Isabella

"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious" - Albert Einstein

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, ou la Mort

April 19, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I, Coco Vuitton, have created this journal that contains my personal account of this decade. It all originally started out of sheer boredom caused by my job as a lowly seamstress for the Royal Family, but I am proud to declare that this journal of mine has lived to see everything from 1789 up until 1799; and I intend to continue it for the rest of my days.

Living under Napoleon has been far more tolerable than under Louis, I’ll admit. However, poverty still dominates the streets and festers on the souls of the hungry; the rich and privileged continue to be the ones who prosper. On the days I go out to work, every corner I turn, I am greeted with the sight of a homeless. Though there have been several monumentary reforms to the government, such as the Constitution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man; however, corruptness still remains, all starting with Napoleon. It’s almost as if liberty, equality, and fraternity didn’t exist – in which the only option remains, death.

Vive La France!

March 29, 2024 / / 0 Comments

The French Revolution was a bloody movement necessary for the country to transition from an absolute monarchy that oppressed its citizens to a republic that abolished feudalism and encouraged equal rights for all. However, revolution is not a simple daydream; even after several reforms to the practices of the government, inequality and corruption still remained fervent. In the end, one ruler still came to rise above all the others as Emperor, leading France to once again become a monarchy. This leads to a question, had the revolution truly changed anything, or was it simply a “Reign of Terror” full of bloodshed? Dive into the time period of radical change where countless lives were taken supposedly for the cause of devotion and justice to the country of France with our video; “The French Revolution in Plain English.”

CREDITS:

Introduction: Johnson

Estates General – Paris Commune: Wontaek

DoRoMac – Constitution: Alicia

War Between France and Austria – King’s Execution: Performed and scripted by Isabella, spoken by Niko

Reign of Terror: Performed and scripted by Niko, spoken by Isabella

Napoleon: Johnson

Conclusion: Niko

 

With the Flick of a Lighter

January 28, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Two teenagers on the 57 bus, on the way home back from school: one being an agender teen wearing a skirt, Sasha; the other, a young African American male with a lighter, Richard. It was this specific afternoon; this moment, the mere eight minutes where both of these teenagers’ lives overlapped, that Richard left Sasha with severe burns, and for this single reckless act, Richard was charged with hate crimes as well as life imprisonment. This case of Richard and Sasha gained international attention, forcing both teenagers into the spotlight of citizens and media alike. “The 57 Bus” by Dashka Slater chronicles the events that led up to the moment of the crime, starting with the accounts of each teenagers’ pasts and how the various influences in their lives effectively shaped them to be who they were up until the time of the crime, whilst showing both sides of the story, coin, and crime after the act had been committed. The novel itself not only makes for a riveting, compassionate, and expertly written read; it also includes themes, social issues and central ideas of racism, justice, class, gender, and identity. Not only that, “The 57 Bus” shows despite majority of the views by media and people on the case of Richard and Sasha, this crime isn’t a simple matter of injustice and justice, black and white, perpetrator and victim – it is far more than a one-sided and malicious act against a poor, unsuspecting recipient. Through “The 57 Bus,” you may find that the truth of this crime is more complicated and heartbreaking than previously thought.

To start with, one thing that Dashka Slater did extremely well with when writing “The 57 Bus” was getting sources and information from individuals affiliated with Sasha and Richard as well as the teenagers themselves to write the most accurate real-life account of the crime and the lives both Sasha and Richard led before it. This specific notebook page is a mind-map about Sasha and some quotes about their background.

Here, in this notebook page, I dedicated the first half to selected quotes I thought were relevant to understanding Sasha as well as how they could potentially lead to some of the themes this book presents. In the second half of the page, you can see how I then created some big ideas based off of my previously selected quotes and wrote a few supporting details under each big idea.

 

In my next notebook page, I applied the lesson of exploring multiple big ideas to my own book:

With this notebook page, I thought to combine the multiple big ideas that reoccured throughout Sasha’s part of the book into one solidified idea with several statements and quotes/supporting details as seen above. I made sure to also include one other perspective aside from Sasha to really add depth into this idea of “identity.”

 

Moving on from Sasha to Richard, this next notebook page is in the same format as the notebook page about Sasha except this one is about Richard:

Again, I followed the exact same format with this notebook page as I did with my page about Sasha. With Richard, I noticed the difference between him and Sasha as even though they were raised in Oakland, California, the both of them were raised in vastly different environments, which impact their character. I kept note of the underlying classism as well as details about the environment that Richard grew up in and how it may have led to him committing the crime as I continued reading on.

