BLENDER: over the past three days my class has been using this system.  I find it very enjoyable and look forward to using it from here on out.  We made a monkey colored it and put a hat on it and stuff it was great.

The good, the bad, and the ugly, all about the ROTC.  This stands for Reserve Officer Training Corp.  The good is that it pays your way through any college that you can get in to.  The bad and the ugly is that you owe the corp that you applied to years after college.  This service is of gratitude to your country and its a great thing.  ROTC is a great thing.

     What is Digital Game-Based Learning? Good? Bad? Ugly?  What it is, is the teaching of certain information and the learning of other information to students, kids and even adults through digital games.  This idea is a very good one because kids especially have lost focus in school and books.  They have 100% interest in video games and I have no doubt it would improve 100% kids learning abilities.  The bad and ugly is that the kids may focus on just the game part of it, not the learning part.  The ugly is the inability to do so with expenses and time necessary to put into it.  In all i believe DGBL is a great idea, yayy go team!

http://marcprensky.com/digital-game-based-learning/ 

The Matrix Pill, red "see how far down the rabbit hole goes?" or blue "wake up in your bed not remember a thing and go on with your everyday normal life.  Red obviously would be my choice, I am a man of curiosity.  plus I believe that I am actually the one and Neo was just an impostor so I would have to go and set everyone straight.

The use of cell phones in education has increased in recent years due to Bring Your Own Device policy.  This is where students are allowed to bring in a tablet or computer to help them with their studies.  when kids can not afford to buy one of these tablets or computers they are left out, because of this teachers have allowed students to use their cell phones for situations where they may need it. 

21st Century Jobs:
After reading an article about the best jobs of our current century, I realized something.... I don't want any of those jobs.  Dentists, Marketing managers, computer geeks, blah blah blah. All the jobs sound and most likely are very boring jobs.  I want to do something I love, quite honestly I could care less if I get paid well or not.  As long as I love what I am doing and I can survive off of it I will pursue it to the fullest. My ideas of this include playing sports professionally or being on television traveling the world, doing anything that will keep my ADD in check.

THE GOOGLE TAKE OVER:
Is Google taking over the internet? taking over the country? taking over the world?
Recent accusations say that Google is taking over the world. Is that even possible? how could an internet program take over the world? its very simple actually Google is everywhere.  On every internet and sports team and anything Google is a sponsor, no matter where you go they are there. Just recently Google purchased YouTube, and now if you want to leave a comment or do anything on YouTube you have to create a Google account.  This is crazy and it does seem that Google is very close to taking over the world, of entertainment, not necessarily of the worlds control.

After my first semester of my senior year in high school, I am doing great!  I know where i am going for college and i am having a great time with my friends.  My grades, surprisingly, have not gone down at all.  My friends and I have had a great experience and spend a lot of time outside of school together.  My friends from school are my closest friends.  We play sports together as well as outside activities.  Senior year is GREAT.

What is a Renaissance man?  By definition it is "A man who has broad intellectual interests and is accomplished in areas of both the arts and the sciences".  How in this way could I possibly be a man of this stature?  Well aren't video games and Computers considered arts and sciences?  I believe they are, as a teenager of the 21st century I have mastered both the computer and many video games!  Over the 10 plus years that i have been playing video games I assume I have conquered atleast 100 different video games as well as explored the infinite web that the computer provides. Therefore in a way I guess you can call your boy a renaissance man. 

ALICE PROGRAMMING
After a week of programming with ALICE, i have learned to like it a lot.  It is very easy to use after a few times of trying it.  even though it is not one of the most difficult or advanced programming systems, it is still very good.  I am a simple minded person who knows nothing about technology and how it works.  With ALICE it makes me feel a little bit more intelligent when it comes to technology.  That is why i like it a lot.

   

BOSTON SPORTS

This weekend was a huge weekend for Boston sports teams.  The patriots made a dramatic come from behind win with 0:05 left on the clock.  Tom Brady mad a perfect pass to Kenbrell Thompkins, shown in the top left photo.  The Red Sox also made a late comeback in the 8th inning of the second game of the ALDS playoffs.  Down 5-1 David "big papi" Ortiz with the bases loaded hit a Grand Slam to tie the game up.  Then in the bottom of the ninth with the game tied and a man on third, Jarrod Saltalamachia hit a single to win the game in dramatic fashion.   Finishing off a great sunday for Boston sports fans.

Video games have become not only a part of my life by every ones life.  If someone tells you that they have not played a video game they are lying!  for me nintendo 64 was the first video game system I owned.  The video game systems would not get any worse as graphics and and games become more real. Playstation and PS2, leading up to now where i own an XBOX 360.  the games are becoming more and more amazing and it doesnt seem like it is going to stop.

 

Over the weekend I read a very interesting poem called, "That is Not My Job". This poem is deep and you need to read it a few times to actually understand what is going on.  Its a double meaning poem where the first time you read it you have the names of "nobody", "somebody", "anybody" and "everybody".  its a story about people not doing there job and other people being annoyed with it.  the deeper meaning is when you think of the overview of the poem.  where we can not hold each other accountable because most of the time we would let others down. the poem is meaningful and deep.



 Apples to Apples is a party game originally published by Out of the Box Publishing, and now published by Mattel.  Created by Mathew Kirby in 1999 as well the artist is John Kovalic.  Apples to Apples is a party style game.  It is designed for 4-10 players and played for 30 minutes to an hour.  Highly popular for ages 12 and older. In this game there are two types of cards, Red ones and Green ones.  The Red cards are adjectives and the green cards have a Word on it. There is also a judge designated by the players. The Judge in this game picks up a green card after dealing out red cards to the players.  The judge picks a green card and places it face up in the middle.  The other players then look into their cards and decide which one best fits with the green card.  once they have chosen they put their cards down.  From there the Judge picks whichever cards he thinks best matches it.  And then the winner is determined by the Judge.

 Apples to Apples Commercial =http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDaJ89Q7zJ0

Trivial Pursuit: In this game you have to answer a series of questions in a row in order to win. During the game, players move their playing pieces around a track which is shaped like a wheel with six spokes. This track is divided into spaces of different colors, and the center of the board is a hexagonal shape. At the end of each spoke is a "category headquarters" space. When a player's counter lands on a square, the player answers a question according to the color of the square, which corresponds to one of the six categories. If the player answers the question correctly, their turn continues; if the player's piece was on one of the category headquarters spaces, they collect a wedge of the same color, which fits into their playing piece. Some spaces say "roll again," giving an extra roll of the die to the player. Any number of playing pieces may occupy the same space at the same time. A variant rule ends a player's turn on collecting a wedge, preventing a single knowledgeable player from running away with the game.

Trivial pursuit video<-----

In recent years, with the explosion of technology, many high schools have brought up the BYOD question? Should students be able to "Bring Your Own Device" to school? Although my opinion may mean nothing to many schools, I am a high school student and I experience first hand the struggle of carrying around the unnecessary weight that is my books, notebooks and textbooks.  Having a device that held all that unnecessary weight would lighten the load in my back pack.  as well my organization would be ten times better without a thousand papers to carry around. all my papers would be held on my computer and organized greatly.  So in my unimportant opinion I believe students should be able to bring their own device!
-KCB