20% Project

I'm back again, doing my 20% project. What's it on this year? Well it goes hand in hand with the topic I covered last year- Child Psychology. What I'm doing now is studying every human's instincts, logic, and emotions, and how the all connect under the topic of human behavior. So far, I have seen many interesting facts about how the brain processes something, uses your instincts and logic to react, and then displays emotion as it does all that. I think this goes even deeper into the profession that I would like to explore as I grow older- Psychology. It really breaks down the basis of our behavior and why we do everything the way we do. I will try to consult with the psychology teacher at my school. Many of the websites I may need may be blocked or I may have a hard time trying to find good information on these topics because they are not heavily researched. Either way, I think that my chat with the psychology teacher will help fill any holes in my research. Here's my video:

Chris Langan

Is Chris Langan Successful?

I personally don't think he is. He could have done better. Even though he didn't have the resources he needed, he was eventually recognized for being the smartest man in America, but he didn't seize some of the opportunities that and finally do something big. It's not that hes not successful, its just that hes not as successful as he could have been.

My personal definition of success is being happy where you are, living comfortably, and taking opportunities and chances as they are given to you. Chris Langan has all but one. He could have been bigger than just a silly game show and if he became bigger, more people would know who he is. Even though I have my own opinions about what he could have done, I think its good that he chose the modest life because he doesn't seem like the kind of person who wants all that fame and fortune.

Kindergarten Debate

The great kindergarten debate was one that my own family has taken part in. On one side, parents hold their children (mostly boys) that have missed the cut-off date of September 31st, one year back so that they'll have an advantage over the normal kids. On the other hand, critics like Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt, who wrote the New York Times' Delay Kindergarten at Your Child’s Peril, believe that this may hurt the child. the article states that, "In a class of 25, the average difference is equivalent to going from 13th place to 11th. This advantage fades by the end of elementary school, though, and disadvantages start to accumulate. In high school, redshirted children are less motivated and perform less well." My brother is just the opposite, he was pushed forward even though he missed the cutoff date. He was never seen as the shrimp as his grade And contrary to what anyone would expect, he was always seen as one of the older ones because of his height. Sometimes it does begin to show that he is a little behind his peers in maturity and sports skill, but he always makes up for it with his intelligence.  My brother, who is also a gifted student, surpasses many children in his grade -some of which are more than a year ahead of him- in test scores and intelligence. He has learned to keep up with his peers and I feel like most children in his position would do the same. As the article states, as time goes on, the disadvantages begin to accumulate as time goes on when children are "redshirted". The situation begins to become a little sticky when sports are brought into the equation. Many children that are mature for their grade, are perceived as more advanced, and as a result, many of them are put in a class with older kids, taught more, and more time is put into 'harvesting' and 'growing' their talent. This is when kids like my brother have the disadvantage. Even though my brother is tall and smart, it doesn't make up for some of his setback in his football skills. He plays as if he was a junior, but he is technically a senior. Because he was seen as "okay" a few times and looking a bit older, people think that he's just not as consistent as his classmates, when in reality, hes playing even better than an average junior. There are many advantages and disadvantages of being redshirted. My opinion is to leave them in the grade they should be in, let them grow and figure things out by themselves instead of babying them and setting them one year back in the future.
  

Being Gifted: Is It As Good As It Looks?

Being gifted can be just what it states- A gift. It can also become a never ending pain, both in being judged by others and being judged by yourself. Sometimes it's hard to live up to not only other's expectations but your own. Now especial I'm officially labeled a gifted child, I get disappointed at myself sometimes because Ive realized that I've now set these standards for myself. Other times it serves as a good thing and it helps me push myself to my potential. Other times you get more positive attention for being bright in you classes. Even though these are great, there are some myths about gifted students , by National Association for Gifted Children here. 

That Student Can’t Be Gifted; He’s Receiving Poor Grades  This is one if the most untrue statements I've ever seen. Out of self expertience I can tell you that homework it TOO EASY for me. Over time, I've lost interest. I can know do an assignment the period before the class and get the same grade as an average student that spent an hour on it. Homework and classwork just seems like busywork to me. I've even come t a point were I dislike doing it a lot. And getting low assessment grades can mean that you're not a good test taker. All Children Are Gifted This s a myth. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of people that are good at certain things, but being good at something and being gifted at something are two entirely separate things. A truth about being gifted is that your mind is mature. The catch to this is that it doesn't mean that you are mature. Many gifted children suffer from asynchronous development. read more about it here. Another is how gifted children get treated like adults. I kind liked this one because I liked to treated like a mature person even though I wasn't. I was 12 going on 20. I like being perceived s intellectually advanced especially because of my height. In all, being gifted has it ups and downs. You just have to learn how to deal with it.

