This year in digital design and animation we went much further in depth with 3d modeling than we did the first year, which is personally my more favored activity in digital art. Photoshop and video editing may be easier but I often only do them for fun and detailed 2d art takes more skill than I currently have in that area. The school year did not drag on as long as my freshman year did, but it was long enough that I don't remember most of what happened this year. At the beginning of the year I was really disorganized and only had one notebook that I used for all seven periods, though somehow my grades were highest in the first quarter, but that is probably because we don't really do any major assignments that quarter. During the second and third quarters I got organized and focused on my classes which greatly reduced the amount of stress I had those quarters. However, during the fourth quarter I was so focused on avoiding stress that I avoided work and began to go to bed at three in the morning every night, though surprisingly my grades didn't drop until I started trying to fix this habit by going to sleep two hours earlier. I still did all of my work but I didn't focus on any of it and slept through some of my classes, my grades continued to spiral downwards except for this class in which I was quite ahead. It must have been my lack of sleep but the last two assignments caught me off guard and made me realize how far behind I really am and that I may not even be able to be exempt this year. Hopefully I can crunch hard enough to get it all done.
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Somehow it is already nearing the end of the fourth and final quarter, yet it feels like it has only been a few weeks since the start of it. I haven't been doing much thinking this quarter, I've just been going with the flow and hoping I get the same grades as usual which for the most part has worked. I thought I was really ahead in this class because somehow I didn't see the final two assignments when I turned in the first rigging assignment, luckily I saw them the next day so I didn't lose any time working on them but it was still a surprise. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to finish them in time because I can't make it to tutoring and as I said I thought I was ahead anyways, but I'll try as hard as possible to get them done. My other classes have been much easier this quarter although I realized the grading system in my math class was not what I thought it was. I was infuriated when I realized homework is practically worth nothing and the only other grades we have are three quizzes I didn't do so well on. In retrospect I should have paid much more attention this quarter because a few of my grades are slipping but at this point there is nothing I can do about them. Besides that though this quarter has gone by even faster than the third quarter did and for the most part has been easy.
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It's hard to believe that we're already halfway through the fourth quarter, especially knowing that EoC testing is coming up which will take away the last few weeks of normal school. Honestly I haven't looked at any of my grades in any class since near the end of the third quarter, but that is because I'm sure I'm passing all of them. My sleeping schedule is now fully back to normal, I start my homework at eleven and go to bed at one in the morning instead of starting at one and sleeping at three. Even though it is only a two hour difference, I sleep two less hours during class each day because of it. We've missed a ton of school days recently as well which has helped me to relax and get back on my normal sleep schedule. On the other hand school assignments have gotten out of hand, though I will still be able to complete them as normal. In this class most of my plans were ruined due to days I had put aside to render my projects and dates I had set for myself to finish each assignment being rescheduled or missed. In my other classes we have a bunch of homework to makeup for the days we missed and I had to take four tests in one day because there was no other day to take them. Overall though the quarter has been going well so far and I have been adapting to the schedule changes.
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The third quarter has gone by very quickly and it's crazy to think the school year is already almost over. I've gotten back on track with my studying and sleeping habits and the workflow has decreased overall. We haven't had as many blog posts this quarter as we usually do, in fact I think we only had one. On the other hand though our assignments are taking a lot longer to complete, meaning there is less total work I can show off on my portfolio. Just about every class has a project right now to boost or drop our third quarter grade, which has made this week in particular much more stressful than other recent weeks. I don't know why every teacher always waits right up to the end of the third quarter every year to give us projects that have to be finished within three days. I suppose if they didn't we'd just procrastinate right up until that point anyways but at least we'd know about it. At least my grades are strong in most of my classes so these projects can only help me or hurt my grade a little depending on how much they're worth. Third quarter this year has been pretty similar to third quarter last year in that the days have just passed by without much ever happening. Each day has been the same subconscious routine but I'm fine with that because at least nothing bad or stressful happened this quarter besides the recent projects.
