This Bike Protectz You!

Hello and welcome to my last Action Project in Design and Engineering.
This ap asked us to design a bike that fits the needs of a specific persona.
For this unit of Design and Engineering, we went to WorkingBikes, Earth Rider and a representative from Divvy came to speak to us. Working Bikes was a hands-on experience breaking down pedals, Earth Rider was a hands-on riding experience and Divvy was a business experience. I think that this research qualifies me to design this bike for my persona. I hope you enjoy this project.


 



Overall this project was very fun, yet stressful. I was able to use my own ideas to make a bike that I think works perfectly for my persona. If I could change anything about my assignment I would give myself more time to make a more effective 3D model.

The Hair Issue

TN "The Front Cover" 2019

Hello and welcome to a very special action project for Rhetoric. For this action project, we were asked to create an art piece that will bring people together around a certain issue. This is based on the tribute to the Chicago Freedom Movement in Marquette Park. The piece notably featured many languages, something I thought was very important for creating my own work of art to bring people together. I am especially proud of this AP and I hope that this translates through the work that I put into it. There are 2 pieces to the artwork. First, is a commercial parody to bring light to lack of diversity in television and second, mock magazine editorial photographs to highlight the lack of diversity in fashion magazines.


                                                                           HAIR from T N on Vimeo.

TN "Nissrine" 2019
My Hair Is Fierce in French 

TN "Shanet" 2019
My Hair is Angelic in Spanish

TN "Georgette" 2019
My Hair is Good in Kirundi

Artist Statement

As a woman of color, I do not see myself reflected in the media.
Especially media that is meant to sell me something. I want to change this,
I want to change the narrative that the only time you can use a woman of color
on television or on print is when you are directly talking about problems surrounding us.
That is why I created this piece. This piece is meant to act as a mirror for women of color to be able to see themselves in spaces where they are usually ignored. When people look at this piece I want people to feel comfortable. I do not want this to feel foreign or different. This piece is meant to be art that challenges the status quo but is still allowed to be fun and beautiful. It should, however, start conversations in white spaces about why we don't see people like this in fashion magazines.
It's simply a fact that in the past 30 years only 30 women of color have been on the cover of Vogue Magazine. For scale, there have been 412 white women on the cover, and everything about that does not sit right with me. My piece is meant to show women of color as fashionable, without changing to make white Americans comfortable (hence the native languages represented). Not only are these publications racially-biased, but they are also colorist. In a recent study, 90% of WOC in magazines are either light or medium skin tones. Yes, you should feel embarrassed because the fact is that it is simply more profitable to market towards people of color, big corporations just don't want to.
I chose two media for this art piece because I wanted to show two different advertising methods. I thought photography would be best for a photo-shoot that showed these beautiful women of color editorially. The advertisement shows these women of color having fun which is a radical act in itself. It is very rare to see women of color having fun or not facing some type of adversity in mass media; this challenges that. I used Pathos throughout this art piece. The fun that is being had in the commercial appeals to pathos because it is so human. The beauty of the images also appeals to pathos. Ideally, I would want this piece to be a huge social media campaign that other women of color could add to. It would be really amazing to see all types of women from all around the world contributing to this art piece.

Citations 

Muller, Marissa G. “A New Study Shows Just How Bad Diversity in Hollywood Is.” W Magazine, 27 Feb. 2018

Neuendorf, Kimberly A. "The content analysis guidebook". Sage, 2016.


Owens, Tori. “As America Grows More Diverse, Fashion Magazine Covers Are Slow to Show Progress.” Peninsula Press, 25 Oct. 2017

Why You Shouldn't Correct AAVE

Hello and welcome to my second Action Project for my Junior humanities course, Rhetoric.

For this AP we looked at Op-Eds and their power. We had an FE with Troy LaRaviere, the president of the Chicago Principal's Union. This FE was very touching for me as my Grandmother is a retired CPS teacher from the south side, where Troy LaRaviere also taught. I was inspired by his speech to write about African American Vernacular English. This is a dialect that some people use as an excuse to ignore black people. I thought that it was very important to bring attention to this age of "digital blackface" and explain the beauty and uniqueness of dialects. 

