PLN #12: What Teachers Really Want to Tell Parents

The article, “What Teachers Really Want to Tell Parents,” by Ron Clark, portrays the thoughts that teachers have toward the parents of their students and how they can get just as frustrated as the parents can.

Ron Clark explains in “What Teachers Really Want to Tell Parents” that the parents of students they are teaching a presenting a real problem in education today and could be resulting in kids not getting the education they need. A point that is made in the article is that the best teachers don’t give the best grades, because they have higher expectations for responsibility, therefore it is harder for kids to get good grades. This is an interesting point because I always thought that the classes I did the best in were the best classes and I learned the most from them, but now I know that that might not be the case anymore. Another point made in the article was that when a student gets a bad grade on something or a teacher gives them a bad report on behavior, the parents of the kid usually try to stand up for the kid, prove the teacher wrong, and make the grade higher just so their child will do better. I can see why this is so frustrating for teachers because they know what they are doing in the classroom and since it’s their class, they should be able to justify what should be going on in that class. I can sympathize with these teachers because personally, I hate it when people try to prove me wrong and I always make sure I have a reason to back myself up. To add to the problem, when parents try to raise kids’ grades by talking with teachers, that not only teaches the student that it is okay to use excuses to get by in life, but it will limit their futures because they will not have the work-ethic and hard-working skills they need to get jobs in the future. Overall, I learned that it is important to respect teachers and learn to trust them because they were the ones trained to teach the kids, and they know more about what the kids will get out of it than the parents do.

PLN #10: In Praise of the F Word

The article, “In Praise of the F Word,” by Mark Sherry, explains how the threat of failure to some students can be very motivating and result in success rather than failure.


Mark Sherry’s reasoning behind the statement in “In Praise of the F Word,” that kids respond well to failure, is well-backed up and is interesting to think about in a perspective that many people aren’t used to looking at. The article says that if kids get the threat of a failure in a class, then they will definitely be more motivated to work hard to do well in the class they know they’re doing bad in. The author even had examples in his article that proved his theory right. The article also expressed that many kids who have graduated or dropped out of high school go back into school to re-learn what they were supposed to learn in high school. Many of the graduated people admitted to receiving their diplomas even when they didn’t actually learn what was being taught. They were basically saying that they shouldn’t have passed the class, but the teachers let them anyway. I think that threatening students with a failing grade is an interesting way to motivate them because it’s not a way that teachers would normally come up with but it really drives kids to get good grades, and they will be happy in the end.

PLN #9: Teens, Sleep, and School

The article, "Teens, Sleep, and School" by Gisele Glosser explains the many causes of sleep deprivation in teenagers and how it affects everyday teen life.

“Teens, Sleep, and School” by Gisele Glosser very accurately portrays the reasons teenagers tend to lose sleep-- procrastination, social media, and even puberty comes into effect when teens should be sleeping. I can relate to this article very well on a personal level because I know I don’t get as much sleep as I should and the reasons are very accurate according to my nightly schedule. I am one to put off homework until the last minute so I usually end up doing it later at night than I should. Also, social media has been taking over my life and I am involved in more apps than I should be. Although they shouldn’t be able to be very time consuming, I usually can find myself on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, or any other piece of social media I can get  devoured in time after time. This is definitely a weakness of mine because once I get sucked in, it is hard for me to back out and let self control take over, so I am up later than I should be. I think the author of this article really knows what teenagers’ weaknesses are, therefore the information is accurate and the solutions to extreme sleep deprivation might be legitimately beneficial. Some of these solutions include going to bed earlier and keeping electronic devices out of bedrooms at night. I think that if teenagers with sleep deprivation problems try these solutions, they won’t have to worry about extreme outcomes such as depression or even suicidal thoughts.

PLN #8: What's Wrong with the Teenage Mind?

The article, “What’s Wrong with the Teenage Mind?” by Alison Gopnik explains the idea that puberty in kids today is starting earlier and ending later than it ever has before, resulting in “teenage weirdness;” however, it also explains that the systems of teenage brains need to adapt more and therefore are becoming more efficient.

