Motivation by Tony Gurr

I found Tony Gurr's blog very interesting and  I really enjoyed going through his blog blog, because I found his teaching style very different and nontraditional. Tony's style was new to me and so at first i found it very confusing, but I eventually got accustomed to his great style.

During class Ms. lees showed me Mr.Tony's blog and i found it very fascinating and i was immediately intrigued, especially when she told me that Tony created his own graphics. While i was scrolling through his blog i stopped at this picture because the title " GREAT TEACHers" really caught my eye, and while reading the photo i found

Myself agreeing and giggling, because it's the plain truth. For example in the past i had a teacher that would just give us notes, and then a worksheet, notes ,worksheet and the same thing EVERY SINGLE DAY , and eventually i started to really dread going to that class and i just didn't find myself learning, and i was confused with the curriculum and i was really unmotivated.

One of the points i found really important was " great teachers treat students with respect and caring attitudes". This points is important, because i think that us students do not learn if we are intimidated or scared of our teachers, who are supposed to be caring, our mentors, and importantly our friends. If a student is too focused on the intimidation of their teacher, then they will be less focused on what they are learning, which would eventually lead to their grades dropping.

I agree with Tony Gurr 100% that teachers need new ways to deliver our course material to give us more motivation of wanting to learn. We need more life-like experiences in our curriculum, and more freedom to explore what we know and what more we can know. Both kids and children need to take the first step to motivate one another, and when they are i truly believe that's when the really learning will begin

Poetry That Moves: When i was your man

I made a power point of the song when i was your man i really love all the lyrics so my presentation is more that 10 lines long, originally i wanted to put the music together with the presentation, but i was having ALOT of problems to i decided just to put the music along with it so please listen to both and unfortunately my drive did not upload my powerpoint well so all my transitions and moving words do not work!! :(

link to my power point: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1o9WdYnGxDvsgtbPekUCqa4tWEmEqyP1fAOdw8bhx8VM/edit#slide=id.p14

The music to go along with it: 

(with words) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJT0Suanqhg

(Instrumental version) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgSl56lIaw4

Voting in Canada should be required by law (meaning punishable by fines).

Our democracy depends upon the active participation from our countries citizens, and while voting is only one element of political engagement, it remains the very foundation of our democracy. I think we are very lucky to be in Canada, because in Canada we have the privilege to vote for who will represent us, but many people don't not take advantage of this privilege that some others do not have. Some people think that the voter turnout is a reflection of the public's interest in politics, but honestly i think that is just an excuse people who don't want to vote use. 

Last year and in the year 2011 only about 61% of people actually went out to vote,  I think it's absurd and foolish that people aren't voting when they have the ability to have the right to choose their leaders. If Canada laid a penalty on people who do not vote we will have more votes and maybe even more fair results. In countries like Fiji, and Morocco they don't have the choice or ability to vote for who will represent them. In other countries like Lebanon and Bhutan women aren't allowed to vote, I'm sure many of the people from these countries dream about being able to vote, and decide who makes the decision for their rights, but that's all it is a dream they don't have the privilege like we in Canada do to vote for our leaders.

In Australia citizens can be fined about 20 dollars for not voting and if they don not pay the fine after many warning letters are sent. Their voting participation rates are around 95%, though it is just $20 it still works, because people want to avoid being fined or put in jail, and this tactic is what I think Canada should do to get a more higher voting rate. I believe that the votes are a representative sample of the whole population, not just the people who are active and interested enough to want to vote, and Because everyone has to vote, the whole country may become more politically literate and they might actually learn what their positions on different issues are, allowing them to make very informed decisions about their choice of who they want as their representatives.

I think that if Canada makes voting mandatory it will improve our democracy, and people would be taking advantage of their privilege to vote. I  strongly believe that a law should be enforced to make Canadians aware that they are lucky to be able to vote. 

