PLN23

"Another Conversation With the Past" by David Warlick is an interesting article because it gets people to talk about history outside of school. The website "Tweeple in History" is a site that starts a discussion about a famous person sometime in history where anyone can voice their opinion and share facts about them. Although, history teachers can use this in their class to get students to participate on the topic in class. I think more teachers and students in their free time should use this to learn more about important figures in U.S history and even the history of the world.

PlN22

"The Heritage School of Kabala" by Karl Fisch is a article that makes you think about the good in things instead of the bad. The article says that Arapahoe's rival school Heritage has been doing an annual fundraiser for the past three years to raise money to build a school in Sierra Leone for less priveleged kids. This grabbed my attention because whenever somebody mentions something about one of our rival schools like Heritage, I never think anything good about them. But this is such a selfish deed that they have raised over 60,000 dollars and now I will think about the kids they have helped instead of something bad. The grand opening of the school is soon and I hope everyone hears more about it.

PLN21

"Put Forth Our Best Writing Selves" by Douglas Hesse explains that all the social webpages like Facebook and Myspace will either help make people better writers or make them worse by making them write short messeges to friends.

PLN20

"This Would Be Really Weird" by David Warlick is very intersting in the fact that it might change a lot of things for a while. This article says that women are starting to equal men in work by representing almost 50% of America's workforce. This is happening mainly as a cause from the recession because the type of jobs that women are going for are not being affected as much from the economy. Another factor that David stated was that the majority of graduates to come out of college are women and that sets them up a lot better for future jobs. I think this will change society but only for a little because after the recession ends the number of men in the work force will go up close to where it was before.

PLN19

"Who Ya Gonna Call" by Karl Fisch is just another example on how technology is helping us in our daily lives. This article says that a business teacher from our own Arapahoe Highschool, Caroline Orf, used Facebook to find a man who she went to college with. This man has started a few companies and she wanted him to talk to her class about entrepreneurship and starting businesses. But this man is not going to be in the class, he is going to skype into the class through the computer which is just another way Mrs. Orf is using technology in this situation. I think many more teachers and students should be using technology in a productive way like this one.

PLN18

Karl Fisch's article "Anne Smith-One of Twenty to Watch" does not surprise me because Mrs. Smith is a phenomenal teacher and she teaches in a way that challenges us but is also easy to understand. The article says that Anne Smith was named one of twenty teachers to watch by the National School Board Association (NSBA). The NSBA said that Anne's use of technology and outstanding leadership are just some of the resons she was recognized. In her class we use laptops everyday that we do most of our work on. And unlike many of my classes in the past, when we read an excerpt from book, we find out what it really means and think about a deeper meaning it might hold. Now at home when I read a book I tend to find myself doing that which makes me understand the book better. I hope we continue to do things like that because it is making me a better reader and writer and I know what she teaches will help me in the future.

PLN17

The "Neither Snow Nor Rain Nor...Tonsils by Karl Fisch is a perfect example of what most teachers should be doing. This article says that a teacher from Arapahoe High School Maura Moritz had to stay home because her daughter had her tonsils removed. But instead of getting a substitute teacher who doesn't really know what to do or is a push over, she used Skype to connect with the class live. I understand that if a teacher is out of class with an emergency, they can't use Skype. But with this example of taking care of one of their kids, they can find some time to use it. Another benefit of doing this is that when students walk into class and see a substitute teacher, they get a feeling like they can get away with anything and often times they do. Using Skype can cut back on the number of times teachers need substitutes, which will cause less kids getting in trouble.