PLN 8-1 (15)

I have recently read a post by Dave Warlick titled A Conversation about Failure which talks about the hardships of people (especially students) with disabilities and centers around a guy named Henry Winkler who suffers from dyslexia. Dyslexia is a learning disability where people's brains process written or verbal language differently. Through out this post, Henry Winkler was quoted on talking about his life as a student with dyslexia which was a while ago. He talked about how people who might be extremely gifted with knowledge, would be classified as "slow" in the classroom because they are not able to read as well as others.

"Yet, when a person has difficulty reading, regardless of other exceptional
skills, they seem to be labeled, automatically, in traditional classrooms, as
slow."

I believe that no one should be classified as slow or anything related to it. People are all different so we all learn differently. If you are classified as "slow" then some people start to question if they are good enough and start feeling like they are doing something wrong. This has resulted in many high school drop-outs which is horrendous! It is the worst feeling in the world to feel like you aren't good enough. Many drop outs feel this way and to help prevent this from happening, schools have to stop classifying people in terms of their learning abilities. Kids who learn at a faster rate should be in a more rigorous class so they don't get bored but no one should be classified as better. One program that only certain people are able to attend is called GT or gifted and talented. If you are not in this program, you start to question if you are gifted or talented which everyone is. Every one around the world is gifted and talented in their own way and classifying people with names like "slow" or "gifted and talented" give the wrong message to people who are either in a certain classification (like "slow") or are not in one (like gifted and talented).

PLN 7-2 (14)

I recently read a post by Mr. Craig titled Allowing Re-Takes To Improve Student Learning that talks about how if a student gets below an 80% on a critical thinking responses on a test in biology, then retakes are available to them to score as a high as an 80%. I believe that this is a good idea because he only allows people to retake the test if they attend a study session where they are not allowed to leave until they fully understand the concept. I am currently taking biology and to be able to do well on the critical thinking response, you need to fully understand the material. I am lucky that my parents are scientists and are able to help me, but not many kids have that so many go into the test not fully understanding the material. The purpose of going to school is learning and some students have a difficult time understanding concepts so they need some extra help. We don't go to school to get good grades, we go to school to learn. If you understand everything, your grade will reflect that, but if you don't understand everything, your grade will also reflect that and it is necessary to be able to understand the material because later on in life, it will be good to know. Knowledge is power!

PLN 7-1 (13)

I have recently read and interesting article posted by Julie Poppen titled Dog who nearly starved to death scampers to recovery which discusses a tragic but also miraculous story about a dog (Neeko) who was abandoned by his owner and almost starved to death nine weeks ago. Neeko was found near an abandoned home with another dog who sadly had already passed away. Neeko weighed only 30 pounds and lived only because he ate parts of the dead dog that was with him. His owner, Kristy Knecht, will appear in court on Wednesday and is charged with cruelty towards animals. Fortunately for Neeko, he was found just in time and brought to the Alameda East Veterinary Hospital by an Aurora animal care officer. Once Neeko arrived, the journey back towards health was sluggish. In a period of nine weeks, he astonishingly gained sixteen pounds after being feed a carefully planned diet to prevent him from eating too much or gaining bad weight (like fatty weight). Nine weeks after Neeko was found on the brink of death due to starvation, the feisty Belgian Malinois jumped for a tennis ball and attempted to run through a parking lot Tuesday. "That's a dog who couldn't walk — or even sit," said Lauren Immel, spokeswoman for the VCA Alameda East Veterinary Hospital, as she helped show off the dog's remarkable progress. It shocks me to even imagine someone neglecting their animals. I have a cat who I dearly love and it saddens me to think what it would be like to see my cat starving to death. I don't know how Neekos owner could just abandon her dog like that. Many of my classmate own a pet and hopefully take into consideration that they are living creatures and need attention, love, food, shelter, and water. There are animals around the world being abused and abandoned by their owners which should end! It is cruel to purchase a pet that you know you are not able to take care of. The picture above is Neeko after nine weeks of attention and care.

PLN 6-2 (12)

While skimming through some interesting posts, I came across a post titled Are you ready to grow? What's holding you back? by Mrs Parson which talks about how because of technology, there is too much information available that our brains can not handle. Some important questions that she asks are, "It makes me question how I teach, am I preparing the students to have the skills to obtain knowledge rather than feeding them knowledge? Has technology changed the way we teach, in some ways, but are we as teachers really preparing the students for the 21st century? Is "know where" replacing 'know what" and "know how"?"
I believe that when tons of information is given, the student feels overwhelmed and even if they study, lots of the information will be forgotten after the test is taken. I had a teacher who gave out so much information that it took me 5 hours to study for one test. I studied extremely hard, but now, I forgot a lot of the material we learned. There was so much information, that I could only remember it for a couple of days. Technology is very useful, but maybe teachers could start not feeding us so much information all at one time. Maybe they could break it down and make sure we understand a couple facts and keep building on that. There are many facts about a certain subject available with just the click of a button. People around the world use search engines on their computers, like Google, to help obtain information. Sometimes as many as 1 million websites about that subject appear.

"we have always had access to more knowledge than we were able to handle. It has
intensified in our generation."

