What Matters Final Presentation

Self evaluation

I think I did better for my first PLN presentation because this time I was not quite as well prepared. When I was presenting I felt like I kept repeating my self and getting stuck on what to say next, like the last time I presented I talked a little to quickly. I don't know why, but this time I was a little more nervous about presenting and felt like my voice was a little to shaky sometimes. Other than that I think I did pretty well.

PLN 25

This week I read a blog by Vicki A. Davis titled "Some practical recommendations on teens and social networking: based on some good primary research" and it was about how at school and how teachers kind of put off social sited that teens use today and kind of don't use it to their advantage and think that it is bad when it can be use to help teen with their educations.

What I thought mattered from this blog was that teachers are not using tools and sites like face book and myspace to help their students. Even to the world this is very useful you hear about this one girl or guy making plans to meet with someone from another country and instead of thinking of it as danger we could use it to communicate with people from other countries and get their opinions and make it as an educational resource.It was just a list of recommendations about ways to use social networks as an advantage and I think it is a very good ideas, here is what she recommended.....

Teens are not as savvy as they and we might think. They are not able to fully
assess risk, and even when they do assess risk they don’t necessarily behave
accordingly. Therefore schools should do more than scaremongering or reading the
riot act. They should:
Provide teenagers with practical strategies to help them avoid giving away private information.
Encourage the use of social networking sites in school in order to train students in their proper use.
Ensure that students fully understand that it is not easy to delete all traces of oneself from a community, because of comments left on other people’s blogs or profiles.
Encourage teachers to join online communities for the purpose of CPD. The school could even have its own Ning community, or similar, for the exchanging of ideas and resources, and for virtual staff meetings.
Taking part in an online community would help teachers to understand their
students’ experience.
Teenagers use social networking sites and similar Social networking sites in order to do school-related work. Therefore it may be a good idea to encourage popular social networking sites to provide easily accessible resources that students could make use of.
Encourage social networking sites to make deletion of personal data a one-click operation, or as near to that as possible"

PLN 24

This week I read an blog titled "How much does this really matter" by Dave and in this blog it talks about how the people around us believe and understand little science and how many people believe in more pseudoscience. Here are the stats.

Scientific:

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.

Pseudoscience:

88% believe in alternative medicine.
50% believe in extrasensory perception and faith healing.
40% believe in haunted houses and demonic possession.
33% believes in lucky numbers, ghosts, telepathy,
clairvoyance, astrology, and that UFOs are aliens from space.
25% believes in witches and that we can communicate with the dead.

Then at the end of the blog Dave asks if we should be concerned about the fact that more people around us think and believe more in communication with the dead than knowing how long it takes the earth to orbit the sun. What I thought mattered from this is that in the end he kind of mentions that people when they are raised do what they are told and kind of grow up to believe what they are told, but then again when they grow up they kind of don't really think about how they were raised and why they and their family believe in what they believe in. When I read that last part it kind of made me think about why my family believes in what they believe in and how I was raised and thought the was I was. Then I realized that I was not really thought to believe in a certain way and not really thought that I had to do this because previous generations did it. I was just kind of raised and thought to make my own opinions on things and to kind of not think one way and to be open minded. Of course to be honest and how to be polite, but not really how to think of things.

This relates to the world because when others are thought to think of things in a particular way they are kind of judged by it and it causes other problems like a chain reaction.

PLN week 10-1

For the first blog I read this week it was more like a movie by Mr. Fisch titled "What Will You Learn Today?" and the whole short video was about students being in charge of their learning. In this video in the blog it had very little words, but a very big meaning behind those very few words.

In the two sentences in the blog is very important and the thing that is so important is students learn what they want to learn. When you ask the question "What will you learn today?" it is kind of referring to what you want to learn and what you want to listen to. I have never thought of it that way, but I think that it is completely true. When a student is not interested in something they will more than likely not listen to what it is about, but when you do that then you are kind of making the decision to no have that knowledge that might become useful to you in the future. It seems kind of scary when you think about learning that way because you can't really force a student to want to learn, they also have to want it to, to be able to learn. When a student take control of what they have to learn and what they want to learn that is where they kind of mess up. Lets just say I think to be successful you have to want to learn everything and to be open minded about learning.

