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Final presentation

Script:

My topic is regarding our public education system and that it has not had a major overhaul since public school started. I was curious to see what impact this lack of change is having on students today.

I selected this topic because I had a very unpleasant experience in elementary, middle and high school. I have ADHD and school was challenging for me. I felt like I was always failing and my self-esteem really suffered as a result. I wanted to know what could be done so other kids don’t have the same experience I did.

My argument is that our schools are not teaching the whole child. There is too much focus on academics and not enough focus on social and emotional skills

I have learned that I am not the only one concerned about our schools. There is a lot of research going on looking at students today and the challenges they face. Anxiety among teenagers is at an all-time high. Suicide rates for teenage girls is at an all-time high as well. Research shows that schools that teach social and emotional learning (SEL) have happier and healthier students. As of today only 6 states have adopted programs to teach SEL from preschool through high school.

In terms of obstacles, how and what we teach children is just one peice of the puzzle. Public schools are facing a number of challenges including funding, teachers salaries, overcrowding, and class size to name a few. With a set curriculum and over 57 million children enrolled in public schools, it is impossible to individualize programs for each child.

I was happy to find that there is a movement to support teaching the whole child. I am confident that in time all states will adopt programs that support SEL. It will not solve all the problems we have in teaching children but it is definitely a step in the right direction.

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Three college survival tips that I have learned this year

1. During a class lecture, if the teacher has posted the lecture slides online do a split screen on your computer and open the lecture notes on one side and your google doc, pages, or whatever you use to take notes on the other. This helps me because I don't have to type i can just copy and paste the notes in and adjust them to how I like.

2. Sleeping is very important. Taking naps if you're tired helps. I'm not saying like hour naps where you sleep through your classes but a little cat nap. A  20-30 minute cat nap an really make you feel rested.

3. Being organized with your assignments is really critical. Look at what you have due at the beginning of each week so that you can plan time for homework and study time. It will make it easier and keep you from procrastinating on assignments. You have to manage YOU.                                                     

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Ban The Bottle in California

The Honorable Jerry Brown

Office of the Governor

c/o of the State Capitol, Suite 1173

Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Governor Brown:

My name is Hailey Maniglia and I am currently a student at the University of Nevada, Reno but my family resides in California. I am writing to you today as a concerned citizen of California. The recent reporting of the size of the floating garbage patch between California and Hawaii is alarming. While I know efforts are underway to begin cleanup of the debris, this will not stop the continued pollution of our oceans. I think California needs to take a stand and outlaw plastic water bottles. We lived without them before and we can live without them again. We have become a disposable society where convenience rules and little thought is paid to the consequences of our behavior. However, this floating garbage patch is undeniable. I realize that it is not made up solely of water bottles and that there are multiple other items in this mass but plastic water bottles have been a problem for years. We are just creatures of habit and drinking bottled water has become a habit. My family has all begun to drink water from a non-disposable bottle we carry with us daily. It may be a small contribution but we feel we are doing our part to save our environment including our oceans. Water has become big business and I am sure the manufacturers of all the water brands (Fuji, Smartwater, etc.) want to protect their multi-billion dollar business but at what cost to our environment? Water in the US is readily accessible and it is not hard to find a public water station to fill a reusable bottle. California needs to be a leader for the US and set a precedent that we can all live without plastic bottles. The Ban the Bottle campaign is already gaining popularity and San Francisco is one of the first cities in California to tackle this project. It will not be easy and it will not be quick but the impact will be immediate and will curb this terrible path we are on. Please consider a law that would ban all plastic bottles in California for the health of our state, it’s people and our oceans.

Thank you for your consideration,

Sincerely,

Hailey Maniglia

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I posted this cartoon to my mood board before but I'm sharing it again. A picture is worth 1,000 words and this one speaks volumes.

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This week I am reviewing a TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson called “Changing Education Paradigms”. Robinson is a teacher, writer, researcher, advisor and speaker. He has worked with global organizations, education systems, governments and international agencies to find ways to bring back creative thinking in individuals and organizations. His 2006 TED talk, “Do Schools Kill Creativity” is the most viewed TED talk in history and has been viewed online by an estimated 350 million people in 160 countries. In the talk we will be discussing, Robinson’s talk is accompanied by whiteboard animation so instead of seeing the speaker presenting, you see an illustration being drawn out before you that follows what Robinson is saying.

I will review the use of whiteboard animation as a visual instead of seeing the speaker and its effectiveness. I will also be reviewing Robinson’s delivery in terms of how engaging he is and his tone since we cannot see him.

After reviewing Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk I was really amazed at how effective his speech along with the whiteboard animation was at emotionally engaging the viewer. The illustrations created a visual path to what he was sharing. It really simplified the whole talk and made everything he shared connect in a way that probably wouldn’t be as memorable without the illustration.  Robinson has a very pleasing voice, he speaks clearly and uses good influctuations to highlight his points. He is funny at times and makes you laugh and he also poses some serious questions that make you think about your own experiences.

I personally think that everyone, whether you are a student, parent, teacher, corporate executive or politician, can benefit from watching this TED talk. It is clear by the number of viewers that are watching Sir Ken Robinson's talks that people are looking for something different. They are looking for ways to harness and bring out the best in all people. Robinson is definitely on the right path and his ideas should be taken very seriously. I would like to see him lead education reform in the United States!

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Picture 1: This meme shows how public school is like a factory to the masses of children that are funneled through it every year. Our public schools are stripping the youth of creativity, discipline and intelligence. Once again, everyone is treated the same regardless of your strengths or weaknesses. Everyone gets the same education regardless.

