Senior Exhibits

Can’t believe i forgot to do this a whiilllleeee ago but I’m doing it now. Better late then never, I guess. Anyway, this gives me time to actually reflect on everything ’cause more time has passed. Anyway, when i first acme up with the idea of publishing a story it was just a far away dream i had about something i thought i’d only be able to achieve in the future, not now.  After thinking about it a bit longer I decided that I could actually get this done but only through the senior exhibit process.

Right away it was hard, such as i thought it would be, but it was harder than i expected. The hardest part was getting myself to actually write the story. i kept telling myself i had a lot of time to do it so but eventually, with all of the time i had, every single problem that i thought would occur did in the last few months before my actual senior exhibit. now that i look back on it i’m glad that those things happened because it was a time where i had to keep a cool head on my shoulders (which, for those who know me, is hard to do).

the senior exhibit process as a whole was something that i was looking forward to and dreading at the same time mainly because i was constantly being told “do something that you love or like because you’re going to be stuck with it for a while”. at first that thought scared me until i realized i could do something that i loved for school and for fun at the same time. it’s really rare for me to be able to do something like that. overall i really liked the senior exhibit process because it helped me achieve one of my goals at just 17. i know that my book  isn’t in any store (Borders is my dream) but getting a book written and published (self-publishing of course) is a great step for me and im glad that senior exhibit helped me reach it.

Comments Off

I feel good about my presentation i got say mostly everything i planned on saying. Because i had a project that involved interactions with other people there were many stories to tell. I’m happy i got to tell stories and talk about my experience as a whole. After my presentation i expected a little more questions but there really wasn’t that many. Before my presentation i was REALLY nervous. There was a point where my legs started shaking. I started feeling a little more comfortable during the presentation repeating the same things i was saying during my teacher rehearsal. I’m very happy about how my presentation went.

Comments Off

Overall to sum up the entire season  i had a ton of fun. At first I was hesitant in the decision of my topic but now looking back on it I am really happy I chose to do coaching. The experience as a whole was one of a kind, I met a lot of new people and made many friends. In the process I got to teach the fundamentals of basketball to beginners. I really loved the situation I was in because it was a level where the sport wasn’t and shouldn’t be taken seriously, but instead having fun and getting a good exercise was most important. Throughout the season I learned a lot about understanding people and how to deal with certain situations. Sometimes these occurrences were uncomfortable and i learned how to approach these situations and work to resolve them. One of the most important things i have learned from being a coach at the Parks and Rec. is that you cant expect everything to go your way. You must always be prepared for the worst and how you act in those situations determines your success. I worked hard during the season with the players because it was easy and I genuinely enjoyed being with them and playing basketball with them. The saddest part of the entire experience without a doubt was the end of the yea party when Nathan and I handed out trophies and we had pizza and soda. Coaching is something that i really enjoyed and because of this experience is definitely something i plan on doing in the future.

Comments Off

The application performance thing was a complete disaster.  I had too much music and I didn’t give myself enough time to be able to actually talk about anything, which was what I’d wanted to do.  The entire point was that I mesh the performance aspect with a pretty good amount of talking about what I’d done for my senior exhibit and playing bass and everything, but I basically just completely forgot about all of that when I was onstage.  I mean, we played and I guess that showed what I’d learned to an extent, but it was nothing different from any other performance we’d done before or are going to do in the future.  It’s just that, overall, I feel like what I’d set out to accomplish with that time was not just play another show, but that’s exactly what it turned out to be and it all pretty much became counterproductive.  I can’t even say that I’m glad that I did it, because I really don’t feel like what I wound up doing was worth it.  I don’t know, I guess I just finally experienced a serious amount of stage fright for the first time.  Yay new experiences.

Comments Off

I really feel like my presentation wasn’t as good as it could have been.  I feel like I didn’t really show what I’d actually learned, more summarized what I did.  And, I mean, that’s important, but I feel as if a lot of what I wound up talking about was just reiterating some really obscure general things that I’d mentioned earlier.  I feel like the really hard, concrete stuff that is actually a good benchmark on what I knew was a little bit looked over and that I definitely rambled a bit, leading to my completely running out of time.  I just kind of talked for 45 minutes without really knowing what I was saying or really having a point to make, and I feel like I didn’t display what it was that I’d spent the previous year doing.  In the preparation stages, I guess that I’d just spent too much time looking over the outline of what I was going to be doing and trying to fill in what I was going to be talking about instead of deciding what was actually on the yearbook itself.  Although, now that I think about it, I can’t really think of anything that I would rather have replaced in the outline itself, but it didn’t really provide the depth that I’d kind of wanted to show.  Oh well, I guess I did what I could.

Comments Off

April 20th, 2010 was my last day with my little. It was hard to say goodbye but he made me a card thanking me for everything I have done. We spent out last day outside playing with everyone and then having a party. At the party there was cupcakes, cookies, and candy. It was difficult to leave him at the end of the party and I am sad that some Bigs next year from Mary Washington University will be able to spend time with their little again next year, if I was not going away to college I would have continued the program with Mykel. I have had a great time working on my Senior Exhibit and working with Mykle. This has been a great experience and I will cherish the opportunity and the friends I have made on the way.

