Tony Gurr Blog Response

       A couple of days ago in Humanities class we took a look at Tony Gurr's motivation blog.  This wasn't your regular blog with a whole bunch of writing and maybe one picture here and there. This blog was very different and unique. It had pictures everywhere! And it didn't have very many words, only a few to accompany the picture. I liked that he was being different by changing the usual boring, all writing blog into a picture blog. This made his blog a lot more appealing and it made me want to keep scrolling down to see what else he had and what other ideas he was coming up with.

       Making your writing and blogging "different" is a very good way of getting it noticed and getting people to read it, but of course you'd have to make it a good "different" and not a bad one. Making your writing unique will want to make people read more and more because it's different it's not the same as everyone else. This is what Tony did he decided to be different from everyone else by making a blog with very meaningful pictures with very few words. I think that this worked out very well for him because I like the picture blog a lot more than a blog with just writing.  I think this was one of the coolest blogs that I've ever seen, it was unique, it had very good posts and it was appealing.  The best part is he has the perfect amount of writing not too much and not too little.

         Another great thing that made this blog so good was his style of writing. The way he wrote on this blog was like he was talking to you, this made home connect to you even more. It was almost like you we're having a conversation with him and he knew what you were thinking. It made me keep reading more and more. The pictures also made you think of how it connected with the words which I found helped enhance the blog. Also almost  everything that he was saying I could somehow relate to which helps us teens a lot, because when we see relatable things it makes us want to read it, oppose to something that we can't relate to. Tony did a good job on luring me in and I'm sure a lot of other people.

         Altogether this was the best blog that I've ever seen, and I hope that Tony keeps on posting so I can follow what he has to say because its very interesting.  I like the setup of the blog, the writing format and the pictures he's got the whole package! Keep up the work Tony!

Tony Gurr Reflection Post

             I really like Tony's blogging style. In fact, I think his style is amazing. The visuals that he put on his post was not just a picture related to his sentences, but the visual images that he had had words which was also a message for us along with his sentences. It was totally impossible to get bored while reading his post because since the visuals also had a deep, specific messages to us and there were at least one of them in each paragraphs. I have to say, the visuals just really hooked me and lead me to scroll down his blog and read even more of his posts because they kept on coming.

            Tony's point was very appealing to me because I had the exact same thought as him and I totally agreed with his opinion, too. People can't motivate us to study on certain courses that we just don't like. The picture that said "When we catch fish, we don't bait with what the fishermen likes, but what fish likes." If we don't like what we are doing, it is impossible for us to do good on that, or even like it because we just hate doing that certain thing. For an example, sometimes in classes, I have my days when I just get really lazy and bored so I just can't focus on my work that I am supposed to do. Although I really like what I am doing, I just don't feel like doing it no matter how easy the worksheet is. Also, let's say there's a student who hates math. Even if we give him the easiest math questions in the world, he won't solve it not because he can't, but because he doesn't want to. When teachers give him math worksheets for homework, he will have to do it no matter how much he hates math but when he is free and he had an option of doing things, he would never choose to do a math worksheet. It is just impossible to force other people to like doing certain things. They have to realize the joy of doing that first before they do it. If they don't like to do that thing, they will have to find something else that they like doing.

            Also, when there is a super long double block period and students have to work on worksheets all day, it's just not fun. But for students who like doing that, they want to do even quadraple block periods on that same class. Although for students who don't like doing that, it is a torture which feels like years but for students who love doing that, it feels so good to do it and the time goes so fast for them. Just think of it as this way. Say that you are having a party for 8 hours straight. That time would go so fast and you would have so much fun that you won't even realize that much time had passed. But say that you hate science and you have to do a worksheet about that for just 2 hours straight. You probably can't endure it and it would feel like years.


         In conclusion, I agree with Tony's point on how it is not possible for other people to try to motivate us to like doing something. We have to realize the joy of doing it. If we can't we find something else that we like doing.

Jun's Poetry that Moves

Guess the subject of this poem - Poetry that Moves assignment

Dont Quit - moving poetry

https://drive.google.com/?tab=wo&authuser=0#my-drive

Defintion Poem

It can soar through the air at great speeds,
This thing a lot bigger than beads.
Hitting the palm of your hand,
And bouncing in the sand.
Flying over the fence,
But only costing a couple cents.
Coming in all the same size,
Getting hit may cause you to cry.
Getting through all the different weather,
This thing is made of leather.

Definition Poem

What are -------
Creepy crawly hairy things,
They can be black and brown,
It lives in dark places.
They sometimes live in trees
They can be squashed easily
They have eight legs
They can eat bees
It can fly by its thread
What is this creature?

