Goals to Follow Up With in 2013

What do these goals have to contain:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Time-bound

Individual Pursuit Goal:
-FIGURE OUT A REAL TOPIC
While I am confusedly moving forward, I am not moving forward with a real focus. Unfortunately, I think for my individual need I need a class with a little more direction so I am currently working toward moving into PLTW (Project Lead the Way), but with the time I have left I will work on focusing my interests into something more solid and streaamlined.

Palatine Problem Goal:
-Gather some effective data about our topic
We are currently running on opinions and internet articles. I think its crucial that we attain some real statistics.

Year Long Group (Fashion Show):
-While I am leaving this class, I will continue to aid my group in our year long project\
I will continue to help out with the contact of sponsers and still show up and plan the Fashion Show.

Check-In Questions and My Evaluation

#1 How has your knowledge evoloved this semester? Documentation.

Evolving wise, I have this mentioned in my post labeled 'Uh-Oh.....'

#2 What research has informed your now deeper understanding of your topic? Documentation.

I think where I have gained a deeper understanding is not really in my topic, but more so in my deeper understaning of myself and my capabilities. While yes, we can safely say my individual topic has been a epic fail (with dignity might I add), I have found where my strengths lay and where my weaaknesses can be improved. I went throught the rather stressful process of not fully knowing where my passions are, and  started jumping topics until I landed on something that doesn't quite have a name. I generally anaylze everything around me, and have a tendenacy tell everyone what my thoughts aree whether they want to hear it or not. At this point in my individual pursuit I have used this blog as an outlet to voice my analyzations starting with my last Speech Tournamnet. So while I haven't entirely pushed in my topic, I have gathered a deeper understading for a quite topics I attempted to pursue, as well as find where my strengths lie.

#3 Where do you plan to go with your research in the coming weeks, months, or years? What do I not know, and how to I plan to address that?

I plan to make my "anaylzation game" into a real topic. I need to figure out how this can play into a real world career or occupation. I plan to make more analyzation posts but catagorize them by similarities.

If I think of anything more I will add to this!

Later alligator.......in awhile crocodile :D

Nids xx

Uh-Oh.....

Hey guys.....

So news......

Individual Blog Check In's start today.....

Well lets go over what I have accomplished this second quarter now shall we.....

1) I attempted to narrow my original topic, to no avail
2) I tryed to switch my topics track all together, but keeping it along the same lines
3) I confused myself and am now sort of in a random faze of documenting my observations

So have I had progress this second quarter, I won't call it substanial progress, but I would say I'm following through a preocess, not progress. I am discovering what I enjoy, what I don't, and where I need to better develop my skills. So no, my individual topic is not all in all neat and tidy, but my knowledge has evovled in more ways then one.

Expect a post describing my answering to the check-on questions fo our blogs. (Mrs. Sheehan, Mr. Letheam  this is for you :P)

Nids xx

Speech Team Reactions and Quick Thoughts!

Hey everybody! Alrighty, so here is my analysis on the Speech Tourment.

In round one my partner and I did well, our personal feelings were rather positive and we could have very easily been labeled as cocky. The other contestants were smiling and expectantly a bit nervous. Through out the round the conntestants were friendly and atttentive always clapping. One thing that I think greatly changed the atomosphere was the judge. The judge we had was very ppen and friendly, which really helped put us all at ease. This was in contrary to round three, during which we had a rather stoic judge. All the contestants in that round started out friendly, however with the judge so uptight and not interactive the overall round was full of tension. And skits that reaally were fiunny, no one felt comfortable enough to laugh!

Alright so outside that mediocore anaylsis I'm still rather lost with my whole concept. So I think I'm just gonna try to post interesting things I see, aand hear, and 'observe.'

Okay I will let you all go now!
Nids xx

Update: Observations

So the other day I was very casually looking around, and well observing. How interesting would it be if my 'individual pursuit' is observing? I mean i don't know if I can technically do that, but it would kinda interesting if you could just see different situtions from an outsiders viewpoint. Especially because a situation can appear to be like one thing on the outside, and be something completely different on the inside. I have a Speech Team tournament this Saturday and I will very subtly 'observe' there body language, reactions, etc. Does that sound like a promising topic-ish0thing? Lemme know, expect a anaylsis post by Monday!

Nids xx

RANT: Confusion

Hey everybody! Its been awhile huh? Okay so as the title of this post suggests, I'm really quite lost with my individual pursuit. I don't really know what my passion is, and what I want to further pursue because, in all honesty, I want to learn about everything! Here I am still only fourteen years old, and I am being asked to choose something that I could potentially spend the rest of my life doing. I know for some people its really easy, and they know exactly what they want to do with their life, but I am not one of those people.

