All aspects of magazine reflection

* Writing- The writing was the most important part of the magazine. I think my writing was okay, it would've been better. But I liked the process I went through to get my final written draft. I first started off with a photo essay and I was going to revise that then input that to the Ampersand magazine, But after a few critiques I started to dislike my own writing. I felt like it didn't fit in with our magazine and it wasn't a professional piece of writing.I then wrote a whole new article reflecting on my experience at internship & how it's a great experience for high school students. I brought this article in and got it critiqued a few times. I felt much more better about this article. I also learned so much during the process. There was a lot of methods our teacher taught, that I incorporated into my article.

* Editing/* Drafting & Revision- During the editing/critiquing process I learned so much about writing a paper. I used most of the methods our teacher taught us. In between critiques I noticed something I do a lot in my writing and that's writing my sentences extra long with unnecessary words. Some times I will use words in a sentence that do not need to be there. I noticed this after my first critique, when I got my paper back I felt kind of dumb. Because there would be like 5 words crossed out and substituted with 1 or 2 words, which I think made my article way better.So I went through my article trying to find more possible way to make my sentences shorter.

* Layout & Design- I didn't focus much on my layout/design.

* Photography-

* Creativity & Originality

* The printing & publishing process & industry

* Your own thoughts about your path beyond 11th grade (and beyond HTHMA... that's what internship is about, right?)

What did you learn?

How did you learn in?

Why is this important?

Magazine Reflection Part 2

Overall, when you think about the big picture of your writing, what improved? How did it get better? Why?

• I think that my structure has improved the most. I see my paper as more organized now. Before when i used to write papers it was so unorganized and when i wrote my ideas would be all over the page. Another thing that has improved for me was my sentence structure. I learned a lot of different techniques used in writing like not using a lot of ing's , start off strong and end off strong. Another technique I learned was avoiding sledge hammer words. When I would get my paper critiqued I noticed that there were a lot of unnecessary wording.
  

Overall, when you think about the big picture of your writing, what still needs work? What do you think will help you improve? Why?

• I think the overall message of my paper could have improved, I should have worked on that more. Maybe having a more detailed brain storm would have helped.
  

Specifically, show us something that improved and describe the path it took to get better. You can quote your article, your drafts, link to evidence, etc.

• Something that improved on my article was my intro. When I first wrote my intro it was so long, but after getting it critiqued by one of my fellow class mates it became much more shorter but still had the same meaning.The very first sentence of my article got much more shorter but still conveyed the message I was trying to say. Which was,
  

Before; "Being a Junior at High Tech High Media Arts requires that you complete an internship.
After;"Juniors at High Tech High Media Arts must complete and internship.

& minor word changes like the one shown above is what makes an article better.

• Another sentenced that I saw change drastically;
  

Before; "In January we had our interviews that would help the school place us in our internships.
After; "In January, we had our interviews for internship placement.

4. Describe something specific (or a few things!) that you learned about writing.

• I learned the,concert not pancakes method, writing style. This method of starting off strong and ending strong helped a lot during revisions of my article. Another method learned that I liked a lot was,using few -ing's. In my intro i have only one ing, which is not that bad I think. Sentence structure was one I focused on the most. When I write my sentences I will sometimes use words that don't need to be there. So sentence structure has helped a lot it made my sentences short & detailed.
  

Magazine Reflection

1. What went well for you during the process of creating this magazine?

Getting helpful feedback. I definitely think that all the critiques were the most important during the process of this magazine. All the feedback I recieved from my fellow classmates was great it made my article much more better. Another thing that went well was working with my editor,Ana, She was very helpful during this project.

2. What challenges did you face as you moved from an early draft or idea to a final product?

During the first week that we started critiquing I had a copy of my revised photo essay, The more critiques we did the more I started to dislike my photo essay. So during the weekend I wrote out an article about my internship. I first started off by brain storming then I wrote it out and got it critiqued by some of my classmates & teacher.

3. What other examples of work—student and professional—stood out as exemplary and served as a good model for your own work?

There was a lot of other pieces of work that I thought were really good & stood out. But one that stood out the most was Vanessa's because her article was informative but simple. It got straight to the point. I got feedback from her on my paper and it helped a lot. She helped me get rid of unnecessary wording and it helped make my article much more understandable.

literature group

In class we have Literature Groups. In these groups we choose to read, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I liked having lit.groups because we got to share our thoughts and predictions about the book with the rest of our group. In the groups we had set up specific dates that would tell us when we would meet and how many pages needed to be read.

I think that hearing other peoples thoughts and predictions keeps our minds open about the book. It also gives us many outlooks about the book rather than just having our own opinions and predictions. I thought that the book was interesting and at first I didn't really get much but after talking with some of my peers in my group, I understood it much more.

