Reflection: Dan Pink Question

So all my posts have been saved as drafts lately. My bad!!! I believe that the 6 senses have an enormous amount to do with education. Design will change our classrooms and our curriculums. Story will help us explore History and LA better. Symphony will help us connect our different classes together. Play will help us to have fun while we learn something new. Empathy will help us feel better, and will help us help others at school. Meaning will give us a reason to go to school, or to wherever we are going. Those are basically my thoughts on how important Daniel Pink’s ideas are to our education: very important!

Portfolio: Meaning

In the Meaning Chapter, I found a lot of religious things. I am a Christian- Disciples of Christ – and am pretty religious. My meaning is a life for Jesus Christ, but this is not a religious post. It is to talk about the portfolio idea of dedicating everything. I almost forgot to do it for a while, but now I’m back on track. It is almost fun to dedicate your work to someone; to do it for someone else. Sometimes it’s a silent dedication, but sometimes it’s like a mission trip for me. Sometimes I want to buy someone’s lunch for them. Sometimes I just say I’ll do everything for them today. It helps my life as much as Being Choosy (see Portfolio: Design). There is not much more to say here. Maybe I’ll dedicate it to you today.

Portfolio: Play

Play- what an interesting chapter. I love video games, board games, whatever, as long as they are still games! So because I love games so much, I decided to- you betcha-dissect a joke. Some jokes are really dumb, but I still try to dissect them. Those are the easiest. But then you get tougher ones, like one I can find no humor in; I’m sorry if I ruin this joke for someone because it’s a classic: Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side!!! No laughs? That’s because I can still find no humor in this joke. Here is a challenge: find the humor in this joke. Tell me it and I’ll buy you a Starbucks. Okay? Good luck…

Porfolio: Empathy

The Empathy chapter was interesting. It has helped me be in the other’s shoes now. I decided I’d do the “Spot the Fake Smile” in Daniel Pink’s portfolio. This is on www.tinyurl.com/ckrj3. I was very pleased with myself because I got about 75% right. I have a secret (that Daniel Pink tells all in his book) that helps tremendously. There is not much I got out of this activity but it still is weird how you can spot a fake smile from a real one by looking at- blahdy-blahdy-blah. It is weird because I have spotted fake smiles among my friends and people I see in public places recently. It is a little discomforting to see it sometimes, but it is still cool J.

Portfolio: Design

Design was a very cool chapter. The portfolio was even better. I decided to Be Choosy as Daniel Pink puts it. As a result I am actually a happier person. I am more optimistic and look for things in the long run. They will get better sometime, I tell myself now in rough times. If not now, then I’m cool with it. Thanks to Daniel Pink, I feel like everyone and everything is happier. Funny what one little thing can do to your life. There is not much to say on this post, so this is really it J.

Reflection: World Language

I think that World Language is a very exciting class. I take Spanish II and enjoy it immensely. I had an awful teacher last year. She hardly taught us anything. But now I have a meaning to actually learn in this class. My teacher is nice and she comes up with creative ways to relay the lesson to us. I now know how to conjugate verbs in the past (preterit and imperfect!). It amazes me how much one class and one teacher can help me learn so much better and enjoy learning another language. Spanish will help me a ton in the future: it may help get a job or give a meaning to my life. That is exciting. Ha-ha I have said exciting a lot now. But it really is.

Reflection: Language Arts

Ah Language Arts, my favorite class. I am not kidding you: it is awesome! Laptops, good discussions, good books, and a great teacher J. I believe that design is important to this class: someone had to design a plan for the class, for the curriculum, the questions that are asked, even this PLJ! It is all one big design. It almost boggles my mind that it is so well designed. And just so you know, I am not sucking up; I am only telling the truth. My LA class used to be very boring: just writing, reading and a little talking. It was dreadful. This class, however, has helped me learn more. It’s so exciting to think about it.