Mindful Genius

This time I started to color my book. I went with Ande and Evan to record their song. I am almost done with the rest of my illustrations. My book is going well. I am exited to see all the finished projects. The song that Evan and Ande are doing is very cool. The genius hour is going well for my book. I think I will only make two copies.

              For our genius hour I tested my soccer juggling project.  I brought in a better less fragile waistbelt from home. I also brought a bungee net from home. I first used the stronger waistbelt and it worked out perfectly. Then I was encouraged by senora conroy to use the fragile one and see if it worked.  I was surprised to find that the more fragile waist belt didn't break and also worked perfectly. I decided to permanently fix a ball in the bungee net. I did this by taking of the hooks holding the ball in the net and replacing them with elastic cord.

Recently, I've been looking up how much fabric you need to make a maxi skirt. It really depends on your measurements, but a good amount is probably 1 1/2- 2 yards. Besides fabric, I'm going to need some sort of stretchy material (for the waist line). I think I'm going to make part of it with a sewing machine, and hand sew the other part. When I'm done making my maxi skirt, I'm going to try to make a skirt like one of Full Power Girls R's skirts (one that has a similar style). After that, I'm going to try making other types of skirts. I'm probably going to have to make some of them outside of this project (it might take a long time). I also need to practice making sakura out of cloth/ fabric.  After I get all of my materials, I'll probably start working on it right away (I'm so exited!), here are some links to FPGs music videos. I already put some of these in my first blog (these have the skirts I was talking about). Thanks! Chloe h...

This week we tried recording in the library, but all the study rooms were taken, we took about ten minutes trying to fin a space that was quiet enough for us to record without any white noise, but also not distract anyone who may be working, we checked the library (as already stated), the conference room, and the atrium, but finally decided on study A up by the art room. We got the keys from Mr Gartzka and began recording all could. We listened to the original and instrumental tracks a few times just to get a handle on what it we would need to sound like. After all the flukes, bloopers, and prep, we recorded a main solo line, a few roughs of the main bass line. -Ande

Last week for Genius hour was decently productive. Since the previous week, we realized that the Lofino atrium was too loud to record in we had to find a different place. First, we tried the library study rooms but they were taken. Then we tried studio A and we were able to record there. We recorded two out of five tracks for the video. Looking over them, there was little to no background noise so the recordings were perfect. Hopefully next week we will be able to record the remaining three tracks. I say this because if that happens we will have two more days for editing the video. -Evan BArtek

In week four, Evan and i decided to change our song from " Get Out" to "Attention" . This was because "Get Out" was taken off YouTube, and also because it was difficult (having about 8-10 lines) We wanted to get right into recording "Attention" to save ourselves time, so we did a couple takes of the solo to get a feel for things, and also find out sounds we like, and what we can do with our editing. After a couple tries, we realized the Lafino Atrium would be too noisy (Screaming Children and Conversation Absorbed Faculty had put too much back ground noise for all our videos) for us to film everything there, so we considered other locations, such as the study rooms down in the library. -Ande

Yea...... I wasn't here, i was flying all day. That's pretty much it. BUT I decided last week (after Wednesday) to drop the book and try and arrange a song for a cappella instead, i offered to present my idea to the group, and right before i was due to present, Evan explained was to arrange a song for a cappella...... We decided to work together since he is more experienced in editing and programming and i'm more comfortable around music and arranging, so in a total i think we could help each other out -Ande

In the second week of genius hour, I continued to create a basic rough draft for ideas i would use in my book, I plan on making it about a fox and bunny and some adventure or ordeal they happen to go through together, i just need to find a plot that would be interesting to a younger audience (but still have meaning to me) The fox's name is Zorro and the Bunny's name is Baby Bun, these are characters who have been previously created, drawn, written, and explored, so i believe i will be able to go far with the two. -Ande

This week in genius hour was the same as the last couple weeks. I continued to work on my book. It is coming along nicely. I will probably be done writing it soon and start to work on drawings. I think I used my last genius hour very productively. I cant wait until next genius hour so I can continue to work on it.

