Lanterns of Love (Click for Project Description)
Teacher Reflection: We began this semester with the Roller Coasters & Revolutions project. The students spent that entire project studying conflict in all many different forms throughout history, so it was important to me to balance that out by doing a project that talked about one of conflict's inverses: love. When I approached Mr. Manger about my students interviewing his 3rd graders about love, he said something very striking: "Of course. We always have time to talk about love. We should talk about love in schools more." The three age groups that my students interviewed and created with/for were 3rd graders from High Tech Elementary, adult couples, and senior citizens from Brookdale Senior Living Residence. Watching my 9th graders interact with these different age groups was lovely. They were so charismatic and gentle with the third graders. They were professional and prepared in their adult interviews. They were fantastic listeners in their senior interviews. One student reflected back that she did not understand the connection between the art center exhibition, the performances, and the content of the project, so if I were to do this project again, I would likely slow down the speedy calendar so that all students thoroughly understood the connections across the project elements. Overall, the students were very receptive to the project and seemed to have learned a lot. See below for the students reflecting!
Student Reflections:
Joseph G.: I really really liked this project. I had a really good group, filled with hard workers. We all had a good chemistry and collaborated really well. We were very organized and had a schedule day by day. We were always working and helped each other when in need. Something I can grow in is not excluding my group from helping me.
I learned a lot in Humanities. I learned some key points to planning, communication, and being prepared. This really influenced my interviews outcome. The senior citizens interview was very successful, they were very positive and taught us a lot. Just remembering the positivity emitted from the adult interview was very powerful. I also learned that beauty was seen through many different ways. Money and power, weight, and symmetrical balance.
Sophia M.:In Humanities, I learned how to conduct a strong interview and create questions that prompt conversation. In the project we conducted 3 separate interviews, one for the 3rd grader class, one for an adult couple and the last for a senior at Brookdale. I feel I learned how to carry a professional conversation and speak confidently with adults. In Humanities, we also read Romeo and Juliet and later wrote an analytical essay recapping the play. I wrote my essay about the motifs of light and dark in this piece of literature. I found it very interesting to make more abstract connections between different sources and situations which I was able to share during our Socratic Seminar the following week. Lastly in Humanities we discussed different topics within Anthropology such as beauty and love. One of my favorite topics we discussed was the standards of beauty for women throughout history. It was interesting to see how the standards changed through time such as the change from the Woman of WIllendorf, a pendant embodying fertility and motherhood, to contemporary. This is something I found deeply intriguing and I hope to continue to learn more related to these topics in the future.
Nia A.: A large part of this project was Humanities. We conducted 4 interviews during Lanterns of Love, each with different people. Colleen Penny, John Colbert, Anna, and The Reeves. Colleen and John were two senior citizens we interviews at different times and both gave insightful perspectives to what love is and how we experience it. My group made two lanterns because of this, one for John and another for Colleen. Each lantern had a quote from the interview, a symbol of something we learned from the interview, a symbol of love, and a geometrical design from Math. Anna was a 3rd Grader we talked to for her view on love and she shared something she loved was one of her cats. She drew him and we all colored together as the 3rd Grade Art Piece. Mr. and Mrs. Reeves was a married couple that we interviewed to learn about how couples stay together and what values they share. We then made a puzzle piece based off of how they met, which was a large cross and two skiers sliding down it. This is because of their shared religion and how they met at a ski resort where Mr. Reeves worked.
Throughout this project we also had anthropology lessons and read Romeo and Juliet. I wrote an essay on Romeo and Juliet and how the themes of light and darkness correspond with parts of the play. I found anthropology more interesting, especially on how ancient customs are still in use today or how much they’ve changed. Humanities thinking was used throughout the project because of the overall message it displayed for me: Love isn’t straightforward. All of our interviews showed this in their own ways and it changed how I view love.
Jeremy O.: This project is based on love. We had to make love lanterns, this is where we interviewed people of different age groups, a senior citizen, adult couple and 3rd grader. The people in my group were Colin Vail and Elizabeth Tran. We worked together by collaborating and compromising. We also stayed on task and pushed ourselves to do the best we could. I think some ways I could possibly grow as a group member is by being interested or acting interested in something even when I’m not. Another way I think I could improve myself as a group member is by trying not to interrupt other people in the middle of their turn to speak even if I have something vital to inject into the conversation or planning.
In Humanities I learned that there are different types of love and ideas of beauty. For example, nowadays, the idea of beauty is tall, skinny, tan, curvy or muscular. But back in the olden days, the idea of beauty would be someone who is stubby. This is proving that this person is rich since they have a lot of food. How can you tell that they have a lot of food? Just look at their stomach. Something I learned reading Romeo and Juliet is that their love isn’t true love. This is something I have never really bothered to question or think about but since now we are digging into that question, I realize that their love is merely physical love/attraction. Throughout this project, I used my Humanities thinking by writing the essay based on the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.
