What mattters Final Presentation

What Matters Final Presentation

PLN 26

I read an article about the uses of You Tube for educational value. This article was written by Karl Fisch and found at Fischbowl.blogspot.com . The article was discussing whether the web site You Tube could be a helpful tool in learning.

I personally believe that You Tube doesn’t have much value besides entertainment purposes. But I could be wrong. Maybe the schools could change that. If that was possible You Tube could be used for many class assignments to help enhance the learning situation in class. For example we could use them to present a project, maybe the assignment is to make a short movie over a certain topic and then post it on You Tube so then everyone can go online and view this video. Then if the students wanted to make feedback on the groups project they could view it again at home and make comments on it.

This relates the world because there are a lot of other sites that are questionable about being a good learning tool. Things like MySpace and Facebook are being looked at as a good communication tool for teachers and students. I’m not so sure about that, because like I said about You Tube it’s more for entertainment purposes, but that could all be changed.

PLN 25

I read an article called "Keeping up;U Spk Txt?". The what mattered in this article was how texting is so popular in our society today. It was saying how many people use texting now and days. One really popular device used for texting is the Black Berry or sometimes known as "The Crack Berry" becuase it is such an adictive piece of technology.

This article really related to me becuase I am constantly texting people and think it is a great way to communicate. Whether I am texting my mom to let her know where I am, or texting a friend to see what the latest plans are I am always using texting to talk to people. I probably text people more than actually calling them. It's just so much quicker and easier.

This relates to the world because our use in technology is spreading so much and texting is just another example of that. All over the world people use texting and it is really popular.

PLN 24

I read an article called “Why are kids failing?” by Mrs. Davis which was very relevant to me and most of my classes. The thing that mattered in this blog was obviously why are so many students getting bad grades, even with so many opportunities to excel?! Even though I’m only a student and not the teacher who has to deal with these students and write down the grade in a grade book, I’m still pretty puzzled by this.

This relates to me because in almost all of my classes I have had my teacher give the whole class lectures on how poor some kids are doing and how they really need to bring up their grades, but it just doesn’t seem to get through to anyone! I honestly think that kids are just lazy and so oblivious to the harm they are doing to their high school career. One of my friends was or maybe still is failing all of her classes and said to me “did you know that if you fail a class you don’t get credits? You have to like retake that class! Uh-oh I had not idea.” I knew this and that’s why I try so hard to keep my grades up and good. I wonder if a lot of these kids are like my friend, they don’t even know what the consequences are going to be like…maybe they do and just don’t care. Whatever the reason I don’t think there is any excuse not to keep your grades at least a C level.

This relates to the world, mainly in schools because I’m sure that other students are failing classes too, its obviously not just Arapahoe! But teachers give their students so many opportunities to get help and even make up the work they have missed and some people just don’t want to pass their grade I guess. Every time I see a junior or even a sophomore in my class I kind of feel bad for them, but then again it was their choice to do bad the previous year, that encourages me sometime to do good in class because I don’t want to have to retake a freshman class all over again, and I definitely don’t want to have to go to school in the summer!

PLN week-12 PLN-23

For my PLN I read an article called "Math in life" by James H. who was a teacher who was also a little concerned about what things are really that necessary to teach in math. He was thinking about what else could the curriculum include, or not include that would better the learning for the students.

This related to me because me like many other students will often question and complain about why we are learning these equations that seem hardly relevant to life. Or why I would need to know how to calculate the volume of a trapezoid? Instead maybe we should learn about things that we may not be taught outside of school, like credit, taxes, and mortgage things that we will definitely have to deal with and better know, because you are kind of on your own about learning this kind of stuff.

This definitely relates to the world because everyday people are dealing with credit, and taxes, and maybe even debt...and not so often we are trying to figure out the circumference of a sphere. I think that it would be the best thing to teach things that are much more relevant to life than things that we are learning that aren't that important if we decide to become an architect we can study more about that on our own time in college courses.

PLN week-11 post-22

I read a short blog called “How Much Does This Really Matter?” By David Warlick that had me thinking a lot about the topic. He was showing some brief statistics of how little American citizens know about science:

66% do not understand DNA, “margin of error,” the scientific process, and do not
believe in evolution.
50% do not know how long it takes the
earth to go around the sun, and a quarter does not even know that the earth goes
around the sun.
50% think humans coexisted with dinosaurs and believe
antibiotics kill viruses.

