pln 19

Searching through the articles i found one titled "Reflections" on Mr.s Moritz's blog. It talked about how students would only look at the final grade instead of their whole rubric. Heres what i commented:
Dear Ms. Moritz,
This really is a great post with a lot of good questions. Depending on the project I only look at the final grade. For example, in English class after a big project I always want to look at the final grade first and then look at the rubric to see where I can improve. By doing this I have actually improved on my PLN presentations. I always think rubrics are helpful and their really is no downside to them. While they do give me a direction to go on, they also help me on what I need to make it the best possible. I do agree with you that it is sad that some students don’t look at the rubric. But that is their choice and they will miss out on opportunities. I also check what kind of feedback I get to, because a lot of the time it is helpful. I think teachers should always use rubrics, because not only are they helpful to me but they will be helpful to future generations of students.

Pln Reaction

This was one of my better Pln presentations. I was able to really speak well while presenting and still kept good eye contact. I did use a lot of filler words but I still was able to use more intelligent words. I was able to look at the audience more with the occasional note check. Usually I don’t use notes and I just try and memorize the notes and I think of a question on the spot, the notes were way more helpful. I wish I could really emphasize more on my question and get more students to ask questions.

pln 18

I was searching through the articles today when i came across a particular one that interested me. Though i could not post the direct source click on the links and press the next link that says "retakes". Roger's Personal Blog
My comment:
Dear Roger,
I agree with you that re takes are special and are important. I am amazed that you haven’t given up on re takes. It is sad that students average so little points when they retake the test. Being a student and son of a teacher I understand both sides conflict. When I get a chance to retake a test I truly am happy (seeing how it is so rare to happen). But I am one of those students who is glad that he has the chance to retake a test but, I use the same study methods. I am not encouraged by my teachers and to try different ways to study and I am glad that one teacher wants his students to do higher. With my mom being a teacher I see how frustrating it is for a teacher to see their students do so badly. Trust me there really is no way for you to get the message through every child’s head. In the end it really is up to the student. I would like to thank you for posting this because it makes me think differently about studying and hopefully I will do better on my next tests!

Pln 17 S2

I went through the articles today and found one written by Mr. Fisch. Though short it was powerful and talked about how textbooks are losing their power and becoming just tornadoe covers. Here is the link The Need for Textbooks. This is what i wrote:
Dear Mr. Fisch,
I thought your blog was very well written. The fact that it was so simple and still had such a good impact truly amazed me. I kept looking back at your blog and thought to myself I think we are reaching the end of the textbook era. While text books are important they are also becoming less useful. We are advancing so far in technology soon everything will be online or be on a laptop.
This happens in school to, while choosing our sophomore schedules children rushed to get the classes with technology and not just textbooks. I personally thought they were all crazy for all trying to have laptops but then I thought back and how much easier technology had made my life in English class. One I never got any hand cramps because I could do all my typing on my laptop, the projects were more advanced and more fun, and finally with using laptops I could use the internet to look up new facts unlike in a text book. Hopefully one day textbooks will be only for covering our heads during tornadoes.

Pln 16 s2

While thinking of a blog to comment I thought about one that really related to me. I went to a blog that talked about silent children during seminars. I was surprised by how many teachers commented on this blog. The article is titled "Quiet Student" and this is what i wrote.

Dear Kristen,
I think you did a great job addressing this problem through such strong points. Your article was very interesting to read and throughout the whole time I was reading it I was brainstorming ideas to fix this problem. Being a high school student myself I see this from a different perspective. I myself love seminars in my history class and I am usually just a natural talker. But I am also friends with students who don’t talk at all. After a seminar they walk out of class with me regretting that they did not say anything. One of them blames her confidence issues while another blames that she is an outcast. But at the end of the seminar they walk out with great notes. I think that there really is no solution to getting every child to talk. You could force them to in the middle of the seminar, but that may be unexpected and would throw them off making them appear to be stupid. What my teacher does is he tries to for warn the class that there is a seminar and that every student will need to talk, even if it is unrelated to the topic they are talking about. This has always seemed to be great because more children talk about different things and end up tying them back to the original subject. But there is no reason not to give them a grade if they do not talk during a seminar. Then they are not fully getting their maximum points unlike other students. I think if you talk you get a grade and if you don’t you get a zero.

pln 15 s2

Today while looking through the articles I found a very intriguing one by Ms. Kitch. With her being my old Spanish teacher I couldn’t help but look at it. I was pleased to see that the blog talked about how technology Is helping another young person. Her four year old daughter was taught how to use the internet and the computer. Being four I thought it would take her days but it only took her a few minutes to learn the controls and how to use the favorites section$! This blog matters to me because it is a nice feeling knowing that technology is helping another person with connecting to the outside world. This matters to the world because I finally realized that my generation really aren’t the only ones who have mastered technology. I have realized that all these new bright minds are now taking over the World Wide Web.
comment posted on:
Home with the kids.... So, I thought it was time for...