First Post Back

Hello, it's Zeenat here.
I'm now a freshman, but I really miss the summer. Not because of the weather (I like the cold and hate the summer heat) but because I had to come back from my amazing vacation in Dubai. Everything was expensive, beautiful, and ornate. And it was the perfect vacation because I got to travel somewhere new. I absolutely love to travel and to go & airplanes. I've been to the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and (of course) North America. One thing a didn't like about Dubai was how some of the people stared at you. I really don't like when people stare at me in a negative way. There was a lot of variety when it came to food. They offered anything from cultural cuisines to Burger King and IHOP. And that was honestly the best IHOP I've ever had! That's another thing about me... I love food. I love shopping so the malls were a go to destination in Dubai. The stores ranges from abaya shops to Nike and even Aeropostale and Chanel! I like learning new things and this trip was definetly a learning experience.

But to conclude the post, here are some things that I liked and didn't like on the vacation.

Like:

Food
Travel
Airplanes
Airports
New things
Learning
Shopping
Hotel beds
Cool henna
New phone case

Disliked:

The staring
The heat
The humidity
The strange microwave in the hotel room
The plane with no tv
The Arabic commercials that I can't understand.
Some mean taxi drivers
The burger king fries
The super loud screaming kid in the Swiss airport
How everyone's airports are cooler than ours

Kickstarter

We were given 500 imaginary dollars in ROGATE to go on kickstarter.com and fund projects. These are mine.

1.http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1467637878/pinkcheeky?ref=category $50
2.http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/650996578/cheese-and-crack?ref=category $100
3.http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/382469225/une-bobine-for-people-who-love-iphone?ref=category $50
4.http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/71061659/day-maker?ref=category $100
5.http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/onibrown/onis-first-dance-residency-in-new-york?ref=category $100
6.http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bitbangerlabs/remee-the-rem-enhancing-lucid-dreaming-mask $100

Crowdsourcing: Google Maps

Crowdsourcing-
to utilize (labor, information, etc.) contributed by the general public to (a project), often via the Internet and without compensation: The team's use of Facebook to crowdsource accurate scientific data allowed the project to be completed on time. The newspaper crowdsourced its investigation into the scandal.

Google Maps started to crowdsorce their pictures to use along with their different views such as photos, traffic, weather, and webcam. It allows you to see actual photos that other people take with their cameras, phones, etc. This is crowdsourcing because it is collecting pictures and information to help real people make choices on places that they want to go.
Click Here To View The Link. This is the Google Blogspot page. They explain how the amateur photos of traffic can help you be more informed about the route you take and actually see how bad it is, rather than just hearing things on the radio. Click Here To View The Link. This link explained how it might have more accurate photos, and you get to see actual photos of businesses, streets, and traffic; as the other one did. In all, I think this is a great and simple crowdsourcing idea that will benefit many people in little ways in the end.

Personal Photo Essay: Lights of Disney

This was all about the lights of Disney World. Sunny Florida sky by day, lit up roller coasters by night.

Picture:
1. It was the tree at Animal Kingdom. It had animals carved into it. I liked the way the light hit it.
2. That is the giant golf ball in Epcot.
3. One of the many firework shows in Disney World.
4. Disney's Electrical Parade in Magic Kingdom.
5. More fireworks.
6. The pavement in Epcot lit up in different colors.
7. It looked like my brother was holding the golf ball.
8. That was the lake in the resort we stayed at.

Waste Land; The Documentry

In ROGATE, we watched a film called Waste Land, a documentary by famous artist Vik Muniz. It was about when he traveled to Brazil's Jardim Gramacho; the second largest recycle picking site in Brazil; to visit the people, learn about their lifestyle, and make art out of them. He ended up not only learning their stories, but the how emotionally content or upset each person was with their lifestyle. I agreed with the pickers motto: Thant it's better to have an 'honest' job at the landfill than having a 'dishonest job making easy money on the streets. Its probably hard not to get self-conscious about your job and lifestyle but its much better than making fast money and getting killed. Fast. The film didn't rally make me think about how much garbage I produce on a daily basis, but how I dispose of that garbage everyday. It shows how America can be highlighted because they recycle too, except we don't have pickers.

