Wednesday 22 January 2014

Blogger- The Pros and Cons

Blogging is for some people. But not this guy. Personally I think this is a waste of time. Sitting here watching the hockey game blogging about how much I hate blogging only to have my teacher give me a mark on something I'll probably never do again and have my classmates write bs comments on it that make them sound like they are being forced to write their comments at gun point. "Yes, this is very good, thank you for posting". Boring. But I'm focusing on the bad. There are both pros and cons to blogging, I suppose I'll start with the cons because I'm already halfway there.

1. This is grade 11 University English, if I wanted to blog all day I would have dropped out of school and became a hipster, no, I want to read books, watch videos and movies, write. From an educational point of view, Blogger and blogging are quite pointless. I could just as easily go on tumblr and blog about how I hate everything. It's basically the same thing.

2. All we do is complain and whine about it, I feel for Mrs Le, I really do. She's a great teacher, and she is so fond of blogging, and we all hate it. Sometimes kids just have to deal with things they don't like to move on in life and better themselves, but I have not heard people complain about one thing so much and try to protest it, and I'm pretty sure Blogger isn't a MUST, I don't hear about the other English classes blogging. Like I said sometimes kids have to deal with things to move on, but Blogger is not one of those things. Blogger can be thrown aside and no one would be the worse for wear because of it.

3. The word blog pisses me off. Say it like twenty times you'll see. Blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog

Now for some pros yay


I'm not ALL against blogger. I like to see both sides of every story.

1. It's easy. Simple as that. It's easy marks, you can waste time and still come up with something great.

2. It allows the student to be free, in the sense we can say whatever we want. I mean I can't go about on everyone's posts dropping F-bombs but free as in the sense I can speak my mind. I can go an all out rant about how much I hate everything in English class and get a Level 4 on it. Beautiful.

3. If people like your blogs you just might get a laugh or two about it later. That's always nice.

4. Now this point I don't really understand but it will be argued so I'll write it for arguments sake. Internet skills and internet safety. It is said by using blogger and following the rules of it, it will improve your internet skills for....some reason? I don't know maybe you can type faster? If you want to learn about blogging go on tumblr, and something about internet safety? To watch what you post and in by watching what post you will develop a sense of how to safely maneuver internet? I don't really know the argument here and  am open to suggestions.


All in all, I think from an academic point of view Blogger is pointless and your time could be spent on better recreational components of English like books or plays/movies/videos. From your average students point of view, it's easy and can be fun, which beats writing any essay. There also could be some long term value in using Blogger, what that value is I have no idea. But it could be there.

Thanks for reading.

Tuesday 21 January 2014

Why Teachers Who Are More Lenient Are Favored

The statement "Teachers who are more lenient are favored" is an obvious one. But I'm going to elaborate one WHY exactly they are favored. First and foremost, teachers who are more lenient and understanding of student's situations help relieve stress the students are feeling. High school can be very stressful, just like anything in life, but teachers have the power to relieve some of that stress very easily. Listen to their situations and help work around it, realize students have other obligations in life and school, and help pencil everything in as best as possible within reason. Apart from relieving stress, it gains the teacher respect and builds better connections with the students. Of course the teacher will have to maintain some control, but allowing the students to have some space and time and to feel at ease, will help them to succeed in school. Stress is a students worst enemy, and teachers have the ability to easily defeat that enemy.

Saturday 11 January 2014

Mystery Skype Solved

           Breaking News: The Mystery Skye has been SOLVED! What have learned from this incredible break through? That the Students from Wasse-Abin Wikwemikong high school are cool, interesting highschool kids just like that of the ones at Orangeville District Secondary School! They lead normal lives and have traditions just like we do! But seriously, the Skype call with them was a lot of fun and I learned a lot about them and their culture, and I think now I'm better off for it now. Listening and learning about someone's culture, likes and dislikes can truly benefit someone and I would to thank the students from Wasse-Abin Wikwemikomg for sharing their thoughts and feelings with us.