Banned Cartoon

I think it's a good idea to present history in a cartoon. Children love cartoons, especially funny ones. I remember how much I didn't like history in school. Now I think I just had boring teachers who couldn't show me how interesting it is. This is something that I found when I was researching on a Black History Month. Good way to explain what happened in America. :)

Post-Sandy

We should take care of our environment.

Cooperative learning

The purpose of education is to create solid citizens and life-long learners. Cooperative learning promotes many skills that people need during their life. It helps to improve social skills through positive interdependence. Groups have to contribute certain amount of work in order to succeed. It teaches to become responsible for your actions and be aware of others who might be in trouble if you don’t do your work. Besides, face-to-face interaction creates more positive relations among students. Since all of them are responsible for the assignment they have to compromise and listen to each other’s opinions. Cooperative learning increases motivation. Some students might not be able to complete task on their own but with help of classmates they become perfectly capable of doing it. Group work increases their self-esteem and helps to achieve higher goals. For children all these skills are very important because it helps them to get through difficult stages of life with confidence.

During the adulthood social skills are also important in the workforce. People tend to like more to work with someone who is nice and warm rather with somebody who likes to close-up from the rest of the world. Employers seek people who have teamwork skills and able to educate themselves when needed. Cooperative learning gives the tools to find information on your own and apply whether it might become useful. These skills help to achieve success in life.

Arts in education

Arts are necessary in the public-school system for several reasons. It helps children to see that in order to get results we have to put an effort in a project. Also, arts increase self-esteem, promote cognitive development, show different perspectives in learning other subjects, improve communication skills, and help to create life-long learners.

Arts in education are important for the physical, emotional, social and cognitive development. Many children who come from impoverished neighborhoods don’t have a stimulating environment to improve those skills. In order for a child to learn better, there has to be a lot of stimulation for the brain and the body. Some schools can provide with art and physical education but due to the high costs many principals cut these programs. Educators mostly concentrate on academic achievements because of the low scores in math and reading. Children need arts in their life to become successful life-long learners.

In the beginning of the life children have about 50 million neurons which is the maximum amount during the entire life. When child is not exposed to the specific environment, brain does not develop a connection with another neuron. This process is called pruning when brain is leaving out the information that is not used. For example, it is easier for a child to learn a new language than for an adult. Child is in the process of development where he/she can develop a neuron connection for the specific language. For an adult, it becomes a more difficult process and there are fewer possibilities to learn. Developed brain can build a new neuron connection, but exposure to the environment has to be much longer than for a child. This is why it is important to provide children with many opportunities to experience more things.

Researchers at McMaster University have found that babies who are exposed to the classical music smile more. Children show better communication skills and easier adjust to the new situations. Some children in school are shy, some of them are afraid of new things, and some don’t understand the lesson that teacher explains. This research shows that we can ease children’s life in many ways by promoting a better learning environment from the moment they are born. Communication skills are one of the important things in our life. Social life depends on it, people who have poor communication skills cannot get a job or perform in a group. It affects their self-esteem and might lead to a depression.

To promote life-long learners we have to help children to discover passion for learning. Arts help to see learning experience through different perspective. In order to succeed in ceramics we don’t have to memorize any formulas. All we have to do is practice more. Practice makes perfect and children learn it from the arts. They see the result of their work which makes them more self-confident about their skills. The joy of creating something with your hands increases self-esteem and ability to see what you can do by yourself if you put effort in it. This kind of effort projects onto other subjects because child realizes everything is possible it is only a matter of time.

The entertainment business and creative industries in Los Angeles employs more than 600 000 people. It created a profit of $115 billion dollars in 2010. Without arts education less children will discover the creativity talents. Many companies won’t be able to find employees and city could lose one of the biggest money makers. It will affect the economy of United States and might lead to more serious issues. Creative people are needed everywhere in the world. We all enjoy music, paintings and décor art at home. Without arts education we could lose many creative people because they won’t be able to discover a passion for arts.

Arts can also be used as a learning tool for general subjects like math, history and writing. Teacher can help children to write and perform a play about historical events. When students actively engage in creative learning they are able to learn the material better. Music notes can help to learn math fractions. Also, music itself can reduce stress and help to relax. After relaxation children can concentrate better on more difficult subjects. Better concentration increases tests’ results because children pay more attention to the subject.

By looking at these evidences we can see how important art education is from many perspectives. It promotes cognitive development, helps to create life-long learners, improves communication skills, increases self-esteem, improves learning of general subjects, and creates future creative people. Children and adults benefit from art education in many different ways. It would be crucial for our world to lose creativity in our lives.

My reflections on obesity

Obesity is one of the biggest problems in the United States which is also associated with severe adult deceases. Public health researches assume that increase in percentage of obese people is due to a high caloric intake and low physical activity. Early childhood educators became more focused on cognitive, social and emotional development to enhance children’s pre-academic abilities. Due to the cuts in physical education in schools fewer children are aware of the importance of sports. This habit brings on to the adulthood which increases the likelihood of obesity.

