Science & Our Everyday Lives

Staying Connected

Ever have a passion for something and not knowing where it would lead you in life? Well, having a live chat with Adam Taylor, created a twitter chat with Health Science students and scientists. He first discovered twitter back in 2009, where he was excited to start an online chat with scientists at home from outside of the classroom. Who would have ever thought? 

How he came about doing so, was by simply searching individuals in his own field of study. This happened to be science and there are a vast array of scientists all over the globe. Well, how do we get in contact with them? Simple. You can simply go onto Nature Magazine every week, find articles that are of interest for you or using Twitter lists; which Taylor claimed to be highly used and beneficial. Here are few tips to help you get started. From there, you can see people who are of interest to you, and who they are following, as well as, who they have re-tweeted and who is re-tweeting them. I guess the real question would be, "how to get them to stay connected?" one student had asked. Well, there is always something going on, it is an organized chaos, as Taylor may put it. You can simply go to google, search for example Physical Therapists on Twitter. You can check to see how often they tweet. More importantly it is about the connections you make with them, NOT about how many followers you have. 

Taylor continues to reach out to a different kind of scientists every week. Scientists are always talking about different options. However, the importance of a PLN is amazing because you never know where it can lead you in life. 

Being an Educator

As we continue to grow we begin to realize that problem solving is in our everyday lives. Why I mention this is because Teachers are continuing to impact children all around the world. In Kenya, children and others suffered because a pipe water broke. There was no way to clean it from all of that bacteria. However, a school here in our States, children of only 11-12 year old's, helped to build filters for those individuals and children just like them to have clean and sanitized water. 

We live our lives without realizing how much of the world out there truly suffers. We take our lives for granted and 8 children had died because of unsanitized water.  When we come together we can accomplish so much more than some people would expect. Rita Pierson, gave a powerful speech about how important it is that kids need a champion in their lives. So many children who grow up in poverty, or have been negatively influenced tend to be the students that drop out of school. As a teacher, it is about the human connection. All learning is understanding relationships and most of us learn from our parents and teachers. Kids do not want to learn from people they do not like. 

Pierson, took a group of students that were in her class room of low academic achievement and stressed that they are a somebody in this world. That Herself and these group of students were brought together for a reason. People are cruel and as an Educator, it is important to show that we are made of something. She had brought these kids to high academic achievement and made them feel that they are a somebody and will be an even stronger somebody when they leave to higher education. Teaching and learning should bring to joy to students and use their ability to take risks. Which in life that is what it is all about. It may be tough but it is certainly not impossible. 

Living a Life that is Truly Awesome

Have you ever gone a day wondering how you got here or why you are even here? I'm sure several of you have. However, Neil Pasricha, gave such an empowering speech about the importance of life and how easily we can take life for granted. His speech brought tears in my eyes because life is truly great, whether we think at times that it's not, it just is. He talked about his life and how we hear different things in the world news that changes our lives. He started a website and talked about how 50 thousand blogs are viewed a day and so he began to make his own blogs. As they progressed further millions and billions of people began to view his blogs. Then one day he received a phone call and was awarded a Webb award, then a year later published his first book called The Book of Awesome. Pasricha talked about 3 important A's to leave off with in life: Attitude, Awareness, and Authenticity.
In life things unfortunately will not always go as planned, it is a roller coaster ride. You could be the happiest person, yet someone you love could end up with cancer. Having a positive attitude no matter what happens in life, choosing to move one is a a courageous step in life. Having awareness in the world as Pasricha would say, is about embracing your inner three year old. Authenticity is simply being yourself and being okay with it. When looking for that potential job, you want to show them who you are, not someone you are not. You then begin to put yourself in positions that you simply love, if you don't already love what you're going for in life; you may begin to love it that much more and won't be one of those people who complain about how they have to go to work the next day. You are you and no one can take that away from you. In life you have to be true to yourself first and foremost in order for others to be true to you as well. 

Life Behind PowerPoint

In our lives we have used several different forms of presentations whether it be poster boards, show and tell, or PowerPoint's. However as we continue to grow and learn as young educators, we learn different forms of presentations that could be beneficial to use in several different business setting. Most of us have heard about Prezi, which is pretty much an updated version of power point that actually gives the audience something exciting to look at. You can change many features, though if you are one who gets sick on roller coaster rides, Prezi is not for you, but don't be discouraged because Slideshare is a social hub that allows you to upload and share your presentations with educators around the globe. This is useful especially if you have created a Linkedin profile or have a Facebook. The reason for this is because in Untangling the Web, it says it helps you to discover content that your colleagues have liked, viewed, and posted. 

Another helpful and useful tool you can use is Poll Everywhere. This is a tool useful for mobile devices, being in a digital age. You can ask a question and students can respond through text messaging. Check out it's webpage for more features about this tool. Another tool that may seem similar to Instagram, as you can share photos and videos online with the ability to comment on them, is a tool known as Voice Thread's. However, instead of being used for personal references it is proved to be highly intuitive to both teachers and students which could help for those Education majors out there.