                Why You Shouldn’t correct AAVE

                                

                                                            Via @ashoncrawley on twitter



Tik Tok culture has brought us modern-day minstrel shows- sans the blackface. The white folks of social media have taken trending black culture and turned it into the butt of a joke. From Instagram to Vine the most popular jokes have been “black people be like”. But, why? Why is the “easy” joke always racist? And it's not just Gen Z tik tokers who fall into this style of joke either. It's their parents too. C'mon, you can admit you've laughed at a white comedian imitating the black lady they saw in CVS or the black preacher they saw on tv. Maybe you complimented a black girl on how well-spoken she was just because she decided it was safer for her to use standard English in that situation.

So what's the problem with white folks using AAVE? There is always an assumption when you first meet someone. The unfortunate truth is that most people's assumption is based on learned racism. When those Instagram kids turn off their phones they can face the world without their stereotypes walking into a room before them. Still not convinced that it's a big deal? Let's dive deeper into it.


AAVE, or African American Vernacular English, is a dialect most commonly used in predominantly black spaces. It has been labeled by many as “incorrect”, however, learning how to dissect the dialect and “code-switch” is a vital skill. Code-switching is a necessary means of survival for all black Americans. Talking “white” is the only way we are even seen on a day to day basis. AAVE is not “uneducated,” AAVE is not “wrong,” and most importantly AAVE is not “ghetto.”

Arriel Vinson states that her classmates didn’t take her main character seriously because he spoke AAVE, though the character was extremely well educated and only used AAVE when speaking to friends or thinking to himself. AAVE is unfairly ridiculed by so many non-black poc, white folks, and even black Americans. In my own experience, in spaces like school and others, I work very hard to speak in a way that is comfortable for my listeners. I have felt the red-hot embarrassment of a slip-up, my use of “ain’t” or “finna” being taken as a joke or mocked and corrected, leaving me feeling that I have to reestablish myself as an “educated” person. There is nothing worse than walking into space, thinking that you made a good impression, and then hearing "oh, you speak so well". Yes, while this sounds like a compliment, I will ask you, when is the last time someone has to you this? My skin color walks into the room before I do, then my use of standard English. I often wonder if people who look like me ever see past my race or if I'm just the eloquent black girl.

Geoffrey K. Pullum affirms, “Those that speak AAVE don’t fail in speaking standard English they succeed in speaking African American English”.

Let's say you still are convinced that a person who speaks AAVE should be corrected. You may say "well, there is a time and place for everything."
To you I say, your privilege colors you vision, it tells you that everyone should be able to switch back and forth from standard English.
To you I say, if you work to understand AAVE you will hear that the person you looked over or ignored for being “ignorant” has a remarkable opinion covered in the deep-seated, rich, and beautiful culture of AAVE.





Addendum

In this Op-Ed, I used pathos as my rhetorical appeal. I used pathos because I felt that in order to get through to people about a culture that is different than their own it is best to use a common ground.

I used Anaphora “AAVE is not uneducated, AAVE is not wrong, and most importantly AAVE is not Ghetto.” Metaphor “I have felt the red-hot embarrassment of a slip up” and Allusion “C'mon, you can admit you've laughed at a white comedian imitating the black lady they saw in CVS or the black preacher they saw on tv.” I would like to submit this article to a prestigious newspaper like The New York Times. I know that the NYT has an audience that my Op-Ed imagines. My goal with this Op-Ed is to shake people into seeing people that they ignore, whether it be because of skin color, language, or vernacular. There are other dialects that get ignored as well like, Chicano English or Creole English. I want to express that these dialects are all so beautiful and they make our cultures so beautiful and untouchable.

Wanna Betta' Shovel?

In my first Action Project for my Junior STEAM class, Design and Engineering, we took a deep dive into empathy. Empathy is understanding and caring about another person's situation. This is an idea that designers use when making objects for consumers to use. This is what we did for this AP. Along with my partner LHM, we designed a shovel that was made to work for senior citizens with empathy in mind. To prepare for designing, I interviewed my mother while gardening to see what tools she likes and which tools she would change. As a class, we went Home Depot to see how consumers buy tools and how businesses accommodate the supply and demand.



