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