Sunday, May 30, 2010

Harvey's exam review: Pythagoras

Tony has got his kite stuck at the top of a very tall tree. He knows the string on his kite is 20 m long. When he pulls the string tight and holds the very end on the ground it touches 17 m from the bottom of the tree. If the ground is flat, how tall is the tree?

a = ?
b = 17 m
c = 20 m

So what we're trying to find here is a. To do that, we must first find the area of the sides of the triangle that we know the measurements of.

a = ?
b = 289 m
c = 400 m

Since we have the hypotenuse (c = 400 m), we need to subtract to find a.

a = c - b
a = 400 - 289
a = 111 m

But that's the area so we square root it.

111 = 10.53565375285274 or 10.53 m

Sentence answer: "The tree is 10.53 m tall."


Susan is making a jump to ride her bike over. She uses a 1m plank of wood to make the jump, and raises the end 50 cm off the ground with a second piece of wood. How far along the ground from the end of the plank that touches the ground is the second piece of wood? a = 50 cm
b = ?
c = 100 cm

We are now going to find what b (for bottom) is. Once again we find the area of the squares surrounding the triangle.

a = 2500 cm
b = ?
c = 10000 cm

Now we subtract c and a to find the area of b's square.

a = 2500 cm
b = 7500 cm
c = 10000 cm

But since we need the side, we square root the 7500 cm.

b = 86.602540378 or 86.6 cm

Then a sentence to wrap the question up.

"The distance between second piece of wood and the end of the first piece of wood is 86.6 cm."

Monday, May 10, 2010

2 Minutes Two Make A Difference



Final Product



Rough Copy



Please reflect and talk about the changes you made between the first and final cut of your movie. Were the student comments helpful in making your final cut better?

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

2 Minutes to Make a Difference





VERSION ONE





FINAL CUT





Please relect and talk about the changes you made between the first and final cut of your movie. Were the student comments helpful in making your final cut better?

I think the comments were very helpful to me, I knew there were some things that needed improvements in our video, but the comments were helpful because people pointed out things that I didn't notice. With most of the comments I agreed with what needed changing. To be honest, I think our video needed a lot of improvement from the start, those comments were helpful because there were some parts where it just looked wrong to me but I couldn't really tell what it was, till people pointed them out. When we made our final cut, I thought it was okay .. But it didn't turn out the way we would of liked it to. It was hard finding the time for all of us to get together and do the video all together, so that's probably why it didn't turn out the way we all wanted.

How did you find your expert? List 3 important points your expert added to your movie. What did you learn from your expert? How did you find your expert?
The person we interviewed wasn't exactly an expert, just someone who had lived and watched
others in poverty. We met him at a volleyball game. I started talking about our project, and then he ended up willing to do an interview for us.What was your greatest success in the 2 minutes project.

What skills will you take away with you and use in the future?
I think my greatest success when we were making the video was learing how to use the mac for editing and making our video . It would be nice to use what I have learned in the future if I ever decide to make a video.

What frustrated you during the movie making process? What strategies did you use to become successful?
I think the most frustrating part of this project was working with other people. It's not that I don't like them, but It's that when were all stressed about the movie we end up not wroking very well together. There were also times when we didn't agree, and we would have hard times making decisions. Thankfully we all pulled through with our video.

Why is the 2 Minutes project important to Grade 8 Students?
I think 2 minutes to make a difference is important to grade 8 students because were at the age where most of us dont think about the difficulties some people have to go through in other places. Because most of us aren't in their situation, we don't know how they feel and we dont understand why it's a problem. Yet I believe that you're never to young or old to learn about these kinda of things. And It's definetely never to late to help out or even make a difference.

How will you make a difference in the future?
I'm going to be honest, I don't think I would make a difference in the future. I'm being honest because I don't want to say I'll help out and just change my mind later. But maybe I will make a difference in the future, who knows ? I might learn more about global issues and then suddenly make a difference. But at this moment I dont think that will happen, only because I know myself
pretty well. It's hard to explain why I wouldn't make a difference. It's not that I don't want to, and it's not that I dont care, It's that I don't care enough to take the time to make a difference. I don't know how people are feeling when their suffering of something because no one's helping them. Since I don't know what that feels like, I don't believe I can make a differnce.. Just not right now, maybe far far far in the future.

Charis's 2 Minutes to Make a Difference

Final Cut


Version 1



Please reflect and talk about the changes you made between the first and final cut of your movie. Were the student comments helpful in making your final cut better?
First, we edited the sound so it would be clearer. Turns out it wasn't so we edited it again to make the sound clear, and loud enough. We also added a few transitions, and changed the music a bit. We also made it shorter, so it would be closer to the time limit. The student's comments helped a lot because without their criticism, we wouldn't know how to make it better.

How did you find your expert? List 3 important points your expert added to your movie. What did you learn from your expert?
What we learned from the expert was that people in the Philippines are so poor, they can't have a decent meal daily. And some of the people who actually do have decent meals every day, don't pay attention to the ones who don't. They think it will ruin their reputation if they do,

How did you find your expert?
Carla emailed her cousin on Facebook, and asked her some questions. She replied back, and that's how we got some information.

What was your greatest success in the 2 minutes project. What skills will you take away with you and use in the future?
Our greatest success was talking to a expert on facebook instead of going to them and talk to them in person.

What frustrated you during the movie making process? What strategies did you use to become successful?
nothing, i had a really fun time doing this project.

Why is the 2 Minutes project important to Grade 8 Students?
so they can reflect on making a differnce in people's lives.

