PLN 5

Dear Will Richardson,

            After reading your blog and hearing about your daughters trip to D.C it got me thinking the question I think you wanted asked, how do I perceive learning? I agreed with Seymour Sarason’s exert from the book about learning is not a “thing”, but a process. I am an average student and gets average grades, but I know I am smarter than that. The only problem I have in school is laziness. If I applied myself in everything I did I know I could be an honor student and do better in my life, but the way teachers teach my classes and give us homework does not motivate me. Don’t get me wrong I love to learn. I just learn in a different way than American society wants me too. When I go on trips with my family and visit different monuments such as the Statue of Liberty in New York City I definitely receive more information than I would in school. Actually visiting this statue made me actually wonder about the importance of how this was made and why the French would give us such a gift of freedom. I learned more in ten minutes in its base, than I did in three weeks of school. I think that learning is a process and needs to be explored differently by the students understanding of learning. Instead of forcing kids to stand there an hour everyday in the same class getting a lecture and be expected to be motivated to do the work assigned after countless weeks of a bleak, boring class. Learning needs to be a personal kind of learning or at least an adventurous way of learning.

PLN 4

In Will Richardson’s article, “The “New” Normal” it talks about how education in the U.S needs to be reformed. I agree with Richardson’s ideas. At Arapahoe High School we have a certain amount of credits we have to meet to graduate or be accepted into a good college. We have to have certain credits in art, music, business; foreign language etc. and I think we shouldn’t have these classes mandatory. Ever since about the early 1900s we have been being taught the same way. It works on some note because it gives all kids the same education and gives them all the same chance in life. I think kids should be able to choose the certain classes they want to take. I don’t think you have to take a certain practical arts class because it is mandatory and maybe if they have to take they class they close the window for someone who loves the arts and wants to get in, but they cannot because it is filled with students who have no interests in the class. I think we should reform classes to kids being able to choose any certain class a student desires.

PLN 3

Dear Mr. Fisch,

            After reading your article, “The CSAP is Dead. Long Live (err, TCAP)”  I too began to think about how them changing CSAP to TCAP could reflect a students character traits. Ever since I began taking CSAP I usually dread that week because it is non stop testing and I don’t get the point. If I have to sit a whole week and take tests to reflect my learning, why cant my teachers just give me a simple test instead of a week long test. I also believe that CSAP is not a test to reflect our learning, but instead a test to judge how teachers have been teaching to the specific students they have. I agree that taking these types of tests do not reflect my learning at all and if they really reflect any students learning at all. From personal experience I know that every kid hates CSAP and wants to get it over with and that the questions on the test are exactly the same as the ones our teachers give us in our individual classes. I personally forgot all about CSAP the day it was over because no one really cares for it and I don’t think they are taking a test that reflects their own learning styles.

PLN 2

Dear David Warlick,

                 agree with your article “Are We Wasting Children” because schools can’t kill off their own students. I think this dream, or nightmare of yours is just the beginning of schools kicking children out because they cannot support themselves in the school, academically. For example, I am an out of district student attending another high school. If your nightmare comes true, then I might get kicked out of my current high school, and they replace me with a better in-district student. In return, this also puts a lot more pressure on me to do better in school and constantly a burden on my shoulders. I think that my current high schools teachers and advisors do all they can to help us achieve. I think at my current high school we aren’t wasting children because we are given all the tools to succeed and they make it a great environment to be in.

PLN 1

Dear David,
First off, I love your work. As an assignment in English class we have to write a paragraph on an interesting story you found on the internet and I have used a story of yours every time. Now, I totally agree with how librarians are definitely an essential “teacher” in my high school career. In some of my classes I sit there and think “why am I learning such a pointless task I know I will never use in my profession I want to achieve in”. I know personally I go to the library on all of my off hours and talk to my librarian about difficult tasks I do not understand. She has also given me great advice just like your blog states, focus more on self-guided learning rather than teachers telling you what to do all the time. Even though we have to take classes in high school we hate, learning early of what we want in life is important and I think librarians are a perfect example of people who are there to help you rather than check you out books.

PLN22

“Confidence Lost” by David Warlick is about how confidence from education is disappearing. Warlick Talks about how he was studying a professor jotting down notes about his students. This affects education because teachers need to be interested in their students motivation and education. Also In the article he talks about how his friends daughter came home from the school the first day of sixth grade and said her principal told the student will not have fun this year, instead all they will be doing is learning. Educational learners need to realize kids do care about education but the majority of learning is no fun at all. If their teachers were motivational to their students and a fun person to learn from then kids would do better in that certain subject. Students don’t want a boring teacher giving them two hours of homework and do this every night. This matters to me because I need those teachers to motivate me in doing well in school and well in my future. Learning is a necessity but it also needs to be a fun thing to do also.

PLN20

In David Warlicks “Education Reform is Re-establishing, Redefining and Retooling”, is a story about how kids are being taught as an assembly line. David says he takes a break away from school one year and works in a factory and his job was to measure each part to make sure each was the same size and worked the same. When he does this he realizes kids are beaing taught this way. He states kids are treated as raw materials and just graduates of a finished product. Also, children are run through assembly lines being installed with reading, math and science skills just under the theme of a “Race to the Top” attitude of the schools. This affects me because this makes me think that my school is just making me learn and do well just to make the school look better and not actually make my future look better. It makes me think schools are just selfish and corrupt. However, I do believe the majority do plan to help the students to a brighter future than make themselves look better. This affects the world because if you do attend a corrupt school then you do not have to learn and get good grades to make your school better but do it for yourself and make you look better. So I ask, are the schools just selfish and corrupt or do you think they are here for the better good?