PLN #6

For my sixth PLN I decided to read an article titled " Snowboarders Finally get Welcome at Taos Ski Resort" by Jason Belvis. This article mainly told about how Tao's, a fifty-three year old resort just ended their probation preventing snowboarders from snowboarding on their resort. Thousands of snowboarders came to celebrate the dismiss of the prevention that is now only valid in Utah's Deer Valley as well as in Vermont's Mad River Glen. The Blake family who owns the resort has owned it since 1995 when Ernie Blake invited skiers to visit the resort. Now, three generations later the resort has opened their mountain to snowboarders in hopes to boost visits to their resort.



What Matters: I think what matters from this article is the simple fact that this is sort of prejudice. In my opinion I think that it is wrong for a ski resort to deny certain people just because they ski down the mountain differently. I think that it is just plain wrong for people to deny people admission to a place just because of a bad experience they've had or heard about snowboarders.

How This Affects Me: This affects me as well as the rest of the snowboarding and skiing population. I myself ski and even I, a skier thinks this is wrong and not right. It is good that the ski resort finally decided to open their doors to the snowboarding population but why so long? I mean thirty years? To me, that is ridiculous and it should have been opened long ago.

PLN #5

I just finished reading an article titled "Ground Broken for Ethanol Plant" by The Associated Press mainly telling about the construction of a new ethanol plant to help with the surging gas prices. Just this week the construction for the United States sixth ethanol plant has begun to find opportunities to the always increasing prices of gasoline that are at nearly $110 per barrel. "I truly believe that the way Prowers County thinks about renewable energy is not just the future of the state but so much the future of the country," said Liquidmaze one of the small and few companies that manages small-scale ethanol. The plant will cost roughly twenty-four million dollars and will be Liquidmaize's first plant in the state of Colorado.

What Matters: I think what matters from this piece of writing is the simple fact that we can not rely on gas forever. It is eventually going to run out and what is the United States going to do then? It is great that we are coming up with solutions but I believe that we need to step up the anty and produce more effort to find a good solution for fossil fuels. Ethanol is great, but we only have six plants in the entire United States compared to gasoline plants six is absolutely pathetic.

How This Affects Me: Running out of gas not only affects me, but the entire rest of the population as well. When we run out, we run out. There is nothing we can do to produce more fossil fuels when it is all gone. We need to step up to the plate and deliver more support to ethanol providing company's. Maybe we could start a bunch of ethanol providing company's all over the U.S. and/or require car company's to sell so many ethanol running cars. I know running out of gas is not our main concern but why wait? What do we have to lose by begging to use them now? If anything, it will help to start using them now, we can see what flaws there are in using them.

PLN #4

For my fourth PLN I decided to read an article called "Absentee Students Get a Surprise Visit" by Annette Espinoza basically telling how North High School parents, teachers, and staff have started doing "Neighborhood walk campaigns" where they go into a certain neighborhood and go door-to-door encouraging drop outs to return to school. Since performing the campaigns the overall absence rate has increased by twenty-one percent. This campaign was the second one held this month as the North High principal has realized the urgency to get these kids back in school. "We want these kids to know that North cares" said Marvis Cain, one of the school's counselors. North High has recently started a program called Credit Recovery where students can stay after school to make up or finish assignments.

What Matters: I think what matters from this article is that not just kids at North High are dropping out and quitting school but all over the country kids are dropping out. The government needs a take extreme action and get these kids back into school as soon as possible. There should be a new and improved requiring kids to complete high school. Twenty to thirty years ago it was rare for kids to go to collage so high school wasn't really thought of as normal to complete either but now almost all kids go to collage so I think that all kids should at least complete high school.

How This Affects Me: I think this continues drop out rate is affecting me as well as the rest of the kids in America. The less number of kids that go to high school, the less number of kids go to collage. If less kids in America are getting a collage education then it will be easier for those that do to get into a good collage but it is also causing many companies to move over seas leaving less jobs for those that do make it through collage. So it is sort of like an on going circle causing more and more companies to move their work over seas leaving less jobs for us. So in order to stop this never ending circle kids need to acquire more support to stay in school or they need to be forced to stay in school.

PLN #3 (2nd SM)

For my third PLN I decided to read an article titled "A little chew for thought" by Susan Greene mainly telling how about school across the state are providing minty fresh gum for their kids during CSAP week. Karen Quanbeck, the principal at Golden's Ralston Elementary school spent fifty-two dollars on hopes of boosting student test scores on standardized tests. Some educators say that according to studies chewing gum enhances brain activity and raises concentration during test-taking. J.R. Dunn an eight grade English teacher at Evergreen Middle School said "Gum makes kids happy, and happy kids usually do well on tests." Tim Adams, a Denver pediatrician and dentists says there is no dental downside to chewing gum and sees no health issues with it.

