Building Learing

                The article Rigor Redefined by Tony Wagner illustrates that students in the 21st century are falling behind in learning and basic skill children need to be successful in this modern, new aged world. One major detail that came to my attention when reading this article was that a lot of the skills that Mr. Wagner thinks the schooling system fails to teach us are skills that can't be taught in a class by using paper  and a pencil. Skills like collaboration and leadership or curiosity and imagination can't be taught by giving a lecture or out of a textbook. Only 2 of the 7 skills that Mr. Wagner listed were skills that could be class room taught.  These skills are skills that you learn in the real world, by doing. Schools can't teach us everything we need to know in life. In the article Mr. Wagner also uses examples of kids that makes it seem like all students can't focus in class or are just simply bad students, which is not true at all. School is here to give us the building blocks for life, not to build life for us.   

It Should Get Better Really Soon

"It Gets Better" by Mr. Fisch based on a video speech by City Councilman Joel Burns tells the story of how much bulling is over looked. In Joel Burns' speech he talks about a plethora of young boys who were bullied to death. All the boys who were tormented and made fun of were gay, proceeded as gay or just simply misunderstood. All of them were called names like "fag," "queer," and many other nasty names. All of the boys also chose the path of suicide to escape the torture that was brought on by ignorant people.

After watching this video I have never been so discussed by peoples actions. It's the most awful thing in the world is for ignorant kids to pick on another for being gay. This is honestly the lowest act any human being could ever do. These kids who are bulling others must be the "wrong" ones, because I personally believe that in human nature you are not normally mean, and if you are mean all the time there is something wrong with you. The fact someone would be so outrageously mean to someone else to make them want to commit suicide I can't even comprehend. Lately the topic of gay marriage has come up alot, one thing the doesn’t make since to me is why are straight people getting so heated by gay marriage? If two people want to get married why should anyone else have to be ok with it? No one in this situation is even involved in it besides the two gay people. I think that the people who think gay marriage are wrong are either too obsessed with other people's life or just ignorant. A few major question I have is why does it matter if someone is gay? How does anyone get effected by it? Are other people really that incentive that they would stop someone else's happiness just for their own satisfaction?

Too Stricked?

“Toy gun leads to Florida boy's expulsion” by Rich Phillips, CNN Senior Producer illustrates how in today’s society even the smallest mistake can have the biggest consequence. Last November in Broward County, Florida, 7-year-old, Samuel Burgos brought a gun to school. Instantly he was expelled. This seems pretty logical that he would not be allowed in a school setting for at least a year, but when the gun turned out to clearly be a toy the school bored took the same action as if it was a really gun. When asked about the toy gun Samuel said that he was playing "army" with his friends one weekend, and he decided to hide the toy gun from his brother, so he placed it in his school bag. He went to school on Monday and said that he forgot he had the toy with him.

            This punishment is way too harsh. Samuel made an honest mistake and now he is going to have to pay for it the rest of his life. I agree with the schools policy of not having guns at school, but in this situation it just goes way too far. Just recently one of my teachers was telling our class about how when he was in school they had a rifle team, and kept guns at school. Now nothing like that would even be possible of happening. With all this strict laws and cracking down it makes me wonder if it’s just making kids rebel more and make them want to go against what they are suppose to do. This harsh punishment against Samuel makes me upset that in today’s society nothing can be forgiven, making an honest mistake results in such a heavy punishment. Is this a set up to try to make everything perfect? With human error occurring more often then not kids should not be severely punished for a simple mistake.

The Digital Age (redone)

"Footprints in the Digital Age" by Will Richardson in Educational Leadership illustrates some valid points. In this article he talks about how technology is eating us alive in away. One common theme was about how we need to change the way we use the internet. In my almost biest opinion I didn’t agree with Will Richardson's article, because there is no right or wrong way to use the internet. The internet is given to us as a tool, so why does it matter how i swing the hammer as long as the job is done right? As one of the kids he was referring to in his article I use the internet on a regular basest. So for him to say that we don't use the internet "right"  is wrong. In one of his paragraphs he uses the example that with today's technology  it's like having kids drive a bus while teachers sit and the seats and watch, but isn't it like that for everything? In today's world people are just scared of what they don't know.  There is always someone in the front leading the pact, just because it's kids and teenagers in the front of this pact doesn’t mean it's any less strong. This way, us leading the pact will be ten times stronger then those who are pioneering it.