How will you make a difference in the future?

i will help the needy by volunteering at homeless shelters.

Riemer's Reflection







Please reflect and talk about the changes you made between the first and final cut of your movie. Were the student comments helpful in making your final cut better?

The changes between our first and final cut of our movie are that we added our voices into our final cut. We were going to put the voices in our rough video but then none of us had microphones or didn't have any at all. We also added more things in the video like new pictures and more text. To me, I think that the student comments were good for us to help us improve our video but I also think that it was very annoying. I think this because we knew what we were missing and what we needed, but then everyone kept on repeting the same things over and ever again. One comment said that we needed an interview, but then I really didn't get annoyed because I knew that if we had an interview then we would get higher marks or something along those lines.

How did you find your expert? List 3 important points your expert added to your movie. What did you learn from your expert?

The expert that Fauni found was a guy from Manitoba Hydro. The three things that our expert told us were:we learned how to get rid of the fluorescent light bulbs properly. If we don't get rid of light bulbs properly it can affect our food chain by going into the water. The animals will drink the water, then we eat the animals that contain mercury. How much we could save off our electricity bill if we just changed every bulb in out house into a fluorescent light bulb. 15 incandescent light bulbs count last as long as only 1 fluorescent light bulb.

What was your greatest success in the 2 minutes project. What skills will you take away with you and use in the future?

The greatest success to me in our 2 minutes to make a difference was that we finished our project to the best of our ability and we worked as a team. The skills that I will take with me in my future us that I should always use fluorescent lights in my house, but if there is a better type of light in the future since technology is getting better and better, then I will use that kind of energy.

What frustrated you during the movie making process? What strategies did you use to become successful?

The thing that fustrated me during the movie making process was that I didn't really finish my work. I really didn't seem to do it because I either had extra curricular activities or I didn't do my homework. The strategies that I used was Mr.Harbeck giving us alot of deadlines. HAHAH, thank you Mr.Harbeck. He also gave us alot of time for us to work in it in class. The thing that made me want to keep working and never falling behind was to finish my work when the finished product was finished was so since I was in a group, I knew that we were sharing marks and if I do a bad job on my part, then all of us will have a bad mark. The people in my group are really smart and I didn't want to dissapoint them.

Why is the 2 Minutes project important to Grade 8 Students?

The reason why 2 minutes to make a difference is important to grade 8 students in my opinion are because since we are at a young age, we can start learning about changing lives in the world today.I also think that its important to know what is happening on other places of the world. Like we are very fortunate to have electricty, not like less fortunate people in the third world.

How will you make a difference in the future?

I will make a difference in the future by switching all of my lights to fluorescent. Since I was doing Raising Awareness for Fluorescent Lights for 2 minutes to make a difference, I will stick to fluorescents for my whole life unless there is something else that is more energy efficient.

THANK YOU FOR READING MY REFLECTION !
RIEMER ADORNY

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

2 Minutes to Make a Difference





First Cut



Final Copy



FIRST COPY TO FINAL CUT


Thank you for all the students who left those comments! Without you guys, we wouldn't be able to create our new video! The changes we made, were that we did not use voice, but we used text, since we didn't have a good mic to catch our voices and play them smoothly. So we took that all out! When we did our good copy, we changed our pictures, and pretty much the whole format! Why you ask? Our first copy, I think, was actually, pretty much garbage! We barely put any effort into it, not on purpose, but because we didn't have time to all come together and work on it. So we committed ourselves to do this good copy, and make it great. In my opinion, our new version, is 20 times better than our first copy! I honestly love it! If I ever do a project like this again, I'm not going to make the same mistake by slacking off, but I'm going to work very hard!

EXPERT


We were not very successful finding a expert, because we didn't put much time and effort into finding one. We emailed maybe only 10 people and expected to get one. If we searched maybe a bit more early, we could've been successful and got ourselves an interview. So if I'm trying to find an expert next time for a project like this, I am going to do that part straight away, so we don't have to worry about it in the mean time. Having an expert would have boosted our knowledge in this problem and probably even give us a higher mark in the movie project about child labour in chocolate industries! If I ever get the chance to get many easy marks by finding an expert, I will go find one straight away!

SUCCESS


Our greatest success with this project, was actually finishing everything! I was very happy with the turn out of our movie from the ugly first version to the glorious final copy! Finishing the good copy was one of the hardest things to do in this movie, because we really wanted voice, but since we coulnd't find anything decent to record us, we had to do text. Although it was only text, it was very good! After months of hard work to finish the project, we were able to finish successfully with a great video. If it wasn't for my group members, we wouldn't have been able to come out with a greater movie! If I were to do this project again, I would not take only the skills I have learned through out this project, but I would also bring along my good partners Warren, Josh, and Kevin, because without us as a group, we wouldn't have made this!

Frustration!


The most frustrating thing, was learning how to use movie maker. As you saw, in the first cut, we were totally noob with making movies! It looked like the whole movie could've been made on something as simple as power point. After we tried and tried and took many hours, we were actually able to finish it. Putting in our voices was really frustrating too, so we just threw that away, and replaced it with text. A strategy you could say we used to become successful was patience. In the first copy of our video, we were unpatient and just threw a mash of pictures and ugly sound together to make a really ugly video. In the final copy, we pulled it together and changed almost everything!

