Hali Azpeitia

Semester One Portfolio

With the holiday season around the corner, chorus students anticipated the 20th annual Madrigal dinner. Students spent a month preparing for their performance of “The Snow Queen” along with an all day dress rehearsal the day before.

Chris Harris (12) said, “I would run the lines in my head during class, I’d even act out entire scenes in the car; but the hardest part by far was learning how to actually do it when the spotlight came on.”

Snowflakes lined the walls and wassail filled the cups during the three performances on Saturday Dec. 6 and 7. “The Snow Queen” told the tale of two sisters, one being a worried girl trying to find love, and another who had the power to freeze the entire town of Arendelle. Whilst songs were sang about “letting it go” and a snowman wanting summer, the traditional Boars Head was served followed by the medieval dessert of flaming pudding.

The entertainment ended with a concert performance, and an interactive performance in which the guests joined the choir in singing the famous carol, “Silent Night.”

Olivia Robb (9) said, “My favorite part was seeing the reaction of the audience- it made our hardwork worth it.”

The effort put forth by the students was evident, the audience showed their appreciation by giving them a standing ovation for all three consecutive shows.

This copy was one of the easiest to write this year. Since I was able to have experi-ence form previous spreads, writing it came much more easily. Also, since I was able to attened the event, I had the advantage to interview the cast as well as audience at the actual show, rather than after.

The stereotype of only learning in school was broken by various field trips. Many classes offered a chance for students to go on field trips related to their subject. These trips gave students an opportunity to expand their knowledge of that sub-ject outside the classroom and learn information that may not have been provided by a textbook. AP Art History was offered an extra credit opportunity to go on a trip to Tampa Museum of Art where they observed original pieces of art and how different elements characterized their features. “We got to look at original pieces of historical art that we had been studying and it really brought our class to life” said Addison Hill (11). These students had been looking at certain pieces of art in a textbook all year, but got to see it in real life. Students who took court procedures were able to experience real life trials at the Court House, similar to the ones they studied in class. Before witnessing a murder trial, the students went into a small room separated by a glass window, and observed a judge who reviewed nightly felonies and adjusted punishments accordingly. “When we watched the murder trial, we were able to understand the language the lawyers were using because of what we had been studying in class” said Sunnie Lawson (11). During the trial, the jury took a break so that students had the chance to ask the judges and bailiffs questions and receive helpful tips about their jobs. Another field trip offered in October was a chance to meet the author, Alex Flinn. Mrs. Schram took five stu-dents to meet and hear her, someone of whom many aspire to be like. “I wanted to meet Alex Flinn because she wrote Beastly and I love the adventure.” said Lauren Schmidt (12).

With this copy, I struggled a bit because of my absense from the field trip. I wasn’t able to experience the environment or mood so it was more difficult to reflect back on in through copy. But, by having multiple people exclaim their personal experiences to me, I was able to achieve writing the copy.

This photo wasn’t for my actual section of academics, but an assigment from the classes section. This student gave a quote about always leaving at senior bell, even when he wasn’t a senior. Most of the pictures I took seemed a bit posed, but this one looked more believable.

This photo was taken for organizations, to illustrate the Best Buddiess, Paw Bucks. The students were very coorporative and were more than excited to get their pictures taken. It was easy to get different angles of them making coffee, which was helpful for the editor who needed the pictures.

During the poetry jam, students expressed themselves immensely, more than i thought. It was interesting to not only take pictures because of their emotion while they spoke, but I enjoyed being able to listen to the poems. Each held a lot of meaning which was probably very personal, and I found it brave that they had the courage to basically explain their lives to complete strangers.

This photo was taken for the media center spread as well, but for the book club mod. These were some of the books the members of book club chose as their favorites, which definitley portrays the different types of tastes in style. It was also quite fun to mess around with the stacking of the books and making the proportions of them look photo worthy.

This was one of the more humoruous photos I was able to use for the Pancake Project spread. I enjoyed seeing the students different pancakes they made be-cause some would add their own touch, as in this group.

It was a pretty comfortable setting to take pictures for this group. Since it was my first time taking pictures for an actual spread, I was a bit nervous to go some-where to take pictures, but Jackie and Anna Leigh made it less awkward and more fun.

Yet another media center picture. I tried to get the audiences point of view rath-er than the speakers. Some students didn’t seem very interested, but others had quite intense reactions. I believe this was during a more emotional poem, which is why I took it when I did.

There is more than what meets the eye when it comes to the media center. From book clubs and poetry jams, to trivia contests and book fairs, the media cen-ter covers it all. The media center held a book fair at Barnes and Nobles, where the proceeds go to the media center. Nov.10th, the Poetry Jam took center stage in the Media Center. The poetry jam is a unique event that allows students to show their unique qualities and attributes that they maybe are not able to express everyday. Students either signed up or were recommended by teachers for this all day event to create their own poetry as well as evaluating others. The students came alive on stage as they shared personal experiences through their poetry, some even through jokes. “Being on stage was exhilarating because everyone gets to hear your voice” said Bri Lowman (12). The poems ranged from humorous to emotional and ev-erywhere in between. The poets were expected to express their personalities on stage, as well as keeping professional body language within three minutes. Allison Figueroa took the stage of stealing the heart’s of the judges with her winning poem. “It’s about the education system and I think it’s a bit flawed at some points so I de-cided to address that in a poetic way,” said Figueroa. They were expected to speak clearly and slowly so the audience could fully understand the poem. Jake Roberts (11) said, “It was cool to sit in on the Poetry Jam and I hope they appreciated the film I took.”

Since I had atteneded the poetry jam, it was quite easy to complete this copy. The students quoted were very detaiiled with their repsonses, which also made it easier to summarize around.