Tag: 23-A5

I am from the dirt, 
from mud smeared on my hands and face to
cracked and dry soil piled into a toy dump truck.
I am from swirling dust that kicks up as I slide across home plate.  

I am from water,
or rather lack thereof. 
I am from lucky summer days spent under a sprinkler,
pretending to make shampoo out of flowers,
and then retiring to my room with a fan to fend off 110° heat. 

I am from car horns honking 
as people scramble through 7 lanes, 
all with the simple goal of getting to their destination. 
From those who didn’t always understand
that everyone was just trying their best. 

I am from small trinkets and collections.
From every brand of sugar packet I could find
and perfectly organized bookshelves ordered by color and alphabet.

The smallest smells, sounds, sights, and feelings
will remind me of where I’m from.

I chose Microsoft Sway because it seemed more intuitive and I am more used to Microsoft tools. The way everything flows together feels less formal than a traditional slideshow and fitting for a simpler website. It’s also convenient that it saves in OneDrive which makes it a lot easier to access and keep track of.

Featured Image by Vista Wei on Unsplash.

A Home on Zelzah Ave
Diarra Brown Jenkins

Sat in the middle of swaying palm trees and dirt covered mountains lays my home of fading yellow walls and grey painted bricks. She has withstood WWII veterans, the 1994 Northridge earthquake, 3 divorces, and four generations of an emotionally withdrawn family. Though bolted to the foundation for stability and safety, she struggles to emulate that same secuirty within her cracked popcorn walls. A blanket of weeds, plum trees that only blossom for hopeful children, overpowering rosemary and tomato bushes, and a fading yet still present 'I Love Jesus' painted sidewalk adorns the front of the house. At night, forest green carpet weeps with each step taken, as she is reminded of who she once was. 

I decided to use Microsoft Sway because it seemed the easiest to use of the two digital tools. I like how the final product looks but I struggled with the technology a little too much to want to use it again. I did not necessarily have specific difficulties with Sway, rather, it was finicky at times when inserting images and adding slides. However, I do recognize it as a useful source that allows users to create personalized digital stories.

A Sway presentation by Molly Keegan.

Direct link: https://sway.office.com/I18hDQzjt1lOIQOi?ref=Link&loc=mysways

---

The Emerald City

Where tourists congregate at markets to see fish being tossed,
A needle stands in the middle, towering over the city,
Bursting at the seams with beautiful blooms in spring,
Overflowing with rain year round,
Beautiful sights around every corner,
And delicious food at every turn,
Where folks can hang on the Hill and be themselves,
Or get lost in the art and culture,
Seattle is the best place in the world.

I chose to use sway because of the easy to use interface. It was really easy to add slides, select a design I liked, and format it in a way that makes sense to me. In addition, I enjoyed how Sway is automatically connected to Microsoft, which makes it highly accessible.

I am from a place
that you can drive around in a single day,
where everyone knows everyone
from the mountains to the bay.

I am from the middle of the Pacific Ocean,
where beaches are the best spot
and the lowest average temperature
is still considered hot.

I am from an island
that people travel to by plane,
and where the sun shines
even in the pouring rain.

I am from a valley.
where trade winds roam,
many family gatherings are held,
and where I’ll always call home.

The app I used was Microsoft Sway. I liked this app because there was an image search feature so I could upload non-copyright images straight through the site. I found it a little difficult to design the images with the text how I wanted them, but there were lots of different suggestions from Sway. Overall, the site was easy to understand and use.

I am from the foothills of Mount Diablo,
from streets lined with sycamores and oak trees.
I am from day trips to San Francisco,
and camping under the moonlights’ glow.

I am from family who shows love with food,
from the scent of empanadas in the air.
I am from a mom who loves to laugh
and a dad who never drinks decaf.

These are the moments that shaped me,
surrounded by friends and family.

For a direct link to my poem on Microsoft Sway, click here!

For my digital story, I chose to use Microsoft Sway. I liked how Sway lets you create a slideshow presentation with your pictures. As this was my first time using it, I found Sway to be pretty user-friendly. I especially liked the function of being able to insert photos directly into the presentation. It was helpful that Sway generated suggested photos based on the text in my presentation, as well. I did find Sway to be slightly challenging to customize my presentation. I wish I could have moved the text in my presentation around, so it wasn’t directly on top of some of my images. However, this wasn’t a huge issue after I played around with different fonts and got rid of the text highlighting.

