“Surprises!”

Posted on | January 15, 2009 | No Comments

by Icky

1/15/09

From time to time in life something bad might happen but then something good will pop up out of nowhere. Wiglafs mom just heard Wiglaf’s pig daisy talk for the first time, and she freaks out and tells Wiglaf she has to go. Wiglaf says he is going with her. The two leave that day, and the next day they see a Camp Dragononka sign and they want to go to it. Wiglaf wants to bring his friends to camp and go have some fun. Wiglaf and Daisy just had a tragic accident with Wiglaf’s mother. Now they are going from a bad time to a good time by going to Camp Dragononka! Life changes when you are not expecting it at the worst times.

My Life went from having a good time with my grandpa and having him in my life until he got sick and died. I was not expecting him to be sick and die so fast. Incidents can happen so fast when you’re not expecting it to even happen. This helps me understand that bad things happen so fast but somehow you will get over it. I will share this information with the people who have never experienced something changing from one thing changing to another. So wiglaf’s Life went from having a bad time to a good time and my life went from having a good time to a bad time. “Life has changes in time but somehow you will get past that change!”

Kate McMullan’s Website

Hail Hail Camp Dragononka

Kate's Book Cover

249

Full Effort is Full Victory

Posted on | January 15, 2009 | No Comments

by East

1/15/09

A full effort is a victory, that is a quote everybody should live by. You know how it is when you are playing offense and good D and you give it all you got in practice, but then you play hard, and the ref’s are not calling good calls and you lose. But after you lose you feel like you should have won, and the game had been stolen by the other team and their ref.’s. This is where that quote comes in. You played hard and got cheated so you know you really won to yourself. All I’m tryin’ to say is even if you fail and try hard to win, you win in your heart.  Winning isn’t everything as long as you know you should have won. You know you’re a winner.

When I play basketball, losing is not an option. I do not like to lose, but if I get beat bad the game was cheap and you should have won.  The ref’s try to only call on your team. I just tell myself I  won because I should have. One example is at R——; the ref’s didn’t know half of the calls and did not know how to do free throws. The thing is, if you get a reach inside the 3-point line, you shoot 2 unless you make it, than you shoot 1. But they let the other team shoot 2. At our court we beat them fair. I know this because our players got fouls and on their court their players got 1-3 fouls. We gave the most effort and heart, but we lost on the board. We one in our minds because we should have won
We also should have beat N——-, they really did not try very hard, and they showed off. We could have won, and we should have but we do not need another rematch because we already know in our hearts, because a full effort is a full victory.

Two Points

Flickr Creative Commons Photo

332

Making Change

Posted on | January 3, 2009 | No Comments

Yahoo New Years

Happy New Year! Here in the United States, we talk each January 1st about our resolve or committment to make changes in our lives.  We call them our “resolutions.”  [Note: This page also composed on our wiki.]

What kind of changes have you considered?

In our discussions about our online work at the beginning of the year, I reminded you of this quote:

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

by Mahatma Ghandi, who lead change in India in the first half of the last century through non-violent actions.

Margaret Mead, an American anthropologist, said,

“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

And, on the third Monday of January, we celebrate the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr whose “I Have a Dream” speech has inspired many to dream of a place where

“my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged

by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Changers We Know

Who do you know or have you heard about who has “been a change” s/he wished to see in the world? What did they do? What was the change?  Examples:

World:

Who: Muhammad Yunus

What: “Micro-credit, which grants small loans to poor people who have no collateral and who do not qualify for conventional bank loans”

Why: “Enabled millions of Bangladeshis, almost all women, to buy everything from cows to cell phones in order to start and run their own businesses” — now millions of people around the world are finding the way out of poverty.

United States:

Michael Jordan Art

Who: Michael Jordan

What: Grants to teachers for innovation and improvement

Why:

“The Jordan Fundamentals Grant Program was born out of my firm belief that education is the key to opportunity and to building commitment among students to the core values which foster personal excellence and achievement. The core values which serve to guide the Jordan Brand are known as Brand Truth’s: Authentic, Uncompromised, Earned and Aspirational.”

Here:

Who: Val Vargas-Thomas and others

What: Mill Pond Days

Why: To gather people into a renewed spirit of community

Reflection and Discussion here.