When I read these I must admit I felt pretty dumb myself because I thought some of these things and didn’t know other things. I wonder who this article was mainly targeted at. This relates to the world obviously in the way like I said before who should this apply to? Should a ten year old boy know this? Or should a pastry chef need to know the process of DNA to be successful? Or should just the people who deal with this type of thing every day know this? Like scientists, doctors, teachers?

There are some things that everyone should know it’s just that plain and simple. It’s like common sense. But knowing exactly what people should know is the tricky part. I was watching this show where a girl didn’t even know the Presidents name was, and thought that the sun was a planet (this girl was well old enough to know these things too.) So is it really that bad that 50% of people do not know how long it takes the earth to go around the sun? Well that’s pretty sad but I’m not sure that it is such a huge deal and that it’s going to end the world. Maybe we just need to start teaching these things more vigorously in schools so that when these kids are adults they will know these things.

PLN week-11 post-21

For my PLN I read a post called, “Allowing Re-Takes To Improve Student Learning” by a Biology teacher named Craig. He was talking about how he makes his exams re-testable if a student receives less than a 80% on the test. He says that the reason for this is to make sure that the student fully understands the concept of what they are learning.

I personally have mixed feelings about being able to retake a certain test. Sometimes I think it is unfair because there will be some students who will get an “A” the first time they took the test because they really tried and studied. Another student may have just blown off studying knowing that they would have a second chance.

This teacher though has a rule that you have to go to this meeting, or review session to make sure that they will understand the subject the second time taking the test. I think that this is a good idea because at least you know that they are trying a little more the next time.

This relates to the world because this kind of has to do with second chances. It reminds me of driver’s tests. I don’t know all the laws and rules but I’m pretty sure that if you don’t pass the first time you can just keep retaking the test. I bet if they didn’t have this rule that a lot less people would be receiving their license or permit. I don’t know if this is such a good idea because if someone has to take a test 20 times than they probably don’t understand the information needed to know, and know they are out their driving risking the lives of others and themselves

Reflection-2

Overall I think I did a pretty good job on my presentation. I need to not rely on my notes so much because I know what I'm talking about I just get nervous so I like to look down to read what I'm saying. I think I could have spoken a little louder but others thought I did that well. I think I might hav improved a little from my last presentation, but maybe not.

PLNweek-10 post-20

In David Warlick’s post called “A Conversation about Failure” was talking bout how kids with disabilities such as A.D.D or dyslexia are denied and labeled “slow” as soon as someone learns of their disability.

This related to me because my mother has dyslexia and it has never stopped her from completing any goals. She was not the best student in high school, and her math teacher gave her passing grade just so long as she would never get a job dealing with math (remembering that this was a long time ago and now teachers could never say this; because parents would have a heart attack if their little baby heard such a thing.) Now my mom uses math every day as a Reality Specialist working for the government. Her job deals with huge numbers (as in numbers with a $ sign following after it) that if she made a mistake it could put her in jail. But she knows that this “disability” could never stop her!

This related to school because there are many kids in my classes and some friends who have related problems like this. I have a friend that has A.D.D and though he can be the stereotypical A.D.D kid and sometimes uses that excuse to get out of trouble or work at school, I know, and he knows that he is better than that. When he seriously tries this kid is a genius! But people in the past telling him that he is different and dumb I think has gotten into his head. There are classes that I believe are important to help those with these needs, but it should never hold back or deny a student from their full potential.

This related to more than just school but to the world. Some of the greatest minds in all time had problems like this that they overcame. I decided to do a little research and found that Leonardo DaVinci one of the greatest artists, scientists, and revolutionists in all time had dyslexia. He and many others saw it as not a weakness but a gift. I thought that this was such an amazing thing for some one to take something that many have thought was a bad thing, and turn it in to such a positive uplifting gift! That is why I don’t think the title of this post represented this well, it shouldn’t be “A Conversation bout Failure”, but “A Conversation about Success!”