Mariana A.: I learned a lot when it came to the Humanities portion of the project. I learned a lot from the book Romeo and Juliet, from the interviews we did with the seniors, adult couple, and the third graders, and last the anthropology lessons with Mrs. Johnson. For the Humanities portion of the project we had to do interviews with seniors, adult couples and third graders, with that we had to create art pieces for them. For the seniors we made the lanterns, the adult couple we made them puzzle pieces, and the third graders we created a art piece of what they love. In anthropology we learned about inner and outer beauty, and about arraigned marriages and love in all cultures. The way I used Humanities thinking through out the project was by always being creative when it came to the art. I was always creative when it came to the art pieces we had to create for the people.
Elizabeth T.: In Humanities, we read Romeo & Juliet, designed the art pieces, learned about human behavior/anthropology, and conducted interviews. Romeo & Juliet was a tragic story which we read out loud at school, made essays for, and had many discussions about love and otherwise on it. For the art pieces, we had to put in items that held meaning as well as figure out what would look best on the designs. Love back then as well as traditions and such are different from now, like the arranged marriage in Romeo & Juliet, and we also learned about beauty standards. That view of love and beauty were very strange compared to the information/opinions we got when we conducted our interviews. For our interviews, we planned a lot for it, the questions, the timing, the equipment, etc. We interviewed a Brookdale/senior citizen, an adult couple, as well as a 3rd grader. We got to learn a lot about our interviewee's views on love(how God was true love, how the couple loved each other, etc).
All the work, blood, sweat, and tears were worth it in the end. The exhibition was held at Charity Wings Art & Crafts Center, and we also held some parts of it at Brookdale, for the members we interviewed there. We displayed every product in a gallery on shelves and hanging pieces on the side of the store. For the final products, we had a lantern brightened with a LED light, two painted wood pieces of a puzzle, a framed art piece, and a 1-2 minute performance from each group. The lanterns were inspired from the Brookdale members, which we gave a copy to them as well as did our performances in their common room. The senior we interviewed was Babette Gilbert, to which we put Colin's math construction, family, hearts, a bunny, musical notes, and a quote from her on the lantern, but we weren't able to give it to her. The puzzle pieces were made after Nate and Mori Johnson, the adult couple we interviewed, and it's in the shape of a cross with many meaningful things they said during the interview decorating the pieces. The art pieces were made by 3rd graders, ours created by Audrey, and for our's we have the things she loved drawn inside a star/written on the outside with more drawings. The performances were something every group did, whether it was playing instruments, singing, dancing, reciting poems, or a mix, everyone had an amazing talents to share. I got to dance to BTS' original choreography of Butterfly(Their original video on the bottom).
Paola T.: This whole project was such a ride. It was a really fun and interesting project that it increased my curiousness on love. It was wonderful to collaborate with my group members Pablo Toledo and Preston Seymour. We came up with really amazing ideas to design our lanterns. We created a plan to divide the work in the group so each of us could work with what we were most comfortable. In terms of collaboration I think we all did well, we were able to finish the work on time and it was fun to work with such energetic and fun people who were willing to work in this project. I think being surrounded with positive team mates helped me in various ways because sometimes I get really stressed and start thinking that we might not get the work done on time and yet I still got a bit stressed on this project. I think that planning is something I could improve for the next project so it helps me avoid stress but overall we managed to finish everything and we got the amazing opportunity to make beautiful work!
In respect to Humanities we got to learn more about love. In this class we got to read Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and this really brought up the topic on what love is to different age groups. We didn't only finally address our opinion on love but got to learn how different people with different experiences on it portray love labeling their age with such responses. Also how love can be found on the people we never expected to like Romeo and Juliet. I think that the most interesting thing about Humanities was interviewing, in my opinion. I got to discuss with the members about what questions about love we wanted to ask. I got to learn how to actually plan and organize an interview, I specially learned to empathize in an interview that we should prepare questions that will share stories. We got the chance to interview a Senior Resident from Brookdale, an Adult Couple, and a 3rd grader. It was so interesting to hear such different but in a way similar responses from all of them, it wasn't just an interview but a lesson to us humans. It really made me more curious about love that I probably have so many questions after all the questions that I had already asked. In these interviews we were asked to talk for an hour but our interviews were too interesting that we went over the required time. I love talking to people and how they have such unique and different perspectives than each of us. Yet, it all came down to one same answer that love will always be there in different ways but it will always embrace itself throughout our life, and that's beautiful. Talking about beauty we learned about how beauty also influences on how we think about love. In anthropology we had some lessons on love. We talked about beauty and arranged marriages. We learned, or at least I learned, that arranged marriages can also take away our experience on love or maybe we can learn to love through an arranged marriage. Also, that maybe we might think that beauty to us is found on a person that we want to fall in love with or maybe we might think that we can find beauty after we fall in love with someone. That also empathy is something important to have in a conversation, and throughout this project I learned how to empathize. Love is such an interesting topic, I just know that love sees farther than we ever could.
