Final Presentation

PLN # 24

Today I read an article called Why Wireless found in the fischbowl. This article talks about how schools are going wireless with cell phones. It stated that the whole school, students and staff, are allowed to use the internet on their phone instead of using the library or the computer lab. I thought that this article was interesting because students are always on their cellular devices and it would be a great way to make everything faster and easier for a student or staff member. I also thought though that it wouldn't be such a good idea because cell phone screens tend to be very small so it may cause problems when reading off work of some sort. I also thought it was a bad idea because we shouldn't just rely on phones because they can break easily, they can die, they can even run out of storage space. Although this would all be on the internet of the phone have the students or staff members ever thought to think about the bills for that device, because it costs just as much as texting to use the internet on a phone and some devices don't even have a phone. It would be cool to use wireless to do work at school but I personally feel that students and staff members get by just fine using the library or the computer lab.
This article not only relates to me and my fellow classmates but to the world also because this could be the new technology of schools worldwide and I think that everyone should look into this idea and give their opinions on whether it is good or not to use wireless devices like a cell phone do to any given school work.

PLN#23

Today I read an article about a man and a miracle. It was titled Firefighters marvel at accident victim's 'miracle' recovery found in the Rocky Mountain News. This article I thought was unbelievable because a man working at a loading dock in the Denver Tech Center had his head crushed by a hydraulic lift. Firefighters from stations around the area came to try to rescue him. When they found him though his head was a dark purple color, almost black looking, and damaged from the heavy duty metal. Surprisingly though this man has survived this awful accident and people question how did this happen?
I think that this article was a good article to read because in English class we are reading a book called Peace like a River and this book mainly talks about miracles. Comparing the books miracles to this mans miracle have amazing similarities and differences. I myself was shocked knowing that this man had survived through such a thing.
I think that this article not only matters to me but to the world as well, because it shows that miracles are true and that it is not just luck all the time. People usually don't get lucky outside of a casino especially when it is dealing with your life.

PLN 20

I read an article about how teens in Colorado text while driving, found in the Denver Post. This article talks how about teens all over the state in Colorado text while driving. "Fifty-one percent of Colorado teen drivers admitted to text messaging and 66 percent said they used their cell phones while driving, according to results of a survey released today”. Texting while driving is a terrible habit to do because it can end up being a huge accident or worse it can lead to death. I think that this relates to me because I know older kids that drive and they text at the same time. I dislike that because all those older kids are my friends and I'm afraid that their habit could lead to a severe injury. Teens usually only hear about how young adults, even adults, die in car accidents from being drunk or high or just by an occasional accident. They also never think that something like that could ever to happen to them, even though it could have just happened to his or her friend. Something so fatal never sinks into any of the teenagers brains these days. Texting while driving is a bad habit because you can look down for a quick second and boom everything you had planned on doing that day or night or week or later on in your life time could be in gone. This article relates to the world because I feel that young adults still don't understand how deadly something can be and how it can happen to anyone at any moment.

PLN # 8

I read an article called Do schools have birth-control role found in the Denver Post. This article talks about how six Denver high schools should be allowed to dispense birth control and emergency contraceptive pills, according to a new report by a health task force. Did you know that teen birth rate is more than double the statewide rate, according to 2003 data? Out of every 1,000 girls that age from 15-17 just in the city, 54.5 will become pregnant compared to 24.3 throughout Colorado. The reason why schools are handing out birth control pills is because young adults think that they are ready, but never are because they never think of tomorrows satisfactions. More girls drop out of high school these days because of pregnancy. Also sex is a dangerous thing, especially at such a young age. You can spread diseases faster, diseases you never knew you had until you do it. Another consequence to having sex at a young age is when the girl has the baby. They usually give the child away because they aren't ready for a kid. The "husband" bails out and says he didn't mean to and is not really committed. Young women can't continue on with their education because of their child. Denver Health is only trying to prevent all of these things from happening. Hopefully every couple takes this into consideration and thinks about not only todays satisfaction but tomorrows as well and a few months from now.

PLN # 13

I read an article called "We can stop it", say Calif. fire crew. I found this article in the Denver Post. The article talks about how in Southern California firefighters are faced with a wildfire so large, it burned across nearly 600 square miles. This wildfire is prompting the biggest evacuation California history. The reason for the start of the wildfire is that Southern California is all dry land, hot weather, and lots of wind. "This makes a perfect storm for a fire", said the mayor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Firefighters also stated that they can save some stuff, but can not stop it. I personally feel that this wildfire is a danger to not only the ones in Southern California but those next to it or below it, for example Mexico. In the article they stated that this wildfire can spread all the way to the border of Mexico and to the ocean. I think that Mexico is also pretty dry with hot weather, which means that if this wildfire keeps spreading down towards that border line it is very possible for that wildfire to make its way into Mexico. Homes, offices, stores, and vacation homes, all have been destroyed. As far as we know the firefighters are only trying to save the buildings more then putting out the fire. Its a dangerous experience, and the only thing people can do over there for now is to listen, pay attention, and evacuate as soon as told.

PLN #2

The article I read today is called Boulder man kills mountain lion attacking puppy. I found this article in the Denver Post. This article talks about how a man in Boulder, Colorado shot a mountain lion at 1:30 am in his backyard. He only shot the mountain lion to save himself and his puppy. I personally think that he shot the mountain lion to protect mostly himself. It said in the article that the mountain lion started to make its way towards the armed man. So he shouldn't be charged for shooting the lion to protect his dog. He should get off the case because he was protecting himself on his own property. Its just like for example if a man was in your house armed and you found him in your room and you were also armed, you have every right to shoot him because you can die and its on your own property. So my question to this article is should the man be charged for shooting the lion to protect him and his dog, or get off the case for protecting himself from death on his own property?