PLN week-10 post-19

In an article I read titled; “Is it an English as a Second Language?” by Karl Fisch was talking about how the English language is changing and so are the people that are speaking it. This was a subject I had been thinking about for a while now. In this post were some things that had me shocked, but yet at the same time not so surprised because I could see this coming.

“The issue is: whose English will it be? Non-native speakers now outnumber
native English-speakers by three to one. As hundreds of millions more learn the
language, that imbalance will grow. Mr Graddol says the majority of encounters
in English today take place between non-native speakers. Indeed, he adds, many
business meetings held in English appear to run more smoothly when there are no
native English-speakers present.”

That is just crazy to think that the people who use English as their first language, are out numbered by people who don’t even speak English natively! This language is becoming more known and used all over the world, and maybe used less in the places that actually has it as a first language. He also said that the majority of conversations that are in English are spoken between people who are non-native speakers.

Then it when on to talk about how this language may be changed, and completely different from how we know it today. The people who are adopting this language are altering the way it is spoken too. It has changed drastically over time thinking of the way English was spoken back in Shakespeare time compared to now, so what would be stopping it from changing again? This is a very shaky subject and has causes many debates on this having to do with immigration and the language being spoken here in the United States.

PLNweek-9 post-18

After hearing Berek’s presentation on Friday and him talking about a post that caught my attention I decided to read that article and use it for my PLN. The article was called “Do schools have Birth-control role?” Which was talking about the controversy of schools taking part in birth-control for their students.

Six different Denver schools are already taking part in handing out birth-control pills to students. They say that teenagers are sexually active so it is better to have them be protected. People that are for this idea say that it will drastically lower the dropout rate in schools. I don’t think that this is a wise idea. To me school staff handing out these pills are encouraging teens to have sex. Some kids might now think oh because even my school is basically saying its ok to do these things just as long as I’m not going to get pregnant is a bad message.

I think it is ridiculous to have this going on in middle schools too. Some middle school students are only 11 going into 6th grade and that is way too young to even have a boyfriend or girlfriend I think, so to give out birth-control pills to these young kids is outrageous.

I think that it is the students choice to do these things and their responsibility to be protected, and if they can’t handle that they are definitely not old enough to start being sexually active. Overall teens this young should not be having sex, and schools should not be encouraging that kind of behavior!

PLN week-9 post-17

In this article I read titled “First Impressions” by Scott McLeod on his blog site; http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2007/11/first-impressio.html was talking about encounters he had with some people and his impression of them. He was talking about first impressions have such a huge positive, or negative effect on things.

Obviously the main subject of this article was first impressions. It related to me because he was talking about school receptionists and secretaries who send out a very careless and atrocious attitude about the school. I have also noticed this when I go into schools main offices and get treated rudely. They usually will ignore me for quite some time while they are continuing their conversations about how they can’t wait to get out of there and go home, or how annoying a student was earlier that day. Now I’m not saying that all school workers are like this but when they are it sends off such a negative vibe about the entire school. If they are saying how they can’t wait to leave than it makes you wonder what is so bad about this school that makes them want to go home? Or if they are discussing a student will that be me they are talking about next?

Also just simple things that I see in other places to like stickers or signs saying rude comments like ‘I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow doesn’t look good either.’ This was a quote that Scott had mentioned seeing on a sign in a teacher’s office as well. Though these things are meant for humor, should a person have that at their desk if they are a psychiatrist? These kinds of statements can be taken in the wrong way and are unnecessary to have in a respectable work place. These are some of the feelings that I have on first impressions.

PLN week-8 post-16

In an article I read called “Bringing Your Heart With You” by David Warlick which I found on his web page at http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2007/10/25/bringing-your-heart-with-you/ was him briefly talking about an experience he recently had at a business conference he attended. A speaker there was talking about how workers should love their jobs. He said, “You want your employees to bring their hearts with them to their jobs.” This comment was pretty much the base of what this post was about.

This article related to me and my school because I think that it is very important that my teachers have a positive attitude about their job. When ever I see a teacher that just looks miserable and is being very bitter towards their students I always say to myself, “then why would somebody who hates kids, and teaching, become a teacher?!” I have had numerous teachers and even counselors or nurses, or attendance ladies in the front office who have had very disgruntled attitudes.

