Brain by David

 

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I did a drawing of what I think my thought process is. It is very linear, and shows how cognitively overactive I perceive myself to be. I included things like “me” in Hebrew, LOTS of turtles, and things about math, books, and travel. I tried to show how a normal half-second was in my thoughts (but with some things taken out). I am not a very artfully inclined person, so most of the things in my brain were not pictures.

 

One Year of iPads by David

My first post was about iPads. It showed what we all thought about them. Let me guess. You just went and looked, didn’t you? If you didn’t, you will not have the proper context. Now that I am at the end of the year, I do not have to ask. I am just going to tell what I think of the iPads, fully.

I really like not having to carry around as much stuff. I do not need a planner, so i just write all of my homework on Evernote. It lets me save stuff in the cloud, so I do not have to worry about using it. It is fast, and it would have been better than carrying around a bulky, heavy, old and slow laptop.

However, with great power comes great responsibility…….which is constantly hard to use. Lots of times, I have seen people misusing them for things like games in class, or nasty emails to other students. Not to put a black mark on them, but although the iPads are a great learning tool, outside of learning, they are often used in ways that were not intended. We will turn them in on Friday, May 31. Then, next year, we will be back these amazing tools (although not the same ones).

Thank you, Mr. Schaefer, for helping us get through this first year of iPads!

Membean by David

Here is an example of a word that I learned in the beginning of the year off of Membean.com:

In this Language Arts class, we had the opportunity to use a vocabulary program called Membean. It teaches new words and analyzes your work to decide what to do for your words. I really like it much better than book-and-list vocab, because you get to personalize your learning. It is really fun, so I do it quite a lot. I have been able to get past one level, and now I am close to finishing the program.

 

The Giver First Memory by David

Photo Taken of My Book!

In our class, we are discussing what memory would be the first to give to Jonas. If it was my decision, I would give him the memory of all of the Receivers before him learning to be a Receiver. This would show him how important the job was, and how it can be good and bad. It would show him to live his job, and be proud.

 

What Was The Best Experience For You This Year? By David

Photo Drawn by Me!

With the school year coming to a close, I think it is safe to designate one special thing about this year. This can be from all the way back to the first day of school to today, even. For me, it was getting to meet all of my morning teachers and Mrs. Donnelly on the first day of class. It made me happy that there were so many nice teachers that I would get for a whole year. What was yours? Please comment below!

 

The Ideal Teacher by David P.

Mrs. Donnelly’s daughter is learning to be a teacher. This is the feedback I would give her as a teacher:

I think that an ideal instructor would do a lot of things differently from the position that is referred to as “teacher”. In most schools, teachers teach, hand out work, and take up the work, with no real personalization of the work. In some cases, the students in these classes do not get to choose, and often feel that the class is useless. I think an ideal instructor should teach different subjects, but divide, say, science, into different interest groups, because there is really no importance to physics unless you are willing to go into a profession that involves it. For example, the instructor could divide kids into study groups in their own levels of biology, physical science, astrophysics, medical science, and psychological science. This kind of instruction would continue until the last year of high school, where kids could prepare for the SAT’s. There would also be an optional time in the day where the instructor would divide the students into study groups to pursue their own interests.

For example, I would benefit from this time because I plan to go into computer science. I would use the time to learn more languages like Ruby, Python, and JavaScript. Fortunately, I have benefited from a teacher who inspired me (although not taught me) to learn some HTML. Another student might use the time to learn all about a sport if they planned to do sports as their profession, or astronomy. Teaching is a constantly debated matter, and I have an idea as to what an ideal teacher would do.

 

Community Service by David P

 

 

 

 

 

This month, we went to TABLE to do our community service project. TABLE’s mission is to give food to kids who might not have it over the weekend. They want to give them food that they like, not always just rejected canned food like beets or broccoli. We went to TABLE after lunch, with the food we were bringing. We brought over 260 pounds of food. We then put the expiration dates on them, so that the ones closest to expiring would be served first. We then were assigned different kinds of food to shelve, and then we put the food on shelves. We sorted the food by date. I did canned pasta. It made me feel good to donate food that would help someone that needed food. I hope that the food we gave can let kids who couldn’t normally get it get the foods that they like over the weekend.

 

What Is Your Favorite Technology Company? By David P.

In the world of technology, there are many companies producing different gadgets, such as Apple, Inc.’s iPads and iMacs, or Google/Samsung’s Nexus and Chromebooks. In the modern world, there are a lot of choices as to what kind of technology you use. Please answer to this post with your favorite tech company, and your favorite thing they make out of the following:

1. Samsung

2. Apple

3. Google

4. Acer

5. Toshiba

6. Nokia

7. Blackberry

I need your comments!

 

My Assignment: By David P.

In class, we are reading a book called “The Giver”. In its fictional “community”, everyone gets an “Assignment” of a job at age twelve. Like the protagonist of the book, I would be about to receive my Assignment. The Committee of Elders in the community keeps track of what you do in your recreational hours to base your Assignment off of. In my recreation time, I like to learn to program computers. I think that a logical Assignment for me would be Computer Scientist, because I am clearly devoted to that field of expertise.

 

The Westing Game by David P.

Photo From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/38838670@N08/5187233083

In class, we read a book called The Westing Game. It is not a very long book, but it is so intricately compiled and written that it matches the detail of a book twice its depth and length. It is categorized as a “cozy mystery”, which means that it is set in a small town, with wealth, and there is death with no gore and detail. I enjoyed reading it and finding out the possible solutions to the Westing Game Mystery.

The actual answer is so off track from what I had surmised that I was shocked. It was not a suspenseful or exciting book, but it was interesting all the same. We learned the elements of a mystery in class. They are Family, Information, Games, Patriotism, and Identity. Family plays a part because of the main character, Turtle. She is in a family in which she is not the favored child, but instead, quite the opposite. Information plays a role where some characters try to find out all about the other Westing Heirs. Games play a huge role. Sam Westing was a chess master, and he was famous for the queen’s sacrifice. When someone is playing chess with Theo, Doug finds out who it is, which leads to an important discovery. Patriotism is also very important. Sam Westing was a huge patriot who was famous for his Fourth Of July pageants. This novel is short, but it is amazingly detailed.

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