This week during genius hour I worked on a new game.  The new game contains enemies who clone themselves every few seconds, causing increasing difficulty.  You win if you can successfully survive 25 seconds.  Next week I hope to get Evan to teach me how to cause random movement patterns of enemies to be influenced by your position.  This could vastly improve one of my other games.  Next week I also hope to start working on a quiz.  I don't know what the quiz will be about.  I am really excited for next weeks genius hour and the stuff I will make.                                                                      

        Today, Wednesday September 20th, we had our fourth genius hour. Going into this weeks genius hour, I planned to get a structure of how my slide show would go, like a table of contents. This is always helpful for me to do when structuring a project. I decided that there was going to be a title slide, an introduction as to what the team is, the history of the team, and past members of the team. Today I started my search for who made this years world cup tryouts. I also looked for pictures that I could include on each slide. I think that I will include at least one picture per slide. I think that today’s genius hour was very useful and productive.

This week we finished our fidget spinner cube. We looked for more cubes to do and we found 1. It is called an octagonal barrel. As of right now, we have 2 1x1s to do, and the octagonal barrel.

This week during genius hour, I continued working on my slideshow presentation. I have nearly finished all the different games slides. I learned about the Cat and Dog game and it was very interesting. I also continued researching about other games. I saw Harsha and Cole's fidget spinner cube. It was pretty cool. I am not sure how far Cameron is but I am looking forward to seeing his computer. I feel like I have learned a lot about baseball in these past genius hours.

this week we got a lot done on our fidget spinner cube. all we have to do now is sticker it and it will be done. our original idea didn't work so we found instructions online and we off of those. we also epoxied last week and this week I sanded it down a lot so the cube looked and performed better.

FOR THE FOURTH GENIUS HOUR I WORKED ON MANY A THING. I WORKED ON MY SCRIPT FOR THE VIDEO THAT I AM MAKING. IT IS VERY GOOD. I ALSO LOOKED AT OTHER VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE TO RESEARCH HOW TO MAKE A GOOD VIDEO. IT WAS HELPFUL WATCHING OTHER CONTENT CREATORS SUCH AS LEAFYISHERE, KILLER KEEMSTAR (DRAMAALERT), AND JACKSPEDICE2. PEWDIEPIE WAS MY INSPIRATION FOR THIS PROJECT. HIS CONTENT IS VERY EDUCATIONAL AND HE IS A GREAT EXAMPLE FOR YOUNG CHILDREN. I ALSO GOT MY CAPS LOCK KEY STUCK. THAT IS WHY I AM TYPING IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. THANK YOU FOR READING AND I HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY. SUBSCRIBE TO KEEMSTAR.

This week we got a ton done on the fidget spinner cube, and we also epoxied a different cube. It will be stuck in place as if it were a 2x2, but there will also be extra pieces. We tried to thinkof what else to do, but we have 2 mini cubes to epoxy, so that will be what we do next.

for my genius hour project, I decided to change my food to ice cream. I changed it to ice cream because it is much easier. Lasagna is just going to take to much time and energy to make lasagna. Also, it will take about 2 days to make it so that is why I am going with ice cream. Now since I am going with ice cream I will need help choosing flavors. I can make strawberry to green tea ice cream. So if people can comment and say what kind of flavor they want. Afterall you will be the ones eating the ice cream. Thanks 

For Genius hour last week, Ande and I decided to change our song from " Get Out", to " Attention". We did this for a couple of reasons. One reason was that the old song was removed from youtube so we couldn't listen to the actual version of the song. Another reason was that "Get Out" had about 8 - 10 instruments and we decided that we didn't have enough time to record all of those lines. The final reason was that the editing software would not have had enough room for 8 - 10 lines. After deciding on the song we started recording the vocals line of "Attention". We had to take multiple takes because of kinks with the recording software. Then after watching the video, we realized that there was too much background noise in the Lofino atrium because of people walking by. We then decided that next time we could try recording in the library study rooms.

This week Cole and I came up with a new cube mod. It is bandage mod that will look like there is a 2x2 inside a 3x3. I ordered stickers online and we are going to custom cut them and sticker the cubes ourselves. the cube will have only three different turns that it can make so when it is scrambled you have less options to work with and adds a new challenge to the cube.     

Last week I worked on my short story about a Hurricane Harvey, and I made a lot of progress. The story is going well, and I think it will be pretty good. It's pretty easy to write, but I'm also learning about hurricanes because I'm looking up facts about hurricanes, and incorporating it into my story.

