Motivation - A Response

     In my opinion, I just love Tony's blogging style. Why you may ask? It's because of his visuals. His visuals are a great way to emphasize on his key words and phrases. Instead of bolding or italicizing his key words, he uses pictures to help aid his ideas. Also, the visuals get my attention really quickly, it gets me intrigued to what he wants to say. For example, if you see a post with just plain words in it, you get the impression that the may or may not be good, but it will definitely be boring. But if you see a post with visuals, you automatically get the impression that the post has something interesting in it. In a nutshell, his visuals are a great aid to make his posts more interesting and fun to read.

     Not only are his visuals great, but also his points about motivation. I completely agree with Tony about motivation. Teachers have to learn to connect with their students, find out what triggers that spark of motivation in the student. This is quite tricky for the teacher, due to the fact that every student is unique in their own ways, and have their own ways of triggering their motivation. Which is why I agree with Tony's points, you have to let the students have options. You shouldn't always be strict and restrain what you want to see from the student, but you should give options for the student, to pick what the student prefers. When a student picks what he wants to do, it gives him/her motivation to do it. Once you are able to motivate all the students, I guarantee, you will so a drastic improvement in the student's learning.

     In a short summary, I couldn't agree with Tony more, and his visuals are great. It emphasizes things in a more unique way, and it's fun. And his point are actually relatable to some people (Ex. Teachers, staff, etc ..) Also, I agree that the student should be learning out of joy, from their choice, not always restrained to what the teachers want. If you don't achieve this, the student will get bored, and get sloppy and/or lazy

   
   

Tony Gurr response

Tony Gurr response
In humanities class on Wednesday we did a lot of things. One of those things was going on to Tony Gurr's blog. Tony is a man who post things on Learning and motivation. Tony has a lot of interesting posts on his blog,also he calls his blog  a LEARNacy blog. I know LEARNacy isn't a word however it creative and original which are things Tony mentions on his blog. Now I am going to mention things about his blogs and some things that I might not have liked as much.

 Tony has a lot of interesting and true information on his Blog. I loved how Tony added a bit of humor in some of his posts. I completely agree with everything Tony says in his posts. An example would be the post of the hand flowers I find that really smart, also I find it true how the image says creativity doesn't run out the more you use the more you have. I find that post very accurate,because how can something that comes form your brain be something that runs out? Some of his other posts that I like is the one of the with the fish, it says when we catch a fish, we bait the hook with what the fish like, not what the fisherman likes. In class we had a bit of a discussion on what this post is about. In conclusion we came up with it being about how when teachers teach they should teach what the students are interested in, not what the teacher are interested in. I am not saying any teacher that teaches about what they like are bad teacher, however as well as teaching what interests them the should as do the same for the students,so they don't get bored. However they shouldn't just be teaching what the students are interested in but there should be a bit or compromise. Like in the post fisherman may not like worms but they do like fish. I guess in a way they may not put on the hook what they like but in the end they do get what they like.

After mentioning some of the posts on Tony's Blog that I quite enjoyed, I am going to have say somethings about his blog that I didn't like. In my opinion Tony's blog is super,however I found the only thing I didn't like about his blog, was the excessive amount of pictures. The pictures are great however an excessive amount might draw the audience away from what he is really trying to say. While Ms Lees was showing some of Tony's posts I got distracted by the blushing fish,and I might have missed what he was trying to say if Ms Lees didn't ask us about it. Also in my opinion I think that instead of always trying to get point across with images, you could try explaining what you want to say with something like poetry. Other then that though I thought his blog was very interesting.

So to conclude my Thoughts I am going to give a brief summary of my thinking. After Looking through Tony's blog, I learned things I've never even thought about. Also my thoughts on somethings have expanded since reading some of Tony's posts. Also as I mentioned before I really liked some of the humor added in the posts, I felt in a way it helped me see the post in a humorous perspective as well as a serious one. Other then the excessive amount of photo's there was nothing else on Tony's blog I disliked. On the other hand something else I really liked on Tony's blog was how he capitalized the root word to emphasize it more. For example LEARNing or TEACHing. So in conclusion I have learned lot's from visiting Tony's blog

 

Poetry That Moves - By John Laraya

Sorry for the horrible quality in the video. I replaced the words you can't read with annotations, so it should be fine. c:

 My Stop Motion Video Poem
JUST DON'T WANT TO GROW UP
Poem by Amy Kredo


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd-kkOWuW48

What is my ________?
My companion My bestfriend
The owner he will always defend
Furry and four legged
Very Fierce but very timid
Toys and tails thrown
He, I will always own
Happiness all around
Always playing on the ground
But when he passes away
My days will be dull and every grey

Definition Poem

Its head is as white as new fallen snow

Its eyes like deep black holes

Its beak a jagged hook, and yet beautiful to the look

The body is as black as ink

The wings mightier than the sphinx

Its talons sharper than knives

As it preys on small creature day and night

It soars though the sky with much grace

Circling above with no haste

Laying its eggs oh so high

If they fell they would surely die

I fly in the sky what am I?

The -----

It's movements, slower than still water
It's fur, home free the weak
Claws, as sharp as knives
Body like a hammock
Hibernates every second
Watches the world pass by before them
Never leaves it's home
Motionless, as still as ice

Definition poem

What am I?

Color is my identity
 beauty is my signature

There to stand guard
while you lie at peace never to be disturbed    

Danger masked with beauty
I live in dread of approaching winter

Glowing in the sun as I greet dawn
with my last moments I begin to crumble

Until there is nothing left but a twig of loneliness and despair
what am I?
                                                                                                                                         

Election Questions

5. Reflect on the analysis of CBC vote compass results. Share some of them in your post. Consider - did the results surprise you, were any contradictory, do you think the vote compass has helped you to figure out who you might vote for - explain....

