It is the end of the semester and we all have to say goodbye. Including our DM team. The team has made huge accomplishments in the blog. This is what our team thinks.
Alexis Eschke, Grade 7
It has changed me by teaching me that there is always something interesting to write about.
It felt very bad because it wasn’t my best article, it was short, and did not have very good content. And I didn’t take multiple pictures I just took one and it wasn’t very good.
I felt challenged by the deadlines because when i was about to publish Mr. Currey would look and then he would tell me that I would have something that I needed to re-write something or correct it. And then I would have trouble. And when I would upload it it would sometimes be late but anyway we would always get pressured from Mr. Currey.
Campbell McHale, Grade 7
The Direct Message has made me look deeper into problems and other topics more so than I would have otherwise.
My first article was Welcome 7th Grade. I was so proud of myself, I showed my parents and my Grandma and Grandpa. It was exciting to post something that anyone can read, and also the fact that it didn’t look like trash was also pretty great.
I felt challenged by deadlines, definitely deadlines. You have to work outside of class sometimes to post it on the right day, and to be honest, I did not meet all the deadlines. You can ask any of my classmates. Lesson learned; Turn it in ON TIME! Please do not be lazy.
It was also challenging to come up with stories, you have to make sure people will read it, and that it is interesting. After you come up with a successful idea, you still have to write an article with an angle, good grammar and spelling, but you have to actually make sure it is interesting, it has to be worthy of…
THE WEBSITE! *angels singing*
Where all of the best and most polished pieces of writing go. So make sure it is worthy. If it is not worthy, work on it more. Do not fear, you will get at least one of your articles posted on the DM (if you are in this class or get the Honor of writing for this prestigious online AES website).
Rahul Bhandari, Grade 8
Before I was part of the DM I thought very few things about everything in this school. Then I had to write articles about my ‘few’ thoughts. Those thoughts grew and grew, until I noticed everything that went on in this school. The DM really has opened my eyes.
Last year I watched all the news in 90’s, and now that I made a post, on the same website that they did, was just amazing. When I posted that article I would have never thought that I would also be running the news in 90 show with Sora. I felt great after every post I made on the DM website. My first post was ‘Welcome 8th Grade.’
Every single time you finish filming any type of video for the DM there is always editing for that video. I always do the editing for the ‘News in 90’s, and the ‘Can Rahul and Sora Break the World Record,’ with Sora. At first editing was really hard because you have to match the audios of the mics with video, and create multiple camera sequences, and many other things, which were really challenging to learn. TDM was overall a great class.
Tomas Arizti, Grade 7
When I arrived I barely knew about the school since I was new. I mean I didn’t know anything when I arrived. Literally you could search through my brain and you would see “nada”. I also arrived late so when I came to my first class I just arrived and thought “Wow, there’s only 4 people. Are there more coming. I’ll just have to wait.” But after a few 20 minutes of just looking into space I noticed that we were the only 5 running a whole blog. So when Mr. Currey told me t9 think about articles I asked him if I should write an article on the terrorist attacks but then he told me why would people want to read that in the middle school.I was just like “Oh man what do I freaking write!” So I was just dwelling that whole class. But as time progressed I learned that the school can have hidden ideas that aren’t just gonna come to you randomly. I mean you gotta find them!
The truth is that my first article just felt amazing to publish. I mean that’s when I had finally found an article to post and continue. My first article was “Pottermore” which I did with a friend. It felt so good to finally press that publish button after 3 classes of dwelling on nothing. It was really satisfying.
A time I felt challenged was when I started. I really didn’t know what the heck to do.
Sora Shiraki, Grade 8
The Direct Message has changed me so much because before I became a part of TDM I used to think less about events happening in school but as soon as I became a part of the team I started to think more about events happening in school.
My first post in TDM was “Pool Party!!!!” I was very nervous when I posted my first post because I didn’t want to let people see my writing. But my peer, Rahul gave me confidence and that’s how I posted my first post.
A challenge I faced was editing. When Rahul and I finished filming the first News in 90 we had to learn new editing commands on Adobe Premiere that I did not know. Learning these commands took me a lot of time to memorize. Even though I’m in the TDM for 4 months, I still struggle editing the videos.