Jordan Grayes Public Feed

Jordan Grayes Capstone

Posted by Jordan Grayes in Capstone · Baird · Wed on
I am pleased to share with you all my progress on my senior Capstone 2018 here at Science Leadership Academy. I had a clear idea heading into senior year that this would be the year I finally find out if music is my path. I know many of my friends appreciate my skills musically. It was very important of me to learn more of the technical side of music. In my senior capstone, I decided my theme would be, researching what it means to become a part of the music industry. These past several months have consisted of making a studio, writing lyrics, and talking to music producers, all before actually recording my own 6 song EP of self produced music. I learned that in 2018 it is not hard at all to become a soundcloud rapper or rapper in general. The term soundcloud rapper is not an insult nor compliment. I believe it to just be a pronoun for me making music on soundcloud.

Artist Statement Q3

Posted by Jordan Grayes in Advanced Art · Hull · x1 Band on
This quarter in Advanced Art I challenged myself to apply actual effort into each of my pieces. I feel that in this quarter I accomplished my goals and my art work shows it. To start with, my bike drawing was one of my best works. I had to apply lots of my memory to this project. Next week, when tackling illusions, it was very challenging. But, I still managed to have a good product n the end. With the shading forms project there really wasn't much for me to express artistically in that project. Next for the eye drawing I was able to shade correctly and create a nice looking eye. It resembled that of an adult woman's eye. Finally, for the Mandala I decided to use as many colors as I could find and overall the final product was decent.

Advanced Essay #4: Jordan Grayes

Posted by Jordan Grayes in English 3 · Block/Franz/Taylor-Baranik · E Band on
In the final advanced essay of the school year I set out a goal to dive into a topic that I thought I had knowledge of. I am pleased with the final outcome of my essay and the steps that took place in order to lead me to this polished piece of writing. Also my bold choice of topic is part of the reason why my essay holds such emphases to my name. 

“ Hey baby girl, you looking good today. ”

There is a worldwide knowledge of something known as, Street Harassment, which is most commonly mostly to blame for women’s fear of walking city streets. But, I ask, should Street Harassment be a crime? I feel that Street Harassment should not be a crime because it is almost instinctive for men to attempt to engage in interaction with a women that they desire, persistent Street Harassment is the true crime that needs to be addressed and what is there for the police to really do about this first amendment right?

Street harassment should not be considered a crime because it is only the pursuit of finding a companion. It is natural for a male to desire a female and when he sees one that he wants it is almost instinctive for that male to approach and try to get the attention of the female.This quote from a story of sexual harassment on Hollaback.com brings me to my next point, “At first I was suspicious, as I always am when a man offers to give me something for free that normally costs money, and then I felt bad and thought, That’s terrible, Diana. This nice, religious old man is doing something sweet for you and you’re suspecting him of being a pervert. So I thanked him for the candle and he went away and I kept praying. A few seconds later he came back and cupped my boob.

This is the crime portion of street harassment, not to go into details about punishment but persistent harassment should be followed up with some sort of jail time or fine or anything for that matter that involves police. But, what is it that the police would do, they barely do anything about rape cases, so why would a women telling them about an incident where a man is trying to holla at her be a top priority. I do not think that there should be a crime for catcalling and street harassment, yet there needs to be a new general approach to educating the future of our country on how to treat a female or any other person. I was taught at a young age to always approach a beautiful girl if I happen to spot one. Why not try to go after her and interact? If I want to engage in friendly conversation with a random person on the street then that is my choice. I understand the stigma of coming off as a; stalker, weirdo, other adjective for jackass. When approaching a female with the typical and repetitive, “ Hey baby girl you looking good today,.” But i just wanna get to know her a lil bit and possibly get the number so i can see more of her and that's the cycle of things. It's not harassment unless it is persistent.

The stories of stalking and groping and the mini-rants and sparks of rage that come from rejection should be annexed. Persistent harassment on the street should be a crime. But, when you simply give women a compliment and she says thanks and walks away, then no further catcalling should take place. When it comes to not responding to the compliments and men then lashing out, I don’t know why, as a man, that we do this sort of thing. There is no possible justification for this act, and seriously as a whole we as men should start to stray away from this sort of thing because it is very disrespectful and offensive. Just because we don’t get our way we shouldn’t lash out at the female that we were just trying to engage in conversation with. I agree that a law would not work because there is no way to enforce the law. Would the women have to report the incident, what if there is no proof, police officers aren’t around at every location at every moment of every day so it would be hard to enforce the situation.