 

This next page isn’t from my notebook page; it’s a central idea assessment that we did in class, but I felt that it has many connections, quotes, and a well supported theme statement that’s more developed and refined. In addition to a summary of all the previous notebook pages, it also has more details to enhance your understanding of the book.

Central Idea Assessment – The 57 Bus

In this page, you’ll see that it emphasizes a lot about identity, the various aspects that influence your character, how social issues affect it, etc. It’s really just a condensed version of all my notes where it has a lot quotes from both Sasha and Richard, the connections between all the details, how these details tie back to my theme, and how it shows my thinking all throughout the book.

 

This next notebook page, I went into more depth with Richard’s arrest and his part of the book, it was here that I developed this theme of juvenile offenders, crime, justice, and punishment.

With this format, I wrote my theme statement: juvenile offenders should be given a reformative justice and not punishment as adult offenders would, at the very top and listed quotes from the book itself that I thought best supported it. However, this was just quotes from the book itself, and if I really wanted to have an in-depth understanding of Richard’s situation, and in general what juvenile offenders have to deal with in court, at their centers, etc. I would need more information.

 

It was then that we had this lesson, “Reread + Research.” Here, I sort of scratched the surface of doing outside research of specific excerpts to better my understanding of the book, and what better than Richard himself. The details the book gave were fascinating, however, I needed information on what juveniles offenders dealt with overall, not just Richard himself.

There is also a section of this page dedicated to the lesson “Cause + Effect,” and whilst reading this book, I could definitely identify some ‘domino’ type situations where one thing causes another to happen. In that section of the notebook page, you can see again, I focused on Richard and how his environment as well as the people he was hanging out with led to his actions and behavior.

 

In this page, I really focused on researching about the unfair ‘justice’ that are enforced on juveniles and what they have to go through in their centers.

This page consists of a lot of information from outside sites, this information supports the theme that I developed from juvenile offenders shouldn’t be treated like adult offenders to juvenile centers and charges of imprisonment for adolescents shouldn’t exist at all. For example, this site is about how a group of parents campaigned against juvenile centers because of the inhumane environment and conditions their children had to live through. There are also details from this site that have direct accounts about what inmates had to go through living at these prison centers, what punishments they had to endure, etc. To summarize, this page just contains outside research about juvenile centers in California and how they supported and connected with my theme statement.

Other sites include: Review of management at Chaderjian and the shut down of California’s youth prisons.

 

Overall, “The 57 Bus” was a very compelling and well-written read that brought light to the hardships teenagers deal with facing  everyday issues, people around them, and society itself. More so that it has themes of racism, justice, class, gender, and identity. If you like non-fiction, or simply want a fascinating case to read about that’s articulate in storytelling, “The 57 Bus” is perfect for you. Through this book, you will learn how much you, the people around you, and the world can be impacted within the time it takes for the flick of a lighter.

 

 

 

 

 

How to Live Life, Anywhere

October 23, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Your go-to guide to living life, anywhere and anytime – say hello to Humanism!

Humanism was a philosophical movement during the Renaissance Era that emphasized on human and individual potential, rather than religion and politics. This idea of humanism would eventually become the base of modern Western thought. Important ideas of Renaissance Humanism that were brought down today are: Emphasis on humans, the classical world of Greek and Roman literature, social mobility, secularism, and individualism.

In Humanism, there are many elements that make up the belief, those of which focus on ideas of human compassion, dignity, free thought, etc. The infographic below provides detail on the key elements of Humanism that you could acquaint yourself with to improve the quality of your living.

Totaling the scores I gave for each element in the infographic, I am 84% of a humanist. Overall, Humanism is a solid belief. I believe in and already implement most ideas of it in my own daily life. For example, emphasis on humans – I don’t follow any religion and don’t have a major focus on politics, it’s more important for me to focus on myself and others around me, therefore it gets a 5/5. However, for some other elements such as social mobility, which got a 2/5; even though social standing nowadays does focus on the individual, the idea implies that all that matters is your achievements and merits, which I don’t agree with. Even today, with a more democratic and open-minded society, the type of family your born in still matters. For example, I was born into a family that was able to provide food, education, and tuition to the school that I go to right now, ISB. The position I stand in society as a student who goes to a privileged International school was all because of the family I was born into, so even if family may not be the most important thing that is accounted when it comes to social standing, it still makes up a crucial part of my background.  Another big part of social mobility that I don’t agree with is that your own individual achievements and merits make up your whole character. I don’t believe that is true and in fact, I am judged and compared with others based off of my achievements. In my family, I am constantly compared with my older brother with what I accomplished now versus what he accomplished when he was my age, which is why I don’t agree with the idea.

