It All Leads To Teamwork...

This article by Tony Wagner, Rigor Redefined, is about how we need to try harder to prepare students for everything in the 21^st century.

What does “rigor redefined” mean, anyway? It means that we need to re-look at how hard everyone works and how hard we need to work because everything that we are learning may turn out to be completely useless in the long run.  For example, there are jobs out there that we would never have thought would exist. But, there are going to be millions of jobs that we are not ready for that are just around the corner. Being the student, we cannot blame our educators. We have to take the blame as well. It has to do all with teamwork. One senior executive from Dell said, “Yesterday’s answers won’t solve today’s problems”.  This is what we will be saying once we are employed in these nonexistent (yet) jobs.

The three main ideas to take away from this article for the students is that we need to ask good questions; question ourselves, the provider, and the world even.  The teachers cannot tell us what to think. Once we grow up to be employers, we have to ask our OWN questions, instead of having people tell us the questions FOR us. We need to engage in good discussion and use teamwork; without teamwork, we cannot get great discussion. Discussion and teamwork will help us in the world when we are older as employers, when it’s not an option to be a good communicator; you have to be. Asking questions leads to teamwork, which leads to great discussion.  This article, in only the first page, inspires us to work hard and that we can really get anything done if we put our hearts to it.

The only part of this article that I question and think was not right for Wagner to say was when he mentioned how “…Young people’s poor grammar, punctuation, or spelling- the things we spend so much time teaching and testing in our schools...”  I feel as if in the last sentence of this quote is a bit harsh. These writers, who write about 21^st century jobs and such, need to realize that we, the students, are trying our hardest to get our grades up. I just got the impression from this paragraph that they do not have any faith in us.

Later in the article, Wagner started preaching about the ties when he went to many schools with very high test scores and observed the students.  What I took from these stories, is that these “AP” students are not very good at communicating or questioning.

In our English class, Mrs. Comp always tells us to question, question, question; question everything. We, the students, do not understand how important this concept is. For me, however, I learned that when Mrs. Comp questions us, it stretches our learning so much and it’s the same case when we question things.

All in all, Wagner is getting the point across to us that we need to focus really hard on “…the importance of critical thinking, communication skills, and collaboration.”

WE are the Web

In Michael Wesch’s educational video, Web 2.0 … The Web Is Us/ing Us, really makes us think about how the web has changed so much in so little time. This video covers a lot of topics and I had to watch it at least times, forward, rewind, pause and take notes on it to really grasp and understand the message of this video.  The concept is how we are the ones stretching out the web.

To start, the content of this video was awesome. There was so much going through my mind when there were not even direct words given. When Wesch added that music, it just makes you drawn into the video and even more interested in the subject. When we are trying to learn something, we assume that we need words and direct words. But this showed us that we can learn so much by just watching!

Through all of the things I learned from watching this video, there were many subjects that really stuck with me.  One of these being that this shows how they can go through everything done in cyberspace all the way back to when the web was created. This was showed when they went to the website called The Wayback Machine. This website was that you could go back to any webpage in history and all the same information and formatting will be there. Michael Wesch also proved that we used to have to go to so much work just to make a page or a document. We had to go to formatting and know all of the abbreviations such as <p> for paragraph, <i> for italic, and <b> for bold, etc. Nowadays, we just type in what we want, and we can find or publish it in a second. We pretty much have to do no work compared to when the web was first used. The web became so modernly-accurate because we were the ones who taught it. When the Wesch showed The Web 2.0 on Wired, I understood that if we think of the web as a child (even though we all know technology is very smart), we will comprehend this better. When we teach children little things, it sticks with them for a long time. Therefore, when we feed stuff into the web, we are teaching the web an idea so that it stretches out second by second each day.

This video makes me wonder, is the web taking too much of our time and taking away our traditions of learning through text books?  Obviously, the web has a very positive impact on our learning, but it is taking away our history. Some people do not believe in technology because they want to keep our traditions. If they think about it though, we are learning more than we ever would have dreamed of through the web.

All in all, I loved this video because it made us think hard about how the web was created and how it continues to stretch every day when over 100 billion times a day, a human clicks on a web page. In my opinion, if the word saw this video, it would change many perspectives on the web.

Think!