Matthew A.: In Humanities I learned how to conduct an interview with a stranger and be able to keep it going for at least an hour. We conducted these interview and learned the basics norms through a interview. When interviewing different age groups you have to adjust the question either by its complex words or another topic. From reading Romeo and Juliet we learned about two teenagers that were in a relationship, but was forced to be torn apart from each other. Because both families were in a war against each other (Montagues, Capulets) it made it very difficult for the couple to see each other. Their immaturity eventually get to them and they both commit suicide. From my perspective I believed that Romeo and Juliet's love was infatuated. Throughout our interview with our Senior Citizen and Adult I learned that they didn’t believe love at first sight. Because if you fall in love with someone at first sight you are attracted to their physical appearance. I learned that being in love takes commitment, patience, determination and truthfulness to make a lasting relationship. With our art pieces we designed it based of the adult we interviewed. Through anthropology we talked about the history of physical beauty and compared it to now day. We also learned about arranged marriages through the different cultures. I used Humanities thinking throughout the project through interviews and and creating our art pieces based on those interviews.
During Exhibition we were able to display our work to different people that we interviewed and parents. It interesting and nice to see the Senior Citizen enjoy the performances and lanterns that we created for them. Then at the Charity Arts & Crafts studio we showed our work to the community and parents. I talked to couples that were interviewed and they really seemed to like the final products. My group created a lantern that had each side representing a world map, a couple, geometry creation and quote. For our adult piece we created a language and a world map that was wood burned onto it. Lastly, with our 3rd grader we collaborated and drew a picture of what we loved. What I had to offer to my group is my ability to be prepared and having good work ethic. Being prepared and making sure everything was planned out was something really important that you need during an interview. Without this the interview will be unplanned and it would be unprofessional to go all over the place. In terms of work ethic, I was able to stay on track throughout the work times and do something that would benefit my group. I was able to get a lot of work done in terms of preparing and finish worksheets. My collaboration with my group worked out very well. We all contributed in some way and helped one another. We accomplished tasks by our strengths and this actually worked out. Cause by doing this that task or product would turn out really well because we each individually had experience with doing that. Oral communication worked out during our interview with the three different age groups. I feel like I was able to explain the project very thoroughly and ask questions that helped get deep and detailed information.
Sydney L.: I learned a good amount in Humanities. While reading Romeo and Juliet, I learned more not only about romantic love, but also other types of love such as familial love, unrequited love, material love, and love by friendship. People seem to focus on the romantic love, but other types are also important even though they are overshadowed. While conducting interviews, I learned that love isn’t always that surreal and happy feeling, it hurts, you have to work for it, and it means something different to everyone. While learning about the different cultures and their customs, it became more clear to me that different people view the idea of love in other ways than we do. They believe certain things need to be done or should be celebrated that we may not believe in. I also learned more about the ideal beauty standards and how they have changed over the existence of both man and art. I used my Humanities thinking while asking questions for interviews, scanning and judging images and art, and creating the Love Lantern. I also used my thinking to reform my idea of love.
Exhibition was something I definitely enjoyed, not just because of the joy and pride of presenting my final products, but for the fun of also being able to perform in front of a crowd. I was able to sing not just once, but three different times, and it was so wonderful to present my work in a new way, someway that I was good at. I felt that I had something unique to offer the group with my performance, and was able to bring a positive attitude and the work I finished.
Hailey S.: In humanities I learned about writing persuasive essays and about anthropology. I learned that when studying different cultures you have to avoid comparing the culture to your own, because cultures tend to have different views. From reading Juliet and talking with friends and family members about the play I learned that literature can lose its meaning if looked at through too logical of a standpoint. Through conducting all of the interviews I learned that love means something different to everyone, so I tried to come up with ideas for the lantern that would match what loves means to my resident.
Our final products included a finger painting, two pieces of wood that came together to form a mug of beer, and a lantern with four images on it. I helped a lot when it came to planning for the interviews and creating the lantern. I feel like I this project I was strongest in work ethic because I put a whole lot of effort into this project and me and my group were actually the first to finish it. I could grow in collaboration. I am good at collaborating and working with people, but when it comes to collaborating I tend to end up taking a leadership role. My leadership skills need some work, especially when it comes to helping delegate the work load and helping my group members stay on task. This is all I have to say about the love project. I can't wait to see what's next.