Our new tool is a shovel that allows you to get leverage without compromising your balance.
It does this by having a place for your knees to be able to push into the shovel allowing you to dig deeper into hard soil without lifting your feet.
The additional part is the knee rest, this allows for better leverage and greater ability to dig into the soil.
This is an example of innovation and efficiency because the shovel has a new part that allows senior consumers to be comfortable and have the confidence to shovel without losing balance.
These are the ways our tool is better than the competition's:
Our shovel has a sleeker more “modern” look, it allows for better leverage than the average shovel and it allows the older consumer to not be worried they will fall while shoveling.
How? Our shovel uses a lever as a mechanism to access the knee rests. It is a first-class lever because the fulcrum is in between the input and output.


 


In my opinion, I really enjoyed this project. I liked being able to design and customize a tool that will work for almost every consumer. If I could change anything I would change the way that using the knee rests may ignore a potential consumer that cannot use their knees.

Pete Buttigieg Loves Rhetoric!

DISCLAIMER- This Blog Post Does Not Reflect My Political Views


Hello and welcome to my first action project in my junior year for Rhetoric. In this class, we discussed rhetorical devices and situations. We also went over Logos, Pathos, and Ethos. All of these are appeals that people use to persuade and convince someone to, for example, buy their product. Or, in this case, vote for them in the election. In this AP, I studied Pete Buttigieg one of the people running for the nomination in the election. I went through most of his public speeches on gun control and learned what his plan and ideas are. With that information, I used Logos and Pathos to explain his opinion on Gun Control and hopefully persuade young people into being on his side.







Here is the script. I have highlighted and explained which rhetorical devices I used.

Speech Script TN 2019

Citations

Britton, Bianca. “What Other Countries Do to Stop Mass Shootings.” CNN, Cable News Network, 6 Aug. 2019, intl/index.html.

Follman, Mark, et al. “US Mass Shootings, 1982-2019: Data from Mother Jones' Investigation.” Mother Jones, 31 Aug. 2019,

Patient Profile- Lung Cancer Prevention

Hello and welcome to my final STEAM AP of my Sophomore year. Of all of the Action Projects from this year I think this is one of my favorites. In this AP we are called to create a patient profile of a character. I chose the disease risk, gender, sex, familial risk, etc. This AP goes really in depth and combines everything that I learned this year in my Disease and Cure courses. I really enjoyed how this AP really wraps everything up and allows us to take control and lead with everything that we know about the subject. I am especially proud of the story path that I chose to go on with this character. Giving the character a backstory farther than just was required by the rubric really made me connected with the patient and I really felt invested in everything I wrote for them. I hope you enjoy my final Sophomore action project

Beneatha's Moment In The Sun

Hello and welcome to the last AP for my Humanities course, Drama. This is the last Action Project of my sophomore year. I am very excited to close this chapter of my academic career and move on to new things next year. In this year I explored many themes that all were centered around storytelling in some way. From the most literal way of creating my own creation story to writing our own short play. I was very challenged to make my writing better this year. That was very exciting to me because I  love to write. In this AP we were called to become a chorus for the play A Raisin In The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. In Greek theater, a chorus is a group of actors who comment on something that is happening in the main action of the play. They do this by singing, dancing, or reciting a chant. In our version of the chorus we are calling out good, bad and educational parts of the characters actions in the scene of our choosing. Please Enjoy.





Script


 



Music Credit: BenSound Romantic Jazz

Excerpts taken from A Raisin In The Sun

The Impossible Question

Have you ever found yourself in a debate about feminism? Have you ever felt that there was no solution to the questions you both were asking? Well in our skit my partners GR , BA and I asked a question that we didn't find a "fair" answer to. Our guiding question was "should women use their femininity to gain success or power?" This question was based off of our two female characters Nora (played by GR) who at one point in her story came close to seducing money out of her close friend and Josephine Baker (played by me, TN) who is a historical dancer from the 1920's flapper era. We thought this question would be great with the contrast of the shy and timid Nora against the bold and confident Josephine Baker. This action project was really enjoyable for me since I seek a future career in theater/writing. We had the privilege of going to the Goodman Theater where we got feedback and notes for our work. It was really fun for me to write for Josephine Baker however, one of my proudest moments in the script is the ending monologue that I wrote for Nora. I feel that it really sums up the point we were trying to get across with this video.





