Spread the word to stop the word.

Recently in one of my classes I heard multiple people use the word retarded.  I'm sure many people use the word retarded loosely and don't think much about it and when I hear it I usually don't think twice about it.  However, I started thinking about how the word came to be considered bad and if people really should use it or not and that is what I want to reflect on this week.

I thought about how this word relates to my passion project and how if I'm spreading autism awareness I also need to think about words that can be hurtful towards anyone with mental disability.  Retarded discriminates against people with mental illness in the same way that Nigger discriminates against black people and Fag against gays.  The problem is, retarded has become a word that people use jokingly with their friends unlike other derogatory words that can cause fights if used in the wrong place.  I went online and found an article called "Noah's Dad" and I really liked the points that the writer had.  I learned that there is a campaign called "Spread the word to stop the word" and he even had a link to a PSA posted on his website that I thought was intersting and had a strong message behind it.  I am going to link the website below for anyone who wants to hear about his story and why he stopped using the R-word.  I am going to make an effort to tell people not to use the R-word when I hear it and you should too.

Link to article:
http://noahsdad.com/spread-the-word-to-end-the-word/

PSA completed

This past week my group has finished editing and making our psa video and I really like how it turned out.  After making it last week we thought that it looked good and we really liked the product but after showing our psa to the class and getting their feedback, we realized it needed a lot of improvement.  I went home the next day and worked on it a lot and sent it to Jamie who edited the video some more and added the music to it and Taylor improved our website even more.  What I really like about my group is that we have our own website as a call to action for our psa.  After people view our psa they can go to the link at the end of our video and read some of the things that Taylor has out there on the website.  I feel like I learned a lot during the process of creating a psa.  The biggest thing I learned is how to have a strong impact on the viewer in a small amount of time through the music and fonts that you use.  Every little detail counts as something that will benefit your psa.  The music and how fast we were able to complete our psa went really well.  It helps when everyone pitches in and finds their own part to work on.  However, if I could do this assignment over I would have done something that involved filming because I think some of my other classmates that have actors in their psa, have a more professional look to their video.

image from http://www.informationanalyticsinstitute.com/OtherServices/CompletionServices.aspx

PSA for digital wellness

This past week my group and I have been working on a public service announcement for digital wellness.  More specifically,  our psa is about not letting social media determine your self-worth.  Your self-worth is not based on how many likes you get on an Instagram photo or the amount of retweets you receive on a tweet.  I am really guilty of deleting a photo on Instagram if it does not get the certain amount of likes that I want even if I really want to keep the picture up.  Social media can really affect people's confidence and it can cause people to feel inferior to someone else just because they have less followers than the other person.  Our psa is bringing light to this because no one should determine their self-worth from Instagram, Facebook, twitter, or any other social media website.  I have worked on creating a video and the other members in my group our working on building a website and making music for our video.  I am really liking the product of what we have been working on and I'm excited to see what it all looks like when it comes together.  If you would like to visit our website, the link is http://yourselfworth.weebly.com.

Thinking about the future

In class Mrs. Mcneilly had a skype call setup with a former Lake Norman Charter student to talk about what he is currently working on and to really just talk about life after Charter.  The speaker's name was Kevin Beaty and he went to Lake Norman Charter when we only had a middle school.  He transferred to Hopewell highschool and took some film classes that helped him decide that he wanted to go to film school after he graduated highschool.  He attended Boston University and worked with professionals, eventually becoming an expert at what he does through the many internships that he worked at.   I really enjoyed listening to him because he painted a good picture of what life after highschool and college would be like, even though I don't plan on becoming a freelance artist.  He did however, talk about journalism which is something that I'm highly considering doing after college.  He went into detail about how journalist these days can't just write, they have to also be able to work the camera and this was something that I definitely paid a lot of attention to.  I've gone to college summer camps to work on things like backpack journalism and I could understand everything that he was saying about journalism.


One thing that he stressed in his lecture was that after college, no one asks you what your gpa was or the grades you got in highschool, everything is about experience and professionalism.  I really liked that he said this because one thing I tend to tell people who freak out over their grades is not to worry too much about it because one bad grade on a test is not going to ruin your entire future.  That isn't to say you shouldn't worry about your grades because they do determine the places that you get into but after college is over and you have a stable job, no one is going to ask you about that one test that you got a bad grade on.  Overall, I really enjoyed hearing about Kevin's life and how he got to the point that he's at now but I couldn't exactly relate my genius time project to what he was saying.  He was helpful for thinking about my future but not so much spreading autism awareness around the community.  I like that he was very on top of things and  he shows determination with what he does.  He taught me that in order to really spread awareness for my passion project I have to be aggressive  with getting out into the community and contacting people that can help me.

Community Pitch Event

On Thursday, November 5th, our digcit class had a community pitch event where the parents walked around and looked at our genius projects and asked us questions about them.  The event had a great turnout and there was a good amount of parents and students there.  I was nervous about the community pitch event because public speaking can sometimes be hard for me depending on the audience.  After I got comfortable I realized there was no reason to be nervous.  Everyone was really nice and it was easy to interact with the parents and tell them about my project and what my plans were.  There were a few people who didn't say much and it could be uncomfortable when it felt like I was having a one-sided conversation.  However, I think the community pitch event turned out well and everyone did a great job with presenting their genius time project.  The event helped me become more comfortable with explaining my project to people and Mrs. Costa even offered to help me spread awareness around the school. 

Spreading Awareness

Since my last blog post I have come up with more ideas on how to spread autism awareness.  I was so overwhelmed with the idea of the genius time project because I was thinking too big.  I realized that I was trying to start with a much larger audience group than I could handle.  I have to start with my school before I can go out into the community and try to convince people of why they should donate money to an organization supporting autism.  My plan is to pass out pins to people that they can wear on their shirts in order to spread autism awareness.  My hope is that people will see the pins and ask what they're about and it will get the idea in their minds that autism is something that should be recognized more.  I don't think many people realize how many are living on the spectrum.  More than 3.5 million people are living on the spectrum and every 1 in 68 children are diagnosed. I want to bring attention to that.

Planning for Action

This week I have been working on my presentation for the upcoming community showcase on November 5th.  I am starting to struggle with how to get my project going.  I know that my topic is something I am passionate about but sharing my passion with the community is going to be hard for me because it is difficult to find a place to start.  My first quarter goals were to get my plans in motion for my project and I have done that in terms of knowing what I need to accomplish but I haven't put my plans into action yet. Have you ever had a moment when you don't know where to start because you had so many options?