I WILL make a Difference

I will make a difference by giving awareness to the people, and if others know the problem, there will be more people helping the cause. If more people help, it will be faster and more efficient to take away all these problems like child labour. Child labour is a huge issue in the world. Children are dying, and getting injured, just to make simple things like chocolate. Having more help will make the job easier! Also, I could help by having fundraisers to get money or clothes to send to the countries that have children working in chocolate companies, so we could take them away from the life of pain and suffering they are living to a better safer life. Something that is very big that I can do, maybe when I am older and have a wife, is actually adopt a child and take care of them and give them a better life. Although after I watched the movie orphan, I'll face my fear to save the life of a child. I hate knowing children are dying and being injured for something people that don't work at all just get for a very cheap price. When other children pay the price of their life to make these products! I want to help these children as much as I can. Once I have time and could work in the days, I want to start helping these children. They deserve a better life! We should take them out of poverty and help them, one child at a time!

Aldrine's 2 Make A Difference Reflection

Google Docs


Version 1

Final Cut


The Changes:
My group and I made a few changes , What we did was we added a few voice from the interview that we had, We also added images, edited the songs and new titles. The challenge on editing the video was putting the timing right on each slide. We fixed some cutting voices on the interview that we did .The last thing we fixed is the grammar on the titles we found a little mistakes on some of the slides.

The comments that we got from the version 1 was very helpful to us. We made so much changes and made it better, On one of the comments that we got from our version 1 was we needed to talk about the Problem and after final cut we made it all better, We added voices and pictures and new things on the final version.

Interview
The expert we found was one of the workers in Manitoba Hydro. What we did to interview him was we asked him question about our topic it turned out very well because the questions we asked were our best ones and he answered it very fast and very detailed. The thing that we were having trouble was finding the date and time for the expert but it was a good thing that we scheduled it on time before the final cut was due.

The expert told us more then 3 points about our topic. He talked about how to recycle a light bulb properly because if you throw it on the field and the mercury spreads out it could be very dangerous to our environment because if someone plants any vegetables there it could be very dangerous to people and animals . The second thing he told us was that we could save up so much money using fluorescent light bulbs , because Incandescent doesn`t last very long not like Fluorescent Lights. The Last thing he told us was that if you use Incandescent light it is dangerous in our environment.

Success
The success for our project was scheduling the expert we had hard time putting the date and time because they were really busy and we were lucky enough that we found one and that wasn`t busy and he was very nice. The other thing about scheduling was the handing flyers out, we were having trouble on how to print the paper because it was difficult so we ask the customer service to help us and you needed a card to swipe it on the machine to get the papers it was a lot different then the other printers. The last thing that we were accomplishing was handing out all those flyers to each house , people, and cars until we finished all the papers so we wouldn`t waste and just throw them away.

Frustration and Strategies
The Frustrated part about the movie was when we were doing the final cut we found so much mistakes on the titles, images and etc. The strategies we did was while we were at the Garden city mall was we took turns handing out flyers and take vidoes and photos so each of us are in one of the photos. The other thing was decided to put them on the windshields on the cars so we have other pictures no just handing the flyers out to people.

Why It Is Important
It is very important because in grade 8 we are trying to learn that making a difference is a good thing to change the world and making it better, specially at our age.It is very important to ours because we are trying to make a difference by telling people that Incandescent is dangerous in our environment and My Group and I made flyers telling people that switching to fluorescent light bulbs is a good thing to do because fluorescent lights saves you a lot of money and fluorescent lights last very long not like incandescent. When i was in Grade 7 i thought that 1 person wont make a difference by just recycling but i learned now in grade 8 that making a difference is important in your life later on, because if you think about it by just recycling you are making a difference.

The Future
I will make a difference in the future because when i get older ill make a commercial by telling people to use fluorescent lights because some people when we hand them the flyers some of them ripped them out and just threw them away and wasting paper. I will show and prove them that fluorescent light is really good for the environment , the other thing i will be making a difference is by telling people that dont throw an Incandescent Light bulb on the ground because it is very dangerous in our environment. This is i will do in the future to make a difference


Jose's 2 Minutes to make a Diffrence reflection




1st Copy



Final Cut


Our Changes:

First of all, I would just like to say that our first video wasn't really what we expected it to be, because we thought that we didn't put enough effort in it at all. To me personally, I think everything was really bad about it except for the sound. The voices were horrible and I thought that it really wasn't a movie. So what we've done was gone to Warren's house, and we actually tried to make a better video. We changed everything such as the pictures, the format of our 1st video, and we also took out our voices because we didn't really know how to put voices into it because the first one just didn't work well. To be totally honest, I am a little disappointed in myself, because I feel that I didn't work to the best of my ability for this HUGE project and I am totally never going to make that mistake again!


Interview:

Unfortunately, my group and weren't able to get hold of a expert on child labor in chocolate factories because none of them responded. We did our best to try and find one, we searched it up on Google, we sent many emails too as much experts as possible, but nothing. Our group also planned on asking our parents for their help, and let us know if they knew anyone who had enough experience about child labor.


Success:

The success that my group had was to just actually have an okay movie, ( better than first ) The success that I had, was I learned more about child labor in chocolate factories and how we could be able to make a difference. That is by trying to convince people too stop buying chocolate made from slaves, and to start buying fair trade chocolate. We hope that more people will start to follow our message so the children that are working their buts of will live a way better life


Frustrations and Strategies:

The thing that was hard about this project was putting the movie together so it would actually look presentable. The way we figured that out was by asking other people for help, which made us really happy because we understood how to now do it. Another thing that was frustrating was trying to find an expert because it's difficult to find a person that would actually help a 13 year old child in a project. It really bothered me for a while because I knew if we didn't have an expert, it would bring our mark down a bit but I guess It's just the way it is.