Pln 14 s2

Dear Deborah,
You argue the point that children today are becoming more rowdy and more violent then they use to be. I must agree with you on that point but i strongly disagree with you when you say it is mostly due to boredom. Even some teachers can cause a childs disrespect towards the teacher. I personally have experienced bad teachers. One of which is a very rude teahcer who makes very hurtful remarks towards students even if they haven't done anything wrong. Many things can affect a childs behavior. It could be the people they hang out with, the music they listen to, the television programs they watch, and most importantly the way they are treated at home. There are many teachers who try to combat childrens disrespect. There are teachers who put them out in the hall, some make witty remarks to embarass the child into submisson, and some teachers let the child make rude remarks. There really never is a right answer on disciplining a child. Many teachers are to harsh when it comes to discipline and others are too soft. But hopefully children will begin to invest more time into their teachers and teachers will invest more time on helping the student other then punishing them.
link:Finding Purpose in School for Bored Kids

PLN 13 s2

Dear Mr Richardson,

I do agree with you that making children more Googable is very important, but i do disagree on the fact that employers should only look on Google. Their are many other sites that havw information on people such as Yahoo or if you are looking for a job applicant Monster is a good site to. To me google is a site to help me find references for papers or large objects not for background information on an average person. It is not right for an employer to totally depend on Google.
While reading this blog I became interested in googling myself. What i found out was very disheartning their was no information about me at all. Their were videos of a fighter beating up people, whos name happened to be Sean Bowman. Other things like i was a professional golfer or that i was dead did not please my eyes either. About thirty pages through i found one of my myspace blogs which was just me ranting and raving about school. Now if an employer saw that he might think i have anger issues or some other ridiculous idea.
Friends of mine have myspaces and have some odd things on their myspace. They post bulletins saying that they hate the world and just want to die. Now if an employer saw any of these things he would be shocked and probably call a mental hospital instead of giving them a job. The problem with google is its to vast. The solution may just be having to use more reliable sites like Monster.com where the person can actually show you whats fact and whats fiction.

pln 10s2

I was browsing through the articles today when i came across an interesting one titled Boy, 8, suspended after sniffing Sharpie marker . The article talked about how a third grade boy was suspended for 3 days for sniffing a sharpie marker. The teacher said the eight year old was repeatedly huffing the marker fumes.

This matters because people cant accuse young children of trying to get high when they dont even know what it means yet. People today have been accused of doing drugs like pot and pills. For example our highschool recently went under a drug search. Though the staff said no drugs were found we all know there are teenagers who are doing drugs. It is sad that adults have become so drug paranoid that they have started to accuse small third graders of trying to get high.

This matters to me because when i was young i sniffed sharpies because they smelled like choclate. It use to be a big fad in elementary school especially the third grade. We were not punished for it but were told not to, Instead of suspending the child what the teachers should do is get non toxic sniff sharpies. These kinds of markers are safe for children to sniff and have different flavors according to the markers color! There is always a more reasonable answer to rash descisons like this one.

PLN reflections

This was one of my worst PLN presentations i have ever had. First right before me a student did the same exact article i was going to talk about. Second, i could not keep the audiences attention not just because i was talking about the same article but the class was distracted and messing around. Along with that the audience was very rude by just laughing so much and whispering rude comments about my presentation to each other which i could hear. Along with that every few sentences the substitute had interrupted me with questions instead of waiting until the end. Also half the time the kids said i was cursing and when i said crap once when i was trying to say a quote a student who had the word crap in their quote. Also one student kept posting very rude comments on my blog and then kept deleting them. Also when i tried to talk about racism and talk about a show that dealt with that some kids called me a racist which was somewhat hurtful. My question was,"If you were in the situation of a person who was Muslim and was being harassed for doing suspicious activity what would you do?". Kids in the class said it was a racist question when all I did was ask a question. Along with that when i talked about how some professional athletes were bad influences and talked about how one wrestlers slogan was sex, violence, and drugs I was interrupted by students saying how inappropriate it was. I also did say um a lot in my presentation because distractions kept coming up. Seeing how i was so nervous i did look at my paper a lot. Just hope my presentation will be better next time.