Direct link to Sway presentation: https://sway.office.com/VqDynPwMU7kz2ufw?ref=Link

---

I am from a Small Big Town

I am from a small big town that’s be transformed by years of transition

A place where the nature and beauty hasn’t been yet lost

I am from an environment where the trees represent the people

Strong, resilient, one of a kind

I am from somewhere where I find peace and inspiration in the nature

The awe and power of my surroundings motivate me

I am from a place where the sea meets the land

A land where polar opposites learn to live together 

I am from the deepest of waters

Not made timid by the possibilities of what can be

I am from the brightest of colors

Where the background of myself is bright

I am from the biggest of stages

On which people come together to bond

I am from the brightest of lights

Where the brightness of friendship shines together

I am from Petaluma, Ca

The smallest big town in the northern heart of the bay

I chose to use sway. I really appreciated how simple this website was to be able to tell a story and connect it with images. I think that this resource provides a lot of opportunities to be able to tell stories in their classes. I ultimately chose it due to it being very user friendly and straightforward.

by Valerie Garcia

I am from heat and flat lands

from bales of hay and picket fences

I am from the state flower of bluebonnets

bell-like petals so tall and tinder that it leans to one side

I’m from eating tamales on Christmas Eve and beautifully arched eyebrows

form Dominguez and Garcia

I’m from the competitive gene and sore losers

From “calm down hulk” and “make good choice”

I’m from chihuahua

bean tamales and strawberry jello cake

From my grandpa punching a cow in the nose when it tried to ram into him.

The bruised hip of my grandpa when Texas got snow for the first time and she slipped down the stairs

The bulletin board I have in my college house where my family photos and high school memories are alive

I am from those memory’s on the bulletin board that builds me up when college breaks me down.

https://sway.office.com/0OCzJNCY8hz5dr3y?ref=Link

I liked Microsoft sway because it was very easy to work with even without a demo I feel like anyone could get the hang of it and figure it out by themselves. It also helps that we do not have to find our own pictures if we did not want to which makes life a lot easier as well.

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

I’m from the land of trees and rain,
Where the sun shines and the sand is gray,
Where the ocean is cold on the warmest day,
And the seasons change again and again.

Summers are warm and mostly dry.
My hometown has a parade every Fourth of July.
Fall can be wet, sometimes hot, but mainly cold.
The leaves become orange, red, and gold.
Winter comes without warning,
Bringing rain and sometimes snow day mornings.
Spring prolongs Winter’s rain showers,
Knowing that soon it will coax up the flowers.

Outside was always the best place to play,
With five other siblings having fun each day.
Backyard or front yard, the park or at home,
With a big enough family, you never have to play alone.

Direct link to Sway https://sway.office.com/p9cSSIiTAx6umkdB?ref=Link

Commentary on Microsoft Sway
I found Micrsoft Sway easy to use. I liked being able to add images as well as videos. I did notice that the videos take longer to load, but I think that is to be expected with larger media files. I also had fun picking out different themes and pairing them with the presentation style (vertical, horizontal, or slides). One thing I wish I could have done was take the theme that was given and change the location of the words. There were maybe three or four themes that I would have liked to use, but the location of the title covered up my mom’s face on the title slide. I couldn’t figure out how to shift the text’s location, so I ended up changing themes instead.

Feature Image by Author

I am from coffee shops on every block

And nightly dog walks with dad

From a mom who never turned down pizza

And too many cousins to count

I’m from trips to the east

And loving the beach

I’m from lake days with Jax

And running pretty fast

From the skyline that never gets old: the place that was my mold.

link: https://sway.office.com/dZROU6HubRSfH100?ref=Link

This is the original story that I wrote for Sway. I did also remove some of the story from Sway so it would be more concise, and the one’s I took out also would not fit well in it.

I am from the counters of my mother’s kitchen 
From water and flour pressed together 
I am from old wooden walls with the weight of age starting to show 
(Rugged, mature, 
The creaks alerting its surroundings) 
I am from the pines in the horizon 
From the soil in the ground 
Dark and rich, ready to nurture what is sowed next 
I am from the uncontrollable laughter at the dinner table 
and from the nonstop victories of chess  
The never-ending relentlessness from my siblings to try and beat me 
From Fernando Israel Osorio where my name comes from 
And Laurel Debra Osorio where my heart is from 
I’m from their constant attempts to be better than their parents ever were 
And from multiple failed and successful attempts at doing so 
From all the “I love you’s” to all the “Be Better” 
I am from freedoms of choice in belief and in action 
Attempts of church on Sunday’s 
Mixture of paths that form along away. 
I am from Silverton with ancestry from all over 
Roasted coffee and sweat bread 
From me and my dad’s constant struggle with construction of a second story 
To my mom’s struggle of returning to start a new chapter 
In the closet there is a brown box with a book full of recipes 
From times long ago, of other counters that brought families together 
I am from these recipes, 
The forming of dough kneaded constantly 
The heart of the family being measured finally 

I enjoyed using Microsoft Sway mainly because I am a lot more familiar with microsoft than with Adobe. It was straight to the point, and trying new things out helped structure it to make a conscise story. It was also nice that I could put some of my personal photos, while also being able to search for some on Sway and putting those instead.

Credit:

Image by Pexels from Pixabay