Why It Is Important:


The reason why this is important is because us grade 8 students.... no wait actually everyone in the world need to know how our chocolate is really being made, which is from poor children who have to suffer by making cocoa. Imagine if you were one of those kids.. you wouldn't even want to live your life. All of us need to know that no matter what your doing, be happy that your making someone smile and always think further than what you believe because you don't know what surprises are going to come in life. Please let's make a difference!



How I will make a Difference in the Future:


A way I will make a difference in the world is to try and tell as much people about this problem, and to not buy chocolate made from slaves. Another possible way so that I could make a difference is by help people who are starting fundraisers for kids that have to work a hard life.

Elona's 2 Minutes to Make a Difference Reflection

Please relect and talk about the changes you made between the first and final cut of your movie. Were the student comments helpful in making your final cut better?
The changes we have made in the final version were enhancing the sound because I could barely hear Charis. But when I did that, it made my voice louder, so I edited it again to make it even. I also added captions so the people who can't understand what I'm talking about can read it on the screen. I also changed the music, and added transitions. The comments from other students were very helpful, and I would like to thank them for criticizing our video. Because, without their help, I wouldn't of known what changes to make.

How did you find your expert? List 3 important points your expert added to your movie. What did you learn from your expert?
Her cousin said that people use their power just to get what they want. And that there are corruptions. 'People who don't really respect their duties as servants.' There are really poor people, and they do not have many food for their daily life.

How did you find your expert?
Actually, Carla was the one who found the expert. It was her cousin from the Philippines, and she emailed her via Facebook.

If you did not find an expert tell us why you were unsuccessful. Be honest.
-

What was your greatest success in the 2 minutes project. What skills will you take away with you and use in the future?
Our greatest success in this project, was probably the interview. And when I was talking. The interview because it was unique since it was on Facebook. People thought it was cool, and I think we were the only ones that did it via Facebook. And when I was talking because Mr.Harbeck said that he never knew how loud my voice would be since I'm always quiet. Haha. The skills I would take with me, is just talking. I'm going to use my voice to persuade people to do things, Sometimes people don't listen to me because they think I'm always shy and quiet. I hope that in the future I would learn to use my voice more.

What frustrated you during the movie making process? What strategies did you use to become successful?
What frustrated me was actually putting everything together. The audio, the pictures and such. We have 3 version up on YouTube. All the editing took me 3 hours because I had to make it perfect. I'm a perfectionist, so it took longer because I wasn't pleased with how it turned out the first time. I don't know if we used any strategies. We just went out there, and put the video together to make it as good as possible.

Why is the 2 Minutes project important to Grade 8 Students?
How will you make a difference in the future?
It's important to Grade 8 students, because since we're only teenagers and that we're still learning more about life, we have to know about these causes so when we grow older, we know how to deal with them, and help. Not only Grade 8 students, but everyone. It should be important to everyone, so that they are aware of what is happening to the world. How I would make a difference in the future? Hmm.. well I guess I don't know yet. There's so much more to learn, and I want to know more ways to help and make a difference. So, I don't know. I'm sorry. Haha.



Version 1


Final Cut

Jeric's 2 Min to make a Difference Reflection

1. Please embed your Google Doc, Version 1 and Final cut of your movie.

Final Version



First Version





2. Please reflect and talk about the changes you made between the first and final cut of your movie. Were the student comments helpful in making your final cut better?
Response: The changes I made between my first and my final cut to my movie were the voices and some editing of pictures and videos. Since all we showed was pictures about our project / topic we had to add some voice to it so people could understand a little bit about what we are talking about. For the editing of the photos, I just pretty much shortened the time on the length and for the videos is the same thing. I even added some slides where it showed an important sentence that the viewer should see and focus on. Yes, the students comments were helpful in making my final cut better because there were some parts in the video where I didn't know what to add so thank you students.

3. How did you find your expert? List 3 important points your expert added to your movie. What did you learn from your expert?
Response: I found my expert by asking my dad if he had a friend of some sort that is an expert on some kind of lighting in his work or just a friend. My dad did have on and it was my uncle who worked at Manitoba Hydro and from there my uncle set my group and I with the expert. 3 important points my expert added to my movie was fluorescents is better than incandescent, fluorescents are the better buy because it saves you more energy, and how to dispose of the lights properly. I learned by using more fluorescent light bulbs we can save money, energy, and the environment a little at a time because by using fluorescents, incandescent wastes will decrease.

6. What was your greatest success in the 2 minutes project. What skills will you take away with you and use in the future?
Response: I believe my greatest succes in the movie was the video. I think its the video because I couldn't believe that i was able to make a schedual with 4 busy people and still get together and make the movie. This took a lot of time and courage because most of us are shy and it was really hard to give some papers to people ... especially if you get rejected. So having that in the video I believe is our greatest success.

7. What frustrated you during the movie making process? What strategies did you use to become successful?
Response: What really frustrated me in the movie making progress was how many edits I had to do and getting the group to get together and cooperate for the speaking and interview. The strategies I used was to get 2 people at a time to do one thing and 2 others to relax and wait. So pretty much it was taking turns doing the movie progress. In the end though I had to edit some slides here and there and it was done.

8. Why is the 2 Minutes project important to Grade 8 Students?
Response: 2 Minutes to make a difference project is important to grade 8 students because grade 8 students is a good age that can understand the meaning of making a difference. I am not saying grade 1's can't its just the level of understanding the progress and why we have to make a difference. This is important to grade 8s because 1, its a big chunk of our grade, and 2 kids at this age should start thinking about how making a difference can be so important and will help you later in life.