Main Points
This quarter in digital art has been different from all other quarters in digital art. There is no longer a late penalty for any assignment, however assignments take very long to complete. With these new assignments it is very important to follow the instructions, especially because the rubric is just there to split up the grade into three sections. It is also important to turn in your pre-production work before your actual production work, or you will get a zero for the pre-production portion. All in all I think the new layout of assignments is fair because even though they take longer they have no late penalty. They also require more work and attention to detail, which helps to grasp the material better. In order to still complete my assignments in a timely manner I make an end goal for each day's work, which is usually just the next step in the assignment. Sometimes I don't finish the entire pre-production or especially the production within one class period, but I also have a plan for working with each individual step of the assignment. I make checkpoints that I'd like to reach by the end of class each day so that I can work efficiently and stay on track, and for the most part they have worked so far. The box assignment was the only assignment where some of my checkpoints didn't work so well because I hadn't planned the amount of time it'd take to make an orthographic sketch of the Yahtzee box. Everything turned out fine though because now with no late penalty I have nothing to stress about and can focus on quality over just turning the assignment in.
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Honestly it still feels like quarter three just started, as it always does when you realize half of the quarter has already passed. Probably because of all of the weather and holidays that I think occurred in quarter three. It has been quite hard to remember things since quarter three has started but that's most likely due to my bad study habits. Usually I do my homework at school or right when I get home from school so that I don't have to worry about it later in the night. Recently though I've been starting my homework at two in the morning and going to bed at three in the morning. I don't have any excuse for this new habit besides the fact that I enjoy using my free time much more than some other kids. Essentially this gives me nine hours of free time each day, with eight spent at school, two spent doing homework and getting to school, and five spent sleeping. The only problem with this lifestyle is that it has been getting more and more destructive. Of course by the time lunch comes around I'm fine, but before that I'm going in and out of sleep. The problem has only gotten worse as time goes on, with me going to bed later and sleeping through more of each period. On the bright side though, my grades in every class are fine and I'm getting all of my work done on time. I've started to break this habit by starting my homework whenever my friends go to bed, but that still means starting my homework at one in the morning. Hopefully I can return my schedule back to normal, but as advice it is not worth the extra free time for the time lost in class.
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This quarter has been filled with assignments that all get piled up and are due on the same day for some reason, but that has not stopped me from completing them. With Thanksgiving break over and Christmas on the way, I guess teachers are just looking for the optimal day between the breaks that they can have an assignment due without complaints. Unfortunately, it has been pretty stressful attempting to do four projects in one night but I suppose that is what I get for procrastinating. On the other hand, I've known for weeks when each assignment in this class is due, so even though I'm a little behind it does not stress me as much the other classes that could randomly assign another project any day. As always I never know what to turn in and what not to in other classes, but my grades are still doing fine so far this quarter. Even so, comparing the amount of stress caused to me by this quarter to other quarters it has been overall lower this quarter because I organized my backpack so that I only see the papers I currently need for all of my classes. I also have become more efficient with doing homework, usually doing it on the bus ride home and before dinner now instead of late night or early morning. Sadly though, nothing eventful has happened this year or last year, every day just consists of going to school so that I can go home and do homework then repeat that process the next day. I don't expect anything exciting when I go to school, but it would be nicer if lesson plans weren't so monotonous in my other classes.
Main Points
The fourth quarter has been one of the fastest quarters ever, the third quarter was somewhat confusing, which made it go by faster, but it still feels like the fourth quarter just started. My grades have been fully in control of themselves this quarter, because I don't remember doing any assignments yet I have decent grades in every class. Final tests are coming up though, so I don't want to fail a class by not studying for them. Of course it is a pretty stressful time of the year because final projects are being given to boost or drop grades right before the EoGs (or whatever they're called now). At least fourth quarter was quick and smooth though instead of a rough struggle to make it to the end. Of all the weeks in fourth quarter this one has had the most homework with the strangest one-day break for protest in the middle of it. Several projects were assigned to be due tomorrow, but now that I've gotten around to doing them their due dates seem pretty reasonable. I always take it for granted how much extra time teachers give us to do projects that we just waste anyways. It helps a lot with scheduling though, by now I've finally made a basic schedule for school that I should be able to use for the rest of my years here. Having a schedule makes life so much easier because I know when things are due, which helps me to "balance my time" for them. Of course it sounds simple to make a schedule format that I can use for years, but it actually took some time to do this and I'm glad I did take that time because now life is less stressful. I'm not usually a person to get stressed anyways, but it just feels better knowing that I've done something to reduce that stress I could possibly encounter. The only problem with having a schedule is when I don't write down an assignment into it, which is pretty rare but got me mixed up a few times. I usually work only until my schedule is complete and no more, giving me time to do other things. However I recently forgot to put a few items on my schedule, which I regretted but should be able to get done within a day. Besides having a new schedule though fourth quarter has been basically the same as any other quarter, it just ended much faster. My main goals as of now are to obviously pass the EoCs and to not relax for these last few weeks. If I were to stop working now I would likely still pass, but with only a C in every class, so I'll just wait until the last day of school and hope for the best.