The main idea of the article, “What’s Wrong with the Teenage Mind?” by Alison Gopnik, makes an interesting point as to how teenagers’ brains work and the desires that teenagers have.  Some of these desires include the need for rewards for everything they do.  Gopnik explains that teens feel better when they are rewarded with something, and therefore are more likely to do more risky things when they think they will be rewarded with something afterward.  This is something that many teens can probably relate to, even if it is just getting rewarded with more social status or more friends.  Teens aren’t getting less intelligent though, as Gopnik states.  They are actually getting smarter, because the longer period of immaturity they have, the more experiences they will have to learn from.  Learning from experiences is a major part of developing as not only an adolescent, but growing up to be the best person you can be.

PLN #7: We've cracked the genetic code, now what?

          The article, "We've cracked the genetic code, now what?" explains the fact that the technology of genetics has been advancing and scientists have figured out what to use it for, but now they don’t know what to do with the information that they have.  One idea that could come into the everyday lives of people is to be able to access their own genetic code right on an app on their smartphone. This idea could be beneficial, but science needs to wait because there are ethical reasons why it might not be a good idea to release this kind of information to the world.  If too much information is released, there will be consequences and government officials don’t know how to deal with the questions that will come up yet.
 
I think that the article, “We’ve cracked the genetic code, now what?” is very interesting in the fact that we have come so far in technology and genetics but there is still so much that we can do and discover.  I think that having access to our own genome would be so incredible, and there would be so much that we could do with it! We could find out what diseases we are prone to have and theoretically be able to find a cure for them.  There is also the possibility that looking at specific genomes could determine why aging comes along the way it does, and in the near future there could be a way to argue it.  It would be very cool to find out how to prevent aging, but again there would be major consequences for figuring out this kind of technology, like a new problem of population in the country.  There are also some cons in the situation of discovering personal peoples’ DNA, such as moving into the boundary of ethical beliefs and protection against personal information.  When and if this kind of personal information ever gets out, there will also be the question of when it is appropriate to share.  I think that it is important to try to get as far as we can in discovering the human genome and that if any problems arise, we can cross that bridge when we come to it.

PLN Presentation Feedback

Thanks for listening! Here is my question:
If the world had listened to the feedback that teachers had on technology just a few years ago, what would your personal life be like without the technology that we have today?

PLN #6: What If?

The video, “What If?” by Karl Fisch, proposes the idea that the world today is made up of many types of technology that didn’t exist before, and that the new technology that is being invented and improved is a statement to show how much the world has accomplished throughout the past few centuries.  In the video, Mr. Fisch gives quotes that teachers, administrators, and other officials gave about how they thought that technology would fail or become a burden rather than an achievement in the world.  Many of the quotes stated that the technology that was getting invented (in the time era that the quotes were taken from) was taking away from students’ learning and that it would become an inconvenience to them as time went on.  However, with each quote that came on the screen, each one talked about more recent technology and how it was effecting the world, and they never dwelled on one subject, which showed that over time the “obstacle” with that certain piece of technology was overcome.  The first quote was taken from the year 1703, in which a teacher is complaining about how slates are too expensive and students shouldn’t be expected to use them.  The technology moves from slates to modern technology like cell phones, calculators, and laptops.  At the end of the video, Mr. Fisch asks the question, “What if we’d listened?"

 
I think that the video “What If?” by Karl Fisch is very interesting and is a good way to look at how far we have come in the world of technology in just a few centuries.  Personally, I use all kinds of technology every day and without it, everything I do would be very inefficient.  I do most of my homework and even some class work on my computer so it is very important in the sense to get work done.  My phone is also an important piece of technology to me because I can do almost everything I can do on a computer on my it.  It is also an essential way for me to communicate with family and friends.  Facebook is just one of the many sites that people go on to stay connected and live vicariously through others.  Many websites like Facebook as pastimes as well as time-wasters, but they are still a big part of what technology is today.  The internet is also a huge achievement in the world of technology because before the internet, people would have to research everything in books and find other ways to occupy themselves.  If we had listened to the people’s quotes on Mr. Fisch’s video, we would have never gotten this far so I am glad that people challenged these statements instead of gave up on what new piece of technology was yet to come.