PLN 15

I read an article by David Warlick called Parents & Internet-Using Teens and what mattered to me is that kids are being safe on the internet. The article talked about how more parents are looking at what their children are doing on the internet. I think that this is a great thing to do because a lot of kids have a my-space account and are usually naive and don't realize that there are a lot of bad people on my-space and that they could be in trouble if they put down too much information. It said that parents focus on what their kids are looking at and watching rather than the amount of time spent doing that particular thing, and that is also good because teenagers could have access to a lot of things these days. in the article it said 87% of parents of teens get on line to check on what their kids are doing. I can relate to this because my mom is always checking my grades on infinite campus and checking on what I'm doing on the internet and stuff. It can be annoying but I know that it is a good thing. This relates to my English class because we use laptops and the internet a lot. I don't think that my teacher has to worry too much because all of the bad sites are probably blocked. He also mentioned in the article that kids are using the internet as a social network and are finding ways to learn from it. I don't know what I think about that because I don't know how much a kid can learn from my-space or face book. Anyway if your a parent reading this I would make sure your kid isn't doing anything that they shouldn't be because it could lead to bad things.

PLN 14

I read a post on Cool Cat teacher blog called Google Maps tracking California Fires and what mattered to me was that people are doing everything they can to help. The article talked about how Google maps are being used to track the fires in San Diego. I think that this is very sad but it is being resolved and I'm glad that they can use Google maps to see what's going on and how far it has spread so that they can evacuate everyone before it gets out of control. I can definitely relate to this because I know some people who live in San Diego and I also know some people who live fairly close. We have not been able to reach the family who lives in San Diego and I am starting to get worried, but we have gotten to talk to the people who live in L.A. and their doing just fine. Hopefully these fires can be resolved soon because a lot of people are losing their houses and the fires are only getting bigger.

PLN 13

I read a post by Craig Blog called Allowing Re-Takes To Improve Student Learning and what mattered to me was that teachers make sure students understand what they're teaching them. Thew post talked about how in Craig's biology class he allows his students to come in and re-take tests if they fail them, but he requires that the students come in for a review before re-taking the test. I think that it is great that he allows his students another chance to make sure every one understands it. If ever fail a test or quiz and have a chance to re-take it I always do, because if you fail things like that it can really bring down your grade. In the post he said 55 people were qualified to re-take he test when he first started doing this, and only 3 people came in to do over the test. In my English class my teacher doesn't except late work or re do our tests or anything but she does make sure we have a chance to completely understand the subject. I also think this is a good thing because when I wasn't getting my assignments done and it dropped my grade really low it made me realize that I have to start focusing and getting my things done, not just in that class but in all of my classes. So I think teachers ahould always let you re do tests that you failed or at least give you help to understand it and not just say something like "Next time pay attention and maybe you'll have a better chance of passing the test", not that any of my teachers say that but you get the idea.

PLN 12

I read a post by Mrs. Parsons called Technology- Is it changing the way we teach? and what mattered to me was how much we need to learn and what teachers should be preparing us for. The post talked about how technology is advancing and changing the way we are taught. It also talked about how there is to much knowledge available to us today for the brain to handle. I think that that's not true because we don't have to learn all of it we just need to learn what we have to or want to know. Just because there is a wide variety of things to learn doesn't mean that we have to learn it all. Sometimes I feel like my teachers are trying to make me learn way to many things but once I get my stuff together I realize that it's just a lot of work. Like she said, technology is changing the way we are taught but I think it's a good thing because technology is making it a lot esier to teach us things. Like rather than typing up a whole page of notes and printing it out for every student they can just leave it on the computer and put it on the projector. A question she asked was:

Has technology changed the way we teach, in some ways, but are we as teachers really preparing the students for the 21st century?

I see this in a lot of teachers blogs and I think theat they should stop worrying about it. All teachers should be worried about is preparing us for collage. Student should have some of the responsibility. I think that we can prepare our selves for the future, and that it shouldn't be the teacher's responsibility.

PLN 11

I read a post called State pushes teens to buckle up more, I think that this is a very important law and they should enforce it as much as possible. i know how dangerous a car crash can be with or with out your seat belt on. I also know that most teenagers who drive don't really care because they never think that it's going to happen to them but it does all the time, the article said:

In 2005, 71 teenagers died in Colorado from car accidents, 50 of whom were not wearing seat belts.