Loyalty, is there positive and negative effects of being too loyal ? (REVISED)

Loyalty is a word that you either hear, or don't hear too often, and it is mostly described as a good personality trait or quality. I think that loyalty is very important in friendships, business relationships, and in personal relationships, but being too loyal to someone can have its disadvantages and it has me asking myself the question, is loyalty always a good thing ?

Loyalty has many positive outcomes and benefits to it. One benefit is that when you are loyal you earn trust, admiration, and even a thanks from someone important to you like your boss, your family member, or a lover. When you have trust from someone you feel good about yourself, and the other person would have a good feeling towards you, because you were loyal to them. Another good benefit of being loyal is that you earn a good reputation for yourself. Having a good reputation can be very important for you throughout your career and life, and in the yes of others you would be a person with a reputation that is unbreakable. Lastly from being a loyal person y wold have great success and have many life time opportunities coming towards you, because people know that you are a loyal trust worthy person who will not let them down.

Although loyalty is a very good thing in life, it can also have negative outcomes and cause some set backs in ones life. One negative outcome is that you can experience a lost of personal judgement and thinking ability for yourself. When you are too loyal to someone you start to lose your personal judgement and feel like they should decide what is best for you and maybe even how you should live your life. Secondly you can be be taken advantage by the other person whether its physically, or mentally. Being taken advantage of can lead you to doing things that you don't want to do, or taking a blame for the other person, because they asked you too and you have absolute loyalty for them. Lastly the other person would know you have complete loyalty to them and would probably end up mistreating you, and instead of thinking of you as a friend and human they would treat you like a slave or animal. Over the years I learned that loyalty is sometimes or usually a bad thing, because people usually never reciprocate the affection. My loyalty now extends to the extent in which they demonstrate their loyalty to me. I only do what I think or know the other person would do for me, nothing more and nothing less. That way, you don't get disappointed when the other person falls through and fails to show you the same kindness that you showed them.

To me personally loyalty means just three things to me. One is that you have someone to lean on, not just a regular friend or a by-stander , but someone you know who is loyal to you and you know will help you through your troubles. Secondly it means the willingness to help one another, by this I don't mean that they would lend you money or anything whenever you forget your wallet, but I mean that both parties should be willing to help one another through hardships , even if it is just helping bringing in groceries to the house. Lastly and personally to me is the most important is honesty. As I said before loyalty earns you a good reputation from others , trust, and success, but not only do you have to be loyal, but you have to be honest to or else how do you expect others to be loyal and honest towards you?

To me loyalty is a diverse word. It has its positives which could really benefit you,and it's negatives which could sometimes bring negative impacts to your life. I think to avoid these negatives impacts and effects on our lives, we should learn to stop when the negative effects are impacting the way you live, or think.

Power always corrupts the one who holds it ( REVISED)helping others as well as gaining what you personally want.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely",this powerful quote was said by Lord Acton in the 19th century. When I heard this quote it made me wonder, does power always corrupt a person or does a person corrupt a person?

      In the modern days many people assume that the more power and money you have the better you life will be, I'm not going to say that what they think is completely wrong, but I don't think you need money or power, or the most updated piece of technology to be happy in life. To me just being comfortable in my life surrounded by my friends and family is what makes me happy. I don't think just because someone is a very powerful person, or has lots of money that's what makes them they way they are. The Lord Of The Rings is a good example of how powerful the desire for power is, and it can corrupt any man. Once you put the 'ring' on your finger you loose your ability to be true to you feelings and beliefs. The leaders from the movie became corrupted from having power and refused to remove the 'ring'.

      Why do people become corrupted? Why do they do what they do? These are just a few of the many questions I ask myself, and though I know that there is no concrete answer for my questions I know there is still ideas that somewhat answer these questions. One idea is that when you have power you develop pride and when they get power their thinking slowly becomes corrupted because they start making choices that only benefit themselves, and I think the more power a person has the more freedom they have for their choices. I think Hitler is a good example, would Hitler have done what he did to the Jewish people if it wasn't for the amount of power he was given? I think he wouldn't have done what he did, why? the answer is simple it's because if he didn't have the power he wouldn't have the confidence to conquer all of the Jewish people.

