Dahlberg.

I really liked this building because of how fun it seems. It also kinda messes with your perception of reality.

 

Nautilus House was built by Javier Senosiain in 2007, and is located near Mexico City. It's a public building and cost $218,000 to build, and was made to challenge normal buildings and make something interesting. I was particularly interested by this building because it really does look like a nautilus and the colored panes in the front are really fun.

Stone House was built from 1972 and finished two years later in 1974. It's located in Guimaraes, Portugal. There isn't a name for the architect, nor is there a established cost for the house. The building is local and has attracted many tourist throughout the years. The building was built as an architectural monument (what for, it doesn't say).

I picked this building because of how uncommon it is. Usually when people think about architecture, they think funky, new, modern buildings. Most people don't understand that all buildings are architecture, just that some are fancier than others. I also really like how natural this building is. It's in the middle of nowhere, there's not electricity, and the fountain of the build is four huge boulder. That's pretty darn cool!

 

 

Habitat 67, located in Quebec, Canada, was designed by Moshe Safdie. The building was built in 1967 and is a residential building, where one can live. It also took $22, 195, 920 to build. It was built for a living space, and for "Expo 67."

I really liked this building because it's intricate and makes you really have to think and try and figure out how it works.

Website Review

The website I explored was PetaPixel, whose intentions are to inform you about photography and camera. They write about useful camera tips and anything camera /photography related. The average viewer can learn lots from this website, they can learn lots about camera and what to do to shoot really great pictures.
I would definitely add this website to my bookmarks because of how informational it is. I would also recommend this website to others, mostly to those who have an interest in photography. On a scale of one to five, I would rate this website a four because although it has great content and articles, I did find it a bit difficult to navigate.

The image above is a photo I found on this website and really liked. It's from an article titled The NPF Rule: A Formula for Sharp Star Photos Every Time. The article is about how to take starry pictures, just like the one above. I choose to share this image because I've always been really fascinated by galaxy pictures. It's also really amazing how this image isn't photo shopped but actually taken by a real camera and person (seeing as most galaxy photo are fake). I very much enjoy the detail that is included throughout the entire image. The rocks are dark blobs, they still have shape, and the reflection of the night sky on the water is so nicely detail and captured. I also like the rule of thirds that is being used in this image, with the line of trees off to the side. The composition of the image is really nice as well as the quality.

Sports Portfolio Evaluation

Part 1
1. a. Josh Birnbaum
b. Stories
c. Didn't like certain angles, clique photos, and that there were no good "moment" photos.
d. People in on the action, details on close up photos.
e. The photographer really put themselves out there. It seemed like a lot of the photo's weren't planned and seemed a bit natural. I didn't like how the photographer had a really good unplanned photo and then the next photo was a very clearly planned photo.

2. a. Jordan Murph
b. Sports
c. Artificially posed photos, photos that didn't tell a story, mergers.
d. Composition, informative photos.
e. The photographer's sport photos are very well done and thought out, they clearly knew what they were doing. I didn't like how their picture stories didn't a base to it and were thrown together.

3. a. Sam Adams
b. Stories
c. Images where the subjects aren't doing anything, mergers, angles that didn't help the image.
d. Want to wonder what happens next, mood.
e. What is your overall impression of the photographer? You could tell from their picture story that some of their interest include biking but isn't as clear for the other photos. I didn't like how it seemed like some photos weren't thought out nor executed properly. I liked how in one of their photos, there was a firefighter that looks like Matt Damon.

4. Winning portfolio: Dustin Snipes
a. Some strengths that the judges really noted was that it's good to have all the subjects in your photo to be doing something.
b.  Some strengths that I saw was the different angles. Some weaknesses I saw was in one photo that had a strange composition because it didn't seem properly balanced.

5. Contest recap video:
a. The judges were able to decide their winner by comparing them to their other portfolios and they also looked for photos that were simple but full with good subjects and composition. 

Part 2

A.) 1. I really liked the photo of the boxer getting hit and the judges said that the image is real tight and powerful which I agree.
2. There was an image where some women runners have begun to trip and fall into one another and the judges said they would have liked to see the aftermath of the trip for some better reaction. I disagree with this because I thought that mid-falling action that was caught was really good and interesting.

B.) 1. In part 3 (No pro/No Collage), there's a tennis photo where a girl in red has her arms to the air, her racket tossed, in celebration. I agree with the judges when they said that the image really held emotion because from the body language, can you tell how excited and thrilled the girl is from possibly winning a point.
2. There was a very good photo where two players are about to fight, both standing on matts opposite each other. The judges said that it would have been better had the subjects been off center but I disagree with them and thought that it was a good idea to have it centered for balance.

C.) 1. I really liked the portrait photo of the cheerleaders posing because it's interesting and fun and makes no sense. But the image it's self also has really good quality and good lighting.
2. I disagree with the judges when it came to the image of a little girl with boxing gloves trying to take on a punching bag. The judges immediately  didn't like but I thought it was interesting. The image also has some good repetition.

D.) 1. I agree with the judges when it came to the story about curling because it's true that curling isn't exactly the most interesting but the photographer was able to make it interesting.
2. The very first photo that went with the winning story wasn't exactly tight or good composition like the rest of the photos in the story was. 

F.) 1. I agree with the judges when they took out the black and white photo of someone swinging something. It's hard to tell what's going on because the object is blurry and is covering the person's face. 
2. The judges also let go of an image where there's a sunset in the background of a baseball game and there's also a father tossing his daughter up in the air. I disagree with the judges about this because it was a great moment that was captured with the people and the background even helps set a basis for why the moment happened.

E.) 1. I agree with the judges when it came to the goose photo because the moment was perfectly captured and was tight and interesting.
2. I disagree with the judges when they said that the black and white escalator photo had good emotion but you can only really see the face of one person and yet it's hard to tell exactly what the women is thinking.