PLN 4 S2

I was going through the articles when i found a very intriguing one. An article asking the question Another teen 'fight club' in Boulder? was found in the Denver post section. The article talked about how 15 to 20 teenagers gathered at an elementary school to watch an organized fight between two other highschool boys. A women did call the police on the group and the officers were able to catch a few who told the story of how the fight was already set up and was for enjoyment purposes.This matters because it shows how easily affected a childs mind is today. Along with UFC fighters or WWE wrestlers kids think its ok to beat up on one another. Sports starts today dont seem to realize how much of a role they play on kids today. For example a WWE wrestler who goes by the name of Edge is the current world heavyweight champion. The way he acts is very crude. His shirts call him a rated R superstar with the words sex, drugs and violence underneath them. What kind of example does this set for an eight year old boy?This matters to me because sometimes i do see kids getting into fights and i know some people who will bet off of that. Recently i saw a movie called 'Never Back Down' . This movie was about a teenager who gets into underground street fights and how glorious it is. Movies like these infulence wrong things especially when millions of people see it they are going to think it is cool to do fighting because then you will get cash and beautiful women. People today need to realize who is viewing things like this.

PLN3 s2

While browsing through the articles today i found one that was very interesting. An article titled Activists launch racial-profiling hotline in the Denver post section talked about what denver drivers are doing about policing pulling people over because of racial profiling. The organization has over five thousand five hundred members. Many people especially blacks call about being pulled over for racial profiling.

This matters because every day we deal with racial issues. Someone is always classified for a certain thing. In airlines middle easterners are sterotyped to have a bomb. When it comes to jobs hispanic americans are said to be taking up all the fast food jobs and what not. It is sad to see that even though as a human race we have come so far but as people were just monkeys in suits.

This matters to me because in history my class is learning about the civil rights movement. This is when black people took a stand to have jsutice given to them. Back during the civil rights many black people were mocked and abused and in some instances even killed. Especially in the south where it was a common practice. Even today people make racist comments. We as a people need to stop sterotyping so many cultures and begin to embrace them and take one more step in world peace.

i am poem

I am a friend, a son, a brother, a teenager.
Day by day i watch the years pass by.
The sands of time seep right by my eyes.
I am a friend, a son, a brother, a teenager.

The stress, the school, all this makes me sigh.
My life has changed and i dont know why.
a tear rolls down my cheek as i cry.
I am a friend, a son a brother, a teenager.

I wondered if the fun times would go.
Naps and crafts thats how i use to roll.
Now it is lies, and drama, being called a hoe.
I am a friend, a son, a brother, a teenager.

If i could i would do it again,
Be nice to the girl who would call me Shen.
Now no one will ever read me about mother hen.
I am a friend, a son, a brother, a teenager.

Pln2 S2

I was going through the articles when i found one titled VILLAGE SICKO OFF TO PRISON. At first i thought this would be another story of a homicidal murder, but to my surprise it was about a man who performed sexual actions in public. The one thing that popped out to me in this article was the amount of times he was let free for sexual crimes. This is what mattered to me is the amount of times sexual preadotors get out of jail. This specific man was found groping young womens during college. He was also charged for groping an eleven year old girl! Still he gets out of prison even though he has done these sick crimes. Sex offenders should be punished more severly for such horrible crimes. Most of the time they get a few months in prison and then are set back out into the public. This matters to me because i would not want a sex offender living next to me. Not only is he a dangerous criminal but my sister is only twelve years old. Sex offenders need more sever punishments for such horrible crimes.

pln 1 s2

I was skimming through the artlicles today and found one title Ex-US sailor convicted of spying in the BBC section. This article talked about Hassan Abujihaad formely known as Paul Hall secretly fed navy information to islamic extremists. He was found guilty of the crime and was sentenced to jail for 25 years. But there is more to this issue then just treason behind this issue, he not only sterotyped all muslims in america but also mis used his power in the navy. What matters from this is trust and sterotyping. Hassan was in a position of power where he misused his knowledge to give terrorists information on navy ships. This makes america think that all muslims are trying to help Al Quadea. NBC has recently started a limited series called "What would you do?". In one of its episode it set up a situation where a clerk at a local food store would not serve a muslim women because of her ethenticity. Though they were actors the clerk was surprisingly racsit to the women. Many people saluted the clerk and called him American. One man even saluted the clerk. Though there were people who stood up for the women many more supported the clerk. It shows that we strerotype people too much and one man like Hassan can give muslims such a bad reputation.

Second semester goals

I have many different goals for my second semester. I would like to end the year with an A in the class. I also would like to raise my C.S.A.P. scores in the class. Right now I am on the wrestling team so I need to be able to balance my school life with my sports life. Though it has been easy in the past It may be a bit harder because I have many upcoming tournaments and practice will be more vigorous.

At the end of the first six weeks of school I would like to have finished any large projects that would be due. I would also like to work ahead in our book projects by reading ahead and annotating the pages so I am ready for any upcoming tests.

In the second six weeks I would want to have either an A or a high B. By then I would have been settled into school. Most importantly in the second six weeks I want to keep using my planner and keep the same organization method.

In the last six weeks of school I do not want to stray off task. More then anything I need to study for upcoming finals and prepare myself for the end of the year. Hopefully I can end the year off with strong grades.