Anil K.: In Humanities, I read the classic story: Romeo & Juliet. I thought it was a fantastic. Most importantly however, I interviewed several people talking to them about love then taking their words to make art pieces. It was amazing to talk to people about their life stories. My most memorable of which was a senior citizen by the name of Bill Frese. Bill is a WW2 veteran, who’s day job was being a engineer of cargo ships. He also, in his free time built a homemade grandfather clock. This clock pairs nicely with his gold barometric clock, which he got after 40 years of working, claiming it to be his most prized possession. However, in my opinion, his most valuable possession is a coffee can of things he picked up on a beach in the Philippines; The can contains metal shrapnel from grenades, bullets, air force patches, and a myriad of other things.
Diego D.: This project seemed mostly based in humanities with reading Romeo & Juliet, conducting interviews, and documenting our project. Before each interview, we had to write a list of 30 questions and plan out absolutely everything we were to do doing the interview time right down to the minute. Matthew and I did a large majority of question writing and interview planning. Since the project is about how love is perceived in our society, we went back to the 1600's standards of love and read Romeo & Juliet. During our final exhibition, we did performances of talent based around love.
I feel my group worked pretty well with collaboration since we respected and incorporated each other's ideas pretty well into the final product. We also worked pretty efficiently so we were almost always on top of our work and completing it on time or before we had to. Considering our content knowledge, I'd say it's relatively extensive. We all know how to use the power tools properly for what we needed to achieve and we each have more knowledge in building rapport when in an interview setting. I feel like I am pretty strong when it comes to interviews and conversations. When it came to writing the artist's statement, I feel I also did pretty well on that. An area I still need to improve on is using Adobe illustrator because I'm a bit rusty when it comes to preparing digital images to be sent to the laser cutter. All in all, this was a fun and straightforward project that I liked.
Henna H.: In Humanities I learned some very different lessons, my favorite of which I could play devil’s advocate with. For example, in the end Romeo and Juliet’s young love caused them to die which created peace between the families. Therefor I could make the claim that young love is a good thing, even though it got them both killed. Another thing I learned in Humanities is how to talk to people I don’t know so well. With the help of my group members, I conducted two interviews with complete strangers and one with a relative I’m not super close with. I learned how to truly listen to other people and I learned when you listen it seems to make the other people feel important and thankful. In the anthropology lessons, I learned a lot of interesting things about how beauty has changed over the years and kind of why.
Sofia M.: In Humanities I mainly learned a lot about Anthropology. I didn't know much about Anthropology and how it connected to the study of human beings, but I gained a lot of information on why we think the way that we do when it comes to beauty, tradition, or desires. I think that this was the most important part of the project for me because I learned so much more about the world we live in, and how our culture has shaped the way we think. I also learned a lot more about the importance of passion throughout this project. In Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, his main focus when writing was on the strong passion that these two people had for each other. Though I am not a huge fan of the play, I noticed that the same topic popped up during my interview with our Senior Citizens. When we asked them questions about the definition of love, and the word "passion" seemed to be very important. This was especially present when talking about life experiences and how "passion" plays a huge role in that. When it came to Humanities thinking throughout this project, I mainly used it while writing my essay about Romeo and Juliet. I think that while writing this essay I became better at making my writing flow without being too long or cluttered.
Exhibition was the most rewarding portion of this project. We got the opportunity to see our Brookdale resident see the lantern we had created for her, which proved how all of our hard work had paid off. We also got to see students perform, which was entertaining because we saw everyone's unique talents,. Parents also seemed very pleased with our adult art piece, as well the adults we interviewed. This also was very rewarding for the work that we had done. I would give myself an A for this project because of my growth in all of classes, as well as my collaboration with my group. I filmed the interviews for both Brooksdale visits, made the Adult Puzzle Piece, helped design both of our lanterns, and did nearly whatever I could do to help the group out on my part. This of course included small details such as an Artist Statement, interview planning, Adobe Photoshop help, etc. I learned so much in all of my classes when it comes to the complexity of love, and I was very lucky to have hard working and creative group members as well. For the future, I would like to communicate more when I am absent(such as being sick or not being able to bring supplies). I feel that I am strong in subjects that include creativity(such as building a lantern that symbolizes the people we interviewed) and handing social situations. I find that I am very comfortable when speaking to new people, which definitely helped our interviews become more honest and open. Overall, this was a complex and interesting project filled with work I am proud to display.
Karley S.: In Humanities, we read Romeo and Juliet along with interview conducting. During Romeo and Juliet, I learned a lot about love and how there are so many different forms. A lot of people don't realize this. While conducting interviews, I learned that sometimes love can just be bliss but it also needs a little work to get to that. My couple, Ginny and Jim, were a very happy couple and always have been. But Jim was in the war so for a while, all the Ginny had to hold onto was her letters back and forth to him. Along with learning about love from these interviews, I learn a lot of social skills because I really had to put myself out there and just interview people I didn't know.