 Observations have shown there are three critical periods for developing obesity. Early infancy, period of adiposity rebound (5-7 years old), and adolescence. During these times children develop extensive fat which is supposed to help the body to function properly. In the early infancy fat helps the child to regulate body temperature and accumulates rapidly for a year. During the other two periods children acquire nearly all of their body mass. For example, adults need to consume about 15 to 20 calories per pound. On the other hand, infants need about 50 calories per pound and preschoolers about 40 calories per pound. Good and healthy diet for children should include grains, vegetables, fruits, milk, meat and beans, preferably daily. Not every child receives the proper nutrition. Due to that child’s development might slow down and accumulate the extensive fat from the diet.

 TV advertisers encourage eating tasty but fattening food. Children who watch television more often are being exposed to the ads. When they see a fast food restaurant they don’t think about the quality of the food. Advertisers don’t talk about the nutrition on purpose. Parents who are not aware of the ingredients of the fast food let their children eat it. They don’t realize what kind of health problems it might bring in the future.

 Early undernutrition may also predispose to later obesity because it impairs the regulation of food intake. Many parents don’t know how many calories from fat they need to eat. For example, burgers from McDonalds have about 500 fat calories which is more than enough for the body for the entire day. Only 30% of daily caloric intake should come from fat. Adoption studies have shown that children and adolescents weight is related to the weight of their parents. Genes may influence obesity by influencing a person’s activity level. Besides, it also regulates metabolism which is the speed of the body to consume calories. It means that adults who don’t eat healthy put their children at risk of obesity.

 Every person has internal signals from the body, hunger is one them. When parents force their children to clean up plates they teach to ignore the internal signal to stop eating when full. This pattern prolongs into the adulthood and makes people eat whatever they have on the plate disregarding the internal cues. Adults with this habit consume more food than they need. On top of that, they usually don’t burn these calories by exercising. Body adjusts to the amount of food we eat and it becomes very difficult to change the habit.

 Majority of overweight children become overweight adults. Something has to change in the way we think about our lifestyles. Healthy food is a one step towards healthy body. When you have a healthy body, less likely you need to go to the doctors. Moreover, in order to exercise we don’t have to buy an expensive gym membership.  Our laziness is the biggest problem because all the exercises our body needs we can do at home. In order to save the planet from the diseases we have to begin changing ourselves. 

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Marc Prensky

            After reading article by Marc Prensky I feel that he makes sense when he says that today’s students have changed incrementally. Though, education techniques mostly stay the same. Teachers still lecture students without even slight consideration that some people are not audible learners. Year after year researchers find more information how humans learn and absorb information. As of now, people are aware of differentiated learning techniques but only few use them in classrooms. Same thing happens with technology.

I remember in 2000s when I got my first computer it was huge, slow, and interface was much different from what we have now. For that time it was one of the fastest computers but compared to what we have now I had a dinosaur. We can look at the progress of the portable music players. Its progress has more noticeable difference. For example, at first we had cassette players, then CD players, then very big MP3 players. Now we have an IPod which is so small but has bigger capacity. Like evolution in the nature, we have evolution in everything.

If we move forward in progress, why can’t we move forward in education? I think we would have better results if we tried to understand children’s abilities better. We got used to doing tasks step by step, follow a lecture in the classroom and figure out how to learn the material better. With technology understanding of order changed a bit. We have random access to so many things. Children grow up in this environment. They get used to getting results quickly, having fun with video games, talking with anyone in the world without travelling. They don’t understand the old concepts and we cannot push them to go backwards.  Teachers have to make an effort in order to provide more opportunities for children. Teachers are the ones who help to succeed in life. Bad experiences in school make child to drop out because of the confusion and discouragement.  It is possible to make learning fun, to help kids understand how world works, to prepare them for real life.

I know from my own experience with children that negative comments ruin self-esteem. I tutor a 6-year-old child who thinks he’s a failure because he’s teacher says he’s bad in reading and spelling. He doesn’t know how to read and he was never taught to do it. How can a teacher expect results without providing necessary guidance? I feel sad when I meet kids who think they cannot learn. I try to do anything possible to help them to discover passion for learning and boost their self-esteem. If I can find ways to interpret any subjects into cartoons, slides, pictures, or fun stories, any teacher can and should do it.

Old and New

Evolution always progresses even though we sometimes think it is not. As people get older they tend to deny changes because it becomes difficult to adjust. New doesn't mean it is bad. It's different in it's own way, unique. Isn't it what we're looking for? To be more unique? Though... old is classic :)

Old

New

Long day

The feeling after you complete an enormous amount of homework is amazing. Would be much better without getting tired. However, some things are impossible. Better be happy with whatever you have.