PLN 20

In the article, “32 boys and me: Tales from the all boys class” by Anne Smith, she talked about how her all boys class and the different adjustments that she has had to make. She talked about how the boy’s grades were not good because people weren’t turning things in and about how they were some of the lowest she has ever seen. This matters because it is not the teacher’s fault that this is happening. The teacher is teaching fine it is the students that need to step up and get there work turned in. It also talked about the “No D policy.” This is a policy that is supposed to help kids have more motivation to get their grades up. This matters because now that the boys will not have an opportunity to pass with a D it will give them more motivation to keep their grades up in the first place. “32 boys and me: Tales from the all boys class,” mattered a lot because it showed the difficulties of having an all boys class.

PLN 22

In the article “Put forth our best writing selves,” by Douglas Hesse he talks about the possibilities of texting and using Twitter and how it could either be the death of writing or make it better. This matters because for the future generations of America writing may either be almost completely ruled out of school or one of the most important subjects. If Twitter and texting improve writing then it could mean better writing in schools. It also could mean better writing for younger kids because they would enjoy writing on the computer, blogging, and texting. So it could help future generations get into writing easier then pencil and pepper. The article “Put forth our best writing selves,” by Douglas Hesse matters because it is important that writing is still a big part of education in the future.

PLN 12

In the article “Footprints in the Digital Age,” by Will Richardson it talks about how young kids are progressing in technology very fast and how writing a blog or posting a picture is not easy to erase and will stick with a person unlike writing on paper.
In the article, Will Richardson talked about how much young kids are progressing with technology. It said that young kids are doing many things online that most adults do not know how to do. This matters very much because it shows that the next generations will be very technologically advanced but they might not be as educationally advanced. They may read one book a year and read thousands of web pages a year. It also talked about what someone does on the internet could affect their future and their job options. It said that if an educational leader such as a teacher or administrator Googles the student and something bad comes up then it is possible that they may not be wanted in the school. What does this mean for students in the future? It matters because they could not get as good a job or not get into a college that they want.
The article “Footprints in a Digital Age” matters especially for young people in the future because what they do on the internet will be important for jobs and schools in their future.

pln 14

In the article “Rigor Redefined,” by Tony Wagner, there were a lot of things that mattered such as what businesses expect from young people wanting to work there and if schools are doing enough to prepare students for the 21st century.
Clay Parker, the president of Chemical Management Division of BOC Edwards said that he looked for people who asked good questions and engaged in good discussions. This matters in students lives today for several reasons, one being that in order to work well with others and get curtain jobs done people need to be able to have good conversation. Another being, people have to be able to ask questions when they need help to show that they are thinking about what they are doing. It said that in order for students to succeed they need to master seven things, critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration and leadership, agility and adaptability, initiative and entrepreneurialism, effective oral and written communication, accessing and analyzing information, and curiosity and imagination. Basically what students need to do to succeed in business is learn to do all of these things themselves and if they can they will do better in business. Tony Wagner also stated that classes that are just being fed the answers are not forced to think about what they have to do to succeed in the subject while classes that the teacher makes them think and engage the students do much better. These things matter for success because the classes that are actually engaging in activities and being forced to work and solve succeed much better then those classes that don’t.
The article, “Rigor Redefined,” matters because it talks about how to succeed in the 21st century.

pln 15

In the article, “Our Googley advice to students: Major in learning,” there was a lot of advice on how people learn and there were a lot of good points in it such as people’s communications skills and willingness to learn.
There were many things in the article that mattered. For instance, the way people communicate what they learn is important because that way it shows that they have learned and that they understand it. It also talked about people’s willingness to try out new things. It said that people need to be willing to accept evidence that they need to learn even if they don’t like it. Also, it said that team work is important so that team members perform up to team expectations. These things are important for any type of business because without them the business would not succeed. Also, it said, taking challenging courses is good in school because of the need for reasoning remains constant. This matters for people in school because in order for people to learn more and succeed in school it is important that people continue to challenge their selves.
The article, “Our Googley advice to students: Major in learning,” mattered a lot because it gives advice to students and business men of all ages on how to succeed in learning.

PLN13

I feel that I do much better when I can write with a pen instead of on the computer because it is easier. I feel like there are too many ways to lose your work, there are a lot of ways to make mistakes, and if someone does not know where all the keys are or where certain keys are then it could be even worse for them. I think that writing with pen is much better. You have to do more drafts with pen but I still think it gets the job done better. I know that with me I am much better at writing a paragraph with a pen than I am when using a computer. You cannot erase with pen like you can on a computer and it is not as easy to read when you write it with pen but I still think it is better.

Women raise bar at colleges thesis

In the article “Women raise bar at Colleges” by Tamar Lewin, it says how women enrollment rates are higher compared to men going to college and what the colleges are doing to change that.

Fish Eyes thesis

In the story “Fish Eyes” by David Brennan, he explains the wars, good times, and rivalries of his siblings in his childhood and how they have affected him today.

Utterly perfect murder thesis

In the story “An Utterly Perfect Murder” by Ray Bradbury, the main character is crazy and ready to kill because of what has happened to him in his past with his old enemy.

Gender meeting 1

What I thought about our first meeting with the girls was; at first know one wanted to talk to anyone, only a few people stepped up and started asking around. Then after a while people started to go around and stopped being shy. Once a couple of the people started asking the rest of the class did. Then when we were done we were still talking to them but it was just about other things. We started having other conversations. Also during the class the girls didn’t stand up they waited for us to go around and talk to them. That is how the meeting went.

