Category Archives: Announcements

Forgotten

Posted on by

When I was born
You held me in your arms
When I learned to walk
You videotaped me
When I learned my first word
You were there to repeat it
When I hurt my knee
You were there to tell me it was okay
When I learned to ride a bike
You wanted to ride together
When it was my very first day of school
You kissed me good-bye
When I came back
You sang the alphabet with me
All we did was talk and talk
I felt safe
We were like milk and cookies Continue reading →

Sometimes

Posted on by

I am human…
which means I have made mistakes,
that I am not proud of.
I am willing to put a bandage over it
for it to heal.
I know we can’t just forget what has happened
but we sure can fill the empty space between us.

To all the people I have hurt emotionally but mainly to my parents, Rosario and Andres Mendez, my siblings, Jorge, Natalia, Leonardo Mendez, my cousins, and friends. And to my OTA classmates, Sofia Carrillo, Maddy Lewis, Melissa Heraldez, Carly Shaffer and Zoe Sidiropoulos Continue reading →

Love

Posted on by

Love…
When I’m with
you
When the sun is out and the sky is
blue
Love…
When you give me just one
kiss
When you leave and I start to
miss
Love…
When the birds are out and start to
sing
When you give me just one
ring
Love…
When we start to
dance
When you give me some
romance!
<3

 

 

Intro and Guidelines for Student Web Logs (Blogs)

Posted on by

Dear OTA Student:
Your personal Learning Journal is designed to help you create a record of your quality work (and your growth over a year) in the 8 OTA Core Learning Strands— Music, Science, Math, Seminar, English, Art, History, & Outdoor Ed.

The Categories available in the sidebar are set to match those 8 Strands and you should mark every post with one or more of those categories.

Why Create An Online Learning Journal?

  • Blogs are very powerful content-management systems: which means they allow you to create a beautiful, multimedia record of a year’s worth of work and retrieve it instantly when you need it (by just clicking on the category of posts you want to see or by using the SEARCH Box to find all posts with the word “music” or “football” etc.)— but only if you use the Categories!
  • Publishing your work on your Web Log ( = “Blog“) will often be the last step in earning a Passing Grade on a Project, or extra credit.
  • When you are ready to apply to high school (choice programs like IB or an art magnet, or a private school) your Blog will be a Portfolio of all your best work that might just help you get in.
  • You work hard to earn a passing grade on your OTA Projects, why throw them away? Now you can keep them, share them, go back and improve them as you learn more. If the work’s worth doing it’s worth keeping.

To Create Your Learning Journal You Will Have to Learn to:

  • Scan, convert, and upload Text and Images (working with .doc, .pages, .pdf, .txt, .jpb, .png, inspiration, etc. files). Note: before you can upload word or pages documents you must convert them to pdfs or images.
  • Create Slideshows and manage image databases.
  • Edit and convert movies and music or sound files (working with .mov, .wmv, .qt, .mp3 etc. files), and
  • Use the WordPress dashboard (content management system) to create, edit, categorize, and publish posts)

Things You Can Change On Your OTA Blog:

  • The Header–from pre-selected photos in second quarter (Q2). In Q3 you can customize it with your own photography or artwork.
  • The Picture of the Week–you add a new picture every week… from your own or classmate or teacher’s photos or scans or artwork.
  • Continue reading →