Playing with Magic

It is interesting to me that as an actor it has become my responsibility to take the written word and interpret how I am to perform that. However, this semester I have been trying something new. I am writing the play. Actors are taught to understand people and observe their actions. Using this technique, I found it surprisingly simple to write what I had observed. I have had some difficulty in formatting the play in such a way that the humor can be interpreted and appreciated not only by those performing it, but inevitably by those who will watch it performed. My play “As Yet Untitled” is about a powerful wizard, burdened with many secrets. He is forced to travel and conspire with other powerful wizards, who want to see him destroyed. Finally he makes a true sacrifice and risks his life to save all humans. Here is the first monologue of my play:

Curtains open on Zor, dressed in black sitting at a desk. A large black book is in front of him as he reads, sparse furniture in the rest of the room, a door on either side

Act I, Scene 1

Zor: Twenty years to the day, 20 years ago, I was recognized as the most powerful wizard in the world. Twenty years ago I was entrusted with “The Book of Shadows,” which contains all the spells any wizard could ever want. My enemies fled before me like mice before a great cat. Even now only Jason and Freya stand up to my might, living in fear every day that I will find the most evil spell. The spell that will ruin music, crumble romance, until all of mankind starves to death. The spell that dark wizards have sought after for over 2,000 years… It’s on page two; (slams book shut) with the first page being a warning about reading the book. Yet still I haven’t cast the spell, (looking out at the audience) which is why mankind is still here, watching us, for their own amusement and laughing at us. (Pauses and picks up the book again.) The legendary “Book of Shadows” - it contains every spell, except one… The one spell I need, the one spell I have never learned, the one spell I have searched 20 years to find, but am no closer to obtaining.  Just my luck, I find the spell others would kill for, but not the spell I want. (Sams book down.) But I won’t cast the other spell. Mankind has promise even if the other wizards don’t see it.

I hope to continue the editing process and eventually have the play produced in the fall of next year. As of right now, the rough draft is complete and I am workshopping the plays (running through lines to see how it sounds). This ELI process has given me insight into how the play can be perfected.

~Jesse

Gallery Showing

For my second blog, I’ve decided to post some of the concept art that I worked on this semester. Creating concept art of my story, “A Glass Fish and a Water Mage,” was a big part of my ELI. Here’s a nice gallery-esque showing of some of my concept art.

This first piece is a character design for my protagonist, Jade. The purpose of this drawing is to show what Jade looks like, and what her main outfits look like. It’s fairly simple. If I were working on this project for more than a semester, I would make these for all of my characters.

The second piece is an expression sheet for Jade. This is to show my character’s different emotions to make sure I can create the right variety of faces to portray the emotion so the audience can understand what my character is feeling.

The third and fourth pieces go together. They are lineups of my full cast. The first, I did to design all of my characters’ physiques. And the second was to design everyone’s outfits. These were the largest pieces of art that I worked on this semester.

The two pieces also go together. One is a map that I drew and painted of my setting, and the other is a quick painting I did to show part of my setting.

~Leah

Looking Beyond the Notes (and the Deadlines)

I’m curious about the archetypes of the second-ELI crowd: some of us are self-redeemers, some of us completed our projects last semester and realized that we were about halfway done, and most of us can no longer imagine a life without a Google Drive tab open on our browsers. Some of us have perfected our strategies by now, and some, like me, thought we had but might need a few more tries. Back in February, I was sure that after struggling with my first portfolio, I’d have all of the kinks worked out for Spring 2015. My most important realization had been that, contrary to what I’d decided in the fall, completing an ELI on something that’s already a big part of my life isn’t necessarily a bad idea. Exploring an interesting topic that’s only entered my consciousness recently is a great way to branch out in my interests, but it’s also a big risk: I’ll never be really sure if it’s going to hold my interest all the way through to the end of the semester until there’s not much room for change. That’s why the best piece of advice offered to incoming ELI students every year is “choose something you’re passionate about.” I’d elaborate “choose something you’re willing to wake up at 4 in the morning to write about, and something that you’re sure you’ll be willing to wake up at 4 in the morning for three months from now.”