Our Script

Athlete's Foot Begone

What's itchy, uncomfortable, and resides between your toes? Foot Fungus! Well maybe not YOUR toes but, if you are suffering from a burn in-between your tootsies, I have three solutions for you!

In this AP I will be discussing different treatments for Athlete's foot. Before we get into it I will tell you about this unit in my STEAM class Cure. This unit we discussed treatments vs cures, drugs vs medicaments, and the lock and key system that some medicaments use. Lost? Well let me explain, when something painful happens like a headache, pain receptors are fired and it makes your body produce a chemical called Arachidonic Acid and enzymes in your body convert that chemical into different chemicals that produces inflammation. Painkillers like Ibuprofen block the enzymes so that the chemicals can't get into the active sites. Whew, that was a lot right? Try taking a test on it! 

 All in all I really enjoyed this action project because of the art element that was incorporated into it. I really enjoy lettering and like to use it in action projects whenever I can. I would say this is one of my favorite action projects that I've done in STEAM. One of the elements that I'm most proud of is the images that went into my slides.

Resective Surgery Investigation

Hello and welcome to the first AP of the STEAM course Cure. In this class, we investigated cures to the diseases that we discovered in the last course. We learned about Cells, Mitosis, Miosis, and different math concepts. This AP was very fun to do, I decided to look into a surgery that is in a field I'm interested in Neurology. The surgery we will be investigating in this AP is Resective Surgery. This is a very interesting surgery let's dive deeper.
 

Taming of a Jerk

Hello and welcome to my first Action Project for my humanities class, Drama. In this unit, we read Shakespeare's  Taming of The Shrew and discussed the play from a feminists lense. The play was written in a time where women were seen as objects and it reflects that. For this AP, we were called to reply to one of the characters in sonnet form. I decided to take a stance against Petruchio the man who married Katharina.

Petruchio, you tamed a feral shrew.
some may congratulate and praise your name,
But, Petruchio know I chide at you.
Are you proud of your dreadful claim to fame?

Petruchio, you are an evil knave.
Thinking of you, nothing good comes to mind
Walk in the shoes of the girl you’ve enslaved
Maybe then you will grow your missing spine.

You say “she is my goods and my chattels”
Women are just as powerful as men
Is your masculinity so fragile?
Equality is the best way to win!

Sir, the way you “tame” is no comedy
You’ve made Katharina a tragedy

Errand| My Experience Creating a Short Film

Hello and welcome to my Action Project for my Independent Study. For this AP I created a short film in the span of two months. In this blog post, I will be sharing my film and talking about my experience.

Errand is my passion project that I put sweat and tears into. When I started my Independent Study I was very excited to dip my toes in a creative medium that I had never had any experience. I thought that my school was the perfect place to create something new. So I began my adventure by writing my first script and creating plans for the characters. I knew from the start that I wanted the film and characters to have a certain look I got help from my teaching artist at Freestreet Theater, Zandra Starks. She helped me out with the storyline and plot, after our meeting the film started getting clearer. After I finished my script I began storyboarding with the help of SR; we began with the “first act” of the film. Next up was casting, where I ran into my first hiccup. I created a post on social meeting with a call for my second character, Oliver. I got many requests and replies (way more than I expected). In the end, I landed on one person to play the role who I thought fit the role perfectly. Sadly, that person fell through and that was the first time I felt real frustration with this project but after talking with my crew, I reached out to Joe, who is now the Oliver that we know and love today.

