PLN 12

Tyler Aikens
December 6, 2012
English 9
1st Hour

PLN #12

The article, “What teachers really want to tell you” by Ron Clark, gives us the viewpoints of students, teachers, and parents in order to describe how aggravated teachers get parents being angered with them.
The article, “What teachers really want to tell you” by Ron Clark, identifies why our teachers get angered with our parents because it is developing into a big problem. As soon as parents get the “devastating” news that their child has been acting up in class, received a bad grade, or is not cooperating, they immediately blame all of these problems on the teacher. The teacher is someone who should challenge the student and tell the parent if their are problems that could interfere with their academics, and even if they are doing their jobs correctly, parents nationwide are still deeply angered at the teacher. Basically what the article is saying is for parents to back off. They need to realize that the teacher is doing all that he/she can do to assist your child and if they have a problem, then they need to address it appropriately. Too often are teachers being blamed for “their” mistakes and parents just need to realize (even if they don’t want to) that there child is there problem. A final note from teachers to you: support us and your child, let the system operate, and it will work itself.

PLN 10

Tyler Aikens
November 15, 2012
Buchwald English 9
1st Hour

PLN #10

The document, “In Praise of the F Word” by Mark Sherry, delivers to us the harsh and effective ways to get slacking students from flunking the class, and to them into productive workers for a better tomorrow.
The document, “In Praise of the F Word” by Mark Sherry, opens our eyes and makes us look into the harsh, but needed punishment that could be given to the students that are falling behind in school. Praising the F word is not the %$#@ word, but it is a word feared by most, but completely ignored by fellow peers, and that is the problem. Some students do not fear failure until they are forced to look at it straight in the face. Once they do that, they start to look into the future ahead of them and see that where they are going is not going to be very pleasurable. An example given by this document is the series of events in Scott’s life. He was a student that sat in the back, talked, and giggled as the people around him were getting the education that they needed. After the annoyed teacher delivered to him the belligerent punishment of flunking the class, he immediately stepped up. He finished the semester with an A. The meaning of this punishment does not only solve problems in the local classroom, but also solve distractions that occur all around the country. We can do this by doing one simple thing. Get the person to perceive what is at stake. Once he/she has done that, they will fix the problem almost immediately. Flunking is just an example of one possibility, it worked in the past and it will work today. Fail or succeed, it is a new opportunity for students to create a better future for themselves.

PLN #9

Tyler Aikens
Buchwald 1st Hour
English 9

The article, “Single Sex Schools” written by Lise Eliot and R. Campbell, reveals to us the ups, the downs, the opinions, and the facts about what a single-sex school can do to the results of a student’s academic career.

“Single Sex Schools” written by R. Campbell and Lise Eliot, identifies the key outcomes of a single gender academic environment. In 2005, a group called the ACLU set on a quest across 15 for the answer to a question that all schools ask. What is better? a normal academic environment, or a single gender environment? In my opinion, I believe that we should keep our schools the way that they are, and not change the classrooms by taking away the other gender that seem to cause too many “distractions.” Also, the ACLU also found that girls who were placed in a single gender classroom excelled, but these were the same students that were also excelling in their previous grades and teachings. As for the boys, their results lagged. If anything, their grades dropped and we actually found out that with higher “doses” of girls in the classroom, came higher grades. Components and results of this quest show us that the right way to go for successful education in America is to keep multi-gender classroom environments.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203406404578075533343990760.html

Tyler Aikens
October 25, 2012
English 9 1st Period

PLN #8

An article by Alison Gopnic titled, "What's Wrong With the Teenage Mind?" delivers us an opening into a teenagers mind and describes what influences and bodily changes we are under while approaching the situations we are forced to face.

"What's Wrong With the Teenage Mind?" by Alison Gopnic drags us inside of a teenage mind, describes what influences we are under, and why we strive to meet these goals as much as we desire.

One of the reasons that the teenage mind is such a delicate structure is the fact that kids these days are hitting puberty sooner, and reaching adulthood later. This results in more time for poor decision making, dangerous activities, and even sex drives. But why do we do these things? I believe that the answer to this is peer pleasure. Peer pleasure is simply a need to do something that would entertain your fellow friends, and sometimes these needs can be very dangerous and could result in life-changing effects. For example, when someone says,"Do it dude, you'll be fine," there are many key words that are being used to lure you into the situation. The word "dude," (at least how I see it) is a connection between the two people, making us want to do something in order to impress and/or entertain them. Other key words lie, "you'll be fine" are words that seem to eliminate all side effects from the situation, causing you to overlook the bad of the situation and make it look as if what you are about to do is harmless.