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Quarter 3 has been one of the quickest and wildest quarters so far of my time at D.S.A, which consists only of three quarters of ninth grade anyways. Even then, the third quarter had an extremely rough start filled with snow days and confusion, so much confusion that I'm not even sure exactly when quarter three started. Many of my assignments were missing or late around that time and I wasn't getting as much sleep as usual, I thought I was going to start failing. Luckily for me though, not long after the snow days things started to even out and my grades started to go back to normal for most of my classes. However, some of my early third quarter grades left scars that can still be seen on this coming report card. At least it is over now and I only have one more quarter of ninth grade, which I plan to go smoothly so that I won't have to stress about failure. I've heard many people say that third quarter is usually when students get their lowest grades, so hopefully I can shoot for getting all "A"'s in fourth quarter. I've always been an all "A" kid, but once I saw my first "B" on the quarter one report card I gave up on trying to keep that title. That's not to say I gave up on my work though, I still worked just as hard but at that time I realized that high school is not middle school. The only reason I've been an all "A" kid is because middle school was way too easy, as long as you turned in work you got a 100. Now in high school though teachers do this new thing called grading, which means I have to actually work on what I turn in. Of course this hasn't been much of a problem for me, I've always worked on what I was turning in even though I knew I'd pass regardless, now my work is just critiqued and often reasonably graded. Apart from grades I have also met a few new people and now talk to at least 4 times the number of people I talked to in quarter one. This may have contributed to why the third quarter went by so fast, I stopped paying attention to when school was going to end and started paying attention to the people I talk to. It was only when there were three weeks left of third quarter when I realized report cards were going to be coming home soon. Ever since that day I have been checking my grades on PowerSchool daily to make sure my report card looks good. I was worried about my grade in this class, which has either been a high "B" or low "A" so far, but when I checked three weeks ago it was and average "B". Of course all of my worries went away when I completely blew that test out of the water today just as you asked us to do, I instantly checked PowerSchool when I got on the bus to see the nice 92 under quarter three. That leaves math as the only class I don't have an "A" in, and that is probably because I will end up with a "C" or lower in that class. I have mostly understood what we have been learning, but early in the quarter I completely failed one assignment, got a 41 on a unit test, and got a 71 on a separate large test. All three of those low grades worked together to bring my grade down to an 85, that is until I most likely just failed the test we took today, so my grade will be even lower. The third quarter has been one of the most stressful quarters so far with deadlines, projects, and quizzes constantly approaching for all of my classes, but now it is finally over. In the fourth quarter I hope to have steady grades from start to finish and that I pass the super stressful end of course tests.
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Of course because the quarter is nearly over we now receive tons of projects, all due within a week. These projects can help boost our grade tremendously for the quarter if done well, or tremendously weigh them down if we fail. So far my group has been working kind of slow but we are getting the work done. One of our largest problems has been with organization. I get to class, login to anything I need to login to, then get to work right away. My partner on the other hand has to go through several authentications to login to something as simple as Schoology then spend a few minutes going through his Google drive folders to find our document. There is nothing wrong with protecting private information, such as login credentials, or organizing files into documents, as long as it doesn't slow down the workflow. As I have said in many other blog posts, organization is important for success in high school, but over-organization can sometimes slow you down more than being unorganized would. Luckily this has been one of our only problems and it can be easily fixed if the time is taken to do so. That is another common problem with group projects, because each group member works at a different speed scheduling can often be a hassle. However, it is still very important to divide up the time you have to work in order to get the project done efficiently and without confusion. For example my partner and I know that groups for this project are supposed to be groups of three, but we still chose to work in a group of two because we are pretty sure we can get the work of one extra person done in the time allotted. Often there is a group member who doesn't do any of the work anyways, so we somewhat saved ourselves from that. Because we are working in a group of two we split up what would be the third member's role between us and created deadlines to finish each part of our role (pre-production, production, post-production). I hope that the plan we made for this project works out and that the other assigned projects also go well.
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AuthorMy name is Andrew Prichard and the this is my first digital arts class, I look forward to a good year with lots of hard work. Archives
May 2021
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Last updated 5/14/21
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