My original topic of my Arangetram is something that I am pursuing outside of school, and much later than I should have, I realized that I just couldn't spend everyday of the next nine months focusing on something that I already focus on so much outside of school. Then I tried to morph this topic into something more research-able, which really turned out to be a bust, and something my heart just wasn't into. And after all that, I tried to narrow down what I could potentially focus on for this project, I started researching both the topics mentioned in my previous post, but still some how I manage to get interested in reading a newspaper article about current events, listening to interviews from world leaders and activists learning about everything but my main topic. My biggest problem is, is I can't just focus on one thing at a time, I don't know how I can span one topic over such a long period of time. I can't figure out what to peg myself on and move forward with. However, with the negligence of my blog, I have been devoting my full attention to our current group projects. With both projects we have accomplished a lot.

Now though, what I think I am going to do is try just making this blog about everything and anything. Maybe a review on a book I just read, an interesting lesson in school today, my point-of-view on current events, problems I notice around school, things that annoy me about school and so on and so forth. I'm going to really commit to this randomness for about two weeks and see if this works for me, so if you have stuck with me this long, let me know if this is interesting, if this qualifies for a 'individual pursuit?' (Mrs.Sheehan, Mr.Leathem your feedback would be awesome:) Thanks for reading this jumbled up mess of a rant/confessionish-thing. Later alligator!

Nids (:

Change

Hey everybody! So if you have been watching my blog for some time, then you know it is pretty much dead, still, dormant, whatever you want to call it. In all honesty, its because I think that my Individual Pursuit is dead. I have been feeling incredibly lost, and uninterested by my topic. I believe this is because my original choice was something rather than to "research," was something that had to be learned and I already knew so much about it. So I tryed to develop that topic into something that I could keep along the same lines, but be able to research, and still it didn't hold my attention. I have put together a list of two things that I seemingly enjoy and would like to learn more about. I will create three posts about each topic and hopefully get some feedback (Mrs. Sheehan, and Mr, Leathem) from the public about what you feel is the most successfully excuted in terms of the posts I put up and the content. I'm giving myself two weeks to get my IP (Individual Pursuit) in order. I will post the list below:

1) Computer Programing-I have been experimenting with this the last year, year and a half, and it is one of my favorite random passtimes.

2) Art-I have always enjoyed paining as a hobby and would like to learn more about the technical aspect of it.

What are your thoughts on the topics themselves? Expect the first posts for each topic within the next three days. Thanks everyone who has bared with this project!

-Nids 

New Quarter, New Start.

Hey everybody! And those of you in this class with me....Congrats on making it through the first quarter! Okay with a new quarter, I want to consider it a new start. First things first, this time around I am going to be more attentive to my blog and am going to make it a goal to post 2-3 times a week. So in order to accomplish everything I want by the end of the quarter....here is five points that I plan to act on.

1) I want to specify my topic. It is currently extremely vague and constantly shifting. I want to have it narrowed down by Midterm.

2) I want to have three-four experts that I can contact on a regular basis for help in my research. Making it to the top always starts with connections!

3) I would like to have at least one expert that I can meet with personally in order to gain some field research.

4) Much like  our group projects, I want to have a official project of sorts to work towards in order to display my progress in my topic. I feel like this is the best way for me to keep attentive to my topic.

5) I want to start documenting on this blog various ways my topic can be applied to the real world. This is will be one posts each week, if not every other week.

So what do you think? Comment below if you have anything you think I should add, anything I should change, etc. See ya all later!

-Nids

Outliers: Reflection

So today we started discussing the content found in Outliers. To start with, the one think that hit me the most was the chapter regarding 10,000 hours, which is essentially 417 total days of doing something in order to be good at it! That means you would need to do your "thing" for over a year non-stop in order for it to truly be your expertise. What I wonder is, what can a person really do in their life up to this point for so long? As I thought I about this, we started discussing how how the situation you were born into can affect what you do with your life. That got me thinking that kids like us in a public school might spent a good chunk of our lives doing something like music or dance, while those who live in poor conditions might spent all their time finding ways to help provide for a families. This was then again brought to the attention of the class about the chapter called Marita's Bargain, this showed that even in a bad situation, its do-able to reach the standard of education us public school goer's achieve. From there, I thought about how though Marita made use of the opportunity to further her education she had the stroke of luck to get the chance at that opportunity. This then kind of tied back to Gladwell's thought that some of peoples success is sheer, dumb luck. I think if there is one think I really pulled from this book its that every element of our success is tied to the events leading up to it, the random chance, the hours of work, and the situation we start in all play into that timeline.

Hopefully I will add more to this post once I get my thoughts fully sorted!
Good Night everybody!
-Nids

Thinking....

Hey everyone! Here is post #2 of this week! I think I can say I'm doing pretty well so far!

So this post is going to be a bit spontaneous. Anywhooo.....there I was doing AP Human Geography notes for Chapter 2: Population. I was taking notes on overpopulation, which occurs especially in Asia, and it made me wonder if overpopulation had anything to do with the cultural aspects of these overpopulated countries. Such as, when we were discussing this topic in class we mentioned that in Chinese culture, males are more valuable than females. So in order to control overpopulation the Chinese government will essentially kill off female babies verse male because of the value they have in Chinese society!