PLN week 11-2

This week I read a blog that was about alcohol titled "Why???" by Crosby. In this blog he asked the questions

"Why is alcohol a protected drug?"

Then he askes

"If Joe Camel got yanked off of ads because he appealed to kids, then why is
Captain Morgan still used?

What I thought mattered form this blog was the issue of alcohol and what is does and how it effects me. This was an interesting blog for me because alcohool is a big problem in our world today including other types of drugs. There are so many people messing up their lives with alcohol and drugs and people doing wrong. This problem getting in the way of what they want to accomplish and how people get addicted to it and not know how to stop.

This matters to me because alcohol is the reason why I don't know my father and why he left my brother, sister, mom and I when I was so young. It ruend his life because just recently I was given a chance to know him and he told me that when I was young he drank a lot and wouldn't be good to my mom, and I would hear stories of him doing this and that and what kind of person he was and I kind of thank him for leaving because of the person people portrayed him as when I didn't know him. It is not fun not knowing who your father is and that is why this blog kind of stuck out to me and also this problem of alcohol and drugs.

PLN week 9-2

This week for my second entry I am going to talk about this blog by JamesH titled "group work", and it was about how students and how they react to group work and comparing them with when they are not doing group work. He said that when students are working together they can't stop asking questions, but when they are working individually they need to ask more questions.

This is kind of true because in my math class this is how it is. Then I don't think he should be so upset about it because maybe it is good because they have more of a thing to worry about than themselves because it is the other persons grade not just theirs. A question that comes to mind it how do they do when they are paired up compared to when they are by themselves?

For me I am kind of like that because when I work in a group we kind of all think differently and think of a question different ways because we are not all the same and look and answer things in different ways and like in my last blog some teachers don't really explain what they expect out of us very good. When that happens our minds are just every where and we really don' t know what to do and some of us just assume, but some of us ask questions.

PLN week 9-1

This week I read a very interesting article by Meyer titled "November...Already???", it is about how students should by November and this far into the school years students should be taking control of their learning and how their learning is going so far.

He thought that his classes were going well and thought that a majority of his students are taking taking control of their learning and that they are very focus and serious about it. On the other hand thought there are some areas of struggle for them, such as their first test. The part that they really struggled with was vocabulary and being able to identify problems and also being able to know what the instructor wanted form them in their assignments.

Some times I also feel like that, some times my teachers don't do a very good job at explaining what they want out of the assignment, but them again if I don't understand it is my responsibility to go and say that I don't understand, so for these older students it shouldn't be a problem. In this blog one of his students had just got back from visiting a collage campus and she sat in a political science class and kind of compared her teacher and their class to the collage teacher and class. She thought that they were doing the exact same thing that they were doing, but she thought that her teacher and the collage professor were different. She thought that the professor was more clear and understanding, but then again was more of a lecturer. While on the other hand her teacher was less of a lecturer and a little less of understanding. Yeah the collage students understood what they were to do, but think about how they are going to do if they don't understand how to do it because there is a differece between understanding what to do and how to do it. My teachers yes are don't really explain what to do on an assingment well, but when I do understand I know what to do it is easyier for me to know how to do it.

PLN week 8-1

This week I read an interesting blog by Dave titled "Parents & Internet-Using Teens", it was about the Internet and how it is being used, weather it is good or bad, or how it depends on how you use and what you use it for.

I personally think that the Internet is good if you use it properly. There are some who don't really protect themselves from what is on there and I think that is where the bad part comes form because then it because another stressful thing that you have to worry about. I mainly use my computer for homework and information, that is about it, I don't have a myspace or anything like that. I do have a email. That is why I have such a positive out look at what the Internet is all about.

