Who Do You Think You Are

• This is the interview I did with my mom, Alyson Burnett-Rawitch, over her side of our family and her childhood. Click here to see what she has to say!

• This is my interview with my dad, Bruce Rawitch, over the information he has over his side of the family and his life. Click here to see what he has to say!

• I wrote this email to my only living grandparents, Pat and Allen Rawitch, asking for more information on our family. My family knows the least about my grandparents extended family and I thought it'd be interesting to see if I could learn any more from them. Click here to see the email.

• I completed my family tree through Family Echo. I put together all of the family that I could link to one another on this site. I have not been able to trace my family extremely far back on my own and used all the information that I knew by myself to put together this family tree. Click here to see my family tree!

• This is the Prezi I made over 15 members of my family. While I didn't have plenty of pictures available of older family members that are no longer living, I did manage to find a few interesting pictures. This includes some interesting information on 15 members of my family.

• This is my infographic I made about my family. I used several different facts I knew about my immediate and extended family to create a visually pleasing presentation about the Rawitch and Burnett families. I used information such as where my family lives now, where we originated, family disease history, and more.

• I made this five-frame storyboard over my dad, Bruce Rawitch. His hobby is fighting in armor (interesting, I know) and his day job is working at a software company. I showed him transforming from his day job to his hobby. Bruce calls it  "Corporate Warrior". Click here to see the story!

Monday, December 2nd

Journal - Where are you right now on your "Who Do You Think You Are" project? What did you do over the break for the project? Did you interview anyone? Use the checklist below to figure out what you have finished, what you are still working on and what you still have to do.

At the moment, I'm on track. I have my email done and part of my interviews. I've also finished up my familyecho, I just need to add a few more details to it. Additionally, I have begun work on my prezi and am coming up with ideas to do for the story board or stop-motion animation video. I plan to start my infographic soon as well. 

Stop Motion Animation Ratings

#1: Ian Whelan.
 Idea: Space Legos
Reason: I thought his video was very well done and was easy to follow. The camera was steady for most of the time and it followed a story line.

#2: James Metcalf
Idea: Beads
Reason: I thought that James' video was extremely creative. I saw no other videos like it and it was very well put together. It captured the watchers eye.

#3: Abigail Krump
Idea: Rock-climbing
Reason: I thought that her video showed that she put in a lot of work into the project and I saw no others similar to it. Additionally, it was very well put together and not at all jumbled up.

Wednesday, November 13th

Journal - How did you stop motion animation turn out? If you could give it a grade, what would you give it out of 60 points? What did you learn from creating this video?

I think that my stop motion animation turned out quite entertaining. It was a very interesting project. If I could give myself a grade out of 60, I would give myself around a 56 because I didn't use a tripod and that would've helped quite a bit. I learned from creating this video that a tripod is quite important while taking pictures for stop motion animation. 

Monday, November 11th

Journal - How far along are you on your stop motion animation? What did you do over the weekend to work on you stop motion animation? Do you have all your pictures today? Will you have all your pictures by the end of the hour? Give me a detailed updated.

I have taken all of the pictures for my stop motion animation and just need to put together the video to finish the whole project up. Over the weekend, I turned into an adult officially! On Sunday, I turned 18 and went out to dinner with family. On Saturday night I hung out with a group of my friends and we did lots of adventurous things, such as setting drum sticks on fire and eating wonderful pizza, and it was a wonderful time. 

Friday, November 8th

Journal - What are you planning on doing for your stop-motion animation video? What story are you going to tell? How will your video be fun and different? Who is taking your photos? When are you taking your photos?

Well, for my stop-motion animation video, I'm taking pictures of Christine Flaspohler dancing on pointe. If you wanted to make a story out of it, you could say that it's a ballet dancer dancing at the ballet. Mine will be super fun and different because not a lot of people do dance at the level of Christine, so she's quite good and impressive. Also, she has the tutu and the whole nine yards. I took my own photos on Thursday after school already. 

Wednesday, November 6th

Journal - What story will your storyboard tell? Explain in detail.

Well, my storyboard tells the story of dat dance life. Basically, it shares my night of going to dance from putting hair into a bun, picking out stuff to wear, driving to dance, dancing, and then coming home and sleeping because I'm exhausted. Essentially the best storyboard you'll ever see.

Friday, November 1st

Journal - What are the pros and cons to photo editing? What are some examples of when photo editing is fun and appropriate? When can photo editing be inappropriate or too much?

The pros of photo editing are that you can make a photo look very professional looking and smooth. Also, you can get rid of things such as red eyes. Cons include that you can make the subject of your photo look unnatural or take away from the original subject. Some example of when photo editing is fun and appropriate are when you're taking something like senior pictures and want to look fantastical or are taking some selfies and want to look not completely ridiculous. Photo editing can be inappropriate or too much when it takes away from the original subject, like a model in a magazine where just about everything is changed, like hair, eyes, skin color, and even the size of someone's body. At times, that can make it look very unrealistic. 

Monday, October 28th

Journal – What is your favorite web tool that we have used in class so far this year? Why is it your favorite web tool? What do you like about it? How can you use it again in the future?

