PLN 27

School, for me, has never been something huge. I never really put 100% into my work, and I always had other things that I thought were more important. But now, after my first year at Arapahoe High School, I realized my mistake. I was wrong. School is the most important thing. It gets you places. It opens doors into the next steps of your life. Without school, people would get nowhere in life. You have to have an education to succeed. Yes, school is boring and I would much rather be doing something else, but in the long run, it is what will help me fulfill my dreams. I want to be a sports reporter or work on ESPN when I’m older, but I realized, that if I don’t start working harder in school, then this will never come true. My first semester was not my best. I know I can do so much better than that. So, next semester is a fresh start for me. I am going to do all of my assignments, study for all of my tests, and put 100% into all of my work. My goal is to get all A’s and B’s. I know if I do this I will make my family very proud. I love seeing my family happy, so if it is my grades that will please them, then I will put everything I can into my school work for them. I will not only raise my grades for them, but also for me. So by the end of high school, I will be on the right path to be a sports reporter. This next semester will be a great one. I can already tell.

PLN 26

After reading the article, “Santa, The Real Joy of Christmas,” I felt like a little kid again. The article says that Santa brings the happiness to Christmas; it’s not the presents, or the cookies, but the magic and imagination that Santa puts into little kids. When I was little, I remember sitting up in my bed, thinking about Santa and his reindeer. The thought of how he flew around the whole world in one night and delivered all the presents to every boy and girl fascinated me. I loved trying to stay awake and listening to “Santa’s” heavy footsteps in our family room above me. But sadly, my big brother ruined this for me. One day he told me that Santa wasn’t real. I was devastated. Christmas, for me, was no longer fun. All the imagination and magic that I once thought existed was gone. The amount of presents I received really didn’t matter anymore. I just wanted Santa to be real again. From this experience, and from growing up, I learned that no matter how old you are, it doesn’t matter how big your imagination is. There is nothing wrong with believing in Santa, because he truly is the one who brings the joy and magic back to Christmas.

PLN 24

In the article, “How Basketball Began,” it says that Dr. James Naismith created this game in 1891. It started in Massachusetts in a YMCA gym. The first game was played on December 21st. Naismith was given 2 weeks to invent an indoor game that would help a rowdy class to settle down during the winter. His idea was to bring soccer and lacrosse together instead of playing them outside. For me, I am very thankful that he invented this sport. Basketball is what I love doing. It’s what I do in my spare time and without him I wouldn’t have anything to do. My family is also very big on basketball. We are always talking about it at dinner or watching it whenever we are together.

PLN 25

In the article, “Global Warming,” it says that global warming has become such a big problem in the world. Yes, I agree with this. Our world is slowly falling apart. The ice caps are melting and more and more of the animals living in Antarctica are becoming extinct. Our world needs to do something about this. Whether it be changing our lifestyle or conserving energy, we need a change. I think that every person should try to drive less, use less electricity, and not burn fossil fuels, then this problem will eventually get better over time. If every person makes a little change, then the world will notice a difference.

PLN 23

In the article, “Carmelo’s Big Game,” it gives many reasons as to why Carmelo is an awesome player. It says that Carmelo is the leader of the Denver Nuggets. It states that without Carmelo, the Nuggets wouldn’t be a team. I disagree with this. I think Carmelo is an awesome player, but he is too cocky. He worries too much about himself rather than the actual game. I believe that Chauncey Billups is the Nuggets key player. He shoots, rebounds, and leads the team every game. Without him, the Nuggets would not be a complete team. He brings his team together and gets their minds ready for the game. He is also an awesome guy off the court. He helps the poor, young kids, and he sets a supreme role for all the kids that look up to him. Unlike Carmelo Anthony, who got caught got doing some bad things, Chauncey shows all the kids what the NBA Is truly about. It’s not about the drugs and drinking that Carmelo displays, but it is about hard work, determination and drive. That’s what gets you places. He portrays these things on and off the court. This is what makes him such a valuable player. The amount of points a player scores is not what people should be concerned about. They should pay more attention to the type of person they are, and how they carry themselves on the floor. If a player carries themselves very arrogantly and they do stupid things off the court like Carmelo does, they should be looked down upon. But if the player is smart, plays hard, carries themselves confidently but not arrogantly, like Chauncey does, then they should be the ones getting all the spotlight. They are the ones that are truly working hard. These kinds of people have their minds and hearts in the right place.

PLN 21

Everybody feels pain; mentally and physically. Physical pain is on the outside and can heal. Mental pain, sticks with you. Sometimes, pain builds up to be too much to handle. I know people say that pain can be tucked away by distracting yourself, or thinking positively, but this is not always true. Yes, it may help, but deep down, there raises a pain so ridicule and so unbarring that there is nothing that you can do to stop it. Sadly, I do not know this from the countless psychology articles I have read, or the heartbreaking stories you read in the news, I know this from my own self-experience. Whether it be broken relationships, a broken heart, or a broken family, everyone goes through something that’s hard on them. In the article, “Jaycee Lee Dugard and Other Kidnapping Stories Where the Missing Child was Found Alive,” it talks about a little girl who got kidnapped at age 11 and was not found until age 29. Her family told the writers of the article how devastated they were. They said their hearts were literally broken in half. I know I am not able to understand the pain that Jaycee’s family was going through, but I know that I have felt the pain of losing a friend. It’s not easy. You feel like your second half is missing. You feel as if you’re not complete and something huge is missing. I know this is nothing compared to Jaycee’s story, but sometimes even the littlest of pain can feel as if your heart was “literally broken in half.”