Exhibition was quite a feet for me since I was one of the performers. I luckily got my best friend, Sydney to join me on my performance. I played ukulele and she sang. We performed the song City of Stars from La La Land. I was very shaky at first but I think it turned out really well. Exhibition was also just fun because it seemed to be more relaxed than the extremely stressful all-school exhibitions.
Joseph G.: I really really liked this project. I had a really good group, filled with hard workers. We all had a good chemistry and collaborated really well. We were very organized and had a schedule day by day. We were always working and helped each other when in need. Something I can grow in is not excluding my group from helping me.
I learned a lot in Humanities. I learned some key points to planning, communication, and being prepared. This really influenced my interviews outcome. The senior citizens interview was very successful, they were very positive and taught us a lot. Just remembering the positivity emitted from the adult interview was very powerful. I also learned that beauty was seen through many different ways. Money and power, weight, and symmetrical balance.
Sophia M.:In Humanities, I learned how to conduct a strong interview and create questions that prompt conversation. In the project we conducted 3 separate interviews, one for the 3rd grader class, one for an adult couple and the last for a senior at Brookdale. I feel I learned how to carry a professional conversation and speak confidently with adults. In Humanities, we also read Romeo and Juliet and later wrote an analytical essay recapping the play. I wrote my essay about the motifs of light and dark in this piece of literature. I found it very interesting to make more abstract connections between different sources and situations which I was able to share during our Socratic Seminar the following week. Lastly in Humanities we discussed different topics within Anthropology such as beauty and love. One of my favorite topics we discussed was the standards of beauty for women throughout history. It was interesting to see how the standards changed through time such as the change from the Woman of WIllendorf, a pendant embodying fertility and motherhood, to contemporary. This is something I found deeply intriguing and I hope to continue to learn more related to these topics in the future.
Nia A.: A large part of this project was Humanities. We conducted 4 interviews during Lanterns of Love, each with different people. Colleen Penny, John Colbert, Anna, and The Reeves. Colleen and John were two senior citizens we interviews at different times and both gave insightful perspectives to what love is and how we experience it. My group made two lanterns because of this, one for John and another for Colleen. Each lantern had a quote from the interview, a symbol of something we learned from the interview, a symbol of love, and a geometrical design from Math. Anna was a 3rd Grader we talked to for her view on love and she shared something she loved was one of her cats. She drew him and we all colored together as the 3rd Grade Art Piece. Mr. and Mrs. Reeves was a married couple that we interviewed to learn about how couples stay together and what values they share. We then made a puzzle piece based off of how they met, which was a large cross and two skiers sliding down it. This is because of their shared religion and how they met at a ski resort where Mr. Reeves worked.
Throughout this project we also had anthropology lessons and read Romeo and Juliet. I wrote an essay on Romeo and Juliet and how the themes of light and darkness correspond with parts of the play. I found anthropology more interesting, especially on how ancient customs are still in use today or how much they’ve changed. Humanities thinking was used throughout the project because of the overall message it displayed for me: Love isn’t straightforward. All of our interviews showed this in their own ways and it changed how I view love.
Jeremy O.: This project is based on love. We had to make love lanterns, this is where we interviewed people of different age groups, a senior citizen, adult couple and 3rd grader. The people in my group were Colin Vail and Elizabeth Tran. We worked together by collaborating and compromising. We also stayed on task and pushed ourselves to do the best we could. I think some ways I could possibly grow as a group member is by being interested or acting interested in something even when I’m not. Another way I think I could improve myself as a group member is by trying not to interrupt other people in the middle of their turn to speak even if I have something vital to inject into the conversation or planning.
In Humanities I learned that there are different types of love and ideas of beauty. For example, nowadays, the idea of beauty is tall, skinny, tan, curvy or muscular. But back in the olden days, the idea of beauty would be someone who is stubby. This is proving that this person is rich since they have a lot of food. How can you tell that they have a lot of food? Just look at their stomach. Something I learned reading Romeo and Juliet is that their love isn’t true love. This is something I have never really bothered to question or think about but since now we are digging into that question, I realize that their love is merely physical love/attraction. Throughout this project, I used my Humanities thinking by writing the essay based on the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.
Mariana A.: I learned a lot when it came to the Humanities portion of the project. I learned a lot from the book Romeo and Juliet, from the interviews we did with the seniors, adult couple, and the third graders, and last the anthropology lessons with Mrs. Johnson. For the Humanities portion of the project we had to do interviews with seniors, adult couples and third graders, with that we had to create art pieces for them. For the seniors we made the lanterns, the adult couple we made them puzzle pieces, and the third graders we created a art piece of what they love. In anthropology we learned about inner and outer beauty, and about arraigned marriages and love in all cultures. The way I used Humanities thinking through out the project was by always being creative when it came to the art. I was always creative when it came to the art pieces we had to create for the people.
