May 24, 2010

Today is the last day of regular classes and its a final review for our exams that begin tomorrow. Our first two exams are English and French. I'm not to stressed over those becaue English is basically 20 multiple choice questions on grammar, and then we must write two essays. Fortunately, our teacher gave us the two topics so we were allowed to prepare for the essays. French probably won't be too hard either but my memory of vocab will definitely be important. On Wednesday, we're taking the Math and Science exams. I'm not sure of what to expect out of those two exams but I don't believe that they will be too challenging. On Thursday, our final exam will be World Cultures, which is the exam I'm most worried about. I'm generally stressed over this subject because there is always so much information and facts to remember. But once I'm finished with that, my summer will begin! So hopefully my studying will pay off this week!

Blaire 5/24/10

LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL!

Today is my last sunday school night; what a relief. This week will be my final four days of freshmen year! Our exams begin Tuesday and end Thursday around noon. I'm so happy this year has finally come to an end because it's felt long at times and been very stressful at other times. Anyways, I began studying this weekend for my exams which has gone alright. Half the time I've been catching up on sleep or having dance rehearsals. But I feel much more rested which will be very important when test time comes up. My dance recital is now a week away and I'm really excited to finally perform all the hard work my studio has done this year! After that my summer begins! Can't wait!

blaire 5/23/10

May 17, 2010/ Cheer Tryouts

I'm happy to say that this week is our final week of regular school! It will be a final week to review and next week will be exams and the start of summer! Yesterday was the first day of cheer tryouts. There were about 30 girls trying out, and overall everyone did pretty well. The only concern I see is technique when it comes to motions for jumps and cheers. We first learned the fight song, which is simple for most of us, but it may have been difficult for girls who will be new at our school. Then we moved on to jumps which was fun for some of us. Then we broke off into groups based by our grade level and learned three different chants and the main tryout cheer. After that, we moved on to the dance section, and learned two short combos that we will perform in the tryout. Today will be a "mock tryout" where we review over everything and practice a "run-through" of what our tryout will be like. The tryout begins with our entrance/"spirit" on, where you have the opportunity to tumble, and chant however you'd like. Then you come to the center of the court and show your jump sequence which consists and four jumps and two of them are required to be toe-touches. Then you and the other two girls in your tryout group will chant two of the three chants you learned and then you will all perform the fight song, tryout cheer, and both of the dances together. It's exciting and makes me a little nervous but I'm looking forward to it!

May 13, 2010

Today I finally finished my web page for my teacher, Ms. Patterson. It was actually a fun project but it took lots of time. The week is almost over which means there are about 10 days of school left! Next week will be our "dead week" so lots of reviewing and studying will begin. Then the following week will be our exams and then we are done!! Summer is so close and I can't wait! This weekend cheer tryouts start and I'm super excited! I can't wait for football season to begin, because I love performing at the games. My dance recitals are coming up soon as well and we started having dress rehearsals yesterday. Our first one went well so hopefully the rest we be good too. Then, in a few weeks I will be off to Florida with my family and Carolyn. These last few weeks have gone by fast and I hope that exams go well for everyone!

Blaire 5/13/10

May 7, 2010

I'm happy to announce that today is my final day of lacrosse practice. It's been a long season and our season ends this weekend with the state tournament. We're scheduled to play St. Andrews first, a team we've previously beat, and from there on each team will be harder and more challenging for us. We're all pumped and confident for our games and hopefully we will have a good outcome. After that I have no more sports for the year except for cheer tryouts which begin next weekend. I'm really excited for tryouts except I'm slightly nervous since I haven't had much time to practice and prepare but I'm very excited for the season to start. This past week was Parent Observation at dance, which means your family can come see all your classes to see the progress you've made. You also receive your costumes for recital which can be good and bad. It's good when you get a really cool costume that you like, but it can also stink when you get a really ugly costume like I did for one of my classes. But overall, I'm really looking forward to our recital because everyone has made a lot of improvement this year and I think all our dances look great! Well now there is about 3 weeks of school left which is exciting and kind of hard to believe. This year has gone by quite fast but I enjoyed most of it and I look forward to summer.
blaire 5/7/10

