PLN18

"Wellness Day in Nata Primary School"
By: Nata village

In the article "Wellness Day in Nata Primary school" by Nata village, they are talking about how the students put together skits to show the staff and parents about health. This matters to Nata village because now the kids will know how to be healthy and take care of themselves a little better so there might not be as many deaths or sick people. The kids put together real life scenarios affecting their lives. They said poverty and alcohol abuse by parents or relatives is partially why students are not getting a very good education. The students even invited grown-ups form the village to come and share their profession and why getting an education at that age is very important. Clearly, these kids are learning more and doing things to help them learn about staying healthy and fit.

PLN16

"Secretary at Denver School Charged in Duct Taping of Boy"

By: Joey Bunch

In the article "Secretary at Denver School Charged in Duct Taping of Boy" by Joey Bunch from the Denver Post, says that a elementary school secretary duct taped a boy to make him settle down in her office. An elementary school kid was sent to the office for being disruptive in class and when he got to the office the secretary duct taped his mouth shut and his hands together so he would be under control. She is most likely going to be arrested for child abuse and some other misdemeanor charges, she will also be fired from her job at the school the principle says. The first grader's mom, Ashlye Tenner, thinks the charges are completely appropriate and she says she would not expect anything less than what they charged her with already. She should be punished like this because you do not just go around duct taping kids like this just to make them be quiet and she should have to pay the consequence of her actions so she will never do it again. Clearly, this school secretary made a bad choice by duct taping a kid to make him be quiet and she should pay for it.

PLN17

"Prosecutors want more Details in Balloon Boy Case"
By: The Associated Press (Denver Post)

In the article "Prosecutors want more Details in Balloon Boy Case” by The Associated Press (Denver Post), they are still trying to decide if the Heene family made a false emergency report or not but they need more evidence. This matters to people in Denver because everyone was scared that the boy, Falcon, was stuck in a balloon that the family made as a backyard experiment and people started looking for him. Even the police and fire stations went out to try and track down the balloon for the family but when they got it there was no boy in it and he was upstairs in the attic at the house. If they are prosecuted they will face plenty of charges including: making a false emergency report and lying to a police officer. When the boy asked why he did it he simply said he did it for the show. Investigators still have not figured out why he said this but they think it is because the family thought they were going to get a TV show out of this whole story so they could go travel and shoot the show. Clearly, the family made this false report on purpose because they knew the measurements of the balloon would not hold a person and the kid even came out and said he did it for the show so he did not even know he was not supposed to say that.

PLN 15

"Wondering About Writing Conferences"
By Anne smith

In the article “Wondering About Writing Conferences” by Anne Smith, she talks about what writing conferences are and if they are useful. A writing conference is when the teacher meets with the student to go over some of their writing together so the student can really get to know what they are doing right and wrong in their pieces, instead of just getting a graded and corrected essay from the teacher and just throwing it into their backpack and never seeing it again. She wanted to know if the students thought it was more useful to do a pre conference or post conference for the initial conference and if they thought it would be good to write an initial writing piece or not. It is better to write an initial piece because then you know where you stand in writing before the year even starts and when the paper comes back it will seem like it is not good at all because the student will have learned the correct way to write it by then and probably be really surprised. There should be a pre writing assignment at the beginning of the year and a post one at the end of the year, then there would be a writing conference and the teacher and student can compare the two and see you much they progressed as a writer over the year. Clearly, these writing conferences are very useful to the teacher and student in seeing where they stand when they write a paragraph or essay.

PLN14

"Rigor Redefined"
By Tony Wagner

In the article "Rigor Redefined" by Tony Wagner, he talks about what students will need to learn to be successful in the 21st-century. Students will need to work well with others and be critical thinkers to be successful no days. You need to be able to work well with others and in a group as a team and i connected this back to school because of how much group work schools have been doing lately. This article mattered to students because of the stuff they will need to start learning and how much group work there is, this also means that the teacher will have to change the curriculum to benefit the students the best sometimes also. I was thinking about the article "Keyboard vs Pen" by 21st Century Learning because students should be able to use technology and learn about it at school to be successful in the real world also. One of the most important things that was in the article was imagination because that will get you really far in today's world since people are looking for so many ways to improve and make lives easier. Clearly, there are things that schools need to focus on teaching the kids and helping them prepare for the present and future.

PLN13

"Keyboard vs Pen"
By 21st Century Learning

In the article "Keyboard vs Pen" by 21st Century Learning, they wanted to find out which method of writing worked better typing or pen and paper. While I was reading the article I was trying to decide which method I liked better, writing with a pen and paper or on the computer, and I decided it is a lot easier to write on the computer for me because I can just put down a bunch of ideas and delete them if I need to but I could not do that with a pen and paper. It is just a lot easier for me to get it looking like A quality work on the computer since I have all of this technology and it will spell check it and I can edit my work without erasing all the time and having to get new paper and start over which also makes me want to write it longer than I would with a pen because typing does not start to hurt your hand and wrist if you write as much as you would with a pencil and about the quality of writing you do or how good of a writer you are really does not depend on what materials you use. Clearly, I like writing with technology more than on paper but it also really depends on what you like better and what is easier for you.

PLN12

"Footprints In The Digital Age"
By Will Richardson

In the article "Footprints In The Digital Age" by Will Richardson, he talks about how students are creating their digital footprint in the new technological age. He says that students are learning to use technology by themselves and people are not teaching them how to be their own person anymore. Since we are not using the computer to the best of our abilities it is tough to be, "Googleable", is how Will Richardson put it which practically means that we do not have a good digital footprint for people to see when they Google us or even a digital footprint at all. This is very surprising that some people do not even have a footprint on the internet because you had to have signed up for something or at least posted something on the internet like a status on Facebook or blogged on something from any web site you were interested in, even if you reviewed and rates a product from a store and rated it with your name tying it all together and back to you. This article was almost the opposite of some of the other articles we have read in class like "Did you know" by Karl Fisch where it says everyone is learning to use technology so well that there will be computers that we make that will exceed the abilities of the human brain. They both relate to "The Machines are Using Us" by Dr. Wesch because it said that computers are learning from whatever we do on them and they are starting to get smarter and smarter as time goes on. So maybe in the future the computer will predict what we are going to put on the internet and it will check it to make sure it does not impact our footprint in a bad way. Clearly, we need to start creating our digital footprint at an early age and we need to be sure what we post on the internet under our names is good work.