When one of my teachers has such a grumpy attitude it affects my learning experience. That crummy attitude will sometimes rub off on me and I will start to think “well if they don’t want to be here, why should I even be here?” I’m guessing that isn’t the attitude that a teacher is going to want from their students. So the simple solution is as Mr. Warlick stated before; bring your heart to work!

PLNweek-8 post-15

The title of a post called "Not Your Parents' Parent-Teacher Conference" caught my eye so I started to read it. In this blog by Karl Fisch it was saying how teachers are frusterated with how conferences are handled. He was saying how it seems like all these parents are focused is the grade and not the actual learning, I believe this as well.

Though my mom was unable to go the conference when she does go she thinks that it can sometimes be a waste of time. Experiences in the past have been my mom goes sits down, the teacher pulls out the grade book name some missing assignments maybe show a project or two and then it's on to the next teacher. All of that information my mom could have found on line or in my binder so that was a pretty pointless "conference". That's is why I was very releived to hear that other teachers felt this same way.

As Mr. Fisch mentioned my teacher Ms. Smith tried something different this year to actually try and make these meetings more meaningful. She had us write up a response to our learning, some goals we would like to achieve (not just grade wise) and a letter to our parents. Our parents would then take this to the conference and this is what they would discuss. I think that this made a huge difference and really acheived the real point of these conferences.

PLNweek-6post-14

I decided to look into a little more on filtering. So that is why I read and article called, "Even More on Filtering" it obviously was going into more depth and discussion on filtering. I recently had a project in my English class where we made our own wikis. I wanted to put a video on our page but because of the filtering blocks I was unable to do so. I don't think that my grade suffered from this but I think it deffinately could have been improved if I had this vidoe on my project. That was just one of those times where filtering yet againn blocked and denied me from education. It wasn't a tragic loss of information but it was quite bothernsome to not be able to add a simple video. This is why I think they should cut down on filtering, but just still continue to block the un needed sites like Facebook, and Myspace. Filtering student computers can be positve, but it can also at times get in the way of learning.

PLNweek-6 post-13

In an article I read called “Are You Ready to Grow? What’s Holding You Back?” by: Mrs. Parsons, it was talking about how there is too much information out there for our brains to understand. This made me think a lot about how much the human brain is actually capable of. Mrs. Parsons was saying things like how the knowledge of this world surpasses that of the human mind. So then I thought well, who put that information there…yes us! The humans with supposedly their tiny minds. Now I don’t think that Mrs. Parson was trying to say that we are all stupid and oblivious to the fast pace of knowledge in our world but there are others who would say that.

I personally think that we have not yet succeeded to come to see the full capability of our own brain. I believe that the human mind is an infinite source of knowledge and can never really be at its full potential. Now that may seem very confusing and I even confuse my self but think about it, how can we really know how smart we can be if we are never as smart as we can be? Wow. Why would our minds have a little meter of how much it can contain and when that meter hits the top its time to empty. No, I don’t believe that at all. The tough thing is that we are the most intelligent species on earth. We can see how smart a dog perhaps, can be, because we are dominant over them, but there is no one dominant over us that can tell us how smart we can be. No one on this earth at least.

I personally believe in God, and with that I believe that he created us and our minds. So, why would he put a limit on that mind? Some people say that technology is now “passing” us in intelligence. I don’t understand where they would come up with that idea. To me God made us, how can we be smarter then him? Well we can’t, it’s the same thing with technology; we created it, so how could it possibly be smarter than its creator?!

Another thing that ticks me off is when people say they aren’t as smart as someone else. Aren’t we all an equal race? So how on earth could someone else truly be more intelligent than another person. Yes they may contain more knowledge, at that moment, but if the other person really tried they could be just as smart. None of us have come to the full capability of our own minds like I said before I believe that our minds are infinite. Is that a good thing? Or a frightening thing knowing that we can be as brilliant as we want! What comes along with that kind of power? Well, I honestly have no idea but that’s what the future holds.