Picture 2: This meme explains exactly what I am trying to get across in my papers. Every kid that enters school is going to have a different set of skills and or things they excel at. However, we are forcing everyone to be measured by the same standard regardless of your individual strengths. In public school you may have gifts that are never even exposed and you may end up feeling like a failure just because you didn’t do well on the set curriculum. 

Picture 3: This meme also pokes fun at the public school system. It shows a recent graduate trying to get a job but all he is good at is test taking and probably memorizing, Has he learned to work collaboratively? Does he have the emotional skills to work in conjunction with others. Has he learned to think creatively or use other skills outside of test taking? 

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Panicking or Choking

According to Gladwell panicking is thinking too much and choking is thinking too little. The way my thoughts are going I feel like I panic. I would say I panic because I can sometimes overthink things. It’s easy when you are writing to go down a rabbit hole that you may not intend to. My writing occasionally strays outside of my outline and I can get a little lost sometimes. Also, as I am researching my topic I learn other things and then I second guess what I have already written. It is hard to write about things that you may not be an expert about. You have to educate yourself and learn as much as possible so that what you are writing is viewed as credible. I think I prefer being someone who panics versus someone who chokes. I’d rather overthink something as I can always cut something out or change it later. I feel like if you choke you just haven’t taken the proper time to prepare.

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This first expository essay really helped me to identify the key points that I want to make about the topic I chose. I chose a very broad topic that could go any number of different directions but I found some core subjects that are very relevant to me and I think other readers will find them relevant as well. I learned quite a bit doing this paper. I learned that it is helpful to start by just getting all of your thoughts on paper, whether you think it is relevant or not. You can weed through things and categorize thoughts into topic paragraphs later. I learned that this is how some of the best writers start and that they begin refining their work from here. I would also highly recommend going to the writing center. It was great to get a second set of eyes on my paper by someone who is unbiased and can read through my essay with a fresh perspective. They were able to provide me with some good feedback and I incorporated many of the changes they suggested. I would also recommend working on your paper a little bit everyday so it isn’t overwhelming. Researching topics also takes a significant amount of time and energy so I highly recommend starting to research your topics early to start gathering data points.   

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More Tragedy in Schools

This past week was a sad one as we learned about yet another school shooting that ended with 17 deaths. As teenagers in high school, it is sometimes easy to feel powerless. This week as a result of this terrible tragedy, a group of students has organized a peaceful protest to be held March 24th in Washington, D.C. The protest is called March for Our Lives. The organizers hope that this will bring more awareness to gun violence and the fact that politicians are still getting money from the NRA despite the rise in gun violence in schools in the United States. The March for Our Lives protest is more organized but there are also other local protests being organized and shared on social media like #Enough. I think this is a worthwhile protest and I am in support of students who decide to take part in this worthy cause.

http://abc7.com/florida-shooting-survivors-announce-march-for-our-lives/3104170/

https://twitter.com/2Echo68Whiskey/status/964598539220209664

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http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/the-objective-of-education-is-learning-not-teaching/#

This transcript is from a podcast titled, The Objective of Education is Learning not Teaching. What the authors shared aligns with some of the thoughts I have about education today. Author, Russel L. Ackoff was a professor and taught mathematics, philosophy, systems sciences and management science for various universities from 1947 - 1986. He has also authored and or co-authored 35 books. He has a long history in the teaching profession. Ackoff’s co-author was Daniel Greenberg who was one of the founders of the Sudbury Valley School in Framingham, Massachusetts. He has published a number of books outlining the Sudbury model and there are reported to be over 50 schools utilizing this model in various countries including the United States. The three founding principles the Sudbury Valley School focuses on are educational freedom, democratic governance and personal responsibility. It is a private school for children ages four to nineteen.

The United States public education needs have changed but we are stuck in this outdated education model that was developed to teach the masses during the industrial revolution. The current standardized curriculum being taught needs an overhaul. Ackoff and Greenberg ask, “Why should children — or adults — be asked to do something computers and related equipment can do much better than they can? Why doesn’t education focus on what humans can do better than the machines and instruments they create?” There are a number of ways that learning can take place but one of the flaws of our current system is that it is assumed that because you are being taught, you are learning. Most of what we learn in our lives we learn from doing. Take driving for example, you couldn’t become a good driver just based on reading and watching videos. The real learning happens when you are actually behind the wheel. Learning through an apprenticeship or an internship are very valuable ways to learn as you actually get to do the work while you are being mentored by someone who already knows how to do the job or skill you are learning. Another way that children learn is from each other. In today's workforce people often work in groups or as part of a team. Not all members of a team need to possess the same skill. The strength of each individual in the group makes the team stronger. It used to be that older children taught younger children however, since we have segregated our children by age in school, that ability to learn from older students is rare. I would really like to see more models explored that help children identify their strengths and then help them to build on those strengths. As I shared earlier, changing the public school system is a very large task and it will not be fixed overnight but I really hope that we have made some progress by the time my own children enter school.

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Hello my name is Hailey Maniglia. I and a freshman and play volleyball for the University of Nevada, Reno, I absolutely love cats, down for any adventure, and I’m a very outgoing person. This semester for my English 101 class I will be talking about the problem with our public education system. Students are more stressed out than in any other time period and the chance of having a balanced life seems to be a thing of the past. I had a very poor experience in elementary, middle and high school. I am one of many students that don’t fit into the public school box and so I was labeled and put into special classes. I believe that the education system is failing to identify key strengths within students and capitalize on them. Instead, weaknesses are focused on and self-esteem is being compromised at a very early age. I was constantly told what I am not good at but rarely told what I was good at. I will be discussing how the public education system evolved, some of the challenges we are facing today and some possible strategies for regaining some balance and confidence in the lives of future students.