For those who do use it in the wrong ways do have a different look at the Internet. Yeah it is fun, but when something happens it is not so fun after all. I think that everyone should just be a little bit care full about what they are putting out there and how they are using their computers.

Not using the Internet and computers right is one of the reasons schools block certain things out. It is because there are some people out there who just are not disaplind enough to know what is right or wrong, or what put you out there in a way no one wants to be put out there.

PLN week 8-2

I read this interesting article by Mr. Fisch titled "Speaking From the Soul", this article was about how teachers these days are very passionate, caring and how much work they put into what they do. In this article he uses this one teacher as an example.

This teacher was a kind of a writer who wrote only for her satisfaction and was very reluctant of sharing her work. Part of this article was also about being able to be a good teacher and part of that is having a good relationship with your students, which plays in a part of how passionate they are with what they do. This teacher shared her own private thoughts in her poem to her class, it was not exactly easy for her because even though she is a long time teacher who is very experience at what she does, it was not so easy to stand up there and share a poem that was written for her and share it with a bunch of young teenagers. I think it was a good decision to do this because it gave her students a different picture of her and helped in a way build a trust and a new relationship, because there are somethings that you only share with certain people that you trust and care about.

I can really relate to her and her situation because I am a very private writer. I really don't like to share my work and I keep a diary and other types of writing that I have written just for me and I really don't share it with no one not even my cousin, or my sister who are two of the most trusting people in my life. I think it would be very hard to go and read it to people who you don't really know all that well, but you take a chance to make that connection with your students.

I read her poem and it is a poem that is very much about her and a poem that makes you understand where she is from, about her family and about her experiences. Letting all that out is not that easy especially when you wrote it just for yourself.
"Cotton Farmers and Gamblers"

PLN week 7-2

For my second PLN of the 7th week I read and article by Dave titled "A Conversation about failure". This article was about how in our society today if someone who doesn't get something, is a different kind of learner, has difficulty reading or any kind of different way of doing things for them to understand it more they are considered slow, I think that is completely true. In this article he talks about how this guy named Henry Winkler who was the opening key note speaker for the New York State School Board's Association Conference in NY and how he gave this fantastic presentation about what it was like as a student to have this problem and was not able to live up to his potientals as a student and as a young boy.

I think it would be very difficult growing up with something like that, but also with all your peers constantly reminding you of you problem. It definitaly is one reason why some students do have low self asteem issues and why a lot of students don't live up to their potiential which is also what this article was about. There were two big questions that he had asked......

"How many of our children are dropping out of high school because they

feel unable."

"How many of our children are being made to fell unworthy!"

these questions can be easily answered, I think it is because of problems such
as dyslexia that cause children to drop out and to feel unworthy. So many people
don't see what is there, they see what is not there. They see the side of
struggle not the side of success, the negative not the positive and when someone
mentions and pays more attention to the negative it makes the negative to that
person more present. Knowing you can acheive something is a big step to
achieving it to believe you can do it, some people have people who think they
can't so they think that they can't.

PLN week 7-1

This week I read an article called "Wikinomics: Let your Students Talk to Don Tapscott" by Viki A. Davis, and what I thought mattered from this article is how students voices being heard.

This article was about how this one author by the name of Don Tapscott, is asking student for their thoughts on their experiences with education and learning. How this is good for our students that she teaches to be heard and to open a whole new eye up for education and educators. There is this forum that every student is able to share their experiences with him for his new and upcoming book on http://en.discuss.takingitglobal.org/6909.

I think this is a good idea, someone writing a book on what students in our world today are being thought and what they think and ways they think that it could change for the better. I personally don't like some of the ways that some of my teachers in the past have approached learning and teaching. All teachers have a little room for improvement in their strategies to teach their students. It was also cool that if you comment on this thing than you have the chance to be quoted in his soon to come book, I think that is so cool.

PLN week 6-2

I read an article called "Did You Know?- PE Version" by Karl Fisch, what I thought mattered from this article is how important being active and physically fit plays a big role in our lives and society.