PLNweek-6 post-12

In an article I read called “Supplementing my Kids" at http://weblogg-ed.com/2007/supplementing-my-kids-education, written by Will Richardson who is a concerned father that his kids aren’t getting as much education as possible. He feels that they are learning more things that are already passing us and not enough on what will really help them in the future. Though school has changed a lot over the years I feel that it may still be slacking a little in keeping up with our faster changing world.

Will also mentioned how many worksheets his kids get every week. I can totally relate to this. Sometimes it seems like we get worksheets just to keep us busy, teachers say they are practice, but then so is homework, and quizzes, and other class work. So is all we are ever doing is practice? That seems like very stagnant learning. All these worksheets and notes just seem like busy work, I hardly actually learn from them, getting answers from a book or notes doesn’t really help me.

Another thing he talked about how there is a lack of connecting in schools. So much of our work is individual and tedious. When I personally learn the most is when I react to others, and discuss with others. Sometimes this doesn’t always work because there will always be those kids who don’t want to participate, and will just do what everyone else is saying, and just copy other kids answers. But that’s their own decision not to learn, and engage themselves in the discussion or work.

PLNweek-5Post-11

For my PLN i read an article called "Doctors Decisions" wich talked about a very tough subject. Of course a doctor is supposed to help its patient and ultimately making their life as long as healthy as possible. But in some certain tough situations it may be too late to save them. When I was reading this I thought of when people are on life support. I really dont think that people on life support are really living a life at all. If you know that this person has no life left then I think the best decision is to let them go. Keeping someone alive just so you don't have to loose them is wrong I think. This related to me, because recently I had a cat that had a stroke and could no longer walk. I really didn't want to put him down but I knew it was the right thing to do. Keeping him alive just so I wouldn't go through pain would be unfair. This is what I got from this powerful blog.

Reflection

I think i did pretty good in my presentation. From the responses I got I spoke clearly and didn't seem nervous. I think I could have looked up and not read so much from my paper. I went into good detail with all of my PLNs and connected it to myself. Next time I think I am going to try and speak a little louder and not be so dependent on my paper and trust that I memorized it well enough.

PLNweek-4post10

For my PLN I read an article called “More on Filtering” by Karl Fisch at Fischbowl.blogspot.com. It talked about whether or not it was a good idea to use filtering on school computers. When they mean filtering they are talking about blocking students from certain websites. At first I thought that this is a good idea because the sites that they are blocking we don’t really need anyways. They block things like Myspace, Face book and YouTube; those sites are more for social and entertainment purposes. Then I started to see what some other people thought about this and some made some good points. Avereel2011 said “We may not necessarily need to use these sights at the current moment, but sometime during the school year, we may want to add a video to enhance a project, but because of filtering, we would not be able to even view the video” I thought that this was a very interesting point because there are other ways to learn one of them including video, so is it possible that filtering is limiting us to our learning ability?

Then again if these things weren’t blocked I think students might more tempted to go on these sites and get off track. So I think that these sights should be off limits to students on a daily bases, but in some situations I think that the teachers should be able to “unblock” it and make these sights viewable maybe only from his/her computer, then block it again. Some kids that I know have already figured out how to get by this filtering system, so I think that there should be a password that only the faculty knows. Otherwise kids can get in, and teachers can not, and that ruins the whole idea of having these filters.

PLNweek-4post-9

Have you ever had a teacher that didn’t even know your name, even if you have been in that class for a whole semester? If you did, or maybe just had a teacher that never really cared to get to know you or connect with you, you probably didn’t trust them or talk to them that much. In an article titled “Speaking from the Soul” by Karl Fisch it talks about how important the relationship between a teacher and a student is.

I believe that this relationship is critically important for a child to succeed. I have noticed that the classes that I do the best in are the ones with the teachers I like the most, and those teachers that I like the most are the ones who talk and connect to me. They aren’t just there to get a paycheck. If I don’t know much about someone and they don’t care to know much about me, then why should I really listen or care to what they are saying?

In English we have done most of our projects basically about us, and our life. I think that it is extremely cool that Ms. Smith is trying to get to know us as more than just her students, or a letter in a grade book, but as people. She even does these “reality checks” with us just to see how we are that week. In one of my other classes though, my teacher hardly ever talks to the students personally unless it is about themselves, and can hardly remember anyone’s name… and we’ve been in school for how long? I understand that being a teacher is a hard enough job and taking the time to sit down and learn about every single one of your students is difficult, but if you put in some kind of effort it could make all the difference.