When this finally hit me last time around, I wrote in my journal: “I realized that it’s tough to be an ELI student and a person who’s very immersed in cello-related things at the same time, especially when those two things have nothing to do with each other… I realized that combining the two stressful things in my life into one stressful thing will make my life up to 50% less stressful, right around the time that I realized I know very little about music theory and that knowing very much about music theory will improve my playing dramatically. So I’m doing an ELI on music theory [and cello] next semester!”

I touted my epiphany as a Room 309 success story for the first month or so of this project, and I really was doing well; I even kept track of my hours. Then other homework, SATs and college hunting, non-ELI cello obligations and, not least, sheer laziness got in the way of my progress and I had to admit to myself that I was behind again. My mantra now is that my trajectory is far better than last semester--all that’s left is to buckle down.

So far that trajectory includes learning about music theory from my cello teacher-come-ELI mentor, as well as about how the mind hears and perceives music in relation to theory; exploring how this knowledge can improve my technique and understanding of the pieces I’m playing and looking at how proper technique is designed both to produce the best sound and to best utilize the body; and then applying what I’ve been working on to learning the solo cello piece “Hungarian Rhapsody” by David Popper. Learning this piece will also include research into Hungarian music and culture so that I can play it more accurately. Although I’ll admit I need to “get a move on,” I can definitely say that what I’ve been doing so far--even things as basic as rhythm studies, since I’ve never had as in-depth a lesson on them before--has had an impact on my playing. I’m determined to get far, far more than stress out of the remaining weeks of my junior year, and so I’m excited to find out how much more I’ll see my abilities benefit before my presentation, which is going to involve a performance with any luck.

But why stop then? Looking beyond the notes in the way that I’ve been learning to do this semester is something that I hope I can keep doing throughout my life as a cellist. What I don’t hope to remain is a procrastinator, and there’s no better time to break myself of the habit than 60% of the way through a second ELI. It’s nose to the grindstone, and fingers to the keyboard, and thumb to the harmonic (knuckle over the string!) from now on, but it’s going to be worth it.

~Clare

3 Must-Have Apps for Teachers

For my first blog post I decided to review three apps that I thought would be useful for teachers. I focused mainly on apps that would help with classroom organization and accessibility between students and teachers. The three apps I reviewed were Classroom Checkout by FikesFarm, a library-esque app that allows teachers to check out books from their own class collection of books, Weebly by Weebly Inc., an app for creating online blogs and websites, and Remind by remind101, an app used to send updates on assignments and projects to students’ phones. I decided to post the actual reviews on my own personal ELI blog (that I made with Weebly) which can be found through the link below.

Link: http://jamiejeli.weebly.com/ or type jamiejeli.weebly.com into the address bar

~Jamie

The Elements and Evolution of Music

For my ELI, I really wanted to incorporate my musical, extracurricular life into my schooling, and I thought, “what better way to do this than through an ELI?”  So as a part of my project, I lined out a list of goals to achieve for my research.  My first goal is to understand the general principles found in music, such as rhythm, melody, repetition, and the like.  My research is still undergoing, but I’ve managed to uncover some valuable information for this goal so far.

In listening to Ted talks, researching articles, reading books, as well as through the process of writing my own songs, I have summarized what makes up today’s popular music into three main points.  Of course all genres have their own sound, but I wanted to discover the principles of writing music and its sound in our current day and age.  According to Michael Thomas in his Ted Talk “Music Through Time”, humans’ sense of music has evolved over thousands of years, so it is important that I clarify that my points are based on my understanding of it in this 21st century.  They are as follows:

1. Rhythm and Repetition:  Music isn’t random.  To choose a beat and keep with that beat throughout a particular song is crucial, and if you do change the beat during the course of the song, it needs to be done in a way that is easy for the listener to adjust to.  Eighty-three bpm is a noticeable difference from 125 bpm, and this is true whther the music’s genre is ard metal, pop, country, etc.   It is also important to have repeating, constant syllables in most songs.  If  there is not a foundation of rhythm and repetition of that, it becomes more difficult to build good lyrics or a good melody.  
2. Melody: This is definitely a part of repetition, but the melody in the song is the most memorable part of music in a way.
3. Pure, Honest Emotion: People listen to songs that resonate with their emotions.  Taking Taylor Swift for an example in this, she often connects with her listeners not only by describing their feelings closely in her music, but also by giving them true situations to almost help them understand their hurt, happiness, sadness, and love through the lyrics and tone of the songs she writes.  If an artist can resonate with the reader, then he/she has established a connection.  This is my favorite point, and it is why I think music is so amazing and beautiful.