Definition Poem

             The ___________


It attracts you with its beauty,
It attracts you with its smell.
It is round and full,
And gives your mind a pull,
Towards its beauty,
But just from it's outside-look,
Most people never know,
That such harmful things are hidden,
Only the victims realize that truth,
But it is already too late,
What is this attractive creature,
That claim many victims today?

BC Elections

Over the last two weeks, our class has been split in groups to search the pros and cons of each party including Conservatives, Visions, Liberals, and the NDP. We have made ads and posters to advertise each campaign for the Student Vote Election. I have researched information about the Liberals, Visions, and Conservatives even though I was only supposed to find information about the Visions. After days of researching the parties above, I would totally vote the Conservatives.

I voted for the conservative because I liked their beliefs and promises.The Conservatives believe in personal responsibility, free marketing, aim to have a death penalty, and a limited government.   The Conservatives wanted free marketing to produce more economical growth, more jobs, and higher standards of living. More jobs would mean more people getting hired. Higher standards of living can give us,citizen and villagers, a more prosperous future. They didn't go against the death penalty because they thought the death penalty is fit the crime of being a murder by taking an innocent life. It like the saying a life for a life. Personal responsibility is extremely important. It is the responsibility of your actions, accepting the consequences of your actions,and understanding the impacts of your actions.

The Conservatives opposes to same sex marriage. Going against same sex marriage will recognize the protocols and licenses of it in other states. Also same sex marriage violates and messes up the religious beliefs of millions of Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others ,who believe that a marriage is a union of a man and woman. Also if religious people who believe a marriage is union of a man and a woman see a same sex marriage , they would think it would be okay to have a same sex marriage.

To include this composition, I agree with the Conservative campaign group. They have all made great points and reasons why the deny or agree with something. They will give us more freedom and build a more peaceful society. They will give us the freedom to pursue our dreams but will expect a individual to solve our own problems.

Election Post Reflection (1st Topic)

         I have been researching a lot for the past few weeks to gather pros and cons of all election parties. I am not eligible to vote yet because I am too young but if I was able to vote, I would definitely go for The NDP. On this post, I will explain why I would vote for NDP instead of other parties.

        The NDP focuses on economy and people. They increase hiring for government jobs which shows that they are more worker friendly. In fact, one of the members in the NDP party used to be a bus driver, so he knew the feeling of waking up at 4 a.m. in the morning and working until late night, only to earn a tiny quantity of money. If that member knows that feeling, then he would realize that there are tons of people out there who are currently working that hard. That NDP member would share the tiring and painful feeling of working for 15 hours and earn just around 20 dollars. So let's look at it this way. If there is a guy who experienced how hard it was to live poor with barely any money in the NDP, he would try to make poor people live life more easier. Also, the NDP aims to raise minimum wages to catch up the living for poor people especially people with no jobs and homeless. To fix that, the NDP is lowering taxes for small businesses and they are also wanting to bring affordable daycare and shelters for homeless. That idea sounds really brilliant to me. I once volunteered to clean up a lawn beside a church. It was more of a garden because it was just around 5 meters in length and 3 meters in width. My job was to pull out weeds, ivy and other harmful plants that suck the nutrients away from other flowers. It took a very long time. It took like 5 hours just to clean up a small garden. It made me sweat with exhaustion. Then I imagined how hard and tiring this was for gardeners who clean up lawns that are around 20 meters in length and width. I wondered how hard it would be for the gardeners to do this for their living, just to earn money and to survive in this world.

 <-We have to help the poor out with help of NDP.

        The NDP aims to end poverty. The are willing to give child benefits for poor people. For example, the NDP would give a payment of 416 dollars per child for people with an income of 39k dollars or less and between 73 dollars and 330 dollars a month per child, to families earning less than 188, 000 dollars a month. By doing this, so much poor people would be able to live much easier. Although this benefits mostly poor people, I totally agree with the idea because the rich people don't need supports from the government. Rich people with gigantic mansions with a huge field and a limozine. Those people have everything they need. They are lying down on an expensive sofa while watching a TV show from their 72 inch screen TV while texting on their new phones. When they are all comfortable and relaxed, poor people has to keep working hard and harder for them to survive in this world just to have enough money for food. I have seen a family of homeless before. It was just so depressing. I really don't mean any offense but they were digging trash cans for food. How much had they starved? When I heard that the NDP was focusing more on poor people, I had hope in them and I wanted them to help those poor people out and really give them a chance to get a job and live their life without as much as suffering and pain.

       The two paragraphs above explained the main reasons of why I wanted to vote for NDP. There were other good parts about NDP, too, but the part that really made my ears open was the part of NDP aiming to help the poor in need, give more job oppurtunities and give child support. The party that I really would vote for is none other than NDP.

Should Voting Be Mandatory?