A week ago, on October 14^th, Monte Whaley from the Denver Post posted the article, Teams Fined, Players Suspended, Criminal Charges Pondered in Pre-Season Hockey Brawl.  This hockey “brawl” was in a game between the Colorado Eagles and the Texas Jackalopes. Both teams are part of the Central Hockey League (CHL), which is a mid-level professional league.  In most hockey games, there are a few tense moments, and maybe even a couple punches thrown. However, this game was different and MUCH more tense than any ordinary game. This game was very edgy, and maybe even unlawful.  One of the Larimer sheriff’s told the Denver Post that there were “…seven fights in the first two minutes of the third period.” One of the Texan players was hospitalized with a broken nose and jaw.  He also needed 18 screws and a few metal plates to fix the damage done to his face.  Supposedly, he was taken off-guard when the fight started and what started the even bigger brawl was that one of the Colorado players (who used to be a Texas player) jumped off the bench and started throwing punches.  This just got worse as it went on.  The Colorado player who started it is suspended for 22 games, and the other two players who got into the fight have been suspended for four or five games. The Colorado coach got suspended for a few games as well. The league and these players have large fines to pay. These fines will be donated to the Wilbur’s Fund for Women with Breast Cancer in Northern Colorado.  

                This article caught my eye when it said hockey. My family is a HUGE hockey family. My extended family has all played, my dad is the coach for the Colorado Thunderbirds and the Arapahoe High School team, and my brother is playing juniors hockey right now in Texas.  I was in the ice rink when I was five days old. My family does not go one day without talking about hockey, hockey, hockey.  

                Although I am not aware of the exact punishments that were given, this article makes me feel very modern.  I mean “modern” by what this world is becoming. Why is “modern” defined (in this case) as violence, and such? Why do we get so angered? I do admit that I have had moments that I cannot stand the opposing team and I want to do something about it. But is it worth is to hurt someone else so severely and have a consequence to go along with it? In my eyes, it’s a tragedy that could have been avoided. These guys are playing hockey because they love it; why would they want to put the risk of losing it on the line? Anyone who has played any sport can put themselves in this position.

                This article can relate to my life because of volleyball experience and hockey experiences.  Firstly, when we play Cherry Creek, we always have the closest games and usually end up going into a third game.  The girls on the team can be rude and there are moments that everyone just wants to squeeze something so tight and get the anger out.  Another reason is that being a coach’s daughter and a player’s sister, I have seen many fights.  One being against Heritage High School. Tensions were high just because the two high schools are such rivals. There were at least four huge fights. Because of these, the players owed a fine, and the players and the coach (my dad) were suspended from the bench for two games.  One stupid mistake by teenage boys is not worth the consequences!

                This article made me realize that everyone should think twice before saying or doing something because no one wants to deal with the consequence, no matter how large or small.

Does High Altitude Have Anything To Do With Suicide Rates?

While browsing through many articles from Google Reader, I found an interesting article by Sarah Mausolf from the Denver Post and Vail Daily, “New Study Examines Suicide at High Altitude”, which really made me think hard. 

Mausolf starts out talking about a study published in September in the “American Journal of Psychiatry” that was concerning why suicide rates are higher in Western states which have higher altitudes than the other states. Since many residents in the West go hunting very often, they tend to have a higher gun population than those in any other region.  Also, due to lack of oxygen, it could have a metabolic stress impact on the brain, causing deeper depression. Another factor could be because in the West, there are many rural areas, that our more isolated and lonely, causing depression.  Although many of the causes of suicide differ all the way from age to family history, this is an inference of another cause of depression/suicide.  These statistic's are also backed up from when the lead researcher of this study looked at South Korea's suicide rates and found the same data that has to do with higher altitudes.

This article first caught my attention because of what happened last year at Arapahoe High School with so many suicides and because we live in the high altitudes. In this article, it states that “At Colorado’s high altitude, …the suicide rate is about 70 percent higher than it is at sea level.” That is a lot of people committing suicides in the West. This helps us to notice that since our high school is in a high altitude, we should be cautious of our friends, and that if they are suffering from this, we should help them.  Everyone at AHS would agree about this. What surprised me about this article was that it just said the statistics and facts; it did not even put a suicide prevention website or advice. I understand this was not the purpose of the article, but it would have been good if there was.  This article made me think why don’t we try to avoid these suicide rates and try to lower the statistics? Why don’t we TRY to do something like put more psychiatrists in more rural places in the US?

Taking everything into account, I hope the readers of this article try to change and lower these statistics!

What We, The Learners, Need To Do

After I read Will Richardson’s “Footprints in the Digital Age”, it made me realize that while we “suppose” teachers are supposed to teach us everything we need to know, but I was wrong…we are learning so much by just using technology.

            In this 3-page article, Richardson covers a lot of topics.  He starts out talking about how will we be searched when we are older? When people type in a first name, what will come up about us that we did not even know was on the internet? He goes into how we, the learners, teach ourselves everyday by just using technology and also how our teachers and elders need to set an example for us by using technology more often and try to influence us.

