Begun in 1998, IXL learning is an English interact learning website.
It allows teachers and learners to create and share customized study
materials. By the year 2007, IXL had created online learning not only
for English but also other subjects, such as math and science. It
became one of the popular learning tools for students.
Starting by entering the homepage, you will see “Practice that feels
like play” in the middle of the screen. You can see pictures in the
middle that represent science, math, engineering, and English. The black
bar below those pictures have categories from math, language arts,
science to social studies. Those are the subjects you can learn in a fun
way by interacting with website. For example, clicking the math, you
see the list of learning subjects.While moving the cursor to any program
from the list, you will see a box pop out with sample questions. You
see the sample questions before entering the program.
On the homepage, you also see many different colors of boxes below
the black bar. Each individual box presents different grades, from
pre-kindergarten to twelfth-grade. Each grade may have different
learning objectives, which allow you to practice and have fun through
the learning process. For example, moving the cursor to twelfth grade,
you see the language arts. Clicking and entering the 120 skills next to
the language arts, you will see many main subjects in green and more
secondary subjects in black under the green. As soon as you enter any
secondary subject, you can start to answer questions given by
computer. If you answer it right, the computer will give you an “
EXCELLENT”. On the contrary, if you answer it wrong, the computer will
give you the whole explanation to solve the problem. You can browse the
website on your computer, iPhone or Android.
This is an excellent website to have fun while learning. It also
gives you the full explanations for a wrong answer. By sharing this
website with you, I hope it makes education more flexible and
interesting.
When
Nina Sankovich was asked how the memoir came about, she said Tolstoy
and The Purple Chair came about because she was trying to overcome
a terrible sorrow that resulted from her oldest sister's death in 2005.
In response to the question about what made it different from every
individual to grieve, she said in her particular case, her healing
involved including the memories of her sister into her life. In response
to the question if she would have gone to grief counseling, she said
she would have felt uncomfortable, but would have felt comfortable going
to books, because in her whole life she had read books and turned to
books when something happened. When she was asked if she wrote in her
childhood, she said she kept journals and wrote poetry. Furthermore, she
explained her dream was to be a reader. Later in the interview, in her
answer to how she chose to review each book, she mentioned it involved a
personal exploration of how she was going to get herself out of the
hole of despair. Towards the end of the interview, she was asked again
about her motivation to write the memoir. Sankovich reiterated that it
was a way to move forward from her sister’s death.
Connie Heermann was very excited when she saw her students were very interested in reading a book that was written by other students with their true stories. Those stories contained obscene language, were racist and sexist. Although the school principal was not happy with the way she taught the students and even forbade her to come back to teach, she still stood by her position that students should be taught to express their feelings instead of suppressing their thoughts. Even though other districts allowed the book to be taught, Connie Heermann was still banned from using the book in her class. Because this book aimed to encourage students to express their anger and feelings, the school took the action of banning this book. If there is anything teachers can do to have students enjoy writing, should schools still set up fixed and old-fashioned material for students?
If I had been on the school board, I would have voted not to suspend her from teaching. The purpose of school is to educate and encourage students to write and learn. However, games and media often distract students, so most of them are against writing. If there is anything educators can do to have students like writing, school should encourage that. Being able to write what you want is like you are allowed to eat what you like to eat and do what you enjoy doing without being told exactly what others want you to do. It is an extremely joyful action to feel freedom. I don’t see the point of having students write something they are not interested in. Your daily social life, whether you are happy or sad, is what affects your emotion. Being able to tell your true story is stronger and more powerful than to make something up that you are not interested in or not familiar with. Therefore, if I were a school administrator, I would vote to have teachers create their own way and design their own curricula as long as they can bring students’ attention to learn.
The article, “A Quest to Read a Book a Day for 365 Days”, was written by Peter Applebome was about Nina Sankvoitch who read a book a day. This article was published in The New York Times on October 12, 2009. Nina Sankvoitch decided to read a book a day after her sister died in 2005. She then used these readings to get by the devastation of her sister’s death. In order to compromise the task of reading a book a day for 365 days, she gave up many things, such as shopping, cooking and hanging out with friends. Nina Sankvoitch read despite of a very busy schedule and she would post a review on her blog next day. She read all different types of books and had never repeated the same authors. However, besides reading for pleasure and to process her sorrow, she also embarked on this quest to inspire the love of books in other people. Since she enjoyed reading, she had never feel pressure by reading a book a day. The article concluded there was no doubt for her to read daily, although she might not be able to finish reading an entire book in a single day.
Heb, who is my
boyfriend was born in Mexico. He graduated from UCLA and works in a German
Company, which produces semiconductors. The company is in Milpitas, which
is 45 miles from our home. Heb is very
close to his mom, who lives in LA alone.His mom’s pet,
whose name is Vika, is a very sweet kitty. Heb is a caring person not only to
his mom but also to me, whom he cooks very delicious Mexican foods for.
I came to the U.S.A. in 2007 after I got my registered nurse license in California.
I went back to Taiwan several times in the past two years and tried to be a
nurse there. Due to the heavy workload, inflexible schedules, low benefits, and
disrespectful behavior from the doctors and family, I decided to come back to
the U.S.A. and focus on my nursing career. I have an Associates Degree in
Taiwan. However, a BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) degree is the trend in both
Taiwan and the U.S.A. My goal is to complete all required courses for the RN to
BSN program and to obtain a bachelor degree to extend my nursing career.
I am taking this class to improve my English. I hope through this class, I can
learn more English writing and reading skills to increase my scores for the
English 1A and future English 1B classes.
My name is Hsiu(秀), it means
outstanding, graceful in adjective and to show in verb. Many people don’t know
how to pronounce it. It actually is not hard. When you say “ show,” it is the
same sound as my first name, Hsiu.
My favorite foods are salad, noodle soup, and Taiwan guavas, not Mexican
small guava. I love salads because they are very light, especially in the
summer time; I can have it every single meal. I love noodle soup because it is
easy to prepare and digest. I love guava’s crispy taste. The flavor of guava lasts
in your mouth and stays fresh once you start to bite and chew it. In my spare
time, I like to run, bike and swim. I am very interested in swimming. The
heated swimming pool at Foothill College is very clean and has lots of space. I
feel relaxed in the pool after stressful classes.
I am glad to meet everyone and looking forward to seeing everyone online.