May 3, 2010

I'm excited to say that we now have 3 1/2 weeks of school left. Lacrosse is about to be over which I'm happy about and cheer tryouts are coming soon! I haven't been able to prepare much for tryouts but I'm going to start working hard these next few weeks. My dance recital is also not too far away which is great but I hope we'll all be ready to perform! I'm hoping that exams won't be too much of a struggle and that they will go smoothly. A lot is happening this month so hopefully I'll be able to stay organized and prepared for everything. Last weekend the seniors threw their final party, the Blackout Blowout, and it was pretty fun. Everyone dressed up in black except for the seniors who all wore crazy neon colors. In a few weeks there will be some graduation parties that should be fun as well. Summer is so close and I can't wait for it. In about 4 weeks my family and I will be heading for Florida to spend a week at the beach which should be great. Hopefully these few weeks will go by quick!

blaire
3/3/10

SPC

Last week our lacrosse team competed in SPC and did pretty well. Overall we came in 4th place, but we played very well as a team. Our first game was against was on Thursday St. Andrew's and we won 20 to 13. One girl on their team was yellow carded for yelling at the ref which was pretty amusing. Later that day we played St. John's and we didn't do as well. We lost unfortunately but St. John's has a very well rounded team. On Friday, we were all irritated to hear that we would be playing Hockaday for the FOURTH time. We were tired of playing and losing against them so we knew we had to make some sort of comeback this time. First half went great and we were in the lead while Hockaday struggled. Our defense had them stuck and they were unable to score for a great deal of time. But during second half they came back and beat us 12 to 9. We were slightly disappointed in the loss but we were really thrilled at how well we played overall. This following weekend will be our final weekend of lax as we play for state.

blaire 5/3/10

dreamweaver tools

This week we've continued to learn about new tools on dreamweaver such as the apdiv. Apdiv allows you to position things anything anywhere you want on a page. You can drag any type of element you'd like onto a page such as text boxes, images, pretty much anything. I guess in the end it's helpful but most the time I'm just trying to make sure I'm using the other tools correctly. Adobe makes things simpler in certain ways but its difficult when I'm still not 100% on where tools are located and what they exactly do. Hopefully I'll catch on soon. \

blaire
4/23/10

Project

This week we began creating our pages for our clients. It's our job to create a page for them and create something they would like. I'm creating a page for one of my previous teachers, Ms. Patterson, to share information about the trips she takes students on to europe each christmas. I'm planning to explain the idea of her trips, what all we do, and hopefully make people become interested in her trips. I think this will be a fun project but it's complicated using DreamWeaver now because some of the tools are still confusing to me!

Blaire
4/23/10

Web Page project

This week we have been assigned to creat a web page for someone in our school that is involved in some sort of school activity like a club. We're making these pages so that people can have access to their information in a simple way. I'm not sure who I'd like to make a page for yet but I had the french club in mind or one of my favorite teachers, Mrs. Patterson, who is a 6th grade history teacher. She plans the 6th grade Washington D.C. trip each year, and she also plan extra trips during christmas time to europe. I've been lucky enough to go on two of her trips to europe. My first trip was to Spain and the second was to Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. She does a great job of planning trips and they're always super fun. I think it'd be fun to make a page for her so that people who were interested in her trips could find out info easily without having to look for her and ask all the time.

NYC

Last week, I was lucky enough to stay in NYC for the weekend with my mom and attend a Joffrey Ballet Jazz Intensive. We left wednesday night so that we could relax and enjoy the city on Thursday and Friday. We did lots of shopping and visited NYU and Julliard. Both schools were really cool, and I especially liked NYU. We also toured the NBC studios which was fun but unfortunately no actors or actresses were working that day. But while we were shopping later that afternoon we saw one of our favorite tv hosts from the Bravo Channel, Andy Cohen. He was filming a Pepsi add, so I was able to get some good shots. On thursday night we saw The Adams Family musical which was awesome. It had great songs and it was pretty funny. On Friday night, we saw one of my favorite musicals, Phantom of the Opera. As usual, it was amazing and the phantom was great. Then on Saturday, my intensive began at 10:00 that morning. We started off with a ballet class, then a musical theater/broadway style class. The ballet was good, but I really enjoyed the musical theater/broadway style class. Our teacher was a broadway dancer himself and he was great and hilarious. Then we had our lunch break and we began the afternoon with a modern class, which was different but I was glad to be learning something different than what I'm used to. After that followed a contemporary class that I was not too fond of. :) The teacher was just a little different than most and I wasn't used to her style. But our last class of the day was just a normal jazz which was great. I liked our teacher a lot and his style was similar but still a little different than what I'm used to. The second day was just the same but the classes were in a different rotation and we had different teachers. I loved the second day, and I learned lots of neat new things. Overall I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity I had and I hope I can experience something like that again!

