The Pecha Kucha I watched was called Superior Skydiving. In it the woman talked about how she wanted to sky dive ever since she knew it existed, but how it took her a long time to finally go because it was so expensive. She talked about how much she loved to sky dive right after her first jump. She made so many friends that first day that the told her she wouldn't have to pay to jump anymore. They told her that she could learn to pack the chutes as payment for jumping. She also talked about an injury she got from sky diving, but still continued to do it anyways.

She did a decent job with her Pecha Kucha, but there are some thing that she could have done better. For example, she was having a hard time keeping up with her pictures there for a little while. She would describe what was going on in a picture, but then that picture would change and she would still be describing the first picture. That being said, she did do a good job describing each picture. There was also a point in the middle of the Pecha Kucha that she just quit talking for a few seconds and said she got lost, but then she continued. I think it would have been much better without that incident.  think this Pecha Kucha we are going to do might be kind of fun. I think I will be able to complete it with minimal mistakes.

The History of Chinese Education

      Upon reading my correspondent's letters and researching the topic, I learned that Chinese Education is much different from American Education. This topic interested me, so I decided to look deeper into the Chinese Education. I wanted to know more about what a typical day would be like for a Chinese student. I also wondered how hard their classes were, or what the requirements were to get into a University. I had so many questions and needed to know more.

     Education has been around for a long time in China. In fact, many scholars believe the history of Education in China can be traced as far back as the 16th century B.C. during the late "Xia Dynasty."  Back then education was only a privilege to the Elites. In the last 50 years the Chinese Education has skyrocketed. In 1986 the Chinese government passed a compulsory law that made nine years of education mandatory for all Chinese children. Now today 99.7 percent of the population area of the country has achieved the nine year Education Law.
     Since 1978 China has increased the college-age population to over twenty percent, whereas it was only 1.4 percent in 1978. June of 2014 there were 9.39 million students that took the National Higher Education Entrance Examination, otherwise known as the Gao Kao.  http://www.chinaeducenter.com/en/cedu.php

This is a picture of many Chinese Students taking the Gao Kao,
or the Higher Education Entrance Examination.

     I wanted to know what an average day would be like for a Chinese student. So I asked my correspondent Molly some questions about how school is like for her. First of all, she told me that her high school was the hardest part of her entire educational career. That sounded crazy to me so I asked her more about it. Molly said, "We had classes from morning to night, about twelve classes everyday." I wondered if her high school was so hard, then how is her University? I asked her about it and she told me that she has a whole lot more free time at her University. She even gave me a walk through of a regular day. During the weekdays Molly wakes up at 6:10 am then she goes to have breakfast, after breakfast she recites books, then goes to her class, then finally goes to lunch. After lunch she has a little time to take a nap or do some extra homework, then after the nap comes more classes. That is pretty much her everyday schedule. Although when she doesn't have classes she said she hangout with friends, or does some type of physical activity, or does more school work. The University life sounds much nicer than that of a high school student.

     After learning about the history of Chinese education and how Chinese student live their everyday life. I have learned that Chinese education is taken very seriously and is very important in Chinese culture. I think it is very weird that their high school is busier and in some cases even harder than their University. I know for sure that I would not want to go to school from morning to night. That would be awful. I wonder what Chinese students would think of American Education system if they went to school here?

Sources

"Overview of Education in China - China Education Center." Overview of Education in China - China Education Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2014. (Secondary source)

 

Molly."梦涵 ". Cole Oliver. November 20, 2014. E-mail (Primary source)

 



                                                                          

Reading book Response 4: Where the Red Fern Grows

In the last book response I posted, Billy had just saved his small puppy Little Ann from the frozen river that she fell into. After this happened he tried to be more careful when he chose to go hunting. Billy's dogs were becoming famous in the Ozarks. A couple of the few neighbor kids that Billy had (Rubin and Rainie) didn't like Billy very much and decided to challenge his dogs that they couldn't find the Ghost coon the lived around their farm. The ghost has eluded them for years. But sure enough after a long night of tracking the coon Billy's dogs treed the coon. But Billy didn't want to kill the coon and didn't want the two brother to kill it either. While they stood there arguing, The two brothers had a dog whose name was Old Blue, and Old Blue picked a fight with Old Dan. Then little Ann jumped in. The two dogs were killing Old Blue. Rubin grabbed the ax and was going to kill Billy's dogs, but he tripped and fell on the ax he carried. I'll let you guys read the book for the rest of that one.
page 126- Billy: "There are plenty more, why kill him? He has lived here a long time."
                 Rainie: "He's chicken livered, that's what it is."

page 128- Rubin: "I'll kill them damn dogs!"

Months after the Ghost hound night, Billy entered a tournament with all of the best coon hunters around the state. At first he did it for fun, but shortly after the first night or two he realized that he actually had a shot at winning the cup of money that the winner got. But that's enough of me spoiling that.

(This is kind of what I pictured the winning trophy filled with money to look like.)

 

I will say that Billy and his dogs go on plenty more hunts, but on one particular hunt something very, very tragic happens. I promise if you read it you will cry. But you'll have to read it to find out. That concludes the book "Where the Red Fern Grows."