In summary, these points are important for writers, musicians, and listeners of all genres to know, because they help break down our understanding of music and why we react the way we react.  To master rhythm, repetition, and use of melody is crucial.  The more one understands these, in my opinion, the more they enjoy listening to music and noticing the qualities in the songs.  The more you understand them, the better of a songwriter you can become.

~Vitoria

Reptiles - Relics of Pre-historic Times

Did you know that alligators have three eyelids to protect their eyes like goggles when they dive underwater? Both crocodiles and alligators have been here since the dinosaurs were around and they are in the same family as the dinosaurs. Because of this, crocodiles and alligators are similar to the dinosaurs. Did you know crocodiles and alligators are really dangerous? They have really big, long teeth so they can kill and eat other animals. They can use a death roll on big animals. Did you know there are differences between crocodiles and alligators? Alligators have black skin and crocodiles have a grayish-brown skin color. They also have different head shapes.

I think these are really interesting facts. I thought it would be fun to learn about crocodiles and alligators. My classmates in my ELI class are interested in crocodiles and alligators too, because they’re basically like dinosaurs. Who doesn’t like dinosaurs? My classmates are really into my project and they have a lot of questions they want me to research. For example, what should you do if you come across a crocodile in the wild? How many people die from crocodile and alligator attacks? Are crocodiles and alligators afraid of people?

Look for my second blog if you want to know more. To be continued…

~Daren

Time Dilation

Last semester I studied Stellar Astronomy, and I started out by saying that it was important because “one day we will need to go there.” In the future the sun will die and we will need to travel to another star. This semester I am continuing my studies in astrophysics, focusing on relativity, and I would like to make a different statement. Relativity is important because it already applies here, because relativity applies everywhere. Einstein's theory of special relativity can be summed up in one sentence. The rules of physics are the same for all reference frames. The laws are the same everywhere. They apply just as much on Earth as they do around black holes.

That sounds simple, but it actually means that Newtonian physics, and  many of the common sense rules we’ve learned, are wrong.  The implications of SR give us a whole new view of the universe. The second part of special relativity, which most people already know, is that the speed of light is constant. Since c (the speed of light) must remain the same, something else has to give, and that something is space and time. Space and time bend. We don’t notice it on Earth, because the effects are negligible at the slow speeds at which we travel. But near the speed of light, the effects become much more drastic.

Imagine if we had a ship that could move at 0.9c (ninety percent the speed of light). Say it has a mirror on the ceiling and on the floor below. Assuming the mirror reflects perfectly. If somebody shone a light beam straight up, the beam would be caught, bouncing up and down between the two mirrors.  To someone standing inside the spaceship as it moved, the path of the light beam would look like figure figure a. But to people watching from Earth (so they were at rest with respect to the ship), the path wouldn’t look vertical. They would see the light beam move with the ship, diagonally in a zig-zag through space, like figure b. To the observer at rest, the light beam would travel a farther distance in the same amount of time. This is the same phenomenon as someone standing inside a train tossing a ball. It makes sense, because the ball is going its speed, plus the speed of the train, so the ball is moving faster with respect to the stationary observer. Except light can't do that; its speed must remain constant. What changes between the frames of reference is the passing of time. The light does not go a farther distance at the same speed in the same amount of time.  Instead time runs more slowly for the person in the spaceship. This is called time dilation.

Time dilation doesn’t make sense with our standard idea of time, but in this instance, it is the only explanation, so it must be true. The same phenomenon actually happens with the ball and the train, but we don’t notice because neither is going fast enough for the time dilation to matter.  Time dilation is just one effect that occurs when objects move close to the speed of light, but understanding this is a good starting point to start trying to wrap our heads around the fact that reality is not what it appears.

~Sarah P.

Image citation:  http://webs.mn.catholic.edu.au/physics/emery/hsc_space_continued.htm

How to: Make Money and Achieve “Best Manager” Status

Are you an outgoing and intellectual person? Have you received compliments on your customer service skills, or did you decide to read this blog post because it had the word “money” in it? Thought so.

