Current
Affairs
and
World
History
Credit
(2008-2009)
(2008-2009)
In my Current Affairs and World
History Credit,
I
listened to my Story of the World CDs on the Early Modern Age and the
Modern Age with my mother on Fridays, which were very helpful in
getting a broad look at world history. I also used Dig Magazine, a
magazine devoted to Archeology, National Geographic and Upfront
magazine, which are on current affairs, to look deeper at certain
points in time, and the Internet to do additional research, more
specifically with the New York Times Connections daily lessons.
Lastly, I went on several mock Archaeological digs, one on Africa and
one on Greece, which taught me a lot, in a very hands-on way, about
the history of those times and places.
Here are some highlights from my Current Affairs and World History Credit!
Here are some highlights from my Current Affairs and World History Credit!
- Some photos from the mock Greek Archeological Dig I attended:
Music
Practice
and
Theory
Credit
(2008-2009)
In my Music Practice and Theory
Credit,
I
started out by taking on piano lessons with my music teacher, Mr Tom
Schepis, and we worked through the end of level 3 of Alfred's Basic
Piano Library and onto level 4 together. We studied different scales,
major and minor, and learned how to play two part writing. Also, I
discovered a small musical composition program called Anvil
Studio, and used that to compose many pieces. When I found I had
outgrown the program and I needed finer control over my music, I
purchased a program called Notion 3, which is excellent and really
helped me. I continued with this program in my Musical Composition
Credit.
Here are some highlights from the Music Practice and Theory Credit!
Here are some highlights from the Musical Composition Credit!
Here are some highlights from the Music Practice and Theory Credit!
Musical
Composition
Credit
(2009-2010)
Mostly
during this credit, I worked on my composition in Notion 3, a program
which allows you to enter notes which are then played by a digital
orchestra. I also worked in the Robert W Ottman Elementary Harmony
book, which is quite hard but has been enormously beneficial to my
understanding of creating harmonies, cadences and other bits of
musical theory. I also used Alfred's Essentials of Orchestration to
help me with my composition. I worked with my music teacher, Tom. We
went over songs I'd written, went through homework in the Elementary
Harmony book, and worked on playing other composer's music on the
piano.
Mr Thom's Evaluation of my work:
Jack continues to hone his craft of composition in a highly creative way. His imagination is uncanny, and Jack is able to transfer easily his ideas into music, creating wonderful color and timbre.
It is recommended that Jack continue his study of elementary music theory, combined with keyboard training. Through these mediums, Jack will gain a deeper insight into the structure and form of music, assisting him with his compositions. I also recommend that Jack begin Aural Comprehension (Ear Training), to further assist Jack in his musical journey.
Jack is a highly devoted student, and spends many hours weekly on his composition. However, assignments are sometimes not completed in a timely manner, taking an extra week to finish. It is recommended that Jack continue working on assignments throughout the week, so that he may continue to progress. Granted, the assignments are at a late high school/early college level, and I commend Jack on the difficult undertaking of completing his assigned reading and his part-writing exercises. Should Jack need extra help throughout the week, he may contact his teacher either by phone or email, as previously stated to him. I recommend that Jack take this avenue if difficulty arises from completing his assignments.
Jack continues to work on proper resolutions of the tonic (I) and dominant (V) chords, and vice versa, showing a fluent ease with which he completes these tasks. He is able to resolve the chords with smooth voice leading in all inversions. Jack is also able to play these chord progressions (with an added sub-dominant or IV chord) on the keyboard in all 12 major keys and all 12 minor keys, including all inversions. In all, Jack is able to play a total of 72 chord progressions. This is a difficult task, and again, I commend Jack for persevering. Also, Jack’s sight reading has improved by leaps and bounds, due largely in part to chord progression exercises, and theoretical knowledge of musical form. Jack continues to improve his technique as well, as posture has improved, lending a large part of efficiency to his technique. These highly adapted keyboard skills will no doubt be useful, if not indispensible, as Jack improves his musicianship.