        Voting is a very special thing for us people. It is special because we get to take part in choosing what we would like in the government, for who we want to control our province for the next four years. This is a very important privilege that everyone should take advantage of because not everyone has this chance. So the question is, "Should voting be mandatory?" and be fined if they don't? My opinion is yes, because some people complain and say "Why did he/she get voted?!" even though this person didn't even vote.

         I think that everyone should vote, because they've been given the privilege to have the chance to vote and they choose not to, I don't get it. I know many people are very busy with their kids and work but my parents are one of those busy people and they still had time to vote. It's not that hard to take five minutes of your day to go vote. Also I'm sure there are some people that are just too "lazy" to go vote and what good does that do to the government, they aren't helping anyone by siting on the couch. To win an election I think that the candidates should get everyone's vote so they truly won the vote to be the leader of the province. The fine for not voting I think shouldn't be too bad but enough to make that person vote the next because they don't want to pay the fine.

       In conclusion, I think that people should be fined for not voting. I'm sure many other people have way different opinions than me but this is my opinion. It's a privilege to vote and people have to take advantage of that, consider ourselves lucky. So people that don't vote should vote next time, just take five minutes of your life to take part in this voting for the government.

        

         

Response to No Red Pill No Blue Pill

Hello, I am a student from Ms Lees’ Hum 8 class and this is my response to your “No Red Pill No Blue Pill” post.

First of all, I liked your post because it was written creatively, like for the introduction, you wrote it kind of like a poem, that had an attention grabber. If it didn’t have an attention grabber, I probably would have got bored and not pay attention to your post.

I totally agree with your thought on how students should have learning motiviations. If they don’t have any learning motiviation on a certain subject, they don’t even pay attention to their teachers as they teach them. What I mean by that, is, if the students think that they are being forced to participate in a class of a certain course that they don’t like, they choose not to listen to the lesson, but instead, they start doing other things, such as playing on their electronic devices or sleeping. If those students choose not to take their course seriously and just play around during the class, the teacher doesn’t feel like teaching those students, too. The students need to learn to be more responsible as they grow order because if they don’t actually want to learn or study, they can’t go to university and there are no more teachers to help them. The actions the students choose to take will either end them up in getting a great job and being rich, or living on the streets without a job.

On the other hand, maybe the students are just interested in something else. Maybe they really hate math and want to quit the subject, but are interested in skateboarding tricks. Whatever thing the students are interested in, if they really want to learn about something that ineterests them, that learning motivation in the students will grow and they will become professionals at those things because they actually learned alot of those things. However smart the students are, if they don’t want to learn about a certain subject, they don’t care about those things and end up failing them. But when not-so-smart students are actually interested in something and they actually want to learn about it, that makes them learn more and more about it and without them realising it, they are suddenly really good at those things.

I think this post was a message for all the students that it’s time for them to become more responsible and and choose to learn certain things. If they don’t have the learning motivation in them, they just can’t be good at that subject no matter how smart they are. The teacners can’t help the students if they don’t participate in class and slack off. They feel that the students just don’t want to learn so the teachers end up not really taking care of students as well as they should be. Now, I’m not trying to be offensive to the teachers, but if there are those certain students that drive the teachers crazy and the teachers yell at them to stop goofing around like milliong of times, but they still don’t stop, the teachers ignore the students because the students are clearly being very disrespectful for the teachers and it is very hard for them to teach the students if they are going to be fooling around.

This post clearly reminded of Ms Lees’ hum 8 class. There were these times when certain students chose not to complete their homework all the time. The same students also played on their electronical devices as Ms Lees taught. If they don’t participate in class, what’s the point of teaching them? I also dozed off in class a couple of times because I was very tired. I tried hard not to, but sometimes your brain doesn’t work with your body. This probably happens to most of the students. They turn on their computer to do homework but a video game catches their eyes. They know they have to finish their homework but their bodies are already walking towards the remote control.

The way the author wrote this post is very creative. There are some pictures as reference to her paragraph which explains more clearly of what she is trying to say to the audience. Also. she added an attention grabber in the beginning of the post so the readers don’t get bored. The author used lots of forms of writing, she wrote sort of a poem in the introduction, and some questions that we could answer in our heads. She highlited some of the words with light blue color and linked them so that the readers could click on it and understand better of the post. Overall, this post was very well done and my only advice would be is to organize the paragraphs a bit better by making the pictures a little bit smaller.