If you said yes to the first two questions, you might be a good candidate for management. This semester, I will become the perfect manager for a small business called Sam Dial Jewelers. Now, I realize nobody is perfect, but with my extraneous hours of research and hands-on activity, I plan to be the best manager for my personal capability. If some of you do not know, the owner of “Sam Dial Jewelers” is Sam Dial. Sam is my dad and mentor. So far, the knowledge I have learned from my dad and his resources at the store are amazing. My ELI is not all about management. I will research managing in general, then go further into managing at Sam Dial Jewelers. To do this, I will need to be aware of all the jewelry. I will need to be an expert on the store layout. I will need to know what jewelry we have in our store, how much it costs, where it comes from, and all details possible. The more knowledge I have, the better.

As you probably know, an ELI is broken up into goals. My goals are strategically placed and organized.

Goal 1: Research main Components of Management for Small Businesses

This goal is crucial to my ELI, and it is the first stepping stone to my research, hence why it is goal one. I have done the most research on this goal, and I find it very interesting. From all the sites I have researched, they state that customer service and knowledge on your item is the key to being a successful manager. Although customer service has a million other components, these are very important. So, the only logical thing to do was make them into individual goals.

Goal 2: Research and Learn the Effective Customer Service Techniques

To me, this goal is my “fun” goal. I have always been outgoing and friendly. This goal is easy to research for me because it is interesting, and I am always looking for ways to improve my customer service skills.

Goal 3: Conduct Personal Development While Being a Manager at Sam Dial Jewelers

This is where the jewelry comes into my ELI. To develop as a manager in a jewelry store, you need to know about jewelry. Weird right? This is the goal where I get to learn about the different types of stones and diamonds in the store, where they come from, and what they sell for. Being knowledgeable on this goal will help me become a better manager because I will be able to consult and help a customer with jewelry-related questions.

Goal 4: Intern at “Sam Dial Jewelers”

This goal is where I get to put all of my research to test. I will be working at my dad’s store, while observing him and the other workers. This is the goal I am most excited about.

Overall, my ELI is interesting and fun to me. I am excited about all the research I have achieved, and even more excited for my end product. Now, If you are interested in management then I hope you gain knowledge from this blog. If you are still reading this for the word “money” in the title, I am sorry but no money will be discussed.

~Katie

Into the Dust

As you are driving to home from school, you notice that the sky is looking rather peculiar. A fleeting hope passes at the thought of rain in this drought riddled area. However, you soon realize that this is not rain, but rather another dust storm coming in. You must drive faster because once the dust clouds hit, your entire vehicle will be encased in dirt and your vision will be blinded. Soon, the only thing visible will be the tops of telephone poles. You hurry home to hide in the cellar with the rest of your family. Your mother has put a wet rag over your younger siblings’ faces to keep them from inhaling dust. You and your family can hear the dust pour down on the roof, and you briefly wonder if this will be the day when the roof caves in. You wait for the storm to cease and then you help your family out of the cellar. You look around and find the floor layered with three feet of dust. All of the beds are coated in a blanket of dirt. Your family’s meager food supply is completely ruined from the wind blowing open cupboard doors. You look around and see that dust is coating every square inch of your house.

Luckily, this is not your life and it never will be. The Dust Bowl was a horrific time in American history. Not only because it displaced thousands from their homes, but because it also made a horrible time in America even worse. When the Dust Bowl began, America was already going through the Great Depression, which caused millions to become unemployed and displaced from their homes. Many people in the Dust Bowl states of Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma abandoned their farms and moved to California to work on migrant farms with the hope of making enough money to support their families. Often small children had to help work in the fields to make ends meet.

Studying rural areas and the Dust Bowl is only one of my goals for my ELI on the Great Depression. My other two goals focus on life in urban areas and the social aspects of the Great Depression. It is quite difficult to start such an independent type of class without any prior experience with this type of learning, and it took me awhile to get used to setting my own learning goals. Once I got the hang of my freedom, I found that it was hard to identify my goals because I was waiting for them to come to me. By that I mean I was doing a lot of research and I was looking for common themes in my research that would come together into a goal. In time, and with the help of my mentor, that was exactly what happened and now the research process has become easier because I am now more focused as I look for resources and information.