This article was about how this teacher asked his students this big question of "What skills do students need to be successful in the 21st century?" and how he liked the one video in particular by Lindsey (Did You Know PE). Which was about how being fit and active was one skill that a student needed to be successful, some facts about not being healthy, risks of not being healthy and how it effects you.

I think this is defiantly is one thing that every student needs, to be active. I know that when I exercises I feel a lot better and am not as stressed and feel relived about what is going on in my life. When you watch her video it has facts about how not being healthy and active affects so many people and the risks of not being healthy, such as heart attack and diabetes. It is very important not only to have all students minds clear, but for them to be healthy so they don't feel sick which keeps them from learning. You have to be well to succeed and be well to move on.

PLN week 6-1

I read an article called "Third World America" by Dave, what I thought mattered from this article is the importance of technology and keeping up with our present world.

This article was about how Dave went to northwest Wisconsin and his whole point of being there was to discuss the how modern technology is effecting the usage and thoughts of information used for school and that is provided for students. He thought it was kind of funny how they were discussing this subject and a lot of the students and teachers don't even have the kind of technology of that they were discussing, that affected the usage and thoughts of information. With this statistic he the thought of America becoming a third world country came to mind, because of this little problem that some places in the United States are not up to date and are not currently up dated with technology. From this he thought that how do they know what life is like for an average person or where do they get their information and etc... It basically worried him.

I think it is very important for students and people who live kind of the middle of no where to have access to the world outside them, but I don't think that we should get all freaked out about it because it is all a work in progress. I know in my classes it might as well be required for everyone in our school to have all this new fancy technology to go to school there or else it is going to be very difficult for that person to keep up. Some of us have problems keeping up just as it is. In places like Wisconsin it is typical for them to not have all these things, so they don't require for them to do things that would seem impossible. I think we do need to get them up to date because it is not like they are not as smart to handle this kind of technology, it is just hard to get acess to it.

PLN week 5-2

This week I read an article called "Innovation Overload" by Will Richardson, what I thought mattered from that articled is the subject of being open or close minded about certain things.

This article was about how this guy and how uncomfortable he was talking in front of a big crowd, when he talks about certain topics and how they react and what he thinks about their reactions. It is interestinghow people react to certain subjects and how some get upset about what people have to say, because that person is so close minded. I think going in to listen to someone who is expressing their opinion in a speech you have to be open minded to what they have to say. Going in close minded I think does nothing for a situation and no progress is made.

I think I could say that I am a pretty open minded person and don't really make my mind up about something before I know more or get others points of view. Another thing that comes to mind when I think about open or close minded people is how close minded people seem to get more heated over things than open minded people. One of the things I don't get about being close minded is how do you expect to do things when you think of everything as one way and that everything is this way, I just don't see improvement on any thing when someone is close minded. Another thing that I think of when it comes to this subject is the topic of choosing sides. Me, I know I don't like to choose sides and think of things in only one way because there are a lot of ways that things can be looked at and we are all different and we all look at thing in different ways.

In my U.S. History class when we study the history of the U.S. my teacher open things up for us and tells us to look at things in other countries persepectives. I think that perspective is a big word for an article like this, it is good that she has us thinking like that. If you think about it the U.S. is not very liked by other countries and some people don't understand why and I think that is because they really haven't studyed what the U.S. has done in other countries eyes or side of things.

PLN week 5-1

Today I read an article on the Cool Cat Teacher blog by Vicki A. Davis called "Slow Down... Life Waits for You.", what I thought mattered from this article is that life is hard, but take it slow and day by day and even though you may want to quite don't, just take a break and calm down when you get back everything will be waiting for you.

Everyone gets stressed, everyone gets cranky and start to loose it. I can imagine teachers feel this way all the time. Having to teach high school kids about life and teaching us the things we need to know and if they are doing it right. In this article this is what she talks about, the stresses and the late hours teachers put into their students and how stressful it can be. She was listening to this song called Vienna Waits for you by Billy Joel and even thought it is not about school or not even related she kind of saw it that way and related it to her and her stressful life.