My results for the voting compass were that my interests related to the NDP party. This slightly surprised me even though I was going to vote for the NDP party. I mostly want to vote for the NDP party because of everything that they said they were going to do on like lower the taxes and raise welfare rates. The voting compass has helped me have more reasons to vote for the NDP.

Even if I don’t choose to vote for the NDP’s the second choice for me was the Liberals. But I think I would rather vote for the conservatives because they are the in between of Liberals and NDP and might not cause the loss of as much money as the Liberals.

I think the voting compass is very helpful because it tells you lots of info on your party that you want to vote for and it helps you figure out whom to vote for. Like the many people who don’t want to vote can use this and see which parties answer for problems they responded to. This could cause more people to vote because they would know who they would know who they wanted to vote for. Also the voting compass can help educate kids on how to vote and on politics. The questions on the compass would be great for them even though they would have some trouble answering.  This was my voting compass results and what I think of the voting compass.

Election reflection

Should voting be mandatory

Yes I think voting should be mandatory. However I don' t think people should get fined if they don't vote. If they make voting mandatory it will defiantly increase by a lot. But making it punishable by fines people would want to rebel. Voting is a way to share their opinion of who they think should be the leader. So if they feel that none of the choices are good enough for them the shouldn't have to vote. If they feel that none of the leaders should be a leader they have the right to not to vote.


So now I am going to talk about the reasons voting should be mandatory. As well as they reasons it shouldn't be mandatory. So lets start off with the reasons I think are the reasons voting should be mandatory. People should vote though because we are lucky enough to live in a democracy where we at least have the privilege of picking our leader. In most places people can't choose who they want to be their leader a good leader or not they have to settle for that person. So I feel people should acknowledged this privilege. I also think the more votes there are the more fair the outcome. Because if for example 10 people voted 5 people voted for Green 1 person voted for NDP 2 People voted for Vision and 1 person voted for conservative then the last person voted for Liberals. That wouldn't be fair. however if 200 people vote 100 people vote for Liberals 50 people vote for Green 10 people vote for conservatives 25 people voted for vision and 15 people voted for NDP. That sounds more fair doesn't it


There are reasons voting should not be mandatory. Like for example if it turns out we elect a horrible leader.(This Leaders name can be Bob) So if someone didn't want to vote but since it was mandatory the ended up voting for Bob. Then after elections are over and Bob shows his true colors people are going to regret voting for him. Especially the people who were forced to vote for him because it was mandatory to vote. It should be their choice. Voting is a way to share a persons opinion and that opinion should not be a forced one. We have to acknowledge the people who are to busy with their lives to get caught up with things like election. Or maybe there is someone who doesn't understand English so they don't get the concept of voting. So then that person ends up probably making a spoiled vote. So it was pretty much a waste of paper because that person didn't get what they were doing. These are the cons of making voting mandatory.


So now that you have read both the reasons voting should be and should not be mandatory. So as I mentioned before I think voting should be mandatory. However I think the fine might be a bit much. The reason for this is because nobody wants to be fined because they felt none of the people running should be elected. Or because they were to busy with their lives to worry over voting. So I am not sure if you can make voting mandatory with out the fine because it will just be the same as it is now. However it could possibly encourage people to vote. If people see that voting is important enough to have a law made for it maybe they will feel obligated to vote. Most people never really thought their vote counted for much but if they see that there will be a Law made about it they will feel that maybe their vote is important. Also it is still illegal not to vote and people know that just because there are no consequences doesn't mean they can break the law. The will still acknowledge and accept the fact that voting is mandatory and it's the law.


So in conclusion I think voting should be mandatory but without the fine or maybe a really small fine like $30. So it isn't going overboard but its enough for people to think voting doesn't cost anything and if i do I'll save $30 and spend on something more useful. That concludes my Reflection thank you

Election Reflections !

           As you know in Canada's laws, you must be 18 or older in order to vote in elections. But we are given a chance in something called "Student Vote", where us students, have the privilege to vote for a party in the elections. 

           In my personal opinion, I found that NDP election group was more suited for my needs and concerns, so I voted for them. Why you may ask? Well, out of my own nature, I'd like to see a change in poverty, and the one of NDP's main goals to achieve, is to make poverty disappear. But the main reason I voted for the NDP, was because the Liberals have been running for quite a while now, and I'm not seeing much change to the more needy people. For example, the Liberal is just being more kind to the prosperous. The changes they're doing is only better for the more wealthy, and helping much of the poor. The NDP is more social-friendly. When I say 'social-friendly', I mean that they're more people orientated, and making a better social environment. Not only that, but there are some complaints about the government, and how they're not seeing much change going on while the Liberals are running, and I think it's time for a little change.

           Given the opportunity to vote, I think spoiling a ballot is quite improper. Every single vote counts for a lot. Imagine, if one person spoils a ballot, not much effect happens right? What if it doubled, two spoiled ballots, not that big. Then double it again, and again, and sooner or later, you would end up with about 80 or more spoiled ballots. Voting opportunities are a privilege, ladies and gentlemen. Don't abuse it and let it go to waste. Those votes can really make a change between the counting, and can even lose a party a sitting.

            In my opinion, I think that voting in Canada should be mandatory. I think this because I think it's right that everyone has to share their opinions on which party is right, and what's not right. If you think about it, if not everyone votes, and people start complaining about the government, they can't blame the government, since they didn't vote. If you just vote, it would help a lot. Canada should pass a law that it is required to vote for an election group, but if they don't, they will be fined with charges. The charges won't be too much, but enough to make the message stick in the citizen's mind.