So far the ELI experience has been an exciting and useful journey. I truly believe that taking an ELI has taught me very handy life skills that I will use for the rest of my life. Already this semester I have learned to become more independent because of the freedom I have been given with taking an ELI, and I have also improved my public speaking skills. I am extremely awful at public speaking, to the point where it becomes painful for me and my audience, and speaking in front of people who are kind and free of judgement has helped me a lot to not be so nervous in front of people. All of these skills that I am learning will help me a lot when I am away at college, and partaking of independent classes, similar to those of an ELI.

~Abi

The Paragons of War

If I were to punch you in the face and tell you it was for your own protection, would you call that security? This is how Jan Schakowsky would describe the work of Private Military Companies, also known as: Private Security Companies (PSC’s), Private Military Corporations (PMC’s), and Private Military and Security Companies (PMSC’s). Private Military Companies take on the role of the broad National Security Complex, considered a subsection of the larger Military Industrial Complex. PMC’s are paid, private companies that do military operations and are more commonly considered private armies. Simon Mann, an individual who was a Private Military Contractor for 20 years, an employee of PMC’s, gives a perfect quote to describe these companies in an interview with Vice News, “Pay us a load of money and we will win you your war.”

Private Military Companies, though they are paid by governments, work for governments, and can even topple governments, have no national affiliation with them. Robert Young Pelton, author of “License to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror,” states in an interview with Vice News that PMC’s have the willingness and the ability to blur the lines, to switch from defense to offense in a split second. The company’s’ public policies state that the service they provide is security, though history has shown they are much more offensive military units than they are security companies. Since 2005 (information polled April 14th, 2014), Blackwater, one PMC, has had over 200 escalation-of-force incidents where they fired shots first. Blackwater’s fame comes from an incident that happened on September 16th, 2007, in Baghdad, Iraq, when four contractors fired into a civilian crowd and killed 20, injuring 17. (“Gomez del Prado”)

PMC’s activities include torture, arbitrary detention, self advancement (economically and politically), human trafficking, lack of transparency, and lack of accountability. PMC’s actions may be justified depending on the circumstances, and many of these actions are taken under direct contract of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and the DOD (Department of Defense; United States of America) for reasons that are not known to those who do not have an authorization of a SECRET clearance for the United States of America and other national intelligence and military agencies. The CIA has hired and will continue to hire NOC’s (non-official cover) agents, or agents commonly associated with Jason Bourne, from the Bourne Trilogy. NOC’s are individuals who are given  tasks to complete by the CIA and will have no affiliation with the USA, so if something goes wrong, it cannot be officially tied to the USA.

PMC’s are notorious for being effective at what they do,and no other individual knows this better than Erik Prince. Erik Prince is the man who almost single-handedly started the privatization of war when he founded Blackwater. Under the direction of Erik Prince, Blackwater had over 100,000 security operations, and non individual under Blackwater’s protection was killed or injured. The statistics that represent PMC’s are staggering, with the current middle east war the ratio of contractors to US soldiers is 1.47:1. PMC’s employees are well trained, all of them being former soldiers, usually the best and brightest soldiers from their nations. (“Vice News”)

PMC’s will not go away; the money is much too impressive, the annual salary of contractors (contractors who are paid by Private Military Companies to do military operations under the contract of Mobile Security) range from $100,000-$350,000 on average.(“Acadmei.com”) (“DynCorp.com”) The privatization of war is becoming more important to nations as well, specifically the United States. If one of these companies makes a mistake, the blame can be forced upon the individuals who carried out the actions, instead of the nation who hired them. As political tensions rise, so will PMC’s, for transparency is a thing of the past.

~Royce

“Academi” Web dyn-intl.com Accessed: March 26th, 2015 {mobile access; Moscow Snr. High School ACCESS: DENIED}  <www.academi.com>

“DynCorp” Web dyn-intl.com Accessed: March 26th, 2015 <www.dyn-intl.com>

Super Power for Hire: Rise of the Private Military, Vice,  July 14th, 2014, Youtube. Febuary 12th, 2015 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LaSD8oFBZE>

“The Privatization of War: Mercenaries, Private Military and Security Companies (PMSC)” Dogma and Geopolitics Accessed: March 4th 2015  Published: April 16th, 2014, Web <https://dogmaandgeopolitics.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/the-privatization-of-war-mercenaries-private-military-and-security-companies-pmsc/>

Everything You Know is Not True, You Made It Up

We are obsessed with forcing everything to make sense. It is part of human nature to explore and to question and to understand the seeming chaos that surrounds us. We invented religion and science to explain what it means to exist and how we exist at all; it is the process of rationalizing. This process is at the very core of what it means to live.