Google the phrase "Obama Socialism". What do you get? Try google news... what did you find?

I found many articles and blogs that talked about Obama being a socialist. Many of them gave examples in which he acts like a socialist and many others you can tell were opinionated. Also many headlines were similar like, "Is Obama really a Socialist"

Do you feel that the label "socialism" is applied appropriately or correctly to Obama, his proposals or his policies?

Do Obama's proposals or policies have historic precedents in America? If so, what happened in the past?

Photo Essay

A normal day for me, as a high school intern, is interesting each day. I come in every Tuesday and Thursday at around 1:00. The first thing I do when I get there is talk to my mentor and see if she has anything for me to do, then when I am done with that I work on my bigger projects. Some normal task that she will ask me to complete would be to make copies, organize some files, send out emails, make phone calls, etc. It’s basically office work. Some days I will work with other people in the office and learn what they do. The people who works inside this building are basically who keeps our parks and recreation areas in good condition. They also manage different parts of the city. The position my mentor work in is referred to as Volunteer Specialist, but she also specializes in Aquatics. She works with volunteer recruitment and is in charge of placing either group or individual volunteers in certain projects around San Diego.

Working in a cubicle might seem simple, but I think it all comes down to having good communication skills. Because working here you are constantly on the phone or on email you need to know how to communicate well with others and make sure they understand you. Some good communication skills would be being able to help assist people who call, making sure people understand you and have clarity when talking to them. I also think having the patience to deal with people is a good thing. People will usually call for volunteer information and they will be directed on the website. I personally never get any phone calls at my desk but my mentor explained to me what people will usually call for and how to assist them.

Working in the Recreation Specialist position can be a handful at times, but rewarding in the end. Some days you will get one call and others days you might get five, even more. This job, at times, can be very time consuming. Every now and then you will receive a call were someone, or group, that needs to be placed within 2 days or less, so that requires you have a well planned schedule. It also requires you use all resources possible such as making phone calls, keeping in touch by email, etc My mentor explains the most exciting part of her job; "The most exciting part is meeting the individuals wanting to contribute so getting to know them and getting to hear their interest and enthusiasm then matching their interest/enthusiasm with projects that support our organization". So even though this job can be hectic at times, my mentor believes it’s all worth it in the end.

Jilly and Rosie are two interns from San Diego State University. These SDSU interns spend their days at the Park & Recreation office doing a variety of task like making phone calls, revising/organizing paper work, taking photos of volunteers, and hoping to learn more about the career life as a Park and Recreation Specialist. Some of the work they do is organizing important paperwork in the office so that it can be referenced later on. They sometimes will work on creating different flyers for volunteer events, as well other office work that is related to the project they are working on. One project that both Jilly and I worked on together is, creating laminated flyers for table clothes. In this project Jilly had created the flyer and I laminated them so that I can put them with the right table cloth.

Since I've been at this internship there aren’t many people who come inside the office, besides the people who work there. I am currently working on a project where I have to fill out volunteer incentive request form. On the form, Volunteer managers across San Diego, will fill out what volunteer supplies they would like water bottles, T-shirts, Lunch Bags, etc. So once I have put all the stuff they want together I call them and have a scheduled day & time for when they will pick it up. So far I have had about 2 Volunteer managers come in and pick up their stuff. I liked it because I actually got to meet them and hear about what kind volunteers they have. One volunteer manager I meet was really nice, she came by to pick up some drink and bars because they were having an event for their volunteers, so I got to talk to her and help her get the stuff she needed.

Magazine Project

1. What article(s) would you like to write for the magazine? What photography could you contribute? Art? List three different ideas for your major contribution.

I would like to contribute a good piece of writting along with some photography.

Writting-

An idea I have for a piece of writting is too talk about Finding your own internship, the benefits of it. Another Idea I have for writting is to write about Having a good time at your internship, no matter how boring it is or if you dont like it. One last idea I have is to write about my internship and my experience. Oh and another one would be to write about volunteering. Because I internship at a place where volunteer is a major department. I can write about different volunteer projects and write about the process to volunteering or how much it means the that person.

Photography-

I think during this project I will struggle the most with this part, photography. But basically all I have for an idea is too take creative photos at my internship. For the writting about Volunteering I would go out and take different photos of volunteer work. Then I would write different captions, maybe interview the volunteers & colect quotes from them.

2. Suggest at least one (or more) possible title for the magazine. This could be a title with or without a subtitle. For example, I work for UnBoxed: a Journal of Adult Learning in Schools.

1. High Tech High Media Arts Junior Internships

2. HTHMA Junior Internships

3. Suggest a topic for an article that you were personally like to read in a magazine inspired by the internship semester.

The benefits of doing an Internship