Survival Skills for Life

In the article “Educational Leadership” by Tony Wagner the topic of how students are learning and preparing for the 21st century is brought up and threw all of the research done, it seems like Tony Wagner is for this preparation. The biggest reason that makes me believe this are the paragraphs on the 7 survival skills. “Critical Thinking and Problem solving”, “Collaboration and Leadership”, “Agility and Adaptability”, “Initiative and Entrepreneurialism”, “Effective Oral and Written Communication”, “Accessing and Analyzing Information”, and “Curiosity and Imagination”. The author expands on all of these topics and is able to explain how they will help us in the world. To me though the biggest of the survival skills is Curiosity and Imagination because no matter what your job is or where you go to school, Curiosity and Imagination will help you. Curiosity helps you answer questions; while Imagination just helps with everything and makes you be more creative.
Also in this article the author expands on the idea of before students are taught these skills, first we need to redefine excellent instruction. I think what he means by this is that we can’t always just go to class sit down, take notes and get ready for a test. It’s ok to do that every once in a while but what really needs to happen is students need to get more involved with their learning. We need more energy in assignments as in move around a little, maybe make the learning interactive instead of taking notes all day. Also if we could work in teams that way if we get stuck, we can get help from a partner. These are some thoughts about Tony Wagner’s article “Educational Leadership”.

Inspiration in Many Forms

Earlier this week I saw a video. It is called the “Don’t Quit Poem” and it was a video that completely changed my outlook on my decisions. So I decided to do my PLN response on it and share how it changed my life. The author of this poem is actually unknown. But anyway when I saw this video it really just made me think about all the times in my life that I started something and then just left it and never took it back up. A lot of times I have given up in Parkour but that is a different story. But anyway not only did this make me think about the times I’ve given up but also everything I haven’t given up in, everything I have and for how thankful I am to have all of it. This video inspired me to not give up anymore until absolutely necessary which won’t happen much. If I can stick by this then life will be harder at times but the overall outcome will be amazing. I may have given up on many things but I have made it threw more. Now that I have talked about how this made me think, the question is; how would this affect kids and students if you were to show this video in schools? This question really makes me think because I know it would affect some people but there are also a lot of kids who think that they are to cool, don’t need to try any harder and even some kids who have already given up in lots of things and even life. These are the kids that I think need to see this video.
Also as long as I am on the subject, there is another video I have seen and I’m going to go into religious stuff here but the video is a skit about Jesus helping you threw everything no matter how hard it gets. I saw the skit in person and I was speechless after it. It made me think more than I ever had before. The skit involves the song “Everything” by Lifehouse. I personally think that everyone needs to see this video especially those kids that say they have given up in life and that kind of thing. It helped me and I know that it will help them weather it makes them think a little or a lot. . Both the videos I have talked about so far might not make people think the way I did but it will make them think and start discussions. The video about Jesus wouldn’t be allowed in school though so kids would have to see it somewhere else. The point I have been trying to get throughout this response is that little things can inspire us everyday weather a little video or skit or something like meeting your hero. We all have choices in life and some choose to give up on them and others keep going till there is nothing left or till they have accomplished whatever necessary.

Don't Live Life Behind Closed Doors

For my PLN response this week I decided to do it over the song “Behind Closed Doors” by Rise Against. The lyrics to this song really made me think. It just keeps talking about not staying behind closed doors but there is a bigger meaning to it. What it is really talking about is making change. We can’t all just sit around and hope something will happen. If you want something to happen then you need to get up and do something about it; for instance activism. It is a duty, not a choice. Only through activism can we this country by the people, and for the people. So really what that means is that at times we just need to cast away our apathy which is mainly what I was saying before. Really what this means is that we need emotion and enthusiasm in order to make a difference. I personally think that this statement is completely true. Think about it. A real world example would be Presidents. Whenever they are giving a speech or trying to make a difference they have emotion in there voice. They try to emphasize things in there speech to attract people’s attention and make us think about what they just said.

Also if you pay attention to the lyrics of the song its saying that we aren’t obligated to stay alive and be here but, we still are here because every single one of us serves a purpose on this earth. Some of us serve bigger purposes than others but we are all still equal. This song talks about how even though we get knocked down in life, we can all still get back up and make things right. We don’t just after one failure say that we’re done. No. We get back up and keep trying till we get it or till our life’s are back in order. This is what I think that this song is about. Casting aside our apathy and mistakes so that, we don’t live our lives Behind Closed Doors.