Interesting Right?

Well I just thought this was super interesting, what do you all think?

Good Night xx

-Nids

Reflection Time!!

Alrighty, so here is post # 1 for this week. I am currrently reading a book called Prehistoric Art and Art of the Ancient Near East by Ariane Ruskin. Before I dive into it and all its amazing-ness, I wanted to do a little "before" look.

Based on the cover of the book I think it has a bit more to with Prehistoric art. Now that I think about my topic on a wider plain I think I will be focusing alot on general cultures. Right now I have been utterly captivated by Egyptian art and traditions. The traditions of really drawn me in. Okay so nnow I am going to start reading and stop once I have ten interesting facts.

• Reading just the forward, it makes me think about just how incredible it really is, the art that was made during the ages with no technology, the detail and the realisticness done with the most basic of tools. 
• WOWZA! The first paragraph of this brings it to my attention that when we think of stone age, we think of hairy men in animal skins and wooden clubs. These prehistoric humans hunted for food, but the real point we miss is they were artists!! They could nothing more but hunt and well, draw. That makes me wonder....did they spent 10,000 drawing on cave walls, contemplating what they were going create next. I mean some of the world's most treasured art comes from the walls of the earth, in comparision humans today don't hold a candle to what thhey had created back then.
• When I sorta converted my topic ro "Cultural and Ethic Art," I reaally had no knowledge on what 'cultural art' really consisted of. This book offers a good definition for "culture," meaning the manner of making, decorating, ans using artifacts which appears to have been developed by a group and spread throughout a specific area.

Okay, so I have read all of two pages and I have a bagillion and one thoughts running through my head. I think I have aa good chunck going on here, maybe this week will be two reflection/udates/factual information instead of just one?

Well home the rest of yourr day is chipper and dandy and full of candy. (Don't bother wondering, yes I'm freaky-deaking crazyyyyy)

-Nids

Update (:

Hey everybody(: How's it going out there in cyber space? Okay I'm not going to bore you with my lame excuses about why I have been away, but make aa new mission. Hopefully from here on out, I will be posting 3 times a week. One will be new information, another will be a reflection/update and the last will be just about anything!! Lets hope this all goes well!

*crosses fingers*
-Nids

Back to the Basics

Hey everyone! So this is gonna be the load down, because I think I finally have my topic down. So here we go:
In the beginning, I had my heart set on studying Bharatanatyam, this is an Indian classical dance form which I have been pursuing for 10 years. Now, 10 years seems like an awful lot, am I right? So in the scheme of things I decided that since I know a good amount about this Hindu art form, why not use this class to study other forms of ethic art from other cultures? And not just forms of dance, but sculptures, paintings, scriptures, you name it. I will be putting up various art from around world, along with examples, and observations I make through out this experience. Hope you all enjoy!

Since we all have to start at the basics, here would be some basic stuff about Bharatanatyam:

Okay so this Back to the Basics post is all about jewelry...

Okay so this first piece is a head piece wore from temple to temple, with the gold chain going down your center hairline. The larger pendent in the center hangs on the middle of the dancers forehead.

This is a gold belt. It attaches to your waist like ay belt would and its used to keep a dancers posture perfect.

Alrighty, those are two of the more basic pieces a Bharatantyam dancer must wear, once I finish taking the rest of the pictures, I will have a post just on Bharatanatyam jewelry, and then maybe from there i will expand to various jewrely from other Asian cultures and how they compare to that of this South Indian dance form. Sound good?

Hope everyone on the world wide web is doing well!
-Nids

Hmmmm....Clearly I'm Clueless..

Well since I'm having a very hard time figuring out what to blog about.....I figured lets start with why I'm here. For Critical Thinking Gifted we had to create this blog to track our progress in our research topic of choice.


My topic was my Bharatanatyam Arangethram. Of course I pick the world's most difficult thing to research......but I sold my self to the devil and decided to run with it. Anyone care to join for this possibly disastrous....crazy adventure?

-Nids

PS Since I seem to miss out on just about everything important...here would be my mission statement:
My mission through this blog is educate those who would like to learn about Bharatanatyam, and the cultural meaning behind it, as well as entertain you with random little tid-bits into the mind of a messed up 14 (soon to be fifteen year old) year old girl. So if you are interested, sit back, relax and watch the story unfold. (I know..cheesy..)

-(once again) Nids

Football anyone?

Bears game today :D Anyone else watching?

(still trying to decide on what to base this whole blog thing on:)

-Nids

Here goes nothing....

Testing....1..2..3....Okay talk about an interesting school assignment? Set up a blog? This was very hard to set up...and a so far not liking it very much. Well..lets see how this goes...

*Crosses Fingers*
-Nids