9. How will you make a difference in the future?
Response: I will make a difference in the future by becoming a successful doctor and by doing that I will go to countries in aid and i will either teach or treat people in people who really need it. If I were to teach other people they can then help others or teach others about what I taught them. It is like a tree growing into a bigger tree and it all started with 1 person and eventually it will make a difference.

Sierra's 2 Minutes to Make a Difference Reflection







Comments and Changes

Some of the comments were helpful, but it seemed as if some of the people who commented just repeated what the comments under them had said. BUT, the way that they could have improved commenting would be by simply scrolling down a bit and to see if someone else already pointed out the disadvantage of the movie, then they wouldn't need to keep on repeating what others said (If that even made sense). Although, I would like to thank them for actually having the time to watch our video several times and comment on the things that they would suggest to help make our video better.

Almost everyone informed us that our blinking text wasn't really meaningful, and it somehow hurt their eyes, so we did change the text. No one commented on the speed of the slides, but we decided that we should make some slides with more words longer than the ones with shorter words. We improved with our grammar and simple spelling mistakes. I think that I saw a comment that said we didn't have much proof of us actually making a difference, so, in the final cut we actually added up some images proving that we did something.

Interviewing an Expert

Our expert of this topic was Stephanie Cate. She works as a managing director at the Batonga Foundation. You may wonder, how did you even come across her? Out of everyone? Well, my fellow group members and I went onto Google, and I don't really remember what exactly we typed in, but it came across the lines as "Girls without education in Africa". When we clicked enter, many entries popped up, and we reviewed all of the sites, and we emails about 10 different people, sadly, only Stephanie replied. We arranged an interview with her shortly afterward the email was sent.

Stephanie Cate knew a lot about uneducated girls in Africa. But, the top 3 things that I actually remember her saying is that:
  • Giving girls education will be the first step to end poverty
  • It costs very cheap to send a girl to school
  • Girls don't get education because of poverty
It is very hard to just say one thing that we have learned from Stephanie. We, well, I personally, learned a lot from her. I was very new to this topic, knowing almost nothing, and when we interviewed Stephanie, she made things so much clear, and understanding in this topic. I learned that girls usually don't attend school because of menstruation, or, because their family cannot afford it.

Success

I think that the majority of the project all we had was success. Not to sound all cocky or anything. I enjoyed the interview part the most though
What was your greatest success in the 2 minutes project. What skills will you take away with you and use in the future?

Frustrations and Strategies

The only frustrations that happened in the movie making process would have to be the editing. I have to admit, that it was pretty hard putting everything together, the music, the script, pictures, the interview, etc. The interview was kind of complicated also, because, when the group got to my house, Elijah brought an extra phone from her house, and then we find out that it doesn't have the speaker feature, so we couldn't record it. Then, all of us had to walk to Elijah's house and just use her phone, and we were 20 minutes late for our interview.... I hope Stephanie didn't mind. But, other than that, we had no other major frustrations. The strategy that we used was just to take our time and have patience.

Why is the 2 Minutes project important to Grade 8 Students?

I think that 2 Minutes project is important to us 8th graders, because we're still young, and we can have all the rest of our lifetime to change different peoples lives. I also think that it is important to teach younger kids, because then it would have a different impact on them. Different ages, different views of the unfortunate people in the world. Right?

Making A Difference In The Future

I believe that if you make a difference in someones life, it would be like a water rippling effect. It is where one thing will lead to another, which will lead to another, and so on, carrying throughout the world. I also believe that small things will lead to greater things, just like a smile. It all happened to us before, just smiling at a sad person we can suddenly make their frown get replaced by a grin. Just by smiling at a stranger made them happy. And for doing so, you caused them to go about doing things that they wouldn't have done if you didn't smile.

Imagine there's a teenager walking by you at your school. She's one of the kids that others don't take the time to meet with because her personality is frightening. She looks really sad. You decide to comfort her. You start a friendly conversation and realize she's not what other kids think she is. You introduce her to your friends and they get along nicely. Soon many people are friends with her and she's looked upon as a happy camper.

But let's say you didn't. Instead you walked past her and ignored her. The next day she still is sad. And the next day as well. Let's say a week has passed and she's become depressed. She takes her sadness out by hurting people verbally. Her grades drop and she gets suspended from school. At the end of the year she is held back for failing her grade. (Yes, I know this is exaggerated but it is only to put my point across.)

Have you ever giving a homeless man food before? I have. When I did he smiled at me and took the bread happily. As I left I wondered what would've happened if he didn't get the bread. Maybe he would've went off to find a trash can. Maybe on his way to the trash he had to cross a street, and maybe he would've gotten hit by a car. So, just doing a good deed, it could actually make someones life better.

I'm not saying that I will go out into the world and start building schools, hospitals, houses for the poor, or anything close to that, but, I will attempt to make small differences that will equal up to a big difference in some peoples lives. By me saying that I made small differences would be saying that I replaced my old light bulbs and put new energy saving light bulbs to produce less pollution. Or that I brought bags along with you to grocery shopping. Also, that I volunteer at Meals on Wheels once a week to help deliver food to elders that are not able to make their own.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Alvin's 2 minutes to make a difference reflection





2. The changes we made between out Version 1 and our final cut we added our voices in because at the time we finished our rough we didnt have a microphone to record our voices. We added in our interview with a manitoba hydro expert we asked him questions over the phone and he answered. We changed some other things around so it would math with our video, and we added our page of credits. The comments the students made were helpful because they said to add voice which we did afterwards and they told us some other things we could improve on in our video.