The paradox is that nothing around us has inherent meaning. If you had never seen a book before, you might think it to be stock for a fire. Had you had never encountered a bird, you might believe extraterrestrial aliens were invading.

Despite the relativity of our world, we have given it meaning; we have learned to see the universe in a way that makes sense to us. However, the lens through which we have learned to perceive is also not inherent. Countless variables, such as culture, time, and location, distort our perception. This is the basis of social construction.

This semester I learned that everything I thought was true isn’t… or at least, only partially. Everything I have ever known is a construction of  “reality.”

A prime of example of this is color. Color seems to be a fundamental part of the world, one that exists independent of human perception. Though this is true, how we see color is greatly influenced by how we have constructed it. When looking at the color spectrum (above), it may seem odd that such a long and diverse portion is described with only one word, “blue.” Comparatively, the slim sections of orange and yellow receive one word apiece.

This plot takes a twist when Russian comes into the tale. In this language, the color spectrum is divided differently than in English, a phenomenon called “the Russian Blues.” The American “blue” is the Russian “goluboy” and “siniy,” two distinct colors that differ to native speaker as much as “yellow” and “orange” do to Americans.

The Russian Blues indicate that we have constructed our perception of color. The divisions of the color spectrum are not innate natural phenomenon, but are instead our attempt at rationalizing color. The reason that we perceive light blue and dark blue as different shades of blue is not because they inherently are so, but because our language constructs them as so.

This concept can be applied far outside the world of color. Social constructions are what give rationality to every aspect of our lives. The way we divide (and therefore perceive and understand) emotions, intelligence, beauty, and values, just to name a few, are how we create meaning.

There are four main social constructions in the field of sociology. These are race, class, gender/sex, and and sexual orientation. It is impossible to imagine a world in which these categories do not exist because they are fundamental to our society on both a micro and macro scale.

That said, why is it that these factors cause so much hate? Why is skin pigmentation, the amount of money we have, and who we love such a big deal?

This semester I have been exploring these questions and trying to understand the causes and effects of social construction. This has made me more aware of the way I categorize myself and others. As much as constructions are an absolute necessity, there are also limits to their applications, and by understanding these limits, I feel that we are able to create a better society for everyone.

~Luisa

Learning The Keys Like My ABC’s

As small children, the asked us. “What do you want to do when you grow up?” We giggled and covered our faces with excitement - blush made our faces orchid pink. We said things; such as, “veterinarian,” ”firefighter,” “doctor,” “teacher.” The first time, at age five and a half, I said veterinarian. At age six I said an artist like my mother, and later, at age twelve, a musician like my father. A lot of time has passed since then, but I still long to be a musician and hope to learn and grow throughout my topic and after.

I entered this ELI with little knowledge of piano. I live with my grandparents, one of whom is a talented musician. She would have taught me piano, if only I had the confidence. Since I had never had the chance to truly learn to play an instrument, I was unsure  if I would be able to play well. I did not want to begin something I thought I might fail at.  Now, of course, I am older and possibly wiser in retrospect. I know now that as humans we fail, but we can always get back up and learn how to be better. I wanted to live this idea by getting over my past fears and learn to play the piano. I am working with my grandmother, Susan Mahoney as my mentor for this ELI, to gain confidence to play what I want to play - whenever.

This ELI began with a few ideas of the work  in store but, at the same time, I knew it would be worth the hard work. Knowing I will eventually be able to express myself in a way I so longed to do is what I see as the outcome of this learning process. By the close of this project and my high school career, I plan to be able to read music, perform music that I enjoy, and have knowledge of different methods throughout piano history.

If you love music, or have ever wondered what learning an instrument would be like, I invite you to ask questions about my ELI experience and my progress as I continue.