Works Cited
Friedersdorf, Conor. "Don't Outlaw Catcalling." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 04 Nov. 2014. Web. 22 Mar. 2017. 
"Home." New York City Hollaback! N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2017. 
Potts, Monica. "Street Harassment Is Universal and Age-Old." Vogue. Vogue, 01 Feb. 2017. Web. 22 Mar. 2017. 
Smith, Emily. "Hey Baby! Women Speak out against Street Harassment." CNN. Cable News Network, 6 Oct. 2012. Web. 22 Mar. 2017. 
Street-Porter, Janet. "Catcalling Shouldn't Be Labelled a Hate Crime – We Should Be Equipped to Deal with That Ourselves." The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, 15 July 2016. Web. 22 Mar. 2017.

Artist Statement

Posted by Jordan Grayes in Advanced Art · Hull · x1 Band on
In thie second quarter I had the opportunity to display my artistry in an array of ways. In our first project, working with contours I really challenged myself and the results came out great. When it came to the faces and the still objects that i drew, everything came out well shaded and sculpted. Next, we went onto the painting assignment and I decided to paint the Philadelphia skyline with the wording of,"Philly", on it in the colors that Philly teams usually posses in their uniforms. Later on in this class we were granted the gift to recreate a famous art piece. My piece was the Son of Man and I used colored pencils and a No. 2 pencil to complete the task. As the quarter came to a close, the final assignment we were asked to sketch up and draw was the words of a famous song. I chose to recreate a Kendrick Lamar song and in the second to last slide you can see my result.Finally, you will see a picture of a wall in South Philadelphia where I was able to highlight depth of field and apply a filter through the app.

Jordan Grayes Artwork

Posted by Jordan Grayes in Advanced Art · Hull · x1 Band on
My first assignment in this classroom was the tile painting. The inspiration behind my idea was the fact I had recently watched some Brandon Knight highlights, a player for the Phoenix Suns. After that I decided that the Suns logo would be the best possible way for me to have fun with the project. Also, the colors really pop in there logo and that influenced my decision heavily. My final product is located on slide #2. The final assignment was the self portrait. In the self portrait I decided to trace an image of myself that was from a photo-shoot I was a part of. The reason I chose that specific image was because it gave me a nice facial expression and would be more fun to capture details such as, the Tommy Hilfiger logo on my shirt and the straps from my book bag. something I would want to improve on in my artistry work is adding more to them. I only meet the minimum requirement and I should start to go above and beyond the standards set. 

Advanced Essay #2 "The Young and Illiterate"

Posted by Jordan Grayes in English 3 · Block/Franz/Taylor-Baranik · E Band on
This essay challenged me to step outside of my, bare minimum, comfort zone. My goal for this essay was to provide possible reasons why a child may be having difficulties learning by using my own experiences as an example. Many may think that one just becomes illiterate by there own unwillingness to learn to read. In this essay I wanted to give an example of how you must take into account the disadvantages a child may be at when learning to read such as, material diversity, preparatory learning, and being able to relate and connect with the teacher. Something that I am most proud of in this essay is how I was able to create vivid scenes. Also my analysis of the quotes, I feel, are the best parts of my essay. One thing I would like to improve on is giving better introduction to my quotes. I feel that skill would definitely add emphasis to my writing.

ADVANCED ESSAY #2 "The Young and Illiterate"
There was a time, when I was only five years young, and I hated the idea of reading. Whenever I walked up those giant steps to school, right off of the yellow bus, and through the doors of the school and into the cafeteria in the basement. After, I took a bite of my sausage egg and cheese mcgriddle from the McDonald’s breakfast menu, the first period bell shrieks throughout the halls. I run up the steps with excitement as I do not want to be late to class and miss the opportunity to see my friends. The teacher of my Kindergarten class, Mrs. D, greets me at the door. “Welcome Jordan, are you ready to learn today?” she asks. I respond with a bright smile exposing her to the missing teeth in my mouth. Mrs. D was an older, big in weight, white woman. I was one of only three black children in her class. She often made all of us sit together, so it would be easier to teach us collectively, I now assume.

It is not the fault of the child when they’re are unable to read the selective material given to them. How can someone expect an urban youth to be able to relate to the material given by a middle-aged white woman that is probably living in a suburban area. Matthew Lynch brings up this important point in the writing,”Black Boys in Crisis: Why Aren't They Reading?”, “...black students (and particularly boys) experience disconnection when it comes to the authority figures in their classrooms. The K-12 teaching profession is dominated by white women, many who are very qualified and very interested in helping all their students succeed but lack the first-hand experience needed to connect with their Black male students.” (Lynch) This quote relates to me because I felt a learning disconnect to the material Mrs. D was giving me. Not only were the characters not like me, but the manner in which Mrs. D went about teaching me, made it very hard to learn.

