Scribe for April 4

Hello Ms. Smith!
Hello everybody!!

Scribe for April fourth-

Today Ms. Smith decided to change the “format” of the class. Instead of having our group present, they were postponed till Monday. So be ready for pages 37-69 on Monday. Additional homework for the weekend- due grammar 10&11 and READ. This upcoming week is going to be a little crazy, so just keep in mind your reading!!! We have two sessions coming up with 50+ pages so it would be a very very very good idea to get ahead!!

In class today we had a man visit us all the way from GERMANY!!!! His name was Gerhard W. and he works for a business magazine called brand eins Redaktion. He is preparing an issue that revolves around what education should be in the 21st century. So, he wanted our take on the topic. He wanted to know and what our school looks like, what makes it good, and what we want it to accomplish. He wanted to know what the high school does well, and not so well. He also wanted to know what we expect, how we are preparing our self, and what we do outside of school. Also, he said we could get our name in the paper J.
So for this class period I tried my best to blog the whole conversation!

Q- What do we like best about going to school here?

Morgan- English and history- honors, because there is more technology involved, she likes that

Melissa- She likes the freedom we have at AHS, it is like collage and it will help us in prepare for the future

Kristina- Likes the diversity of the school and the diversity between the people.
She also thinks the teachers do a great job

Dawnille- Likes how all of our ideas are not just limited to this class, we are professional learners, and we do more then just learn, we go above and beyond

Lesliel- Likes how much the school trusts us. We are allowed to do more and it’s nice

Rya- Likes how there is a lot of the activities, we get to build up our own ideas. Also, it is nice that you get to learn what others get out of it

Maddie- Enjoys the computers, and whishes we could use them everyday

Mac- Likes the honors classes because the people in the classes actually want to learn, the whole class wants to learn. That makes it a lot better, it makes you enjoy the class more

Matt- It is nice getting to choose your classes, high school is a gigantic jump from middle school and it is really nice that we get to choose what we want to learn

Becky- You have so many options here at AHS- ex: swimming class- it is required, but there are so many options that you can take, like diving, scuba diving, or just swimming

Rya- The freedom here makes us feel like we are trusted

Morgan- It is really neat that the principals go out and talk to you, yes, it can be creepy, but it is cool because they don’t just sit in their office, they go out and talk to you. It just really shows that they care about you

Katy- It nice because everyone cares how you’re doing, and what is going on with you, AHS has a variety of counselors that are there for you, and make sure you are ok. Even if you just look tired, the staff here will still make sure you are doing OK

Whitney- teachers present the basis for learning and then we go on and explore and learn in our own way, it seems we learn better that way

Hannah- “I understand how but I don’t understand why” that quote is almost the basis for AHS

Q- What would we change?

Maddie- I would definitely change ERE!!!!!!!!!! It is boring, you just copy down notes, she hates it extremely, she thinks there is a better, more hands on way to teach it.

Lesliel- Sometimes it feels like the teachers don’t know what they are teaching, she is disappointed with ERE teachers due to their lack of helping

Kristina- Some of the teachers are not truly making sure you learn and extend

Ashley-In ERE you can just get the notes off line, however with English, you cant miss English and then get it offline, you have to be there

Whitney- instead of just giving you the notes, the teachers could give you experiments and have you discover things for yourself, that would help a lot

Hannah-Experiments can take you to a certain point, it would be better if the teachers had students create their own experiment and work to create their own theory

Mac- 8th grade science is harder then 9th grade science and she wants more of a challenge

Q- In creating your own learning, what are things you would change?

Dawnielle- She thinks that talking about things helps her grasp the ideas better, and it seems now there is no room for that

Katy- emotional connections helps her remember things, and in ERE, you don’t connect

Stephen- believes discussing things helps you understand, and teachers like it when students get help

Kristina-Thinks Word Religion is a really interesting class- students do the research, bring it in and then discuss it, discussing helps make discoveriesàFishbowls

Wait; lets explain to Gerhard W. what a fishbowl is. And did we ever come to an agreement on who the “fishbowl leader was”? Smith or Fich???
(If you are unsure what a fishbowl is, it is where you have and inner circle discussing and outer circle blogging and sometimes the conversations intertwine, and they are very constructive and the students runs them more then the teacher.)

