Chapter 1: Video Games

In Chapter 1 of Gee's book, What Video Games have to Teach us About Learning and Literacy, he brings up many claims that i have not looked at in the same light that he has. Gee explains that if education was as exciting for children to spend time and learn, as are video games ,our education system would be much better off. Children want to spend more time than ever lately on complex video games that take many hours to learn and intense concentration. If we could get students to feel the same about what they are learning in class, this would be a great leap for education. As a future teacher, and future parent (not any time soon though), this makes me try to think of ways 'outside the box' to engage my students in learning, and my children. 'Good' Video Games, that are not only entertaining for children, but also educational, seems like a great idea to let them use their love for the games and competition into good use. I think that the true answer is making education enjoyable and not so dull. I am interested to read more of Gee's thoughts about all this in the rest of the book.

Learning the First Step to Snowboarding

I have been a snowboarder for four years now, and have never had a hard time with it, except for the first step. The first step to being able to get down the hill is being able to get off the chairlift, that takes you up the hill. This has always been a major problem for me. For some reason or another snowboarding has never been a difficult feat for me, but i definetly can not say the same about getting off the chairlift. The past four years i have always been that person who slows down the lift because they fall right when they get off, and delay the whole process, as you can imagine it's quite embarrassing. Over this past winter break me and my family went to our cabin in Tahoe, and i snowboarded mostly every day. My goal of the tripe was to get off the lift repeatedly, and correctly, without falling. My brothers and boyfriend helped me a lot with the process, but with a lot of practice and the right techniques i FINALLY conquered the lift:). I have still not perfected it yet, but i am definetly on my way!

My First Posting

This is my first blog. Yay!!! So exciting:)