            Looking at the media during elections can change one's mind about voting for a specific group. The media can spread dirt on a certain group, and could possibly make it lose quite a few voters. Looking at the media during elections, the media can affect the outcomes of an election. it can show a positive or negative outlook on certain groups. In my opinion, the media shouldn't play by favourites. If they did, then elections would be completely unfair, since dirt can be tossed around anytime.

            This was my opinion on the elections that passed. (PS: I couldn't do the vote thingy on the CBC website, my answer won't load :c)

Digital life has changed how we live in good and not so good ways. Technology has gotten more advanced and it makes some things in life easier for us. We can capture high quality pictures with our mobile devices, use our electronics to look anything up on Google in a few seconds. Entertainment has been a big part of our new digital life with 3D t.v.'s and movies it is incredible what people have done to make these advanced changes in just a few years. Such as accomplishing the iPhone 3,3S,4,4S, and even iPhone 5 soon to be an iPhone 5S in a few years or less. our cars and automobiles nowadays have GPS so we can find our way easily around cities so we wont get lost, using a map for this will make you look so called " old-schooled". There are voice activating systems in the car so we are hand free when we drive to prevent accidents.We can contact family around the world with a laptop or computer to use Skype so we do not need to use long distance calling. There are higher security now and it is easier to catch a criminal on camera  and search up incidents easily with advanced computer technology.
Even though digital life has changed our lives in a good way, it is not always good. Cellphones have made us reachable no matter where we are, which can't be a good thing. When you are away from work, the only way you could be contacted was "via" your home phone but not anymore. With cellphones, you can be tracked down wherever you are. With cellphones people always are on them talking to someone rather than talking to live people who are right there with them. All of the talking, texting, and emailing has made us less able to socialize face to face with others.Kids no longer want to play outside because they have Wii or Playstation in their house to play with. When you go to a friends house now, you dont play "cars" or " "barbies" anymore you play video games for the hours you will be with your friend. iPads, nintendo that are portable have kids/ teenagers bringing it along everywhere with them, which causes bad eye sight and back problems in the future. This goes for everyone now matter how old you are.
It also struck me when my teacher showed us a picture of the kids we were working with to make a story, drawing pictures for the story on the iPad. What happened to drawing on paper and coloring with crayons? Now we can draw with touchscreen and use "paint" to color on the touchscreen.
Digital life has its pros and cons for some things we need to learn how to control but for others, digital life has made life easier and better!

Motivation (NRPNBP)

Motivation is the reason or reasons one has, for acting or behaving in a particular way. Mrs.Pratas has an interesting topic in which she wrote many wonderful and thoughtful opinions on why the motivations of children is the difference between a amazing and bright future and a dark future. Without doubt, there are many other things that affect being a successful and an extra ordinary individual, such as ideas, pushing to the limit, thinking outside of the box, persistence, focusing, building on your mistakes and much more but motivation is up there too.

Motivation is known as a strong force which helps people to achieve what they want and aspire to, which can help overcome all possible obstacles. If poperly supported with strength of mind and courage of the spirit, motivation can become an unbeatable weapon in the hands of anyone on the way to achieve allsorts of succes and lead to a much beter life. The essay was excellently written and the I personally agreed with many of the aspects in which she looked at motivation. She stated many interesting and true facts about learning and motivation such as learning is not an easy path. Infact its a rough and foggy bridge. A bridge where one wrong step can lead you to the ocean of darkness beneath it. But only people with the characteristics of an extraordinary person and motivation can lead you to your destiny waiting for you, the end of the bridge, a amazing and rich life. These people are the ones who strike through the fog and fight their way through to the other side. She also wrote that teachers only open the door for you, the students have to walk in. Not only is the locked door is not easy to open, but hard to walk in it as well. It’s like a door a thousand miles away. Where there are no short cuts. Students have to have great determination, talent and motivation. But as Lao Tzu once said “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and every step takes you closer.

I greatly enjoyed the whole essay, but there were a few dents in it that can be fixed with a little effort. There are some pictures that mislead/confuse the reader about what you are trying to say. For example, if you talk about persistency and put a picture of a bear, it will be a bit confusing. Over all, keep publishing great topics like these.

Ali.

REMINDER!!!!!!!!!!!

I know i posted this pretty late but i know you guys are probably awake so remember to do your comments and they can't be only three sentences long. So if you already posted a comment but it's really short add on to it. Please everybody do comment though. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No Red Pill No Blue Pill

I found the article No Red Pill No Blue Pill very relatable and very interesting too.  enjoyed the hook to this article by putting the introduction very mysterious and story like format. The way she presented her ideas and thoughts were much different then I usually read which really made me pay attention to the whole article making sure I wouldn't get confused along the way. I love the way she had pictures and visuals to go with the article though a few of the pictures confused me but captured my attention at first to read what the article was about. I found the infogrpahcis helpful and easier to understand the article.

I love how she said " Learning may be social, but in the end it is individual " because it is very true. We all have our different was of learning and we can work together to learn but in the end it is what each person takes out of the lesson and how they intercept it. Everyone has their own style and way of learning. I found the info graphic about the eight involvements of learning which is passion, work, focus, push, ideas, improve, serve and persist.  I strongly agree that no matter how hard a teacher tries, if a learner is not willing or motivated to learn they will not learn much at all or maybe not even learn anything. It is up to the learner to slowly take steps to push themselves, work and focus. However, it is also up to the teacher too. If you do not have a teacher willing to teach or not being able to help improve, push, serve, with the student, the student maybe discouraged. It is very important for both the learner and the teacher to do their role.

