1. Colorado is a beautiful place to live, and there are great parts about it. My favorite thing about Colorado is definitely the mountains. I really love to ski in the winter, and camp and hike in the summer. The mountains are the most beautiful place to be any time of the year. In this part of Colorado, we have an amazing view, and when the sun reflects off the mountain tops each morning and sunset, it is a spectacular sight to see.
2. In English 9, I really like how we do project quizzes. After every couple chapters in the books we read, we take a quiz but it is usually it is something creative like making a collage about what matters to the character of our choice, or how the effects of war on young soldiers is shown. This forces us to think on higher level thinking questions and apply them in a way that relates to the book, but also to us. I prefer these rather then quizzes with questions regarding what happened in the book because then we can’t go further into the story than what is written in the text. I also like how we have bonded as a class, and how we are able to work with each other.
3. I learn best with hands-on projects and visualizing things. I tend to get things, and they stick in my head better when I can do things for myself, or when I can see how things work or are put together. This is the reason that I like project quizzes better than normal quizzes. If I can physically put something together by myself, and take it apart and to it again, I understand the concept better and I can apply it better.
4. Our big question this semester has been “What matters?” We applied this first to ourselves by creating a blog and writing what is important in our lives. Then we made a collage online with pictures showing what mattered to us. Then we applied the question to all the texts that we read. This has been the most meaningful to me because it has made me think about what other people feel, whether in real life or in fiction. It has made me think about what’s going through peoples head when I read books. I have developed the skill of comprehending reading and thinking it through better in this class than ever before. This skill will stay with me forever and it’s the one that means that means the most to me.
5. Volleyball is very meaningful to me. It is a sport that I play almost year round and that I am passionate about. I also am involved in Student Council at Arapahoe. In the summer I play softball, and in the spring I run track.
6. I am most passionate about, my faith, volleyball and my academics. These things really matter to me, as well as spending time with my family and friends.
7. In the second semester I will be playing volleyball for Colorado Intensity, participating in Student Council and running track for Arapahoe.
8. I honestly don’t know anything about those books. I think that it will be very interesting to read them.
9. I define poetry as deep literature that means something. It goes much deeper than the context, and you have to dig into it and understand it. I have never written my own poetry, but I would be willing to try.
10. I think that you should know that our class is a great class to be in, and we always have fun doing things like working in group projects and discussions in class,
11. If I were teaching the class, one thing that I would change is the way we have PLN presentations. I would change having up to 4 go in one day to one or two, allowing the class to debate about matters in the world, and how we should go about them.
12. On the first day of the second semester, I wish to accomplish the concept of the second semester, and what is going to be the ultimate thinking question for the end of the semester.
13. I think that I am most motivated by my dreams and goals. I often set high standards for myself and do what I can to reach them, and that motivates me to do higher and better than the requirements.
14. One thing that I would like to know is
15. I think that I am most like the pauper in The Prince and the Pauper because I work for what I have but I have success. I have a lot of friends and get along quite well in life but I recognize the fact that I have to work for everything I have to find success, I do not jus have it handed to me. I have never switched places with a Prince, but I think my personality matches that of the pauper.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Semester Reflection
In regards to my education this semester, I have seen changes in how I read and interpret novels or articles. I have further learned how to find what is important to the character, and apply to it my life, and the world around me. After reading stories such as Into the Wild by Jon Krakaur, and All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, as well as excerpts the book of Walden, I have learned that more goes on in a story than what is just on the page. I have learned to read deeper into the story, and because of that, I have learned to go deeper into the character as well. I think that that these skills will help me in the future in different English classes, but that it will also be applied into when I read on my own. The other day I was reading a book that I had gotten from the library for free reading. I noticed that when I read now, I begin to think while I read, and ask questions about the context where as before; I would simply read the story.
