I learned a lot of things that were interesting about hip hop. one of the things I learned was that the microphone at first was used for telling people things like if their ride was outside to pick them up at the clubs. It was never used as an actual microphone we use to sing in. In the future, I can tell people how hip hop started because it is now a big thing. The leader of the gangs inspired me to stop the violence because if they can do it, so can Cleveland. This made me think about how not all people are cold blooded and only care about themselves because he was obviously thinking about his city.

I chose my subject on being bored because at the time, I was very bored. Louder than a bomb influenced the way I say my poem (the flow) because I used to say poems plain and with the same tone throughout the whole thing but now my speaking has become better because of it. The movie in general was great because I thought it was just another school doing poems but at the end, I learned that they actually care about each other and it was never about the poems. One of my favorite aspects of hip hop is the graffiti. This is one of my favorites because this is how people get known because they want to be heard.

Choice Lectures

              I understand that the teachers in this school are trying to get us ready for college and are trying to give us more freedom, but I personally don't like the new school schedule. I think it's a horrible idea, especially because we're only in the 9th grade, and just came out of being in lines and going to class with the same people. We can't handle all of this freedom. It's too much. When I first heard about what we were going to be doing, I thought it might have been great and I thought I could handle it all. Now I feel like I would rather go back to regular classes because you can't just worry about one thing, there's always different things in different subjects with different teachers with different due dates at the same time! I don't think I can overcome this if we keep working this way. One thing that I have succeeded in is finishing at least ONE project/assignment. I have actually been disappointed with myself because of how much worse I am doing in school because everything is so unorganized and complicated. At this point I don't even want to do any more projects, I would prefer we go back to the old schedule and do regular work. The only thing my teachers have helped me with in this project is where I could sign up at, after that it seems like everyone is always too busy to help. I would like to see more of us actually doing work all together instead of the resource folder which also confuses me. If we do not go back to the way we were in the beginning of the school year, I KNOW my grades will be worse than in the 1st marketing period.

Robotics Class

Robotics class is challenging, but fun. There are a lot of steps you need to do, but it will all be worth it in the end when you get to see how your robot turned out. The steps are sometimes easy, but complicated at the same time. For example, when you start off by screwing a screw onto a metal limb, it may seem easy but there are all kinds of metal limbs, and there are even more screws that most of the time, look alike. While in robotics class, you have to have a partner, and my partner is one of my friends. We sometimes get confused but it's fun because wed learn on the way. So far everyone has started there robot and about two groups are almost finished. The teamwork me and my partner have can be complicated because sometimes we don't agree with how we should do things and sometimes we both get frustrated and give up however, I would not ask for another partner because even though we don't agree sometimes, we always work something out and come up with an agreement. Sometimes I get side tracked by looking and focusing on other people's project so I can make better use of my time by staying focused on my project and when I need help, ask the teacher but in the process of waiting, I can still try to figure out how to do it myself. When I get frustrated because things don't work out the way I wanted it to go, I can talk with my partner instead of giving up and we can come up with solutions on how to work on our project. I think robotics is very important because most students at other schools don't get the opportunity to have college credit. I also think that robotics is important because students that want to do things like this in the future, will basically already have a head start. Robotics has benefited us by giving us college credit so we can have a head start in college. I could not see myself going into this field but, making a robot is still fun and it will be worth it because in the end, I get college credit and I will be able to tell people that in the 9th grade, I built a robot.

                                                                                                                        ~Cat

Ingenuity Fest

       The Ingenuity Fest is a festival of art and technology. They are finding and celebrating people that like to explore an create. I don't know too much about this fest because i am just now finding out about it but what i can tell you is that the people going are going to need to sit, that's why we are making chairs out of pallets. I can find out more about this fest by looking up information on there website @ingenuitycleveland.com . The Ingenuity Fest helps our city because they create things for our city and it gives people things to do. We-Design Lab-fit into what the Ingenuity Fest is all about because we are just like the people of the city and we are interested in the things the Fest has to provide just like the rest of Cleveland. We also fit in with what the Fest is all about because we are making the chairs for the people to sit in at the fest. What the students need to know and understand about how to make a great design is that "teamwork makes the dream work", meaning that if people act childish and don't want to participate with one another, we won't get things done, however, if people work together and put all the pettiness behind them, we can get the job done. The most exciting thing about building a stage and chairs for the fest is that I get to see people's faces when they realize that they have a place to sit. It's also exciting to see my classmate's reactions to a job well done. I am not worried nor concerned about anything because I believe in my classmates and myself, and I feel that nothing can go wrong if we continue to work together and stay positive. An obstacle we were facing was that everyone clashed heads when we were trying to figure out an idea for how to set up the pallets. We overcame that obstacle however and instead of just taking one idea from a student, we put all of our ideas together and came up with something that was almost PERFECT to everyone's eyes. One thought that I have about the project is how does the Ingenuity Festival look because I won't get to go, and hopefully, someone will take pictures for me of everyone sitting on the pallets that we made (I won't be there not because I wasn't chosen, but because I have to go somewhere else).

                                                                                                                  ~Cat

Maker Space

Makers Space- Design Lab

The maker space in Design Lab is not like anything I have ever experienced in any other school. This is all new to me, especially using the tools that we use. The thing I like most about the Maker Space is that we get to use tools that we were probably to young to use in the past. I also enjoy how we use group work to get through the projects that we do. For example, everyone gets to do different things and they are all hands on. The only problem we have in the Maker Space is that sometimes it can get a little warm. If you were to walk in the room, you would be able to tell that it is warmer than any other part of the building. This is a problem because it's already warm while we are working and as we are working, we will start to get even hotter. This may lead to sweating and being uncomfortable in the room.
This experience is different than any other school because all the schools that I went to has nothing like the maker space and the tools that we use. So far I have not done anything like this before.
We are learning a lot of different things in the maker space. One of things that we are learning in the maker space is how to sand things. When you sand wood, it smooth's out the edges. It also smooth's out whatever else you sand. Another thing we learned in the maker space is how to classify screws and how to drill them into wood. Those are more specific things that we are learning in the maker space, but overall, we are learning about how to make chairs for the Ingenuity Fest. We are mostly using math when we work in the maker space. We need math for mostly everything that we do and use in there. Things like how far apart should the screws be and where you need to cut the wood all need to be calculated, so math is very important in the Maker Space. We use are social skills because we have to work together, mostly in groups. We will use these skills in our future because we need math for almost everything in life and we can use our social skills to get along with people better in life. The most surprising things I have done so far is use the saw. It is very interesting to me because I have never used a saw before because you have to be a certain age to use one. The thing that has surprised me the most about the maker space is how people work together as a team to get  things done. I learned things about myself while working in the Maker Space. One thing I noticed about myself is that I can work with other people better than how I used to at other schools. I also noticed that I am able to work with tools without a problem.
I think the staff is conducting this school the way they are because it helps students understand things better. It helps them because the things that we do is hands on and not on a piece of paper. Overall, I think that the Maker Space and everything we do in it is a great idea because it helps students come together and make things for our society.

                                                                                                                       ~Cat