~Hannah

A Journey into Calligraphy

Throughout human history, countless types of scripts have been developed across the globe. From the fluid Arabic Kufic script, to the spontaneous Chinese shufa, to the narrow Gothic, calligraphy can be seen in many different cultures and time periods. From the mihrabs in Yemen to the font on this post, calligraphy is a diverse and expansive artform that has developed and evolved throughout the ages. Once widely used by scribes and found in everyday settings, the use of calligraphy began to decrease with the popularity of printing machines, and later, keyboards and printers. However, while Microsoft Word and the ballpoint pen has eradicated the use of calligraphic writing from the world of academia, the art is gaining popularity as a hobby or even profession.

With its  amalgamation of creativity and structure, Western calligraphy especially fascinated me. This fascination further grew this year when I participated in an international Secret Santa Exchange through Reddit. My Santa, who happened to be a graphic designer in California, gifted me a calligraphy pen and textbook. This eventually lead to the start of another ELI.

To begin, I decided to take a look at our alphabet and some of the most familiar scripts used in our modern world. The Roman script is used throughout the world is one of the most commonly used alphabets. In fact, you are currently reading Roman script! Also known as the Latin alphabet, Roman script is unique in that it has two forms of each letter: the minuscule or lower-case form, and the majuscule or upper-case form. The Roman alphabet has served as the basis for many different variations of the script. From it, sprung the Roman cursive and the Roman half-uncial. As such, the term “Roman script” is a name for a large family of scripts, rather than just one form.

Another common script is Italics. The cursive quality of the Italics is often described as stylish and neat. Characterized with the “lozenge” shape in the body of letters, such as a, d, b, and g, other traits include elegant, narrow branching strokes that form the shoulder of letters like m, b, n, and p, and its long ascenders and descenders. With its slight slant, which is at approximately 5 degrees, and the stark contrast between the heavier downstrokes and lighter upstrokes, Italics has the quick-paced feel suited for modern day use. It can often be found on wedding invitations, framed quotes, or simply used to improve an individual’s handwriting. Italic is a versatile script with many uses.

Knowing all of this is a great place to start, but there is more to calligraphy than simply studying the arrangement of strokes and spaces. As I continue this ELI, I hope to eventually develop fluency over calligraphic scripts and better comprehend different aspects of calligraphy.

~Wilson

It’s a Spectrum

Gender and sexuality are touchy topics in today’s society. The underlying belief in America and all over the world is that everything is a binary, male and female, gay and straight, but that is far from true. Sexuality and gender lie on spectrums, a collection of genders and sexualities between male and female and gay and straight. More spectrums come within the spectrums. Within the sexuality spectrum there is the asexuality spectrum, and within the gender spectrum there is the non-binary spectrum. This is why I decided to do an ELI on gender and sexuality, as an LGBT+ teen myself I often identify with the struggles that others, who are not so lucky as to fit into the binary ideal, go through. Being an LGBT+ teen is hard, and having a community in which you feel safe and accepted is immensely important; however even within the LGBT+ community a lot of controversy and prejudice against people who identify outside of what people consider “normal” still exists.

The majority of the population has grown up with the binary; they have been taught that male and female are the only genders and you can either be gay or straight. Now it is a bit different, the LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual, +) community, which started as LGBT, has slowly become more accepting of genders and sexualities they were not previously familiar with. This is evident in asexuality; originally the “A” in LGBTQIA was meant to stand for “ally,” or a cis-gender (someone who identifies as the gender they were assigned at birth), heterosexual person who supported the cause. This was called into question with the building of the asexual community and the introduction of AVEN (the Asexuality Visibility and Education Network) which is a website created by David Jay in attempt to create more recognition for asexual people (people who do not experience sexual attraction regardless of gender).

My goals for this ELI are: 1) To learn more about Asexuality and why it is not widely recognized; 2) To learn more about gender and preferred pronouns including why they are an important personal identity; and lastly, 3) To create a reference guide of genders and sexualities to create more visibility and understanding for less recognized orientations and identities. Through this ELI I hope to spread awareness of different genders and sexualities that people might not know about, or do not think are valid.

~Maggie

The Twists and Turns of Self Taught Languages

“Parlez-vous française?” she said as the class watched in wonder. “Non? Ne pas problème.” And my French teacher continued speaking in this new and foreign language to a group of first year French students, for half of a class period, on the first day of school, without a break. Lucky for me, now I can keep up with her when she starts speaking in French, but I didn’t get to this point without lots of studying and hard work.

