PLN 15

As a teenager I think that this is true that we do think team work as just a way of “doing our business.” I personally think that team work is harder than individual work, but yet more effective. I think if team work were more common in everyday lives, then things would be better. A lot of times in my classes our assignments are assigned as groups not individuals and I think that teachers today see that this is the way we know how to do things and that it is part of our business

PLN 13

Being “googlable” is a scary thought for a young person such as me, who makes mistakes and is growing. It might be a good thing for others to see how someone else grew and learned from their mistakes, but sometimes people do not think that way. How will that affect my future? If I want to go for a job and get goggled and not get hired because of what showed up, I do not want the mistakes made as a child to affect my future. Even though I am not allowed to put my last name online there are many out there with the same last name. I do not want to have to defend things that were not done by me (good or bad). Sometimes it could be a good idea, but I don’t think that is should be done even if there are good things to be found online. There are so many way you could get the wrong information about the person you are goggling especially today with anyone being able to access anything and post any type of information they wanted to.

PLN 11

Today I read a post off of Weblogg-ed titled "What do we Know About our Kids Futures? Really.", by Will Richardson I think the title of this post is pretty self explainitory, the big question of this post was how do parents, teachers, principals etc... prepare students for the future when they really don't know much about what is to come.

Networked–They’ll need an “outboard brain.”
More collaborative–They are going
to need to work closely with people to co-create information.
More globally
aware–Those collaborators may be anywhere in the world.
Less dependent on
paper–Right now, we are still paper training our kids.
More active–In just
about every sense of the word. Physically. Socially. Politically.
Fluent in
creating and consuming hypertext–Basic reading and writing skills will not
suffice.
More connected–To their communities, to their environments, to the
world.
Editors of information–Something we should have been teaching them all
along but is even more important now.

These were just some ideas of what Will thought in general what students should be taught and prepared for. I think this is a very hard question to answer because students themselves don't really know where their lives are going. I think the best anyone can do is do the best to plan out and try to make it come a reality, so nothing comes as a huge suprise so that it throws anyone in a bad direction.

PLN 9

Today I read a post off the Nata Village blog titled "Nata youth use old tires for toys," this post was very brief, but I had a lot of connection with it. This post was only about three or four sentences long, but in these couple of sentences it explained and show how these Nata children are very creative when it comes to play. They were playing with tires seeing who could roll theirs the fastest. What this showed was that even though they do not have all the cool toys in the world they are still happy and find ways to have fun. They do not lay around feeling like they can not do nothing and it shows how little they have and yet they are happy. This kind of made me remember one of the students in my English class when they did their PLN presentation their question at the end was about money and whether it made you had to have it to be happy. I think this pretty much answers that question, that you do not need it to be happy you just have to learn to live with your situation and if you don't like it then fix it and don't make your self unhappy, life is what you make. This also reminded me of when I was little and the things I would do to have fun. I was not exactly the little girl who played dolls and barbies, I grew up with all my guy cousins imagine that. So I grew up playing with cars, trucks and doing crazy things that boys do. I remember we use to play with tires also, but we would find the biggest hill and we would stuff ourselves in them and see who made it down the hill unharmed and the fastest. Its crazy when you are little because those are the best times of your life and you never seem to forget them.

PLN Presentation Reflection

For my PLN presentation I think I did pretty well I was able to relate what my PLN's were talking about to things in my own life. I though it was a little short and brief and I think that I could have gone into a little more detail with what I was trying to say. A couple of times I got stuck with what I was trying to say and it didn't sound clear or you couldn't understand what i was getting to or trying to say. Maybe for my next I could improve on these things, but other than that I thought I did pretty well.

PLN 8

Today I read a post off the Cool Cat teacher blog titled "Reflection of Change from the Birth of the Lightbulb," in this post it talks about how change and the effects of change more spicifically fear of change. I did not only connect this with the fear and change in my life, but as well as change in our world with technology. There have been many things that have gone on in my short life time and a lot of it I was scared of because it was a change for me. Whether it was change in where I lived or change in me personally. Growing up in this generation is very difficult as many of us know. The many changes that my parent has made for me has not made it any easier, but then again when will life every be easy. I think that fear is in everyone and will always be present I think it is just how you deal with it that makes you. I really do not consider our modern technology a fear, but kind of anxiouty for what is to come and how it will change our world whether it will be better or worse. You never know what will come in the future and what that will do to your life and I think that is what most people are afraid of. Learning to deal with that fear is very important and is what needs to be done because the world is not going to stop for no one.