PLN 6-1 (11)

I have recently read an article posted in the Denver Post, written by Mike McPhee titled State pushes teens to buckle up more which talks about how in Colorado, teenagers are being pushed to wear their seat belts while driving which I believe is a good thing. Driving can be very dangerous and wearing a seat belt is essential for safety. In 2005, 71 teenagers died in car accidents, 50 were not wearing seat belts. This is a huge issue. Some teenagers believe that they are "cool" if they don't wear their seat belts, but I believe it is the opposite. Car accidents are not rare and can be fatal. If you are not wearing a seat belt, you will be ejected from your car and will be badly injured or die.

"75 percent of accident victims who are ejected from cars die of their
injuries."

Soon, I will be driving and I believe strongly in seat belts. Many students in my school are driving and hopefully are wearing their seat belts. Teenagers around the world are not wearing their seat belts and speeding because they believe that nothing bad will happen to them, but it will. As Sue Matzick, a surgical nurse at Denver Health Medical Center and a former emergency medical technician for 10 years told the Denver Post,

"Motor-vehicle crashes are the leading cause of teen deaths," she said.

In Colorado, 11 Colorado counties will be trying to get teenagers to buckle their seat belts. Their campaign is the "Click It or Ticket" campaign. If people started wearing their seat belts, there would be less fatal car accidents.

PLN 5-2

I have recently read a post by Kieran Nicholson titled ACLU decries school cellphone searches that talks about how some schools are searching through students text messages when they suspect drug abuse or cheating on tests. I think that going through every ones personal text messages is wrong. Many people text personal information to each other that shouldn't be read by anyone else. The only way that I think reading other students text messages is legal is when a student is showing signs of dangerous actions.

Administrators there said they've searched student text messages when they
suspected drug abuse or cheating on tests.

It would be similar to the canine locker search where you only search someones personal information or space if there is a good reason for thinking something is wrong with that particular student. In school, people text all the time and many of the texts are personal and should not be read by anyone who it is not intended for. Around the world, people text constantly and if their texts are searched for no apparent reason, that is violating their rights to privacy.

"Students have legally protected rights of privacy, and the actions of
Monarch administrators are violating those rights."

"Prior to confiscating the students' cellular phones and transcribing text messages found on them," school officials contacted the district's legal counsel and were told "it was indeed legal for them to take the actions," the district said in a news release.

PLN 5-1

I have just recently finished an article written by Will Richardson titled “Give 1 Get 1″ One Laptop Per Child Promotion which talks about how when you buy a laptop for $399, a laptop will be donated to child living in a developing nation. I believe that this is a wonderful idea! With labtops, you are able to access so much and these kids barley have anything! Laptops will help provide them a better education. In my english class, we use laptops daily. They help us comprehend information better because so much is online. Around the world, people are able to obtain tons of information on a certain subject in a matter of seconds! The world is advancing with technology every year. Nations that aren't priviledged enough to obtain this technology are falling behind and if many children are able to obtain a labtop, developing nations will have a better future and the children who are yet to come will be privlidged enough to have this important technology.

PLN 4-2

I have recently finished reading an article posted by the Denver Post titled DPS plans to shutter 8 schools. In this article, it talks about how the Denver Public School Officials are planning to close down 8 denver public schools. They are doing this for two reasons. One is to save money and the other is to give more money to other schools. The proposal would also change 5 denver public schools programs and will give the saved money to them to create a better learning environment. They will also provide money to the schools to expand and enroll children from kindergarden to eighth grade or preschool to eighth grade. I think that this is a good idea because enrollment is low in many denver public schools (it is only using 70% of its space), and giving more money to improve the schools will hopefully attract more people and will allow more students a better education. Education is very important for people and having a good education is a top priority. My public school has many opportunities for me to succeed and not giving that chance to as many people as possible, wouldn't be fair.

PLN 4-1

I have recently read an article posted by The Nata Village called Natavillage.org gets invited to Geneva, Switzerland!! The Nata Village is a small village in Africa with a very devastating problem with HIV/AIDS which is very high in Africa but in this area especially. The rate of infection in Nata is higher then 37% and nearly 50% of all pregnant women there are HIV positive. Because of this pandemic, over 400 kids in Nata are orphans. This is a very serious problem and serious action needs to taken. This blog was set up to help bring awareness to people around the world and share the stories of people's lives in the Nata Village. In this particular post, it talks about how the Nata village bloggers got invited to Geneva, Switzerland to inform people about the Nata Village even more in depth. Many people donate money to huge organizations in Africa, but sadly, many times, the money doesn't go to the people who really need it like the Nata Village. Because of this conference, hopefully people will become aware of the tragedy there and hopefully more help will be available for them. We are very privileged in the US and many of us have never experienced anything remotely as tragic as people there do on a daily basis. We take so much for granted like school for example. Probably, most of the kids in the Nata Village don't have the privilege of obtaining an education while kids who are priviledged enough complain about attending school every day. I believe we all have to do the best we can to help the world become a better place for everyone and that we should not take things for granted because some people would gladly take what you have! People around the world should be informed on what is going on in the world today.