PLN #7

In the article "Highlight of the Night" by ESPN,  the heroic win by the New York Yankees gives them the chance to the down the Baltimore Orioles for the postseason. The Orioles have had a pretty surprising year that has led them to their first playoff apearance since 1997 and are eager to win the pennant. After defeating the Yankees and tying the series 1-1, on wednesday, karma happened on the diamond. The Yankees were trailing the Orioles 1-2 since the fifth inning and had one more inning to fight back. After one out, the Yankee's head coach Joe Girardi made the risky decision to take out their all-star Alex Rodrigez was slumping. After hearing about his decision, Alex said to Coach Girardi, "You gotta do exactly what you gotta do." Raul Ibanez was put in the superstars place and had big expectations. With no runners on, Raul blasted a solo home run to right field. The crowd roared as the ball was caught in a fans hand and they headed to extra innings. Scoreless through 3 innings, Raul Ibanez was called up to the plate again, and blasted a game winner to right field. He had won the game for the Yankees! Because of Ibanez's courage and believing in himself he was able to set the Yankees ahead of the Orioles in the series 2-1.
In the article "Highlight of the Night" by ESPN,  the heroics of Raul Ibanez shocked many baseball fans across the nation. He batted twice and hit two home runs, both of them in clutch moments that I do not think I would be able to cope with. Coach Girardi's decision to pinch-hit his all-star for a decent player was very courageous, but it had to be done. Alex Rodriguez was in the slump of his career batting 1-14 in the postseason and had his mind running through different thoughts that were effecting his game. The mental side of baseball did not seem to effect Ibanez while in his calling, he managed to pull out the possible hidden potential that had been locked within him. I believe that this courage, pride, and trust presented by the Yankee organization and Raul Ibanez should be taken note of throughout the baseball world. If you were a baseball player, you would be able to picture being in this situation, but the amount of stress put upon you is truly unimaginable. In order to overcome this you need courage, discipline, and most importantly be able to believe in yourself as not only a hitter, but as a miracle worker. Even with the circumstances that were given, he was still able to do what he needed to do.

My Question: When you are in a stressful situation in sports or school, what do you do to calm yourself down in order to do what needs to be done.

http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=321010110

PLN #6

Tyler Aikens
Buchwald English 9

PLN 6

In the youtube clip, “What if?” originally by Karl Fisch, put us in the shoes of teacher from the past, and compares their issues to our modern day ones. The video kicks of with a quote from the Teacher Confrence from 1703 that states, “Students today can’t prepare bark to calculate their problems. They depend on their slates which are more expensive. What will happen when the slate is dropped and it breaks? They will be unable to write!” Then they talk about how students are relying too much on their papers and how they do not know how to properly clean their slates. About 200 years later at the National Association of Teachers, one teacher points out that if the students run out of ink from the store, they will not know how to make their own ink. These problems are certainly not ones that we as students do not have to worry about today. During the final slides of the video, the teachers ask questions that are in doubt of the future of technology and its impact on the school education system. One district employee in 1995 said, “Teacher will NEVER use email.” Signs in 2006 were posted around saying, “What if we’d listened?” Thats a great question because now every teacher uses email, every classroom has a computer, and technology takes part in our everyday lives.
In the video, “What if?” by Karl Fisch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJVMj1tQrcQ, our minds are boggled by the question of what if we would have listened to the teacher that did not believe in technology. If we had not believed in our technology on the rise, the way of teaching would be drastically changed in unimaginable ways. Everyday when I enter the classroom, I am surrounded by projectors, computers, televisions, and smartphones that are all being used for the purpose of education. By listening to these unbelievers, we would be in a school without the convenience of facts about a historical figure, know information given by an educational video, or be able to ask our mentors questions before school, or after school with email. It’s hard to believe that 200 years ago we were worried about us not being able to clean our slates properly, and now I do not even know what a slate is! Just 100 years ago we were also worried about running out of ink in our pens, and just 60 years ago, calculators were outlawed. Just recently teachers were uncomfortable with technology when without it, I would have been able to do this assignment!

PLN 5

Tyler Aikens
August 30, 2012
English 9
Buchwald

A Vision of Students Today PLN 1/5

        A Vision of Students Today, a video created by the students of Kansas University portrays what we suspect in the future of education in tour colleges. As the video begins, it reveals a college classroom that could hold around 100 students, and one teacher in which students are expected to learn from. After just a few words from the students,you can already tell that with the distractions, money wasted, and the multitasking that is included in their daily basis, college is not a very pleasurable experience. A survey asked a simple question, “What is it like being a student today?” 200 students made over 360 edits, and all 200 students seemed to be at a disgrace to what we believe college is. They spent thousands of dollars on textbooks that they never open, very few teachers know them, and the overwhelming cost and wages in the world all seem to be piled on top of their desks. They say technology is the solution. They say they will solve these problems, but they have yet to solve anything.
        A Vision of Students Today, created by Kansas University, I believe, offers and considers many different changes that can and should be made. The first change that I believe would solve problems would be to minimize the class sizes, helping to create a better learning environment for the students. Second, they say technology is the solution, but I believe that it is a problem. Too many students are on Facebook, chatting with friends, or are being distracted with some other sort of technology. At the end of the video, I could not help but notice the man writing on the chalkboard and this sparked an idea.Why don’t reel back time to maybe twenty years ago, back when education rarely consisted of computers more sophisticated than a calculator. Why? Because this way of learning is obviously not working.