The 7 Things

After reading "Rigor Redefined" by Tony Wagner, many thoughts came to my mind. When Wagner states that there are seven skills our students need to master to thrive in this world, I thought to myself, "Really? Only seven? Life seems so much more complicated then to only have seven skills." However, as I read through the list of these skills, it appeared to me that he is absolutely right. Even though life and careers are extremely complicated, the solutions don't have to be.

When he mentioned "Yesterday's answers won't solve today's problems." It really made me think. My generation is going to have problems that we haven't even heard of today, so we won't have that guidance to help us through these problems. We will have to think for ourselves what to do. Are our schools teaching us the skills we need in order to do that? I think that they are. Even though there is always room for improvement, I think our schools, Arapahoe in particular, are doing what they need to do in order to prepare us for what's ahead.

Collaboration and leadership in my opinion is one of the most important skills we can have. Along with that I think goes agility and adaptability. When we are working with others, it is so important to be able to collaborate peacefully with the people we are working with. We also need to be able to keep others needs and ideas in mind as well as our own.

When he says that the person needs to have effective oral and written communicational skills, this made me think back to much of our earlier conversations this year. Could the grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes that a lot of people (especially the younger generation) make have anything to do with our current forms of communication. I think it does. Texting and emailing affects us more then we think it does. We abbreviate and say things without even realizing. When we text its easier to type things like u, luv, cuz, etc... I could go on forever with text talk, but we don't realize is that text talk is becoming part of our regular talk. This is affecting our ability to speak and write, and could potentially change the standards of what is good. As our teachers develope our ability to think for ourselves, are these standards changing along with our lessons, our technology, our education, and the rest of our world?

Micro-Change

This week for my blog, I read an article from National Geographic called Best Micro-Photos of 2009. The photos really struck me. They were all of these tiny little things on our Earth, that honestly, you had no idea what they were or what they looked like. This article really opened my eyes to everything around me. We all get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of the world, we don't have any time to stop and smell the roses as they say.
This one picture really hit me. It was of some microscopic plants found in the ocean in which each plant depends on the other for survival. This plant contributes to maintaining homeostosis within our planet's climate, and they're smaller then the tip of a pen. They're called carbon sinks, and are actually really pretty neat to look at. It just struck me that something so tiny can have such a big impact on something so much bigger. Like one little human and the entire world. Look at what just one ten year old girl can do when she decides she wants to make a difference. She changed the world, one blog at a time. We can too. Maybe not the entire world, but just a group of friends, one spark is all it takes before you're entire cause takes off. Maybe it's just making the right choice, but every little thing we do counts for something, and can change the mind of one person. Sort of like Disney Channel's friends for change. (Yes I occasionally whatch Disney Channel :) ) Shine a light and send it on. It's so true. You alone can make a difference in the lives of many, just like the microscopic carbon sinkers. Maintaning the entire Earth is just one way to make a difference. How will you shine your light into our world?

(Pictures on Link)

Coffe Crashers

This week I read a blog by David Warlick titled, "Is StarBucks Killing Community?" It talks about a book he found called Everything but the Coffee: Learning About America fromStarbucks. David brings up an interesting point about how we can't learn anything from Starbucks because no one talks. Think about it the next time you walk into a Starbucks, there is very little noise. Sure there are some groups of people quietly chattering, but the majority of the people are there sipping their coffee while surfing the, you know exactly what I'm going to say next...internet. Of course they are. In all the StarBucks there is WiFi and people using it. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, just a great example of our world today.
Every where we look there is technology. Not even jus that, but iternet too. People carry the internet with them in their pockets! It's insane how much the world has changed. The way we learn, the way we live, the way we communicate, it's all new. people hardly ever talk anymore. It's all text. Emailing, texting, blogging, FaceBooking (I don't know if this is a word, but it should be), and all the other stuff out there that doesn't require any personal voice or connection. Our community and interaction really is being killed, maybe not by StarBucks, but by a lot of stuff found in StarBucks and everywhere else.
We are so dependent on the internet for everything we do. If for one day the entire internet crashed, I seriously think the world would come to an end. One night my internet was down, so I had to go to my neighbor's house to do all my homework because about 90% of it required the internet. The internet is basically running our Nation, if not the entire world. It's crazy how it's just become an everyday normality when less then 20 years ago, it was something so futuristic and alienatic. So, the next time you walk into StarBucks, count how many people are on their laptops or cell phones with internet ability, and think about just how much it has transformed all that we know and live for.