Blogs:

Blog #7 - 3/9/2020-3/13/2020
Gala Baskets and Jobs
    This week has been all over the place, the baskets are due and we are working on the golf and speech and debate shirts. There was a little mix up with Mr. Miller about when the contents of the basket were going to get ordered. We thought that if we just put the items that needed purchasing onto the spreadsheet he would check it regularly and just order them as he has in the past, that was not the case. We have learned that you have to notify Mr. Miller if you want anything bought even if it is on the spreadsheet. We have been experimenting with the new epoxy which has been fun and interesting to learn. So far a cutting board and possibly rings will be made. Next week once the Gala baskets are done we can focus on the shirts and hopefully get them done in a two day period because the front an back, multi-colored design might take some time.
Blog #6 - 3/2/2020-3/6/2020
Shopping for DTech
    This week we were getting inspired to make cutting boards using resin, single color or multi-colored. On Tuesday, a group of us, Emma, Shea, Andrew Daniel and I went to Target, Lowes, and Woodcraft. At Target we were looking for items to put in The Gala baskets, cups or glasses, spatulas, tongs, and a popcorn holder. We then went to Lowes to find something that Andrew needed. The last stop was to Woodcraft, we wanted to look at the resin to check the price, look for colors and different wood. We were successful in finding interesting pieces of wood that would be good for cutting boards. Next week's focus will be on the golf shirts.
Blog #5 - 2/24/2020-2/28/2020
New Information
One of the main focuses this week was golf shirts for Mr. Powers. There has been a lot of back and forth with the prices for each shirt, we originally were going for $15 then we went down to $12 when he wanted $10 and we finally compromised on $11 to the last of my knowledge. On Thursday we learned about The Gala that PFSO puts on every year and Allison has a great idea of putting together silent auction baskets. There is a group of us mainly working on it and I have been thinking about ideas on what to put into each basket. Some of the ideas on what to put in them are homemade soap, tote bags, t-shirts, aprons, mugs and cheese boards. I am very excited to get this project in motion.
Blog #4 - 2/18/2020-2/21/2020
Short Week
This week I was absent on Tuesday so I only had one period of DTech and that was on Thursday. I was gone because I was recovering from getting my wisdom teeth out and it took longer to recover than I thought it would, I thought I would be back on Tuesday. While I was gone saaje was finishing up multiple jobs. They finished the mickey mouse shirt job for Ms. Page and they made some more pennants using the new technique which makes the pennants look more clean and professional. There was also a house joust that was due on Thursday, I was the splash mountain staff picture that was to be edited and printed. That was due on Thursday, I didn’t do the editing because I was absent but the final product looks like it was taken on the ride itself. Next week things should go back to normal.
Blog #3 - 2/10/2020-2/12/2020
Short Week
This week was a short week, only one period of DTech for me. We also got the new DTech shirts that the interns made and the sophomores designed. I think that the design now is a lot better than before, it used to be too simple. Since we got the new shirts we took a new Dynasty 2 photo because the last one we took was from our sophomore year and people have left since then and we look different now as seniors. Other than taking the picture there wasn’t much that I did in the lab after but we did learn about the CBS field trip and a little bit more about the entree to employment dinner. We are waiting for the moron color to come in before making the new style of pennants.
Blog #2 - 2/3/2020 - 2/7/2020
New Ideas
This week wasn’t too eventful but we have been thinking about new ways to create pennants. We have been selling them and we have sold 3 more. The way the pennants looked before was good but this way it looks cleaner and clearer. With this new method we are using the Panini Machine instead of the screen printer. We are currently stuck with the sizing of the two printing materials, the sizing used to be correct but now we are trying to figure it out. Hopefully next week everything will fall into place. I will only be at school next Tuesday and not Thursday.
Blog #1 - 1/28/2020-1/31/2020
Intern/Uptern Project
This week wasn’t too eventful. I mostly spent my time helping Emma and Shea with the intern job of the DTech shirts. I think that this new design is a lot better than the old design. The main focus of the design is the same and I like that but around the design is different, a good different. This is the first time that I have used the “pizza oven” on shirts and not just on pennants. The “pizza oven” is helpful, it makes the job move faster so you aren’t waiting in between shirts for them to cure fully. You still need to flash cure it once but only for a couple of seconds. Next week we will be getting to work on my projects and can start checking off some jobs.
Week: 1/13/20 - 1/17/20
Requirements
    I wasn’t in class on Monday because I was at a Dr. Phil show with my psychology class. Emma and Shea were very helpful for catching me up on what I missed in class, mostly surveys that were needed online. The rest of the week I was running around to finish the four jobs we needed to finish. I can say that I was successful in completing the task. The pennant job for Ms. Frumkin is now completed, I do need to turn in the rest of the paperwork which I will do on Tuesday of next week. This week was mostly finishing up tasks that needed to get done before finals next week. 