I really enjoy Prezi. I enjoy it because it's a very cool tool that has tons of cool transitions and effects. It lets you zoom in on exciting stuff and you can use it for any presentation. It's very versatile. I can use it in the future for most presentations I'll need to do, especially those where I have the freedom to do whatever I want to make my presentation. Then everyone will be all "wooaaaahhh" at my presentation and think Prezi is real cool.

Water Pollution Digital Presentation

Monday, October 21st

Journal-Tell me about your weekend.

Well, this weekend I went to the magical place of St. Louis, MO with the band for BOA! We performed in the Edward Jones Stadium on Friday night in prelims and did fairly well. The bus ride there was a fantastic time, and we stopped at the Columbia Mall on the way. After we performed, we had a pizza party at the hotel and on dance team we found out that our couch, Katie, is having a girl in March! Also, I was thrown into the hotel pool in all of my clothes so that was quite a blast. On Saturday, we went to the magical land of Demolition Ball and Adrenaline Zone and had the whole afternoon to play games. We then went and watched awards at the dome and went to the St. Louis arch to eat dinner. We then went back and watched finals and got home at 4am on Sunday. Also, WE DID SUPER DUPER AWESOME AND PALCED 22ND OUT OF 64 AND 7TH IN OUR DIVISION, AND ALSO GOT A "I" RATING SO THAT WAS COOL. 

Thursday, October 17th

Journal - What makes a presentation memorable? What makes a presentation stand out and not boring? How are you going to make your presentation better than anyone else? How will you make it unique? Explain.

There are many things that can make a presentation memorable. When people project their voice rather than talking in a monotone voice helps to keep attention. Also, having eye contact with the audience and not reading directly off of a screen makes for a good presentation. Being lively and having good visuals helps to grab peoples attention better. Also, it can make it more memorable when the audience has opportunities to get involved. I'm going to make my presentation unique from others by not reading directly off of a screen and making the visuals lively and exciting. Putting in dramatic facts that catches people attention also is something that I think would be good to include. 

Tuesday, October 15th

Journal - What did you learn from the Ted Talk yesterday? Did you find it interesting or accurate? Explain

I havn't watched Ted Talk yet as I wasn't here Monday but it does sound like it was very interesting in the side it took of technology and how it has effected our lives. 

Monday, October 14th

Journal - What do you love about the "digital age" that we currently live in? What do you dislike about it? What are positives ways you use technology in your life? What are some things that come along with technology that you don't like? Explain.

The "digital age" that we live in, I think, makes life easier. I like that you're able to connect with just about anyone you would like and that you can look up almost anything you want or need at your fingertips. This is especially handy in school. It can also be negative because at times people can get fairly lazy. I use technology in a positive way to keep in touch with people all over the country and world. I also use it for news and keeping up to date with current events.  What I don't like about how technology has come along is that if you don't have the most up-to-date device, people judge you. and that's not so cool.

Water Pollution Infographic

Tuesday, October 8th

Journal - Tell me about your Homecoming weekend (whether you went to the activities or not!). Tell me about what you did over the weekend.

I didn't end up going to homecoming this weekend but I did have quite a fun weekend. On Friday, I had to homecoming game, but because of lightning our band director didn't have the band or dance team perform at half time, so I didn't end up doing a whole ton at the game. On Saturday, I had the Blue Springs Marching Festival and had to make up nice and early. We did really well there and got second in 5a, best drum major, best percussion, best music, and best colorguard. We didn't stay for finals though because of homecoming. On Saturday night, I hung out with one of my bestest friends, Jackson. He was home from college for fall break so that was fairly exciting. On Sunday, I went to the Big Biscuit with a few friends and ate plenty of delicious food. And then I had the exciting opportunity of spending the rest of my day working on a very long research paper. Quite a weekend. 

Wednesday, October 2nd

What do you know about infographics? What do you know about them? What are their purpose?

Well, I know nothing about inforgraphics. Therefore I do not know their purpose. But if I could guess, I think that they have something to do with showing information through graphs and other visualizations of sorts. 

Friday, September 27th

Journal - What are you weekend plans?

Well, this weekend I'm working and then hanging out with my friend Christine on Friday night. Aaaand then on Saturday I'm getting my senior pictures taken AND I'M HANGING OUT WITH MADELYN AND WE'RE GONNA GO CRAY CRAY AND EAT PIZZA AND...STUFF. Also, I have plenty of homework to do. And college application essays. So yeah, I'm livin'  a rockin' life this weekend. 

Wednesday, September 25th

Journal - Most students view siting work as 'a pain in the butt'. How do you feel about it? Is it necessary? When is it appropriate to cite work? What's the importance of it?

I'd have to agree that siting work is, in fact, 'a pain in the butt'. But, I do find it a necessary thing to do. It's necessary because if you don't cite where you got all of your information from, it can be considered cheating, especially if you copy word for word from a source. It's appropriate to cite sources in any type of project where you have to do research for information. 

Tuesday, September 24

Journal - What is your favorite book, magazine, or publication? Why?

My favorite book is the Harry Potter Series. As a small child, my older brother decided to traumatize me with the gigantic spiders in the series that appear in the movies. But, as I grew older, I overcame the fear of the giant spiders and read the series. And dang, they are FANTASTIC. and magical. 
I don't really read magazines much, unless they have entertaining pictures to look at. Then I find it enjoyable.