      Power does not always corrupt a person to me power is just a little push given to a person who is already corrupt.There can be good things that come out from having power if you use your power in the right way. One way can be having [power can give you less stress, I think the better a person is with being able to cope with situations the less stress you will have, another is you can use you power to help others in need like donating money and helping kids in places that aren't in good condition, like Africa.

If you achieve power, remember your values and sustain your humanity. Use your power for good, helping others as well as gaining what you personally want . "Nothing changes until you change. Everything changes once you change" This quote was said by an anonymous person, I like this quote and think it relates to this topic well, because it supports my argument that power does not corrupt people, but people corrupt people.

Power always corrupts the one who holds it

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely",this powerful quote was said by Lord Acton in the 19th century. When I heard this quote it made me wonder does power always corrupt a person or does a person corrupt a person?

      In the modern days many people assume that the more power and money you have the better you life will be, well I'm not going to say that what they think is completely wrong, but in my opinion I don't think you need money or power, or the most updated piece of technology, etc to be happy in life,but I ask myself don't you just need friends and family to be happy? To me just being comfortable in my life surrounded by my friends and family is what makes me happy, and the person, and I don't think just because someone is a very powerful person, or has lots of money that's what makes them they way they are. The Lord Of The Rings is a good example of how powerful the desire for power is, and it can corrupt any man. Once you put the 'ring' on your finger you loose your ability to be true to you feelings and beliefs. The leaders from the movie became corrupted from having power and refused to remove the 'ring'.

      Why do people become corrupted? Why do they do what they do? These are just a few of the many questions I ask myself, and though I know that there is no concrete answer for my questions i know there is still ideas that somewhat answer these questions. One idea is that when you have power you develop pride and when they get power their thinking slowly becomes corrupted because they start making choices that only benefit themselves, and I think the more power a person has the more freedom they have for their choices. I think Hitler is a good example, would Hitler have done what he did to the Jewish people if it wasn't for the amount of power he was given? I think he wouldn't have done what he did, why? the answer is simple its because if he didn't have the power he wouldn't have the confidence to conquer all of the Jewish people.

      Power does not always corrupt a person to me power is just a little push given to a person who is already corrupt.There can be good things that come out from having power if you use your power in the right way. One way can be having [power can give you less stress, I think the better a person is with being able to cope with situations the less stress you will have, another is you can use you power to help others in need like donating money and helping kids in places that aren't in good condition, like Africa.

     "Nothing changes until you change. Everything changes once you change" This quote was said by an anonymous person, I personally like this quote and think it relates to this topic well, because it supports my argument that power does not corrupt people, but people corrupt people.

Loyalty, is there positive and negative effects of being too loyal ?

Loyalty is a word that you either hear, or don't hear too often, and it is mostly described as a good personality trait or quality. I think that loyalty is very important in friendships, business relationships, and in personal relationships, but being too loyal to someone can have its disadvantages and it has me asking myself the question, is loyalty always a good thing ?

Loyalty has many positive outcomes and benefits to it. One benefit is that when you are loyal you earn trust, admiration, and even a thanks from someone important to you like your boss, your family member, or a lover. When you have trust from someone you feel good about yourself, and the other person would have a good feeling towards you, because you were loyal to them. Another good benefit of being loyal is that you earn a good reputation for yourself. Having a good reputation can be very important for you throughout your career and life, and in the yes of others you would be a person with a reputation that is unbreakable. Lastly from being a loyal person y wold have great success and have many life time opportunities coming towards you, because people know that you are a loyal trust worthy person who will not let them down.

