Help YOURSELF!

As I read the article, Rigor Redefined, by Tony Wagner, I actually started to understand what my English teacher has been trying to tell me this whole time. I thought that when she was explaining that we have to learn how to think for ourselves and ask good questions, that I knew what she meant. I didn’t fully understand, though… until now. I think the fact that this article explained those things with examples helped a lot.
Tony Wagner did observations in classrooms. To sum it up, most of the kids didn’t seem too concerned about their learning. A group of three boys in a science lab class did an experiment, along with their classmates. Their concoction started to smoke. When asked by Wagner what they thought went wrong, they just shrugged, and said, “I dunno.” they waited for their teachers’ assistance. They were waiting to be rescued.
As a high- schooler, I know that tests really count toward your grade, even if you get 100% on all of your other assignments. But, how can we get good grades on tests if we don’t know where we went wrong. I believe we must know what went wrong, because that’s what matters! I know that it sounds obvious, but you must understand, that unless if you question what went wrong, and don’t just correct your work, that you will never truly understand.
You cannot just correct your tests. Make sure you know what you did wrong. I am shocked to realize, that right now, I sound like a teacher! “Make sure that if you don’t understand, get help!” We hear that phrase over and over again, don’t we? I am disappointed in myself to realize that I don’t very often do that. If I correct my tests, usually just leave them untouched, and never look back on them. If I started to correct, and go over them, then I would probably understand it more. Even if it’s the end of that unit, and we aren’t coming back to it, there’s still finals! I would probably fail that section of my final if I didn’t understand it the last time we studied it. I could probably cut my studying time in half if I asked good questions. Because, really, if your questions are answered, you will accept the answer better than just reading it from a textbook, or hearing it indirectly from a teacher.
Also, if you are a teacher reading this blog, thank you, at least someone out there is reading it! Also, the main point is we learn better if we have to think to get the answer. It helps if you answer our question with a question… but a helpful question, of course! One such as, “Have you considered…” or, “why do you think that?” or, “What does your partner think?” We pay more attention to the answer that way, instead of stashing it away in our notes that, lets face it, will probably never be looked at again.
So, as hard as it is sometimes to get up my nerves to ask a question that may seem obvious to the whole class, it will ultimately probably end up getting me a better grade than them.

Hope Saves a Doomed Village

I read the CNN article, Malawian Boy Uses Wind to Power Hope, Electrify Village, written by Faith Karimi. It triggered a very powerful emotion. Hope. As you’ve noticed, if you’ve read my previous blogs, is that I usually do CNN articles about other countries. This is no different. But, I hope you’ve noticed that, though they all are different stories, they have the same concept. Those countries are dangerous, but these articles that I report on all have inspiration in them. All of these amazing people rise above discouragement, and never gave up. This article was about a 14- year- old boy, named William Kamkwamba who lived in an African village filled with poverty. There was a HUGE drought, so his father, who is a farmer, could not make money to support his family. William was soon kicked out of school, because he could not pay the amount to continue schooling. He said he thought to himself one day, “If they can make electricity out of wind, I can try, too.”

Since he wasn’t going to school, he had a lot of free time on his hands. A book about windmills caught his eye. He decided to try to make a windmill. He used parts found at the dump, such as pipes, old bike parts, tractor fans, and car batteries. When people asked him what he was doing, he told them of his plan. They did not accept this idea. So, after time, he just said that he was playing with the car parts. That seemed more reasonable to them. He never gave up, though he had his fair share of doubts. He now has built five windmills! One (the tallest,) standing at 37 feet. No one thinks anything relatively close to him being crazy now. William’s sister says, “All of us, even my mother, thought that he had gone mad.”

I don’t have a story nearly as miraculous as Williams, but hearing his story kind of reminded me of backpacking. I had never done it before, and had NO experience in that area, but my friend and I decided to do it instead of just standard camp. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Especially with not much support coming from either of our families. Pretty much, what they were saying was, “good luck with that!” I think backpacking, along with being VERY tough, was the BEST experience of my life. I now LOVE to backpack, and I do it every year. We should all try new things, even when everyone, even ourselves, are doubtful. It might pay off in the end!

Whose Choice is it?

I read the article in the New York Times, Support Appears to Drop in Abortion Rights, by Laurie Goodstein. I know, that as teenagers, we like our opinions out in the open. We like our intent and our reasons to be clear, and more than anything, it seems that we want people to agree with us.
Last year when the election was taking place, a lot of arguing was going on. I think that is because we are teenagers, our hormones get the best of us, and we just can’t seem to accept the fact that not everyone will accept our opinions. When the debate was going on, I was very convinced that I was a democrat. While I still do believe I am a democrat, I take into consideration all of the policies our presidents have. I am WAY more careful than other students about what I say! I didn’t realize until last year how heated those arguments get from people who don’t even vote yet! While I like to air my opinions, I don’t like to get into arguments with people I see every day. I think we like to hear that other people (usually the ones who are for the same party) like to hear what we have to say. I have re- written this paragraph about three times already, trying to figure out what I should say. Should I go into why I like Obama? Why I don’t like McCain? I decided against it. After all, how much do I know about either of them? I got to know a lot about their policies last year… I am glad to say that I got VERY involved in the election last year. Back to the main topic! See what I mean? It’s so hard to stay on one factor when it has to do with politics! Anyways, I am a pro- abortionist. If that’s even a word… What I want to know, is why people only semi- agree with abortion. Why is it ONLY if the mother is in danger, or if she was raped? What about us teenagers? We all make stupid mistakes, and I doubt that it would be a wise choice, even if we think we are in love and going to spend the rest of our lives with someone, to have a baby at this age. Shouldn’t we have the right to NOT have the baby? I know, we can give it to a firehouse or hospital, or adoption, but who wants to go through being a pregnant teenager? I’m not talking about physically, though that is something to take into consideration, but I’m talking about the stares we get, or not having people look at our face when they talk to us, but our stomachs. I’m not saying I wouldn’t keep it, but would I stay at Arapahoe? With all my friends? I read the Littleton Newspaper, and it interviewed a girl who went to Arapahoe, got pregnant, and was practically kicked out. I’m sure that Arapahoe wouldn’t forcefully remove her, but that they would “strongly urge her” to go to a school for “girls like her.” Is Arapahoe accepting girls who are pregnant? And what about the guy? He can just waltz around, like he did nothing wrong, but the girl has the evidence everywhere/ anywhere she goes… Where’s the justice? I believe that a girl has a right to an abortion, but I VERY STRONGLY believe that she has a right to show up at school, just as much as anyone else.