Pirates of Silicon Valley

Last week we watched Pirates of Silicon Valley which is a film about the Steve Jobs and Bill Gates who created the apple computer company and later on, Microsoft and Windows. Their journey was long and exciting, but there were many bumps in the road that caused tension, stress, and competiton. Steve and Bill seemed to be the perfect duo, but as their success grew their friendship was strained by the business and desire to be rich.

If I could work for Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, I would choose to work with Bill for several reasons. First, he seems to be a better business partner and easier to work with unlike Steve who appeared to take in all the fame while Bill stayed in the shadows and kept working. Steve seemed desperate for fame and success which wasn't necessarily wrong but when he achieved the fame and success you would notice that Bill wasn't included as much which seems unfair on his part. But Bill was a good friend so he continued to work and not let it bring him down.

Bill also seems to have a more calm personality that would be easy to work with. In the movie, you would see Steve flip out at Bill for unecessary reasons. Bill never had intentions to back stab Steve or leave him behind but Steve had that impression when he found out that Bill was creating an new program that would be Microsoft Windows.

Bill also appears to be the nicer of the two, and he seems to have lots of ideas flowing through his mind. Even though Apple was a huge deal and success he was still thinking ahead, working, and creating new ideas such as his Windows program. He also seems like a trustworthy buisness partner that is dedicated and willing to listen to his partner's ideas. I think he has these nice qualities due to Steve's hot temper and poor partnership skills, which helped him learn how to be a good buisness man unlike Steve. Overall, both comapnies had great success and they still continue to achieve success to this day. But in my opinion Windows would be the company to work for.

March 29, 2010

This past weekend, our girls lacrosse team traveled to Houston, Texas to play several games against their best teams. Our games were challenging, and we were not successful at beating any of them but it showed us how hard we would have to work to become just as good. The strongest team we played was St. John's and I managed to score two goals in the JV game. It was a tiring weekend, but it helped us improve all of our skills. I'm now looking forward to this week because I will be going to NYC on Wednesday night. On Thursday and Friday we plan to shop, see some musicals, and tour the NBC studios, NYU, and Julliard. Then on Saturday and Sunday I will be at a jazz intensive at the Joffrey Ballet which should be great. I can't wait to be in New York, it's one of my favorite places.

Blaire

Tables

This week we created a web page for tables. At first I was extremely confused and had no idea what was going on but I managed to complete the page and have a better understanding of the process. Overall, creating tables aren't to difficult. You just have to be aware that you have all the correct tags. We learned to create a basic table, and tables with borders, width, cell spacing, cell padding, and we even learned how to add background images in the table. It took us about three days to create the page and overall I think it was pretty easy and not too difficult.

march 2010

Spring Break

Today is the last day of the third quarter, and it's about to be the start of spring break. Lots of people have already left town but throughout the day more people will be gone. Everyone is pretty excited for spring break but I'm honestly not as excited as I usually am. Its been a stressful time so I haven't been in the best mood for things. I'm happy to finally have a break from school but my trip for the break includes more sports which is school related so its somewhat of a buzzkill. I'm glad our trip is in florida but I wish I could relax rather than be playing a sport the majority of the time. Before the lacrosse trip, I'm going to a family friends lakehouse so hopefully I can relax a lot there. Lots of my friends are going to Mexico so I bet they'll have a great time. Happy spring break!