I have also seen changes regarding writing. After this semester, I feel that my writing has been changed from just slapping something down on paper to get it done, into actually expressing my, and others opinions. By having a rubric to follow for each and every assignment, I motivate myself to make it “A” quality each time. I have learned how to start, express, and end a PLN, and to make my writing interesting for readers. My skills have been changed because I start to express how I personally feel about a matter, and not just re-explaining what I read in the article. I have learned to see both sides of the story, and to show how I fell about the matter. I have found that I actually somewhat enjoy writing now, certainly more than I did at the beginning of the semester. I now enjoy writing PLNs that have to do with worldly matters or things about the government. I have learned to write about an article that I can really relate to, and not the first one that pops up onto the screen I think that this skill is very useful in life because it can be used in any career.
Technology played a big part into the changes in my learning. By using a laptop every day, I learned to rely more on the computer for all of my assignments. I thought it was really neat how I could turn in projects online, and not by hand. Technology has changed me because now I know how to create more and more assignments on the computer, making them easier, but also because we can connect with other things with technology. I could email my projects home every night and not have to start over each time. I could also talk with the people I was working with by email or by the phone. Technology changed the way I learned because it showed me that I could do things over and over again simply by pushing the erase button, and not have to start over each time. I enjoyed being in a laptop class because it gave me the freedom to search anything in an instant and not have to do it manually. I was able to do a much better job on my work by using the computer, and I think that that work standard will stay with me because of that.
I feel more motivated to learn because I have so much more options in how I learn. Because we set up an “A”, “B”, and “C” quality standard, I can basically choose what grade I want to get, and I know all that I have to do to accomplish that. I have a checklist that I know if I follow that I can achieve anything. This motivates me because it provides no excuse for anything below the best. With the rubric, all excuses are taken away that due with “I didn’t know that I had to do such-and-such to get an “A”,” because I have a list of what needs to be on every assignment. I think that I was motivated because I knew that I wanted an “A”, and I was determined to get it, so I did what it took to keep it.
Now that we are just a few days away from the end of the semester, it comes as a shock that now is going to be the time to get all my grades to where I want them, and to get all the help that I need to make sure that my report card looks acceptable at the end of the semester. In English, I feel that at the end of the semester, I will keep the “A” that I started out with at the beginning of the semester. I remember writing about what I was going to do to keep my “A” all semester long, and I feel that I have been able to accomplish those things that I said I would do. I have kept up on my work, and have not fallen behind pr procrastinated due to the option of multiple re-dos. If I keep up what I have been doing for the past eighteen weeks, I think that I have nothing to worry about with my English grade. Now that we are just a few weeks away from the end of the semester, it comes as a shock that now is going to be the time to get all my grades to where I want them, and to get all the help that I need to make sure that my report card looks acceptable at the end of the semester. In English, I feel that at the end of the semester, I will keep the “A” that I started out with at the beginning of the semester. I remember writing about what I was going to do to keep my “A” all semester long, and I feel that I have been able to accomplish those things that I said I would do. I have kept up on my work, and have not fallen behind pr procrastinated due to the option of multiple re-dos. If I keep up what I have been doing for the past eighteen weeks, I think that I have nothing to worry about with my English grade.
I think that student philosophy helped us learn because it made us think for ourselves. When we would do projects at the end of a couple chapters, we had to think on higher level thinking standards about what mattered to each character. When we had different characters we were independent in our own groups and couldn’t share ideas with other groups. I know that this helped me and will help me in the future because I developed the skill of higher level thinking, and I can go deeper into a story now then I could before.
Some things that could be done different next year is that the students should start higher level thinking from the very start. I think that quizzes should involve the creativity that they did at the end of the semester, but right from the start of Chris McCandless. I know that the types of quizzes that we did in the last six weeks really helped me to understand the book and what was going on more so than it did when we just took normal quizzes.
I think that the “No D” policy motivated me not to fail. Without the option to get a “D”, it was either an “F” or a “C”, so I chose to take the better option of a “C”, and work it up to an “A”. Without the option of a “D” I pushed myself not to get an “F”, so I did my best work, and it helped me. I think that you should keep the policy because it really helped me, and it can really help others.