PLN 1

The “Did You Know” video was powerful because it shows how powerful technology will become in the twenty-first century. Initially I was surprised to discover that the number of text messages sent everyday is the same as the world’s population. Although this statistic means people can communicate with each other faster, this activity might interfere with other important activities. For example, you could be exercising instead of texting or reading a book. Another surprising fact I learned from this video is that three thousand books are published each day. One other thing that I found interesting was that there are more honor students in China then there are kids in America. This is very interesting, to me it says that the population of China is not only higher but maybe kids in America are slacking. Also I think that the idea that a thousand dollar computer will be smarter than all human beings is very interesting to think about. What will the computer be capable of or will we be able to control it? I thought the “Did You Know” video was very interesting and it made me think a lot.

Over the summer I read two books, one was The Loch, and the other was Meg: Hell’s Aquarium, both of which were by Steve Alten. The Loch was about a man named Zach who had just been through college and become a marine biologist. On one of his first major journeys they go down in a submarine trying to find a prehistoric squid sixty feet long, while they are down there thought they are attacked by other creatures and Zach is put in the hospital for a few months. Then he finds out his father is on trial for murder back in Ireland, he travels to Ireland to find out that his dad is convinced that the man was not killed by him but by the Lochness monster. To prove his father innocence, Zach decides to search for the legendary monster. At the same time some other people are disappearing. Eventually he finds it and also finds out why it has been attacking humans. One of my reactions to this book was that it combined a lot of historical information into a fictional story. It included different sightings that people have had and added to it from there. It was very good.
The second book I read was Meg: Hell’s Aquarium, also by Steve Alten. This book was part four in a series about a sixty foot prehistoric shark called the Megaladon. In the book the main character Jonas Taylor owns a large tank meant for whales that eventually turned into the home of the mother Megaladon, Angel, and her four babies who are now forty feet long each. They are getting more out of control and attacking more and more people. At the same time Jonas’s son David is invited to help an Arab aquarium that is being built. They want him to go to the Mariana Trench and capture other prehistoric animals. One of the creatures is one hundred and twenty feet long. They capture a few and at the end Angel and the largest one have a fight. I enjoyed this book a lot. I had a good reaction to the very well written climax. I could not put the book down. Both books were equally good for my summer reading assignment.

Class expectations

Good class expectations are very important for a class to be successful because you could not improve without, good teacher expectations, good student expectations, and good general class expectations. For a teacher, they need to be able to keep the classes attention and not keep a lesson strictly a lecture. They need to do some hands on things so that the student is focused and not thinking about other things. In my opinion teachers need to keep note taking from lectures to a minimum but also the student needs understand that notes are important. Although note taking and lectures are not the greatest thing or most fun thing a student expectation is to pay very close attention and get all of the important information out that they will need to succeed. The students need to know when it is a time for class and when it is a time for talking with friends. A very important expectation for students is to respect a teacher and give the teacher a break from having to deal with interruptions. Now for class expectations, the most important one is to get into a teacher to student relationship so that when the class starts you get into a good flow and everything goes smoothly. That is when work gets done and needs to get done every class. Although lectures in classes get boring sometimes, the class should still be able to pay attention and not be messing around. Student, teacher, and overall class expectations are very important for success.

PLN 4

In the video “The Machines are Using Us,” by Michael Wesch, I had some interesting reactions, like how quickly the internet is improving and in just a few years also, how the internet has taken over a big part in our lives. In my opinion it seems like the internet is improving a lot every year. There seems to be some sort of update or improvement every single year with websites or programs like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. In that sense it also seems to get more complicated every year then we find a way to make it faster or easier or both. Although we still read text books and novels in school one of my reactions to this video and in life is that the internet has become a part of class and in our lives in general. Our ways of communication have changed a lot. Websites like Facebook and MySpace have changed that. Not only on the internet but also with Cell phones we communicate way faster now. During the video I also saw the significance in the title; it basically says that the machines as in the computers and Cell phones etc. are now a big part of our lives and practically taking over our lives. I had a lot of reactions to Michael Wesch’s video, “The Machines are Using Us.”

PLN 2

In the article "Women raise bar at colleges" by Tamar Lewin about more women attending colleges, it told me a few things that I reacted to. For instance, it said that some colleges are letting men in without being as strict about grades just so that there are more guys. This is interesting because that means that women would have to work harder which I think isn’t fair to them. They are supposed to keep it fair. Although, it isn’t because they like men more, it is because of enrollment of men in college is down. Another thought I had was, maybe men aren’t attending colleges as much because they aren’t as interested in going through that for a job. I don’t think that is a good idea. They should go through college and get a good job. Finally, men need to attend college way more and get it done so that the attendance for men doesn’t go down even more.

what I expect of teachers and students

What I think teachers should do is help kids alot. They should show them how to do things and not just lecture the entire class period on what to do. Teachers need to talk to the student so that thye know how to do something and so that they can get the good grade. On the other hand students need to pay attention. They also need to listen to instructions or read instructions and do whatever the assignment is their best. Students need to respect the teacher and the teacher needs to respect the student. If they all do this then the class would be very good.

gender meeting 1

What i thought about our first meeting with the girls was this, at first knowone was wanting to talk to anyone. Only a few people stepped up and started asking aroung. Then after a while people started to go around and stopped being shy. Then when we were done we were still talking to them. Also during the class the girls didnt stand up they waited for us to go around and talk to them.

PLN1

What i thought about the did you know video is that it was powerful and had a lot of good information in it. I was suprised to find out about the number of text messages sent everday and the amount of books published everyday. One other thing that I found interesting was that there are more honor students in china then there are kids in America. Also i think that the idea that a thousand dollar computer will be smarter than all human beings is very interesting to think about.