Unit 2:  Matter and Chemistry.

We have all heard of the Periodic Table of Elements, we have all seen it, but what does it mean? What I want you to do is research the Periodic Table and tell me the following information.  What is the Periodic Table?  Who invented the Periodic Table?  What information does the periodic table tell us?  Respond to this post.

Being that winter is approaching and the weather has been so gloomy lately, I wanted to show everyone a little piece of paradise.  This picture was taken before 6am in Heron Island, Australia back in late May early June.  I know this, because I went there.  It was defiantly an amazing experience that I would love to share with everyone.  this experience was indescribable everyday was amazing. The best part was, I was studying.  I did a study abroad and we worked on projects and learned about the native animals.  My project was about clams and the relationship between water depth and clam size.  We found that there was a correlation between clam size and water depth.  The deeper the water the larger the clams were overall.  Now of course there were exceptions but that science, its about the experiments and the learning process.
One of the many reasons why I loved this trip was because I was learning, but I had no idea I was.  That is something that needs to be put into our schools.  We need to get our students to learn in more hands on ways.  It is amazing but when students do not know that they are learning they have this ability to stay focused longer and want to know more, I guess it is an intrinsic motivation.  The thing every teacher wants their students to have. 
Just remember, this can be your classroom if you allow it ...

The Race to Nowhere

I went to the showing of "The Race to Nowhere " and let me start off by saying I highly recommend it. This was more then a movie, it was a documentary, it touched on so many different points, and it was amazing to see how school affects everyone in a community. Here the students told you how they felt, they told you about the truth behind the education system.
Here they talked about the stress students go through on a daily basis them trying to get straight A's, trying to be in all AP classes, having sports, clubs, community service, tutoring, working, and then hours of homework. They do not get a break, and they do not get to be kids. As one of the parents in the video said, "I'm afraid our children are going to sue us for stealing their childhood." They are so concerned with good grades, to go to a good college that they are not learning anything, they are memorizing and stressing themselves out to the point that they are getting sick.
One parent told her story about her 14 year old daughters suicide. She had no idea, there were no clues, no depressive behaviors, just on bad failing math grade. Students were saying they wouldn't eat because eating made them tired and they needed to go through the entire night doing homework. (Which at the high school level kids should be getting 9.25 hours a night, most are averaging about 6). The destructive behaviors to be perfect, to go nowhere is not acceptable.
Students in 3rd grade were coming home with hours of homework, and how can we justify that? Kids are not suppose to be in school for 7 hours, plus 5 hours of homework, at any age! They need to be outside, socializing, having a life, being a family, being active, not buried in a textbook all day. What kind of life is that? There were so many points brought up in this documentary, it is eye opening, and will make you remember, and want to change this for your children. We need to let them be kids, not doing 12+ hours of school work, we need to all ban together and let our children live, let them understand that there are multiple ways to be successful and that the true meaning behind being successful is being happy and healthy!

The Tech Commandments

Have you ever wondered why we keep technology out of the classroom?  Well the Tech Commandments article tells you exactly why.  The fear that children will act the same way online as they do in the classroom, the fear that the student will known more then the teacher, the problem of not having technology educated teachers.  These are some of the many reasons why teachers want to keep technology out of the classroom, however, what if we had teachers that knew how to work the technology, they knew how to teach the students to act on the internet then wouldn't it be alright if we had technology into the classroom?


We need to understand that in order to use technology our teacher need to be taught how to use it first, and there needs to be a set up.  For instance you don't want a teacher to start the lesson, tell the students to turn on computers and load a program that takes twenty minutes.  Have the computers and the programs on and running, and shut the monitor off so they cannot see what is on there.  Its is little things like these that can help improve our classrooms and our future students.

Blame Our Young? Or Use their Passion!

This article by Marc Prensky brings a new perspective to the educational system.  In the U.S. adults complain that our students are not taking their education seriously.  “What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country,” said Obama in a recent address to students.  But they rarely think of the fact that, they just do not have a reason to care about certain topics.  As educators we are not showing them the relevance, and the need for the knowledge.  We want our children to enjoy what they do, so how come we do not allow them to do that in school?  If students can find something they are passionate about, do you think they would continue to fail?  No, they will want to learn, it will become something that is more than a lecture to them.   We need to include our student’s passions into the classroom, and this is easily done by making lessons applicable to real life. 

Assistive Technology and Disabilities

Carol Pecks article, “High-tech devices help kids with disabilities,” tells a story about how new technology can be individualized to help students succeed.  Though assistive technologies are not only limited to students, they can help all people communicate and function better.  Having this in the classroom is excellent for students to learn the proper way to use these technologies, and can help other students learn how to help assist others.  Assistive technologies are helping students, however are we helping them?  Many of these systems are expensive and families probably cannot afford them.  Some of the programs are becoming cheaper because they are receiving  completion, but are they just as good?  Will they be able to assist these people enough?  I think these are some of the things we need to consider, and we need to find a way to lower the prices to make these more readily available for all people that need assistive technology.