What Matters: I think what matters from this article is two things. One is if this is possibly a way to sort of "cheat"? Two is if this really does help boost students thinking ability should they make it mandatory for students to chew gum during standardized tests? Or maybe even during all tests. I think they should diffidently look into this a lot more and truly find out if this does or doesn't help. If it does help then I think either everyone should use it or no-one should use it because since these tests are supposed to be as fair as possible chewing gum could diffidently be an easy advantage thus making it unfair.

How This Affects Me: I think this affects me as well as every other kid that takes these standardized tests in the country. If a kid at another school is provided with gum and it is helping him and boosting his test score this is extremely wrong because collages are starting to look at CSAP scores and basing kids entries on those as well as grades. So, if me and another student have the same grades but he gets accepted because he has higher CSAP scores because he chews gum then that's wrong and unfair.

I found Poem

I found Poem



Pack your six senses for a wonderful journey,
The advantage is undeniable
You’ll need motivation
You’ll need split decision making
Know that the bar has been raised,
So reserve some respect

You’ll be doing amazing things
And enjoying the thrill
Remember not all treasures are hidden

You’ll endure extreme vulgarity and taunting
But this is a chance to redeem yourself
People don’t decide to become extraordinary,
They decide to accomplish extraordinary things

Call for help without saying a word
It’s very hard to win
Dispel some hurt and pain
Without any creativity and funniness
Can you endure?
I can breath now
In timeless traditions

PLN #2

I recently read an article titled "Traffic breaks for hybrid cars aren't too far down the road" by Jeffery Leib from The Denver Post. The article basically tells about how owners of hybrid cars can apply as early as May 1 to get a sticker allowing them to drive with no passenger in high-occupancy vehicle and high-occupancy toll lanes at no cost in the state of Colorado. The state of Colorado will only allow a total of 2,000 stickers given out of 17,000 hybrid owners. Current rules only allow hybrid cars on interstate 25, U.S. 36, and South Santa Fe Drive in Metro Denver and Colorado 82 between Aspen and Glenwood Springs.

What Matters: I think what matters from this article is that Colorado as well as the entire United States are taking small, but steady steps to getting rid of oil running machines to more efficient hybrid machines. Obviously using fossil fuels isn't good for the environment or the atmosphere and ozone layer. So why continue using them when we have a perfect and clear solution? America and Colorado should continue on their path to using more and more hybrid cars. It's very pleasing and reassuring to see that our government cares about the future and what's going to happen when we run out of fossil fuels.

How this Affects Me: This diffidently affects me but it also affects the rest of America and even the entire world. If we continue to use fossil fuels it will not only hurt and diminish the atmosphere and ozone layer but it will leave us with nothing to use to run cars and other various machines. So, I think we should start using as many hybrid cars as we can and as many non-fuel machines as we can. It would not only help our environment but help us test it more to see problems and things to fix before it's too late and we're out of fossil fuels.

PLN #1 (2nd semester)

Today I read an article titled "Skier killed after she hit tree at Mary Jane" by Kirk Mitchell basically telling about how a thirty nine year old women was killed after hitting a tree at Winter Park. It was reported that the women went unconscious at 9:02a.m. Ski patrols acted almost immediately giving the women CPR while transporting her to Seven Mile Clinic which was located at the base of the ski resort. Later, at roughly 9:30 the women was pronounced dead. An investigation of the cause of death is underway. This women was the tenth skier killed on Colorado slopes just this year and half of those by trees.

What Matters: What matters from this particular article is that people are dying and getting killed for a stupid reason. What is it going to take to tighten up the safety and security of innocent skiers? I think a realistic goal should be set and small steps taken to increase the safety of skiers and snowboarders. Maybe all skiers should be ordered to wear a helmet of put a wall of safety pads along heavily treed areas. I'm not quite sure of what needs to be done but I am sure that something does need to be done, and fast.

How this Affects Me: This not only affects me but many other people as well. I ski a lot during ski season and after reading this article I am diffidently going to be cautious and aware of my surroundings next time I go skiing. It is silly to think that something as stupid as a tree can kill a person but after reading this article I can see now that a lot of things can kill you while skiing and not just trees. Even just hitting another person or a small rock can send you tumbling down a mountain to your death. The safety level should be increased big time. When I go skiing I just about never see any ski patrol around so how are they supposed to know if someone is injured? Unless someone skis all the way down to tell them there's pretty much no way for them to know. What happens when you're skiing alone on a run with very few people on it? So, as you can clearly see the safety level for skiers and snowboarders needs to be greatly increased as to not have anymore deaths or accidents on the mountains.