Jordan-Thinks its good to have a good balance, it leads to good conversations

Becky- thinks its cool in the fishbowls that you can hop in and out

Dawnielle- thinks we got more out of books, thanks to fishbowls

Zach- Thinks there is still some parts of education that we need to update, for example we still have a schedule based off farming

Melissa- When we get hw back, you just basically just get a grade back, when you get something back it is better when teachers help us understand what we missed, and give us more to learn

Lesliel- In math she really likes how her teacher grades, their hw is the first try and they are graded on completion, and then on the test, you get graded on if you know the material or not. She thinks more homework should be graded on completion

Rya- Thinks the teacher decides everything and it should be collaborate, Likes how Smith is have a collaborate grade on our AWNM project, it creates a well rounded grade

Mac- very deep quote (I hope I got I right)-there is a portion of what you know you know, a portion of what you know that you don’t know, and then the largest portion is what you don’t know what you don’t know

Q- Is there an image we have? Are we prepared for 21st? Will we have to make an extra effort because there is so much change?

Maddie- it seems like people want you to be afraid, but it doesn’t really bother her, we will adapt and rise to meet the occasion

Katy- people have been adapting for a long time, and she thinks learning is changing more then jobs are

Ashley- we are learning as things are being created, and one thing we will adapt to is technology

Whitney- education is not fully preparing us, we depend on computers, and the 21st century is going to be about creating new ideas, not so much knowing info

Morgan- education can’t prepare us for everything, we don’t know what the future will look like, but they can try to do there best. Mental image of 21st century learning- going to school not on strict hours, there would be more independent studying, and more technology

Dawnielle- Facts are more available, for science in 21st we should learn how to learn by our self, we could cure cancer! We need experiments, and we need to learn how to solve problems

Kristina- We need to create, not produce.

Lesliel- In the 21st century we will have a completely new life style, for example, we will have to use fossil fuel

Matt- World Language in 8th grade- French was just strictly the language, however, you need more, you need culture, you won’t survive with just language

Smith- Took a class in collage- first year JUST grammar, however the second year was amazing, it was based off culture classes, art, and music. She learned to speak better because the culture behind it.

Matt- drinks chi tea every Tuesday, two days a week not enough, one day is culture, second day is language, it is a lot better

Stephen- Do you think knowledge or facts is more important?

Hannah- ability to have wisdom is more important, wisdom can not be taught. In the 21st century we have to seek things, life is short so why learn why how many people live in this world, instead know why all those people live in this world

Zach- thinks we are stuck in the system of just testing on the facts

Gerhard W – explains how there are sessions of ‘school’ online!!

Smith- It is frustrating with subs, it would be cool to have a with a web cam, web cams could add so much!

Rya- you need to be well rounded, if your job becomes obsolete, you can be prepared

Becky- you do need to be well rounded, that is what learning should be about

Final question from Gerhard W.- It appears that we experience school not as a burden, (class nods head). Well that’s an improvement! We all know that there are a lot of challenges, do you think in time we will just deal with those challenges and get as prepared as we can now?

Becky- education is trying to change but nothing can ever completely prepare us, we need to learn things every day

Dawnielle- High school allows you to do things you care about. Why waste time with things you will never do again

Mac- It is limiting, but good to choose what you want to do and focus only on that, hard to come up with a system with out cons and all pros.

Matt- ERE is boring, one time I doodled all over my worksheet and the teacher didn’t even mind

Ryan-Day that everything goes online will be the day when we loose human contact.

Morgan- thinks teachers and deadlines can be good to help push us

Lesliel- doesn’t want to loose human contact, it would be cool to be at home and learn, but it is nice to get outside of your home

Human contact is GOOD, education based only on computers makes you loose so much, for example, sarcasmJ.

So there ya have it!!! Hope you all enjoyed the experience to talk to Gerhard W., (who came all the way form Germany!) Have a great week and do not forget to do your grammar and to READ READ READ!!