FIrst Amedment Questions and Answers

Question: What are the limitations to Freedom of Press?
Answer: The U.S. has recognized special situations which they can interfere with the freedom of Press. For example, reporters often use confidential sources on government. However, if the source violates a federal law then the name has to be revealed by the reporter. If you do not release the information you can go to jail. Bloggers are not allowed to post inaccurate information or damaging statements about any person or any business. Reporters also can not hurt the reputation of someone or a business. Freedom of Press does not protect obscenity. It also does not protect you from any threats  or violence you may post against anyone.
http://people.howstuffworks.com/freedom-of-the-press.htm
Question: Are there Limitations to Freedom of Assembly and Petition?
Answer: Surprisingly there are limitations. If any of the 5 freedoms of expression had no limitations I thought it would be assembly or petition.The police can require a marching permit before a public assembly can be held. They also can impose on the assembly for not enough toilets and emergency aid stations. Anyone can have a march as long as they meat the requirements according to the U.S. Supreme Court in Smith v. Collins in 1978. On-line assembly is illegal when people are threatening people and plotting murders such as Anti-Abortion groups posting threats and abortion doctors online.
http://faculty.ucc.edu/egh-damerow/fundamental_freedoms.htm
Question: Do children have the same rights as adults?
Answer: Yes, children still do have the rights as adults. Until they are adults though there liberties are restricted. We have the right to share our opinion. We also have the right to have a different opinion than our parents. Even though we are children, we have the right to be informed. We also have the right to chose our own interests and learn about them. Choosing a religion for yourself is allowed but many children stay with the religion of their parents. Finally, as children have the right to choose which principles will guide our life.
http://childrensrightsportal.org/fundamental-rights/freedom/
In conclusion, even though we have rights, they all have limitations. If you are not aware of the limitations it could hurt you or end you up in jail. People should keep in touch with our government laws as citizens.

Traditional Grades Vs. Standers-Based Grades

The purpose of grades is to assess yourself based on the grade you receive.

What I think of Grades.                                          What teachers and average students think of grades.

• A- Awesome and perfect                                A- Amazing
• B- Terrible                                                     B- Above Average
• C- Might as well lock myself in a room       C- Average
• D-Can only do homework, nothing else       D- Below Average
• F-Absolute Fail                                             F- Fail

I think the traditional system is good because 100 is an easy number in math, such as fractions. In addition, the 100 point scale can be more specific on what percentage you get in the subject. The number system does represent my knowledge because it shows that I am succeeding in all my classes because I have all A's. I believe that we should combine the two grading systems because both of the grading systems have something the other one does not. For example, the traditional grading system has more precise grading because of the 100 point scale.  It, however, is not specific on the objectives for the class. The standard-based grading system is the opposite. It is general when assessing the student by using partially proficient, proficient and advanced. However, the standard-based grading system is clearer on the objectives of learning by scoring each objective.  Therefore, if we combined the two different grading systems, the combined grading system would be that much closer to perfection. I find this combination in rubics. Rubics grade you on each section of the assignment. They also use the 100 point scale when totaling the points from each segment. In conclusion, the traditional grading system has advantages and disadvantages and can be enhanced to perfection.

Creativity Crisis in America

My opinion about this situation is that American is losing creativity. These days it is not "cool" to be creative. Some students think if someone is creative they are smart. The students that want to be creative but cannot because of the other students, pretend they are not creative. This is one reason creativity in America has declined. Another reason is that schools are not teaching creativity. American schools are taking out the classes that students can be creative, such as art and band. Electives are a schools last priority for money. This causes the classes to be taken out of the curriculum because the schools do not care about those classes. For example, back in O'Fallon Illinois, my brother and sister were in the marching band, and the school board kept cutting the band budget. They did not care about the band and cared more about the football. This limited the marching band number of competitions. Schools need to do the opposite, and support the creativity classes, such as band and art.
Both, the Sir Ken Robinson's Ted Talk and Creativity Crisis in the Newsweek, agree with me. One of Sir Ken Robinson's quotes was "If you not prepared to be wrong then you never come up with something original." Today at schools it is a "crime" to be wrong because of the standardize testing. The schools today are teaching you not to be wrong. However, to be creative you are going to be wrong sometimes. For example, Thomas Edison was wrong over 10,000 times before he created the light bulb. It just goes to show you being wrong can turn into an original idea. The Newsweek states that each generation's intelligence scores go up 10 points each year, except America. America's scores have been falling since 1990. Scientists say one possible answer is "the number of hours kids now spend in front of the TV and playing video games rather than engaging in creative activities." Another possible answer is the lack of schools' creativity. Scientists say creativity can be taught and should be taught in schools. You ask yourself, how this can be done. Well, it is done by teaching and using the two different types of thinking more. The two different types of thinking are divergent and convergent. Divergent thinking is when you have a problem and there are multiple ways to solve it. Convergent thinking is when there is only one answer to the problem, such as 5+5 has to equal 10. If teachers let their students do more divergent thinking, such as thinking outside the box, then kids will create more creative ideas. Therefore, this will help our test scores and our creativity crisis in America.