Upon reading this post, i was thinking to myself ways that i could relate to what’s written, and try to understand all the metaphors.
I loved how you wrote this kind of like a poem, and stuck with it from start to finish. It really brings a new light to the writing, and to me, it alters how people picture what you’re actually talking about (in a sense). But, the pictures, (which may or may not have some relevance to your writing) i found a little distracting while reading, as if it changed the scenes i’d imagine from reading your entry, into something totally different. On the other hand, some were helpful. I liked how you included the charts and info-graphics, and then talked about each. I also found the highlighted words to be very useful, because this is a difficult post to understand fully, and I thought that the highlighted words moved everything along much smoother and more efficiently!
The title is attention-getting all on it’s own but the thing i truly admire is how you subtly included references from the title into your post, such as the quote where you got the motivation for the title. Asking yourself questions, and being repetetive throughout your entry were other admirable attributes of your story, but what really got me was the title and the first couple of pure poetic sentences (as i mentioned earlier) before you gradually got to your point (which i also liked, because you didn’t rush to your point). It kind of left me confused, but in a good way, and it edged me on.
First off, what I understood was that in learning, there is no easy way out. No red pill, no blue pill. The student cannot succeed at learning if they have no motivation. And no matter how hard the teacher tries to push, they will make no progress. I can strongly relate to this because I have witnessed these sort of situations countless times.
But what has made the children lose their motivation? What is the missing piece of the puzzle?
Learning? When the student steps into the real world, and they realize it’s too much to handle, what do they do? They blame it on the teacher. It’s too hard to handle, and it hurts. But is there anything the teacher can do to help them? They are wading into a deep pool wearing no life jacket, and they don’t know what else to do but flail their arms and start to sink. How can they regain their motivation? How can they become independent learners from this point? They need to be able to trust in themselves and take their own route, that’s the only way.
In conclusion, I totally agree with this article. I advise all students to rid themselves of their fear, and travel down the road of independance to discover capabilities beyond anything they’d ever dream of having.
But the question I have for you is; What is the motivation of this article? Does it have a meaning to it? Is it directed to someone personally?
Thank you,
Emily

No Red Pill, No Blue Pill Reponse

 I really liked how she grabbed our attention by using these amazing adjectives and phrases. From this article, I comprehend that the author had traveled lots of routes of success in learning that didn't suit her but she did travel one or two routes that suited her. She prefers a route that is sturdy, permanent, and secure.  Also, she rapped it up great by again  using vivid descriptive words. She concluded her article by going back to the beginning and ending with a sentence that said "Connections do happen". I enjoyed her quote to summarize the beginning by writing Until then, I linger in frost, waiting for the blooms of Spring.

The author did a great job of writing her body paragraphs. I knew what she was going to write about next. For example, for the 8 or 9th paragraph, she started her third paragraph by writing accountability is a strong word so I knew she would describe accountability. She introduced accountability by she writing a discussion given by a webinar named Shareski about the differences about being responsible and accountable. In other words, she had awesome topic sentences.

She did have a great introductory paragraph. Maybe in the future, she could of being more straightforward because I had a hard time finding the hidden meaning of her introduction. For the pictures, she did have amazing images. To be better, she could of posted photos more related to the topic. I thought she was going to inform us about horror films or motion pictures because there was a picture of a terrifying lady that looked she was a demon or ghost.

No Red Pill No Blue Pill Response

     Wow, i can relate a lot to this post, No Red Pill No Blue Pill.  I'm sure many students can also relate to this as well.  There are lots of times in a classroom that I get bored and start to not want to pay attention in class, I'm sure this has happened at least once in every single one of my classes. That is why I like doing genius hour because we get to learn about things that we desire and not things we are forced to learn about.

I really liked the way she wrote this because for all of the confusing words they had links of the definitions on them which really helped.  Also the intro really hooked me and brought me into reading the article I thought that was well done.  The only problem I thought were the big pictures at the end of each thought because it really brought my attention away from the whole article and focused me more on the pictures.  I think that this article was targeted towards students and teachers because students need motivation to learn and teachers need motivation to teach the students, just think if the teachers didn't have motivation to teach students, we wouldn't learn much.


All in all do whatever it takes motivate yourself to do well in school.  If that means looking up to people or looking up to something you want to do.  If you are motivated inspired in a classroom work gets more fun and even easier... So do what it takes to get yourself inspired or motivated.

Reminder to post response on this person's blog.

For our homework we can either choose to post a respose to the No Red Pill, No Blue Pill post or we can comment on it directly on the author's blog.

Response to build your own school video

After watching the build your own school video and thinking about it for a few days I decided that I really don't like the idea of having every day for a whole semester to do what you would like to work on. Maybe its just the fact that I really don't understand how it would work and have many questions. For example, where would you learn the math, science, english, social studies and all the other academics you need to continue to university, collage or even to get a decent job? Is it possible to cover all these necessary tools? If so what grades should it be available for and how would everyone that wanted to join get the opportunity? I think that if my many questions were answered I would have a better idea of what to respond to. With the information I do have I would not personally like to join this class, as I find I do better with some structure and teaching in my classrooms. Of course there are things that I like about this idea. For example, I love how you get to choose your projects because you have more interest in what you do if you are passionate about what you are doing. Also I find it very interesting that it is run by your peers instead of a teacher. In conclusion there are many good ideas however I don't think that this program would personally suit me