Changers We Want

What change would you like to see in the world?  Would you like a world that is

• more kind?
• more accepting?
• more giving?
• more sharing?
• more just?
• _________[fill in]______
• _________[fill in]______
• _________[fill in]______

What would we see in the world if the world were more __________________ ?

Reflection and Discussion:

If the world were more _________________, we would see:

–

–

–

Our ideas here.

Changers We Are

Think about it: How could you *be* that change?  What one thing could you do today? Write it down as a GPAR*.

Goal: So the world could be more _____________________________, I will __________________________ today.

Plan:

Act:

Reflect:

My Granddaughter’s GPAR example:

Goal: So the world could be more kind, I will be kind and clean my Grandma’s pantry.

Plan: I could go out with my friends, but I know we kids have messed up Grandma’s pantry.  I will take everything out, clean the shelves, and organize everything when I put it all pack.

Act: It took me a day and a half; much longer than I thought.

Reflect: I feel better, and we (Grandma helped) have a great story to tell about the day. Actually, the visiting was the most most important part. I’m going to visit Grandma more often; we took breaks:  played cards, ate fun food like Pizza Rolls, and went to the beach to play with Pooka and swim.

Reflection and Discussion here.

Use your GPAR strategy to become a “world changer” yourself.  Try the Resolution Ideas below.

Resolution Idea 1: What kind of changes have you considered?

Take the First Step

The Martin Luther King Day of Service website encourages people to take the day “on,” not “off,” by offering to be a citizen of service on that day.  What could you do for your community on January 19th to make it a better place?

At the site is a link to the Martin Luther King “I Have A Dream” Public Service Announcement by King’s nephew, Isaac Newton Farris, Jr., CEO and President of the King Center in Atlanta.

What could you do yourself or as a team? Use GPAR strategy.

Write about what you will do on MLK Day on your own home page on this wiki as a draft for your blog. You may also choose to do something as a team.

Do you have a camera so you upload a picture onto your page, or email the picture to Ms. Edwards? Post any questions to this assignment in the comment section below, in case others have the answer or the same question.

Resolution Idea 2: What kind of changes have you considered?

First Steps

If you complete Resolution Idea 1, or if you are unable to complete an action that day, try this idea next. What kind of world would you like to see?  How could you “be the change” here in your community? Check out the Right The World idea on our wiki. It’s a chance to right and write your world. What can you do with your words and actions to help your world?

Use GPAR strategy.  Include your goal and work on your home page.

Do you have a camera so you upload a picture onto your page, or email the picture to Ms. Edwards? Post any questions to this assignment in the comment section below, in case others have the answer or the same question.

Resolution Idea 3: What kind of changes have you considered?

Sometimes, once you start something, other ideas and possibilities arise for which action can continue. What did you resolve to do?  What else could you do? What are your specific resolutions for 2009?

Use GPAR strategy. Include your goal and work on your home page.

Do you have a camera so you upload a picture onto your page, or email the picture to Ms. Edwards? Post any questions to this assignment in the comment section below, in case others have the answer or the same question.

What ONE small, specific change can you resolve to make in 2009 that will make the world–your world–a better place?

Now you have something to blog about!  Blog directions (this page and more on wiki).

This idea is based on the work of Sue Waters and Jan Smith at Making Change to which we will respond with our resolutions from at least one of our three resolution ideas.

Pic Places

Posted on | November 26, 2008 | No Comments

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a post with links to the places we need to use for pictures?

Here they are:

Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Pics4leaning: http://pics4learning.com/

Digital Images: http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/

Springfield: http://www.sdst.org/shs/library/cfimages.html

Free Images UK: http://www.freeimages.co.uk/

Don’t MOOSE up! Cite your sources:

Don't MOOSE up!

A picture, A word, A code, A wish

Posted on | November 25, 2008 | No Comments

Thanksgiving

Photo Credit: Public Domain

Click on HTML in the blue bar above. Add this code to the top of the page:

<img src=”picturelink.gif” alt=”hello” /></a>

Next, add your image information:

“picturelink.gif” is the URL — the image location — of your picture

“hello” is the label for the picture

How do you find the URL of the picture you have chosen in the “Pic and Paint” page our our wiki?

Mac: right click on the picture and chose “copy image location.”

PC: right click — go to Properties — maybe to advanced — copy the URL