Renata's High Tech High
One of the most memorable activities that we did in class this week was our partner art work. In preparation for creating a community mural in Paradise Hills this semester, we practiced interpreting personal interviews from words to pieces of art. I was partnered with my friend, Renata, and asked her what she appreciated most about High Tech High Chula Vista. She asked me the same, and we sat on opposite sides of the art room to create our pieces. Renata expressed that she appreciated how she can learn about herself and her community through personal experience and conversation. She also told me about how much she loves the global perspective and practice of mindfulness that we gain here at HTHCV. Here, Renata recognizes that she is a small, but vital part of her local and global community. In order to bring this message across, I made this piece.
This globe is a colorful mosaic, representing the different perspectives we experience at High Tech High. the people holding up the globe represents the critical role that our small community plays in expanding our generation's global awareness, mindfulness, and collaboration to improve the world. Lastly, the crown around the globe represents our respect for the earth and humanity, as well as our projections and hopes for the future.
Documenting Human History
In Dr. C's class, we watched this awesome ted talk by the creator of Story Corps. This creative organization has the simple goal of documenting as many meaningful acounts of human history possible by recording live interviews. Some of my biggest take aways from this video were that eery person "matters equally and infinitely" and that before you or someone you love passes on, you should say the following four pgrases: "thank you", I love you", "forgive me", "I forgive you".
Story Corps provides a space for authentic and intimate stories to be recorded and shared with humanity and it's future generations. It teaches us that hose who take the time to simply listen will be amazed with the amount of wisdome, compassion, and grace found in each story. Story Corps conveys the stroeis of resilience and strength through their organization, and I want to do this through our class's mural project.
For our project, by simply listening and validating the voice of one who might have been told that their story does not matter, we will change perspectives and the life of the community. Although our project might not be about recording the audio of authentic stories, it will be just as impactful. It will be about listening to the stories of a group of people and documenting the wonder that our class sees through art on a wall for everyone to see.
Story Corps provides a space for authentic and intimate stories to be recorded and shared with humanity and it's future generations. It teaches us that hose who take the time to simply listen will be amazed with the amount of wisdome, compassion, and grace found in each story. Story Corps conveys the stroeis of resilience and strength through their organization, and I want to do this through our class's mural project.
For our project, by simply listening and validating the voice of one who might have been told that their story does not matter, we will change perspectives and the life of the community. Although our project might not be about recording the audio of authentic stories, it will be just as impactful. It will be about listening to the stories of a group of people and documenting the wonder that our class sees through art on a wall for everyone to see.
Discourse
In Dr. C's huaminities class this week, we learned about discourse, and what that means in the context of different topics. We focused on Michel Foucault's philosophies and learned about the ways the he analyzed things. One of the most striking things about this week's class was that, as three different groups, we studied the discourse of insanity, punishment, and sexuality- three of Foucault's main focuses in his work. My group looked at sexuality and the way that it's seen today. To study the discourse, we wrote down the ways that it's talked about today and in what ways it's acceptable. We also discussed how it's validated in today's society (like legalized marriage, acknowledgement by the church, etc.). This opened up many conversations about the flaws in our thinking today, as well as projections for how this topic of sexuality will be approached in the future.
This was a meaningful activity because although I have analyzed topics and theories before, I had never tackled the perspective of thinking about how we analyze and communicate our thoughts on those topics. Thinking and talking about what we percieve as acceptable to think and say opened my eyes to the system of communication that I am a part of and made me think about how much influence I can have as a part of it. I learned that "there is no meaning outside of discourse". That statement provides a lot to analyze, and I know that it will puzzle me and push my thinking for years to come.
This was a meaningful activity because although I have analyzed topics and theories before, I had never tackled the perspective of thinking about how we analyze and communicate our thoughts on those topics. Thinking and talking about what we percieve as acceptable to think and say opened my eyes to the system of communication that I am a part of and made me think about how much influence I can have as a part of it. I learned that "there is no meaning outside of discourse". That statement provides a lot to analyze, and I know that it will puzzle me and push my thinking for years to come.