Today, people practice Modern humanism more rather than Renaissance humanism. Renaissance humanism was the start of this practice, and there were still some focuses on religion, specifically connecting God and humanity. However, people were more interested in the “human” aspect of life and wanted to improve upon all the literature and learning that they absorbed. Today, people naturally focus on things such as science, human compassion, and reason.  By science, it means to be scientific. Question everything and have a passion for learning. I think that Modern Humanism is a great idea, as the scientific aspect of it is able to support all your learning in a consistent and reliable way which I value. For example, my mom reads psychology books, and even though it talks about human emotions and behavior, it is still able to be explained with science – how a sociopath’s brain anatomy affects their structure, different chemical reactions within the brain, etc. In humanism, everything is connected.

Overall, Humanism is not at all a complicated practice, something as simple as extending kindness to a stranger would be “humanism”. The belief simply encourages you to go out into the world and live life as best as you can. So, are you a humanist?

Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

August 28, 2023 / / 0 Comments

The found poem I created was based off of the central conflicts with Roald Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter.” This story tells the readers about how Mary Maloney, the main character reacts to her husband telling her that they’re getting a divorce. The story utilizes many choices of words that can inspire heavy and intense emotions, which describe Mary’s various reactions; her actions, decisions, and ultimately, the conflict.

Found Poem

Through the process of designing this found poem, I used colors like red and black in order to represent the theme. All these colors portray different moods of the text that could be felt from the conflict – ranging from the red that represents the blood that spilled from the external conflict, to the black that illustrated the darker emotions and feeling that the main character Mary felt when she was in an internal conflict with herself. The poem first starts out with the word “unusual” as Mary’s husband is at first acting really differently which leads to him explaining how he’s going to divorce Mary. During this part, there are many emotions that Mary feels but the reactions that I thought were the most impactful were her not wanting to believe it and to “reject it all.” (Pg. 3) The text itself goes further down and down as Mary herself spirals deeper and deeper into her denial that eventually leads to her killing her husband, Patrick. I bolded and made the word “reject” the biggest font as I felt that considering Mary’s situation within the story, as she was in an internal conflict with herself and wanted to desperately reject her current reality. From there on, I made it so that the word “automatic” would tell how the next few actions of Mary felt automatic, as though she wasn’t herself. The next text boxes all the way to the end only included Mary’s actions and not really the details nor her inner thoughts, because at that moment she wasn’t thinking – it was just an automatic response to her situation.

I think that one of the quotes, “Feeling cold and surprised,” is something that correlates to one of the main themes of “Lamb to the Slaughter,” which is betrayal. When Patrick betrays Mary by divorcing her, Mary gets revenge and commits her own betrayal by murdering him. When Mary does murder Patrick, it’s almost as if she couldn’t believe herself for doing this, hence “Feeling cold and surprised.”

Overall, “Lamb to the Slaughter” was a story that’s not just about Mary murdering her husband. The story delves deep into internal conflict and themes of betrayal. One important theme of this story would include a person’s true nature is overlooked based on previous assumptions. Mary truly is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

 

Product Design PD6 – Laser Cut Lamp Project

May 28, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Ideas Into Design Concepts

My design project was addressed the problem of which, I had a lamp head that was too big for the limited space within my room and bedside table. Hence, I started on this project with the intention of creating a lamp of a more adequate size while still providing the light that I needed. First, I started with my Laser Cut Project Plan, where I would need fill out multiple sections in order to plan for my product. Below, you can see my plan.

After having my design plan be approved, I went on to draw my designs out for each face on a piece of paper and later cut them out to tape them together and make a paper prototype. Initially, I thought to have all my faces measure 120mm by 120mm, but then I realized that it would be too small for the light bulb that measure 140mm on one side. So I increased my original measurements from 120mm by 120mm to 160mm by 160mm.

Eventually, I finalized all my measurements, and confirmed with my teacher that all of these designs were possible. I moved on to the phase where I would draw out and design my faces in the program Fusion 360.

