Book Blog 2: The Assignment

The second blog assignment is due on Tuesday, March 10. It is worth 3% of your grade in this class. 

The assignment is to read the two required articles and one that you find on your own or that you choose out of the two I showed you could choose from.

In one or more posts, write this about each of the three articles:

1. The title of the article
2. The name of the author
3. What the article is about and what you learned from the 
    article
4. How the topic/information in the article relates to you
5. Whether or not you like the article and why

It is a good idea to copy this list and paste it into a new blog post to work from because you will not be able to see old posts while you write a new one (or you can just duplicate the screen). That way you are sure to include all required information in your post. 

For your convenience, here are the articles in the assignment:

Read the following two required articles. Make sure to use the reading strategies in your Reading Strategy Checklist as you read them!

1. 50 Reasons We're Living Through the Greatest Period in World History

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zF5n2aUxy5jbeZExYBDlw1k_vO1WjqUvY0jG79cES9E/edit?usp=sharing

b.   Life is harder today than 40 years ago http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2299465/Life-harder-today-40-years-ago--s-just-somethings-saying-parents-agree.html

Then choose one of the following articles or an article related to a comparison of American/western culture in the present and past and read it:

1. Why Are You Not Dead Yet?

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science_of_longevity/2013/09/life_expectancy_history_public_health_and_medical_advances_that_lead_to.html\

2.   50 technological advances your children will laugh at

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/6398896/50-technological-advances-your-children-will-laugh-at.html

Something about the cat which I know

         The most lovely thing I remembered is my roommate's cat Conroy. When I come back home, he is lying on my bed and waiting me to touch him. When I open the door, he already know is me; so he not wake up and run to the door. I want to understand Conroy, so I read the article What Do Cats Think About Us http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140127-cats-pets-animals-nation-dogs-people-science/

         It's very interesting because the author said cats always think we are other cats too and I agree with her. One day, when I was sleeping with Conroy on my bed, he try to help me clean my arm by using cats' way. It was very hurt, but also very lovely. I think only the cats think you are cat too, so they will clean your "fur".

        The author also talk about how cat shows it love to human. Such as putting their tails up in the air, rubbing around our legs, and sitting beside us and grooming us. I also agree these ideas because these ways Conroy also did to me, and he will down his little head and cross through your hand so you can touch him from head to tail. If you close the door, he will crying in outside until you open it.
        
        Furthermore, if you can spend more time with cats, you will find that cats' love is very deep. For example, when you come back home, they will wait you in front of the door. Some people said that when you leave home after few days, the dogs will very exciting but cats will do noting. It is worry opinion. When I left my home like a week and I went back to take some staff. My roommate told me that one night,  Conroy run to my room and crying like five minutes in 1 A.M. Because of this, I remove to my home again for that lovely cat.

Keeping healthy and growing up is very important in our life

Wow, today I found a really nice article. It can helps us to know about what kind of things should we refuse in puberty. Its named "Why Teens Are Impulsive, Addiction-Prone And Should Protect Their Brain" written by Frances Jensen who is a neuroscientist and was a single mother of two boys. And this is a link to article:http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2015/01/28/381622350/why-teens-are-impulsive-addiction-prone-and-should-protect-their-brains. This article talks about what kind of reasons can influence adolescents' growing, why we have natural insulation, bad relationship with alcohols, drugs, smoking, etc. when we were growing up. And then, I can find so many informations which are very useful and we need to noticed. For instance, On why teenagers are more prone to addiction, I can understand teenager is easier addict than adult in bad habits, drugs, alcohols. On the effects of binge drinking and marijuana on the teenage brain, we drink a lot of liquor can kill brain cells in the adolescent brain where it does not to the same extent in the adult brain and actually our brains get damage-permanent brain damage. It has really negative effect on our health. On marijuana's effect on IQ, if someone who use marijuana very frequently for the period of time, the function of thinking, reaction, commutation , etc. are all shown to have more decreased than adolescent who don't touch drugs. At night, we also can't use phone on the bed, because the artificial light can affect our brain, author said"it decreases some chemicals in your brain that help promote sleep" if we have bad sleep it will affect our working, it is very terrible.So I am very glad to read this article, this article can help me or us to totally avoid drugs, bad habits and remind us every time. I hope everyone read it, it is really useful!

