Education Presentations Wrap-Up/Animal Dreams Intro Reflection

After finishing the Education Innovation presentations, I realize now that my group should’ve been better at organizing our thoughts at the beginning of the project. This is because I felt like we got somewhat lost and weren’t exactly sure of how we wanted to present our information. Also, since we were confused, we kind of just threw visual aids in there. I thought that the project and the Google document that explained it was a little confusing which might have led to the underdeveloped outline or proposal. Overall though, I thought our group ended up with a quality end product. For the most part, I enjoyed seeing the presentations that everyone did. I especially enjoyed the “Mozart Effect” group that presented first. They played instrumental music throughout their presentation which made the presentation more interesting. I don’t know if this is because it kind of filled in the empty spots of their project or if it actually helped me focus in or something else. It might just be a little of both. Either way, it left me with a positive memory of their presentation. I hope that we can implement this education innovation into our class. I have many initial thoughts about the content and the structure and methodology of the next unit we are going to do in which we read Animal Dreams. One of the things I worry about is that I am not going to like the book because I have heard from other students in other classes who have finished the book that it is all about feminism. This might make it harder to connect and identify with the content of the book. Another one of my initial thoughts is about the structure and methodology of the unit. I get that Mr. Cheng is using an incentive for the essay in that if everyone gets an A or A-, then we just have creative projects for the rest of the quarter. Personally, as a concrete sequential, I don’t really want creative projects either. I don’t mind writing essays because I like how essays have a format and a traditional layout. So, I’m not really responding to the incentive in this case. Also, I think that it’s very hard for everyone in the class to get an A. By the way, I’m not going to try and get a B so I don’t have to do creative projects. I’ll do my best to get an A. Also what’s confusing is which essay this deal is for. Is it the timed essay or the second one? I hope that it’s the second one because I think it will be especially hard for everyone to get an A on the timed test. Then we all wouldn’t have to do the second essay. This is another way that I was confused. There are so many overlapping, dependent grading structures in this unit. I left class today confused because the power point was like an hour long which made it hard to stay focused and the unit seems huge and has a lot of tiny projects/parts to it. Hopefully I will enjoy it though.

My Learning Style - Concrete Sequential (CS)

After doing the learning style evaluation, I found that I was a really dominate Concrete Sequential (CS) learner. This fits me exactly after I read the explanation. One of the things it said was that they are very practical and organized. This is one of the things I do best. Also, one of the things it said was that CS's hate working in groups. It sounds like a negative quality but I do really prefer knowing what I'm doing and where the project is headed, which is more easily accomplished individually. I can use this to enhance my learning by being more organized and possibly making concrete deadlines and time limits (which it says CS's do well) to manage my work. Also, I will try to work on the areas that it says CS learners aren't as strong in. For example, dealing with abstract ideas and working in groups. I feel like I now have an accurate representation of the kind of learner that I am which I think will really help in being successful in learning, both in and out of school.

How school sucks...rocks...

After going through the first semester of English 10, I have found some things that suck, and some things that rock. One of the things that rocks is Mr. Cheng and how brings a lot of energy to class every day. He makes the class very enjoyable. One thing that was bad from first semester was the jigsaw reading assignment. I feel like in theory, the idea of people in a group each reading a different article and coming together to share what they learned works. However, when it was applied to the class, people weren't sure of what information was the most important to tell the other person in the short amount of time they had to share. I think that it would be helpful for the person that is reading the article see the questions on the test that have to do with their article. This would not be so that the person could give the other group members the answers, but so that they would know what important ideas the teacher was getting at. This also might work more on paper than it does in the real world. Another thing that isn't necessarily bad, but kind of weird is that the work load in this class is inconsistent. At times, we won't be doing much and then all of a sudden we're reading a really long book in a short amount of time. This could be good, though, because it might be boring staying on one project/unit for a longer time. One last part of first semester that I didn't like is how a lot of classes are going paperless. This is a good initiative that the school is trying to do, but for some classes it just doesn't work. For example, in my Civil Engineering and Architecture class, they are having us just do the assignments in Microsoft Word. With a class like Engineering, there are a lot of calculations that you have to do which is hard to do in a Word Document. I think that in English 10, it is okay to go paperless because we don't have calculations or anything like that.

Rabbit Proof Fence Response

After reading the articles and considering the movie, I think that Phillip Noyce went too far in manipulating his audience in trying to make a strong, emotional movie. Making a movie about something about something like the "Lost Generations" is very dangerous because as a filmmaker, he has to make something interesting that people will react and respond too. This might cause him to detract from the true story and create plot points that reflect steps of the Hero's Journey. This is also dangerous because in a story with a hero, there has to be some sort of a villain, which might cause in this case Noyce to accentuate Mr. Neville's bad intentions. For example, Peter Howson and Des Moore write, "[Neville's] mother received about 500 letters from Aborigines praising his efforts on their behalf. A true story would have shown his humane actions to protect them from exploitation by whites or their own kin." Although some might disagree with the what he did and how he did it, Neville had good intentions which is shown by how many letters he received from Aborigines. This shows that his actions turned out to be successful in many cases. However, in the movie, they make him out to be "a devil" which is what they have the girls call him at Moore River.
I don't think I can totally side with Peter Howson and Des Moore on the view that Neville's actions were completely out of good intentions and that the movie is way off from the truth. However, I feel that the evidence of the 500 letters received by Neville's mother and other evidence make a case that the "Rabbit-Proof Fence" movie is somewhat exaggerated.

Three Truths and a Lie

1. I have been in Edina Public Schools for my whole life (Kindergarten through High School)
2. I play football
3. I can play four different instruments
4. I am related to William Jennings Bryan (Scopes Trial)

What I am Going to Learn This Month

This month, I hope to continue to learn about how to correctly cite my sources, whatever type of source it may be.  Also, I think I will learn about the Kite Runner and what themes are in it.

What I Have Learned Reflection

So far this year, I've learned many things including how to correctly cite my sources.  Before, I had just entered my website links into easybib.com or bibme.com and copied and pasted whatever it popped out into my works cited page.  Another thing that I've learned is what a single story is and why it is so dangerous.  From now on, I will be more cautious and critical of whether what I am hearing accurately represents more than one side of a story.