I find my way to my seat and class begins. Mrs. D explains to the class,”Today we will all be creating and reading aloud to the classroom our own personal sentences.” My heart sinks. The idea of having to create a sentence is hard enough. Then, having to read that sentence myself and to the classroom would be a great embarrassment. My anger starts to build in my body like the smoke inside of a chimney after lighting a fire place. The class goes on and I refuse to learn the material. I put my head down as the rest of the class learns basic sentence structuring. Thirty minutes pass after Mrs. D gives us these instructions and she then tells the class that each student will now have to present their sentence.”Okay Jordan, you can come up to present now.” said Mrs. D. I responded by running out of the class and darting down the hallway to the bathroom. In the bathroom I ask myself, “Why am I so dumb? Why can I speak a language and not read that same language?”

Now that I have grown to better understand my previous state, I have came to the conclusion that maybe I was just at a disadvantage from the beginning. Leave out the fact that my teacher was not able to really teach me all of the necessary tools to learn to read, and then add the idea that maybe it was my parents fault. Maybe it was because I was never read any bedtime stories, taken to the library, or introduced to literature in preschool. G. Reid Lyon brings up an excellent claim in,”Why Some Children Have Difficulties Learning to Read”, “...learning to read begins far before children enter formal schooling. Children who have stimulating literacy experiences from birth onward have an edge in vocabulary development, understanding the goals of reading, and developing an awareness of print and literacy concepts.” (Lyon) I was not the kid that had an advantage in learning the properties of english literature before entering kindergarten. My experiences directly relate to the this quote because my kindergarten self is the result of a child who has not been involved in much preparatory work to better understand reading.

In conclusion, when encountering a young child that may appear to not know how to read, do not automatically assume that it is their choice to be illiterate. One must take into account that they're just children and they probably want to learn from material related to them. Finally, the teacher should be at fault if a child is suffering from a disconnection in the classroom that forces them to not be able to learn.

Sources
Lynch, Matthew. "Black Boys in Crisis: Why Aren't They Reading?" Education Week. N.p., 15 Aug. 2014. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.
Lyon, G. Reid. "Why Some Children Have Difficulties Learning to Read." Reading Rockets. N.p., 12 Oct. 2009. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.

Advanced Essay: "The Broken Glass"

Posted by Jordan Grayes in English 3 · Block/Franz/Taylor-Baranik · E Band on

The many ancient hieroglyphics that have multiple meanings. In total about 4 names appear surrounding the papyrus. There are birds and what appears to be a knife. Also a squiggly line kind of like that of a red squiggly line under a word when you spell it incorrectly by accident on a google docs paper. Those were just a few of the images that appear the most throughout the image. This brings up the question of what do all of these mean? They form in different patterns about 4 times as well as they surround the old and worn down papyrus. The papyrus includes the coding of what each hieroglyphic symbol represents in the english translation of letters. All of them are a gold glossy color with a black outline to finish out each design. Also the image is inside of a picture frame with a red border (inside frame) and a gold rigid design with a clean finish to finish the painting (outside frame). Also the hieroglyphics can be translated to each of my siblings names including my own, also my mother’s name (In order from left to right top then bottom; Audrea, Somer, Jordan, Sarita). The painting still remains to hold its color and its appearance, as if it was still brand new and fresh with paint. The painting stretches about 2 feet in width and a little less than 1 foot in height. If I were to hold my arms in comparison to the painting, the painting measures from the tip of my middle finger to the middle of my chest. One day a string of unfortunate events happen. Ma screams to Jordan and Jabaryi,”No more passing balls in this house.” She then leaves the two with the ball and her wond thinking that they’ll listen. Later on in the day they both began to contemplate what to do with themselves. Boredom and akward silence is now abundant inside the home. Jordan: Yo, what are we to do Jabaryi, ma said we can’t play ball. Jabaryi: Why don’t we just play the XBOX ONE. Jordan: You always play that, I am going to be the loser as always. Jabrayi: I’ll give you a score head start. Jordan: Yeah, but no we should play something we’re even with. Some ball. Jabaryi: I’m scared the ball will just be too great in speed and size and will damage the painting. Let’s start though . FEWM, PEW, DOOM. The ball travels all around the room. Then the painting appears to have a crack on it. The two scatter in fear as the glass begins to look like a miniature spider web.

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