C4K#3

I was assigned to read a class blog from Waikato, New Zealand called Pipo Ako: Room 2. These kids blogged about a kitchen garden that they had taken a trip to and what they found in that garden. They explained about the different vegetables and fruits that grew in their garden. They even spoke of a flower, the Marigolds, that were used to keep bugs away. I was unaware that those flowers could be used in such a manner. They ended their post by asking if anyone could help them with creating a scarecrow. They were having problems with the birds raiding their garden. 

I commented on their blog in a positive way, there were no real spelling or structure errors in the blog. I began with an introduction of who I was and where I was located. I went on to tell them I thought their small field trip was awesome, how they got to go to a kitchen garden and learn about what was being grown there was a great educational experience. I talked about my childhood and how my father had a garden. How it was a great learning experience for me. He taught me about planting vegetables, how to care for them, and how to protect them. I went on to discuss how we built a scarecrow. How it was the scariest thing, I think I had ever seen as a child. I suggested they take on building a scarecrow as a class project, but aim for making the scarecrow more funny and less scary. 


I really enjoyed this blog it was short but to the point. The experience seemed profound and absorbed. I see this as the highest form of education. Students need to explore to grow. Books are fantastic tools, but limiting students to pages is like saying "the World is flat". You can only go so far before you fall off. I think these kids went further and absorbed more in a small field trip to a quaint kitchen garden.

This comment was done on a post for a girls school in Oregon. The post was on An Equal Society Start in the Classroom by a student named Elisa. This article included a documentary of a teacher who divided her classroom by two (2) physical differences blue eyed children and brown eyed children. Once the class was divided the children with the blue eyes were given special privileges while the children with the brown eyes were not. Then on the second day the roles reversed, children with brown eyes were favored more than children with blue eyes. The results were unbelievable. Friends no longer were friends, test scores were worse, and barriers began to manifest from nothing. This documentary was designed to show how races were treating one another. That Civil Rights were and are important in society. The student blogging about this tried to parallel this documentary with today's events and in the classroom. The student went on to say, "that we will become healthier individuals that are empowered by self-initiative to work for justice and equality."  Her post on this social issues was most informative and I believe she will be a valuable voice in the continual fight for human rights, as well as her classmates. 

As for my comment, I explained that I had been exposed to that documentary in high school. It was moving than just as it is still to this day. I went on to explain that people that hold hate and anger inside them and express it to their neighbors and social circle only perpetuates these problems in equality. Instead we should address the person in front of us not the physical appearance and use acceptance and tolerance to begin our social relationships. I enjoyed this post and I am definitely excited to see what our younger generation will be doing with the World.