CTE Academy Reflection

   Today on December 14, 2015, Mrs. Ramirez discussed with all CTE students on the dangers of having a job at a young age. It was an important workshop for her and for us since we are all at a age in which we want to go out and buy things without having our parents providing. Some teens really need the job at other times so any job offered to them, they would take. But all us teens have a right. To have a decent job with decent hours, low minimum pay and not suffer from injuries all the time. So, having a job is a very big responsibility! Mrs. Ramirez actually went through a slideshow slowly, explaining in detail what each slide meant. She introduced herself at first then showed us a quick video on how a 19-year-old was eager to work but didn't know how to be cautious of certain work tools. He ended up killing himself by making the wrong move! So what Mrs. Ramirez was trying to say was that before anything, you should always have proper training on how to handle situations, tools, the job itself and cleaning processes. There can be danger anywhere at your job so you should always be looking out for yourself. Afterwards, she explained the right actions being done by a teen at their job compared to the wrong ones. We didn't have much time for this meeting but we did learn a few more things about having a job at our age. It's good knowing we are always up to date and well informed by our teachers!

Queensborough Community College Trip Reflection

   On November 30, 2015, Mrs. Ramirez was nice enough to conduct another trip that would benefit us since the workshop would be web related. We were the first bunch she would be taking, so in that case, we didn't really know what to expect! We left somewhat early at around 9:30 or a bit later. It took 15-20 minutes on the yellow bus from our school to the college itself. We walked around the campus a bit before we actually entered one of the buildings! On that day, I remember it being really cold so I kept shivering outside waiting to be warm again! Once we got inside the building, we quickly entered a lab room. It was spacy and felt very comfortable. I liked the setting of the room itself actually! Anyways, we were presented Mr. Lawrence, who knew A LOT about photoshop software, applications and tools. His way of speaking felt very modest and he was really smart. He knew way too many things; he couldn't catch up on everything he kept speaking about! We then afterwards were introduced the topic of 3D Printing. I thought it would be lame but it was nothing like that at all! We then played around a bit with WaterWorks. It was an application like Photoshop CS6, in which we transformed a 2D shape into a 3D cylinder or any other 3D shape. It was really cool to be honest. We didn't get to print each of our creation out but the professor already had some beforehand, which was very cool. He then took us a mini tour of the machines that make 3D possible and how the job of each machine is vital and valuable depending on how or what you need in a piece. There are many substances to make the pieces too. We then finished up our work with the professor by watching videos about certain employees at companies explaining how 3D Printing has enhanced their lives and the way in which it is important. We then left to another building to eat pizza and meanwhile we were eating, a lady teaching at the college gave us an insight of her life and why science related subjects are huge to major on. It was great hearing stories from another being who has become successful in her life and is trying to motivate others to the same. She was really pretty, funny and very cool! She seemed really nice too! Overall, the trip was a great experience packed with much intel. It gives us a clue of what is waiting for us out there if we want to major in STEM areas.

                                       

Project #3 Reflection

   For this project, our objective was to repair a damaged photo provided by Mr. Attilio. Everybody in the class thought it would be somewhat easy if you knew the correct tools to use but it was nothing like that. We were given the photo by Mrs. Ramirez to begin with and there was no real instruction on how to fix certain aspects of it. We had to use our knowledge and common sense, which made it kind of more difficult then what the project already was. We used Adobe Photoshop CS6 as always to restore the picture. The main and biggest tools used by mostly everyone in the class were the Clone Stamp tool, the Patch Tool and the Spot Healing Brush tool. These were all useful to fix the basic elements of the photo. For example, the blue fading background. If you used the Clone Stamp tool for it, you could easily cover the whole background at a quicker pace instead of the Patch Tool. Unfortunately many, including myself, thought that this project was very hard, exceeding our practice and couldn't finish restoring the photo completely. I was very upset about it. Our time limit was also an obstacle in us finishing!
   Overall, the key to success in the project was taking it step by step, little by little, being patient and NEVER GIVING UP! There was no assigned tool for any specific detail of the photo, but I'm confident I tried my best to make my work look the best. I used the Clone Stamp tool for the background, the Spot Healing Brush tool for the face and skin parts, the Clone Stamp tool again for the bottom part of the photo which the cotton like stuffing, the Patch tool for the hair of the girls, and the Content Aware Tool for the water marks on the photo which surprisingly worked! For the Content Aware Tool, I had to circle a certain area with water marks and then clicked 'Edit', then 'Fill' and finally clicked 'Content Aware' and pressed 'Ok.' It worked fine for me, which I thought was great. But as mentioned before too bad I couldn't finish. I could use the skills learned here in the future by managing my time, knowing how to use common sense and putting my intelligence to challenge. I honestly like this project although it made want to rip my head off sometimes!

Before Editing

After Editing