Blogging Around

The first blog I read was Murray's, Get Organized Blog. Murray desperately needed to organize his computers terabyte hard drive. His hard drive consisted of papers from school, games and other miscellaneous items that were taking up space. Just like most teenagers, he was not ecstatic about it but in his very last paragraph, Murray brought up a very important part. He said although it seems like too much work at first, it was not quite as hard as he once thought. Great Job Murray and this is what I commented on.
     Wow Murray. That's great you were able to organize. I totally agree with what you said about our minds love organizations. Although its a pain, our brains will love us for doing so.


My second blog that I read was Stacey's blog. Stacey really needed to organize her movies. She loves to collect them but after some time they begin to collect dust. The were scattered to a point were it seemed to be mines that lay around her room. Eventually she got a grip and took a stand on the collection of over 150 movies and decided to get organized. She was even pacient enough to organize them alphabetically. Here is my comment to her blog:

     Wow! That is a lot of movies. I myself would not be able to organize that many movies alphabetically. I would eventually throw them all out. I do know the feeling of a nice clean environment. Its as if you walked outside for a breath of fresh air

Get Organized

Today I spent 30 minutes organizing my work desk. I work on my homework and download my music and movies to a computer on that desk. Lately that desk has been a mess of school papers and other junk from my sister. 

     Before I felt very disorganized. Everything was clumped together and piled up in small piles. During the cleanup, I felt relieved to finally organize my desk so I could find my papers. It took and extra 30 seconds to find one piece of paper. Once I finished, I took a step back and was actually able to see my desk. I was finally able to find any piece of paper I needed for homework. 

     I definitely learned that school papers can pile up very quickly. That was only about a month of school papers and it looked like I hadn't cleaned in a few months. But now I know that organization is a key to school. High school can be easier if you organize your papers.

Best of Week: The Cynics

Yesterday we taled about the five schools of Hellenism: The Cynics, The Stoics, The Epicureans, Neoplatonism and Mysticism. The one I found I could relate to the most was The Cynics. From what I understood in class, The Cynics learned to apprecriate the little things. If a king walked up to one and asked if they wanted anyhting they would say for you to move because the king is blocking the sunlight.
I am stating to learn to appreciate some of the small things in life. I have learned to save my money for important things. Over the summer I made $2,000 working on various projects. I put $1,400 in my savings account and was left with $600. 2 years ago I would have blown the money off on lunch and movies everyday. This year I have only spent $100 in 4 months. Money mangement will be vital for me in collge and on my own. I don't need to buy the newest electronics. I would be happy with a hockey stick and a ball. I would spend hours playing hockey and be happy with it.

Best of Week

Best of week:

Over this past week, we discussed the idea of aesthetics, myths and form is content. Aesthetics are the rules and structures for creating and appreciating BEAUTY. We talked about how the book Sophie's world has aesthetics. It also is a great example of form is content and myths. This book is almost a philosophy lesson. Philosophers are myth killers. A myth is a fictional story created to explain something in the real world. Myths may incorporate a god of some sort and philosophers ideas of how the world came to be ruin this idea. Philosophers can admit they don't know everything but want to know. They want to know more about the world. Reading Sophie's World has opened up my eyes to what philosophy really is.

Blogging Around

In response to Danny's "Best of Week: Big Ideas" I shared an agreement with Danny's opinion on Neal Gabler's statement "If our ideas seem smaller nowadays, it's not because we are dumber than our forebears but because we just don't care as much about ideas as they did". My response was:

Wow I totally agree. That is so ignorant of him to judge our ideas. Just because they seem small doesn't mean we don't care. Think of alexander graham Bell and the telephone. If we look at his invention today it seems so small and of no use to us. But who would have thought that we would then create wireless calling, texting, surfing the web. His small idea of talking through a wire became a major part of todays society.

In response to Victor's "Carry It Foreward: Creativity Crisis", I agreed on some aspects of his idea but I put in my own opinion as well.

I can agree in some aspects to your idea that screens weaken our creativity. But not all screens do this. For example, if I were in my graphics class I would spend the entire class period in front of a computer, but while i'm on that computer, I am creating something in photoshop. So t a computer can be used as a tool for creativity. Thats how TV works. They use computers to come up with what their imaginations think of. Us watching it may take away the creative process but the people who create them are still using their creativity to make them.

Best of Week: Born into Brothels

This past week we watched a documentary if you will on Indian kids Born Into Brothels. The documentary is about Indian kids who are born in a terrible part of India were their parents are crimminals and there lifes look very bleek.
     An American teacher decided while in India studying this area, that these kids are a story in and of itself. So she decided to teach them about photography. She held her own photography class to help teach kids about photography and the hope of puting these kids into a good school.
     I thought this was a good idea to help these kids. There are so many bad neighborhoods and to give a child, whose life looks to be meaningless, a chance to be able to make a difference is a true gift and means a lot to that child.
     While watching the moviei could tell that most parents wanted their child to succeed but they had their own vision of success and it wasn't the best option for them. So i was very happy to see these kids have a good life based on the fact that someone took the time to help these kids find something they love.

Connection: Creativity Crisis & My mother. 09/18/2012

Connection: Creativity & My mothers classroom

After first reading the article, Creativity Crisis, my first impression was that the United States was headed in a bad direction, creativity wise. I needed a real life example, something I could relate to. I asked my mom, who teaches kindergarten at Joseph Sears School, what she thought about the article and this is what she said.

     My mom was very intrigued by the article and how it almost perfectly reflects what she thinks is wrong with American schools. I always here my mom talk about how she never has time to let her kids have fun. There is a schedule almost as heavy as middle school. She even complains on the fact that her class doesn't have gym or recess everyday. Some days are only filled with curriculum. Many of her parents, whose kids are already excelling in her class, are asking her to tudor her kids beaches they feel they aren't smart enough. 

     As the article mentions, there is only one answer in the curriculum she is handed. She has to come up with material in which her kids need to think of more than one answer in order to engage their minds. She knows that some things only have one answer and that it would be to much trouble to create more answers but she does anyway. 

     My mom wishes some scientist would come to her school and experiment with her kids to let others know that the current teaching system is not beneficial to the kids creativity. Hopefully one day someone will convince her school that they need to change their ways.

Captured Thought: A World WIthout Creativity

Where would the world be if there was no creativity? Would that mean any creative invention ever made not exist? What is the importance of creativity? In my opinion, a world without creativity means no hockey or sport activities of any kind. Everyone would just sit and do nothing. I believe this world was built off creativity. If it had not been for Einstein's creative mind, would we still have electricity? Wow would the world have been a depressing place to live. Everyone would wear black and white clothing and have black and white lives. There would be no fun and everyday would be the exact same. Wake up to your plain and bland spouse, the go to you plain old job, go home to your plain old house and family and go to bed only to start the same damn routine all over again. The importance of creativity is to bring liveliness to our world. Creativity gives kids and adults the ability to think outside the box and not just draw one conclusion but hundreds of conclusions and even more questions. Why is the sky blue? Does it have something to do with the mixture of Gases that lie in our planets atmosphere? These questions and answers are a part of the basis of creativity. Which in turn makes this world so enjoyable to live in. There are days were a never think about what a world would be like without creativity, and I am glad that I live in a very creative world.