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.