Elizabeth T.: In Humanities, we read Romeo & Juliet, designed the art pieces, learned about human behavior/anthropology, and conducted interviews. Romeo & Juliet was a tragic story which we read out loud at school, made essays for, and had many discussions about love and otherwise on it. For the art pieces, we had to put in items that held meaning as well as figure out what would look best on the designs. Love back then as well as traditions and such are different from now, like the arranged marriage in Romeo & Juliet, and we also learned about beauty standards. That view of love and beauty were very strange compared to the information/opinions we got when we conducted our interviews. For our interviews, we planned a lot for it, the questions, the timing, the equipment, etc. We interviewed a Brookdale/senior citizen, an adult couple, as well as a 3rd grader. We got to learn a lot about our interviewee's views on love(how God was true love, how the couple loved each other, etc).
All the work, blood, sweat, and tears were worth it in the end. The exhibition was held at Charity Wings Art & Crafts Center, and we also held some parts of it at Brookdale, for the members we interviewed there. We displayed every product in a gallery on shelves and hanging pieces on the side of the store. For the final products, we had a lantern brightened with a LED light, two painted wood pieces of a puzzle, a framed art piece, and a 1-2 minute performance from each group. The lanterns were inspired from the Brookdale members, which we gave a copy to them as well as did our performances in their common room. The senior we interviewed was Babette Gilbert, to which we put Colin's math construction, family, hearts, a bunny, musical notes, and a quote from her on the lantern, but we weren't able to give it to her. The puzzle pieces were made after Nate and Mori Johnson, the adult couple we interviewed, and it's in the shape of a cross with many meaningful things they said during the interview decorating the pieces. The art pieces were made by 3rd graders, ours created by Audrey, and for our's we have the things she loved drawn inside a star/written on the outside with more drawings. The performances were something every group did, whether it was playing instruments, singing, dancing, reciting poems, or a mix, everyone had an amazing talents to share. I got to dance to BTS' original choreography of Butterfly(Their original video on the bottom).
Paola T.: This whole project was such a ride. It was a really fun and interesting project that it increased my curiousness on love. It was wonderful to collaborate with my group members Pablo Toledo and Preston Seymour. We came up with really amazing ideas to design our lanterns. We created a plan to divide the work in the group so each of us could work with what we were most comfortable. In terms of collaboration I think we all did well, we were able to finish the work on time and it was fun to work with such energetic and fun people who were willing to work in this project. I think being surrounded with positive team mates helped me in various ways because sometimes I get really stressed and start thinking that we might not get the work done on time and yet I still got a bit stressed on this project. I think that planning is something I could improve for the next project so it helps me avoid stress but overall we managed to finish everything and we got the amazing opportunity to make beautiful work!
In respect to Humanities we got to learn more about love. In this class we got to read Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and this really brought up the topic on what love is to different age groups. We didn't only finally address our opinion on love but got to learn how different people with different experiences on it portray love labeling their age with such responses. Also how love can be found on the people we never expected to like Romeo and Juliet. I think that the most interesting thing about Humanities was interviewing, in my opinion. I got to discuss with the members about what questions about love we wanted to ask. I got to learn how to actually plan and organize an interview, I specially learned to empathize in an interview that we should prepare questions that will share stories. We got the chance to interview a Senior Resident from Brookdale, an Adult Couple, and a 3rd grader. It was so interesting to hear such different but in a way similar responses from all of them, it wasn't just an interview but a lesson to us humans. It really made me more curious about love that I probably have so many questions after all the questions that I had already asked. In these interviews we were asked to talk for an hour but our interviews were too interesting that we went over the required time. I love talking to people and how they have such unique and different perspectives than each of us. Yet, it all came down to one same answer that love will always be there in different ways but it will always embrace itself throughout our life, and that's beautiful. Talking about beauty we learned about how beauty also influences on how we think about love. In anthropology we had some lessons on love. We talked about beauty and arranged marriages. We learned, or at least I learned, that arranged marriages can also take away our experience on love or maybe we can learn to love through an arranged marriage. Also, that maybe we might think that beauty to us is found on a person that we want to fall in love with or maybe we might think that we can find beauty after we fall in love with someone. That also empathy is something important to have in a conversation, and throughout this project I learned how to empathize. Love is such an interesting topic, I just know that love sees farther than we ever could.