"If Students Designed Their Own School" Response

Last week in class, we watched a video that Ms. Lees posted on her blog. It was about some seniors in a high school who instead of classes, got to work on, learn about, and posess a skill on whatever their heart desired.
I was quite intrigued by this video. I've always thought about what school would be like if there were no teachers, and how things would work, but i never expected there to be an actual program as unique as this.
In a way, I thought the kids were the students because they are learning and expanding their horizons (as normal students would), but they are also the teachers, because there are no rules or guidelines, only ones they make for themselves (the group). I was really inspired by the fact that they all stuck by their own rules, because if someone didn't do their homework, they're not just letting themselves down, but everybody else as well.
There were good sides, as well as bad sides to this whole idea:
I really liked the fact that this whole situation is a way for the students to express themselves. Nobody has to tell them what curriculum they have to learn. This system does put a lot more pressure on the students though, because they have to present in front of their classmates, and demonstrate all the new things they've learned. One person cannot slow the rest down.
There are also a few points that i think could be tweaked slightly...
I know the whole purpose of the independent project is for students to learn freely, but is that such a good idea?
If this were to spread around to other schools, how would the staff ensure that all the kids are doing their part and learning efficiently? Maybe once in a while they could also present what they have learned about so far to the school staff. But, I don't really think that most seniors would slack off like that on the independant project because they aim to do a good job for their college applications.
So all in all, I believe this to be quite an effective system!

RESPONSE TO WHAT IF PEOPLE DESIGNED THEIR OWN SCHOOLS

In class we watched a video about a school that has a class where the students have the freedom to work on projects that they are passionate about. In this class, there would be no homework, quizzes, and tests. I thought this was a bad idea because you would have too much freedom and wouldn't learn about the curriculum that you could use in the future. Also, you dont have any pressure to work hard on because you won't have any quizzes, homework, and tests. You wouldn't have any practice for french or anything. If this actually happenned,there would be no purpose of going to school because you mostly wasting your time because you are mostly not learning anything !!!!!

If Students Designed Their Own School Response

       In class we watched a video about students making their own class, where they get to do whatever they desire to do.  This class lasts a whole semester and they have no tests or quizzes they just simply teach themselves.  I think this is actually a very good idea because some people want to learn about things that aren't taught in classes and in this class they get to choose whatever they would like.  This is a lot like genius hour where we can design our own projects.  There are a few disadvantages with this class because these students could be missing out on learning in the other classes too.  Also lots of people that would take this class but wouldn't actually do any work since the have so much freedom which would make the class completely pointless and ineffective.  I am very surprised that the principal actually let the students follow through with this class because as I said before if you get the wrong kids in that class they wouldn't get any work done. Also the students would work harder to research about their topic because they actually want to learn about it. Altogether I would agree with this class because students can learn things that they desire and not something that they are forced to learn about.

Speech Draft

Brendan Yip

Humanities

Speech Rough  Draft

It’s seven o’clock in the morning and you’re dragging yourself out of bed, so tired and not being able to think straight.  You struggle to get up but force yourself so you can be ready in time for school at 8:10. After getting up you go to the bathroom, you are very tired and you aren’t paying attention so you stub your toe on your door and scream in pain only to wake your parents up.  Then they start yelling at you for being so loud and now they are grumpy for the rest of the day.  After finally getting downstairs you realize it’s already 7:45 and you’re rushing to eat your cereal for breakfast.  You’re still tired and don’t realize that you’re pouring the milk on the counter and not in your bowl.  Then you start cleaning up but right before you finish cleaning up your parents walk down and yell at you again, they are furious!  After finally finishing your breakfast you look at the clock and see it’s already 8!  You sprint out the door, but halfway up the street you remember that you forgot your assignment that’s due first thing in the morning, so you run back grab your homework and run back down the street with only two minutes to get to school. After the fastest sprint possible you end up late for school. This probably happens to a lot of people every morning because of how early school starts. That is why I’m going to talk about why I think school should start later.

A later start for school would be awesome! I love to sleep and a later start would give me more time to sleep and more time to get ready. A big thing to having school start later would be when kids are tired they don’t want to do work and they don’t think straight oppose to when they are awake. Kids and teens are a lot more productive when they are awake and not tired. I know this from experience because when I’m tired I don’t want to do anything except sleep. I’m sure all of you are the same and don’t feel like doing anything when you are tired. So if school starts later kids can start getting more sleep and being more productive at school, which also means better marks for their subjects. This will also mean that us teens won’t be grumpy which means it will be easier on the teachers. Another good thing would be that kids wouldn’t have excuses for being late like saying they slept in or they didn’t have time to get ready because they will have enough time in the morning. I think the biggest problem would be for everyone that has activities outside of school like sports and clubs, but the solution to this would be to have these activities start later. A good time to start school would 10:15 until 4:00 with a shorter lunch hour so we would still get the same hours of education, with just a later start. Also, this will still give us time to do things that we want after school.