Jack’s fluency with the composition software Notion 3 should also be noted. With this medium, he is able to sketch many musical ideas from the inception of the composition until completion. He is able to use this software with video engines, effectively and efficiently creating musical scores to film and video. Many kudos to Jack on his continued success with this program.
Taking into consideration Jack’s remarkable progress, I recommend that Jack receive the score of a 9. Since the last evaluation, I’ve seen tremendous progress, and congratulate him on his initiative. I urge Jack, however, to strive for a 10 by not delaying the completion of assignments.
Thomas Schepis, Mus. B.
November 12th,
2010
Jack continues to hone his craft of composition in a highly creative way. His imagination is uncanny, and Jack is able to transfer easily his ideas into music, creating wonderful color and timbre.
It is recommended that Jack continue his study of elementary music theory, combined with keyboard training. Through these mediums, Jack will gain a deeper insight into the structure and form of music, assisting him with his compositions. I also recommend that Jack begin Aural Comprehension (Ear Training), to further assist Jack in his musical journey.
Jack is a highly devoted student, and spends many hours weekly on his composition. However, assignments are sometimes not completed in a timely manner, taking an extra week to finish. It is recommended that Jack continue working on assignments throughout the week, so that he may continue to progress. Granted, the assignments are at a late high school/early college level, and I commend Jack on the difficult undertaking of completing his assigned reading and his part-writing exercises. Should Jack need extra help throughout the week, he may contact his teacher either by phone or email, as previously stated to him. I recommend that Jack take this avenue if difficulty arises from completing his assignments.
Jack continues to work on proper resolutions of the tonic (I) and dominant (V) chords, and vice versa, showing a fluent ease with which he completes these tasks. He is able to resolve the chords with smooth voice leading in all inversions. Jack is also able to play these chord progressions (with an added sub-dominant or IV chord) on the keyboard in all 12 major keys and all 12 minor keys, including all inversions. In all, Jack is able to play a total of 72 chord progressions. This is a difficult task, and again, I commend Jack for persevering. Also, Jack’s sight reading has improved by leaps and bounds, due largely in part to chord progression exercises, and theoretical knowledge of musical form. Jack continues to improve his technique as well, as posture has improved, lending a large part of efficiency to his technique. These highly adapted keyboard skills will no doubt be useful, if not indispensible, as Jack improves his musicianship.
Jack’s fluency with the composition software Notion 3 should also be noted. With this medium, he is able to sketch many musical ideas from the inception of the composition until completion. He is able to use this software with video engines, effectively and efficiently creating musical scores to film and video. Many kudos to Jack on his continued success with this program.
Taking into consideration Jack’s remarkable progress, I recommend that Jack receive the score of a 9. Since the last evaluation, I’ve seen tremendous progress, and congratulate him on his initiative. I urge Jack, however, to strive for a 10 by not delaying the completion of assignments.
Thomas Schepis, Mus. B.
Here are some highlights from the Musical Composition Credit!
New
Jersey
History
Credit
(2008-2010)
In my New Jersey History Credit, I
started by studying Mountain Lake, our local glacial lake, which used
to be, quite a while ago, a tourist destination. Now, sadly, people are
going to other places instead. I interviewed people who lived around
the lake and grew up when it was a vacation spot. I also studied the
lake itself, its history as a glacial lake, and the wildlife that live
there. During this project, we travelled to Jenny Jump to see the
erratics (rocks left behind by the glaciar), and went to a lecture on
Native American Clothing. After this project was finished up, I started
on a study of the
farms and farmers in our area, learning about how farming has changed
in our area and finding out some interesting stories about nearby
farms.
Here are some highlights from the New Jersey History Credit!
Here are some highlights from the New Jersey History Credit!