Nowadays we have depended too much on technology and can research things in a quick "click" or "tap". The internet is very hell[pull and useful to help with learning skills such as researching on Google or even using presentations as different ways of learning. Even though we have these amazing privileges I do not think we should abuse them. We are not to use to using as much paper anymore and  a simple crayon.
Usually we use the internet for gaming and social media.
I like the way she put links to some of the harder words or unfamiliar words. This helped me understand the article better instead of just sitting there confused and having to look the words up myself. I enjoyed No Red Pill No Blue Pill very much.

Poor Emily...

She is still awaiting feedback.  :(

No Blue Pill, No Red Pill Response

 

When I read your article it was a bit like reading a poem at the beginning then it got into more detail and I began to get your point. I thought all of the writing was very interesting and it connected to the audiences of school staff (teachers, principals, etc.), and/or students.

            My opinion was that you were telling us that some students just don’t care about school and they don’t care to try to work. Then the teachers have to try to harder to motivate those kids while dealing with all the other ones and then the teacher ends up working twice as hard and getting less motivated by the carefree kids. Also it is difficult to find a spark of inspiration to satisfy all the kids because they are always used to having the answers given straight to them. Just as people use the internet to find the one answer they are looking for nothing else.

            Also the pictures were pretty good but they did draw some of the attention away from the overall written part but they also added to it a bit. In total all writing was great and very interesting even though it was slightly disordered because of the photos. But otherwise it was great.

No Blue Pill, No Red Pill Response

                Hello there! I’m John from Ms. Lees’ class and I’m here to respond to your article of writing. Reading your article was quite enjoyable, since what you wrote made a lot of sense and can connect to different audiences such as; staff of various school, professors, and even students if they spare the time to read what you write. Your writing style for your intro was great! You made it sort of mysterious and put it in a poetic style. I think that was a really great start since it captures the audiences’ attention and makes them want to read more.

 In my opinion, I think you’re trying to express your thoughts on providing motivation for students, and also trying to find some motivation for yourself too. I completely agree with you and your thoughts on motivation of learning. It’s not only the students’ job to have motivation, but the teacher’s job to provide the student with some spark of inspiration and/or motivation. This can be quite tricky because the teacher would have to find ways to somehow flicker that spark of inspiration, and try to cast it to the students so they can get hooked, and have the motivation they need to learn. I think the message you’re trying to tell the audience is that it’s just as hard to have motivation when you’re a teacher, since it’s your job to provide the student with that inspiration that makes them crave to learn, which is quite hard if you think about it.

Like I mentioned before, your intro was well written. It can easily captivate an audience when they first read it. I’d like to give a note about your images that you add with your writing. I find it sort of misleading. Some of your pictures diodn’t connect to what you’re talking about. I do like graphics to help a writer express his or her thoughts, but too many pictures can make the article look sort of ‘squished’. What I mean by squished is that you’re not expressing your thoughts as much through your words, but with pictures.

All in all, I think your article was great! You had a way to connect to your audience, and you had graphics to help extend on your thinking, which helps a lot. For next time, don’t add as much pictures. But I thought the writing and her thoughts were clearly laid out, and maybe I’d like to see some of these types of articles in the future.

Mystery Skype Observer

For the Last mystery Skype I was and Observer. I was Observing the Google mappers group. The group had Jun,Jarrod and Alayna. [If there was someone else I can't remember sorry :) ] I thought they did a great job considering the minor tweak. So instead of asking question they gave us clues. So they looked up areas that fit with the clues like they mention they had a good football team. So they looked up states with good football teams (Their accents were a big hint). Also they looked up weather in cities in Alabama(which is the state that they were in.) The looked at big tourist attractions in Alabama. I though they did a great job following the hints and info we got from them. The Google mappers as well as look up the hint we got looked up some questions about their location we could ask them. They were on task and did a great job.

No Red Pill No Blue Pill

   I enjoyed reading the writing. It was written somewhat like a poem in the beginning I thought.My opinion in whats written is that in some cases there are students with no motivation whats so ever. I don't completely understand why this happens because when it does those students don't seem to find motivation to do anything else either. Is it because they aren't digging deep enough to fully understand and think about the concept. Or are they too lazy and carefree to think about something and want to learn about it. My thoughts are that she is right in some cases. In classes there may be students who don't want to learn but in that same class there are some students who do want to learn. However because there are students who lack motivation the teacher becomes disappointed and starts losing their motivation to teach. That is terrible because there are students who want to learn and if the teacher begins to lose motivation to teach those students may lose their motivation to learn. My thoughts on what's written is that in some cases today children lose motivation they stop questioning them selves about everything. Children lose their motivation because the answer to everything is right at their fingertips. Back before the internet was created kids were so motivated to learn the questioned themselves, looked for answers in books asked their parents did whatever but the made sure to answer that question. Today all you need to do is to look it up online it's so easy. However children still don't question themselves they don't look up things. They are using technology in a way that it will only destroy your mind instead of expanding your knowledge.

   The teacher who wrote this digital narrative clearly had a reason for writing this. So what was the moral. I think the moral was that she wanted to make children aware how much their lack of motivation affects them and other people around them. It doesn't just affect you but your teachers too. I think that she was wanting to tell kids how important motivation is and hard it would be on you in the long run, if you didn't have any motivation. She was trying to say that you can't expect us teachers to do everything. She was pretty much saying teachers open the doors of education but it is the job of the student to explore what is on the other side. Basically the moral of the writting was that children need to motivate them selves to explore their learning outside of school.

