Archive for the ‘Life’ Category
I’m gonna let this picture blog for me today.
Cheers.
Vegard
Ello.
I won’t be long. Today on the tram home from the University, I overheard some children talking. They were noisy and right behind me, it was unavoidable. Oh the horror. Anyways, amongst their talking, they used such phrases as “I not likes”. This got me thinking:
I was lucky. I learned English before the horrid age of internet humor wrongly spelled. Cats that wants to has a cheezburger, for example. So I consider my English pretty good. Nowhere near perfect, but pretty good. But do children that grow up today, amongst lolcats and other internet banalities with lingual errors, get confused and struggle learning proper language due to it?
As such
The comment-fields at youtube could certainly suggest so. I am glad I am not going to become an English teacher after all.
As Eddie Izzard would say, ciaoooo.
Vegard
WEll… Tommorow at school I have this BIG test; A pre-exam in math. I’ve been preparing for weeks, doing tests, reading, writing notes etc. But not that many exercises, because they don’t seem to help. Then again, neither does my new strategy, I just have to face that when math isn’t about economics or logic puzzles I’ll never find it interesting. And it isn’t much of a secret that uninteresting subjects are rather challanging to prepare for, right? Well here I am, procastrinating the night before the test with the biggest impact on my allready poor grade. Which sucks, I am generally a 5-6 grade student. (B-A for americans?)
One of my other classes, one I am rather good at, is sociology. So i figured I’ll do what all sociologists worth his weigth would do; I’ll blame the society; or rather, the school system. The reason I feel justified to do this is because whilst our society have been expanding in a humongus speed since the industrial revolution, the school systems haven’t really changed that much since the 1800’s. Sure the system is somewhat more liberal to student opinion, female participation and the books might be newer; but at it’s core it’s the same freaking thing. So I have some suggestions on how to improve the great experience of learning for any and all student out there.
1: Experience points.
Yes, I am serious. If teachers grant points for everytime you deliver a task, complete a test, write an essay or get an answer correct in class the feeling of progression would increase thus motivating students to participate more in the educationsystem. Which feels better: seeing a C+ in your grade book, or looking at that progress bar seeing you’re just a few more points away from leveling up? You know it. What if when 3 students in your class gained 10.000 points the entire class gain aditional bonus points? That could really lead to better cooperation between students instead of unhealty competition that might occour in the present system. Unlockable perks and/or achivments for a class would make the experience more fun, wouldn’t it? The grade system wouldn’t even have to change, just make a certein amount of XP worth a grade, or a “level”. (Thanks to ExtraCredit for the idea: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/3167-Gamifying-Education)
2: Drop the homework.
Acording to most statistics, too much homework is actually working against it’s purpose. It seems that if you work less than 60 min per day with homework, and have noteable educated parents, you will gain from your work. However if your parents are somewhat “lesser” educated, or you’ll spend over 90 min on the homeworks it only results in tired students with lower score in school and less interest in further education. So we should either cut them completely, or at least minimize them. (source you say? http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1376208,00.html, amongst others.)
3: Less theory, more practical work.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a theoretic guy. As stated before, exerscices and tasks does nothing for me. I learn trough notes and reading; the thing is though, most people don’t. Statistics (again) show that most people learn from experiencing and doing tasks with their hands. So by adding more field trips, games and such to classes a wider aspect of students may gain from them and grades might get higher. Of course, in certein fields this will be hard or even imposible; but we should try to do it wherever we can.
So there’s my steam, I’ll get back to my math and leave you with the content of my head. Untill another time, cheerio.
What is this? Yet another writer? Hello world, my name is Simen. Pronounced something close to “Semen”. Have your laughs 😉
I’m 18 years old, a high schooler; Social sciences, and I am, likewise to Bjørn, Vegard and Frida; A member of the norwegian communist party: Rødt. And trough polictical activism I met Bjørn, who offered me to write for BRBcoffee; needless to say, I said yes. The first post is somewhat awkward to write, it feels like I have to write everything about myself. There isn’t really that much to say; I’m from Bodø, Norway. I am a vegetarian and love to cook, I adore the works of Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain and Tolkien. I talk, and think way to much and I will be writing on BRBcoffee from this point on. So please be gentle, it’s my first time. Blogging that is.
I just got back from possibly the best 3 hours of my life: an Elton John concert. The man is a God. Seriously. Okay, maybe I’m slightly delusional but something- no, everything about him speaks to my soul! The way he moves on stage (something in between a gremlin and hobbit), the way his short/stubby fingers caress the ivory keys, the way he belts out a note for way too long but somehow pulls it off….he is magic, I tell you. MAGIC!!!
I must admit, I have loved Elton for some time. Ever since high school when my friend introduced me to his amazing records, he’s been one of my favorites. And guess what, ya’ll…he played my favorite song tonight!
“And Jesus, he wants to gooo to Venus!
And leave Levon far behi-i-ind!
Take a balloon and go sailing,
While Levon, Levon slowly dies!!!!!!
He was born a pauper to a pawn,
On a Christmas day,
When the New York Times said God is dead,
And the war’s begun.
Alvin Tostig had a son today-aaaay-yayay!”
It’s so good. I’m not even joking you, I had a tear in my eye on some of his songs (i.e. “Candle In the Wind,” “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me,” and “Sorry Seems To Be the Hardest Word”). That could possibly be due to the fact that I am PMSing right now, but I like to think it has to do with the raw emotion only my Elty can accomplish.
And now, dear readers, I am off to bed! Tomorrow I must get up and get a haircut. I’m kinda rockin’ a mullet right now, so I definitely need it.
Peace out, and GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD!
Elaine