After casting, and the first draft of the script was completed my next job was location scouting. I landed at my local grocery store. I began taking pictures of the space and getting color palettes so that I could begin costuming. I decided that I wanted Oliver’s clothing to sort of match the colors of the store since his character stays there for the film while I wanted Lyviah’s clothing to stand out. Next, I had a table read meeting with the cast where we made sure the costumes fit, got notes on the script, and went to the shooting location to take promotional photos for the film. The weekend after that we began shooting. On Saturday. we filmed “act one” which was the kitchen scene and the runaway scene. And on Sunday, we filmed “act two” this is where the next frustrations began. Due to a mix up with the store, there were a lot of customers there on the day we shot. Combine that with all the noise of a busy store, we did not get the perfect audio I so much desired. I was very upset with the way that those scenes came out and since they were the most important part of the film, I decided that I needed to reshoot. Unfortunately, Joe was not able to shoot for the second weekend and the date for the premiere was quickly approaching.
I ended up rewriting the script but I wanted to keep the visuals that I already had so, I wrote the second script to be narration for what already happened. We took footage of Lyviah getting out of bed, walking her dog, and playing in the park. In editing, the next week at school Shanet and I recorded the narration. It took about a week to edit. I came into school early and stayed late. I had to get this all done before Friday because that was the day of the premiere.
During editing, I finally saw my film come together and I finally felt proud of what I created.
Friday, March 22, 5:30 had finally arrived I had butterflies in my stomach all day. I was so happy to see all of the people who came to support me. Earlier that day, my friends and I set up the Open Concept room at school. We rolled out the red carpet and set up silver platters with crackers and cheese and waited for people to arrive. I gave a short speech that thanked my actors and everyone who helped me and we went into the Amp to watch my film.
After watching my film and hearing the laughter from the audience, I felt so proud of what I had done. I was very nervous about the outcome but I was so happy that it turned out well.

Credit to
"Going Up In The Country" Copyright 1970 UMG words and music by Canned Heat
"Sunshine Go Away Today" Copyright 1971 Atco Records words and music by Jonathan Edwards

The Color Banned

Hello and welcome to my final Action Project for the class Forbidden Books. In this class, we discussed book bannings. People have banned books throughout history because some books perpetuate ideas that make them uncomfortable. The book I chose to fight for was The Color Purple by Alice Walker a book that has been banned many times in its time. Please Enjoy.

TN

Forbidden Books

Sharon Holmes

March 22, 2019

The Color Banned

     “Nobody knows the trouble I've seen

 nobody knows my sorrow,

glory, hallelujah,

 Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen, nobody

                                                             knows but Jesus” (Louis Armstrong)

This excerpt from the spiritual “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” perfectly describes the life of Celie who was raped by her father at the age of 13, then later on in life, verbally and physically abused by her husband. Celie begins writing letters to God to deal with the trauma in her life, a literary device that is used throughout the entire book. After living with her husband and his children, a woman called Shug Avery moves in with them. Celie discloses in her letters that she is falling in love with Shug. The Color Purple starts out controversial. On the first page, Celie explicitly describes how her father raped her. Throughout the book, Celie talks about how she never saw men in a romantic way, only women, which was somewhat controversial when this book was published in 1982. The book is a staple in black culture and should be read by every young woman growing up black. Though the book is explicit at times, it is not without reason. If the book danced around the “bad parts” it would not be the iconic treasure that it is today. Even with all of The Color Purple’s controversies, it should not nor have ever been banned

The Color Purple is controversial. It was so controversial, in fact, that it was banned by schools all over the country. One school district in North Carolina (Burke County) tries systematically to ban the book in its schools. The book is controversial for schools because of its explicit depictions of sex, rape, and other violence. In 2008, Burke County schools wanted the book banned because of homosexuality, rape, and incest. In the book, Celie discloses her feelings for women (The Banned Library.)“First time I got first the full sight of Shug Avery long black body with it black plum nipples, look like her mouth, I thought I had turned into a man” (Walker 49). This quote was a problem because it describes a woman’s body and Celie’s sexual thoughts about it. There was also a relatively explicit sex scene that may have turned religious groups off to the book. On the political side of things, a school in Oregon banned the book because of its “negative depiction of black men” (Doyle). 

When talking about banning The Color Purple, the quote that brings the most controversy is on the first page. “First he put his thing against my hip and sort of wriggle it around. Then he grab hold my titties. Then he put his thing inside my p---y”(Walker 1). This quote depicts the rape that Celie went through. It is jarring to read that on the first page. People who want this book banned bring up both the incest and the violence in this quote. They feel that this is inappropriate to be read by high school aged students. The next is “You’re a trifling n----r, she say” (Walker 21). This quote is brought up because of its use of a slur. Although the word isn’t used throughout the book, white teachers and some students feel uncomfortable reading it aloud. These reasons are all due to political and religious reasons.

