Blog Entry 4.4

I’m sitting on the train with my headphones trying not to think so much about the essay. I get off and I buy some snacks. I arrive to the E building at 5:20, 15 minutes before the test start. I’m sitting outside the room drinking water and having a little snack. I make sure that I go to the bathroom so that I won’t go once I start (because I’m not allow).I’m feeling a bit anxious because I want to get over it. I step inside the room and feel a bit nervous because I don’t want the prompt to be something I can’t relate. I begin my essay, I start to read the reading slowly and carefully so I can focus then I read the prompt again and re read the article so that I can remember what I can use for the essay. I highlight some quotes from the reading and put a little note to the side saying evidence .After I’m done, I will take 30 minutes to do an outline of my essay I write my claim/opinion then I write 3 reason s why I agree or disagree. I am going to use 1-2 personal experience so that it makes my essay stronger. After I’m done with the outline I will begin to write and follow the order of my outline so I can concentrate better. I would take 15 mins to review my essay and fixed some sentences and misspellings or/and even add or remove things. After I’m done with that I will re read it and give myself positive feedback and give the proctor my essay .I would leave and have positive thoughts on head so I can feel confident I did good.

Blog Entry 4.3 CAT Practice # 6

  In the article “Is Google making us stupid?” the author Nicholas Carr talks about the famous search engine, Google. He says that Google is a useful search engine that allows us to get information quickly. He also mentions that Google and computers overall cannot only provide you with information but can cause distraction. One of the most significant ideas from the article was that the author Nicholas Carr said that what makes a person intelligent is not the ability to find information quickly but the ability to think deeply about the information. I agree with this, if we can’t develop our own thoughts without the help of the internet that means that we would depend on the internet for the rest of out lives in order to obtain information. Therefore I believe that the internet is bad in some ways because it can cause us not to learn on our own, lose concentration and interrupt our ability to think about the information.

   People are not able to think on their own because depend on search engines like Google too much and therefore we are not able to learn. Yes, the internet can b every useful but it can also be bad. According to the author, he says “so even as Google is giving us all that useful information, it’s also encouraging us to think superficially”. I can relate to this because I remember in my psychology class, my teacher used to give us research papers and the only way I used to find my information was throughout the internet. It was very helpful but I felt as it was not helping me gain more knowledge about the subject because I didn’t know if the information was accurate. Even thought I thought it was useful I knew that I was not learning on my own because I would skim through the information and rephrase it and not even understand what I was reading. And now I look back and say that internet was encouraging me to think superficially instead of my own.

     Another reason why people are not able to think on their own is because they are distracted with the internet. According to the article “if we’re distracted we understand less, remember less and learn less.”I can honestly say that I am guilty of this because when I’m distracted I lose my train of thoughts and sometimes even forget what’s been said. When I was in my computer class, I would sometimes go on the internet and get distracted. Instead of listen and typing notes from the teachers lecture, I would go on AIM and start chatting with my friends and even Google stuff to keep me entertain. I felt tempted to use the internet and it was an interruption of my learning because I wasn’t able to concentrate. I was not able to develop my thoughts because I wasn’t able to remember what was being taught. And because of that I wasn’t able to think deeply.

       Finally, if we depend on the internet for the rest of our lives, we would not be able to think deeply about any subject. If we are able to concentrate, then we won’t remember or learn anything. If we are able to use other sources to help us get information and actually think about the information, this would actually help us understand better and learn more. And like the author says “the greater our concentration, the richer our thoughts are".

Blog Entry 4.1 CAT 5

In the article Rewired, the author, Larry Ronsen, a book author, talks about technology and the influence it has on kids. He says that using technology such as the internet, in class or at home can it make it easy for kids to learn, if it’s used properly. In addition he also said that these tools can help parents and teachers be involved with their children’s school work. Furthermore, One of the most interesting idea that the author mention was that he said he was a strong advocate, supporter, of using technology as a teaching tool because it made kids learn more. Therefore, I believe that the internet can make a class more fun entertaining with educational material.

After reading the article, I believe that the internet does make a class more interesting because you can obtain more information and gain more knowledge while class being fun.According to the article,the author quotes “You can use their love of technology to make schoolwork more fun” I agree with this because I remember when I was in my senior year in high  school; I had a class in which my teacher used technology as a teaching tool. The class was called “Mediastorm”. In this class, I was assign to a laptop and I was responsible to do my final project.For my final project,i had to do a video narrative about the importance of  community gardens. What made the project interesting was that I got to do my own research and even arranged meetings to meet people who worked in important organizationns such as david bowen,a gardanist that worked with Michelle Obama.with the help of my teacher and the internet i was able to like the class,and eventually get a good grade.This shows that learning can be interesting if a teacher uses technology.