For genius hour this week i worked on finding the materials for my project.  I looked on amazon and found a bungee net that can wrap around the ball. The bungee net will be good to have around the ball because it can be unhooked easily and it is flexible and durable. Then I searched for velcro so i could have something to attach the different parts of my project. I came up with one long strip of velcro that i can cut up and make into hooks for the waistbelt to attach to the elastic cord. Then i searched for elastic cord i purchased 100 yards of thin elastic cord which i will cut then twist together so it is stronger and then attach it to the waistbelt and bungee net for the ball. The last item on my list was the neoprene waist belt.  I found a sheet of this neoprene rubber alloy which i think would be good for my waist belt.

Last week, i decided to look up easy ways to make a skirt. I might make either a "circle skirt" or a "maxi skirt." This is the first time I've heard about them, but it seems like they're easy to make. I was thinking about it and I thought that making your own clothes (like a skirt) actually is really nice. Because you get to make your own design and you can put whatever you want on it! I love Dachshunds, so I might put one on my skirt! Like cut out fabric in the shape of one, then sew it on. I'm going to have to buy some materials first, though. I was thinking something like a sakura tree with a Dachshund by it. If you don't understand Japanese, "sakura" means "cherry blossom." Thank you, Chloe

Last Wednesday, September 13th we had our 4th genius hour in our elective class. I decided firmly on my topic and started my project. This was a very important step in my project because of how uncertain I was the previous week of my topic. I decided that the best topic for me to choose and focus on is the USEF Saddle Seat World Cup Team. I chose this topic for certain because I have some experience with this organization, but I am not positive on all the history that comes with it. Next, I started to think of ideas of ways that I can share my findings and research. I decided that I was going to make a slide show for my project. I plan to include the history, the different teams, and where they compete.

This week during genius hour I did more work on my games on scratch.  When I got on, I found that part of my game that I had made last time did not save, so I had to redo a portion of it.  I also made a few touch ups to it, including the fact that you need to complete the maze in under 15 seconds. I also started a brand new game.  In this game you have to avoid three large blue enemies, while trying to touch a small yellow orb.  Every few seconds the orb will go invisible, only too reappear a little while later. This game is made even harder by the fact that your enemies have random movement patterns, so you cannot predict where they will go.  Next week I am hoping to make a game with cloning enemies.                                                                           ...

During the last genius hour I worked more on my book. I have started making the pictures for my book. Mrs. Conroy told me about a site where I could order a blank book to use. I have decided that I would rather make my own book using the format we used in class. The outline for my book is all done. I am still deciding if I should do a series of books or just one book. My book is going to have about 20 pages. Since I am pretty much done with the illustrating I think I might make a series.

On Wednesday we had our fourth genius hour. I went to the orthodontist on Wednesday so I missed genius hour. Senora Conroy told me to work on my project outside of class. I am continuing to work on my picture book. If I finish my picture book before Genius Hour ends I will probably make a sequel. I've been writing the story. Once I finish writing it out I will do the drawings. The book is only partially done.

This week in genius hour, I continued my research on my baseball origins project. I learned about many different early games that could have inspired baseball. These games are Stoolball, Cat and Dog, and just Cat, or One Old Cat. I started on my slideshow presentation for this project. I got finished writing about Stoolball. I have not yet gotten to the other games. Since I like baseball I am enjoying learning about how it came to be. I am also looking forward to what Cole and Harsha have accomplished so far since their project seems really fun and interesting.

During this Genius hour, we finished our 1x1x1. We took a keychain 3x3x3 and took the chain off, turning it into a very small rubik's cube that still turned. We put epoxy on it, and when it had finally dried, we spray painted two coats of flat black onto it.Once that was done, we stickered it and we were finished with 1 of 3 1x1x1s.We also finished our cutter cube and fisher cutter cube, and once we finished that, we had to decide on what to do next. We haven't yet decided, but hopefully we find something good.

The first week of genius hour cole and I decided to to team up and make Rubik's cube mods. We decided to start with making a fidget spinner out of a Rubik's cube. We took the cube and cut the core do that the ball bearing could fit. We also worked on making a 1x1 Rubik's cube. we took a keychain 3x3 and covered the outside in epoxy so that the cube couldn't move.. we decided to make a cutter cube and a fisher cutter cube which were both different cube mods .