The Color Purple should not be banned and here’s why. One, it’s a novel that acts as a teacher of the facts of life for teens who read the book. The Color Purple is a book that doesn’t dance around issues and plainly lays the problems out. It also doesn’t give a sense of false hope by having a canned happy ending. Everyone should be able to read this book, regardless of race because of how it tells the story of a woman navigating both sides of prejudice, being a woman and being black. While it makes sense that schools weren’t comfortable with the sexual and violent themes in the book. However, some districts have only banned the book because of homosexuality. This is prejudice and offensive because there is nothing wrong with homosexuality. To be equal they would also have to ban books like Twilight, The Fault In Our Stars, and many others. Also, the Oregon banning doesn’t have any basis. The book never says that all black men are abusive, and the book was written by a black woman. When asked about how she felt about her book being banned Alice Walker said this, “I think it is anyone’s right to do what they feel they have to do. They have a job. I have a job. I will write what I think is right for me to write. They will oppose it. In a way that makes us equal” (Labrise).

In the end, The Color Purple is a very important book that attacks problems head on instead of avoiding them. People have been banning books that make them uncomfortable for a very long time. They are unsettled by new and world-changing ideas that do not match their own this is what The Color Purple does. While people have tried to ban and censor the important topics in this book, the problems aren’t going away. The Color Purple is revolutionary because it talks about sexual abuse and homosexuality in a way that was radical at the time. 

Works Cited                                            

Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. 2014 Labrise, Megan.  “Alice Walker: Writing What’s Right”. Guernica, 5 Oct 12.   The Banned Library. Banned. 10 Jul 16. Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. Boston; Mariner Books, 1985

Excercise in Empathy| Anorexia Nervosa

Hello and welcome to the second AP for my STEAM class Disease. In this unit, we talked about mental diseases and their impact on people. We read the book The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida which was written by a 13-year-old on the autism spectrum. Math-wise we discussed piecewise functions and point-slope form. For this AP we were called to make a presentation that would make people empathize with people experiencing a certain mental disorder. For my presentation, I did Anorexia Nervosa.
 


This AP was very interesting for me. I felt that it was a good experience to learn about anorexia. There are a lot of misrepresentations of anorexia in the media. I did not know a lot about this mental disorder until now. Hopefully, my presentation will help dispel the myths around anorexia.

Works Cited
Three, BBC. “Anorexia Recovery Story: How I Survived An Eating Disorder.” YouTube, YouTube, 1 July 2018,

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.

HBCU Should Go To College

Hello and welcome to my first Action Project for my humanities course, Forbidden Books. In Forbidden Books, we talked about the censorship of books, the reason books get banned. We also discussed current censorship topics such as the Gucci blackface scandal and the Nike Arabic scandal. We read the book Fahrenheit 451 and we just ended our first unit called Politics. Socrates was a very prolific philosopher who never wrote any of his teachings down. We read The Apology which is the manifesto that Socrates wrote to his accusers. In this manifesto, Socrates held a hypothetical Socratic dialogue with one of his accusers. Socratic dialogue is when one person's questions another with a questionable opinion until they change their statement. Socrative dialogues can be dangerous because it challenges the government and can expose secrets.
My partner GR and I did a Socratic dialogue about Historically Black Colleges and Universities vs Primarily White Institutions. We discussed why a person wouldn’t want to go to an HBCU and the assumptions of why some people may think PWIs are “better”. We chose this topic because it's something we talk about very often. Howard is my dream college and GR wants to go to Brown.
 
HBCU Need To Go To College from GCE Lab School on Vimeo.

Marie | An Exploration and Profile of Breast Cancer

Hello and welcome to my first AP for my STEAM course, Disease. In Disease, we have talked about blood, cancer, and body systems. In a few assignments, we went over cancer and how it affects the body, why it happens and some of the options that people seek to treat it. This AP was very challenging for me. I wanted to create an informative patient profile while also not making it sound cold or impersonal. In this AP, we will be learning about the breast cancer survivor Marie and her experience. We will be going over her surgeries, aftercare, risks, and symptoms.