Just imagine a peaceful morning with no rushing and not being tired for the whole day. Being able to take your time to eat and get ready, it would be great! Nobody would be complaining about being tired and nobody would fall asleep in class. This is a fool-proof plan and I think it could just work, it’s a win- win situation for students and teachers. So everyone think about it, we could make it work!

Kasey's Speech draft!

                                THE SPORK!!!!

Imagine, you're opening a huge can of Chunky's chili. However, you lost. Confused. Should I use a spoon? Or a fork? Ladies and gentleman, there is a solution! We can put an end to all this madness. Everybody put you hands together for the spork! You are going to learn about the history and usefulness of the spork. it's greatness will no longer be overlooked.

The story started in 1907 when a man named Samuel W. Francis had an idea for a cutting spoon. He was over taken with the possibility of a better utensil. At last he thought! I will call it a spork. It was not long before the word of the spork had spread throughout the United States of America.

Ladies and gentleman, think how useful a spork could be? It has the convenience of a spoon and quality of the fork. Just think, you could scoop and stab you food at the same time! Using the spork will also saves resources and money. Instead of companies making both spoons and forks they will only have to make sporks. Finally, think of the children. No more unneeded fork related injuries the spork is much safer with it's rounded edges and smaller points. This is our time! Time for the spork!

In conclusion, the spork is useful, convenient, saves resources, is safer for our children and as I like to say "it's not what you can do for the spork. It's what the spork can do for you!" So, next time you are opening a huge can of chunky's chili, don't say spoon or fork. Say spork!

The Independant Project - Response

              It is great to see students organizing themselves to create a school on their own. What I love from that is that even students who are doing bad in academic courses can find their interest and actually go to University with that. As I watched this video, I thought that students who were doing bad in academic courses weren't stupid, they just had interests in other things. The Independant Project is perfect for those students. The students can help each other learn and study more about their interests and become really good at it. They can actually go to university by just studying about their interests. Also, the students are collaborating with each other by themselves and it shows that they are actually really trying to learn and do well on what they are interested in. One of the students in the video noticed that in his presentation, he was lacking some things. So he researched and studied and perfected his presentation by getting help from his peers. He didn't give up but presented again because he actually wanted to learn something. There was also this guy who was at the age of going to university but couldn't, because he lacked in academic courses. So he found out that he was interested in music and practiced for 3 years on playing piano. He actually managed to go to university by doing this. I think Independant Project is more for older and responsible students because in this program, you are on your own, you actually have to try to learn something and get supported by your peers as well, to learn everything of a certain thing that interests you.

Driving: 16 or 18?

NOTE: I am still indecisive on topics, and I shall choose from the 2 I have narrowed it down to after I write both my drafts. The second draft shall be posted tomorrow. For now, I will be sharing with you the one that I have the most information on, as well as a completed outline.
This is a draft, and just pointing out that I did not do any research yet, I am hoping to do that in my good copy, as well as other clever attributes we learned from the video. Thank you :)

A loved one, carried in on a stretcher from the scene of the accident is pronounced dead. It could be your friend, your sister, brother, girlfriend, boyfriend, cousin, and the list can go on and on. This is already bad enough, but can you inagine this happening in real life to 5000 people each year? Before you jump to any negative conclusions, I would like to inform you that teenage car accidents are the leading cause of death in North America. So the question I have for you is: are young drivers a community hazard?

A Community Hazard?
16 years old. That is the age when you are qualified to apply for your drivers liscense. It is a milestone in every child's life to one day inherit their dad's old beater and have a little taste of freedom that they will long for in their teenage years, much like we do now. But is 16 too soon?
(Add more statistics and info)

It's just like that saying: "No dad ever wants to see his little girl grow up". This is a very big step for someone of such little maturity to handle. They will not be as "seasoned" as say, a 30 year old trying for their liscense. These teenagers will get careless and not take it seriously (unlike a more mature and professional adult), and instead, overcome with the idea of having a car, and that little taste of freedom they're yearning for. Being so careless could lead to not bucking up the seatbelt, talking on the phone while driving, even maybe drunk driving (which is againt the law but...) etc. Potentially, these will result in car accidents, and severe injury, and quite possibly, death.
 But, is 18 any better?