There were certain parts of the song that she thought was important and helped her not be so stressed...

Here are the lyrics and her favorite parts that she changed to make more sense of her perspective of what it meant to her....

Slow down, you crazy child you're so ambitious for a juvenile

But then if you're so smart, tell me

Why are you still so afraid?

Where's the fire, what's the hurry
about?

You'd better cool it off before you burn it out

You've got so much to do
and

Only so many hours in a day

But you know that when the truth is told..

That you can get what you want or you get old

You're gonna kick off before you even

Get halfway through

When will you realize, Life Vienna waits for you?

Slow down, you're doing fine

You can't be everything you want to be

Before your time

Although it's so romantic on the borderline tonight

Tonight,...Too bad but it's the life you lead

you're so ahead of yourself that you forgot what you need

Though you can see when you're wrong, you know

You can't always see when you're right. you're right

You've got your passion, you've got your pride

but don't you know that only fools are satisfied?

Dream on, but don't imagine they'll all come true

When will you realize, Life Vienna waits for you?

Slow down, you crazy child

and take the phone off the hook and disappear for awhile

it's all right, you can afford to lose a day or two

When will you realize,..Life Vienna waits for you?

And you know that when the truth is told

that you can get what you want or you can just get old

You're gonna kick off before you even get half through

Why don't you realize,. Life Vienna waits for you

When will you realize, Life Vienna waits for you? Sometimes we all need to take the phone off the hook.

Slow down, life waits for you

In this she marked out all the Vienna words so it would be "Life waits for you?"
Think about it because everyone needs a stress reliever

PLN week 4-2

In the article on the Nata Village blog called Thank you Flamingo "High School students of Sowa town" by natavillage. In this article one of the things that I thought really mattered was the point of helping others that are less fortunate.

The article was about how a small private high school helped out by donating stuff and money to the orphans and the people living in destitution in Nata village. Helping others is what I got out of it, I think it is really important to helps others become as fortunate as you are because what if that was you and sometimes it could easily become you. It is very important to give back because a lot of people who live there are hard working and really don't deserve to be in the situation they are in. Also because it not only helps them out, but it makes you feel good about what you do. I know I like to help people out when I see someone who needs it I can't just walk away and leave them hanging even though I may not know them, I feel guilty if I do, when I do help someone even if it is something little I know that I did something right.

PLN week 4-1

I recently read an article by natavillage called Dept. of Non-Formal Education sponsors seminar. It was about how natavillage set up a seminar for the local villagers and what the seminar was all about. There were various tents set up for the villagers and each tent had different kinds of information for the villagers set up by different government departments. All that were presented were the woman's affair department, agricultural department and the wildlife department.

In this article they had a picture of lion skin with the head attached. They said that it was to educate the local villagers about what a lion looked like and the dangers of it, but also not to hunt it. I think that was not a good way to represent that because than they would look at you like you were a hypocrite, because your are showing them something that they are not suppose to do, but then you are doing it. To think about it that is their home and place and your telling them what and what not to do there, while you are doing what you want and don't want to do when it is not you home or land.

I think that I can relate to that because it is just the same as someone invading your privacy. I know it is to do things right and to help you out, but sometimes people don't like it. When your mom or dad goes into your room and snoops around and tells you that you can't have this in your room, you can't do this in your room, or you can't do this to your room. You know it is for your own good, but then again you don't want to be told what to do.

Like at school they kind of limit what kind of things to do on your assignments and what not to do. Computers at school they limit you to what you can look at and what kind of websites you can look at, but sometimes those websites that we can't get to are more useful than what we are allowed to look at. You don't always like the fact that you can't look at them, but it is the rule and you have to follow it.

What I am getting to and what mattered to me about this article and the picture in it was that sometimes things are not just fair. No matter what you do or how convincing you are that is just the way things are, to accept it.