The relationship between a teacher and a student is very important for many of the reasons that I have stated. I truly believe that it helps in the learning experience. The more you trust a teacher the more you will want to go in and ask them questions and get help. Isn’t that what all of our teachers tell us? Is that they are here to help us become better learners, well knowing our names might be a good start!

PLNweek4-post8

I read an article called “School as a Node” and as I was reading this the author kept using the word “node”. Well, I had no idea what this word was so I looked it up and the definition I found was, “a centering point of component parts.” This still didn’t make a whole lot of sense but as I looked at some other definitions the idea I got from this word is that it’s a sort of joint of stable part that is linked to other moving parts that need the node to move.

As I read on in the article it started to talk about how school isn’t our only source of information and knowledge. I totally agree with this thought. Probably only 70 % what I learn comes from school, and that other 30 comes from everywhere else in life. For me I learn many important lessons from my family and friends. I learn determination and strength from exercising, I learn forgiveness and serving from church, love and care from my mom. So a lot of what I learn isn’t coming from the classroom.

In the world it is the same thing. Other kids and adults get their knowledge from other sources. Like sports and family like I mentioned, and work, for adults. When people limit themselves to just school they aren’t really getting all of the knowledge as possible. It’s like when I looked up the word “node” if I had limited myself to just one definition I wouldn’t have fully understand the word or probably the entire article.

PLNpost-7week-3

In an article called “Missing the Science of Teaching” written by; Diane Carmen it was saying how the subject of science seems to be ignored these days. Even though Science isn’t my favorite subject I can really understand where she is coming from. Sometimes we treat science as if it is an extra class.

Science is actually a really important subject to learn, even if you don’t plan on becoming a doctor, or a scientist. In my E.R.E class it seems as if we do more math than in my actual math class! Don’t we think math is important? In labs we always have to do a write up and explain what we saw and so on. Isn’t language arts a big part of our education too? So why do we think that science is just an “extra” class that is for some reason required to be in the curriculum?

In this statement here I think the author makes some really good points;

“O'Brien said that many Colorado kids had little or no science instruction in
elementary or middle school, "so it was no surprise when they would sit down
with a high-school counselor and say, 'No, I don't want to be doing science."'
We let 14-year-olds determine our future and created an epidemic of
scientific illiteracy in the process.
Now some of those once
science-challenged 14-year-olds are teachers, so it's no surprise that many
educators believe science can't be integrated into reading and math instruction.
"If the teachers are feeling allergic or uncomfortable or unsettled about
their own scientific knowledge, sure they will say, 'That's something we can
scuttle,"' O'Brien said. "At this point what we need is science education for
teachers." ”

The first thing she points out is that if we don’t make science seem important and the teachers don’t care, then the students won’t care either. Why should they? They already have teachers telling them that it’s not an important subject. But what happens when they want to get into a college and major in architecture. But in middle school and high school their teachers told them they wouldn’t really need science unless they wanted to be a scientist, well what about now? Then what is that kid going to do , either to back and learn science like it means something, or I guess try to find a different career choice.

PLNweek-3post-6

In a post I read by Vicki A. Davis called, “Do we Need More than Text to Tell the Stories?” It was talking about how we are limiting ourselves to just writing and reading stories or information in schools. I think she has a very good point, with all of the other learning tools we have why just stick to the same one.

This relates to me because I am more of a kinesthetic learner so I do a lot better in activities when they are hands on learning and more interactive than just reading a book. In class if we were to do something even on a computer and more interactive, like the Google earth project I could get more involved and hopefully understand it better than reading out of a packet with no discussion.

This article gave good ideas on ways we could mix things up a bit and make leaning more enjoyable and more understandable. She said we should make these tools more available and have kids be familiarized to all of the possible resources. More than just text is a part of our learning experiences, there are other things like pictures and communicating that play major roles in our lives.