Fusion 360: Trial and Error

My experience with Fusion 360 while designing my faces for my lamp were hectic, to say the least. To start off with, I’ll talk about my trials and the tools that I’ve learnt while being in design class. First, I learnt how to create different shapes – rectangles, triangles, circles, etc. This tool allowed me to created many different shapes either to base off of or design on. Some more tools that I learnt were mirroring: where if I were to create one design, click on the mirroring tool, select a line for the axis, and bam – an exact copy of the design would appear to the exact opposite of my original design, this tool was a tremendous help when creating the violin on my lamp. Another cool tool was spline, the awesome part about spline was that, even if other shape tools are restricted to one type of shape and set of lines, spline could help you draw anything. If you want to draw the unique shape of a flower petal, then you could with ease. All of my designs of my lamp utilized spline, so I was extremely thankful for it. Other cool and useful tools that I used in my project were: rectangular pattern, offset, trim and extend, plus more.

Above is the daily learning log that I used to take notes on each new tool I learned, this helped me when I forgot how to use a certain tool. Overall, my experience with using these tools made my whole design process a lot easier, and helped to make my designs more organized.

Now, for my errors. What were the various hardships and challenges that I faced? How did I solve them? I will recount to you, every single challenge and computer error that I had to face. To start with, my Fusion 360 started malfunctioning and acting extremely weird when I was about a month or two into this project. Every time I entered the program, Fusion gave me this:

This led to very unexpected changes to my usual work routine. My Fusion started being extremely laggy and my changes would not save. In other words, I basically made no progress as I tried to troubleshoot this problem with the help of my teachers. Finally, after a month, the problem was solved. The notification seemed to be solved, but the problem of my computer being extremely laggy was still there. No matter what we did, the problem of being extremely laggy was never solved. I tried everything, restarted my computers a few million times, deleted heaps of junk on my computer, I even tried it on someone else’s computer. Spoiler alert, none of this worked.

So, I’ve been stuck in this stage for a while already, unable to progress. However, I am basically done with all of my designs, but the extreme lag has caused me to make any progress at all. Here are the designs I made.

I incorporated skills like rectangle pattern to create all the fingers on the side, used circular pattern on the bottom-most design to make the symbol of lightning that exact shape, with all the three stems being the same. This made my drawing more clean and easier as I only had to draw one part, circular pattern it, and then tweak it a bit more to make it cleaner. Tools like spline made my life so much easier as it’s practically the drawing tool of Fusion, I basically used it for every design of mine. More complicated designs like the boy’s face and the violin used more lines and detail. They were also symmetrical objects so I drew one side then mirrored it. For the boy’s face, I first made the smaller details and more complex shapes into simpler ones like circles, rectangles, etc. to lay the base of the design, then added the details and ornaments later on. It’s just like icing on the cake. But overall Fusion’s tools and strategies that I found worked for the specific designs of my project really helped.

 

Reflection and Sharing

Overall, I believe that even if I faced a mirage of computer meltdowns, fusion errors, and my own fair share of mental breakdowns and such. I think that this project really brought a productive and enlightening learning experience to me that I hope I will experience more within design.

Some advice I’d really recommend to students who will be doing Product Design is manage your time, focus on class, take notes regularly, and don’t be afraid to ask for help. Fusion 360 is a program that is vastly unfamiliar and there’s just so many things to learn about it. That’s why you must focus in class and take notes, otherwise you will be completely lost. Fusion 360 is also a program that may give you a migraine in terms of the computer errors and lag that you may be facing, so when you need help for it, get it as soon as possible.

If I could go back and re-do this project, I think I would definitely focus on doing a harder but more interesting project than a lamp. I think it could’ve increased my productivity vastly. Another thing that I would change is my management of time, product design is something that doesn’t allow for any procrastination, because you will fall behind.

Something I’d change about this course is perhaps offer more projects. The lamps were great, but I think that product design would be so much more fun if we had more things to do. I saw some interesting things that were created but most of them were just lamps. So in my opinion, I think it’d be good if students could be offered more options on what they can do, because for me, it was kind of hard to visualize what I really wanted. Giving students a few more versatile examples could help with their brainstorming and shape their ideas into reality.

 

 

Welcome to Your New Blog!

January 13, 2022 / / 0 Comments

When you blog you create posts and posts are categorised according to your subject. Some categories have already been set up for you. If you need more categories you can add them as needed. It’s important that your posts have the following:

  • An engaging title – this should not include the name of the subject since this is referenced in the category.
  • Body – this is where you share your learning. This can include text, images, embedded videos from Dragons’ Tube or elsewhere. You should always consider how your post looks to your audience. Is it engaging? Do they want to keep reading?
  • Category – select one that has been set for you or add a new category. Posts can have more than one category e.g. Humanities and Myself as a Learner

Click on the images below to learn more about blogging:

 

 

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