PLN week 3-2

I recently read an article called I don't want to integrate it, I want to embed it! by Jeff Utecht. The title of the article gives away what the article is about, it is about how people say that they say "I want to integrate technology into the classroom" and how it should be "I want to embed technology into the classroom." By the way he says this in his article shows how it gets on his nerves and how fustraithing it is when someone uses a word in sentence wrong.

Like me it gets on my nerves when someone tries to do something that doesn't really work for them, like Jeff and the word being used wrong, buth the bigger picture about this article is how technology is wanting to be embeded into classrooms and school curriculum. I also am in favor of technology being used in the classroom and to help students learn better and more efficiantly. Me I am a visual learner and just like me a lot of other students learn and remember things better when it is not just talked about, but seen. Videos, pictures, other peoples thoughts around the world are all made through technology, the efficiant way to see, or use these things is technology. Technology, technology, technology is the way to a better learning experiance and the word of this article.

I would love having to use technology in all my classes at school. It kind of gives everyone something to be excited about, I mean how many honest students are completely excited to come here and learn all day long with a pencil, paper and maybe a binder, ooooooooh. I know that those three things aren't exactly my highlight of the day. I think it would make things for students more exciting and hands on. I know my english class is one of my favortie classes of the day because I have my own laptop to learn on, it is much more exciting that I get to type my notes that to sit there with a paper and pencil and write my notes. How assingments like this is not on paper, how I am sitting here writing(typing) my thoughts for not only my teacher to see, but for my classmates, family and other people around the world.

PLN week 3-1

I read an article that tells you about one newly released movie , 3:10 to Yuma and a movie called A Face in the Crowd. The article Two Great Movies by Dave reminded me about how much I like to watch movies and how I haven't seen a new movie in a long time. I have heard from other people that 3:10 to Yuma was a pretty good movie, my mom watched it but didn't have much to say, I have never heard of the movie A Face in the Crowd.

I bet I could really relate to what the movie 3:10 to Yuma was about. I grew up in kind of a westernized place, where there were horses, dirt, no water, dry place, so I know all about the west. I hope to see it, but I promised my self I wouldn't because my stepdad Shawn is i in the movie, but I would barely call it being in there, he is kind of big headed when it comes to this kind of stuff, so there are somethings I just don't support him in.

Sometimes in movies they show the side of things that are not real or true about what the movie is about. It is cool how Dave said that the movie wasn't one of the those kinds of movies because I think it just runes the whole movie when you know about the setting and they completely are off course and makes everyone think that that is how that type of place is. Like movies with Indians in them, I am Navajo and the movies that I have watched make it seem like all we do is dance around fires, we all ride horses, and we all wear braids. We are totally different from what the movies show, we don't dance around fires, not all of us wear braids, I know a lot of people who haven't even rode a horse before. Yeah we do have are tradition, but it is not the kind that you see on T.V. and movies.

It is kind of funny how people think that we actually are like that. There is a kind of traditional thing called a Pow wow that I go to a lot, it is not just for us Native Americans, there are also other people with other ethnicies that go to. When you talk to those people, because a pow wow is kind of a social gathering for natives, they tell you that they expected all of us to be half naked and to dance around a fire, but no there are some dancers and singers, but they don't dance naked and there is no fire involved. Those are my thoughts on Two Great movies.

PLN week 2-2

This week I read an article called "Thank you Basipo Maseko," and it was about how people in Nata inspired a 27 year old man form the village of Tsamaya help out with what Nata was trying to do. He helped out by making money for Nata by giving tours to people of his home village. How happy and excited he was to help out and also how amazing it was that Nata was doing the things they are doing.

I think it is good that he is doing what he is doing and how inspired he was by Nata. I know how it is to be inspired by something so much, that you are very passionate about and go out and do it. Me I am very easily inspired and a lot of times I don't go out and do the things that I am inspired by, even though I should. Some little things that I find very important are the things that I am willing a probably would do, if it not only effected me, but others everywhere else. For him to help a cause that is so big and serious in his village and a lot of other nearby villages is good because it doesn't only effect him and his family, but also other people all around the world.