PLN 6

Today I read a post on the Cool Cat teacher blog titled Have a Laugh from the Little Rascals- "Board of Education." This post was very interesting because even though it was short and to the point I learned kind of what goes on in the minds of teachers. What I thought mattered from this is that our generation has to be entertained in everything they do or they are no interested including education. Just the other day one of my teachers was talking about how in my class we learn the fun way and how a fun way of learning is easy and helps us remember. What I thought was also interesting was when she said that "in her day" information that they learned was kind of forced in to their minds not in a fun way. When we as students find something to be boring we give no second thought on it all we know is that it is very uninteresting to us and we don't want to do it. I never thought that teachers actually put a lot, a lot of thought into their planning just to make it interesting for their students. I think it makes their jobs as educators a lot harder than it needs to be.

PLN 5

Today I read a post on the Cool Cat Teacher blog titled "I love this Kindergarten video as students envision if they were president." Even thought this post was a very, very short one it said a lot in those two, three sentences. What I thought mattered from this is what Victoria thought was also important about this post which was the fact that these children envision themselves as making a difference and something that is far away, but also something that encourages them to be what every they want to be when they grow up. I think it is very important to envision yourself as something you are about to be come, because then it becomes more realistic to you. In this book I read recently about three boys growing up in a very harsh enviorment wanted to become doctors and where they came from no one grew up to be nothing better than a secretary. When they graduated from high school they all three went to this summer program before collage for future doctors and there they meet this one counselor who saw them and called them what they were soon going to be doctors. One of the boys explained how much that mean to him, the fact that one person was calling him Dr made all the difference and made him strive to really earn that name. That is what these kindergarten class is doing envisioning what they are soon to be.

PLN 3

Today I read a post by Jeff Utecht on the Thinking Stick titled "Explain the experiment." In this post Jeff talked about him and another teacher have been working together on numerous projects throughout the year. In the post he talked and explained their most recent project with this teachers ninth grade science class. Instead of the usual same science experiment and report the teacher thought it would be more interesting to do a voice thread and video of their experiments. What I thought mattered from this post was that sometimes these science projects can be very boring and overwhelming and her thought of making this assignment fun and enjoyable is what I though mattered. I know that sometimes when my school is very boring it is not exactly the first thing I jump to when I get home. With this project her students got to explore different types of technology and have fun with it. This was also a very beneficial assignment for teacher to grade also. Either way we all win! This is also very good practice for what seems to be coming in the future for schools and technology.

PLN 2

Today I read a post by Jeff Utecht on The Thinking Stick titled "Student Informatio Online", I think that the title is pretty explanitory of what the post was about, which was what kind of information students should and should not put on the internet. Also about how this problem is kind of an unwritten policy of what is right and wrong to put online. What I thought mattered from this post is that there is no rule or policy saying what is right or wrong to put out there. Of course you don't put your address, any of your phone numbers, SS#, your date of birth etc..., but what about last names and pictures? I know that in my 9th grade english class when we post things online we never ever put our last names only the first inital of our last names, but sometimes the things that we do post are required by our teach to post pictures of ourselves, family and friends. Is that safe? I think that this question of what is safe and what should be rule or not is in need of disscussion with all our modern technology and all the information out on the internet because you never know what is our there.

PLN 1 Semester two

Today I read a post from the Nata Village blog by Natavillage called Nikki sares her Nata Experiances. This post was about how Nikki a fundraiserer from Hong Kong talked about her experiance visiting the Nata village and seeing what kinds of things the money she is raising is doing to benifit these people in need. What I thought mattered from this post was the fact that she is there seeing what good she is doing, how big of an effect she is making and actually educating herself about why she is actually raising money for these people. Some people don't really know what they are raising money for I am not saying that it is a bad thing, but sometimes you have to really get a fill for what you are doing to be more passionate about it. That is what Nikki is doing and I think that it is really important because when you go and actually see what is going on then you know where you need to improve and what kind of help you are doing to help motivate you to do more. This related to me becasue I think this is a really good quality to have and I think that these kinds of things is what makes the world go round because if we did not help each other out we meaning the world then a lot of us would not have made it through these many centuries. I know and hope that one day I could be as inspired and dedicated as Nikki is because I am a person who would go through a lot to help at least one person out.

Goals for Semester 2

For the second semester of my 9th grade year I would all in all just do better in everything I do than last semester. For example last semester when I did my assignments I felt like I was just being lazy in doing them to get it over with and not gave them a lot of thought and time, so for this semester I am going to try to not be so lazy and give it my all. I would also like a much better grade than I did last semester and shoot for an A. In able for me to achieve that I think I would have to do better on my PLN’s because last semester that is what really hurt my grade I did them just to get it over with and a lot of times didn't do them, so this semester you will be seeing more PLN's from me. Another thing that affected my grade that I would like to improve on was the fact that I did not really proofread all my writing and this semester, even thought I really don’t like to proofread, I am going to try very hard to get in the habit of proofreading so my work can not just be a rough draft, but a final product. Those are my goals for this semester.