- A photo of me and Amy posing on an erratic at Jenny Jump:
- A photo from the Native American Clothing Lecture:
- A Report I wrote on the Cummins Farmhouse:
Art
Credit
(2008-2010)
In my Art Credit, I
worked with my mentor, Peter Callahan, and learned how to, at first,
draw the human body, getting proportions right and then working on
details. I also learned how I could break everything down into its
basic shapes and use those to rough out a picture. After that, we
moved on to pen and ink, and I created several pieces using this
technique. I also learned how to paint using watercolors and
acrylics, creating a couple of paintings. About halfway through, I
began to illustrate a children's book I wrote when I was eight, Terror
of Porridge, using
pen and ink to create them and using Mr Pete's Mac to clean them up
and create a layout, placing the text and pictures where I wanted. I
learned how to publish my book, and created a final copy, ready for
publication on Lulu.com. Lastly, I went to art museums and submitted my
work to
magazines like Cicada, Cricket and Muse.
Here are some highlights from my Art Credit!
Here are some highlights from my Art Credit!
- Some pieces I drew on my Artist's Tablet:
- The cover picture for Terror of Porridge:
Theater
Arts
Credit
(2009-2010)
In my Theater Arts Credit,
I
began
by
working
on
the
Musical
Performance
lab
at
the
Growing
Stage.
I
learned
coordination
and
increased
my
capacity
for
singing,
and
we put on a small song and dance
number for the parents who
came to the final class. At the same time, I continued the
play which I
had started the previous semester in the Actor and Writer Speaks
class at the Growing Stage, increasing my skill at writing believable
dialogue and interesting characters. Lastly, I worked in the
Black-Light Puppetry Class, also at the Growing Stage, where I worked
with a group of three other students to create a black-light puppet
show based on the Greek myth of Phaeton. In the next semester, I
continued the Actor and Writer Speaks and the Musical Performance
Lab. In the Musical Performance lab, I continued to learn
coordination and how to control my voice, and it was a very different
experience because we had two new teachers. In the Actor and Writer
Speaks class, I began to approach the end of my play and studied
different ways to make my characters identifiable. I also went to
Growing Stage and New Jersey Shakespeare Company productions and
wrote reviews of them.
Here are some highlights from my Theater Arts Credit!
Here are some highlights from my Theater Arts Credit!
- A set of the best photos from the Blacklight Puppet Class at the Growing Stage (black light doesn't work so well in photo form, unfortunately):
- Some pictures from my final Musical Performance Lab class:
Economics Credit
(2008-2010)
I read
and worked on my Whatever Happened to Penny Candy Course, which
consisted of two books, a workbook and a reading book. I learned a
lot from this course, and it formed my grounding in economics. I
learned how inflation works, why recessions and depressions happen,
and how our government often inflates to prevent depressions. I went
deeper into economics with the other books I read as part of the
credit, learning more about other areas and applications of
economics. For a while, I used the Current Affairs website to keep up
on world events, which almost almost have something to do with
economics, and I watched Connections and Connections 2, by James
Burke, two courses which were very useful for expanding my knowledge
of the ways economics could be applied.
Here are some highlights from my Economics Credit!
I worked with Marie Boudes and various other video and audio French courses, including Fluenz French, to increase my French conversational and writing skills.
I started out by attending classes with my French teacher, Marie Boudes, where she taught me a lot about French language, pronunciation, reading and writing. In the lessons, I used a book series called Symtalk to learn the language, with Marie's help. During this time, as we knew she was going to move away, we started looking into various other French courses, including Voila! French, Ma France, French for Beginners, and Learn French Online, among others. However, the course we eventually settled on was Fluenz French, an excellent blend of video, audio and interactive examples which allowed me to really grasp the basics of French grammar, writing and reading. I managed to get through the first level (which had 30 lessons) and onto level two before we finished this credit.