3/12/10

Third quarter is finally coming to an end...thank goodness. This quarter has been especially tough for me due to the several holidays, new material, and stress outside of school. Lacrosse season is off to a good start except I've been injured the whole time so I haven't done a whole lot. But our team is pretty good and I think we have a great season ahead of us. We've won all our games except one which was against hockaday. It stinks to not be as active as I usually am but I guess it's somewhat of a learning experience to watch everyone and see how they play from a different point of view. I apparently strained some muscles in my back due to tumbling so I've been trying to recover that past 3-4 weeks. I had an MRI on monday so I willl have the results on thursday, and I've begun therapy so hopefully I'll be back to normal by next week. And next week is spring break which will be a nice break from school. For the first part of the break, my family and I are going to a friends lakehouse for a couple of days. On wednesday I'm going to florida for our lacrosse trip. I look forward to that because the beach should be super nice! Then fourth quarter will finally begin which means summer isn't too far away. And shortly after spring break I'll be going to NYC for easter weekend with my mom. We plan to see some musicals, shop, and tour some sites. But the main reason we're going there is for my dance workshop. The Geoffrey Ballet is having a jazz intensive that weekend so I plan to attend that which I'm really excited for. It'll be fun to dance in a place like NYC and I hope to learn some new stuff that will help me improve and expand my skills and style.

3/9/10
blaire

HTML Elements

During web design class we have learned several things about creating web pages. We've learned how to upload our pages on the internet, how to create links, and insert text, images, and more onto our pages. It was confusing and sometimes difficult at first, but its now all beginning to make sense to me. All the different tags are coming more naturally to me, and I'm not having to search things as often. I haven't found many of the elements extremely difficult but I guess just remembering which tags work for what confuses me sometimes. I also tend to notice errors on my page so sometimes I struggle fixing those errors. But overall I'm enjoying the whole process and I'm glad to be understanding it.

3/9/10

Color 2

This week we finally finished creating our color pages. Overall, I learned a lot and realized that making a page isn't that difficult. As long as you know the important tags and simple codes, it can be an easy task. I feel that I've accomplished making several things such as a web page, a heading, links, and more. I've also learned that color has an important value on web pages. If you're page is all black and white it can sometimes be found boring to people. Having more bold colors that stand out can make your page look more exciting. Color can also affect those who are colorblind. Colorblind people can only see certain colors certain ways so it's important to know what colors may work best for your page if you're concerned about colorblind people looking at it.

3/9/10
blaire

Color

This week in computer class, we are learning about colors and how to use them on pages. We're also learning to different types of colors and how they work. There are certain color groups such as the primary and secondary colors. We've also learned about the "hex" values. I didn't know that there was this much to know about colors. This week we've been assigned to create our own color page without our teachers help with gives us a challenge, but its a good learning experience. This assignment has proved to me that I actually know more than I thought and creating a webpage isn't as difficult as it used to be. I'm also learning new techniques on my own without our teachers help. Hope I can finish it all in time!

Blaire
March 3, 2010

Spring Sports February 26

Spring sports have just begun which means its lacrosse season! This year we have around 26 girls playing so the coaches decided to make one whole varsity team. The team is divided into three groups though for playing time. The top group plays the "varsity" games and generally has the most playing time. There's a middle group of 6 who plays the varisty and jv games with a decent amount of playing time. And there is also a bottom group of six who will play some, but not a whole lot. We had our first two games Thursday night against Allen and we killed them in both games. Our first game we won 15 - 8, and our second we won 11 - 3. We're off to a great start and I look forward to the rest of the season.

2/26/10

Image Size

Image size is defined by its width and height. When images are placed on a web page they have a separate file from the web page file itself. It's helpful to include the dimensions of the picture because the browser will have an easier job of arranging the picture on the page.

February 18, 2010

Winter Break

For the first time ever, we started our winter break off with several inches of snow! It was the most snow I'd seen in Dallas and it was really exciting. But rather than playing in the snow all day, I headed off to Houston for the SPC tournament with the other winter sports. SPC was super fun and we did a good job overall. It was also fun to bond with all the girls especially when it came to freshman initiation...because valentine's day was coming up we had to write "love letters" to upper classmen guys. But overall I had a fun time and I look forward to it again next year. Recently, I found out that I was accepted into the Interlochen school, so I'm extremely excited to go there this summer. Lacrosse tryouts began this week, but there might only be a varsity team because of the lack of people playing. But it should be a fun season! The sadies dance is next weekend so that should be fun as well.