Last Wednesday, my partner for genius hour was not present. This, however, did not stop me from being productive. First of all, when I checked the song on youtube that we are arranging, I found that it was removed along with the instrumental version of the song. This posing a problem, I scrounged up other videos that other people had plagiarized from the creator and downloaded those before they got removed as well. After getting out of the "panic zone", I started dividing the son into parts. I ended up with eight parts, that include: bass drum, FX, violin, piano 1, piano 2, vocals 1, vocals 2, and xtras. The bass, FX, and surprisingly, the violin is the main beat. Both piano parts play the background melody and chords, while as the xtras line performs the shout outs and sound effects. I have yet to decide on the vocal parts but hopefully, we can start recording next week.

Last week I kept thinking about what I wanted to do, and I still couldn't figure out what I was going to do. I thought about doing an art piece, or making a short story. I don't like art a bunch so I don't think I'm going to do that. I hope that I figure out soon what I'm going to do.

Last week I figured out what I was going to do for my genius hour! It took me a while, and a lot of thinking. I decided to write a short a story. I've written a lot of short stories, and I enjoy writing them. At first I was going to write a short story based off of nothing real. But to make the story more educational and about something real, I'm going to write it about a family that decided to not evacuate before a hurricane.

For genius hour i researched and planned how to make a rebounding soccer juggling assist training tool.  I came up with the idea to make a harness for any size ball using velcro and neoprene.  Then attaching it to a powerful elastic band with was attached to a waste belt.  the elastic band was attached to the waste belt via clip which was attached to your body via velcro. I have planned that the harness will have 4 velcro straps that secure to the ball. meanwhile the clips will be made of plastic ensuring lightweight durability. i already have most of the materials for my project but i still need to get velcro and neoprene from somewhere.  I think that my project will be hard to make but well worth it in the end and i am looking forward to our next genius hour.

This week during genius hour we did another shark week.  More people presented their ideas, some of  which I thought were really cool. I was surprised at the amount of people wanting to do short stories.  After the shark tank, I got back to work on my project.  I made a new level in my series of games that I am working on.  It is a maze level where you have to navigate your sprite through a maze.  If your sprite touches the walls, you lose. If you get to the finish safely, you win.  Next week I will probably make a game thin enemies chasing you.

On Wednesday we had our third genius hour. We did the shark thing and everyone said what they were going to do. I was originally going to do a story but I switched to a children's book. Since it's a children's book it has to teach kids something or have a morale. So the book is about a flamingo named Felix. The purpose of the book is to teach little kids about flamingos.The book will be about a flamingo and his journey to find his mom. So I think the book will be called The Flamingo's Journey.

A couple days ago for genius hour I decided to learn a little more about what people wear to weddings (it was just something I was wondering about). I looked some pictures of traditional Japanese wedding kimonos (they actually are really pretty).  I got this one idea: Maybe I could make a skirt/dress and sew (fake) cherry blossoms around it! I either need to buy them or try to make them myself, but I think it could actually work! I still need to get materials, though. I'm also not that good on sewing things on my own, so I'm probably going to need some help with that. I also got the idea to make headband, one that matches my skirt! I'm exited because I really want to sew something again! Thank you, Chloe

Last week we had our third Genius Hour. This week we were to present our ideas and see if the class approved of them. Many people presented this week, but others did the week before. I was still unsure about my specific topic although I had a general idea of what I wanted to do. My overall idea going into week three was that I wanted to have formed an idea, and to have started my research. I didn’t present to the class that day because I didn’t have any specific details about my project that I wanted to share yet. But by the end of this period I figured out that I wanted to focus my project on. I decided to go with either the history of AMHA or on the US Saddle Seat World Cup Team.

On Wednesday August 30th, we had our second Genius Hour. Although I was still pretty unsure as to what I was going to make my topic for my presentation, I started to look up some things that I was thinking about making my topic the week before. I thought of something to do with soccer, tennis, or maybe even with the history of math. I also thought that I was going to exclude topics about horses because I thought there wasn’t anything I really had a question about, but then I thought that there is always something I could learn more about. I started by thinking of things that I already knew about horses. After this, I thought about how I could expand my knowledge on those things and dig into more research about them. I don’t know for sure what I am doing yet, but I have my ideas narrowed down a little bit! Hopefully I will have a topic chosen by next week so that I can start my project.