   So who was she directing her writing too? It could be directed to students and teachers. She is saying that students need motivation to learn. However the educator must trigger that motivation with inspiration. The educator must show to student how amazing knowledge is and how vast,great and never ending it is. But it is also the students job to look for and find the spark of inspiration the teacher has given them and hold on to it and never let go. Students and teacher must realize they both have equal responsibility. So in the long run if something goes wrong for a student you can't blame the teacher if you didn't look hard enough for the inspiration they gave you.

 What does this writing have anything to do with our class? I think Ms Lees may have shown us this writing because we have just started high school. We have many long years of learning to come and we have just started our Journey. Ms Lees may have shown us this writing because in the years to come if we ever lose motivation we will remember this writing. Also as students we should know how important motivation is in our school life. This writing is connected to every student in the world because nobody just starts out with motivation. You have to look for it along the way of your long school life. Ms Lees might have shown us this piece of writing because maybe this writing could be our inspiration. We have many years of school left and we wouldn't be able to enjoy them without our motivation to learn

What did I think of your Writing style? I like the way you wrote it in a somewhat poem style. Your writing was very well done. I personally didn't like the pictures all that much. I liked the whole idea but then you slightly overdid the pictures. There should be a few like 3-4 but you put in way to many. I felt that people would spend more time trying to piece together your writing with the images rather then think about what you are actually writing. The pictures were slightly confusing and took away from your great writing style. I thought the pictures made your writing look slightly less professional. However other then that I really enjoyed reading your writing and felt that what you were saying was true.

Saddened a little...

Poor Emily has responded in comments to peers, yet no feedback for her. :(

POVERTY ------------ SPEECH

Today, we face a problem. While a quarter of the people on the globe are thriving in a life of luxury, over six billion are being forces to endure insufferable daily lives of poverty, and a lack of food. The time for a drastic change has arrived. It is up to you and me to make a difference before a large portion of the world drown in an ocean of poverty. We must save lives.

Poverty is defined by the United Nations as a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It’s the state of one who lacks certain amount of material possessions or money and the deprivation of basic human needs, which commonly includes food, water, sanitation, clothing, shelter, health care and education.

Many people who encounter poverty during their life have one foot on their grave. This is due to the fact that poverty results in two major life-threatening choices, hunger and a lack of education.

Hunger:

Rises in the costs of living making poor people less able to afford items. Poor people spend a greater portion of their budgets on food than richer people. As a result, poor households can be particularly vulnerable to increases in food prices. This may has many different results and often death.

Education:

Education is vital for life. Nelson Mandela once said
“education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world, and fill your tummy.” Research has found that there is a high risk of educational underachievement for children who are from low-income housing circumstances. Educational underachievement has a major hand in poverty due to the fact that education is your powerhouse for money.

The battle has begun. We must cross the finish line before more lives are lost. We must help fellow humans in Africa to dodge this bullet. And for this, there are many things that can be done.

Agricultural technologies such as nitrogen fertilizers, pesticides and new irrigation methods have dramatically reduced food shortages in modern times by boosting yields past previous constraints. In Africa there are millions of acres of land that are a diamond in rough. If these lands are irrigated properly, they will provide enough food to eliminate hunger in most parts of Africa.

Government revenue can be diverted away from basic services by corruption. Funds from aid and natural resources are often sent by government for money laundering, instead of spending on the poor. These corrupted countries need a new leader.

 

Education in developing countries can be improved enormously, if money is spent on it instead of other redundant things like for military equipment.

 

Five dollars may be spare change for us, though it can feed a African family of four for over a week.

For them its a matter of life and death.

 

If we work together, we will overcome one of the largest barriers on earth, poverty.

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

If students designed their own school

If students designed their own school

If Students designed their own  other day in Humanities we watched a video on a school were students designed their own curriculum. To be honest I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t want to design my own curriculum. However it would be completely different from The students from the videos curriculum. Although I would love to design my own curriculum I don’t think I would learn anything. I like their idea but it would only work for senior grades. The reason for this is because the younger grades wouldn’t know the basics for any subjects. The younger grades wouldn’t be able to do anything because they don’t know even the slightest about English, Social Studies, Math or science. But if you run your own curriculum you could slack off and waste time at school and procrastinate. Since there is no teacher the students won’t be scared of wasting time and slacking off. I think it’s good being your own teacher but only occasionally. I feel that being your own teacher is a good learning experience but if you always do it you won’t learn anything from it. So I wouldn’t really want my learning experience to go by this way. This is what I have to say

Speeches - The First Day Of High School

Does everyone here remember the very first day of high school? Boy, was that the most pressuring days ever. Think about if, there’s so many things to worry about on the first day of school, like; your image, the friends you’re going to make, and even your reputation. These are some reasons why the first day of high school is so pressuring.

        You have to make sure your image in good. For example; how you dress says a lot about your character, and how you act . If you go to school with bed hair and in your PJ’s, obviously people get a signal that you were way too lazy to even care about school. That isn’t one of the best ways to meet your new teacher. First impressions are super important when it comes to teachers, it'll be their view of you for basically the rest of the semester, so make sure you get on their good side. But there’s another pressuring thing about the first day of high school.
        
        Friends. The friends you make in high school will affect you so much, your future basically may depend on them. You have to make friends with people who will push you further, and not drag you down a lot. Sure, you can still have fun since it’s your grade eight year, but when it come to further years, distractions aren’t the best. If you make friends with people that'd distract you, all they'd do is make the school year harder for you, and maybe even the next year. Pick your friends wisely. Make friends with people that would be by your side no matter what, those are the best ones to get.