Although loyalty is a very good thing in life, it can also have negative outcomes and cause some set backs in ones life. One negative outcome is that you can experience a lost of personal judgement and thinking ability for yourself. When you are too loyal to someone you start to lose your personal judgement and feel like they should decide what is best for you and maybe even how you should live your life. Secondly you can be be taken advantage by the other person whether its physically, or mentally. Being taken advantage of can lead you to doing things that you don't want to do, or taking a blame for the other person, because they asked you too and you have absolute loyalty for them. Lastly the other person would know you have complete loyalty to them and would probably end up mistreating you, and instead of thinking of you as a friend and human they would treat you like a slave or animal

To me personally loyalty means just three things to me. One is that you have someone to lean on, not just a regular friend or person, but someone you know who is loyal to you and you know will help you through your troubles. Secondly it means the willingness to help one another, by this I don't mean that they would lend you money or anything whenever you forget your wallet, but I mean that both parties should be loyal and willing to help through hardships , even if it is just helping bringing in groceries to the house. Lastly and personally to me is the most important is honesty. As i said before loyalty earns you a good reputation from others , trust, and success, but not only do you have to be loyal, nut you have to be honest to or else how do you expect others to be loyal and honest towards you?

In my opinion loyalty is a diverse word. It has its positives which could really benefit you, but sometimes loyalty can bring negative impacts to their lives. I think to avoid these negatives impacts and effects to our lives, we should learn to stop when the negative effects are impacting the way you live, or think.

Shakespeare Resources

Here are some resources about shakespeare I found that had good information and works of his :

http://www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/

http://www.william-shakespeare.info/

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/william_shakespeare.html

No Red Pill, No Blue Pill response

I found No Red Pill, No Blue Pill by Ana Christina a very good composition and it had me very intrigued. Her wording was very good and she used words that made the writing feel more alive to me, she Incorporated imagery into her composition and it really made me visualize in my head many words turning into little cartoons. I also enjoyed that she Incorporated visuals into her composition.

This composition made me reflect on my learning and my motivation i have for it, and it made me ask my self questions like " do i try hard enough? " or " do i motivate myself every day ?". my favorite part of the article is when she says " No matter how a teacher tries, if a learner is not motivated to learn, there will be little progress" and "However, it is the inspiration and not the motivation that an educator may trigger among learners", because 
I hear many students as i walk through the hallway say " this is too hard because my teacher hates me" and even sometimes i think the same but after reading this article i realized maybe i wasn't motivated in the moment to learn the material and that's why i didn't get it. I think that the message that Ana Christina is trying to get across is that learning is a long journey that continues everyday for the rest of your life. I think the audience that Ana Christina is aiming for is students maybe from grade 8 to grade 12.

After reading this article it made me think twice and improve my learning. I found this article very good and interesting and i really enjoyed reading it. 

HERE'S THE ARTICLE:

http://dreamweavelearn.wordpress.com/author/acsaffron/

If students designed their own schools response

 When I watched this video I thought it was a very good idea, but i also thought that this type of system would not really work for many people, so i had mixed feelings about this program. This program has many pros, but it also has many cons, and though this programs may be just what some students need to be able to learn better like in the video, but for many other students i don't think this type of curriculum would benefit them.

I personally don't think I would benefit from this type of curriculum, because I find that i learn better with structured classes, than with classes that i would have to design on my own for a whole semester. Though i don't think i would enjoy this program i think it is a very good idea for many students who don't do well with structured classes or the " traditional" way of learning, and would really benefit them to learn better, to like school , and even to improve their grades. Like the boy in the video that was playing the piano he has a learning disability, and said that he really was scared and did not enjoy school and without the program would not know where he would have been.

Letting her students teach themselves and their fellow peers was a really daring and risky decision that the principle of Monument Mountain Regional High School Ms. Marianne Young took, because she believed in  her students learning ability. All in all though this program is a very good idea for some, for me personally i don't think i would personally benefit from this program i think it was a good decision the principle made for the students and for their learning.

here's the video:

speech draft (written out )

  The social, emotional, and physical benefits of owning a pet

                                    Nancy Reyes

One can have a variety of different best friends; this best friend could be a next-door neighbor, or a rock from your moms garden HEY! It could even be an eraser from the dollar store, but like most my best friend is my dog Mary.