I am exited to write my book. It might take a while. I am not sure. I am looking forward to working on my book again. I will work hard to get it done. I am working well in class. Lil'T is a good book. I might print out several copies of my book.

I have decided to make a small book. It will be for little children. Mrs. Conroy said that I should thing about my book having a meaning. I decided to introduce the character Hippo. They become friends and had a good time together. I might decide to make it a series depending on how long it takes to write one book. I might introduce more characters along the way or have them go on cool adventures. In class I started to make the first little book, and I planned out the text.

Hello friends. Today we had another GENIUS HOUR . we sat in a circle and used our computers. Spe aki ng   of  co mpu ter s,  I started working on a script. The script is for my project. My project is about a video on how to build a co mpu ter . In the video I will read off of the script to help me guide the viewer on how to build their own  co mpu ter . I want to incorporate fire into my video so I want to have fire come out of the front of the  co mpu ter . The fire can be turned off if that is  necessary.  While I am writing this I am drinking DIET CHERRY 7UP   and I like the colour scheme of the bottle so I want to use that colour scheme for my  co mpu ter . Thank you friend for reading this and you had better liked it because if you didn't then that wouldn't be good so like comment subscribe and click that bell icon to turn on notifications so you won't miss a video thanks and see you next time

Last week for genius hour I did more research on fashion (I forgot to post a blog about it). I've already made a skirt with my grandmother, and I want to try making something else. I might like to make a skirt that looks like one that Full Power Girls R wears (because they're so chic). I also want to learn about different types of fabrics, like cotton and leather. I don't know very much about that type of stuff. I think now would be a good time to learn. I'm also going to learn more about what people wear to weddings. I'm going to do more with make-up and different types make-up styles (because make-up is a part of fashion). -Chloe

Last Wednesday, during genius hour, I decided to make a slideshow or video for my baseball topic. I am leaning towards the slideshow. I continued research on the origins and extended it. I learned that baseball may have came from many different British folk games. Stoolball is one of these games. It was similar to baseball. A legend states it may have been played my maidens who were waiting for their husbands to return. I am looking forward to learning more about a topic I enjoy.

Last week's genius hour, I feel, was well spent. First I started by sharing my project with the class that then approved it. After I shared with the class Ande told me that she had a similar idea so we decided to work together. The final project that we decided to do was an acapella music video of an already existing song, which got approved by Senora. After deciding on the basic project, we had the hardest part in front of us, deciding on a good song. At first, we were looking at very popular songs such as Believer but then we realised that these songs already had music videos that were close to our idea, and wanting to be original we didn't want to do these songs. We then started looking at less popular songs from video games and youtube that didn't already have acapella covers of them. It was by these guidelines that we decided on the song Get Out by DaGames.

This week during genius hour we did the first part of shark tank.  Anyone who wanted to go could present their project idea to the class.  The class could give suggestions, and if the majority of them approved of your idea, you could do it.  I presented my idea and got some useful suggestions.  Evan mentioned that doing a multi-level game on scratch would be very hard and that I might want to use a different program. My idea was approved.  I thought that Evan and Ande had a really cool idea for doing an entire song by themselves and mixing different sound files to make the desired music. For the rest of class I just worked on my game.                                              -Ben

This week in Genius Hour, I researched my topic of baseball and its origins. I am still figuring out which product I will produce. Cameron and I conversed on maybe working together on his computer building idea. We decided against it and parted ways. I then went back to my baseball idea. I am thinking if I want to make a video explaining the rules and origins of the game. Another idea would be to make a slide presentation about it. I am still not sure yet but will hopefully figure it out by Wednesday.

On Wednsday we had our second GENIUS HOUR .  Hayden and I talked to each other about what we were going to do. It was cool learning about baseball. We thought about teaming up to make one thing. We thought maybe not though. We thought maybe not though because we couldn't come up with a idea. The idea we needed would be for a group project . We decided to keep doing what we were first thinking of.