        Lastly, reputation. This is basically your mark on your school, your big highlights in high school. Don’t get your reputation doing something stupid like eating gum off the ground or some stupid stunt. Get your reputation doing something great, like competing in school activities and getting that first place trophy or ribbon. Your reputation will change the way people would look at you, so you’d have to make sure you have a really positive.

        Just stay calm on your first day. have fun, make some friends. Try to do things to make your school year the best year possible, and don't do anything stupid on the first day of high school. This would be my advice to the new grade eight’s coming.Thank You.

If Students Designed Their Own School

 

If students designed their own school they would have lots of freedom which can be good and can be bad. It’s good because they could do things they would actually have a passion to learn about and not always be on the constant rush for finishing all their work for each subject and always studying for tests. They would get peer pressure from all the other students who were working with them to keep on going and to work harder. The only couple of problems would be where they could meet and the kids who just didn’t care about doing the work or not. The program does cover all your factors of learning like math, science, (etc.) and it would also teach kids to socialize a bit more is they were shy because of the daily meetings. This program though should only be limited to the grade 12 students because by then you would know what you wanted to do for a future job and you could work towards that. As for the kids who just didn’t care they would be eliminated from the program and just go back to normal school schedule. If we end up starting this program we are going to need lots of teamwork and problem solving.

If Students Designed the School

After I watched this video, I thought about it. This idea was very great in many ways. For one, the students get a lot of freedom, since at an older age, you don’t want to be very restricted. But with this idea, the student is in charge of his own learning and almost has no restrictions, but they must also demonstrate their learning, and will be graded on what they decide to learn. Also, it’s up to them on what they want to learn. This is really great because the students really get to discover what they love to do, and may want to pursue that career in the future. This idea also kills the stress that you normally get from regular high school with all your tests and such, since in this program, they rely on peer pressure to help push and motivate the students.This type of program is very good since it covers all the factors of learning, makes school enjoyable, and you can socialize and show what you’ve learned for the week.

      But this may also be quite a bad idea since some students in that high school may just slack off and just not try. Maybe peer pressure is really nothing to them, and not really care about their education. Also, some people might actually need a lot of guidance and help like a regular high school. Also, what would happen if you’re mind goes blank? You don’t know what you’d want to do. Maybe you’ll just sit there for an hour trying to figure out what to do. It’d be pretty much a waste of the school’s and the student’s time.

     If this actually manages to work, I think it’d be a very great way for education. The reason being is because students always school so boring and all that, but if we actually make school enjoyable to them, then education will be much more successful since they’d be looking forward into school. If student like what they’re learning, that’d raise their potential level in that certain area, and most likely pursue and heighten their learning on it. Also, the students have to rely on each other for motivation, so you can have your friends involved with your learning too.

    The only question I have for this is; how are you actually going to pull this off? This idea would take major teamwork and cooperation. For the teachers; can you trust the students enough for them to run the school? If they manage to resolve my questions, there is a high chance that this would be a great idea for the school and the students.

Speech draft(the bystander effect)

Speech Draft

Someone in pain In the middle of the street crying in pain for help. Possibly on the verge of death. How long do you think it would for someone to run up and help him. One minute 2 minutes or possibly the second they were noticed. In reality that person would be lucky to receive help in 15 minutes. Surprised you should be. Don’t think how cruel that’s not possible no one would do that. Well truth is if someone was dying in the middle of the street most of you wouldn't bother to them. You’d notice them but you’d walk right past them. It wouldn't even matter to you if this person died. In fact nobody would even bother to pull out their phone to call 911. The savior of their life was just three digits away. Only three but because no one else is doing anything neither would you. This is called the bystander effect. What is the Bystander Effect you ask? The bystander effect or Genovese syndrome is a physiological phenomenon refers to a case where people don’t offer any aid to someone in an emergency when there are other people are existent. In other word the more people the less likely someone is going to help the person in need. Why? The reason for this is because they don’t feel the need to help because if something end up happening they won’t be responsible for it. So since there were other individuals there at that moment you won’t be held responsible for anything that happens. Or because they don’t want to get involved with whatever happens next. Amway’s The Bystander effect was tested in a laboratory for the first time by John  Darley and Bibb Latane in 1968. They became interested in the topic shortly after the death of Kitty Genovese in 1964. Briefly said Kitty was murdered in front of her home after returning from work at 3:15 am on March 13 1964. Kitty was stabbed repeatedly in front of her own home but people ignored her screams for help. In fact some of them shut their windows to keep the sound of her screams out. You feel slightly disappointed to hear that people shut their windows to keep out the screams of a dying woman. Moving on three main facts about the bystander effect one noticing the situation . John and Bibb did a test. They brought a pair of students on to a room. They students were working and while they were working John and Bibb pumped smoke through a vent in the wall and timed how long it would take them to notice. They re did this experiment with a group of students but it took the students longer to notice the smoke. Going on to the next main part of the second main part bystander effect is the intervention. In Darley and Latane’s smoke filled room experiment only 3 of the eight groups reported the smoke. However they only reported after they smoke started obscuring their vision and causing them cough. In the groups that didn't respond to the smoke was most likely because  since there were no fire alarms going off or people announcing that there was a fire. The groups figured there was a non life threatening explanation for the smoke like an air condition leak. Another example would be a man and woman were fighting on the street when the woman scream “Get away from me I don’t know you” 65% of people intervened but when the woman screamed “Get away from me I don’t know why I even married you.” Only 19% intervened. See the difference?  In contrast to the third main part of the bystander effect is taking responsibility  This occurs because people assume that a police officer or a doctor would be more suited for handling the situation. Also because people are afraid of giving unwanted assistance, facing legal consequences or offering inferior or possibly dangerous assistance. This all the time I have for now but I hope that if you ever come face to face with a situation where someone is injured and need help you will not fall under the pressure of the bystander effect. A wise man once said “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Thank you Ladies and Gentlemen      