3. We found our expert through Jeric because I think his dad found this manitoba hydro expert for us. 3 important points that he told us were : we found out that 15 incandescent light bulbs count last as long as only 1 fluorescent light bulb !, we learned that how to dispose of the fluorescent light bulbs properly and if we dont dispose of light bulbs properly it can affect our food chain by going into the water, then animals then we eat the animals that contain mercury, and he told us about how much we could save off our electricity bill if we just changed every bulb in out house into a fluorescent light bulb.

6. Our greatest success in the 2 minutes to make a difference project is that we got to raise awareness to other people that if you change every light bulb in your house, you can save lots of money and the environment by keeping less waste out of the land fills because, if theres more light bulbs in the wastelands that means we need more room for garbage and take up space on the earth instead of if you use fluorescents you could save up to 15x the lightbulbs you see in land fills.
Some skills that we could take in use in our futures would be how we can save money by purchasing more efficient light bulbs to replace the un efficient and save energy and our planet, another skill is that we could make people care about things that are happening around the world like how more light bulbs in the landfills takes up more room on our earth.

7. Some things that frustrated me was how were we going to make the movie and would it be good or will it be okay, in my opinion our movie turned out great. Some stratagies that made us come succesful were that we sat down and concentrated on our work and once it was finished like, as much as we could do at the time then we would allow ourselves to go play if we didnt we would always play and get nothing done.

8. The grade 8 2 minutes to make a difference project is important because, the grade 8 students can learn very important things like how we cant get things for granted and how lucky we are to be born and raised in canada and we get to go to school. We can learn how to save electricity effiecently like our project by switching all your light bulbs into fluorescent so you can save money. You can learn how to aware people of the things that are going on around the world that they dont know about, and you can make them take action so the people in need will get what they need so they can survive and live a good life.

9. I will make a difference in the future by, when I own my own house I could change all the light bulbs in the house into fluorescent bulbs so that I can save energy. While saving energy I can keep less light bulbs out of the waste land because while using fluorescent since they last longer so I would be throwing less light bulbs out so there would be less land fills. Thats how I would make a difference in the future.

Thank you for reading my reflection, I hoped you enjoyed !

Michelle's 2 Minutes To Make A Difference Final Reflection

1. Google Docs Presentation


Poverty in the Philippines, Version 1 :




Poverty in the Philippines, Final Cut :




2.We made a few changes between the first and final cut of our movie like, adding an interview, and trying to match the pictures with the words we said in the script. Also we re-recorded our voices, which sounded 'better' than the first time.

The students comments were a bit help to us, but also the woman who judged our first version helped too. They both said to slow down the credits and to redo the voices so its a lot clearer. The lady said to add more details, and also listed some interviews we could use.

3.We found our expert, from the few places the lady gave us. Also April contacted her, and found the number we could use to call. We called red cross, and they kept switching us to " Jennifer Monttebruno " who wouldn't answer her phone.

The three important points that we added to our movie from the expert was, where ever we are in the world, we are able to see the people who need our help. She also said that, in Canada we have strong agencies that would help us. In the Philippines they have low incomes, and areas that suffer from conflicts. Another thing she mentioned was, the Philippines goes through a lot of strong natural disasters.

I learned from our expert that we shouldn't call them victims since they are just survivors.

6. I thinks our greatest success in the project, was our interview. I thought it sounded professional, like we found a great person who really knew what she was talking about.

The skills I may take with me and use in the future, would probably be using the movie maker.

7. The most frustrating thing to make the movie, was actually putting the pieces together so it'd fit the interview. Also timing the interview, and pictures right. Even the interview itself, was hard to get, because I tried contacting by email but there inbox was full. The P.C.C.M. wouldn't answer their phone no matter how many times we called. We figured to just find a different interviewer last minute and add it to our final version.

The strategies I should have used to become successful would be time management. There wasn't really a strategy we used, but knowing we had this much time left we had to use our time wisely to get the job done.

8. I think this project is important the the Grade 8 students because it makes you think about other people in the world who are struggling. You may think that you have a bad life, but there is also someone out there who doesn't have a home, or is starving. We need to realize that we are lucky to have homes, and other things we don't really need. The video we made, help others to see their point of view, and want the need to help!

9. In the future I will make a difference by helping out in the world, instead of throwing things away. My family can donate to our relatives in the Philippines who need help, whether it is clothes, money, or food. Also we need to help not just the people in the world, but the planet itself. My family recycles so we could reuse things, and they also don't like whats been going on with the environment so I'll encourage them to also, save energy.

Harvey's 2 Minutes to Make a Difference Reflection

2 Minutes to Make a Difference Presentation

2 Minutes to Make a Difference Movie Version 1

2 Minutes to Make a Difference Movie Final Cut


Please reflect and talk about the changes you made between the first and final cut of your movie. Were the student comments helpful in making your final cut better?

The changes that I've done to make the movie better are changing the music because the first song didn't really fit the other songs, changing the headings because they were kind of blurry and too small. I also added the credit in because in version 1 I didn't have enough time to add them and its important to have proper credits. And lastly I added more information because version 1 was kind of lacking, and without information its hard to convince someone to make a difference. And the student comments didn't really help me much, because I knew most of the problems with the help of self-editing.

If you did not find an expert tell us why you were unsuccessful. Be honest.