Technology can make a class more fun and educational only if  it makes children be engage in their schoolwork.According to Larry Ronsen ,"If schoolwork involves technology then students need to be direct  to do their work for periods of time , followed by other activities, annd then nback to their studies until their work is done"",which i agree because kids are fast leaners and with the help of a computer they are more ikely to do their work.Which makes me remmeber when i read a New York Times article about education; how students from other countries used computers as a teaching tool.In this article it  said that kids were taught their math class through a computer program that contained all their lessons.They also were able to interact with viirtual tutors that helped them with math exercises.And eventually helped students be better in class because of these tools.

Using technology can make a difference.With my personal experince,i agree with Larry Rosen, just for the simple fact that using laptops in my class and doing my own project of interest made it much enaging then my other classes.And with the article i read, it was obvious to see that those kids gain more education as well as information since they used technology in their classes.

Pandora's: Blog 13: CATW # 5: How to Do One Thing at a Time

Pandora's: Blog 13: CATW # 5: How to Do One Thing at a Time: "The authors most important ideas in 'How to Do One Thing at a Time' by Nancy Jones of the women's health magazine is knowing multi-tasking i..."

Claim:"Talking on the phone while driving is a dumb idea"
The author Kristina did an okay job.
She had a good claim.
One of her examples was really good because she realted to it.

In my opinion her essay could have been a longer.
She could've use more reasons and evidence from the article.
She did not summarize,she just pointed out the authors main point.
Her summary made me a bit confuse because i didnt know what the article was really about.

Needs to work on her summary.
Needs to clarify her second evidence.Needs to seperate her paragraphs because its too much for just two paragraphs.
Needs to work on grammar; there was some grammar errors: usage of comas and short sentences.

Blog Entry 3.5 CAT Practice 4

In the article “Let them Eat Fat” the author, Greg Critser, talks about the consumption of fast food. He says that fast food restaurants such as McDonalds and Krispy Kreme are basically the only source of food for poor and low income communities. He says that,because of fast food restaurants there really isn’t a choice of healthier foods.So people are likely to consume things that are cheap and unhealthy. In addition, this article talks about black people,and how they are not able to afford healthy foods because of their economic status. Furthermore, one of the authors’ most significant point that caught my attention was that he said poor people are encouraged to consume unhealthy foods. I believe that fast food restaurants make it hard for people to eat healthy because people cant afford anything healthier other than fast food,and because  the vast variety or fast food restaurants,that makes their food so much cheaper.

People choose to eat unhealthy rather than healthy foods because of their economic status. For example, if you come from a low income community what you’ll see is that there are a lot of fast food restaurants. And because of that, it is most likely that a poor person would eat fast food. According to the article, “One of every four hamburgers sold by the folks at McDonalds, for example, is now purchased by inner city consumers who, disproportionately, are young black men.”This shows that young black men are targeted to eat these foods because of they are money less and are not exposed to healthy foods. Another example is that black people who are from low income can be easily recognized of their unhealthy habits because of their money status. According to the article, “Young black kids traveling between school and home, their economic status is apparent by the fact that they’ve walked instead of driven”. This shows that by looking at a person’s economic status, you can tell that they don’t eat healthy, not only because they are not exposed, but because they are not able to afford it.

Fast food restaurants provide a person with cheap meals that is why low income people are targeted and encouraged to consume these foods. People might say that they can get more food at a fast food restaurant with little money, but they don’t know how much unhealthier it is. For example, if you go to a fast food restaurant and you want extra of your food order, you have the option to make your other small, medium, large or even supersize! According to the article “Consumers are cheerfully encouraged to “supersize your meal!”  By signs saying, “If we don’t recommend a supersize, the supersize is free!” With these types of advertisements, it is most likely that a poor person can be encouraged to buy a super meal. Therefore, cheap meals at fast food restaurants make it affordable for low income people to eat unhealthy.

As a consumer, I am guilty of eating unhealthy food, at fast food restaurants. The reason why is because I am tempted by advertisements. For example the main purpose of advertisements is so that they catch your eye when you’re hungry. I don’t categorize myself as a low income, nor a high income person, but if I am hungry, and I know that the nearest thing around me is a fast food restaurant, I am likely to eat at one. I can say that is very difficult to eat healthy foods, when everything around doesn’t sell healthy foods, and food advertisements, only display fast food like McDonalds and Burger King. With these advertisements I can say that temptation is the reason why I eat unhealthy.

Finally, fast foods are very unhealthy.Fast food restaurants like McDonalds,Buger King,Wendys,can encourage you to eat their food,because their food is cheap and they provide more quantity instead of quality.With all these different fast food restaurants,it is hard for poor people to obtain healthy foods if their not exposed them. I believe that because of fast food restaurants you don’t have much option to healthy foods. Therefore, it can be very hard to eat healthy when your poor and your encouranged to eat bad foods.