1 Week Photo Challenge- Day 5: TEXTURE

The requirements for today's (Friday's) picture is texture.

This is a picture of my hair because many people ask to feel my hair.

1 Week Photo Challenge- Day 4: LOOKING IN

The requirement for today (Thursday) was a picture that represents "Looking in."

I am looking out of my room door.

I'm looking into my window with the morning light shining onto my face:)

1 Week Photo Challenge- Day 3: COLORS :)

The requirement for the picture we had to take for today (Wednesday) was colors which I have been looking forward to most; here''s the picture:

This is one of my most prized possessions, my pink Eiffel Tower! I begged my mom to buy it for me because I love how the color looks. I put it at my window in the morning light and it looked like this.

1 Week Photo Challenge- Day 2: UNDERNEATH

Today's (Tuesday's) photo requirement was a picture of something underneath. I took this picture:

I took this picture at my friends house. I liked the lighting and it also showed something "Underneath."

1 Week Photo Challenge- Day 1: COLD

In my ROGATE class, we have started our brief unit on photography. Each day for a week, each person takes a picture of something different in the criteria of the requirement that day. Today's requirement is something cold, here's my picture:

I was eating my breakfast on Sunday and my breakfast got cold very quickly, so I took a picture.

Important Picture to Me: Photo Essays

In ROGATE my assignment was to find a photo essay on: http://www.edmodo.com/link?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.boston.com%2Fbigpicture%2F
for what we were learning in our unit of photography. Some of the pictures were disturbing but i eventually found a group of pictures that didn't completely scare me away. My memory doesn't exactly forget those images easily. I found the photos titled "Dance around the world, part II" and instantly found my comfort. Instead of just finding a typical picture of dance and explaining to you how i was a dancer, instead I found a much more important one. When I went to Disney World, I saw the performance of Cirqe de Soleil: La Nouba and they where doing the same exact type of thing in the spectacular show. Me, my mom, and even my brother enjoyed watching this type of act. It brought back memories that I will cherish forever. Here is the link to the picture: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/02/dance_around_the_world_part_ii.html#photo20
The rest of the photo essay showed many pictures of dance from around the world. Some that I could relate to as a dancer, some that I had just learned about. This photo essay was interesting to look at and share with my friends. The link to the photo essay is: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/02/dance_around_the_world_part_ii.html

Life in a Day: My Reaction to the Film

The film Life in a Day was based off of user submissions on youtube. They submitted their life in a day from 12:00AM on July 24th 2010 to 12:00AM July 25th 2010. They got 81,000 submissions from 192 countries and 4,500 hours of film. It was directed by Kevin Macdonald. The most memorable scene to me was when the woman showed her scars from her surgerys. I don't know why but I just couldn't forget about that painful image. I liked when they showed that little boy who cleaned shoes. He said he loved his father because he made him food and cared for him, I liked that. I didn't like when they showed that lady pulling out flags from her purse because I thought that was kind of a waste of time. I saw different patterns of humanity in almost all walks of life such as traditions, work, and even waking up in the morning. Juxtapositions are two scenes or images right next to another that show a vast difference or similarity, they would be just about opposites or duplicates. I liked how they started with everyone waking up, and ended with sleeping. I didn't like that weren't that many amount of cultures represented and they didn't show what country the people where in, but I liked how the showed how we were so similar yet so different. I would recommend this movie to a mature friend because I don't think any of my other friends would be able to handle it.

The 2011 Time 100

In reading the Time Top 100, I found these individuals to be the most interesting:

1. Amy Poehler: Amy Poehler is one of the people on the list that I do recognize. She is so funny; because she is a comedian of course; but the is also brilliant and creative. I remember watching her on Saturday Night Live, along with Seth Meyers, giving the weekend update every week. After leaving to have her child, she guest starred a few times then played a role in the series Parks and Recreation.

2. Peter Vesterbacka: I did not recognize this name until I finally read about him. He is a game developer, which seems fairly normal. He took it to a whole different level when he created the popular game Angry Birds. It became THE most popular game of 2011 and just about everyone was playing it. I know I was!

3.Gabrielle Giffords: I recognized Gabrielle Giffords but not immediately. She was is a congresswoman, a smart, fair and driven one. She was made famous by the catastrophic incident that almost took her life but it claimed many others. She was shot in the head and is now in treatment and has progressed greatly. She inspires many, including me.