Learning Style and Intelligence Tests

Both the Gregorc test and the Gardner helped me learn the best way for me to learn and who I are. For the Gregorc test  I learned that I am a Concrete Random learner. That means that I like to be independent, take risks, complete experiments, and solve problems. I do this is by playing games, creating products, creating unusual solutions, and studying independently. For the Gardner test I learned that I am strong in logical-mathematics, music, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. This means I think by reasoning, via rhythms, and by bouncing ideas off people and deeply inside themselves. It also means I love to experiment, play music, lead other people, and set goals. I need to be able to explore, play music, talk with friends, and have alone time. I will take away from this that I am good at math, science, and music. This information will help at school because I know I need to try my best at writing since I am not as good as I am at math. I also know that I should try my best at math, science and music, but if I need to focus more on writing I know I can because I can easily get A's in those subjects.
Three people I admire are my mom, my dad and my brother.  I believe my mom is a concrete sequential learner. She likes to learn by doing hands on activities also she is very organized. I think my dad is a sequential learner because he likes to have an order when doing activities, and he likes having detail on what we are doing. My brother is a concrete random, like me, because he enjoys doing experiments and he likes to solve problems.
In conclusion, the Gregorc tests and the Gardner tests help you think about how you learn. It also helps you to think about what you need to work on. In all, these tests are helpful to everyone.

The Ups and Downs/ Myths and Truths of being Gifted

The Ups and Downs of Being Gifted

Other children often think that gifted children have everything set up for them and their life is perfect. However, this is not true. Even though, gifted kids have a lot of ups, they also have some downs. What I mean by ups is something that is to the gifted children's advantage. The downs are the gifted children's disadvantages.
As a gifted child, I have experienced a lot of advantages along with disadvantages. I will being putting my personal experiences along with statistics in this blog. An advantage of being gifted is being able to take advanced classes. For example, I am taking Honors Geometry at the high school, and I am also taking Rogate 8. I am truly lucky to be able to experience these opportunities because my sister and my brother both had to take Algebra 1 multiply times due to their middle schools not offering higher math. However, a disadvantage of being gifted is being made fun of. Other students will often call gifted children names, like nerd or geek. Sometimes the gifted children will dumb themselves down. They could do so much that their brain actually believes they are not gifted causing them to waste their potential.
My second advantage of being gifted is that it helps you with college. Having gifted classes on your resume like Rogate 8, helps you when college are picking students. Those gifted classes show your  intelligents in one area or multiple areas and based on your report card and GPA they can tell in which areas you are gifted. This helps you because if you are majoring in the subject you are gifted in,  they will think of accepting you more. A disadvantage of being gifted is asynchronous development. Asynchronous development is when one of your 4 maturities mature faster than all the others. For example, if your intellectual maturity matures faster than your other maturities you could not be able to handle the stress of the advanced classes. If you have a lot of responsibility and a lot of homework because of advanced classes, than it would be harder to handle all the stress and work. I have experienced this. Last year, I had a lot of homework one night including a paper due the next day and a test in Algebra I.  With all the pressure, I just could not handle all the stress. My mom helped me through by completing one step at a time. This is the method that helps me best when I am stressed. I recommend gifted children find something that comforts you and helps you with stress for the future ahead.

Myth About Gifted Children

The child is getting poor grades he/she cannot be gifted.

Gifted students are happy, popular, and well adjusted in school.

 

Truths About Gifted Children

The truth is the person with poor grades is actually just bored. The gifted child is bored by not having a challenge. Therefore, the child sees no point in trying or they could produce bad study habits causing the child to fail. In addition, poor grades could  be due to being made fun of and being classified as a nerd. So the child dumbs himself down to fit in with the popular crowd. Either way the child needs to be helped so someone can fix the problem.

Most people think gifted children are fine with school and fit into the "crowd". However, this is not true. Gifted children can be called mean names, such as geek and nerd. If the gifted children do not fit into the "crowd", then they often can be bullied. Studies show "that 20 to 25% of gifted children have social and emotional difficulties about twice as many as in the general population of the students." If help is not provided, than the difficulties could get out of hand,s and there will not be as many gifted children because of dumbing down.

 

There is a lot of misconceptions about gifted children. Everyone needs to step back and give gifted children a chance. If most people do this, there will be very little misconceptions than abundances of misconceptions. Also, gifted children should not be afraid of showing what talent they have. With these actions, I think there will be many more gifted children in the future.

 

Rogate 8 Introductory post

Christopher Ross Patterson

• I am in 8th grade.
• My favorites subjects are math and science.
•  I enjoy learning about planes and there history.
• I enjoy watching TV, running, playing soccer, and playing outside on my free time.
• I want to be a pilot in the Air Force like my dad.
• Being around my family on vacation and and mint chocolate chip ice cream.