Marie is a 42-year-old white woman who lives with her husband and foster children in Cleveland. Marie never had any children of her own. When giving herself a breast exam, our patient noticed a lump in her breast and new dimpling. According to Marie, “At first, that didn’t worry me because my mother had a lump in her breast that was benign.” (benign means that it is not cancerous) Four months later, however, Marie noticed a discharge from her nipple. “This is what worried me; that was what wasn’t normal.” Following this, she went to her primary care physician to get a mammogram. A mammogram uses x-rays to examine the breast for lumps. Marie was not very active and had a history of breast cancer in her family; these factors heightened her risk for breast cancer.

After many tests, Marie was referred to get a single mastectomy which is a surgery in which the breast tissue is removed. The skin remained intact, but they were not able to save Marie’s nipple. Before the surgery, Marie prepared by buying a special pillow and special sweatshirts with pockets that hold the drains (tubes connected to pouches that are placed in during surgery to prevent the buildup of fluid.) “I searched frantically for someone to tell me how this was going to go. The doctors gave me medical advice but weren't able to give me first-hand insight.”

Marie’s surgery was life-saving as well as life-changing.“I think, as a woman, so much pressure is put on you to look feminine. I felt almost guilty that I was giving away one of the most feminine aspects of my body.” Marie says that she went through a slight depression over the loss of her breast.

Breast cancer is a disease that affects mostly women ages 40 and up. 12 percent of women (all ages) get breast cancer and 1 percent of men get breast cancer. This disease can affect the breast tissue, lungs, liver, and lymph nodes by spreading into the bloodstream and attacking the cells. Cancer occurs when cells in the body don’t shut off their reproduction function. In the instance of breast cancer, this affects cells in the breast. Symptoms of breast cancer are redness and tenderness of the breast, discharge from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, and dimpling of the breast.

There are 3 main treatments of all cancers; radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery. The surgeries we discussed earlier are broken down from breast-conserving to complete removal. Complete removal is necessary when the whole breast is affected with cancer and there aren’t just one or two lumps to remove. There are breast-conserving surgeries called lumpectomy (where only the cancerous lump is removed) and partial mastectomy (where part of the breast is removed).

Some risk factors of breast cancer are being overweight, starting your period before the age of 12 or starting menopause after the age of 55 these factors both producing high amounts of estrogen, smoking, alcohol consumption, and not having children before 40. Marie was put at risk because of her family's history with cancer and also some of her lifestyle choices.

Breast cancer has a major impact on the body of the person who affects the disease. Below you will see a diagram of the affected lymph nodes, liver, lungs and breast tissue.

     TN Breast Cancer Diagram 2019

Citations

“Breast Cancer Surgery.” American Cancer Society, Feb 13

“CDC - What Are the Risk Factors for Breast Cancer?” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

“Breast Cancer Foundation.” Susan G. Komen®,

Partners In Time | A History Themed Board Game

Hello all history teachers and buffs welcome to your dreams come true! 

What is it you ask? Partners in Time!
Partners in Time is a game where you join Steve Howard and Dino in their adventure from 1880 to 1990. Compete with other players to collect as many artifacts as possible and win. This is a history-themed board game that I made with SR and MT for people who love and teach history. Its fun and exciting while also having educational elements!

 
Check out the rules below!

This slideshow has pictures of some of our first prototypes before we finished the game!

This project was really a wild ride! From the start, my team and I knew that we wanted to create a fun, themed game that engaged everyone. The art from the game is inspired by the Steampunk culture and style. We decided with this style because we wanted to stand out from other time travel games. We got the idea for Steve Howard and his dog Dino when we found little figurines in a bag of bottle caps. We decided they would be the perfect characters to follow along in our game. Playtesting the game was one of my favorite parts seeing people excited and having fun while playing the game we worked so hard on really was an amazing feeling!

For Partners In Time, I designed the Artifact cards, the back of the Symbol Cards, the Symbol Dice, and the Masterpiece. I was really pushed to use skills that I knew but hadn't ever used before like, using the laser cutter and 3D printer. I even learned some lettering skills! I am most proud of the art for the cards. I think it looks so smooth and really captures the aesthetic we were going for. I think that I could improve at working in a team. I think that I was really lucky and we had a dream team but, there were times when certain aspects of the game got confused and that was fixed with better communication.

