Some Pictures Used
Layout Planning:
Timeline
- Increase awareness of strengths and weaknesses
- Develop new skills
- Show perseverance and commitment
Reflection
This year the school completes an entire decade of existence. It is a new school and to participate in its growth both in size and in reputation is really satisfying. To celebrate this occasion the school asked some of the most engaged students in the community to put together a timeline, where each one was responsible for a specific academic year. Each student had a billboard to fill with pictures of that respective year, including events, senior class and the staff. They were displayed outside the auditorium, a place were people would easily see. The billboards were to be ready before Christmas Bazaar to be displayed during the event and would spend one week at the St.Francis site at Bélgica and one week in site Pinheiros.
At the start I was very delighted with the idea, I have a passion for history and this was an opportunity to celebrate the history of an institution which I was so closely involved with. We were given a layout plan and a list of requirements with types of pictures to include, as well as events. I procrastinated a bit to get the project started, I was close to various Internal Assessment deadlines and the final volleyball matches at the club, all of these other commitments meant that I would only get it started the week it was supposed to be finalized.
I was assigned years 2009/10, the last year before the school split into two sites. I began as suggested scanning some pictures from the yearbook and putting them together in a document to print them out later. At the beginning I encountered many difficulties with the scanner and other exhaustive issues with the quality of the pictures. This was the first project in which I worked entirely alone, I simply depended on my strengths and would certainly be lagging with my own weaknesses, but it was not only until I was way into the project that I realized this basic concept of dependency on self-sufficiency.
I recognize myself as being old fashioned in terms of ability with technology, I lag in knowledge and skills when it comes to computers and machines, due to this weakness I would always take the long way to complete anything I had to do, was it to crop or edit a picture or scan, print, etc. This area is one in which I really need more practice in and skills which need to be developed. Each one was given access to the school intranet where we were to find the pictures of our respective year and download them. It took me about two hours to find them and download them, it was tremendously stressful, I was about to just give up and hand that responsibility to someone else, but then again, I would be disappointing the teachers and other students who I had agreed to this commitment, and then I took a deep breath and simply continued working on it another day.
The adversities with technology continued, the printer was ruining the pictures with weird spots and tones of each color. The process of printing pictures took about two to three entire days! By then I realized that if I only relied on myself then I would not finish this in time, so I asked Mr. Quinn to print some out for me, and so he did kindly, since he heard about my previous issues and new I was dedicating extra time of my day to this project.
Once I got the pictures printed, I went on cutting and gluing them onto colorful frames. I often have creative ideas and that positive aspect was used to my benefit when putting the pictures together. But once again I had overdone it. It is often the case when I work harder than is expected and end up doing more than needed, this was very clear when I went to put it all together onto the billboard, at least have of the pictures did not on to the prescribed frame. This caused a even larger frustration, I would need to give up half of all the work I had been doing the past week, because it was simply too much. I was determined not to give in and made most of the things which would not fit onto the billboard by the sides and sticking out, all squished, but all there.
Of course it looked a lot messier than all the other ones, which had a ‘clean’ look to it, but mine really stand out and was particularly original, since I had to move away from the original layout plan given, almost entirely.
I really learnt a lot about myself in this project, working alone I had nowhere else to turn to but my own abilities. In this project I certainly missed having someone to discuss ideas and to speed up the process of use of technology, I also believe I work best when I work collaboratively because when working with another person, planning is inevitable, you have to share opinions and schedule a way to share the work. But when working alone, I did not think this through, I should plan as systematically as if I was working with another person with me. This lack of solid planning compromised my success in achieving this task. But then once again, my flexibility and capability of improvisation helped me out when encountering a difficulty, thus the creative and very different look my timeline was.
I definitely showed a lot of perseverance and commitment in this project, which seemed simple, I did not expect so many frustrations, and I probably underestimated its challenges. On the other hand I was able to put the goal in practice, after overcoming many adversities.
The timeline was a project in which I had very enjoyable moments, cutting and gluing is something so simple and that allows for reflection and clearing of mind, I was able to reflect a lot when putting the pictures together and in some ways it just gave me some time for myself, where I was not constantly talking and expressing my opinion, but just having some insight. These moments, together with the complements of people when passing by it, made all the possible frustrations worth it. Seeing the school community remembering events, certain students, teachers and staff, and laughter and embarrassment when finding yourself in the pictures, was a very unique experience in the school. At the same time it is amazing to know that the school has a history.
