Technology in the Classroom

For me, the addition of School Loop to our academic environment is exciting and progressive, but not for the reasons you may think. Besides School Loop's obvious benefits, such as instant access to grades and homework assignments, it has many other powerful functions, making it more productive than it appears. Instead of looking back to a class syllabus to find a teacher's email address or contact information, we can simply go to SL's messaging system, type in a teacher's name (or other student's), and instantly type up a message to him or her. Instead of running to the store last minute to buy ink for an English paper, we can upload a document to our "locker" and open it up at school or anywhere for that matter. These benefits of SL are not what excite me the most, however. SL in my opinion represents a huge step forward for our local, state, and national education systems to further integrate technology into the classroom and to modernize our technologically outdated classrooms.

In the last year alone, I've witnessed more and more the utilization of social media, blogs, and the Internet to spread campus news, club events, homework assignments, and other school information. As someone familiar with technology, the internet, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, social media, etc., I'm optimistic to see the creative ways technology can be implemented into education. I wish more teachers took Mrs. E's experimental, yet educative approach to technology. We're at a point in time when technology is just beginning to flourish, creating a gap between our generation and the generation prior, and as a result, many teachers have been skeptical to allow mobile devices and computers to be used during class time. It's surprising and admittedly strange that Mrs. E lets us access websites on our phone, for educational purposes of course. The fact that our high school principal blogs is fascinating in itself, but the fact that he tweets and frequently replies to us is impressive and something that would have been impossible years ago. If something like that wasn't possible before 5 years ago, I can't even begin to imagine what is to come in the next few years.

Technology is moving at such a fast pace and I think we sometimes overlook its progression, results, and potential future. Certainly, online access to homework and grades is not new to any of us but the school-wide adoption of this site demonstrates the district's interest in technology for the future. I'm optimistic and hopeful to see the creative ways technology is used specifically for education in the next couple years.

-Matt A.

The Dining Room

This play is the symbol of American life and culture over multiple decades.  Each scene pinpoints different aspects of life and comments on them. The scenes mention how caught up we are in little things but forget to recognize the important things.  This correlates with Jane Eyre and her lack of family there.
The Dining Room strongly shows the importance of enjoying family while its there.  This theme is said at the end of the play when Ruth breaks the third wall and talks about her desire to throw a perfect dinner party with her family, friends, and the people around her.  The scene before also adds to the feeling of enjoying what is here now, because a father is talking to his son about his funeral.  Also throughout the parents pushing their children into things, like the Carolyn and Grace scene, all expose the idea of accepting who people are and loving them anyways.  Later in the play, a young women admits to her father that she has been in a relationship with a women.  Though the Father is obviously aggravated, he still helps his daughter out of her mixed up life. These themes are also in Jane Eyre.  As a young women she goes to a boarding school, where she befriends Grace.  Grace accepts Jane Eyre as she is and helps her even though she may think Jane to be a little stubborn and radical.  Also in the beginning of the book it is clear that the family who took her in is not fond of her. But, one of the sisters treats her kindly.  The sister is brave enough to show Jane kindness even though the family treats Jane poorly and thinks Jane is scum.  
The Dining Room and Jane Eyre all emphasize acceptance and realization of what is truly important. The characters in both that did not focus on the people they love fell into conflict.  While the people that showed compassion for the people around them flourish.                                 

Philosophy is meaningless

It is of my opinion that philosophy in essence is pointless. Granted that we can learn from the points of view of dead intellectuals but it is our jobs as individuals is to formulate our own opinion based on our own experiences and upbringing. What makes these philosophers different than us students. They are people just like us who went through life and came to conclusions based on what they saw, heard, and experienced. I think it is meaningless to learn about that which someone else experienced. It is up to us to be philosophers ourselves and perceive the world as we see fit. To put a unreasonable importance on the thoughts of another individual is to take away your own independence of thought.

Jane/Tess

The characters, Tess and Jane are both the main characters of the novels Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jane Eyre. Tess of the D'Urbervilles is based on the experiences of Tess. Whereas, Jane Eyre is an autobiographical book about Jane. Since they are both women and so they are subject to discrimination. Tess was raped and was not forced to stay quiet by her attacker. But she couldn't do anything.  Jane on the other hand was beaten by a man her age. A normal human today would rush to her side and put a beating on that man. But instead, nothing was done. But time progressed and things changed. Now if anything of that sort was to happen; the men would be criticized and attacked. It's different and obviously both Jane and Tess would fit in now because even though misfortunes occurred, they both are strong women who were made to be kept quiet. They were already bold and not many ladies in the 1800s were like that. Both characters faced challenges, difficulties and hardships, but they were able to tackle them with their best abilities even with the prejudice and discrimination headed their way just for being women.
-Pavneet K.