Technology Changing Our Lives

Over the last few years, technology has been rapidly changing and expanding in every possible way. Is technology a real game changer in our life? Do you think that human life will be totally digitized in 20 years’ time? If you pause for a second and pull yourself out of the hustle and bustle of your daily busy life and think deeply about how much technology you are using, you will really be amazed. How many times do you use your phone to make calls, text, socializing digitally, checking your Facebook, Twitter or Integra? How much time do you spend online jumping from one website to another, reading , researching or just making new acquaintances? How much time do you spend with your family and friends in REAL world socializing face to face? 

The development and improvement of technology has improved our daily lives in very many ways. We can communicate with people across the world with laptops, phones, iPods, IPods, and tablets. It has become more efficient, faster, and easier with Skype, Face time, Snap chat and even texting. The world business has improved with technology, by advertising through internet and promoting the business in a faster way. Teaching with technology has improved and gives different ways of learning that maybe easier too, such as using PowerPoint, projectors, blogs and even 3D images. The education system has changed by technology dominating over white boards and blackboards. Nowadays, you can even take courses online at home without having to attend a classroom to learn.

Even though technology has improved our daily lives, it has also brought down our social skills and making us lazier than we already are. Cellphones have made us reachable no matter where we are which can’t always be a good thing. When you use social media, it would show others where you are located. All of the texting, and emailing has made us impolite, and not very good at socializing face to face. All of the talking, texting, and emailing has made us less able to socialize face to face with others. Kids no longer want to play outside because they have Wii or PlayStation in their house to play with. When you go to a friend’s house now, you don’t play "cars" or " "barbies" anymore you play video games for the hours you will be with your friend. iPads, nintendo that are portable have kids/ teenagers bringing it along everywhere with them, which causes bad eye sight and back problems in the future. This goes for everyone no matter how old you are.

Technology has changed our lives for the better and for the worse in terms of communication, computing, dining, entertainment, and travel.

Where are the rest of your speech drafts?

I only see Jayden's draft -Johnny's outline???

Why Technology is Good

 

 

Imagine a world without technology. Life as we know it would not be the same.  There would be no computers, phones, T.V.’s, cars, medical devices or many other things that improve the quality of our daily life.  The world would be more difficult to live in and there would nothing to enhance our lifestyle.  Technology has improved medicine so much that it has extended our life span by many years.  A simple thing as getting around has become more efficient and we can travel faster and further distances in shorter amounts of time.  Planes, trains, cars and even Google map services that help get to locations.   Now look at the world today I think all of you can think of ways that technology helps us.  It is part of our everyday life we do not go through a day without using technology such as phones, computers, or TVs.  If we get bored there is constant entertainment available on TV’s and computers.  Or if you want to chat across the world with a friend just pop face book and twitter and chat for free.  With a simple WiFi connection you can search up all the information that you want or anything that you want. 

Technology is also improving all the time.  If you think about it technology is one of the best things that has ever happened to mankind.  Why would we want to live in a world without it?  The answer is that of course we do not want to live without it.

DIGITAL LIFE 

Our Homework was to watch and respond to a video by a history teacher in Hawaii called digital life. The video was a parody of the 1980's song video killed the radio star. See back when video killed the radio star they were singing about how video was replacing the radio(i think) But today we have really expanded on technology since that song was written. I'm sure if you take a whole bunch of teens and put them in a room to monitor what they would do. I'm pretty sure 95% of those kids will pull out their phone or other device and start playing on it. I mean what happened to finding other means of entertainment like reading or going outside. I'm not saying I am one of those people(i am being very hypocritical right now.) However i would chose reading a good book over going on an electronic any day. When I was little reading was my only means of entertainment. Today we have iPad s and iPod's and so many other types of technology. I completely agree with what this teacher is saying because in The United states there is a library with no books they are all online. I personally hate online books. I love reading the real book feeling the pages while you turn them feels way better then tapping the next page button and waiting 10 minutes for the next page to load. That isn't what reading should be like. In fact that shouldn't even be considered reading. Online reading is just another stupid excuse for kids to go on a device and tell their parents their reading. "I'm sure your not actually reading. If you really wanted to read you'd get off your butt and go to the library and get it yourself" That's what my parents say every time my brother asks to read on his iPad. I Think the history teacher is right i mean sure technology is helpful but it's corrupting our minds. There isn't going to be a next generation if this keeps up. I am one of those people who go on my iPod or my phone or my 

laptop but i now that we need to stop relying so much on technology for entertainment. Technology isn't always perfect though. For example the Guy who drove in to a river because of his GPS. Thankyou technology for also putting several cars in rivers for that we sincerely thank you. So i warn you don't rely to much on technology unless you too want to end up in a river. I've been complaining about technology but really it's our fault for misusing it. I think that this History teacher is trying to say that we should stop using the gift technology is.  