Matthew A.: In Humanities I learned how to conduct an interview with a stranger and be able to keep it going for at least an hour. We conducted these interview and learned the basics norms through a interview. When interviewing different age groups you have to adjust the question either by its complex words or another topic. From reading Romeo and Juliet we learned about two teenagers that were in a relationship, but was forced to be torn apart from each other. Because both families were in a war against each other (Montagues, Capulets) it made it very difficult for the couple to see each other. Their immaturity eventually get to them and they both commit suicide. From my perspective I believed that Romeo and Juliet's love was infatuated. Throughout our interview with our Senior Citizen and Adult I learned that they didn’t believe love at first sight. Because if you fall in love with someone at first sight you are attracted to their physical appearance. I learned that being in love takes commitment, patience, determination and truthfulness to make a lasting relationship. With our art pieces we designed it based of the adult we interviewed. Through anthropology we talked about the history of physical beauty and compared it to now day. We also learned about arranged marriages through the different cultures. I used Humanities thinking throughout the project through interviews and and creating our art pieces based on those interviews.
During Exhibition we were able to display our work to different people that we interviewed and parents. It interesting and nice to see the Senior Citizen enjoy the performances and lanterns that we created for them. Then at the Charity Arts & Crafts studio we showed our work to the community and parents. I talked to couples that were interviewed and they really seemed to like the final products. My group created a lantern that had each side representing a world map, a couple, geometry creation and quote. For our adult piece we created a language and a world map that was wood burned onto it. Lastly, with our 3rd grader we collaborated and drew a picture of what we loved. What I had to offer to my group is my ability to be prepared and having good work ethic. Being prepared and making sure everything was planned out was something really important that you need during an interview. Without this the interview will be unplanned and it would be unprofessional to go all over the place. In terms of work ethic, I was able to stay on track throughout the work times and do something that would benefit my group. I was able to get a lot of work done in terms of preparing and finish worksheets. My collaboration with my group worked out very well. We all contributed in some way and helped one another. We accomplished tasks by our strengths and this actually worked out. Cause by doing this that task or product would turn out really well because we each individually had experience with doing that. Oral communication worked out during our interview with the three different age groups. I feel like I was able to explain the project very thoroughly and ask questions that helped get deep and detailed information.
Sydney L.: I learned a good amount in Humanities. While reading Romeo and Juliet, I learned more not only about romantic love, but also other types of love such as familial love, unrequited love, material love, and love by friendship. People seem to focus on the romantic love, but other types are also important even though they are overshadowed. While conducting interviews, I learned that love isn’t always that surreal and happy feeling, it hurts, you have to work for it, and it means something different to everyone. While learning about the different cultures and their customs, it became more clear to me that different people view the idea of love in other ways than we do. They believe certain things need to be done or should be celebrated that we may not believe in. I also learned more about the ideal beauty standards and how they have changed over the existence of both man and art. I used my Humanities thinking while asking questions for interviews, scanning and judging images and art, and creating the Love Lantern. I also used my thinking to reform my idea of love.
Exhibition was something I definitely enjoyed, not just because of the joy and pride of presenting my final products, but for the fun of also being able to perform in front of a crowd. I was able to sing not just once, but three different times, and it was so wonderful to present my work in a new way, someway that I was good at. I felt that I had something unique to offer the group with my performance, and was able to bring a positive attitude and the work I finished.
Hailey S.: In humanities I learned about writing persuasive essays and about anthropology. I learned that when studying different cultures you have to avoid comparing the culture to your own, because cultures tend to have different views. From reading Juliet and talking with friends and family members about the play I learned that literature can lose its meaning if looked at through too logical of a standpoint. Through conducting all of the interviews I learned that love means something different to everyone, so I tried to come up with ideas for the lantern that would match what loves means to my resident.
Our final products included a finger painting, two pieces of wood that came together to form a mug of beer, and a lantern with four images on it. I helped a lot when it came to planning for the interviews and creating the lantern. I feel like I this project I was strongest in work ethic because I put a whole lot of effort into this project and me and my group were actually the first to finish it. I could grow in collaboration. I am good at collaborating and working with people, but when it comes to collaborating I tend to end up taking a leadership role. My leadership skills need some work, especially when it comes to helping delegate the work load and helping my group members stay on task. This is all I have to say about the love project. I can't wait to see what's next.
Anil K.: In Humanities, I read the classic story: Romeo & Juliet. I thought it was a fantastic. Most importantly however, I interviewed several people talking to them about love then taking their words to make art pieces. It was amazing to talk to people about their life stories. My most memorable of which was a senior citizen by the name of Bill Frese. Bill is a WW2 veteran, who’s day job was being a engineer of cargo ships. He also, in his free time built a homemade grandfather clock. This clock pairs nicely with his gold barometric clock, which he got after 40 years of working, claiming it to be his most prized possession. However, in my opinion, his most valuable possession is a coffee can of things he picked up on a beach in the Philippines; The can contains metal shrapnel from grenades, bullets, air force patches, and a myriad of other things.