PLN # 11

Today I read State pushes teens to buckle up more. I found this article in the Denver Post. I really enjoyed reading this article because I think not buckling up is one of the biggest causes of death especially for teenagers.

One girl said that when she was 15 she was driving in a car with some friends and they were speeding. Their car slip on a gravel road and flipped over completely and her and her friends were all hanging upside down by their seat belts. She was then one of the view who started the campaign "Click it or ticket".

"Click it or ticket" I think is one helpful way to remind young adults, even older people, to always buckle up. The Denver Post stated that 71 teenagers died in Colorado from accidents, 50 of those kids were not wearing seat belts. This was only in the year 2005 and it was only in Colorado. Now imagine the amount of loses of teenagers that don't wear seat belts all across America. Not wearing a seat belt may cause severe injuries or worse death.

PLN #7

The article I read was called Phone Searches Spark Protest. I found this article in the Denver Post. This article is talking about how one school, Monarch High School, is not following the law of the state and school district. It is also breaking the rights the students have. Examples of what this school is doing that is so poorly, is that they would take away students cell phones and break in and read all their text messages. That is against their right of privacy. Also the school keeps accusing students of doing bad things like smoking in the parking lots. My opinuin on this, is that schools need to respect the rules of privacy and to respect that kids can do whatever they would like as long as it is not on school property. I did more research after reading this article and found out that reading text messages and make transcripts of them is a felony. This means that the principle, assistant principle, and the teacher who accused this student can be sued.

PLN 7

The article I read today was "Math in life " by James H. The article talks about what teachers should be teaching in math and in any other subject as well. Mr. Holman mainly talked about what he should teach in math that would help students, mainly seniors and college students, as they go further on into life. Some suggestions he put out there were how to handle taxes, credit card interests, mortgages, etc. . I personally think that math teachers should be teaching students these things because taxes, for example, are important to know how to handle. Many young adults look towards there parents to help them in situtations like this. But as you grow older adults know that you need to figure these things out on your own. That is why I think it is a good idea to teach this in classes so every child understands the concept of what they are doing.
The schools in all the other states or countries should do this because it would help make things eaiser and less confusing.
So I agree that we should teach things like how to hand credit cards and money.

PLN # 5

The article I read today was called Is Payment For Good Grades Legitimate Motivation in this day and age? by think: lab. This article I thought was really good because it talks about if paying children to learn will it help motivate them to get better grades. I think that paying children for every good grade they get, an A or B, they should get payed. I think this because if the student doesn't try hard it's probably because they have nothing to motivate them to get a good grade. I know that I have been motivated every year before school starts to get good grades by thinking about collage or sports. You need to have good grades to get into any kind of collage or you need good grades to play sports for your school. After a while though that motivation of getting good grades fades away. It fades away because I realize that I have a few more years for collage or I don't have to play sports. So the good grades die down and become terrible grades. I think money is a good motivation because almost every kid wants to get paid, especially for doing something good.
On the other hand though money might not be the best idea for some students. The reason for this is because if the student is just a straight A kid or is just really smart at every class they will get paid no matter what. I think that for that student its not as exciting as it is for a below average student, because they don't really have a good motivation for school. So I think paying students for every good grade is still a good idea but I also think that we should be rewarded for other goals that we achieve and do well on.
If we do this amazing idea we will probably see grades in schools rise up and be really well. Keep in mind though your not just paying them for grades, your paying them for their good grades. So if they are still failing they don't have to be paid.

PLN #4

Today I read an article called I don't want to Integrate it, I want to embed it by Jeff Utecht. This article talks about how people[adults] want technology to affect teaching and learning. Which means that instead of trying to put new technology in classes, we should just start over and build from that. So for example, English class is taught with books and paper and a pencil. Well now if we start fresh and build from what we already know, we can teach English classes with laptops. At the end of this article it asks questions that really had me thinking about technology and how it should be in our learning enviorment. I agreed with Jeff that instead of talking about putting technology is students education or trying to "integrate" it, why can't we just actually put it in without thinking over it many times? This can relate to the world around us because in almost every state and country there are children and adults getting education and teachers teaching without using technology. Technology is becoming larger and larger these days, for example new cell phones, new computers, etc. . So that is why I think it's important to have technology in our learning education.

PLN week 1 #1

Today I read an article titled "If not Eco-Friendly...How about Eco-Amiable?" by Jeffrey Utech and I agree with him on how people want to stop global warming but never can. The reason for this is that, like what Mr. Eshel said, there are people that want to change one thing but not another that also causes global warming. For example, there are people that are concerned on our car usage but not the use of electricity. Or you could be concerned about the use of electricity but not how we use air travel and so on. Mr. Eshel is not the only one though that is trying to get peoples attention on how to stop global warming. John Mayer is another writer and artist that is trying to show those in the world the damages they are doing to the enviorment. For example, his song "Waiting on the world to change", talks about what we need to do to help stop the damaging to the things around us.


I think what matters the most out of the article i just read, was that one little thing you do to try and help the enviorment can go a far distance.
The world around us needs every person to just stop using non natural resources because those are the main things that are killing the earth. For example, hair spray, cars, cell phones, etc. .
With the items I just listed, they are not only causing air pollution, but they are also killing animals and humans. Smoking and second hand smoking is also one of the big things that are damaging those around us and the air zone.