Digital life has changed how we live in good and not so good ways. Technology has gotten more advanced and it makes some things in life easier for us. We can capture high quality pictures with our mobile devices, use our electronics to look anything up on Google in a few seconds. Entertainment has been a big part of our new digital life with 3D t.v.'s and movies it is incredible what people have done to make these advanced changes in just a few years. Such as accomplishing the iPhone 3,3S,4,4S, and even iPhone 5 soon to be an iPhone 5S in a few years or less. our cars and automobiles nowadays have GPS so we can find our way easily around cities so we wont get lost, using a map for this will make you look so called " old-schooled". There are voice activating systems in the car so we are hand free when we drive to prevent accidents.We can contact family around the world with a laptop or computer to use Skype so we do not need to use long distance calling. There are higher security now and it is easier to catch a criminal on camera  and search up incidents easily with advanced computer technology.
Even though digital life has changed our lives in a good way, it is not always good. Cellphones have made us reachable no matter where we are, which can't be a good thing. When you are away from work, the only way you could be contacted was "via" your home phone but not anymore. With cellphones, you can be tracked down wherever you are. With cellphones people always are on them talking to someone rather than talking to live people who are right there with them. All of the talking, texting, and emailing has made us less able to socialize face to face with others.Kids no longer want to play outside because they have Wii or Playstation in their house to play with. When you go to a friends house now, you dont play "cars" or " "barbies" anymore you play video games for the hours you will be with your friend. iPads, nintendo that are portable have kids/ teenagers bringing it along everywhere with them, which causes bad eye sight and back problems in the future. This goes for everyone now matter how old you are. 
It also struck me when my teacher showed us a picture of the kids we were working with to make a story, drawing pictures for the story on the iPad. What happened to drawing on paper and coloring with crayons? Now we can draw with touchscreen and use "paint" to color on the touchscreen.
Digital life has its pros and cons for some things we need to learn how to control but for others, digital life has made life easier and better!

Digital Life Response

      In ways, I think the phrase, "Digital life has changed who we are" is actually true. There are good ways that technology has changed or even improved our lifestyle, from organization, to even entertainment. Nowadays, we don't have to go through the whole process of researching manually, as in reading from books in the library, to even interviewing people face to face. Instead, we can now use the power of the internet to just search it up on Google and find a wide variety of results for what you're looking for. Like the video quoted, "And now I never have a sense of what to do", technology will never get you bored since there are multiple things you can do with our modern day technology.

      But don't forget, there are also cons for having a 'digital life'. For example, relying too much on technology for research. Imagine you have a research paper that's for homework, but suddenly, your WiFi connection crashed. What are you going to do now? That's exactly my point, people these days aren't used to going to the library or using books to do their research, they rely on the internet far too much.

      Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with having a 'digital life', since it has improved mankind abundantly, and still gradually improving the way we live. If we didn't have a 'digital life', we wouldn't have the technology to discover new things such as antidotes to diseases. All in all, we all live a digital life. It's great to have one, but remember, try not to rely on technology too much.

Here's a link I found that shows how much technology has changed our lives:
http://inventors.about.com/od/timelines/a/twentieth.htm
http://onemansblog.com/2007/10/30/how-the-world-has-changed-in-100-years/

Digital Life Response

I think that digital life has partially taken over our lives but it also a bit of a good thing because technology has improved our lives in many ways. We can search things up in easy and fast ways at our own conveniences; you can look up recipes, look up info, maps, and play games! Also you can use computers to use social networks and you can use YouTube to create/see videos and there are so many other endless possibilities. Also we have super phones, iPads/tablets, and iPods which can do the same and more as computers. Like I use my iPod, phone, computer, TV, or PS3 every day, same as most people in the world everyone always uses some sort of electronic device each day. It even helps in medical cause for the equipment they use to care for people.  Really technology has improved most of our everyday life from information to communication.

Mystery Skping

There was a hype in everyone ever since Mrs.Lees stated that our double block would be taken up by Mytery Skyping. Our nerves jangled as we tried our best to figure out what that would be. Finally, she disclosed that we, as a group had to find an alien class's exact location in any part on the globe, before thay found us. Happily, we rolled up our sleeves. 

Mrs.Oakland's and Mrs.Lees's classes were teamed up together, to win thsis challenge. Another class jumped into the competion hence Mrs.Oakland and Mrs.Less had to splitapart in order to even out the teams.

As our class (Mrs.Lees's) headed back to class, the team we were about to face tweaked news about thier power outage, as a result we looked forward for another class joining us instead. Our patience soon broke as we decided to Mystery Skype Mrs.Lees's close friend, Mrs.Lots.

Before starting Mrs.Lees stated the rules:
We had twenty questions that had to have yes or no answers.
Since Mrs.Lots alredy knew Mrs.Lees's location she was out of the game, so only we had to find her.

Everybody was on thier own project, looking for ways and questions to ask that would nerrow down her location. Our smartivity led us to an efficient and effective way of finding out her location:
1. Which side of the equater
2. What continent
3.What was the Time Zone
4. What type of governmnt system they have.
5. Dominant Ethinic Diversity
6. Language
We encountered many problem along the way but thrashed them along the way. We finally reched our destiny when a voice form the crowd of student from our team reached out : St.Martins on Gurensy Islands, leaving Mrs.Lots jaw-dropped. This particular land mark currently under the care of United Kingdom only 63 square kilometers, roughly one fift the size of Surrey B.C. The government sytem is British Crown dependency (posession of the British Crown).  They do not have a military of their own ad rely on the British to provide help in case of wars. The dominant ethinic diversity there is Christionity and thir main launguage currently is English (before was French). This beautiful country is full of beaches and oceans due to being located right on top of the Atlantic Ocean. It's a living paradise with its climate barely ever raching blow twenty degrees. It one of the most beautiful contries.

This was the introductry activity to geography. Throught out this activity we encountered many problems but found out ways to resolve them, we learned about geography and it was alot of fun too!