Diego D.: This project seemed mostly based in humanities with reading Romeo & Juliet, conducting interviews, and documenting our project. Before each interview, we had to write a list of 30 questions and plan out absolutely everything we were to do doing the interview time right down to the minute. Matthew and I did a large majority of question writing and interview planning. Since the project is about how love is perceived in our society, we went back to the 1600's standards of love and read Romeo & Juliet. During our final exhibition, we did performances of talent based around love.
I feel my group worked pretty well with collaboration since we respected and incorporated each other's ideas pretty well into the final product. We also worked pretty efficiently so we were almost always on top of our work and completing it on time or before we had to. Considering our content knowledge, I'd say it's relatively extensive. We all know how to use the power tools properly for what we needed to achieve and we each have more knowledge in building rapport when in an interview setting. I feel like I am pretty strong when it comes to interviews and conversations. When it came to writing the artist's statement, I feel I also did pretty well on that. An area I still need to improve on is using Adobe illustrator because I'm a bit rusty when it comes to preparing digital images to be sent to the laser cutter. All in all, this was a fun and straightforward project that I liked.
Henna H.: In Humanities I learned some very different lessons, my favorite of which I could play devil’s advocate with. For example, in the end Romeo and Juliet’s young love caused them to die which created peace between the families. Therefor I could make the claim that young love is a good thing, even though it got them both killed. Another thing I learned in Humanities is how to talk to people I don’t know so well. With the help of my group members, I conducted two interviews with complete strangers and one with a relative I’m not super close with. I learned how to truly listen to other people and I learned when you listen it seems to make the other people feel important and thankful. In the anthropology lessons, I learned a lot of interesting things about how beauty has changed over the years and kind of why.
Sofia M.: In Humanities I mainly learned a lot about Anthropology. I didn't know much about Anthropology and how it connected to the study of human beings, but I gained a lot of information on why we think the way that we do when it comes to beauty, tradition, or desires. I think that this was the most important part of the project for me because I learned so much more about the world we live in, and how our culture has shaped the way we think. I also learned a lot more about the importance of passion throughout this project. In Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, his main focus when writing was on the strong passion that these two people had for each other. Though I am not a huge fan of the play, I noticed that the same topic popped up during my interview with our Senior Citizens. When we asked them questions about the definition of love, and the word "passion" seemed to be very important. This was especially present when talking about life experiences and how "passion" plays a huge role in that. When it came to Humanities thinking throughout this project, I mainly used it while writing my essay about Romeo and Juliet. I think that while writing this essay I became better at making my writing flow without being too long or cluttered.
Exhibition was the most rewarding portion of this project. We got the opportunity to see our Brookdale resident see the lantern we had created for her, which proved how all of our hard work had paid off. We also got to see students perform, which was entertaining because we saw everyone's unique talents,. Parents also seemed very pleased with our adult art piece, as well the adults we interviewed. This also was very rewarding for the work that we had done. I would give myself an A for this project because of my growth in all of classes, as well as my collaboration with my group. I filmed the interviews for both Brooksdale visits, made the Adult Puzzle Piece, helped design both of our lanterns, and did nearly whatever I could do to help the group out on my part. This of course included small details such as an Artist Statement, interview planning, Adobe Photoshop help, etc. I learned so much in all of my classes when it comes to the complexity of love, and I was very lucky to have hard working and creative group members as well. For the future, I would like to communicate more when I am absent(such as being sick or not being able to bring supplies). I feel that I am strong in subjects that include creativity(such as building a lantern that symbolizes the people we interviewed) and handing social situations. I find that I am very comfortable when speaking to new people, which definitely helped our interviews become more honest and open. Overall, this was a complex and interesting project filled with work I am proud to display.
Karley S.: In Humanities, we read Romeo and Juliet along with interview conducting. During Romeo and Juliet, I learned a lot about love and how there are so many different forms. A lot of people don't realize this. While conducting interviews, I learned that sometimes love can just be bliss but it also needs a little work to get to that. My couple, Ginny and Jim, were a very happy couple and always have been. But Jim was in the war so for a while, all the Ginny had to hold onto was her letters back and forth to him. Along with learning about love from these interviews, I learn a lot of social skills because I really had to put myself out there and just interview people I didn't know.
Exhibition was quite a feet for me since I was one of the performers. I luckily got my best friend, Sydney to join me on my performance. I played ukulele and she sang. We performed the song City of Stars from La La Land. I was very shaky at first but I think it turned out really well. Exhibition was also just fun because it seemed to be more relaxed than the extremely stressful all-school exhibitions.