The title of my article is " New Year's Resolutions: How To Realy Achieve Your Goals in 2015 " By Cris Nikolov. Here is the link to the article:http://motivationgrid.com/new-years-resolutions-really-achieve-goals-2015/. The article is about who you can achieve your goals. According to Nikolov, there are 7 ways to achieve your resolutions every year. The article relates to me because I have a few goals and I hope by the end of the year I will be able to achieve them or some of them.



I learned that there is a study show 92% of people fail to keep their New Year's resolutions and jest 8% achieve their goals. In order to be part of those 8%, the writer pointed out several ways can help everyone to achieve their goals. First of, you must focus on one or two of your goals not more and remaind yourself everyday of your goals. Also, you sould get friends or family involved to motivate you to achieve your resolutions..........etc. I like this article because the ways mentioned by the writer are important, simple, realistic, and everyone can follow them.

I found a great article took my attention. The title of the article is '' Coffee may improve health, lowers risk of depression and diabetes'' by Marisa Fernandez. Here is the ink to the article https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aRjVbzki3hw9PMjjmZ5AkzVKwm_Os9IbmniOkdRzaDU/edit?usp=sharing. The article talk about the benefits of coffee for people especially the adults. The article states that '' people from the ages of 50 to 71 have lower risk of developing diabetes, heart disease or other health problems''. Also, studies are showing us that moderate caffeine consumption can help us to protect chronic diseases. In addition, there are other benefits of coffee such as coffee may help extend one's lifespan, it might relieve the depression disease, it might lower the risk for type 2 diabetes, it can decline cholesterol, coffee has a lot of antioxidants then other food, and caffeine in the form of coffee releases fatty acids into the blood stream which is a good thing to do before exercise. The point which make me surprised is a darker roast coffee has less caffeine than lighter roast coffee. At the end of the article, the author suggests us to sleep seven-to-eight hours each day instead of drinking too much coffee to stay awake all day. The other suggestion is if someone has anxiety or heart conditions, there are alternatives, such as decaf. Finally, I really liked this article because I am addicted to drinking coffee. The other reason is the author mentions my favorite kind of coffee which is the caramel macchiato. I learned about caramel macchiato it has 32 grams of sugar decline the benefits of coffee. These information make me think about changing my favorite coffee!

I found this great article, too. It can help you learn better! The title of the article is "6 important things you should know about how your brain learns" by Belle Beth Cooper. Here is the link to the article: http://blog.pickcrew.com/6-things-know-brain-learns/. The article is about how the brain works to help people learn better. The article is really useful for anybody, but it is especially useful for my students. I learned that it is important to take in information visually; it is important to get sleep, especially within 30 hours of reading or hearing something for the first time; learning the general idea of something is important for understanding the whole thing; teaching others is a good way to learn yourself; and that it is good to learn a variety of aspects about something you're learning in a mixed way rather than trying to learn it in a strictly linear way. The idea of learning in a mixed way seems to support what I have heard on the NPR program I shared with my students: that stepping away from studying from time to time is actually better than trying to study something all at once.

I like this article because it is based on good information, from research by professionals, and it supports what I am teaching my students, especially about the importance of understanding the main idea of a paragraph and reading: "When the brain takes in new information, it hangs onto it better if it already has some information to relate it to. This is where starting with the gist of an idea can be helpful: it gives you something to hang each detail on as you learn it." Also, I like that it supports the use of small groups in classes because it shows that teaching others is a good way to learn yourself. Furthermore, I like the article because it gives practical suggestions about what people can do to make use of the research. There is not really anything about the article I did not like.

The title of my article is "What Do Cats Think About Us? You May Be Surprised" by Christine Dell'Amore. Here is the link to the article: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140127-cats-pets-animals-nation-dogs-people-science/. The article is about the way cats treat people. According to the Dell'Amore, cats treat people like other cats, while dogs treat people like a separate kind of creature. The article relates to me because I have nine cats and I am curious about the way the cats think of me and how they behave toward me. I learned a lot from this article, and it helped me understand my cats better; my cats show all of the behaviors shown in the article! I like the article because it makes me feel more comfortable knowing what my cat probably thinks about me, especially that the cat does not think I'm stupid :)  However, I did not like some information the article. For example, I do not agree with Dell'Amore when she writes "Cats don't forgive." I know from experience that even if you accidentally annoy or hurt a cat, such as when you step on a cat's tail, the cat will not stay away from you permanently.   

Loki, treating me like a cat