PLN 20

The United States is said to be one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but yet it is one of the unhealthiest countries in the world. In the article, “Obesity In America,” it asks the question, why American people? What do we do that is so different than the rest of the world? I believe that the reason Americans are so obese is because the lifestyle is very poor. People are falling back on microwave dinners and fast food sprees. This is instead of eating a pure diet, with wholesome foods that will keep your weight under control. Also, technology is being advanced in the food department. More and more food is being processed, and we have found ways to produce food in mass quantities that make it last longer and taste better. Throughout this process, food is being lost. These machines highly process the foods; load them with sugar, and oils. If this were to continue, America in the long-run will definitely be the most obese country in the world, by far. To solve this problem, I think we should set a law that everyone in the United States must work out at least an hour every day. This will lower the obesity in the country and it will also help people live longer. The article also says that America is one of few countries that is least knowledgeable about nutrition. This, I think, is absolutely ridiculous. This shows that majority of America don’t care about their own health and the health of others. People need to take matters into their own hands and do something about this problem. This will help America become a cleaner, healthier, stronger country. Death rates would go down and people would live longer and happier lives.

PLN 22

In the article "Put Forth our Best Writing Selves" by Douglas Hesse it talks about how Facebook, Twitter, and texting could ruin writing because now kids are using shorter and improper grammar which could make writing improper.

PLN 14

In the article "Rigor Redefined" by Tony Wagner explains about how students need to learn different skills then what there actually learning. Tony Wagner goes and interviews some very successful company owners and asks them what they look for in young employee workers and most of the people he interviewed all said that they want critical thinking and problem solving, there are many things that they want in a person so they can work there.

PLN 13

I think that writing with a pen goes much faster then typing up a paper on a computer. The reason I think that it’s faster is because more than half of the classes you take you half to write with a pen and paper so kids get used to writing with pen and paper. If I could chose to write up a paper with pen and paper or type one up I would definitely chose pen and paper because it is more accessible than a computer .

PLN 8

In the video called "A Vision of the Students Today" by Dr. Wesch it tells us about how students don't use most of the books they buy and all the other interesting facts that goes on in school like half of the kids in class don't listen and take notes. I thought this video was very amusing but at the same time if you buy books that you don't use once then why are they making you buy the books? I believe the fact about half of the kids don't listen in class and don't pay attention. I think it's ridiculous that mostly kids don't pay attention in class.

PLN 7

Today I read an article called "Afghan War Needs Thousands more Troops". It amazes me that they need even more troops to go to Afghanistan they've already taken a bunch of troops to the war. When is it going to stop? I thought that it was going to be over with Barack Obama as president. I just think that we have more than enough troops in Afghan.

PLN 6

I read an article in the Denver Post called "Global Network Detects Sign of Atomic Bomb Testing" in the article I read that Iran, Israel and five nuclear powers that are permanent Security Council members of a global network to detect signs of atomic bomb testing. I thought that was really fascinating because I mostly read the articles that have to do with the war today and this article caught my attention because I think it's amazing how they can detect this stuff and I think its amazing how efficient our technology is today.

PLN 3

In the Denver Post I read an article about a guy named Najibullah Zazi who lives in Aurora, Colorado was planning to cause a terrorist attack and throughout the whole investigation he started to lie and towards the end he started to admit that he had something to do with the terrorist attack. I thought that this article was very interesting because they found him off of the Internet. So they used technology to stop him from causing an attack that will cause many deaths.

PLN 5

In the article "New Literacy" by Clive Thompson it tells us that the new technology can be used as a good or a bad thing, I look at It as a good thing because the only time I go on to the computer to do school work or look for something that I could buy. Before they made computers or the Internet, kids who had to do essays had to write it out with a paper and pencil. Now kids can type there essays up and look up info off of the Internet for there projects. So when I think about the technology, I think of it as a good thing but I think it also relies on what you do on the Internet to make it a good or bad thing.

PLN 4

The video "The Machine is Using Us'' by Dr. Wesch tells us that if we use the computer right then we will have a lot safer and better computer. So if you do anything bad on the Internet than your making your computer a lot worse for you. So the things you do on the Internet could effect you later in the future. I thought the video was very fascinating to watch and i would recommend it to anyone. I think i need to tell my little brother about what will happen if you don't treat your computer right because i wouldn't want it to backfire on him!

PLN 2

When i was reading the gender article about how the girls are more educated than guys are, i agreed with the fact that the girls are smarter than guys but at the same time i believe that we can try harder and become more educated than the girls. I think the reason why girls do better in school than guys is because guys are more dedicated in things outside of school such as sports or clubs. More guys are involved in sports than girls are so that's why i think girls do better in school than guys because girls are more dedicated than guys are. If guys were more dedicated than girls then we would be better in school then the girls.

PLN 1

In Karl Fisch's video "Did you know?" I learned that China has a much larger population than the United States and they are much technologically advanced then the U.S. I learned so much in this video and I think that people would learn so much by watching this video. There is so much stuff that i didn't know about. I would recommend this to family and friends and I think that they would learn as much or more than I learned by watching this video. You learn so much that you have to watch it 3 times to read everything. I showed this video to many people already and they thought it was very educational and they learned a bunch of facts about the world and other country's. I started to think about how the computers will exceed the human race. That's freaky!