Final Blog --Mariane Machado

I can't even start listing the things that I learned and enjoyed in this class. This class was full of wonderful, and fun experience. I remember getting switched into this class and not having a clue what was going on. When i walked in, I was welcomed with a warm smile and a teacher ready to help and work with me throughout the year. For starter, The Day Wolf was a really interesting, creative and fun video to make. Having to wear the blond wig , having to lay down on the floor of the cemetery, and being chased by a werewolf were experiences that I will forever hold with me. Especially all the bloopers! At the end of it though it was all worth it, look at the wonderful video we, altogether made. One thing that we can definitely say about this class is that everyone is ready to help each other at any time needed.

One story that influenced my life dramatically was the video Growing Up Online, on Frontline. During that video we saw that cyber bulling is getting bigger and bigger on social websites. Parents are deeply concerned about what's going on with their children lives and if they are being bullied in any form. I learned that Cyberbulling lead to much more severe consequences than just getting angry, and upset, it can lead to suicide. I remember watching about the video about Ryan Halligan. He was a young boy with all his life ahead of him when bulling got a little out of control. I know that bulling is real; I know it happens everyday, but for the fact that a 12 year old boy killed himself because he couldn't handle it was horrific. The worse part in this story was that there was a deeply disturbed kid giving him wrong advices online, showing him websites on how to kill you. When the pain got too much to handle he did it. I think that if you don’t have anything useful to say then don’t. That got me mad. How can there be people out there that are playing around with someone else life.

I learned so much in this small amount of time that i spent in this class. I personally didn't think it was possible to do everything we did in such a short period of time. Before we actually started to work on any projects we had to start messing around with the GarageBand and the Final Cut Express HD. Those are not easy programs, they are filled with interesting and some complicated gadgets. I tried my best to get as much as possible out of this course, and surly i did. The only thing I truly wished is that the course was a full year class, everything else was perfect. I loved the way Ms. Ventura taught us. She was calm, patient and always ready to help.

My favorite part of the whole class was working on my radio show. At first you look at the ones people from other classes did and say "Oh that's easy", Its really not that simple. First of all we have to brainstorm. We had to come up with an interesting and funny radio script. After editing the script assigning parts and all we had to record. That was one of my favorite parts. In order to record, everyone gathered in a tight, squished circle so that their voices could be heard, that was fun! After recording we started to learn how to mess with GarageBand. There not too much to it, you just have to make sure not to delete anyone lines. On GarageBand is where we added special effects, edited the recordings, added songs etc. After that we started to gather pictures to start our visual part on the radio show. That's when we stared to use the Final Cut Express HD. We learned how to move the images, how to make transitions and everything. I would love make more videos in the future. If I had to chose I would probably choose to do documentaries.

I can use what I learned in this class anywhere I want in the future. Everything theses days are so technological. Everything you do has something to do with technology; Everything is digital. I could use what I learned to make homevideos, or even work with it as a carer.

I think that Ms.Ventura is a really good teacher. I thank her for everything I learned this course. I thought she was calm and ready to help you whenever you needed. Thank you very much for being an awesome teacher Ms. V.