For my ELI, I chose to study French grammar in literature in order to increase my reading and writing fluency. I will, however, be talking about the pros and cons of learning a language on your own and not in a structured manner.

Learning a new language is insanely hard, whether or not you have a knack for language studies. I have come to consider French a fairly easy language to learn – minus the conjugations (those will be the death of me). Spanish on the other hand, I cannot seem to learn no matter how hard I try, which is odd considering the major similarities between the French and Spanish languages.

When I first approached this topic, I assumed it would be easy, that I wouldn’t have to work as hard finding new information because I already understood it, but that is not so. Learning a fairly new language, without the guidance of a well educated teacher is more difficult than I had anticipated. To help me through this trying time, I have discovered several very helpful strategies for the individualised language learning experience. The first step I took was to lay out what I already knew; that way I wouldn’t repeat anything. My goal is to learn new information not reiterate what I already know. Second, I set myself realistic goals for my reading assignments. This is so that I can stay on top of my reading and not get behind. For myself at least, setting unrealistic goals becomes a major stressor and causes me to procrastinate or to create unnecessary anxiety. I laid out exactly what I wanted to learn about French and in French so that I can always go back and know exactly what I want to focus on. These goals include studying the grammar, improving my reading fluency, and becoming a proficient writer. My fourth and final step in preparing myself to learn French on my own is reminding myself why I wanted to learn French in the first place and that I made the choice to study it. It is not something being forced upon me. French is a beautiful language and is produced with such a grandeur that I cannot help but fall in love with it.

The major problem I have encountered this semester while working on my ELI is that I’m not always sure of how to teach myself new material and without that ability it hinders my understanding of the lessons I’m supposed to be learning. I am reading Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Expéry and Au Revoir, Les Enfants by Louis Malle. But I haven’t gotten as far as I need to be in Le Petit Prince because I don’t feel like I’m learning it accurately, so I keep rereading chapters in both French and English in hopes of grasping the true meaning.

Studying a language independently has many perks, the largest I’ve found is that by teaching myself I can cater to my every need. If I realize that I don’t understand a tense as well as I thought, I can go back and look it over until I fully understand. It allows me to focus on aspects of French that I wouldn’t necessarily learn in a classroom. Developing true fluency of a language in a classroom setting is next to impossible as much more time spent listening and speaking is required, something that five short classes a week doesn’t offer. In order to be successful in fluency, a rigorous schedule is necessary, an additional benefit of independent study. The largest downfall is that I’m studying the French alone, though it may seem contradictory. By studying alone, I have the ability to overlook things that a licensed teacher would not and miss out on the experiences that are provided by being taught in a classroom.

Maintenant, merci pour lisent mon blog et j’espère le que vous avez apprécié. À la prochaine.

~Felicity

Not Just for Musicians

As an aspiring musician, I knew that one of the greatest challenges I would face in high school would be finding time among the Mount Everest-sized piles of homework. In fact, I’ve often wished that I had Hermione Granger’s time turner so that I could practice as long as I wanted while simultaneously managing ten hours of sleep each day. However, as I’m obviously not enrolled at Hogwarts, I decided that I needed a more realistic approach. That is, I needed to learn how to practice and thus improve more efficiently using the techniques in the music I am currently playing. I also needed to understand how to focus on details and how not to get distracted.

A lot of people ask me how many hours I practice. And, I’ll be honest here, I practice quite a lot. But it’s important to keep in mind that quality, and not quantity, is important. For many musicians, there are two ways to practice: deliberate (good) and mindless (bad). Mindless practicing (specifically, just repeating a phrase over and over again and hoping that it magically gets better) is tedious and boring. When practicing “mindlessly,” people lose confidence and are unable to consistently produce the desired results. Obviously, mindless practicing is bad, and a waste of time.

Through my research, I have become increasingly aware of the importance of deliberate practice. Deliberate practice in musician-land includes the analyzation and monitoring of sound, slow, repetitive practicing of small but difficult phrases, and understanding strategies on how to improve weaknesses in technique. By practicing deliberately, I can improve much faster in a set amount of time than I would through mindless practicing.

~Satoka