Stand by My Review | A Culturalist Film Review of Stand by Me

Hello and welcome to my final Action Project for the class Ollywood. In this AP I reviewed the film Stand by Me with a culturalist lense. A culturalist looks at the importance of culture in a film and how that affects its viewers. In this final unit, we have been discussing post-production elements like editing, musical score, and foley artist work. You will hear more about those elements and how I rated them in stand by me. There is some language in the sound clips that could be considered offensive. Listener discretion is advised.



Transcript
 Be advised. This film review contains sound clips from the film with vulgar language. You've been warned.

 The movie stand by me is a film based off the book The Body by Stephen King and directed by Rob Reiner. This is a culturalist film review done by Tymony.
Stand by me is a cult classic and many who watch it say they related and found themselves within the movie.I, however, did not. But let's talk about the film's’ impact before we get into my cultural gripes and misgivings. The film contains a ragtag gang of white kids from a small town all of which have some type of domestic issues at home which gives them the perfect excuse to be able to disappear for two days with no worry.

We open the film with an older Gordie portrayed by Wil Wheaton reading a newspaper with a rather disturbing headline. He begins narrating and we see the group smoking cigarettes and being extremely foul-mouthed. We are now introduced to Christopher portrayed by River Phoenix, Vern portrayed by Jerry O'Connell and Teddy portrayed by Corey Feldman. Vern tells the gang that he overheard his older brother and friend talking about a dead kid that they had found in the woods. This is where our adventure begins.

 A piece of the film that I think really had an impact on the boys watching this film when it came out in 1987 was the fact that each of the boys were brought to tears at one part. They were shown crying but were never made fun of for it, instead, they were comforted by their friends which were really refreshing to see in a late 80’s boys film I use quotations. The acting in this movie is so incredibly well done especially by the children actors. You can forget the teens and adults in the movie, none of their characters stuck out and they blended all together. But the work done by these 12-year-olds was really nothing to shake a stick at The scene where Christopher tells Gordie that he deserves smarter and better friends than him. I found the maturity in Christopher's character sort of off-putting at first but when you tie it into his character's background, it makes sense and gives him depth.

 The film uses no CGI which makes sense for the type of film and also the time it was made. However, one endearing yet disgusting scene makes me chuckle and this is the scene where Gordie tells the story of an overweight boy and how he gets revenge on the town. There is vomit… a lot of it. But it is quite obviously coming from a hidden hose and not the actors. This scene also is very intentional in not having any filters over it so you know that it is a story, not a dream. While also having a brighter look highlighting it from the other real-life scenes. music.

The score was made up of songs that you would hear on the radio in 1959 from rockin' robbin to Yakkety Yak this film really puts you in the 50s groove. Ending it all with the films namesake stand by me. The film used effective sound effects to the point that you wouldn’t even realize they are there. Thank the foley artist Rick Ash for that! Now, would this film hold up if it came out in 2019? No. There is no cultural diversity in this film and in today's world that is the first thing people look for in a film. Also the constant use of the r-word, this would not make it very far.

 Truly I think we do need something like this in today's world but to be able to make a move like it did in the 80’s we’d have to see more diversity. By saying that I am not saying the legitimacy of the film is lesser what I am saying is that this movie played to the narrative as whiteness being the default. In a 2019 remake, we would have to see something that a-lines with what Americans see not necessarily what they are comfortable seeing. A remake would also take a revolutionary stance if it included people of color. Since you don’t see many boys of color insensitive, harmless and playful roles. So is Stand by me a good film? Yes! A film I would keep in my repertoire? no. but don’t let my opinion keep you from watching this great film. It's one to watch actively though constantly giving you a reason to feel weird about getting older and experiencing grief.

All sound clips from the film Stand By Me Rob Reiner 1986
Bazelon, Emily. "White People Are Noticing Something New: Their Own Whiteness" nytimes.com
The New York Times Company, 13 June 2018. Web
15 Jan 2019