Comments on: Making the Argument: Student Winners From Our Editorial Contest Teaching and Learning With The New York Times Fri, 27 Nov 2015 03:42:08 +0000 hourly 1 NYT By: Ben R. and Isaac L. Mon, 09 Mar 2015 01:51:23 +0000 How Personalized Can Learning Become?

As the modern world advances both technologically and intellectually, a greater emphasis on personalized learning throughout the education system has emerged. Because of this movement, a new question has arisen: how personalized can learning become? We, the authors, define authentic personalized learning as students taking specific classes that are tailored to their skills and strengths, however the exact definition of “personalized learning” is often disputed. Sean Cavanagh from states in an article about personalized learning that, “the term ‘personalized learning’ seems to be everywhere, though there is not yet a shared understanding of what it means.” This leaves some room for breadth within specific school districts to decide how personalized they can make their curriculum, however, norms have been set within the education system that are not so easy to disengage from traditional learning. Requirements set by colleges and high schools make pure personalized learning an unrealistic goal.
With a myriad of different academic requirements for top tier colleges and universities, it makes it very difficult for students to excel in one particular area of study during junior and senior high school. These various requirements are demonstrated when applying to the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities. On their website, they state that one needs four years of mathematics, four years of English, three years of science, three years of social studies, two years of a second language, and a year of visual/performing arts classes to attend their school. This makes it increasingly difficult for a student who excels at performing arts to get into this university due to the fact that it requires other classes in addition and only one year of performing arts. Many high schools also require a plethora of different classes in order to graduate. These factors make truly personalized learning almost impossible to achieve.
That said, personalization within a specific field of study is prominent throughout the United States. Online education programs, such as Khan Academy, are making personalized learning more accessible. Khan Academy is an online self-pacing math tutoring site created by Salman Khan, an Ivy-League graduate. Somini Sengupta of the New York Times stated in an article that, “Now he [Khan] wants to weave those digital lessons into the fabric of the school curriculum- a more ambitious and as yet untested proposition.” Khan’s website has helped students all around the nation learn math at their own pace. This evidence proves that it is possible to have personalized learning within a specific field, in this case math. However, it also shows that true, unadulterated personalized learning is unfeasible when taking into account the requirements of colleges and high schools across the nation.

Works Cited:

By: Billy Bisset and Joeseph Basile Fri, 06 Mar 2015 14:23:37 +0000 Billy Bisset & Joe Basile
Ms. Lorenzo
AP Language 11

Cereal Killers, Sociopaths, and Children

What do soldiers, aliens, hunters, and even plumbers have in common? They are all the basis of video games that people like me, the average American youth, plays everyday. These games provide hours upon days of entertainment, develop skills that influence everyday life, and connect us with friends, but at what cost?

With the malleability of children’s minds combined with the addictive personalities of our youth, it is all than inevitable that this generation will develop differently than that of yesteryear.

Video games today are inherently more violent. When I was young I played Mario brothers and Donkey Kong, but now children are playing games in which the objective is to murder other people, most often with firearms and explosives. But, do these games have psychological effects, do they change how a person thinks and acts, and ultimately will it make them a more violent person?

Video games have gained this targeted scrutiny since the late 90s in connection with the School shooting at Columbine, In which two students that had played a popular video game with extreme violence in the past, attacked their school and killed 13 other students and injured many more. Since then whenever a young person has acted violently or hurt anyone the immediate reproach set fourth by the General public is ” Well he must played to many video games” or ” If he didn’t play this darn Video games this wouldn’t of happened” However I believe that this is simply just not the case.

Studies have shown that ” The links between video games and violence has suggested that it is the difficulty of the game and not its content that leads to players feeling aggressive.” This leads to the crux of my argument, myself, I have spent hours playing Games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto and have never felt nor thought of being violent yet I have also played a fair share of extraordinarily difficult games and this on the other hand infuriates me, often causing me to lash out in fits of rage. The fact is that “The relationship between television viewing and negative outcomes may be more complicated” than we we think.

It is evident that with destructively graphic games we may become uncensored to the most violent of acts at a young age and being exposed to these things causes us to know more. Violence is something that yo can either be born with or developed, and at a young age we must filter the things our children see.

“Videos Games and Violence.” The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, n.d. Web. 04 Mar. 2015.

Carey, Benedict. “Shooting in the Dark.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 Feb. 2013. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

By: Zachary S Fri, 06 Mar 2015 14:21:53 +0000 Rights are what we are given at birth, and rights are what should be protected. Dying with dignity should be one of these rights. Think about anyone you know who has suffered or is suffering from a terminal illness. Some of these sufferers are given likely chances of survival, but what happens to the ones that are not given these odds? Should they suffer and receive treatment for years, just to die? Should these people who know their fate, go through surgeries upon surgeries, just to die? Or should they live out the remainder of their life with their family, instead of being cooped up in a cold hospital? I think we all know what would be best for our family if death is inevitable. Death with Dignity provides people with an option, instead of being forced into a hospital bed. It gives families a chance to come together in unison and support their loved ones.

Death with dignity should be a fallback that we all have the option to chose. This is a controversial issue that we are faced with today. Many people are opposed to the premise of an individual having the right to take their own life, but why should others have a say in how a terminally ill person spends there fleeting time?

There are many situations where assisted death is necessary and warranted. We should take the strides necessary to bring awareness to this issue, and mandate laws that correspond. Brittany Maynard is an example of someone who found this as an option. She has become the face of death with dignity due to the angsts brought upon her and her family. Brittany was a 29 year old newlywed, diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. She was given a short six months to live and there wouldn’t be a treatment to save her. The only recommended treatments would, “destroy the time she had left.” As a result, she chose a route unorthodox to many. This was to end her own life when her condition became unbearable. Brittany found it ridiculous that she couldn’t live out the last months of her life, “comfortably in her own home.”