We did not find an expert because my group was behind and I wanted them to get caught up first but that took a while and before I knew it, we had to make a movie.

What was your greatest success in the 2 minutes project. What skills will you take away with you and use in the future?


My greatest success and skill that I would like to use in the future would be my graphics and movie making skills. I think my graphic making skills on the computer with the right programs are better than on paper, and the movie wasn't half bad for someone that just used movie maker for the first time.

What frustrated you during the movie making process? What strategies did you use to become successful?


What frustrated me during the process of making the movie would be the movie maker itself. Windows Movie Maker likes to freeze alot and takes up a lot of resources on my computer. But the good thing is that movie maker creates a few "save points" every few minutes and if the program crashes, you can start it backup and load the latest save point created. I tried to work around this problem by using less programs as I possibly can. But crashes still happen.

Why is the 2 Minutes project important to Grade 8 Students?


2 Minutes to Make a Difference is important because most grade 8's don't know what its like outside their, country, city, or even their home. Because out there are people that endure problems, prevent problems and cause problems. And sometimes we don't know that. And I think its great that we get to know about these problems now instead of later because if we reach adulthood without any knowledge of the outside world...I think we would be confused because life wasn't what we know it was anymore.

How will you make a difference in the future?

I will try to help deter problems as long as it doesn't inconvenience me because convenience is very convenient.

Princess' 2 Minutes to Make a Difference Final Reflection

1.)
Google Docs Presentation:



Poverty in the Philippines Version 1:



Poverty in the Philippines, Final Cut:



2.)
My group and I made many changes in the video. I think our biggest change were the voices, in the final cut, we had to re-record our whole script. We also added our interview, because in our version 1, we didn't get to interview anyone. We made a few changes in the pictures because we wanted to match the pictures with the script. Our credits were a bit too fast in the first version, so we made slowed them down and added some more details.

The other students' comments did help a bit, but not much. This is because a lady, already looked through our first version and told us what we can think of changing. So when we got all together to read the comments on our first version, we compared them to the comments that the lady gave us, and they were very similar.


3.)

Finding our expert was probably the hardest part of this whole movie, but luckily, one of our group members, April, managed to find someone from the Red Cross.

3 important things are that "the Philippines, is a country that experiances strong natural disasters", also that "no matter where we are the world, we should be able to see people who need our support", and finally, she told us a bit of a comparison between poverty in Canada and poverty in the Philippines. "in Canada there are strong agencies that would help people", and "poverty in the Philippines, are not just the low income levels, but also areas that suffer from conflicts".

I learned, that people in poverty, are not necessarily called victims, but survivors.


6.)
To me, I think the interview turned out the best, considering, we didn't even have an interview from the first version. I actually enjoyed working in groups, so I'm planning to take my 'working skills', so that i can use it in the future.


7.)

I think, the interview also frustrated me because, near the due date for version 1, we tried calling P.C.C.M. and they wouldn't pick up, so we didn't get any interview done. Also when the final cut was due, just a few days before the date, that's when we interviewed, Jennifer Monttebruno, so we kind of had to rush everything to get it done by the due date. I didn't really use any 'strategies' to be succesful, all i did was stayed calm and patient, because i didn't want to stress over how little time we had left.


8.)
I think the 2 Minutes project was important to grade 8 students because, it helps us understand how lucky we truly are to have the things we have right now. Also, it helps us see their point of view in life, and it makes us realize that there's more to life than wanting things. The whole point of this project was to make a difference, maybe we didn't make a BIG, difference but we helped by talking about it, and making other think about making a difference. We're still very young, and this project proves that you're never to young to make a difference.


9.)
In the future, I'd like to help out by getting my family to donate, at least once or twice a year, in the Philippines. Also, maybe not even just in the Philippines, I'll get my family to donate clothes, food and other things to other countries too, such as the countries in Africa. I notice, making a difference isn't just about poverty, it's also about our environment and our planet, if it's not being protected there's no point in everything else. So I will try to help out in that way too, like, saving light, energy and many more.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Kamille's 2 Minutes to Make a Difference Final Reflection







2. I think the comments that all the students left for us were amazing because it made our final piece improve even just that one mistake makes a difference and we really appreciate the comments even though it may have been bad at least we know what to change for our final cut. We did take the people's advice and changed many things for example the biggest thing they wanted removed was the blinking words so we did removed that and we changed our punctuation and all our mistakes on spelling. Also we made our words show longer for the viewers to read and added all of the credits in.

3. We found our expert just by simply searching on Google. and typing in key words from our topic and emailed more than 5 people and an expert replied named Stephanie Cate from the Batonga Foundation and then we went from there and we interviewed her. The three important points from our expert that were added in the movie was ; Supporting a girl in Africa is very cheap and Giving girls in Africa education would be the first step to end poverty but i think the most important one we added was that the girls don't get education because of poverty. I think that our expert made all kinds of great answers to our questions and to me, i didn't really know much about the topic we picked but when she answered the questions she really made it clear and most of what she said was all about poverty.

6. Our greatest success in my point of view was the Interview part with our expert Stephanie Cate because it really help our video because of all her knowledge that made our video better and succeed. She gave us a lot useful information that we didn't know before and we used the important ones and placed them in and i think that just gave us a step up on our video because of our expert telling us all these great information we can use and learn and take to put in our video. I would like to skills to work well with others and use it in the future because that skill is probably most important to me because with it you can understand and work well and do well with the people you are working well and you can succeed with that because you aren't argue and complaining about the work you are doing because that's wasting the time while you could have been working and completing the assignment.