PLNweek3-post5

In a post recommended by Ms. Smith called, ‘Is Payment for Good Grades Legitimate Motivation in this Day and Age?’ It was discussing on whether or not giving kids money for getting good grades is a good idea to get kids to try harder in school. I honestly think it is a good tactic to use. I’m not really going to argue on me getting money. Even though my mom doesn’t do that and all I get is a “good job”, if my mom did do that I would probably get straight A’s. But then again, I sort of do already. Right now I’m not doing that great but still have A’s and B’s.

I don’t think it is necessary to give your kid money for doing well in school but it’s a nice gesture. The student should want to get good grades for themselves though, not just to get some money when report cards come out. My old soccer coach would say that if we won our games, he would take us out for ice cream. Yes we would look forward to that but honestly no one on my team was saying, “I hope our goalie blocks this shot because I’m really in the mood for a Chocolate Sunday!” No, we wanted to win so we could say that our team was the best and to have that feeling of accomplishment. It’s the same in class, I wouldn’t do good on my PLN entries just to get five bucks from my mom, I would do it so Ms. Smith wouldn’t kick me in the shins!

I guess it just depends on what works for the individual student. If him/her knowing that if they do well on a test they will be able to go to a party, then they might study a little more. When I think of getting money for grades it makes me think of a job and how you work to get money. So me doing my homework is like my job, and then I get payed. But, I don’t think that any kid needs that money at the end of the symester to motivate them to do a good job in school, that should just happen, and the money be an extra reward.

PLN week2-post4

In an article on denverpost.com was telling about a 3-year old boy who was attacked by his grandmother’s Rottweiler. The attack happened on Wednesday morning at the grandmother’s home. Police report stated that the dog had the boy by the torso and was “thrashing him back and forth”. The young boy is now in intensive care at Children’s Hospital. What a horrible thing to go through at such a young age, or at any age. I hate hearing about dogs attacking people or each other. There is big controversy over dog fighting but that’s a different story. We already have enough violence going on with humans we don’t need our pets to cause anymore.

Some people say that some dogs are just born vicious, like Pit bulls and Rottweilers; I on the other hand believe that you can train a dog out of its “meanness”, but if treated badly they will rebel. I think there are laws in some areas prohibiting some certain breeds of dogs. Some dogs I don’t think are suitable for some situations. At my dads apartment complex one of his former neighbors had two Pit bull. I saw them once and though they did not look incredibly vicious they still were not allowed there and I was actually relieved to see them go. I’m not saying that just those types of dogs are prone to violence. My dog; Shelby, was attacked by one of our old neighbors dogs who had known Shelby for a while, it just goes to show you that you have to always be aware of your dogs behavior.

The main point of this story (the what matters) was one; what dogs are violent, and two; what the punishment should be for this kind of behavior. The known and used punishments consist of: up to 199$ in fines, 90 days in jail, in addition to the dog being put to sleep. Though I think it’s very sad when an animal is put down or killed, sometimes I think it’s just what has to be done. Like I said before, we already have enough violence in this world as it is, and can’t risk having anymore due to animals.

PLN week 2-post 3

At http://www.fischbowl.blogspot.com/an article titled, “Is it Okay to be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?” was about well… if it is okay to be a technologically illiterate teacher. In other words can a teacher do their job efficiently without knowing how to work a computer? I don’t think they can in my opinion. With the vast growth and spread of technology in this world how can you teach something on a computer (which is what we are starting to use often in class) if you can’t even work one. As Karl Fisch noted,

“in order to teach it, we have to do it. How can we teach this to kids,
how can we model it, if we aren’t literate ourselves?”

It’s as if you are trying to teach someone to ride a bike, you have to know that you have to pedal to make it go, how we will learn if you can’t teach.

One of my teachers (who I won’t name, because actually trying to pass that class) is very illiterate in technology. In that class we have used a computer or the projection screen almost every day, and we waste about at least 10 minutes of class time waiting for him/her to figure out where the “on” button is. Luckily there are a few kids who know how to use these things thanks to other teachers who have taught us this like they should. In the article he mentioned how he hears many parents almost bragging about how they were/are never good at _____ subject. Same with this teacher of mine he/she is always joking about how he/she doesn’t know about technology because “back in their day” they wrote on stones and if were lucky got a big leaf to do math on. Not to sound rude but I missed where that was our fault? If in my future career a certain requirement is needed that I never learned in school because that wasn’t part of the curriculum then part of my responsibility is to now learn that new skill.

