What Matters Presentation

PLN 26

I read a post out of the Rocky Mountain news called Colorado eighth in suicides and what mattered is that people are having these problems especially so much around here. The article talked about how Colorado ranked 8th on the suicide rate per capita. It also said we got 17th for depression. This is sort of disappointing because Colorado seems more of like a place that's not that depressing. But I guess some people just have that problem. I really didn't expect us to be 8th on suicides because I never really hear about them on the news. I think that it is kind of sad. The article said that about 800 people each year die of suicides. I think that if you start having thoughts of suicide you should go see someone about it. It is a serious problem and same with depression because half the time depression can lead to suicide. I don't know of anyone who actually committed suicide but my friend was on this medicine that helped her acne and she was supposed to drink a certain amount of water every day but she didn't and the whole tie she was on the medicine she was depressed and moody. I wonder who has the highest rate of suicides and why. It is kind o into hear why people committed suicide but it is also very sad. I wish there was a way to stop it but all it usually deals with is peoples personal life. Hopefully people will start thinking it about it more and they will go see someone for help.

PLN 25

I read a post out of the Fischbowl called Fight Hunger While Learning Vocab and it matters that there are organizations like Freerice.com because it really helps starving people all around the world. The article talks about this website called Free Rice ans you can get on and answer vocabulary questions and each one you get right it donates 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. Here is what he said in the article:

• Click on the answer that best defines the word.


• If you get it right, you get a harder word. If wrong, you get an easier word.


• For each word you get right, we donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.
  

It is great that something this easiy can be this helpful. I actually got on the website and donated a little over 1000 grains of rice. It is pretty fun seeing how much you know. some of the words are really hard but you don't lose anything for a wrong answer, plus it's multiple choice. I bet they make a lot of donations because it is a fun way to do it. I am always hearing about people in Africa and other places who are starving and it is good that they are getting food from this website and from the united nations world food program. This kind of relates to what my school is doing right now with the toys for tots. It is cool that we can give those kids a chance to get at least one present this year for Christmas. I can't imagine what it feels like to get nothing for Christmas. I hope that a lot of people continue to use free rice and maybe eventually we won't have world hunger anymore.

Presentation evaluation

On my second presentation I feel that I did better than my first. Everyone said I did well on my presentation and did a good job explaining what matters. I guess that I said "um" too much but I didn't even really notice I was saying it. I was a little nervous but I feel like I knew what I was doing. I think that I should have maybe practiced a little more that way I wouldn't of had to use my notes as much like some people said I did. Also relating the blogs was not as much of a problem this time, and I don't think I used my notes that much. If I were to have to do it again the best thing I could do to make it better is to not be nervous and to practice.

PLN 24

I read an article by Michele Davis called Why are kids failing? and what matters is that kids aren't doing what they can to help their grades in school. The article talked about how Mrs. Davis is giving her students a lot of opportunity's in her class to raise their grades but the kids are slaking. A majority of her student have D's and F's. These students should work harder and follow up on their assignments so that they can do better in class. I think that it is sad that she is giving her students all these opportunity's but the kids aren't doing anything so it's really just hurting their grade more. I can relate this to me because I started off really bad in my English class because I wasn't doing the assignments. It hurt my grade pretty bad because there was so much that I neglected. But when I finally started to do them they really add up and raised my grade. It seems that a lot of people in my class were struggling with their and maybe some still are but if you start to do the assignments it's really not that hard to raise your grade. I can relate this to the world because a lot of people just don't care about school and get bad grades and usually have to repeat that class. Sometimes this can lead to students dropping out of school. I'm sure that it sucks for the teacher too. They probably put a lot of work in their assignments and for the student to just neglect it would kind of suck. Students should just do the best they can on their work and if they need help they should talk too the teacher, but you shouldn't just put it off because you don't feel like it or you don't think that you can do it.

PLN 23

I read a blog called Pocket Texting and Open Phone Tests by Will Richardson and what mattered was how kids are cheating on there tests. This post talked about how a 14 year old boy named Insoo from South Korea who could send texts on his cell phone with out even taking it out of his poket. He would send these texts to get answers on tests and stuff in school. It also talks about a web site that he goes on to that you can post questions, and a few minutes later someone will post an answer. The article said:

The first thing Insoo does after Hakwon [his school] is, of course, turn on the PC. Insoo has a difficult math problem as homework. He posts it up on Naver Knowledge iN, a popular online Q&A service with some 70 million entries. Within about 10 minutes of posting, someone chimes in with a good answer, and Insoo awards him with some “Knowledge Power” points — knowledge-based economy in action among 14-year-olds.

I think that this is bad because of how easy it makes it to cheat. A question that Will asked was: Should open phone tests be ok? I say that they should definitely not be ok be cause the kids could just text and get the answers from another kid who already took the test. Then they wouldn't be learning anything. The kids should just study and do good on their own. I can kind of relate this to my social studies class because we switch papers and grade each others quizzes and their has been some cheating where two kids switch the answers for each other if they got it wrong. And I'm sure that that isn't the only class were people cheat. There is always going to be some people who cheat and I think that we should do the most we can to stop it, and open phone tests is probably not helping.