7. The things that frustrated us the most was making the movie and to make it more clear, editing the movie was one of the hardest things in the world because if it didn't make sense or it didn't fit with the music its no good or its not as good as it could of been and sometimes the computer/laptop didn't cooperate with us and a very frustrating if it happens. I don't think we had any specific strategies in making our movie a success but what i can say is that we used our time wisely and i think the comments the students gave us just made our video a success because we didn't really know how to make the video into what the people wanted so i thought that was great that people gave us those comments because it just made our video better than what we already had.

8. I think that 2 minutes to make a difference is very important and because we are just in grade 8 students i think its even more important because it shows that even if your just kids or teens you can make a difference and it doesn't have to be something big because just that one thing can make a huge difference itself. So i think that the project we did was just to show the students that we are lucky to have the things like education and clothing we get today.

9. In the future, I will be making a difference by not building houses but if i could, i would but since i can't, i will be starting off by making a difference in small ways and build my way from there because the small things matter too like for example giving away your old clothing you don't wear anymore to the people who need it is a good way and i think even though that's not as big as building houses it is very important thing and from there you can go even farther and expand your ideas and if you believe you can do it, you will achieve.

Elijah's 2 Minutes to Make A Difference Final Reflection

Google Docs:


First video:


Final Cut:




The Changes:

My group and I changed a couple of errors on our first version of the video. For example, the blinking text is now removed, so it will be less disturbing. We made some of the word lengths longer so others would have a chance to read them. We improved on our punctuation, and all of the grammar mistakes we made. We also added in ALL of the credits. We even have evidence of us making a difference.

The comments from our classmates, were very helpful. Because they gave us advices of how to make our video more appealing. For instance, they told us that our paragraphs should go on longer in order for them to read it properly. They also requested that, we have to change the blinking effect into an effect that is more steady and calm.

Interview:


Finding an expert about our topic, was probably one of the easiest part of this project. I don't really know why. But maybe it's because there are a lot of people who care about giving children education. What we did was, we searched for organizations and foundations that are helping out on the cause. Then we emailed them, asking, if we are able to ask them questions that would help us in the project. After an expert emailed us back, we arranged the time and date, to know when we can call them.

Stephanie Cate our expert, pointed out more than 3 things about our video. She said that there are a lot of reasons why girls are not getting any education. It's just that, poverty is the main cause. The other thing she's pointed out was that giving girls education, will be the first step to ending poverty. Because a girl has more chances of teaching what they've learned. Therefore their knowledge will pass on. But a boy can do that too. It's just that they tend to leave their own country to work abroad after getting their education. Stephanie also said that, giving girls education is actually very cheap. It's like pitching in a dollar. Then you tell another person about the cause and they pitch in their dollar. Then that person will tell another person and your dollar will then turn into thousands of dollars.

Our expert, taught us a lot about the girls in Africa. She taught us why we can get education and they can't. She talked about descrimination against girls. And everytime she's answered our questions. Her answers linked to poverty.

Success:


Our greatest success on 2 minutes to make a difference, was probably making the script. I think that our script carried our audience to the point of our video. Like, what the problem is, the cause, and how to make a difference. We used the story arc idea, where we had to begin with what's the problem and carry ourselve's up to the making a difference part of the movie. But the script it's self did not catch our viewers attention. The effects on the texts helped us get more attention.

In the future, I think that I will be using my writing skills again. It was not that easy making the script affective. But I tried to make the script fit in to keep our audience going and understand more of the cause. I will also be using my editing skills in the future. Even though I'm still getting used to it.

Frustration and Strategies:


Through all the things we've done on 2 Minutes to Make a Difference. The thing that frustrated me the most was not having time for my group members to work on the project. Because every week, there is always something popping up to ruin our schedules. The other thing that frustrated me the most was the editing. First of all, I did not know how to put in the music into our Movie Maker program. It took me 2-3 days on figuring out how to put the music in. Also, in the beginning, it took us 3 hours just to get 30 seconds of the movie and another couple of hours to get another 30 seconds of the movie. Then we had to fit the script and the voices in to the right parts and we had to blend them in with the song, to make the movie better.

Although, after getting frustrated with uploading the music. I started searching up on google about how to get music from CCMixter to get it uploaded to my program. Once that didn't help, I asked my sister for some help and then she got the music into movie maker. Then for the rest of the editing, my group came and we started on our video. We decided on what to put on the video, which effects we should put and if the voice fits in with the script.

Why it's Important ?


2 Minutes to Make a Difference is important, because it changes you as a person. We're just grade eights but doing this project is telling us that whatever your age is you can still help. This project makes you think more about other's rather than yourself. It makes you realize how our world should be respected. It also gives you an idea of how you should treat other's equally. We were all given a chance to change an invididual, community, country and even ourselves. Because the whole point of 2 Minutes to Make a Difference was to actually make a difference. And we did make a difference. Just by talking about our topics was making a difference because, it's giving an awareness to others that people around the world needs help.


Future:

In the future, I know that I'll be helping out on other countries that need help by giving money, food, or clothes. But I'll also be thinking of people in our city, community and neighborhoods. It's like helping out a homeless person getting meal's everyday. I would be respecting the environment more, I would throw out garbages in the garbage, recycling, saving energy by turning off lights, walk to school etc. The things I'm doing is actually simple, yet it can still help out the environment and other people. But I was hoping that I will be able to help bigger causes. By having bigger solutions, like running an organization that'll help kids get an education.

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