Child-Driven Education

     After watching Sugata Mitra's presentation entitled "The Child-Driven Education", I now have a better understanding of different approaches being taken in regards to teaching children and feel his method is effective. As for the delivery of the presentation, I considered it to be good. Although his slight accent made some things difficult to hear, he spoke clearly  with a smooth pace making it easy to understand what he was conveying. He continued to engage the audience and grasp their attending using small puns making it an educational, yet enjoyable atmosphere. His knowledge of the subject stood out immensely as he gave examples from his journeys around the world, giving underprivileged counties computers for the youth to use as a educational tool. Multiple of Suga Mitra's experiments were published in documented pieces, thus giving him credibility. In the organization of his presentation, he basically followed the timeline of his work. He started at the beguinning of his research giving his main idea and what sources he was going to use to try to prove it. As he continued to see results, more aid was given to further his educational experiment making him able to expand to other coutries. All in all I believe Sugata Mitra's presentation was very well given and his main points were clear.  

                                

Oral Presentations

  Giving an oral presentation is hard enough, but giving a good presentation takes skill. In my opinion it takes several aspects to create a solid presentation.

1.) Attire: Your attire has a lot to do with how people are going to respond to what you are presenting. If your trying to give a presentation about business sales for a company your not going to be wearing shorts and a beater.

2.) Body Language: By not having appropriate body language, you may confuse your audience. If your pacing back and forth and not making eye contact than your not effectively communicating.

3.) Voice and Tone:  This makes a world of difference, because if your yelling at your audience they may not respect what you have to say or feel offended.

4.) Main Point: You do not want to confuse your audience by not being clear with what you are talking about. This may make it seem like you are rambling.

5.)Trying to Connect: You must try and connect to your audience, make them feel the passion your trying to portray.

Research Paper

      The research paper I am required to write is focusing on education, and the pros and cons of how its affecting students today. Some ideas that come to mind are how some teachers are using the responsibilities as an educator and truly reaching out to the students. Not all teachers take it upon themselves to make sure every student in there class understands the curriculum. In my opinion teachers with tenor are more likely to just be going through the motions of teaching than actually making sure their students are learning.

   I believe that teachers who plan on contunuing teaching with tenor should be evaluated acouple months or even a year after they have recieved it, to make sure they are not abusing the status. By doing so and correcting the problem I believe it will lead to a better school system that benifits the students as well as the professors.

 

Life Bully

      In the essay, "Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate The Smart Kids," by Grant Penrod, he explains the underlying concept of why people bully others and the problems it causes. He takes into concept why the "nerds" in school are bullied due to the lack of social integration and trying to fit in. I believe that in today's day and age, the level of bullying have grown to a media. A lot of younger generations are in access to computers, cellphones or any other way to socialize without being face to face. It gives someone a false confidence that what they say in text does not have repercussion. This makes a bully able to take there harassment out of the school setting and more deeper into a persons life.
      In retrospect to the rise in the level of bullying, I believe that schools have taken large steps to try to prevent or take preventive measure to counteract it. Now a days there are numerous people you can talk to in a school about the issue. Wither its a coach, teacher, principle or guidance counselor, all of the staff have a responsibility in keeping a safe, appropriate teaching environment.

Using technology in the classroom..

    
    I found an extensive news article about a school that replaced most of its books with Ipads. An entire class of fifth graders would be the first in the school to take their tests, do there reading and classwork on an Apple Ipad. The purpose of doing this is to see in over the course of a year that the students would actually be gaining from the technology. Off the bad the teachers notice the students are paying attention more and more interested in being active in class.
     In my opinion teaching students this way is a terrible idea. Rapidly younger generations are losing the abilities to do simple tasks without relying on technology. Technically were making them dumber, because if there was ever an instance where they cannot rely on some sort of electronic gizmo, there doomed. I see children younger than 8 with an Iphone, because there parent wants to be able to stay in contact with them. What they dont realize is they are feeding into bad habits, that child not only can talk to the parent, but perhaps Facetime with some classmates. That's going to lead to trouble because children are not mature enough to do the right thing with technology like that.

Siblings

     Having a younger brother has played a large roll in my life. From having to make him tow the line or showing him the proper ways to do things, a younger brother always looks up to you as a roll model. A lot of the time my brother is harassing me, trying to show me YouTube videos of turbo'd diesel trucks and Craigslist posts. The kids extremely headstrong when it comes to trying to prove himself or doing activity's. Yet  he doesn't always do it in an appropriate way. A lot of this is because people always tell him how cool and relaxed I am, the opposite of himself. There are a lot of characteristics we share. Sometimes ill answer his phone when friends are calling and pretend to be him, only hid girlfriend knows its not really him. We also find a lot of the same humor funny, such as a lot of inappropriate things or the same types of comedians.

     All in all though he is a good kid. He is good with mechanics and can drive/ride the hell out of anything with a motor. Most of the time breaking whatever that is. My father spends a lot of his time and money fixing all of these motored vehicles he recklessly abuses.

Facebook Friend Request

     Niedzviecki's story is about how people he is "friends" with online are not really his friends, but online buddies. In my opinion social networking is just another step in making people less connected physically. Its more convenient to message someone or post something on there wall than actually go and talk with them. It promotes a lot of "creeping" on people, being able to see photos of them and information whenever you like. Whenever I get a friend request from somebody I don't actually know, I will deny them. Just like whenever its somebody birthday I'm not in contact with or know I'll delete them. I watch a lot of Law & Order SVU (Special Victims Unit) and they emphasize a lot on not talking to people you don't know on the Internet, it leads to crime.

Going Through the Motions

What does this mean?
      In my opinion its why you get up every day, or go to school or see your friends. Hopefully its because your trying to better yourself and create a future that your happy with. There are too many people out there that are going to school because "their parents made them", while so many do not have the opportunity to set foot in one. Of course your background and where you grew up plays a large part in how you view society. Every day walking the halls of SCCC I listen to people complain about being there and dealing with the people that go here, myself included. Yet if you walk around Schenectady you see many homeless people and immigrants who either don't work or do heavy labor just to get food.

This could be you if you don't use the resources around to try and better your self and not take handouts.

Awesome Things.

      "Awesome" comes in many forms, some more apparent than others. It can be anything from finishing a puzzle to making a profit from selling things on Craigslist. Its all about the proud, awesome feeling you get and the satisfaction. My personal favorite "awesome" is the sound and feeling of a turbo vehicle under boost. Doesn't make a difference whether its a JDM (Japaneese Demestic Market) fourbanger car or a 24 valve Cummins diesel truck. Each produces that desired turbo whistle and epic powerband.

      For the rest of my life I will own something with a turbo. Truck or car, lifted or slammed. If putting them on motorcycles becomes more popular ill even do that too. But then again not every engine block can handle the pressures a turbo can produce. Causing many to blow a head gasket or even crack the block. In the end though, turbos are Awesome.

Day 1.

This is the start of my very first blog, if Facebook doesn't count. I personally think that people who blog are just people with no friends and need to share their pointless emotions. Yet seeing as how this is a course requirement, I am going to give it my all.

My name is Jordan by the way.

This newly found blog is going to let me voice my opinions of the world around me and allow my classmates have a good laugh, being approprate ofcourse.