The world is also effected by what is going on in this not only village, but the country of Africa. Even though Africa is the main place where AIDS is the worst this is not the only place that is effected by this disease. The fact that other places are effected by AIDS helps it be more out there and for more people to want to help to make this disease not so world wide spread. Every where you hear the word AIDS and I think it is not just something that we can just put to the side I think that it should be in full attention of everyone because it is a big deal in our world today.

It is kind of funny how you hear about this horrible disease out side of schools and not so much in schools. I personally think that schools should present more awareness about this world wide problem. I can't remember the last time one of my schools talk about these kinds of diseases, or the last time one of my schools wanted to help out. As young people I think we should be more involved in the world that we are going to come into. Those are my thought on the article I read this week.

PLN week 2-1

I read an article called "Shhh! I'm Googling My Facts..." by Dave, this article was about how students use different kinds of resourses to find out information about school projects. Also, how teachers complain about the sources that students use to get information, but then again they don't exactly tell us what not to use. I agree with what Dave is trying to say. All that he is trying to say is that teachers rely to much on text book and resources that are exclusive then complain about how this information is not very resourceful.

It is very true that the internet is not a very good resource to get any kinds of facts or to research on because I have had my own share of experiances with research on the internet. I can really relate to the little story about cool cat teachers son and his google experiance with 9/11. There is so many junk on the internet that you can't find anything that is a fact anymore.

This applies to every subject in school for me cause in almost every subject there is a textbook involved in every class. I think that is why this is a concern of every class. I think that teachers should be able to do this.

We have to practice what we preach, and we have to practice it out
loud!

PLN week1-2

I recently read an article called "Online Safety-Videos that get em" by Jeff Utecht, it was an article about Internet safety, how every teacher should at one point discuss with their students and how video clips are a great resource for learning. I can totally agree with with Jeff that every teacher should teach their students about how to use the Internet safely, because in this generation it is one of our main sources of communication, research, information, etc... I think that videos are a cool and great thing to use in the classroom, because it is true that

There is something about a video that really gets this generation

Me personally would like to know what to put out there and what I can put out there, so that other people wouldn't take advantage of the information put out there about me. Also, how to search and find out information more efficiently and I am sure that every student would too. I have had times where I could not find the right information about a topic that I was researching. When I went to my teacher she found what I was looking for, but even better in half the time it took me to find what I had found. Which was information that was very vague compared to what my teacher had found. Every student probably knows what I am talking about, so I think we would all appreciate it if teachers would discuss how to use the Internet properly.



In our English class I think this would be a great topic to discuss because everything that we do is on our laptops and on the Internet. Even though our teachers are there to supervise us and tell us what not and what to put on the Internet then and there, but what about when we get home? We all sometimes don't have a lot of common sense of what to put out there and what not to put out there. Just because we were told once doesn't always mean that we will remember, I think actually sitting down and having a discussion with students will remind and inform them of how to properly use the Internet without them forgetting.



The world could also learn a thing or two about how to properly use the Internet. Almost everyday there is someones identity being stolen, or people being stalked and put in to dangerous situations. Having the knowledge of the Internet will prevent these kinds of awkward and stressful situations.



Videos are a great source for teachers to use for learning. It is very true that are generation are visual learners and understand things more if they visually saw it. I think that any kind of prop, personal involvement in the classroom definitely help student learn and understand what is being taught to them. Me I understand things more when I actually saw what was going on. For example if we didn't have projectors in out classrooms, I think it would be pretty hard for our teachers to explain where to go if they had an assignment on the computer that needed to be completed. It also saves the students from all the note taking of where to go. Any kind of technology that helps us learn better and faster is also another great thing to have for our understanding.

PLN week 1-1

I recently read a post Another Mind Blowing conversation on 2cent worth by Dave. It was about space and the possibility of life on other planets.The post Another Mind Blowing conversation was an article about the possibility of other life outside of our solar system and how we know of other life.



