New York

Last February I went to New York with my sixth form. It was the best 5 days ever, I loved it. We stayed in a hotel that was directly opposite Madison Square Garden and was in the middle of the City. I've always wanted to go to New York and I was so happy when I had a chance to go with the school.

We went on a boat trip to see the Statue of Liberty, on the first night we went up the Empire State Building, we went to Times Square which I loved and we also went to the 9/11 memorial.

I really enjoyed everything we did when we were there but I particularly loved going to Times Square because there's so much to do there. I also really enjoyed going up the Empire State Building on the first night, even though it was absolutely freezing! Being able to see all of New York lit up was amazing.

I found going to the 9/11 memorial site really emotional. Even though we were in the middle of a busy and loud City it seemed very quiet. The two memorials where the buildings used to be were amazing, and around the sides they had the names of all the people who didn't survive which I thought was a really nice way to remember them.

I took so many photos and did ridiculous amounts of shopping! I think we were all panicking about the weight of our cases on the way home! It was definitely the best place I've been and the best holiday, I absolutely loved it.

I really hope I can go back soon, I've been trying to convince my parents that we should go but I don't think they're convinced yet! 

Times Square on the first day!

The view from the Empire State Building!

Inside Death Row

I've just watched Trevor McDonald's documentary he recently made about prisoners in America on death row. He visited Indiana State Maximum Security prison in America. He spoke to and questioned some of the prisoners there about the crimes they had committed an their lives in the prison, 12 of whom were on death row.

One prisoner's story stuck out for me as it was a crime he committed when he was just 13 years old. He was found guilty of a double murder and sentenced at the age of 15. The prisoner who's now in his 30's talked about how he knew that his whole life would be spent inside that prison because of a very bad decision he made when he was so young.

Watching the program does make me think that Britain not having the death penalty is a good thing. This is because I don't believe that taking someone's life can ever be justified. However I do think that Britain needs stronger punishments for people that commit violent crimes.

Snow Days!

I love snow days but I don't understand why everything seems to stop just because of some snow!
Schools close and people can't get to work because of the roads, but snow is getting to be a more regular thing each year so I think more precautions should be taken to get things carrying on as usual.
Having snow this last week has caused disruption for pupils sitting exams as many have been unable to get to schools and colleges. As well as lots of people unable to get to work and earn money.
So as much as I love the snow the same as other people my age and children younger I can understand why people get frustrated!

Exams

For the last few weeks I have been revising and trying to prepare for the two exams I have coming up!
They're the first exams I have sat since starting University so I am quite nervous to see how I do and what they're like.. The two modules I have the exams in are 21st century learning and an introduction to special education and inclusive studies. I find these modules very interesting so revising for them isn't that bad.
After doing my first assignment before Christmas and having done exams before I'd prefer to do an assignment rather than exams but I'm waiting to see how these ones go and see whether my opinion changes.

I'm hoping that the revision and reading I'm doing is enough to get me through the exams and prepare me for the others I have in May! 

Holiday!

At the beginning of the month me and 6 of the girls booked a holiday to Ayia Napa! 

We're going on the 30th of June and I'm so excited to go away for the week.. 
It's my first holiday away with my friends so I'm really looking forward to having a week off freedom away from my parents and any work!

It seems so long since I've been on holiday so I can't wait to get a tan and enjoy the week with the girls.
I'm hoping the months are going to fly by.. I had better get saving!!! 