Comments Off

Oh man, has it been a rough road with The Falcon’s Call. First off, I’ll start with the good news: despite show essentially being in limbo right now, it will be around next year. Mary Gray Johnson has offered to helm the show and incorporate it into the newspaper’s growing list of things to do. The plan is to convert the closet behind the journalism room into a makeshift studio. I’m going to train Matt Kirchner to use the recorder, and my hope is that Mary Gray will just delegate who does what related to the show. It will no longer be a one man operation, thankfully, and I think that will help get the show really up and running, even more so than this year where it was a sporadic, “whenever Tyler feels like it kind of deal.” I’m going to call Mr. Angstadt in the next week or so and get a meeting with him and Mary Gray set up so we can discuss the future of the program.

Has it really been a year since I decided this would be a good idea? Time flies when you hate your life, doesn’t it? No, that’s an exaggeration. Working on The Falcon’s Call has been a surreal and strange experience. My voice has been on the airwaves. It sort of gives you pause, but anyone in America could have tuned in on a lazy Saturday to Fredericksburg Network Radio and heard my voice. That is an incredible thing to think about, but it is very true. No doubt you’ve all already heard about the various obstacles I faced (you can read about it in the April issue of The Falcon Flier if you’re curious), so I won’t go into too much detail here, but this has been a struggle. A necessary struggle, a labor of love, but a struggle nonetheless.

To put down once and for all what my application was: I created the very first Fredericksburg Academy radio show, The Falcon’s Call. At it’s peak, it ran every other Saturday on Fredericksburg Network Radio, an online radio station run by Keith Angstadt. It was on for half an hour, and included interviews, talk, and observations from me. I was responsible for everything. I wrote the show, I recorded it, I put it on the a computer and emailed it away. Mr. Angstadt edited then aired. Whew. I haven’t really looked at it like that before. But that’s what I did.

And now, despite my verbosity, despite my frequent tangents into entirely unrelated subjects, I’ll just say this: I’m done. Thank you guys for continuing to tune into the show, to read my blog, and to support me in my random flights of fancy. It’s been an awesome year. Thanks again.

Comments Off

My presentation is done! Well, it’s been done, I suppose, but this is the first time that I’ve actually sat down to post a blog about it. Don’t judge me, second semester 4th quarter senior.

Anyway, my presentation went really well I thought. I recorded parts of it to air on the show, which went over really well, and everyone was excited to record an applause track for me to use in the future. Going into it, I have to admit I was nervous, even though after thinking about it this was the simplest part of my whole project. The thing of it is, I actually thought I was going to have too much to say. My teacher presentation actually went over a little bit because I rambled rather a lot. My teachers gave me some suggestions to make the presentation “pop” more (just throwing in that newspaper terminology), and after the incorporation of some videos and the on the fly interviews, I had an engaging, strong presentation. At least on my end, anyway.

Going into I wasn’t very nervous. I humiliate myself in front of large groups of people everyday, and I’m pretty comfortable up talking in front of people. After the trials and tribulations I faced in my application, I knew that I could handle the responsibility of the presentation itself. But of course, I still did get jittery. More than I thought I would, even. I was terrified I was going to ramble, I thought something was going to go wrong with my powerpoint, I was even scared that if I did have to record I wouldn’t get the machine working right. But once I was in it, the presentation was no big deal. I joked around, and even if some fell flat, I always tried to make sure that my audience would identify with what I was saying. And I even got an applause track out of the presentation!

There isn’t really much to say as far as I can tell. After all the self reflection I did with the rest of my senior exhibit, I’m glad to just give a quick summation. A blog detailing my application will be coming shortly. Thank you guys for continuing to read this blog and for tuning into the show, I couldn’t have done any of this without an audience.

Comments Off

I have completed my movie and have presented my project…and yet, it still has not hit me that the process is pretty much over. I remember starting this last year, as I filled out my application for Governor’s School (an experience that really helped me this year as I filled out application after application for college…). And then going, discovering something completely new and yet still familiar, meeting new people, taking risks, and coming back a completely different person. I have come out of my shell a little bit more, have realized that I can face any obstacle head on and still overcome it, and to be honest, I think my writing is better because of this experience. A new dimension has been ingrained into my head–the visual dimension of art–and I now fully know the importance of painting a picture in my readers’ minds so that they can experience the equivalent of a film, even if they are simply reading words.

The presentation was nerve wracking. I must have practiced a hundred times, but when the real thing started, I forgot my carefully outlined notes and just spoke from my heart. A lot of it was improvisation, and I think that that is what gave my presentation a more familiar, casual feel. I tried to relay to my audience exactly how passionate I am about what I did over the past year, and I think (I hope!), that the message got through.

So, now that the film is complete, now that I have watched it over and over to the point where I am so tired of the song (it doesn’t help that it was a piano version of a very famous song and I really do hear it everywhere now…), I can breathe and look back and see all that I have accomplished and all that I have learned. It was a long process, but I did it. And now that I am off to college, I can take with me all of the lessons I learned, and put them to good use as I follow my passion for writing and history.

I still can’t believe it though. What a year it has been, huh?

Comments Off

This project was a big accomplishment for me giving presentation in front of the biggest audience I had and not personally knowing everyone as well. I was really nervous before starting my presentation. Getting through the first two slides are the hardest, but after I got through the first two slides I became a lot more comfortable and relaxed. I do know there are a few things that I could improve on with my presentation skills, the big one being I kept looking at my powerpoint screen. Overall I think that I did well on my presentation. People said they enjoyed it and during my presentation I had the audiences attention, which I was concerned about in the beginning, but I hooked them and I could tell they were interested in what I had to say. Throughout my presentation felt that I got my passion  and my persistence for my topic across to my audience which was one of my main goals.

Comments Off