Just recently there was a huge car crash on University and Easter road. Someone drove through a stoplight pole, went through a fence and hit this guy in his back yard. That just shows you that people should be more careful and wear their seat belts. This relates to me in a way because not that long ago my youth group leader from church was telling us about how his best friend died because they were screwing around in their car and his friend tried to pass him and got hit by an oncoming car, flipped over and died. It was very sad but it happens every day and that needs to stop and hopefully these fines that you get for not wearing your seat belt will make people start wearing them.

PLN 10

I read a post called ACLU decries school cellphone searches and what matters to me is staying out of other peoples business. The post talked about officials doing a cell phone search at Monarch High School because the students were accused of cheating in school and doing drugs. The school was accused of committing felonies by violating the students right to privacy. I think that it's horrible that they looked through those students messages because theses days kids usually put personal things and such in their messages. But if they were cheating and doing drugs then they really brought this on their selves and deserved it, and they said that they did fin some bad stuff on some of the kids phones, the article said:

The administrator then "interrogated" the student about text messages that he found to be "incriminating."Other students were called into the administrator's office based on the text messages that were viewed.

I can relate to this because I have friends who say everything through their texts, they probably have a lot of stuff in their that they wouldn't want anyone else to see. There's probably at least one kid on my English class that has a lot of private stuff in their texts. So I think that you should never go through someones phone or anything of theirs without there permission. And maybe kids should just delete texts from their phone if they're personal or bad.

PLN 9

I read an article by David Warlick called More Thoughts On Filtering and what mattered to me was how schools filter their internet. The article was about how schools filter everything on the computers. Like they filter videos and certain searches for pictures and websites. I do understand why they block games and stuff that would distract us like that but sometimes they filter things we need. Like In middle school for reports in science, English, etc. most of the good information websites I found at home were blocked at school. In my English class I haven't come across one filtered website but thats probably because I only have been on the websites my teacher has told us to go on. This relates to me because when I was younger i had an e-mail account but I was to young to go on any of the sites I wanted to because of the age I had put in when I signed up. I just remember I always wanted an adult account, and I think I finally got one when I was 12 or 13. Back to the subject of the schools methods of filtering, I think they should take a little more time doing it. Instead of just blocking a whole search, just go into the search and block some of the things.

PLN 8

I read a blog by David Warlick called A Blog in the Woods? and it was about posting blogs that no one reads or comments on, and what mattered to me was getting feed back on your work. Sometimes getting good feed back on your work can really help. but when no one says anything it doesn't hep at all and it makes you feel like it's not even worth anyones time. In my english class we all comment on each other s blogs and it always helps me , weather it's some advice or just a compliment. In the blog he asks a funny question:

“Does a blog in the woods, that no one reads, make any noise?”

I think the answer to this question is definitely no, because if no one read it than how could their opinion make any difference in the world.
In conclusion I think it's definitely helpful to comment on peoples blogs. So I say when ever you have something good or helpful to say, say it. He also said:

“Just keep blogging and readers will come.”

I think this is a good saying because if someone doesn't say anything about one of your posts you should just keep doing it because eventually some one will have somthng to say.

PLN 7

I read a post by James Holman called Math In Life, and it was about what math students should be taught in school and if there going to use anything that they're teaching us. What mattered to me was being prepared for when we are adults and what kind of math we need to know, and that we might just forget all the other stuff we learned that we won't use when we're adults. In part of the post he said:

Should we focus more math on applications like home mortgages, credit card interest, taxes and other things that you might not learn in school?

I think leaning some of that would actually help prepare us more for the future because that's mostly what we are going to be doing that's related with math. I can connect to this because in fifth grade we learned how to write checks and do deposits and stuff to prepare us for Ameritown. Witch was a place we went to and ran our own little town with places like the store and the news office and everyone got a job, even being the mayor. But I totally forgot about how to do all that stuff, so maybe schools should put some of those subjects into their curriculum. This relates to my English class because some of the stuff in there we will use like proper writing format and so on. This relates to the world around me because my parents say they don't use most of what they learned in school now in days. I sometimes ask myself the question "When am I ever gonna use this when I'm an adult?" but usually the teacher has one reason or another.