Driving at 16 and 18: A Comparison
Even though I have mentioned the (assumed) bad sides to driving at the age of 16, I have not gone over driving at 18.
The question is, is 18 really that much more mature than 16? The answer is no, not really. But, 18 years old is the age that high school is finished, and university follows. The teenagers start becoming more work-oriented and focus on their goals in life, become more ambitious, and more adult-like (thinking like adults). But,
1. What would they do when they have their L?
Since they would be out of their parent's home, it is much less likely to have a parent around to supervise their child when driving. On the other hand, at 16, the teenager is still living at home, and the parent will be more likely to hang around and help their kid with their driving skills.
2. How would having an L affect the teenager's daily life?
Since now the teenager is more grown up, and university-bound, they are starting to develop lives of their own, so they won't be needing a parent to look after them and their driving all the time. For example, if they are going to an out-of-town party, they wouldn't want a parent to come pick them up, most likely drunk, in mom's old minivan at 2 o'clock in the morning.

So, even though learning to drive at 16 may not be what's best for the community, it's better to learn then, than to learn at the hardest of times, when you're just trying to pick up the pieces of your past high school life, and put them together to create a new life for yourself.

Global Warming

Have you heard about that Polar Bears are becoming extinct? Have you you heard about the shrinkage of sea ice? These are some of the effects of global warming. Global warming is one of the top crises according to World Leaders.

 There two types or kinds of causes for global warming: human activity and natural causes.One natural cause of global warming is the methane gas release from Arctic tundra, and wetlands. Methane is a green house gas and greenhouse gases traps heat from the the earth's surface.  Some human activity are pollution, and population. Pollution is one of the largest man-made problems that is causes  burnings of fossil fuels. When fossil fuel are burned, a type of greenhouse gas  is sent into the air that includes methane. Population has been also a cause of global warming because more people means more methods of transportation. This will include more methane and agriculture.


Global warming has been causing climate changes. Climate changes might cause rising sea levels, and glaciers to melt. Sea ice has decreased 10 percent over these years. Also animals or species including polar bears, pandas, and the hamster like pika that are struggling to adapt to the climate changes will face  extinction if people do not try to stop global warming.

You can help stop or prevent global warming by conserving energy by starting to use compact fluorescent light bulbs. You also only drive your car only few miles or walking more often to prevent pollution, one of the causes of global warming.

Why leaders should fight the War

Wounded soldiers screaming in pain. Horrible sounds of shooting and explosions ripping across the blood red sky. War. A 3-letter word that brings back all the painful memories and deaths of brave soldiers. Where children’s peaceful playground turns to bloody chaotic battlefield. Instead of all this happening, why can't the leaders of countries fight instead of millions of soldiers?

After the World War 2, many people suffered due to their family members’ deaths in the war. The wives of dead husbands became poor widows. Children with dead fathers had a hard time living with only a mother to earn money and go to work. What do you think they had to go through? How much do you think they suffered in their life, missing their fathers? Do you think they deserved to live a hard life like that?

Over 60 million people died in World War 2. That is about 2.5% of this entire world’s population. Wow! But why did these brave soldiers have to fight? I mean, if the leaders of each countries are just going to announce the war and stay back while they send their armies of soldiers to battlefield, what is the point of even having a war? The leaders should be the ones to fight. The only ones who should fight in a war are the leaders of the countries.

Even when the United Nations won the World War II, what did it cost them? A graveyard full of millions and millions of dead soldiers. If you look at it from my view, war is just like 2 baby brothers fighting over a toy, except that these kids are both as big as T-Rex and cause massive destruction at their home as they fight. Even if one of those kids win the fight, is having the toy worth it to see his bruised brother crying and their destroyed home? And the biggest problem, how can the baby boy get away from his mother’s angry eyes? As Bertrand Russell had once said, " War does not determine who is right - only who is left." No one victories in war.

I sure hope, that instead of World War III happening, leaders of countries sort out their problem well instead of causing many bloodshed and destruction.

Digital Life Response

I agree with the ideas suggested in this video 100%:

Although i was not alive before there was such thing as the internet, i have seen pictures and movies where they used other methods to acquire their information (books, direct info, encyclopedias, etc.). Instead of going on the computer to search something up on the internet (search engines), they used applications like spreadsheets, word processing, and of course, games.

Since back then they didn't have the internet, there was no such thing as an online personality. Nowadays, everyone tweets out their every thought on Facebook or Twitter, or posts a new picture on instagram, and hastags it to get likes from strangers. Basically, since we're posting all these things about ourselves, we construct our lives even further on the internet which in a way, is good because we're expressing our individuality and personality, but on the other hand, we need to ask ourselves:
When is it too much? We are no longer enjoying life. Instead, we are tweeting, posting and blogging about every aspect of our daily lives that we aren't taking in and treasuring every moment. These are the points that I interpreted from the video.

 The bad news is the internet has captured most of us. The people who remember times before this frenzy have also been sucked into this worldwide black hole with no way out. Do they even still remember what times were like before all this? What would the world do without the world wide web? All very good questions...