Implicit Bias

All of these sites are very interesting. I was very interested with all of the 1st person stories that people had about 9/11 and Pearl harbor. But I the same time I also enjoyed taking the Implicit Bias test. It almost got challenging after a while.

Implicit Bias:
 When I first got to this link, I was kind of shocked with the content that it had on it. But after taking the little picture test thing that it had, and seeing the results of everyone that has taken it put together. It was kind of an eye opener on how most people view people of a different race. After completing this test it said that I had a small racial bias towards African Americans. But I really don't agree with that because I have a lot of "Black" friends and hang out with them on a regular basis.

Face to Face:
This site is very interesting. I didn't realize how many crazy stories people have to tell about the bombing of Pearl Harbor and 9/11. I also didn't know that the government has wrongfully spied on people that have never done anything wrong.

Reading book response 3: Where The Red Fern Grows

In the last book response I posted, I left off where Billy's dogs Old Dan and Little Ann had treed a coon in the biggest tree on Billy's farm. Billy had been chopping at the tree for over a day because he promised his dogs "if they treed a coon he would do the rest. " He finally chopped it down after about a day and a half to two days. That hunt alone strengthened the bond between the three of them. Soon after, they started getting coon after coon. The fame of Billy and his dogs spread all throughout the Ozarks. But during the winter things almost took a turn for the worst. Billy and his dogs were hot on the trail of a coon, but the coon crossed a frozen river. When Little Ann ran across the river, the ice gave away. Billy tried to go out to her but he was too heavy for the ice. Little Ann was just barely hold on to the ice with her paws, and Billy couldn't do anything about it. Billy started to sob a bit but then just dropped to his knees and prayed to God for a miracle to help save his dog. Right then came the answer he was looking for. He used the handle from his lantern, and his shoe lace to tie the wire handle in the shape of a hook onto a cane pole. He then waded out in the freezing water and hooked his dog around the collar and pulled her out of the hole. Billy quickly started a fire to warm up Little Ann and get her blood flowing again. He had saved her. I really liked this part of the book, because it got me thinking. What would I have done if I were in that situation? I feel like I too would have turned to God for help. Thankfully though, I have never faced a situation like that. I hope no one will ever have to again.

(This picture almost matches the image of the river I had pictured in my head. Just imagine your dog or cat out in the middle of that. What would you do?)

Reading Response 2: Where the Red Fern Grows



Billy had now had his pups Old Dan and Little Ann for a couple weeks, he had been training them non-stop.  His Grandpa helped him build a trap to catch a coon in. He used this coon hide to train his dogs to track and pick up on a coon trail and track them out in the woods. He tried to imitate typical raccoon behavior, and pull some of their smart tricks when leaving a sent behind to train his dogs. Now the time has come for their first real hunt. He made a promise to them before they even started hunting. He told them "You guys put one in a tree, and I'll do the rest." Well it just so happens that his dogs "tree" the coon in the biggest tree in the woods. Billy calls it, "The Big Oak." He wasn't going to cut down the tree, because of how big it was. But when he saw the look in his dogs eyes, he remembered the promise he made them and decided to try to cut it down. I admire the love that Billy has for his dogs. It actually makes me think of the kind of love that I have for my dogs.

The book never actually says how big the tree is, but I can picture the base of the tree being about this wide, in my mind.



Reading Book Response

Reading Response 1: Where The Red Fern Grows

        My book started out with an old man named Billy Coleman. He was walking home when heard a bunch of dogs fighting. Being the dog lover that he is, he hurried over to break up the fight. It turned out to be one dog fighting five separate dogs. The dog that he saved was an old redbone coon hound. After he took the dog home and nursed it, he thought back to when he was a kid and how hard he had to  work for the two redbone coon hounds, Old Dan and Little Ann.

       

 

        Billy was just a 12 year old when he started his obsession with coon hunting dogs. He always went down to his grandpas store to here the other coon hunters tell their hunting stories. One day after a group of fishermen left their camp at the river near Billy's house, Billy went down to see if they left anything by accident. He found a Catalog that had a pair of Redbone coon hounds for sale for $50. So he worked for his father and neighbors on their farms and trapped coons to sell their hides for just a few cents a day and saved the money in a old can he had. He saved up for two years! Once he finally had the money, he snuck out of his house and went on a 20 mile overnight trip to the nearest town to pick up his pups. I'm not finished yet, but this is where I'm at so far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

101 Things about me

1. I play Catcher on Parkview's Varsity baseball team.
2. I play Free Safety for Parkview's Varsity Football team, and was the leading tackler in the first game against Kickapoo!
3. I like to spend the majority of my time outside.
4. I like to Hunt, Fish, and Camp any time I get the chance.
5. I am a big New England Patriot fan.
6. My Fantasy football league is stacked with players
7. I have a 13 year old black lab named Lucky
8. I have a female English bulldog that weighs at least 60 pounds named Gracie
9. I have the second most tackles on Parkview's football team with 24 tackles.
10. I went to state in the National Archery in Schools Project 2 years ago.
11. I got lost from my family when we took a vacation to Europe.
12. I took a vacation to Florida this past summer.
13. I rode my first segway this past summer.
14. I did my first crossfit competition against grown men in August.
15. I have 2 interceptions in three games on the varsity football team.