I really liked how you started off with what matters to us because it gave me a perspective of what the rest of the year will be like, and how we figure out what matters. By starting with that I learned how to figure out what matters, but it was a creative way to get to know everyone as well. By looking through the collages and reading the blogs we got to know each other which made our class more fun throughout the semester. I liked how you made some of the quizzes projects because then they weren’t just normal quizzes like in every class, they were something that made you really think.
I am satisfied with my grade at the end of the semester. I think that it reflects my learning, and shows how I changed my skills. Compared to previous English classes, this one have by far provided the most education in the most creative ways. I have developed skills that will be with me forever, and it has changed the way that I think about things.
I have also seen changes regarding writing. After this semester, I feel that my writing has been changed from just slapping something down on paper to get it done, into actually expressing my, and others opinions. By having a rubric to follow for each and every assignment, I motivate myself to make it “A” quality each time. I have learned how to start, express, and end a PLN, and to make my writing interesting for readers. My skills have been changed because I start to express how I personally feel about a matter, and not just re-explaining what I read in the article. I have learned to see both sides of the story, and to show how I fell about the matter. I have found that I actually somewhat enjoy writing now, certainly more than I did at the beginning of the semester. I now enjoy writing PLNs that have to do with worldly matters or things about the government. I have learned to write about an article that I can really relate to, and not the first one that pops up onto the screen I think that this skill is very useful in life because it can be used in any career.
Technology played a big part into the changes in my learning. By using a laptop every day, I learned to rely more on the computer for all of my assignments. I thought it was really neat how I could turn in projects online, and not by hand. Technology has changed me because now I know how to create more and more assignments on the computer, making them easier, but also because we can connect with other things with technology. I could email my projects home every night and not have to start over each time. I could also talk with the people I was working with by email or by the phone. Technology changed the way I learned because it showed me that I could do things over and over again simply by pushing the erase button, and not have to start over each time. I enjoyed being in a laptop class because it gave me the freedom to search anything in an instant and not have to do it manually. I was able to do a much better job on my work by using the computer, and I think that that work standard will stay with me because of that.
I feel more motivated to learn because I have so much more options in how I learn. Because we set up an “A”, “B”, and “C” quality standard, I can basically choose what grade I want to get, and I know all that I have to do to accomplish that. I have a checklist that I know if I follow that I can achieve anything. This motivates me because it provides no excuse for anything below the best. With the rubric, all excuses are taken away that due with “I didn’t know that I had to do such-and-such to get an “A”,” because I have a list of what needs to be on every assignment. I think that I was motivated because I knew that I wanted an “A”, and I was determined to get it, so I did what it took to keep it.
Now that we are just a few days away from the end of the semester, it comes as a shock that now is going to be the time to get all my grades to where I want them, and to get all the help that I need to make sure that my report card looks acceptable at the end of the semester. In English, I feel that at the end of the semester, I will keep the “A” that I started out with at the beginning of the semester. I remember writing about what I was going to do to keep my “A” all semester long, and I feel that I have been able to accomplish those things that I said I would do. I have kept up on my work, and have not fallen behind pr procrastinated due to the option of multiple re-dos. If I keep up what I have been doing for the past eighteen weeks, I think that I have nothing to worry about with my English grade. Now that we are just a few weeks away from the end of the semester, it comes as a shock that now is going to be the time to get all my grades to where I want them, and to get all the help that I need to make sure that my report card looks acceptable at the end of the semester. In English, I feel that at the end of the semester, I will keep the “A” that I started out with at the beginning of the semester. I remember writing about what I was going to do to keep my “A” all semester long, and I feel that I have been able to accomplish those things that I said I would do. I have kept up on my work, and have not fallen behind pr procrastinated due to the option of multiple re-dos. If I keep up what I have been doing for the past eighteen weeks, I think that I have nothing to worry about with my English grade.