Mentor's Evaluation:
At one time Jack and I were working together, but a number of months ago it became clear that Jack was far in advance of myself, and therefore I encouraged him to continue on his own. He has made great advances in his understanding of the French language, and I think he will do well at making himself understood in a country where French is the first language. -Lorna Wooldridge
I started by working with my mom in the kitchen, learning how to cook first snacks, then full meals. We also read Go Wild!, which was about learning to survive in the outdoors. Around that time, I also worked with my dad in the yard, learning how to do various chores and tasks. I went to various workshops, where I learned how to identify mushrooms and survive in the woods. After these, I began working with Mr Bill, my mentor, and he taught me many new skills I could then apply to my life. I learned confidence with many tools, most of which unnerved me to start with, but which I learned to respect, not fear, by the end. Many of the jobs I worked on had long term impacts (learning to make jelly and reducing waste by using the cores and skins of the apples; making a shed to keep lumber from getting wet in the rain; doing electrical work for a freezer and cutting piping for a greenhouse). I learned that one of the best things to do while doing something physical is to think about things that are bothering you, and that many problems solve themselves that way. I also learned that many tasks (including chipping) are better when there's someone else around, working with you, even if you're both doing your own things. However, the most important thing he taught me was a can-do attitude, and I try to remember that wherever I go. During the Survival Class I attended with Fred Gast, which was a day class, I learned how to start a fire, what to do if I got lost in the great outdoors, what items I need to wear when going for a walk and which items I need to take with me in order to help me survive. We also spent some time in the woods later that day putting many of the things we had learned to good use. Lastly, I went to NOFA (The Northeast Organic Farmers Association) and MOFGA (The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association), where I attended many workshops and learned new skills. In conclusion, I have come a long way from when I started, but I can still strive upward, to improve my skills and knowledge, and keep a positive attitude.
Here are some highlights from my Economics Credit!
- My Economics Final
Project, on inflation and its effects on the economy:
French
Credit
(2008-2011)
I worked with Marie Boudes and various other video and audio French courses, including Fluenz French, to increase my French conversational and writing skills.
I started out by attending classes with my French teacher, Marie Boudes, where she taught me a lot about French language, pronunciation, reading and writing. In the lessons, I used a book series called Symtalk to learn the language, with Marie's help. During this time, as we knew she was going to move away, we started looking into various other French courses, including Voila! French, Ma France, French for Beginners, and Learn French Online, among others. However, the course we eventually settled on was Fluenz French, an excellent blend of video, audio and interactive examples which allowed me to really grasp the basics of French grammar, writing and reading. I managed to get through the first level (which had 30 lessons) and onto level two before we finished this credit.
Mentor's Evaluation:
At one time Jack and I were working together, but a number of months ago it became clear that Jack was far in advance of myself, and therefore I encouraged him to continue on his own. He has made great advances in his understanding of the French language, and I think he will do well at making himself understood in a country where French is the first language. -Lorna Wooldridge
Life
and
Survival
Skills
Credit
(2009-2010)
I started by working with my mom in the kitchen, learning how to cook first snacks, then full meals. We also read Go Wild!, which was about learning to survive in the outdoors. Around that time, I also worked with my dad in the yard, learning how to do various chores and tasks. I went to various workshops, where I learned how to identify mushrooms and survive in the woods. After these, I began working with Mr Bill, my mentor, and he taught me many new skills I could then apply to my life. I learned confidence with many tools, most of which unnerved me to start with, but which I learned to respect, not fear, by the end. Many of the jobs I worked on had long term impacts (learning to make jelly and reducing waste by using the cores and skins of the apples; making a shed to keep lumber from getting wet in the rain; doing electrical work for a freezer and cutting piping for a greenhouse). I learned that one of the best things to do while doing something physical is to think about things that are bothering you, and that many problems solve themselves that way. I also learned that many tasks (including chipping) are better when there's someone else around, working with you, even if you're both doing your own things. However, the most important thing he taught me was a can-do attitude, and I try to remember that wherever I go. During the Survival Class I attended with Fred Gast, which was a day class, I learned how to start a fire, what to do if I got lost in the great outdoors, what items I need to wear when going for a walk and which items I need to take with me in order to help me survive. We also spent some time in the woods later that day putting many of the things we had learned to good use. Lastly, I went to NOFA (The Northeast Organic Farmers Association) and MOFGA (The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association), where I attended many workshops and learned new skills. In conclusion, I have come a long way from when I started, but I can still strive upward, to improve my skills and knowledge, and keep a positive attitude.