The time spent in school, in classes, and then in English class all contributed to a progressive learning experience that allowed me to learn more, understand more, and let me as an individual have a broader view on things. In class, throughout the year, we covered popular themes including, but not limited to, man, sex, woman, and mother. Class discussions, though sometimes not all as exciting as I would want it to be, expanded knowledge on how other people may view subject matters in different perspectives with extreme overlapping insight, such as the contradicting view of whether Hamlet of Hamlet is insane or not.
In these classes, the people in the class were able to share new views, new thoughts, and more ideas that added on to each other’s experiences. Though, not to compliment you Mr. Gallagher, but even the acting of you and others in the class let me and possibly many others in the class to look at how a passage in a book or a scene in a play is ‘supposed’ to look like. Acting in class was oddly both entertaining and educational surprisingly enough. Usually reading and saying the words of plays, such as Hamlet, the words just didn’t make sense to me, but performing them out loud allowed me to understand much more clearly and I’ll be applying this sort of learning in the future.
The option for getting to work online at www.blogspot.com allowed for a more versatile and flexible schedule for students. In addition, doing homework online is similar to having a study session with classmates in the school library or having a discussion in class. It allowed one person to post up a blog, and then anyone else who cared to look could either respond to that post or just simply look at it in order to refer to something for an example, though doing homework online proved a bit more difficult to those who could not access a computer as easily. Doing homework online not only proved advantageous, but was also a learning experience in itself. From it, I acquired more skills that allowed me to research online and use time more effectively to complete online assignments in order to move on to the next. It was sort of stressing and entertaining at the same time since doing homework at home, you could talk with friends online and send each other websites or information that would be useful.
The more insightful subject that we went over this year that was stressed though many books and plays contained this theme, or this theme could be applied, in the context. Awkward at most times, subjects awkward like these quickly turned into a usual event everyday and was talked about with all seriousness with a hint of comedy, usually comedy provided by Mr. Gallagher, Ronald, or Andrew in many cases. The class was easy to learn in because for me, it was entertaining for most of the time. This is type of learning by learning through the wanting of learning let me perform sometimes at maximum potential with all enthusiasm. Enthusiasm showed such as the assignment where the class had to create a song, poem, or story by themselves and then explain what was trying to be symbolized in there own workings. That assignment was my favorite to do and present on my blog.
The assignments through the year weren’t all too hard. Many included the assignment of writing about symbols and themes. Many of my themes revolved around the subjects of blindness, glasses, light, darkness, and eyes. Many of these papers allowed me to relate the subjects to myself and allowed me to in a way write about myself. With bad eyesight myself, writing about the condition of being blind or not being able to see was almost second nature. Overall, the assignments through the year each provided new views on how we as students and people of society should take a look at how we live as individuals and how we should, or could, react to certain situations.
1 comment:
Kevin Tran
English 100-27
Christine Bown
October 1, 2008
In this modern age of sophisticated machinery, the young teens and children of today are beginning to centralize their lives around technology. From computers to the latest Nintendo Wii, youngsters’ everyday lives have something or everything to do with some sort of technology. Parents also take part in this revolution of technology. Children always ask for the latest toys and gadgets, and parents always find ways in spoiling their children. Parents pay tons of taxes year by year, and these taxes go into schools who update their own technology by buying more and more new computers. Technology is taking over and replacing basic functions and events of ever day life.
A large contributor to the success of the world of computer graphics and technology is the advance in the gaming industry. Video games are always set on a simple way of playing with repetitive button smashing. Games such as the first person shooter game, Counter Strike Source, is proven by statistical studies that constant play of this game improves reaction time and pin point site. In leagues, fps games, Counter Strike, require endless hours of practice to anticipate enemy movements and teamwork among team members. Major draw backs of these games include displays of frustration, or shorter tempers, and less outside social activities. Teens that play progressive video games such as Final Fantasy or World of Warcraft have more habits of staying in side on most days just so they can try to advance if even a little bit more in their game. Computers, World Wide Web, and even the simple mobile phone are the modern crazes for teens, and because of this, teens generally have fewer tendencies to go out, go bowling, swimming, and numerous general physical activities that many kids shield themselves from. Using the mobile phone and internet messaging programs such as AIM or MSN, teens feel that they don’t even have to go out to talk to friends. What’s to stop kids these days from advancing further into technology, and regressing into an withdrawn world.
Parents with reasonable views at many times don’t stop their kids from staying inside. Many parents view the video games as a nice, safe, and at times a quiet way to have fun for their children in the comforts of home and in comfort that the parents don’t have to keep a vigilant watchful eye over the worries that the little ones will do something dangerous. Because of the negligence children receive from parents, children get less interaction with their parents and with others. This lack of interaction leads to slower learning and less social interaction and ultimately hindering the child’s educational values of exploration and interaction. Speaking of hindering children’s education, parents pay taxes. Where do these taxes go? These taxes go towards their child’s education. Many schools use a partial amount of this tax money to pay for new computers and more machines such as projectors to make the job easier for teachers to teach students. Many associations for children’s education say more computers, more laptops, more technology for school so that the children can starting learning with the shortcuts of technology. But what we teach children by having them do book reports and homework on computers, and essentially we have them depend on the use of technology for education. By depending on computers to do their homework on, they lack basic fundamentals such as book researching, handwriting, and interaction with one another in groups. I once had a friend who was very spoiled so his house had say a couple of T.V.’s, two computers, and just about every large name brand game console like X-box or the Playstation2. I’d have to say that his handwriting was the most chaotic thing I’d have ever seen. It almost looked like scribbles and yet when I asked him what some of his sentences said, he said,”hold on I can’t read it”. My idea would be to get rid of all these computers. Get them out of schools. Let children practice what children need to learn first without technology to have as a shortcut.
Technology, whether it be computers, phones, or even T.V., has made teens decline in the number of social activities from what the numbers used to be in the 1990’s when technology, cell phones, and computers were just in the baby stages of making their debuts. Children are starting to take more fun in video games than a good game of chess or soccer. If this continues, only a new revolutionary dark age awaits, and I can’t imagine it being on a piece of paper, but a computer monitor.
Post a Comment