Pros and Cons of Web 2

The Pros and Cons of Facebook!
I use Facebook quite regularly so I am very familiar with this particular aspect of web 2.
I think Facebook is a good idea because it makes it so easy to keep in touch with friends and family that maybe you otherwise wouldn't. 
Some things that I consider to be pros of Facebook are;

• Sharing information with family/friends
• The ability to post photos and pictures
• The privacy settings allow you to protect your account from people seeing it
• You can customise your page as much or as little as you like
• You can share as much information as you want and also keep information for just your friends to see 

Some things that I consider to be cons of Facebook are;

• People hacking accounts - You could be friends someone who is not who they say they are
• I think people are too open with what they post
• The information that's put on there can be taken by anyone with access to your page
• Cyber-bulling
• The advertisements that come up aren't always suitable for all users
• The number of updates that there are means that if you don't keep up with these updates your security settings aren't up to date either
• The amount of notifications you receive can be annoying and sometimes are not of any interest to you 

Web 2 Apps!

http://www.wordnik.com/

I chose to test the Wordnik website to find out if it could be used in an educational context.

The website enables the user to enter any word or phrase they would like to find out more about or would like to know the definition of. Wordnik then brings up the definition of the word, examples of how the word should be used in a sentence or how it has been used by showing quotes. It also gives lists of related words to what the user has entered.

I think that this website could easily be used in an educational context. Wordnik could be used in primary schools as well as comprehensive schools and even higher education.

I think that this website would be a good tool for teachers to use in primary schools as it can help the pupils to find out meanings of words and phrases. For example if a pupil were reading a book or writing a story Wordnik could be used if they wanted to look up the meaning of a word they don't understand, I think it will help better their knowledge.

In comprehensive schools it could be used for the same reasons as I've mentioned but also when completing things such as coursework or even in their revision. 

There is a 'word of the day' button on the website which will give you a random word and tell you the definition of it, I think this is a really good idea because it will help broaden pupils' vocabulary and understanding of words.

Blog Review

One of the educational blogs I amfollowing is the world education blog!

I chose to follow this blog because I find the education ofchildren around the world and the ways that it differs from country to countryinteresting. The blog is regularly updated with news and opinions. The blogsmost read blog of 2012 was about new data obtained on literacy. I thought thisparticular blog update very interesting but also quite shocking. It showed that775 million adults worldwide are still unable to read or write, I think this isa ridiculous amount of people and I believe that everyone should be giventhe opportunity to learn these simple things. This recent discoveryhas left a number of countries unable to achieve the Education for All goal ofhalving illiteracy by 2015. 

A recently published report by the world education blog found outthat 200 million young people in developing countries have not even completedprimary school. Every child has the right to an education; I believe that theright to an education is a very important human right that we all have. Afterreading the posts on this blog I realised just how many children don't seem tohave that right. One of the main reasons why I believed that the worldeducation blog is valuable enough to be on my own blog is because it has openedmy eyes to the number of children and adults around the world who aren'teducated and can't perform tasks that I would find so easy and also it hasreminded me of how lucky I am to not only be in University studying for adegree but to have attended and completed comprehensive school.

Ted Talks - Ken Robinson

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

Ken Robinson's talk 'do schools kill creativity?' is a talk I had to watch as part of my course.

I found the points Ken Robinson made and the opinions he had very interesting. I agree with what he says about children not being afraid to be wrong being a good thing because I think this helps children to understand that sometimes not everything has just one answer but it also helps them to learn and to have a go at pointing their point across and lets the teacher or whoever the person is to understand how they are thinking. He says that we are running our education systems now with the belief that mistakes are the worst things you can make. I don’t think that making mistakes are bad, I think that by making mistakes it’s easy for pupils to realise what is right and understand how the answer or statement they made was incorrect.

Ken Robinson says that he believes that creativity in education today is as important as literacy; this is something that I also believe. I think that it’s extremely important for children to be creative and for their parents and teachers to encourage their creativity. I also think that the point he makes about the more artistic subjects in schools being equally important to mathematics and languages is important... I think it's good to encourage children in the areas in school that they're the best at whether it is mathematics or drama.

Completing My First Uni Assignment.

I've managed to survive my first ever Uni assignment! Before Christmas I handed in my assignment for History of Education and now I'm nervously waiting to find out how I've done..
It was a nightmare to write and I found out that I hate referencing.

Fingers crossed it will be worth the stress!!