Week: 1/06/20 - 1/10/20
More Pennants
    This week we had some students from last year and before come in and talk with us. They talked about their experience in DTech, the good and the bad, and what their time in college has been like. It was interesting to see what some of the connections are between college and DTech. Hearing them say that DTech was one of the best classes that prepared them for college was really helpful knowing that even now we are preparing and getting ready to move onto the next phase in our lives. This week I also checked in with Ms. Frumkin about purchasing a pennant and Emma and I went and showed her a pennant that we had already made as a sample. Next week I will not be there on Monday but when I get back I will create an invoice to give to Ms. Frumkin.
Week: 12/16/19 - 12/20/19
Pennants
     This week we mainly focused on pennants. When we did the emulsion for the two colors on the pennants but when we went to do the screen printing they didn’t line up correctly. We decided that the process would go faster if we did one color one day and one color the other day, so we didn’t have to keep repositioning the pennant. On Tuesday, we did all the white color on the pennants and the red we did on Thursday. On Thursday, Stephan can in and told the class a little bit about his time in DTech and how that helped him in college along with his general experiences in college. Interestingly, he is building a rocket as a club. Next week is winter break, but when we get back we will be giving out the paperwork to the staff at Foothill who want to purchase a pennant along with continued production.
Week: 12/9/19 - 12/13/19
Finance Class
    This week was mainly focused on the financial class. The class itself was informative and it was interesting to learn about. On Tuesday, we did a project where part of the class had credit cards and part of the class had cash and we looked at four different items and decided who would pay more on average per item. This was interesting to me because the people with credit cards paid about 10% more overall. I was apart of the group with credit cards. On Thursday, we did a stock simulation. I think that I was more careless then I would be in real life. This was a really good experience to go through and learn about, especially before college.
Week: 12/2/19 - 12/6/19
Soldier Project Take Two
     This week, Mr. Li introduced a new job, creating the awards for the soldier project. There are three awards, Best Film, Best Actor, and the Badge of Honor. We are starting to think of designs for each of the awards. For the Best Actor, we are thinking of putting a California Poppy on the award because the poppy is a long-lasting memorial for those who fought in World War I. For the Badge of Honor, we are going to make a purple heart out of different colors so it looks like a stain glass window. On Thursday, we had our first financial class. In class, we talked about earning money and marketing. Tessa Roper showed us different techniques marketers use to draw customers in to buy the product. The old ads look like they would be easy to see around but today they have become more “advanced”. Next week, we hope to start printing the pennants.
Week: 11/25/19 - 11/26/19
Emulsion
​     Thursday is Thanksgiving, which means that we only had school on Monday and Tuesday. We also only had one class period of DTech. During lunch on Monday, Shea and Emma had planned to teach me how to do emulsion. Emma was out sick on Monday so she wasn’t there and we decided to wait till Tuesday at lunch to work on it. We ended up waiting until class to do it. Shea showed me how to apply the emulsion to the screen but when I tried to do it, it did not go as well. The emulsion went on in globs and some went onto the metal frame of the screen. I don’t think it was the worst thing that could happen but also probably not the best. I wasn’t able to stay for the whole process because the screens weren’t completely dry but I had to leave at 3 o’clock to see family.  I’m still learning and that won’t be the last time I do it.
Week: 11/18/19 - 11/22/19
Organizing
     On Monday this week, we had a guest speaker that talked to all of the seniors. I wasn’t able to miss the presentation because I had a sixth period that took roll there. On Tuesday and Thursday, I helped Emma and Shea clean up and organize the shed with the screen printer in it. This week overall hasn’t been too eventful because there wasn’t enough time to learn how to do emulsion with the BeefCake pant design. Emma and Shea are both UPturns so they had some paperwork to fill out and turn in. Next week is only a two day week, Monday and Tuesday so the week we get back I hope to learn how to do emulsion to get started on the pennants. I will be the lead on all of the pennants. We have the pennants themselves in but I will need to screen print the design onto it. Happy Turkey Day!
Week: 11/12/19 - 11/15/19
Mess Up Shirts and Stickers
    This week we only had a four day week because Monday was Veterans Day. Liz Donnelly came into class on Tuesday and she shared tips and tricks about having a small business, she also proposed some new job ideas. She works for Remax, a real estate firm, she proposed that we could make hanging signs, key chains, gifts for clients that just bought a house and more. It was really helpful to listen to what she had to say and the new ideas she gave us a new idea on a business front. On Thursday we had another speaker, Noah Christie, he is a NanoCellect Engineer. The Wolf that he showed us was really interesting and it was more integrated with the medical field which was a different perspective and I enjoyed that. We didn’t have much work time this week but we helped Atto with screen printing (I helped with the curing part). On Thursday, Emma, Alison and I worked together to put the stickers for Ferris onto the Chromebooks. Next week I hope we have more work time because I am looking forward to learning how to do emulsion.
Week: 11/4/19 - 11/8/19
Avid Shirts!
     We have had this job from Ms. Page to do 132 Avid shirts for the past two-ish months. We have only started real production about three weeks ago but this week we created a deadline to finish all of the shirts by Friday. I’m happy to say that we accomplished it! Me, Shea and Emma have been staying after school to finish the shirts. The past three days we stayed until 5 pm. Each of us had a job in the production, Emma did the printing onto the shirts, I cured them and Shea folded and helped me and Emma. With all of us keeping busy we were able to get the shirts done quickly. I’m glad that we got the job because we now know how to use the screen printer well but it took a lot of trials to figure out the “perfect” formula.
