What you are looking at is a Website page full of reasoning and in-action visuals of why Arantxa Arriada, my Profile Interviewee, is so meaningful to have in one’s life. This Profile Project was meant to show and tell why one person in particular makes life easier and more brighter due to their good deeds and accomplishments, but also through what they still continue to do till this day: helping others or even their own self through obstacles and life barriers.
Arantxa Arriada, whom we know as the English and AVID teacher in room 505, has definitely faced hardships in her life but in the end, still manages to keep a smile on her face and spread positivity wherever she roams. Especially at Los Altos High School.
With light skin and bright red hair, Ms. Arriada is usually labeled as “white girl.” What many do not know, but will end up knowing from this project, is that Ms. Arriada is not just some “white girl,” but actually a first generation student who struggled to go to college with only the help from her science and math teacher. Though she comes from Daly City, her parents come from Spain, the reason why she had no choice but to adjust to the social norms of a U.S citizen on her own. This was the only way she could attend college (which in the end resulted at UC Santa Barbara)-- let alone reside in California. From learning how to speak in English, she learned how to count, how to write, how to be successful. Now, she tries to help her AVID babies, as she calls us, who also face hardships in their own life, just like she once did. There is no doubt that comes to mind that by the end of the year, each will walk away from Los Altos with a sense of direction and discernment, with a special thanks to Ms. Arriada.
To create this piece on Ms. Arriada, an essay for English was required to start us off, where we can base the rest of our project on the information we have written. In order to write, we had to get to know our Profile Interviewee, which meant loads of interviews were needed. My goal was to get to know why she does so much for her students compared to other teachers, if there is a special reason or need she feels they need to have that perhaps she didn’t have, and there was, that being the fact that she did not have much guidance herself for her future.
We then had to create a magazine for this essay, to portray who our Profile Interviewee is using Adobe’s InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop. For this class my goal was to finally get the hang of each program since I am completely new to these programs. Overall I achieved this goal because I now know the basics (e.g making layers, healing brush tool, designing our own borders). I can now sit down and work on my own work instead of always asking my peers to guide me. I can now say I’m not completely, but way more independent.
As for Web Audio, this has to be the greatest challenge of all. We were to design a website, using Dreamweaver, that also defines our Profile Interviewee and also a media feature that showed his/her passion and how dedicated they are in it by using After Effects. After creating this website I am now more aware of what a professional website should look like. For example at the beginning, I said I’d make my buttons apples since my Interviewee is a teacher, but just how professional would that look? After getting told that apples and cartoon looking figures are something that the class has moved on from since we no longer draw our buttons, I realized what was meant. It would look a bit messy and more like scratchwork. Overall I am starting to get a better idea of what a professional and organized website should look like. Then there’s the video, which I really had to take time on since After Effects is one of the most challenging programs to use. I am currently struggling with this part of the project, due to accessing the program as well as understanding it. In the end, this project has shown me the way each program works, but also how fast Freestyle works, whch is way faster than I expected. For the final product, I now realize how lucky I am to have the teacher I have during my first period, which would be AVID.