February 17, 2010

SPC Weekend

Last weekend, the varsity winter sports traveled to Houston to compete in the SPC tournament. Girls basketball and soccer were competing for division II champs and men's soccer and basketball was competing for division I champs. Men's soccer and basketball were both successful at winning the first place titles. They both did great jobs in their games and it was fun to watch them. Women's basketball was doing well, during the first half of their final game, but during second half the oposing team was able to get a few points ahead. The girls finished out with second place which was awesome! Our soccer team won our first game pretty easily. We were pumped for our second game, but unfortunately we weren't able to get a goal in so we lost 1 to 0. In our final game, we played Oakridge and defeated them 6 to 0. It was a fun weekend and we made 3rd place. We had hoped for a better turn out, but we look forward to our season next year.

February 17, 2010

Mobile Devices

People tend to use their phones, itouches, or ipods as helpful devices throughout the school day. Besides texting with friends or listening to music, people use them for other purposes that help them during the day. Some people use their cell phones to text themselves or write down notes at reminders for homework or assignments. Others might use their calendar to mark down upcoming tests or quizzes. Others might use their itouches and ipods as a device to listen to "books on tape" or listen to podcasts for their language class. I don't use my phone or ipod for much school use but I sometimes use my phone to write down reminders for assignments.

SNOW DAY!!!!

February 11, 2010

Today is the first snow day of the year in dallas and its probably the most snow we've had in a long time. When I woke up this morning everything was covered with snow and its continued to snow throughout the day. Unfortunately, school was not cancelled but most of our classes involve playing outside. There have been lots of snowballs thrown around but some teachers don't approve of our fun. But everyone is excited and hopefully we'll get to leave early. Well some of are already leaving early because of SPC in Houston so that will be fun. Hopefully the weather is a little better there. But I hope the snow lasts for the rest of the weekend! During computer class we went outside to take pictures and there were several attempts to get me covered in snow...Garrett tried tackling me into the snow but fortunately his plan did not work. Trevor and Bennett were successful though at hitting me with snow balls...thanks. Well that's it for now!

Blaire

Logos

Logos are symbols that can represent a person, group, place, company, and etc. Good Logos are easy to look at, easy to remember, and they have good color and design. A good logo should be a clear image that all people should be able to read.

For example, the Mtv logo is good because its a clear image and doesnt need color to be memorable. Whenever someone sees the Mtv logo they automatically know what it is.


I also think Nike has a great logo because the logo includes the name and the nike "swoosh" is never forgotten.

Web Design Class

Web design class has been off to a good start. We've been learning about html and how to create a web page. There's lots of different codes to memorize which can be difficult sometimes but the basic structure of html isn't to complicated to remember. Overall the class is slightly confusing but I'm beginning to get a better understanding of it each day. We've also created blogs which is something new for me. Its different but I think its interesting and fun to write about anything I want. that's all for now!

Blaire
1/29/10

Friday January 22

Today it's finally Friday and I'm excited for the weekend! Today it's Grace's birthday - happy bday grace! Its been a long week of school work but there hasn't been many quizzes or tests fortunately.
Tonight I have a soccer game against All Saints so I hope we win. I just got moved up to varsity which is fun but a lot of work. All the girls are great players and I've learned a lot from them. We're having a good season so far, so hopefully we can continue with more wins. After the game, I plan to go watch the varsity basketball game. The team is really good so it's always fun to watch.
Afterwards I plan to hang out with one of my good friends Carolyn, and tomorrow we have our prep workshop for dance. We're in the dance studio's company so we have workshops during the winter where we learn opening and closing numbers for the recital. Its always super fun but tiring. The piece we're working on this weekend is broadway-like and has some fosse style in it. I like it a lot and I think it'll be great! Saturday night I'm also having a big get together for all my friends so that should be fun. Then sunday will just be a day to relax and do any unfinished homework...bleh. I look forward to next week because I'll have my first audition of the year. I'm auditioning for Interlochen, a fine arts school in Michigan, to attend during part of the summer. I'm hoping I can get into their dance camp and go for a few weeks. It looks really cool and fun so hopefully that will follow through! If not, I'll already be auditioning for some others and I'm going to NYC over easter for an intensive which will be awesome. The new year has seemed a little slow to me but its going well so far. Hopefully the rest of the school year will go quick because I'm ready for summer!
-Blaire 1/22/10