Week: 10/21/19 - 10/25/19
Chaos
     This week has been super crazy with both the school aspect (it’s the end of quarter 1) and the DTech side of things. On Monday we used the laser cutter to cut out our group sign for the wall. We made a mistake and did a deep cut pattern so it took thirty-five minutes when it should have taken a half or a third of the time. In the end, it looks really good and we plan of hanging it after class on Thursday so we don’t disturb the other teachers in the pod. On Tuesday during lunch, I came into the DTech pod to help Jackie work on the stickers for Ms. Ferris. Jackie cut the stickers out with the vinyl cutter while I helped weed out the stickers and prepare them for going onto the computers. All we have left to do with that job is to have Ms. Ferris pay us then we will put it on the computers for her.
Week: 10/14/19 - 10/18/19
ChangeMaker Week
     This week, like most of the past weeks, has been a weird one. On Wednesday we had ChangeMaker day which was a senior bonding day . My friend asked me to be a leader for ChangeMaker day and I accepted. After I told Captain that I would do it I found out that my group in DTech, Saaje Designs, was going to be working in the DTech Lab during ChangeMaker. I couldn’t go to Captain and cancel because she scares me. On Thursday, we found out that we would be getting rid of Discord and switching over to Microsoft Teams. I am very happy about this because I did not like Discord at all. I have been having trouble with signing into Microsoft Teams and getting put into the group for Dynasty 2. I asked the other team members and they all said they were having the same problem so I will need to talk to Mr. Li or Mr. Miller about it. Next week should be a normal week but the week after that is Fall Break.
Week: 10/7/19 - 10/11/19
Working Through the Process
     During this week, we have been doing practice/test runs on screen printing the AVID logo onto shirts. There has been some difficulty with the screen whole size. It hasn’t been letting the plastisol through to the shirt. We finally got the shirt sizes from Ms. Page and the shirts that we ordered for them came in on Thursday! Someone came in to talk to us about applying to Oxnard College to get one unit of college credit for this class. I didn’t get the credit, after looking that the paper and reading the description. I found that it wasn’t going to help much with my future career because I don’t want to go into business. Mr. Li talked to us on Tuesday about the DISC assessment test. I completed the test and my results didn’t surprise me.
Week: 10/2/19 - 10/4/19
Minimum Week!
    This week was a short week with only three days because Rosh Hashanah was on Monday, September 30th, and Tuesday was a Teacher In-Service Day. During DTech this short week, I finished putting the stickers onto the back of my lanyard. We were supposed to have David Howe’s dad come in to speak about his business. Unfortunately, he was busy on the day he was set to come back at a further date. Instead of having a guest speaker we learned about branding and marketing, how they are similar and far apart. We started to come up with ideas on how was want people to perceive us and what our style is. I threw out the idea of the bohemian style. I think that it fits our group well and has the color scheme we are looking for. This also matches our personalities. Next week we will be continuing this topic of conversation.
Week: 9/23/19 - 9/27/19
Finishing and Polishing
     This week I have finally finished all of my safety and operations tests. Yay! I haven’t put all of my stickers on my lanyard yet but I have all of the signatures. On our website, we had a separate section for our blog posts that weren’t under our profiles because we thought that we only had to do one blog post a week as a team. When we realized that the one blog a week was meant to be done individually, everyone transferred over or wrote their blogs under their profile section. Of course, everyone had formatted it differently upon personal preference. This week I went through everyone's blog posts and changed all of the formattings to one that we all agreed upon. During class on Thursday, when we went over the websites, we learned about Trello. Trello is a way to stay organized when you have more than one task at hand. So, I created an account and started to fill in the jobs we have already acquired. I haven’t finished putting everything in yet but I plan to over the long four day weekend.
Week: 9/9/19 - 9/13/19
Back to School Night
    This week has been a mixture of both getting everything ready for back to school night and trying to finish up the safety and operations tests. I have now finished my 3D-Printing test and the Laser Cutting test. Now I only have the CNC test left, which I plan on completing next week. Back to school night was on Thursday so we were getting ready for that. We also printed out the lanyards and started putting all the safety test color strips and level arrows into the right place. Having the lanyards was important for back to school night so everyone knew who we were and how to get in contact with us. During the event, we got a custom order from one of our classmates. Next week I plan on finishing my last safety test and getting all the details ready for our big order from Ms. Page.
Week: 9/16/19 - 9/20/19
Back to School and Housekeeping
    This week I have been mainly focused on finishing my safety operations test. I have finished all three of my propaganda tests, vinyl cutter, silk screening, and the Canon Pro-2000 along with my electronics safety test. We bought our team shirts this week but don’t plan on screen printing them till next week. We also talked to Mr. Li about having a table during back to school night. Almost every day we are going out to look for jobs from people at the school. We have ideas for jobs from people outside of the school but that becomes a little bit more complicated. Overall this week hasn’t been too eventful.