Georgia baby sitter, 11, charged in death

            "Georgia baby sitter, 11, charged in death" By the CNN Wire Staff illustrates that life can turn a complete 180 degrees in just a second. When Ashlea Collier dropped her 2-year-old daughter off at a co-worker's house so she could be watched while she was at work; she never knew the shock that would be waiting for her when she got off her long day of work. When Ashlea Collier went to pick up her baby girl, Zyda, she found her in a corpse like state. She was taken to Scottish Rite Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. An autopsy showed she suffered blunt-force trauma to her head, torso and butt. When asked the 11-year-old said that Zyda had fallen out of bed, so she put her back and gave her apple juice, and she was fine.

            When I read this article, my heart sunk into my stomach. Trying to imagining someone hurting another human being is just hard in itself, let alone when it’s a 11-year-old killing a 2-year-old. It's hard to say what really happened in this situation, but the overall idea of a 2-year-old girl being beaten to death is so sickening to me. I have a 1-year-old nephew, and the idea of wanting to hurt or do any physical harm to such a precious, child is mind blowing to me. In this particular situation, it's hard to imagine what might have caused a 11-year-old to commit murder.  I hope that the Collier family gets justice for their little girl, Zyda, because it's hard to hear about a 2-year-old dying at the expense of someone else.

Does Google = Stupid? (redone)

"Is Google Making Us Stupid?" by Nicholas Car illustrates that Google is making us stupid, and pulling us behind because it doesn't allow us to fully use our minds.   After reading this article I think that Google is making us stupid. It makes us not have to think as hard as we use to without it. If for some reason people could not use the internet to do research or even play games they would not know what to do, but in the 21^st you can’t really blame anyone for this. As we move forward with technology our minds seem to stay were they are. We no longer need to store or even know information like we use to. Our minds aren’t really changed like they use to be. Nicholas Carr the author of this article said, “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski,” this quote is a  great example of what many people have come to be like and known. With Google we have come to known the easy way of life where we can just look everything up. Not having the same skills as generations befor us makes it so today’s generation is falling behind in the learning carve. With today’s great technological advances we can’t forget to bring our minds with us. In conclusion, Google is not letting our minds reach their full potential and even babying them in a way, but the biggest question is not is Google making us stupid but are we going to let it make us stupid?

What Would Happen if I Ran Away to Brazil?

Parents try to recover runaway teen in Brazil

This article makes me feel many different emotions. I must be honest and say like many kids I have considered the option of running away.  Brazil has kind of been in the back of my mind, pristine beaches and interesting food options. At the begging of this Article I was surprised about how easy it seemed for her to get there. I almost got excited at the fact that running away to Brazil could be and actual option. But as I continued to read I discovered the federal charges that could be pressed against me as a run away. I know for a fact that if I were in her shoes I would be scared to be held in Brazil, by the police and not be able to talk to my family. It would also not be a fun experience to get caught by a government as a run away.  I mean not only did I not want to have to deal with my family but now I have to deal with the government on my back.  It didn’t seem like her parents were too angry at her though. Personally I would be more scared of what my parents would do to me then the government. But I wouldn’t want to hand off, like a piece of meat, to my boyfriend’s uncle that would just be awkward. This article most defiantly made me think about many options I could take in my life and it’s just good to know the things that could happen if I attempted to run away to Brazil  

A Vision of Students Today

Watching the 'A Vision of Students Today' video make me have a plethora of emotion. It made me discussed at people that we have the privilege to go to school, learn, and to do great things with our life's but yet we waste it doing thing like texting our friends, creeping on someone's facebook, or watching TV. I feel like we take so much for granite now. Our teachers can sit there and teach us everything they know but in the long run the only thing that matters is that we do with that information. On the other hand the video made me realize, how much we rely on technology. I almost feel like we rely on it too much on it. What would people do if people could not text each other every second or could not find every single detail of everyone's life on facebook would all of mankind just fall apart, or could we actually make it without constantly "being connected"?