When I read Another Mind Blowing conversation, it was kind of mind blowing that there might be other life outside our solar system. One thing I got out of this post was the reality of life and how many different things could happen, no matter how crazy or unexpected it is. Another thing I got out of Dave's post was that our world is so advance and is advancing more and more everyday at a very fast pace.

To me I think it's kind of cool knowing that there might be other life out there. It would be funny if they were doing the same thing we are, tring to figure out who we are and if we exist. I could really relate to the face that life is unexpected and the change of it. My life that past couple of years have been a perfect example of what I got out of the Dave's post. I have moved, meet people lost people and definatly had to learn to adapt to it. Like if we found out there was other kinds of life, people would have to face the fact that there is other, just like I had to live with and except the fact that sometimes people have to go to a better place. It may not be as tragic, but it is something that you have to accept.

The world around us I think is use to this kind of situation. I think that because of where we are compared to where we were a decade ago. We have so many things now that we didn't even know would exist. It seems when something new comes everyone see it coming compared to when we first got a colored tv. Compare when we first found that to when we found out that we could get a bigger, clearer version. It was like when we first got colored we were all excited and amazed and couldn't get enough of it, when we found out we could see it as if we were there we just kind of just put it off and really didn't advertise or talk about it. Just the fact that everyday it seems as if there is something new and more advance that what was new yesterday. The fact that everyday in our classroom we use laptops instead of paper, notebook and pencil is an example of how our world is forever changing, advancing, more and more.

When I read in the post that in giving time and money scientist could make a tool to find for sure if there was life it kind of reminded me of this one story that I read last year. It was about out government in the next couple of decades. They had this device that kind of in a way controled everyone and made sure that everyone lived the way that the government wanted them too. I really don't know why I though of that then, but I think it is because the story took place in the future and it reminded me of where we might possibly when we make this tool to find out if there is other life.

What Matters?






My family
My family is one of the most important aspects of my life and is one of the things that matter to me the most. I have the most funniest, supporting and pushiest family ever. My family consist of five people My mom, step dad, older sister and my younger brother.
First there is my sister Justine, she is my best friend and the person who is always going to make me laugh when I need it. She is a lot of the times a pain in the butt, a is always picking on me. Then again she is very short for her age, so my whole family and I always use that against her. She is also the trouble maker of the family and is very crazy and willing to do anything. My sister would jump off a thirty story building if she thought is would be fun.
Second there is my younger brother Jacob, the baby of the family. He is a whole other story, he is the buggiest person to me in the world. He gets all the attention from my mom because he is the youngest and the only boy. The thing that bugs me the most though is that he knows he is the baby and takes advantage of it. Therefore I'm always in trouble for nagging or getting mad at him. At the end of the day i know that i love him even though he dose crawl under my skin.
Thirdly there is my step dad Shawn. I have know him for all most 8 years, him and my mom got married after what seemed a thousand years of dating. It cool having him around even though he isn't my real dad he is a big help and motivator for me. He is also very full of life, personality and cockiness. Then again that is why we all like him, kind of.
Last but certainly not the least my mom. She is the most caring mom ever, it may come out as if she didn't but you can tell that it is care. She is very strict with everyone, but mostly me. Always yelling, telling me to so something, pushing me to do better, thats her all right. She expects me to do good and to succeed in life and not end up like her. Wanting better for me doesn't always come out that way, but I know that is what she is trying to across to me.

My mind
My mind education and staying true to myself I another thing that matters to me. Getting an education and becoming the first one of my family members to go to collage is very important to me. Good grades, determination and the right decisions will get me there, so saying focus and not letting little things that don't matter get in my way is also important. Staying true to my self and not letting anyone or anything get in the way of my goals and dreams is also something that matters to me. For example saying who i am and not changing for anyone to like me or to hire me or anything else. To always be myself is something that is important to me.


Being Healthy
Being healthy and happy is another thing that matters to me. what I mean by being healthy is physically and mentally. Eating, drinking and exercising is important to me because if you are physically healthy i think you are mentally healthy. When you body is drained of toxins then your mind and thoughts are much clearer.