 Good morning Ms.lees and fellow students, owning a pet has many social and emotional benefits and it has been proven that owning a pet has reduced loneliness by 67%. There will always be a time when we feel down or stressed out and maybe there is no one to turn to and to hear your concerns Pets can help us relax and focus our attention away from our problems and worries and they will always be sitting there listening to you. For Example when I feel really stressed with homework or maybe with my family I take a small break and spend time with my dog and after spending time with her I feel relieved and I go back to do what I was doing feeling much better.

Owning a pet tends to create a sense of assurance for their owners, and people who own a pet like a dog tend to feel less afraid of being a victim of a crime whether it’s inside their home or taking a walk with their dog. If you have lost someone very important to you or if you are beginning to adjust to an illness having a pet is a great source of comfort. Both adults and Children often turn to their pet for comfort if a friend or family member dies or leaves the family, and also some studies have shown that people who have a pet and have gone through a tragic event are less depressed because their pets give them comfort and Pets provide some consistency to our lives. Caring for a pet can significantly affect our routine and gives us something to do and look forward to each day. An example is that when I fell ill and had to stay in the hospital for a week when I came back home my dog comforted me and cheered me up while I was recovering.

  Not only does a pet provide social and emotional benefits but a pet also provide physical benefits. Owning a pet increases the physical activities that you do in you daily routine, you have to take them for daily walks and play with them whether its fetch or tug-a-war. Studies have shown that a pet can improve your health, people with pets have been found to have lower cholesterol levels compared to people who did not have pets, even when matched for weight, diet, and smoking habits. Also a study has shown that someone who has a pet lives longer than someone who does not. In my opinion having a pet is important, I know my dog motivates me to get off’ the couch and taker her for a walk when my dog gives me the “ I’m about to pee on the floor and get you in trouble unless you take me out NOW” warning look.

 In addition to the other benefits that come out from owning a pet, there is also one more important thing, which is the bond that forms between the pet and the owner. When you have a pet you tend to develop a nurturing instinct towards your pet and your pet also develops a nurturing instinct towards you. If you take good care of your pet and give them lots of love when you are older or when you are in need your pet will take care of you and would do anything to help you get back to normal.

Pets can greatly influence how we feel about life and ourselves in general. They are teachers and healers of extraordinary measures. Man’s best friend, Buddy, Pal, these are what some people call their best friends. My best friend is named Mary and she has been my therapist, my personal trainer, and my partner in crime, and I could ask for a better pet.

Love the video resource sharing!

I like how this group has also shared videos to help with getting ready for your speeches-they are great! Good teamwork and sharing!

speech draft

This is a link to my draft about the social,emotional, and physical benefits of owning a dog or other type of pet. It still needs a bit more editing and some things i need to add.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzLnGdamH_fAOUl4dlVFQllBZk0/edit?usp=sharing

Public speaking how to video

I found this video interesting and had good examples on public speaking methods, and i think it will help with improving the way I deliver my speech and even the way others deliver theirs. (And i could not sleep that why I posted it at this time)

Response to video

I agree with the teacher from Hawaii who made the video Digital Life, when she says that technology has grown enormously throughout the years, and that we use technology every day and i think she did a very good job by displaying her opinions through this music video. When she says " nothing is real until we instagram our shots " seems to me like she is being a bit bias to the idea that we use technology to much in our lives. Most people don't need to tweet their thoughts or things they do, and they don't need  to post a handful of pictures to be able to get on with their day, but in the teachers point of view i think she thinks that most people need to tweet, post, or blog something to be able to continue on with their day.

Technology has influenced us in many ways and we have become independent on it to help us strive through our daily routines. As the teacher said in the music video "my phone helps me find restaurants and bars " and " GPS to drive my car " it shows that we use technology for simple things to make our day easier, even though we can do it the "old fashioned " way and use a map or follow directions we choose the easy way to get around or get things we like and use GPS, online shops and many other things that we use technology for.

Heres the digital life video if you want check it out :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RO0-7YAxxDY

I found these photos funny and relate able to the message of the music video.