            I could really envision this and relate this article to me, because Richardson says, “Many 7- and 8-year-olds are busy exploring Club Penguin or Webkinz, … and adolescents preen themselves in front of their ‘friends’ on MySpace or Facebook.” I could relate this to me because I used to be one of those 8-year-olds having a Club Penguin, and without realizing it, that is going to be on the web for the rest of my life. I also have a Facebook and that is going to have all of my information forever. This is just odd to think about to me because it seems like everything in life fades…but to know that this will not fade, is really different. This article also taught me that no matter how good of a child you are, you still have to be extremely careful of what you put on the web for the certain reason that it will ALWAYS be there forever.  Also, in this article, I learned that because of this reason, celebrities are found every day on the internet. For example, when Richardson brings up Laura Stockman, a 10 year-old from New York who helped raise money for many charities whether it was for the poor or animal shelters all because of her grandfather. She became well-known after she connected with people through the Net to help her with her many fundraisers. This made me think about how Justin Bieber turned into one of the top 10 celebrities (maybe of all time) just because he posted videos of his music on YouTube. Personally, I think this is so awesome how people’s talents can be viewed and make them so well-known! It is inspiring.  The questions that these brought up for me was How did we even think about bringing such big technology into the world? Who found out that we can learn from just doing blogs? This is so great because it really shows us how people think “outside of the box” with pretty much everything in the world. This article alone can continue into so many different topics.

            All in all, the web is teaching us everyday and we are learning more than we thought was possible in the 1900’s.

Innocent Kid's Show Turns Into A Huge Celebrity Controversy

            The Daily Beast posted "Katy Perry Sesame Street Episode Pulled for Being Too Hot"
In this post, it showed Katy Perry with a ''scandalous'' dress on while she aired on the children's show Sesame Street. In the video, Katy Perry sung to Elmo a different version of "Hot and Cold", but changed the lyrics around to fit the setting; Elmo did not want to play with her. What was so scandalous about this dress of hers was that it was a tight, skimpy, green dress that was too low for the parents' likings.

In this article, it claims that many parents complained about how the “…cleavage was too much for some parents…” The Sesame Workshop explained that they put Katy Perry in the show in the first place to get more views from children and adults as well. Therefore, the workers did not think about how the children would look at her, they just cared about how the adults saw her.

This article made me think about topics such as why do people even make clothes like this? Why would somewhere wear something such as this in public? An even crazier thought was why wear this when a person makes a guest appearance on a children television show?  I think this was became too out-of-hand and should have been taken care of in the beginning before it even became an issue.  Katy Perry is a famous singer and has a choice in what she wears; and even if it is not her choice, she still has a say in what she is wearing. I am a fan of Katy Perry; I think she is a good-choice-making celebrity (unlike most celebrities these days) and she cares about what the public thinks of her. If she had any idea that parents would get angry at all at this, she probably would have stopped it. On the other hand, The Sesame Workshop should have been watching out for actions like this taking place with the parents; therefore, they should have also put a stop to it before.

Young children are very impressionable and they want to look and dress like the people they see on television.  This was an opportunity for Katy Perry to show how fun a t-shirt and jeans can be and everyone would have been happy.  The song she sang had a great message about friendship and playing nicely.  It would have been received well and seen by millions if she would have dressed appropriately.  Then again, the children don’t look at what she is wearing, they only care about what she is doing, and that is simply just wanting to play friendly with Elmo.   

This can connect to average people anywhere, any age because it is just like doing something before thinking. We need to think of the consequences before even attempting or starting to do something.

Google: Helping or Dumbing Us?

In Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, he talks about how Google and the Internet are impacting our entire lives.  This article is about how the Web can distract us to the very extreme that our brains are changing.  This is happening because we can get any kind of information we need within the click of a button.  Carr also talks about while we are reading a long piece of writing nowadays, we get distracted or bored to the point where we either start doing something else that interests us, or simply begin to skim the writing.  

In this article, there is a part that says “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 shows that we can do anything we want so quickly. I also love this quote because it is comparing the past to the present. The past being so hard-working, and the present being so quick that we just glide right along.

This article also says “…not to mention the popularity of text-messaging on cell phones, we may well be reading more today that we did in the 1970’s or 1980’s…” This part really made me think how much I text each day. Personally, I receive/send an average of 382 texts per day. Text messaging is (for the most part) all abbreviations, which is “dumbing” us down in my opinion. I believe that Google has both the impact to dumb us down but also to help us. It is dumbing us down by not letting us use our resources like we did a few years ago even. I found this article very hypocritical because while he was talking about how we cannot concentrate on long writings, he wrote a 7.5 page paper, which I found difficult to read. Therefore, this article was very true in the sense that we get distracted awfully easily. I found myself dragging on and even at one point I ended up reading a magazine at one point in the middle of the piece. This article made me kind of sad in a way because it showed and made me realized how much we do depend on the computers and technology and that we are not as independent as we used to be even 10 years ago. This article makes me think why can’t we use the resources and use our brains to do stuff? Why are we so lazy now?

All in all, I’m very glad we read this article to make us think about how to be smarter than the internet and use our brains so that we are intelligent.  The world should care about this because it is our future.