What Matters final presentation

PLN 13-2 (26)

While skimming through the Denver Post, I noticed an article called Dog on death row unleashes a protest by Cassie Hewlings, which talks about how a dog that is one lady's best friend is sentenced to death after he bit another women.

"Rolo had no history of violence, but he got out of Hagan's house unleashed and
bit a neighbor who was walking with her child, Hagan said."

I believe that this is outrageous and Rolo (the dog) should be left alone. All he did was bit a neighbor and it was the first and only time he ever did something like that. He is normally a really well trained dog. Most dogs bit at least one person. They are just playing. My friend has a dog who is the sweetest dog ever, but will bit when she is excited because that's what dogs do. Rolo was probably just excited to be outside and wanted to play. In my school, tons of people have dogs and they all will bit once in a while because they are playing. I feel like this dog should not be killed for some minor incident that only happened once.

PLN 13-1 (25)

While skimming through some interesting posts, one shocking post caught my eye titled Why are kids failing? by Mrs. Davis which talks about how out of 49 9th graders, 21 have low D's and F's. This is extremely shocking to me!! Mrs. Davis talks about how she tries to provide opportunities for her students to achieve higher grades, but students just don't care. By talking to the gifted/talented at risk teacher, she figured out that out of 500 9th graders, 110 of them are failing at least one of their classes, if not 3 or 4. This is astonishing! I don't understand how students can not care about their grades and not even try. Students today are just lazy. We are exposed to many new technologies that can be a huge distraction. Students don't have to debate for long which they would rather do, homework or watching tv. They would choose watching tv, which will never get them anywhere in life. Even though homework can sometimes seem like a pain, you would never be able to understand any concept without practicing it, and homework is just practice on the concepts you had just recently learned. You learn not for school, but for life. If you choose not to learn, then you will not be successful in life. The only way to obtain a successful life is through knowledge which students would obtain from school, if they actually cared. Students are capable of doing the work but are just lazy. In one of my classes, about half the class is failing and I don't understand why. The only way you could fail that class is to not do any work. Around the world, students are failing in their classes because they don't feel like doing their work. I'm sure that some teachers feel like they are waisting their time because they are not able to help those students who don't care. They have to be willing to learn first, before the teacher is able to help, which many are not willing. This saddens me to think of how little people think of education. The United States is way behind many other countries on education which is not good. We are the future generation that will be making the important decisions regarding our country and if we are not able to pass a class because of laziness, what will happen to our country?

PLN 12-2 (24)

While skimming through the posts on the Denver Post blogs, one caught my eye called Bomb scare debunked at Conifer school by Kirk Mitchell that talks about how a 14 year old boy was talking to a middle school student about how he was carrying a bomb in a case he was carrying, but none was found.

"he student allegedly told a middle school student on a bus this morning that
the case he was carrying had a bomb inside, Shires said."

This is an important issue that schools all over have to deal with, especially lately. There have been many attacks at schools with weapons over the past couple of years. An example that happened in Colorado was the Columbine attack, where two students came into Columbine High School with guns and shot several students and teachers. There have been several suspected bomb threats in high schools around my district. In my school, we are, like many others, trying to have the safest environment possible for students and making sure every necessary action is taken into place when threats like these are made. Around the world, people have to be careful where ever they are, school, work, or even the airport. These people that normally start the crisis need help and action should be taken to prevent them from getting out of control. Luckily in this case, there was no bomb in the case, only a camera, but if there had been, the whole school would be in danger.

PLN 12-1 (23)

I have recently read an article called Fight Hunger While Learning Vocab by Karl Fisch that talks about how there is a website on the Internet that asks you vocabulary questions that are your level and for every question you get right, 20 grains of rice is donated to the United Nations World Food Program. "

FreeRice automatically adjusts to your level of vocabulary. It starts by giving
you words at different levels of difficulty and then, based on how you do,
assigns you an approximate starting level. You then determine a more exact level
for yourself as you play. When you get a word wrong, you go to an easier level.
When you get three words in a row right, you go to a harder level. This
one-to-three ratio is best for keeping you at the “outer fringe” of your
vocabulary, where learning can take place.There are 50 levels in all, but it is
rare for people to get above level 48."

This program helps with two important issues. It helps give food to the starving people of the world and it helps improve our vocabulary. There are starving people all over the world and they need food. We have to help them because there are two different worlds on earth. There is our world that is full of opportunity and we are very lucky to live such a clean and successful environment and one that lacks the advances our world has made and is home to the poor. They have hardly any money and are starving to death. We need to help this other world and this is a step closer to helping. Because of the rice given, people will be able to eat and not spend all their money on just food for their family, but other necessities like a place to live. Also, many people around the world need to improve their vocabulary and this will help. In my school, many people including me need to expand our vocabulary. This website is beneficial in so many ways and is one step closer to ending world hunger.

PLN 11-2 (22)

An interesting post that caught my eye is called Pocket Texting and Open Phone Tests by Will Richardson which reveals a story of a 14-year old boy who uses his available technology to help him get answers for school like his cell phone and his computer. The 14 year old boys name is Insoo and he is able to send texts without taking his phone out of his pocket. “

Insoo doesn’t even have to take the phone out of his pocket to send an SMS. He
knows how to slide it open, which buttons to push how many times to reach the
“Send SMS” menu option, compose the entire text message, and hit the send button
— all without even looking at the phone. This is especially handy when he needs
to send an SMS during class.”

Also, there is a website on the internet called Naver Knowledge iN which is a popular online Q&A service with some 70 million entries. All you have to do is post a question you have on the website and in a couple minutes, someone will post a legitimate answer. In this article, Will Richardson asks a highly debated question that asks, is it cheating when students use the technology around them to help answer a test question? Will Richardson makes a good point when he says we should teach them how to make good use of those resources instead of pretending they don’t exist, but I feel like it is cheating. Using these resources is very helpful while studying for a test, but actually using them during the test is considered to me cheating. I believe we should be taught how to use these resources and acknowledge there existence, but I believe we should do that while studying, not during the actual test because if the technology is being used during the test, the only knowledge being demonstrated by that student is their knowledge of the technology, not the actual test material. In my school, the majority of the students own a cell phone and/or computer which they are able to access easily. Useful information can be passed or searched through these devices. During tests, some students do send text messages to find the answer to a certain question which I believe is horribly wrong. Many students know this and I’ve never witnessed it before, but I’ve heard of instances like this occurring. Students around the world have access to this technology as well and hopefully are using it wisely. I believe these technologies should be used for the purpose of learning the material, not just copying the answer because you will never fully understand those concepts by just copying them down.

PLN 11-1 (21)

While skimming through some interesting posts, I came across a post titled Maine's 1:1 laptop raises writing performance by Dan Maas which talks about how studies are showing that students that have access to laptops in everyday classes, perform better in writing by writing more and better. I believe that using laptops is very beneficial for writing skills. In my English class, I have access to a laptop everyday. Because of this, my vocabulary and grammar skills have improved drastically because while I am writing, I am able to look up synonyms to common words and enhance my vocabulary and also on word, you are able to spell check what you have written and learn from your mistake. I believe that many of my classmates fell the same way and have also improved. Having access to a laptop everyday also increases our knowledge of facts that even out teacher might not know. There is an infinite amount of information available to us with a click of a button on the Internet. We are able to expand our knowledge even beyond our teachers. People around the world are able to communicate with each other and learn from each others ideas by using programs like blogger and leaving comments on posts about how they feel about the blogger's ideas. Since our world is becoming more dependent on technology everyday, I feel that it is important for my generation to have access to as much information as they can by using this technology.