PLN #8 Poetry, Painting to Earn an M.D.

The article, "Poetry, Painting to Earn an M.D," by Laura Landro matters to me because doctors who have the most empathy always make the best doctors. Whenever I go to the doctor, I hate it, but the doctors with the most empathy always make my sick days a lot better. That's why it is so important to teach this at medical school. Having a writing workshop at college is a good idea because this will get doctors in training thinking about patients and will make them a better doctor. Understanding your patient and listening to them to figure out what is happening in their life is key, which can be taught through writing. Writing poetry, shorts stories, and any other writing will get their experiences on paper and get them thinking about what it's like to be a patient. This article is similar to PLN #7 in the way that we need to learn more than just the basics, we need to learn critical thinking. Instead of performing tons of surgeries a day to learn how to become a doctor, having a writing lab dealing with people's experiences will help doctors be the best they can in their profession. Death is one of the hardest things to go through and to deal with, when doctors can understand what is happening in someone's life when this happens to them, their patient will have a much easier time. Patients are always number one in the medical career cluster, after all that is what being a doctor is all about. So if a doctor can learn to be empathetic, they will get much more out of the M.D. degree.

PLN #7 Rigor Redefined

The article "Rigor Redefined" by Tony Wagner matters to me because in school we learn basic things, but not other critical skills. At school we learn how to add, subtract, read, write, and study different things, which is all important, but what about the other skills. When Wagner interviewed Clay Parker, it struck me that we don't know some of the critical skills we need to learn in order to get a good job and succeed in the future. Asking good questions, engaging in good discussions, and the seven other survival skills are all crucial for the growing brains to know. I personally haven't been taught some of them and think that there should be classes starting to include these skills. When he observed different schools he found that students didn't really apply themselves to the task at hand. They answer questions, but not to the level of depth they should be able to. Some people won't be able to adapt to the workplace when they are put in it because they have never learned or had to do it before. I think the biggest skill we need to learn is curiosity and imagination. Lets start wanting to learn, wanting to go to school, and caring about what we learn. Lets get the most out of what we have available to us. Imagining will get us far in life and curiosity is the key to learning. We are the next generation and if we don't learn these critical skills, our country isn't going to do as well as it can. Schools need to start teaching skills, and if they do, our country will be much more advanced in the future.

PLN #6 The Machine is Using Us

The YouTube video "The Machine is Using Us" matters to me because I never realized how the Internet really works because I never actually think about what I use everyday, I just use it. When it showed how the format of different websites are made, I was flabbergasted. I had no idea that's what it actually looked like.  All the abbreviations and symbols for different parts of a site were so confusing, but somehow made sense. I mean there is no other way you can organize all this information. Most people use the Internet just because they can. They take it for granted. But, imagine not being able to type anything, look up anything, or connect with anyone. You had to write everything with a paper and pen, not pencil. The web has enabled us to do so much. Another thing that astonished me was when it said that we organize the data the Internet contains. I have never thought about where the websites I go on daily are coming from and how they are created. I have always thought along the lines of technology has its own mind and has created itself. But, people have made this thing called computers. I don't know why I didn't know that before, is seems so obvious but no one knows about it. People have put together this giant database of everything there is to know about. One day I could be making a website. People, us, are controling what the Internet does. After all, we made it. Websites are changed and updated daily so who knows what the Internet could look like in a decade. This video impacted me because it gave me a reality check. I need to start thinking about what websites are and do. I need to remember that people actually are making the Internet. I just happen to be one of over a billion users of it. But maybe someday I will be the one organizing the data.