This has been a growing debate among our country due to the moral stance that we are faced with. Death is something that is inevitable, but happens differently for everyone. We are now called on to decide whether or not we, as individuals, have the right to choose to die on our own terms. We should all have this option if the suffering is too extreme to manage or if we are put into a situation parallel to Brittany’s. Today, as more of us start to understand this issue, we are coming to terms as seeing death with dignity as a moral right.

Slotnik, Daniel E. “Brittany Maynard, ‘Death With Dignity’ Ally, Dies at 29.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 03 Nov. 2014. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.
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Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.

By: Maggie C. and Christin W. Fri, 06 Mar 2015 13:59:33 +0000 Do the Negative Impacts of Social Media Outweigh Any Positive Effects?
Most people often spend free-time looking at their social media. The two of us often find ourselves wasting an hour or two looking at people’s posts on Facebook, or pictures on Instagram. Recently, while scrolling through Facebook posts we came across an article that seemed interesting, although we now can’t recall what the article was about. After reading the wordy article we found ourselves wondering why we had just spent our time reading it. The article wasn’t exactly informative, or particularly funny or even that well-written. In fact we hardly cared about it at all. This wasn’t the first time something like this has happened. It was,however, the first time both of us realized we didn’t care about all of the things we spend excessive amounts of time obsessing over on social media. Now, that might make us sound a little insensitive, but a lot of the things we see on social media are things we really don’t care about at all and are wasting so much of our time on.
Just wasting a lot of time isn’t much to be concerned about though, after all there are many ways to waste time without social media sites. When we looked into the subject a little more, we found that there are many more negative effects-besides wasting time- than there are positive outcomes. Studies have concluded that there are numerous ways social media can affect someone’s health. According to Karen Frazier, a public relations specialist, hyper-networking often associates with depression, substance abuse, poor academic performance and sometimes even suicide. Most people don’t realize that their excessive social networking can affect their health in this way. Not only does your health suffer, but it can also lead to increased isolation. People would rather be going through their social media pages than interacting and having conversations with others in-person. Little do they know, this lack of social interaction could lead to depression, anxiety, stress, and other mental issues. A senior partner at a Boston law firm talked about the atmosphere in his workplace: “Young associates lay out their suite of technologies: laptops, iPods and multiple phones” (Turkle). Even in the professional environment at a law firm, everyone is constantly connected to the cyberspace world. This puts into perspective how much time people are actually spending on social media, and how common it may become to damage your health through the excessive amount of time being spent online.

Works Cited:

Fraizer, Karen. “Negative Impact of Social Networking Sites.” LoveToKnow. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

Turkle, Sherry. “The Flight From Conversation.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 04 Mar. 2015.

By: Shannon W Regan S Thu, 05 Mar 2015 19:09:57 +0000 Shannon Webskowski
Regan Skoogman
The Perfect Body

“Girls of all kinds can be beautiful – from the thin, plus-sized, short, very tall, ebony to porcelain-skinned; the quirky, clumsy, shy, outgoing and all in between. It’s not easy though because many people still put beauty into a confining, narrow box…Think outside of the box…Pledge that you will look in the mirror and find the unique beauty in you.” -Tyra Banks
Society tells us that we are either too thin or too fat, we seek perfection, when in reality we are striving for something that is non-existent. Nobody is perfect, we all have individual flaws that make us who we are. No matter how many hours we spend running, crying, and purchasing the latest beauty products we will never meet the media’s standards of having the ideal body type. Strive to embrace individuality.

Just because someone is thin, does not automatically mean they have an eating disorder. Some people are born thin, no matter what they eat there is always a struggle to gain weight. When people tell thin people to “go eat a cheeseburger”or “ you look anorexic”, it hurts just as much as if someone called an overweight person fat. Nicknames like bag of bones or a twig are cruel and can destroy one’s self-confidence. In an article called “Why Do People Find It So Unbelievable That I’m Naturally Skinny?”, is about a girl named Anna who also is thin. People at school gave her a nickname, which was “Anna- rexia”. Names like these are what can push someone over the edge and sometimes take a life. It is rude to point out someone’s flaws no matter what they are. There will always be a cruel person who tears you down, but that is also the time to get back up and tell them they are wrong. Media plays a big role in how people see themselves compared to others. For example, in the Victoria’s Secret commercials you see women with amazing bodies and every girl wants to be just like them. The reason is because these women are pretty and skinny which is what people like to see. According to a New York Times article called “Be Yourself, Music Videos Tell the Young”. In the article there is a song that talks about being who you are and not changing anything about you. This song is called “All About That Bass,” by Meghan Trainor. She brags about not being thin: “Yeah, it’s pretty clear, I ain’t no Size 2. But I can shake it, shake it, like I’m supposed to do.” She is saying that you should be proud of your body size. No matter what the media says it will always tell you that your body is not good enough, you shouldn’t try to lose or gain weight unless it is what you truly want for yourself. How you keep your body is a personal choice, and you shouldn’t be ashamed. No matter what size you are you should be proud of who you are and embrace your true beauty.

Bernstein, Jacob. “Be Yourself, Music Videos Tell the Young.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 13 Aug. 2014. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.

“Why Do People Find It So Unbelievable That I’m Naturally Skinny?” Thought Catalog. N.p., 02 Mar. 2014. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.

“5 Reasons Why We Need to Stop Thinking of Skinny-Shaming as ‘Reverse Discrimination'” Everyday Feminism. N.p., 21 Oct. 2014. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.

“30 Inspirational Body Confidence Quotes From Women Who Know What They’re Talking About.” Marie Claire. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2015.