Monday, May 19, 2008

Semester 2 - Post 20

Reading this post really made me realize all the things we take for granted here in America. Hearing about the fact that they are just now getting a youth center and athletic fields in the Nata Village is so shocking to me because I grew up with things like that and I just sort of expected them to be there. I have been playing competitive soccer since I was eleven and soccer in general since I was around four or five so not having fields to play on is so strange to think about. Today we just sort of expect things to be there, things that we’re used to. Like school for instance, we have all been raised with education, whether we like it or not, but we all just expect to go through school. In less fortunate places like the Nata Village, they do not have as many opportunities as we do. I take this as a lesson to learn, we need to stop being so selfish and settling with what we have or always wanting more. We need to branch out and help people in places like Nata Village, give them the things that we are used to so they can enjoy them just as much as we do. This post really gave me a reality check and made me see that I truly do take simple, little things like beautiful soccer fields for granted. Great post!

Link to the article here: Nata Village

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Semester 2 - Post 19

Mr. Richardson,
This post is great. I found your dream very interesting and the ideas behind it were great. I totally agree with you that the avatar will soon become very useful to help people better understand each other and possibly answer “un-answer-able” questions, if you will, like that of your mother. If the avatar can be put to use in this way, I think it would be very useful. I know that I personally have questions about my history that I might be able to get answered by my relatives who are still alive, but I would much rather get the first hand account from those who went through certain events. This idea was great and it really puts meaning behind the things that we blog about daily. It would be great to be able to advance the use of the avatar to add the voice of the person to go along with their personality. With the way technology is advancing in this day and age the reality of this happening are looking pretty good. This post was a great one to make me think about the future, which somehow made me think about my past. Thank you!
~Sam H.

Link to original article here: My Blogging Legacy

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Semester 2 - Post 18

Mr. Fisch,
This post struck me as interesting for many reasons. The first reason being that it is weird to think that textbooks would, or even could, be used as protection in the event of a tornado. It is odd that schools have come up with an alternate use for textbooks because many times you look at them and ask the very well known question that students ask daily, “when am I ever going to use this?” Well kids, you will actually use textbooks, that is, if there ever was a tornado and you had no other form of protection. This does not mean; however, that it answers the question of using the contents within the book :). Another reason that I found this post interesting is because it made me think, “I wonder if our textbooks will soon be all online, is this when the old text books will really come in handy?” The future of our textbooks came to mind. With the incredible advancement of technology that has been rapidly increasing over the years, it would not surprise me one bit if all of our textbooks were put online and students would carry laptops around, instead of books. Then what would we use for protection if a tornado struck? This post was great! Thank you for making me think! :)
~Sam H.

Link to article here: The Need for Textbooks

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Semester 2 - Post 17

Dear Nata Village,
I was reading this post when I realized just how much we, here in America, take for granted. This post really brought me back to reality. There are so many blessings that I have that I look at as “not good enough” or “pointless.” Something like education is just expected in our culture, which makes it easy to take it for granted. Seeing the look on those children’s faces as they were sitting there coloring with their new school supplies really made me realize that education is a gift. People in many other countries are not expected to go to school, and some are not even allowed to go, but in America kids all over the country look at school as a downer or something that is a waste of time. Here I am sitting at my computer doing a simple homework assignment dreading school tomorrow when I see these children mentioned in this post. It really made me realize that I am lucky to have a computer to do homework on and I am lucky to have an amazing education. It was very refreshing to see children excited to learn, and so happy with the simple gift of new school supplies. I hope more people come across this post so they can see how blessed we truly are to have little things like pencils and paper. Hopefully this will act with a “snowball effect” so that more and more people realize how special education is and how lucky we really are. Thank you for hitting me with a touch of reality!

Link to the artical here: Nata Village

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Semester 2 - Post 16

I read a post by Mr. Karl Fisch titled "Imagine." In this post Mr. Fisch talks about the idea of Pangea Day, which will take place on May 10th. This day is a day when countries around the world sing the national anthem of another country in their language, in an effort to sort of "unite" the world. This is what I said to Mr. Fisch:

Mr. Fisch,
Wow this post is great. Reading about what you said in this post was really interesting to think about. I found the idea of Pangea Day very interesting. It would be great to have a day where people could look beyond the outer layers of people from other countries and see what they go through and what their customs are. Being able to come together as a unit and as a world would be very cool to me. It would allow us to sort of get the feeling of "how the other half live" in a way. To be able to use film is such an inventive way to allow our world to come together is a very moving thing. I feel like this is a strong thing to focus on in our world today, we need to stop focusing on the bad and, in turn, take a step back and realize that we all have problems, but we can all help each other. Great post!

Link to the article here: Imagine

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Semester 2 - Post 15

Wow, this post sure does make you step back and think. It is so great to see that in this small village, people have such high respect for their elders. In today's world elders are not respected nearly as much as they should be. Children disobey their parents, their teachers, their grandparents, or any other person in authority and we look at it and say it's bad, but do nothing about it. Sure some kids may get a spanking now and then for not doing what they're told, but that does not seem to be working. We need to stand up for our elders and show them the respect they deserve. I feel like people in our day and age do not even give elders the time of day. They do what they can to help them, but they do not necessarily respect them. Looking at Botswana and seeing that those people realize that their elders are special, and that they are much more experienced and much wiser than they will ever be, is so great. It is interesting to me that people in our “advanced world” cannot see the respect we need to show, but the people in a world of poverty and strife see it and act on it. I think this is because they realize what they have is a gift, but we take so much for granted, including our elders.

Link to article here: Nata Village

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Semester 2 - Post 14

Mr. Baker,
I found this post very interesting! It is so true that teens today do not think about the things they are putting online. They think that if they can hit a button that says "Private" then all of their information is safe. This is not true at all. As you brought up, it is very easy for online hackers to read your so-called "private" information. Not only can hackers see this information, but other people can too if the hacker makes the information public. I enjoyed reading your post because online safety has become such an issue in our day and age, especially with the incredible advances in technology that our world has recently become accustomed to. Thanks for sharing this post!
Link to the article here: (http://www.utechtips.com/?p=678)