I think that student philosophy helped us learn because it made us think for ourselves. When we would do projects at the end of a couple chapters, we had to think on higher level thinking standards about what mattered to each character. When we had different characters we were independent in our own groups and couldn’t share ideas with other groups. I know that this helped me and will help me in the future because I developed the skill of higher level thinking, and I can go deeper into a story now then I could before.
Some things that could be done different next year is that the students should start higher level thinking from the very start. I think that quizzes should involve the creativity that they did at the end of the semester, but right from the start of Chris McCandless. I know that the types of quizzes that we did in the last six weeks really helped me to understand the book and what was going on more so than it did when we just took normal quizzes.
I think that the “No D” policy motivated me not to fail. Without the option to get a “D”, it was either an “F” or a “C”, so I chose to take the better option of a “C”, and work it up to an “A”. Without the option of a “D” I pushed myself not to get an “F”, so I did my best work, and it helped me. I think that you should keep the policy because it really helped me, and it can really help others.
I really liked how you started off with what matters to us because it gave me a perspective of what the rest of the year will be like, and how we figure out what matters. By starting with that I learned how to figure out what matters, but it was a creative way to get to know everyone as well. By looking through the collages and reading the blogs we got to know each other which made our class more fun throughout the semester. I liked how you made some of the quizzes projects because then they weren’t just normal quizzes like in every class, they were something that made you really think.
I am satisfied with my grade at the end of the semester. I think that it reflects my learning, and shows how I changed my skills. Compared to previous English classes, this one have by far provided the most education in the most creative ways. I have developed skills that will be with me forever, and it has changed the way that I think about things.
Monday, December 8, 2008
PLN 16: Lets Stop Preparing Kids for College
In the blog article “Let’s Stop Preparing Kids for College”, by Karl Fisch, what matters is the debate over spending our hard-earned money on college, or making high school more relevant and useful to apply in our everyday lives. I often think to myself as I am doing different assignments every night, “When am I every going to need how to find the area of a triangle in my life, especially when I am not going to be a mathematician when I grow up.” Some people have seen this and go as far as to say that instead of spending the thousands of dollars every year to pay for college tuition and food/boarding that high school should relate to worldly matters and real-life situations so that students are not required to go to college to get a decent job with average pay. Others argue that college is vital for developing adult skills to be able to survive in the world because it provides independence in which students make their own choices and don’t rely on parents to get them through.
With the prices of practically everything but gas going up these days, it has become harder and harder to afford things like paying tuition for college, so some people would much rather just have high school serve as preparation to be able to survive in the real world. They think that if high school was more relevant, that they wouldn’t have to go to college, but they could be suited for any job as soon as they got out of high school. From there they think that they could take a training course on the job and call it good. The problem comes up when someone wants to be a lawyer or a vet. These types of jobs require more than a simple training course to inform people on how to do the job. To be a lawyer you have to study the law and know about what each one means, and how it can be interpreted. To be a vet, you have to know how to take care of any different animal in any type of scenario. To be able to do either of these, you have to study for many years until you are fully knowledgeable and useful in today’s society. Know that wouldn’t hire someone if they’ve only been trained on the job because they are inexperienced and will not satisfy customers.
By going to college, you gain more than just an extreme amount of knowledge in the area that you want to pursue as a potential career, but you also gain life skills such as responsibility and independence. When in college, you stay at a different place than home, most the time, and so you have to rely more and more on yourself to go to bed at night, to feed yourself, and to make sure that all your stuff is done before you go out. Before, we had our parents to rely on for that. They told us when to go to bed, they provided transportation for whenever we needed to be somewhere, and they made absolutely sure that our homework was done every night. Once we get into college, all that decreases greatly because our parents aren’t there anymore to us. We have to learn in a survival of the fittest world. High school can’t prepare us for everything, but it gives us the minimum to survive in the real world, that’s why college is optional.
There is great debate about the matter of preparing kids for college. If we stop, will the percentage of kids that go to college decrease? Yes. Will there be less educated kids working in real-life jobs? Yes. Would stopping preparing our kids for college make an impact on the world? Yes. Will some people still do it anyway, even though they know how it will affect the way our economy and government is run, and potentially not for the better? Yes. Something to think about.
