Throughout this school year, I have experienced many different types of writing assignments. However, my favorite literary project is writing blog posts. Blogs allow authors to gain useful feedback from readers by utilizing the comment section. Many times when I finish writing an essay or a story, I want to know what other people think about it. Unfortunately, the only way I can do that is to call my friends and ask for a peer edit. On the other hand, with blogs, I can obtain feedback immediately.
Another reason why I prefer blogging over more formal assignments such as writing essays is because authors are free to choose what topic they would like to write about in a blog. Oftentimes, authors will choose topics that they relate to and have strong feelings for, thus making their writing stronger and more persuasive. While discussing techniques of blog writing with my peers, I discovered that they found blog posts pertaining to education and school were easier to write about than posts about politics. Final Thoughts: Blogging was an extremely enjoyable and enlightening experience this year. I loved reading the blog posts on my friend's posts and I especially enjoyed discussing my post topics in the comments section.
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Learning seems like a simple task; listen to what the teacher says and then absorb, memorize, and apply the information. However, learning is far more complicated than it seems. Similar to any other activity, learning requires time, practice, and experimentation on how best to execute it. Throughout my years in school, I have learned many tricks on how to learn efficiently and thoroughly. However, the tip that had the largest impact on my learning was taking good notes. As demonstrated by the many blog posts I have made about how to take good notes, detailed notes are still useful in my current learning process. Taking notes allows me to review the information the teacher has taught, and act as a reference when I forget a detail. Also, the act of writing out the information aids my memorization process. With less time needed to memorize facts, I can spend more time on other subjects.
My notes are usually detailed but concise. They contain key-words such as names or events, definitions, analysis, and a few examples. I prefer to have my notes organized in an outline format, using different bullet styles to introduce different categories and sub-categories. Differing bullet styles allows for me to look for information easier when I review my notes. For more information on note-taking, see the following links: Part 1 and 2 of my note-taking videos: http://lycheecafe.weebly.com/blog/the-art-of-note-taking http://lycheecafe.weebly.com/blog/note-taking-skills-part-2 A list of tips on note-taking: http://www.greatschools.org/students/homework-help/323-take-great-notes.gs Throughout elementary school and middle school, one of my largest woes was carrying around my countless weighty textbooks. Now, in high school, obese textbooks have become an even larger issue. Whereas in elementary and middle school where lockers were close to classrooms and thus very accessible, in high schools classrooms are farther apart forcing students to lug around an entire locker's worth of textbooks. Oftentimes in the hallways I will see fellow students heaving a bulging backpack onto their shoulder while trying to balance several fat textbooks laying in their arms.
The heavy weight of students' backpacks and their textbooks can cause aches and pains in their backs. Also, the constant pressure will increase students' chances of injuring their spine when they get older. The two best solutions to combat this problem: 1. Schools can create online versions of textbooks. While some classes such as Spanish offer an online version of the classroom textbook, most classes such as math don't offer the same resources. Also, even though some classes will offer an online textbook, the website where the textbook is located is generally extremely faulty and will crash every other day. The unreliability of online textbooks deters students from using them and does nothing to help students relieve their backpack weights. Schools should invest in online textbooks more in order to create a more stable learning platform. With an improved resource, students will be more motivated to study online. 2. Schools should provide two versions of each textbook. Although this method can be quite costly, in the long run it would be very beneficial to the students. By having a copy of their textbook at home and a classroom set at school, students will not need to transport their textbooks to and from school. For more information on overweight backpacks: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/27/what-heavy-backpacks-are-doing-to-kids-bodies-_n_5700485.html More information on presentations:
https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Tips-for-creating-and-delivering-an-effective-presentation-f43156b0-20d2-4c51-8345-0c337cefb88b One of the largest debates among educators and students right now is the problem of teaching to the test. Recently, standardized tests have become prevalent throughout American schools in hopes of reflecting how "good" or "bad" a school is. By testing standard subject areas and seeing how well the students do, teachers and administrators can determine which subject areas students should work on more. However, while these standardized tests are helpful in measuring which subject areas students should focus on more,they also pressure teachers to teach to the test. To help their students do well on the standardized tests, teachers will focus on teaching exactly what is on the test and strategies on how to achieve the best result. Although it's good to teach students how to obtain the best score possible on a test, parents and students think that the amount of knowledge a student learns is extremely narrow.
Analyzing? What is analyzing?: Aside from a narrow knowledge base, people also believe that standardized tests limit a student's ability to analyze and understand information. This trend is best shown in advanced placement classes such as AP World. Quizzes in AP World are often questions directly from the book -- straight-up facts. Therefore, to do well on quizzes, students will cram study the night before in order to retain as many facts as possible. However, though students can remember the facts on testing day, by the end of the week few people remember much of the material. Regurgitating facts prohibits students from truly understanding the material. More information on teaching and learning to the test: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar01/vol58/num06/Teaching-to-the-Test%C2%A2.aspx For a quick note-taking reference site, visit:
http://www.testtakingtips.com/note/ One of the most challenging types of writing I have encountered is academic writing. In academic writing, one not only has to pay attention to impeccable grammar, but also creativity. Due to the many elements that make up a piece of academic writing, revision is a long process. Below I have listed a few tips that help me edit my paper. Reading out loud: This tactic seems very awkward at first, however it helps clear out typos and basic grammatical errors. Sometimes when writing papers, people will write faster than their brain can think making some sentences sound odd. Other than paying attention to typos, another element to keep in mind while reading out loud is the flow of the paper. Make sure sentences and paragraphs support the thesis and are organized in a logical order. Reading out loud will erase any surface errors with the paper. Peer Editing: The saying "the more the merrier" certainly holds true for peer editing. Peers can help catch flaws in logic and mistakes in grammar that might have been missed during the reading out loud process. Also, peers can add new and refreshing ideas to the essay itself which will help boost the academic writing towards perfection! Finally, the last step is to check the rubric. Make sure the essay covers the basic requirements then turn it in! Below is a helpful video about the editing process: For more information about note-taking techniques:
http://www.sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/notetakingsystems.html A few years ago, a teacher introduced different types of learning methods in the hopes that it would help her students study better.
She categorized students into visual learners, auditory learners, and verbal learners. I was intrigued by this method of categorization, and I began to search for the method of studying that suited me the most. After experimenting in the different learning sections, I came to the conclusion that I was a visual learner. Seeing is believing: Visual learning is the most helpful during memorization of events and vocabulary. History: There are countless dates in history and an innumerable amount of battles. To remember all of these conflicts and time periods, set up a sequence of events from the earliest incident, to the latest incident. Below the dates, write the title of the battle and then draw a defining picture. Now, instead of memorizing stiff facts and dates, memorize the pictures and their characteristics. This method of drawing and memorizing can prompt the brain in case of a "memory blank" during the test. Vocabulary: For vocabulary, write the word then draw a related picture next to it. The pictures will stimulate the brain in the case of a brain freeze. For example, if the word was apathy, then draw a picture of a smiley face with a red "X" over it to symbolize that the smiley has a lack of emotion. For more information about the different types of learning, check out this website: http://www.learningrx.com/types-of-learning-styles-faq.htm More detailed and in-depth information on drawing faces:
http://www.wikihow.com/Draw-a-Face |
Author: LycheeI'm someone who is interested in many different topics, so this blog will cover a diverse array of subjects. I hope you enjoy reading my blog, and feel free to comment! Archives
May 2015
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