In conclusion whatever the skill or knowledge needed to know at the time, you need to know. If you don’t want to put in the effort to learn that new subject, than I suggest looking into a new career path. As he also stated,

“If a teacher today is not technologically literate- and is unwilling to make
the effort to learn more- it’s equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn’t
know how to read or write.”

Now is it really that drastic? Maybe not, but in a few years I think it will.

“…this is the only four years these students will have at our high school- they
can’t wait for us to figure it out.”

PLN week 1-post 2

In a an article I read on http://fischbowl.blogspot.com called “All Work and No Play…” it discussed on how adults are giving children more “adult work” then they should have. I don’t think any kid should have any adult work to do, that’s what separates us. That’s not always the case whether it is at school, in sports, or even at home kids and teenagers are getting way too much for them to handle in my opinion. People will argue well we are getting them prepared for the future…what about now?! Yes, the future will come but until then let us live!

In class we read a short story called “The Scarlet Ibis” its theme or the “what mattered” was expectations. It made me think about expectations that adults have on kids these days. Everyone says we are the new generation in learning and when we are older we will become the most successful people in the world… umm I’m just trying to pass 9th grade English. I have always heard from my parents, teachers, and coaches to always set your goals high, and I completely believe in that. However, I think there is a difference in having high goals and having appropriate limits. Sports these days are very, very competitive! It seems like it’s not for the fun anymore, even though they are still called games. Yes, you should push yourself hard, but it is as if coaches and parents are pushing kids too far. Should we really be working so hard to make our self sick? At a soccer camp over the summer we were running so hard I had an asthma attack. Is winning a game really worth risking my health, or even life?

It also mentioned about how adults are getting children ready for the “real world”. Isn’t this the real world? Isn’t socializing with peers, learning, growing, working, and enjoying life the real world? If it’s not, then I don’t know what is. I agree that adult life is much more challenging than when we are kids and even teenagers, but they just have to trust us that we will cope with that lifestyle when we get there. Am I saying just let us figure out everything on our own and completely step back? NO! Adults are the supporters of a healthy growing childhood. A good example that I think of is when you see a baby tree with metal poles tied to it that are firmly in the ground. Grown-ups have themselves firmly set in place in life (or at least they should and hopefully do) and kids don’t. They are there to help us stay up and get our roots in the ground, but they aren’t the ones doing the growing, we are!

PLN week 1-post 1

For my first PLN post I decided to look at a post on http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com, on there is a power point called “Did you know”. When I first saw this I was just blown away, though most of it didn’t actually surprise me. It is a presentation about mostly technology and the advancements made and being made. It definitely got the point across to honestly just make people think.

There are things on there you wouldn’t have guessed, one that caught my interest was that it said “if you are one in a million in China… there are 1300 people just like you” talk about having a twin! Some of it was more random than other stuff, but some was really just imaginative, but probably true. It talked about how in the “future” there will be a computer that exceeds the capability of the human mind. Now the first thing that came to me was; robots are going to out-smart us and take over the world! Well I don’t belive that we know what we are fully capable of so how could we make a computer that’s as smart as us, if we don’t even know how smart we are?!

In my social studies class we were discussing all the stages we have economically gone through as a country, and even as a world. There was the “cave men” age (I suppose), agriculture age, industrial age, and now the technological age. So what will be next? I don’t think anyone really knows what next huge breakthrough we will make. Maybe something in medicine, they could find a cure for cancer, which would change a lot of things! Or what if we were to find another world out there, this galaxy is huge, bigger than we can even comprehend. We’ve only studied our backyard, there’s a whole universe to explore!

There is no doubt of how quickly and drastically we are changing economically (mainly technologically), so what will the world look like in just 10 years? Will I have a computer chip installed in me that connects me to anything or anyone within internet and communication devises? Will kindergarteners be learning to type, instead of write? Are these changes good? Or are we getting way over our head? I’m really not sure all I can do is I guess just wait and see.