- Increase awareness of strengths and weaknesses
- Develop new skills
- Show perseverance and commitment
Reflection
This year the school completes an entire decade of existence. It is a new school and to participate in its growth both in size and in reputation is really satisfying. To celebrate this occasion the school asked some of the most engaged students in the community to put together a timeline, where each one was responsible for a specific academic year. Each student had a billboard to fill with pictures of that respective year, including events, senior class and the staff. They were displayed outside the auditorium, a place were people would easily see. The billboards were to be ready before Christmas Bazaar to be displayed during the event and would spend one week at the St.Francis site at Bélgica and one week in site Pinheiros.
At the start I was very delighted with the idea, I have a passion for history and this was an opportunity to celebrate the history of an institution which I was so closely involved with. We were given a layout plan and a list of requirements with types of pictures to include, as well as events. I procrastinated a bit to get the project started, I was close to various Internal Assessment deadlines and the final volleyball matches at the club, all of these other commitments meant that I would only get it started the week it was supposed to be finalized.
I was assigned years 2009/10, the last year before the school split into two sites. I began as suggested scanning some pictures from the yearbook and putting them together in a document to print them out later. At the beginning I encountered many difficulties with the scanner and other exhaustive issues with the quality of the pictures. This was the first project in which I worked entirely alone, I simply depended on my strengths and would certainly be lagging with my own weaknesses, but it was not only until I was way into the project that I realized this basic concept of dependency on self-sufficiency.
I recognize myself as being old fashioned in terms of ability with technology, I lag in knowledge and skills when it comes to computers and machines, due to this weakness I would always take the long way to complete anything I had to do, was it to crop or edit a picture or scan, print, etc. This area is one in which I really need more practice in and skills which need to be developed. Each one was given access to the school intranet where we were to find the pictures of our respective year and download them. It took me about two hours to find them and download them, it was tremendously stressful, I was about to just give up and hand that responsibility to someone else, but then again, I would be disappointing the teachers and other students who I had agreed to this commitment, and then I took a deep breath and simply continued working on it another day.
The adversities with technology continued, the printer was ruining the pictures with weird spots and tones of each color. The process of printing pictures took about two to three entire days! By then I realized that if I only relied on myself then I would not finish this in time, so I asked Mr. Quinn to print some out for me, and so he did kindly, since he heard about my previous issues and new I was dedicating extra time of my day to this project.
Once I got the pictures printed, I went on cutting and gluing them onto colorful frames. I often have creative ideas and that positive aspect was used to my benefit when putting the pictures together. But once again I had overdone it. It is often the case when I work harder than is expected and end up doing more than needed, this was very clear when I went to put it all together onto the billboard, at least have of the pictures did not on to the prescribed frame. This caused a even larger frustration, I would need to give up half of all the work I had been doing the past week, because it was simply too much. I was determined not to give in and made most of the things which would not fit onto the billboard by the sides and sticking out, all squished, but all there.
Of course it looked a lot messier than all the other ones, which had a ‘clean’ look to it, but mine really stand out and was particularly original, since I had to move away from the original layout plan given, almost entirely.
I really learnt a lot about myself in this project, working alone I had nowhere else to turn to but my own abilities. In this project I certainly missed having someone to discuss ideas and to speed up the process of use of technology, I also believe I work best when I work collaboratively because when working with another person, planning is inevitable, you have to share opinions and schedule a way to share the work. But when working alone, I did not think this through, I should plan as systematically as if I was working with another person with me. This lack of solid planning compromised my success in achieving this task. But then once again, my flexibility and capability of improvisation helped me out when encountering a difficulty, thus the creative and very different look my timeline was.
I definitely showed a lot of perseverance and commitment in this project, which seemed simple, I did not expect so many frustrations, and I probably underestimated its challenges. On the other hand I was able to put the goal in practice, after overcoming many adversities.
The timeline was a project in which I had very enjoyable moments, cutting and gluing is something so simple and that allows for reflection and clearing of mind, I was able to reflect a lot when putting the pictures together and in some ways it just gave me some time for myself, where I was not constantly talking and expressing my opinion, but just having some insight. These moments, together with the complements of people when passing by it, made all the possible frustrations worth it. Seeing the school community remembering events, certain students, teachers and staff, and laughter and embarrassment when finding yourself in the pictures, was a very unique experience in the school. At the same time it is amazing to know that the school has a history.