Here are what computers used to look like around 20 years ago:
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=19&st=1

Since the invention of the internet, us, the consumers, have been avid users. But what about the people who weren't around before this? People like me, the children and young adults. Now, when a child is born, straight from birth, they will grow accustomed to the joys of using the internet from an early age. For all the parents, is it safe to let your child play around on the internet at such a young age? I have witnessed 3 year olds playing angry birds on their own brand-new ipad, and 10 year olds chatting on their facebook account. I say that they are missing out on the joys of childhood! And i believe the parents are to blame. The children see the parents using the internet, and they want a piece of the action too. It's only a matter of time until the kids get sucked into the black hole as well.

Our race is increasingly becoming lazier and lazier. Instead of facebook chatting, what about a phone call? Or reading a book instead of playing COD? Maybe looking for information on a certain topic in a book or an encyclopedia? Searching up on the internet may be unsatisfying because all the information is already somewhere on the web. All you have to do is type in what you're looking for, and POOF! There it is! *Cue copy and paste* This also leads to another problem: Plagiarizing.

So, i strongly reccomend to all of the users of the world wide web that we try to incorporate other methods of doing the same things that we do on the internet into our daily lives, and that we try to take in life a little more.

Response to video!

In this video a teacher from Hawaii talked about how advanced our technology is these days that all we have to do is re search something and have answers in less than a second. For example you can look up placed to eat and when you find one you like you just type in the adress in your GPS and have instant directions. What's cool about the internet is that you can communicate with anyone from around the world for free! I do agree that all this technology has created issues like cyber bullying and pedophiles that can stock your facebook. However there are many good things about the internet. For example you can mystery Skype classes in other parts of the world, re search a country for your school project without spending hours in a library and even watch music video's! what I liked about The video is that the teacher was very creative on getting the attention of kids our age by creating a parody  of a song. What I didn't like about the video was that it was really weird and repetitive. In conclusion I do agree with this teacher but I also think that there are many pros about the internet.

Tech Video Response

      This video was very true, our day and age has changed a lot with all the technology now.  I think there are pros and cons to all the technology that we have.  There are many pros with the new technologies and to me and also everyone else, I think the social network is the biggest step in technology.  Everybody can stay in touch with friends that they don't talk to as much or maybe family that live in another country.  Another big thing with technology are electronic devices, these things help us do things faster and more conveniently, like right now instead of turning on my computer and waiting for it to start I got my Ipod and watched the video and the wrote this response on it, which is a lot easier.  A few other things that has made our world easier, like they said in the song are the GPS and the apps that help you find restaurants, before you had to use maps and go onto your computer to search for the restaurant.  Along with good things there is always bad things to go along with it.  The biggest thing is cyberbullying. Before all of the social networks people couldn't hide behind the keyboard to bully someone, they had to do it face to face. Also these social networks have created a lot more people to use slang while they talk and even when they write!  All in all our world is changing into a "techy" place and there's nothing to change that. I think this can be a very good thing if people use it in a good way.

Respose to Digital Learning Video   

The teacher from Hawaii was extemely creative to construct a song about the envolvement of the technology by creating the lyrics to give examples of how did the technology improve. Nowadays the tech for uploading pitures has been improved by creating an app called Instagram. Now we can not only doodle on paper but also on Ipads, Ipods, and Iphones. I totally agree with the video that the technology has improved by coming up with with a GPS that could help you drive and also a phone that could help us find restaurants.Also sometimes, I used apps to edit photos that we couldn't do in the past.          

Reflections of "Digital Life" Video.

            The Digital Life video was interesting for me because in the song, it explained exactly how people changed after the world developed new technologies and also how convenient it was for us. For an example, in the video, few lines in the song said, " Because we're all just nodes connecting me and you, " and, "And now we tweet and blog and hashtag all our thoughts, " these lines are talking about the social networks such as facebook or twitter that were created as our world developed new technology. Another line that shows that our life becoming easier because the new technologies in our world developed is, " GPS to drive my car," and "My phone finds me restaurants and bars," which shows that our world is so much developed that there's a phone that can find restautants and bars and a GPS to drive a car.

            There are positive things about our world's developed technology and negative things about our our world's developed technology. The negative things are that most of the students text during class using their phones and don't pay their attention to class. Also, in social networking, there are so many cyber bullies that hurts people's feelings, finding them on social network and threatening them. This may also lead to suicide, like what happened to Amanda Todd. Unfortunately after many people buy a phone or an ipod, they jailbreak it, which is technically illegal and gain free applications that they were suppose to pay for.

            The positive things about our world's developed technoly is that it makes our life way easier. For an example, when google drive was made, students can save their homework there and if they haven't finished their homework at school, they can finish it at home from where they had left off. It works like a flashdrive.