Reasons I May Yet Again Quit (or Stay At) School

     Every week, I spend 30 hours in school. I'm not totally happy with my school, and I'm not sure that this 30 hours + transportation + homework is really the best way to be learning. Although I like all of my teachers and have a reasonable amount of friends, if the purpose of school is for me to learn than I don't really think I'm doing it in the best way. There are also good qualities of school that I would miss if I went back to where I was last year. Here are my current thoughts on school:

     The school I am at definitely has good aspects. My school has a greater diversity of kids in the 100-ish than in the 20-ish at CSCL. The importance of this is arguable. Also, I have a good amount of friends at my school whom I would miss if I left. From an academic point of view, at my school we have a daily Spanish class, where I have a great teacher and am usually challenged. At CSCL they have once-weekly Spanish classes. I also am part of a math team, where I get to see other math-smart kids and compete against the other schools in the city.

     The most important problem is that most of the time, the things I learn in school are either not new to me or if they are new, then they are practiced way too much. This is especially true in both of my math classes. The way I am learning just isn't efficient. For example, we had learned earlier in the year about volume and surface area of cylinders. I could have learned the two formulas in 10 minutes instead of the at least one week that we spent on them. I understand that the time spent on this was useful for many of the other kids in my class, but I could have been learning other topics.

Feel free to give me advice,
Max

How To Set Up a Blog (using blogger)

     On request, I am making a post about how to set up a blog. I will be instructing in how to use Blogger, the blogging platform that I use, but note that Blogger is not the only way. To make a successful blog, there are a few steps:

1. Create a Google Account

This is the part where you fill out the information.

      If you already have a use Gmail, Google Drive, or any other google product that requires an account, feel free to skip this step. If not, the first thing to do is to go to Google. in the top-right corner, you should see a "Sign In" button. Even if you don't already have an account, click it. In the upper-right corner of the page you were just brought to, you should see a "Sign Up" button. Click it. You should go to a page titled "Create a Google Account". Fill in the info, and if you're under 13 tell the the computer you're actually not. You can, if you want, use your current email address, in which case you should click the "I prefer to use my current email address" link below the "Choose your username slot". Once you've filled it all in, click "Next Step" at the bottom, then click the next "Next Step" button. Then hit "Get Started". You should be back at Google. You now have a google account.

2. Create a Blog

The pop-up window for used to create your blog

    

      Once you have a google account, go to http://www.blogger.com. On the far left hand side of this page, you should see a "New Blog" button. You should get a pop-up where you fill in the name, address and theme of your blog (it should look like the one on the left). Fill in the info, select your theme, and press "Create Blog!". Great. Now on your blogger home page, you should see a little rectangle with the name of your blog, an orange button with a pencil, a button with a piece of paper, and a "view blog" button. To start typing your first post, hit the orange pencil. To see your blog, hit "view blog". To see your blogs info (comments, views, and other things, hit the piece of paper. You now have a blog.

3. Add the Email Subscription Gadget (and Other Gadgets You Like)

     In order to build an audience, you need people to be able to subscribe, so your posts go straight to their inbox. To do this, you need to add the email subscription gadget. I have a few others, but the email subscription is the most important one. To install it, first click the pieces of paper on the blogger home screen. There should be a list of things on the left side. Click "layout". Here you will see how your blog is laid out, as well as where you can add gadgets (it should look like the picture on the left). I suggest you put your subscription link on the right  side of your blog, but click any of the "Add a Gadget" links. This should open up a smaller window with a list of all the gadgets you can chose from. Find "Follow by Email", and click the plus sign next to it. This should instal the gadget wherever you chose.

4. Subscribe Family & Friends

     For anyone to get your posts in their email, they have to be subscribed. There are two ways that this could happen. One of them is that you could keep asking them to do it until they finally get around to it. The other option is to do it yourself, then just notify them. I suggest doing the second one. To subscribe someone, first you must view your blog. You can search for it on the internet, or you can go to your blogger home page and press "View Blog". Either way, You are looking at your blog. Find where the email subscription box is (it's wherever you put it in step 3), and enter the person you want to get your post's email address. This will send them a conformation email. At this point, you should probably call them up and tell them it's not junk mail, and that all they have to do is click the link in the "Feedburner" email they have just received. When they do this, they are registered, and will get your posts every time you write them.

Feel free to comment if you have an issue.

Ready for more limericks,
Max

Khan Academy Badges

     Khan Academy, (--> Here! <--) a website providing over 4,000 videos on a wide range of educational topics, has integrated a badge system into the Khan Academy experience. The badges are used to motivate students to complete activities. The badges are organized by difficulty, as you can see below. There are Meteorite badges (the easiest), the Moon, Earth, Sun, and (the hardest) Black hole badges. Challenge Patches are awarded for certain activities, such as "Achieve Proficiency in all skills in addition and subtraction."
     

    
     

     To get a badge, the user must first make an account. To make an account go to the top left corner of the home screen, and click the "Log in." You should get to a screen like the one on the right.You can use a Google or Facebook account, or make a Khan Academy account by clicking "Sign up," right below the log in button. 

     

     One thing I like about the badges is the range of awarded skills. Other websites have tried this, but it usually ends up with "Complete 10 activities," and then, "Complete 20 activities". Khan Academy has a wide range of badges, such as "Pause a tutorial and tinker with the code,"  "Ask a question that earns 10+ votes," and "Stay a member of Khan Academy for 1 year." Khan Academy also has the standard badges like "Achieve proficiency in any 50 skills," and "Watch one hour of video on a single topic."One thing I dislike about their system is that accessing the possible badges is very counter-intuitive. You have to go to your profile, scroll down to recently completed activities, then click on one of the badges you've earned. That then brings you to the badge gallery. I feel that compared to other websites, Khan Academy has done a good job motivating kid to learn.