With the prices of practically everything but gas going up these days, it has become harder and harder to afford things like paying tuition for college, so some people would much rather just have high school serve as preparation to be able to survive in the real world. They think that if high school was more relevant, that they wouldn’t have to go to college, but they could be suited for any job as soon as they got out of high school. From there they think that they could take a training course on the job and call it good. The problem comes up when someone wants to be a lawyer or a vet. These types of jobs require more than a simple training course to inform people on how to do the job. To be a lawyer you have to study the law and know about what each one means, and how it can be interpreted. To be a vet, you have to know how to take care of any different animal in any type of scenario. To be able to do either of these, you have to study for many years until you are fully knowledgeable and useful in today’s society. Know that wouldn’t hire someone if they’ve only been trained on the job because they are inexperienced and will not satisfy customers.
By going to college, you gain more than just an extreme amount of knowledge in the area that you want to pursue as a potential career, but you also gain life skills such as responsibility and independence. When in college, you stay at a different place than home, most the time, and so you have to rely more and more on yourself to go to bed at night, to feed yourself, and to make sure that all your stuff is done before you go out. Before, we had our parents to rely on for that. They told us when to go to bed, they provided transportation for whenever we needed to be somewhere, and they made absolutely sure that our homework was done every night. Once we get into college, all that decreases greatly because our parents aren’t there anymore to us. We have to learn in a survival of the fittest world. High school can’t prepare us for everything, but it gives us the minimum to survive in the real world, that’s why college is optional.
There is great debate about the matter of preparing kids for college. If we stop, will the percentage of kids that go to college decrease? Yes. Will there be less educated kids working in real-life jobs? Yes. Would stopping preparing our kids for college make an impact on the world? Yes. Will some people still do it anyway, even though they know how it will affect the way our economy and government is run, and potentially not for the better? Yes. Something to think about.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
PLN 15: Teacher Sells Ads on Test Papers
In the article, “Teacher Sells Ads on Test Papers”, by David Warlick, what matters is providing creative ways to raise money to pay for school supplies because many schools can’t afford them due to the falling economy. In the basics of the article, teacher Tom Farber started to sell space on the bottom of his calculus test for sponsors to put an advertisement. He did this to help raise money to purchase paper, printer cartridges, and other office supplies for the school. The teacher charged $10 dollars to put an ad on quizzes, $20 for chapter tests, and $30 for a semester final.
I think that this teacher’s creative idea to raise money for the school is very unique, but is also a good way to raise money. Our economy has risen and fallen in great measures with in the past few months, it is good to save the money spent on paper, and spend it on paying employees. With prices so high on things like food and everyday supplies, it is good to prepare in advance for when another fall comes. It is also a good way to get a community involved in their school and support it.
I think that it’s good to prepare for the future in a way that we are earning money for an economic downfall. We have often noticed gas prices going down, but the further they go down, the further everyday product prices go up. By selling ad space on tests, the teacher is providing stress relief for the students by giving them entertainment while taking their test, and he is also doing s good cause to the community. Teachers and other staff members at that school can now keep their regular pay because more money is coming in through the ads. He is one of the people in our country trying to make a difference in our economy.
I think that this teacher’s creative idea to raise money for the school is very unique, but is also a good way to raise money. Our economy has risen and fallen in great measures with in the past few months, it is good to save the money spent on paper, and spend it on paying employees. With prices so high on things like food and everyday supplies, it is good to prepare in advance for when another fall comes. It is also a good way to get a community involved in their school and support it.
I think that it’s good to prepare for the future in a way that we are earning money for an economic downfall. We have often noticed gas prices going down, but the further they go down, the further everyday product prices go up. By selling ad space on tests, the teacher is providing stress relief for the students by giving them entertainment while taking their test, and he is also doing s good cause to the community. Teachers and other staff members at that school can now keep their regular pay because more money is coming in through the ads. He is one of the people in our country trying to make a difference in our economy.
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