PLN 6

I read an article by Jeff Utech on the Thinking stick called Student information Online and what matters is that kids and students are being careful with the information that they put online. He talked about how to be safe while on the internet. He mentioned a couple things you should do like:

1. Do not post personal information
2. Do not use last names
3. Get permission for pictures

These are all very important to remember when online. If you post something like your adress or your phone number or even your name people can find you. It is always important to make sure that your information is secure and no one accept your friends, family, and people you know can reach it. Myspace stories have gotten on the news all the time about how weirdos get on there and find kids and stuff and it is horrible. I have a myspace page myself, and I made sure not to post any information about me that was true and I blocked my page so only my friends can access it. Everyone who has a myspace should do this as well, and same with facebook or anything like it. I like how safe schools are in having to log in and blocking websites and stuff, but sometimes I think they can be a little to cautious. They block a lot of good resource websites like youtube and a lot of the images on google too. It is very important to be safe though no matter if the website looks safe or not.

PLN 5

I read an article in the rocky mountain news called Schoolboys face court in racial taunting and what matters from this is how people are acting dealing with racism. The article talked about how three boys were taunting a minority student yelling things at him and it resulted in a fight. The article stated:

A minority youth told school and police officials that other boys put hoods over their heads and taunted him, chanting "KKK," according to news reports. The confrontation lasted a few minutes between classes and resulted in a fight.

The boys were disciplined by the school and currently are permitted to attend classes, Adair said. She said the boys were all of different ethnicities.

I think that this is absolutely unacceptable. Those kids had no right in taunting that kid and especially the fact that they were all different ethnicities. This behavior is the kind of stuff that was supposed to be banned by the civil rights laws. Hopefully the boys apologized to the other kid because he didn't deserve that. This relates to the world because there is still quite a lot of people out there who still believe in racism and segregation. I am definitely not one of those people and neither is anyone that I know. I do not agree with that kind of stuff at all it is wrong and hateful and people should get punished for it, it is not something to be taken lightly.

PLN 4

I read an article on Weblogg-ed called Students Pay a Price (Literally) for Cell Phone Ban and what mattered is how much the youth of our time let alone everyone is so dependent on technology. The article talked about how this guy went to this middle school and was talking to the kids about technology. He was asking questions and all of them had cellphones and a guessed 90% had a myspace page. It also mentioned that they had a cellphone ban at the school. This is what he said about it:

But here was the moment that floored me. Obviously, these kids don’t leave their cell phones at home. They are too important as a communications tool for safety’s sake and for social connections. Yet they can’t get these phones through the airport like scanners at the front of the building. So what do they do? Seems a little cottage industry as sprung up at the delis and bodegas around the school so that kids can check their phones in for the day at $3 a pop. They get a ticket, just like a coat check, on their way into school, and they pick it up on the way out.

I cannot believe that these kids would pay $3 everyday just to have their cellphone after class. It would cost so much money every month. It is kind of sad how dependent they are on having their phones. and they are pretty much paying them to not be able to use them, why can't they just leave them at home. And also the 90% percent with myspace said that they also check them everyday. They use them to get information about homework, communication, and whatever else. I can relate this to my English class because we depend on our laptops in that class for the majority of our work. And think about how many people you see on there cellphones texting or talking to someone everyday. Everyone is dependent on technology these days.

PLN 3

There is a blog in The Thinking Stick titled Words That define your online presence and it talked about how to post a good blog. This matters because if you post bad blogs no one will want to read your blog anymore. It has 5 good tips about what to do and what not to do:

1. RESPECT THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. This is something just as important as it is obvious. Netspeak and 13375p34k can discredit even the most brilliant of blog postings, not to mention it opens the door to unnecessary comments about how there’s no ‘z’ in ‘please’.
2. Avoid sweeping generalizations. Of course, this should be absolutely no problem at all, considering we’ve covered it in the ToK classroom. If there’s one sweeping generalization that may be true, it’s that there are always exceptions. And even that one probably has an exception, too.
3. Don’t complain. Unless you’re at some website made specifically for the purpose, people don’t particularly care about your latest ex or the pet dog that just died. Furthermore, there will inevitably be somebody out there that has it much, much worse than you do, and will not hesitate to rip into you for it.
4. Don’t lose your temper. Should somebody post a scathing comment despite all your precautions, the worst thing you can do is flip out. Remember that everybody can see your retort, and there’s no glory in being baited by an uppity visitor. If it’s a baseless insult, ignore it. If it’s a legitimate critique, handle it objectively.
5. Chill out. This is one that I need to put into practice more often. I admit I’m far too paranoid when it comes to what I’m putting out for public viewing. The truth is that as long as you’re sub-celebrity-status, you’re still considered a mere mortal, prone to mistakes like everybody else. So don’t worry so much– it takes all the fun out of blogging.

I think that these are very important to remember while writing your blog if you want to make a good point. I can relate this post to my English class because my teacher, Ms. Smith, taught our class all we need to know about how to write a good blog. She told us we should always like to the post we talk about, to state what matters, and to relate it to our class the world and us. I think that blogs are a very good way for us to express our feelings about important stuff. It also teaches us how to right well and with more detail. I am glad that we have PLNs because they are helping my grade out a lot and they are kinda fun because you can write about whatever you want to pretty much.

PLN 2

Today for my PLN I read an article from the Denver post called Teen traffic deaths down in Colorado, and what matters from this is that teen car accident deaths are down and that means that they are started to realize that they need to drive responsibly. It stated that

Last year, 43 teens were killed in motor-vehicle crashes in Colorado, a 34 percent drop from 2006. In that year, 66 teen drivers and passengers — ages 16 to 20 — were killed, according to data compiled by the Colorado Department of Transportation. Colorado teen motor-vehicle deaths are down 60 percent from a high of 107 teens killed in 2002.

Still, safety officials are concerned about teenagers consistently ranking among those least likely to buckle up. Of the 43 teens drivers and passengers killed in Colorado last year, 27 (63 percent) were not wearing seat belts.

That is a pretty big drop but still more than 60% of the ones who died last year were not wearing seat belts. Even though it is a small number maybe if they were wearing their seat belts they still would have been here. I think that we should enforce seatbelt laws a lot more and make it a lot harder to get away with not wearing your seat belt. This relates to my English class because a couple of students and I did a PSA about teens and distractions while they are driving. It was about how it causes a lot of the accidents that teens are involved with. If they would eliminate distractions and focus on driving maybe that number would be a lot less.

PLN 1 Semester 2

I read a blog by Jeff Utecht called Why time in the Hallways is Time Well spent and what mattered to me is that kids can learn from one another. In this post he talks about how kids are talking about school work and things like that outside of class. Like sharing with each other what you are doing in class. I think that this is good and that the students can learn from each other. Especially if they are talking about the same type of class like math or science. They can share ideas with each other and learn from that. Sometimes I will find my self talking about school with my friends, it is not always positive but at least we talk about it. In the article he even said that teachers talking to each other can learn. Like new ideas for class or what other teachers are teaching. So it is a good learning experience to talk about stuff like that and that is why time in the hallways is time well spent.