Monday, April 30, 2012

Baby magazine


For the last couple of months I have received a magazine that I haven't payed for and it keeps coming. This magazine is called Baby Talk. It is a magazine that helps parents be better parents. This magazine helps with problems that you could have with your baby, items that are recommended for babies, information that some people wouldn't know about babies, styles of baby clothes, and personal baby stories. This magazine when read it makes you a better parent. It gives you wonderful ideas that I will use when I have a child. They have ads that will dress a baby or make their health better. They have the new motor development toys that will help children. Signs of bad health with babies that you can prevent. When looking at the magazine I started to realize why I started to read it was. The cute little babies and children in the magazine! They draw your attention to it and make you want to see it. Then after you have seen the cover of the cute kid you read the main articles. For examples: How Ipad can be good for babies, Why routines make everyone happy, 50 nursery ideas and (the one that got me hooked) The shocking news about babies and sugar. Going to the editors page I saw that she was a parent ( of course) and the there was also little tidbits from the stylists, executive editor, and managing editor. They were happy with the outcome of the magazine and one didn't even have a child. She wore maternity dresses and thought that it was a great dress. The advertisements that were in the magazine went from mothers expecting to mothers with with children. For the mothers expecting they gave you registry ideas to different places. The mothers with children get advertisements for medicine, items that would be good for the baby, and cleaning supplies safe for babies. With the advertisements it would go for any mom but it would be great for the ones with children at the time. They also make you want to item by putting a cute baby in the advertisement with a caring mother using the item to take care of the child. It makes you think that if you don't have that item, you are a bad mom. The wording in the magazine are all colorful and in different fonts to draw your eyes to the page and what is written there.

They also have cute babies doing cute things. There isn't one blank page. All the pages are covered with colorful items, baby pics, and information.  It makes your eyes go to that page. Most of the pages are in the magazine are advertisements for some sort of item. They are fillers to make the magazine look bigger. It reminded me of watching television, you have the show you are watching but in between are the commercials that you don't want to  see but they are there. All in all the magazine taught me a lot about babies. From what to eat that is healthy for you when pregnant that is lots of calories but you don't gain much weight from  to the signs of an ear infection in a baby. Makes you want to learn more about your little toddler :)





Sunday, April 29, 2012

Myth Busters!!!


Myth Busters is a show that gets myths that everyone hear about and debunks it. They have solved over 700 myths since they started the show in 2003. Some of the myths that they look at are stories like "bull in a china shop", where a person in the early 1800's would tell clumsy people that they were like a bull in a china shop. Then there are myths about the ceiling fan if it can decapitate your head. That was one of my favorites! From the tests you couldn't get your head chopped off but you can get a very bad injury from it. They also used a modern fan that kind of looks like blades and that did the most damage. Another investigation was teaching a dog new tricks. They wanted to see if you could teach an old dog new tricks and they found out that you couldn't. The dogs they used were classified as old dogs. The dogs learned but were too stubborn to use them.  The myths about sharks were the ones that I thought were interesting too. I hate sharks and if I were in a situation with a shark I want to know what would happen or what I could do to prevent it. One example was if playing died made your chances of survival higher. Turned out that if you did play dead in a shark attack the shark doesn't want anything to do with you. The other one that I saw was if gouging a sharks eyes gets you out of their jaws when attacked. In this investigation they could decide where or not if it was true or not. They couldn't decide if they were able to or not. They couldn't put a human at risk so they built a mechanic shark that stopped what it was doing when the eye was hit. When they do investigations they approach the problems all differently depending on the situation. With the fans they made molds of heads and used different fans to see the outcome. With the bull story they took real bulls an put them in shops! They saw that bulls went around the isles but never touched them. They were dandy.
Myth Busters promotes critical thinking by voting weather or not the the myth would be busted or confirmed. They make you think of the outcome and what could happen. When they do the experiments you can change or keep your predictions. They show you different ways to get to the answer. They don't just do one experiment they do many to try to make possibilities to get to the answer. These answers get broadcast on television so everyone can get the answer. It goes towards huge audiences and appeals to everyone. These myths get people interested to learn. They appeal to the audiences with cars being blown up, breaking things, and other things that will appeal with people every where. Everyone wants to see if myths are true or not. They only think that it is true and don't have the chance, time or money to bunk it. Everyone just assumes what is true and goes with it. They go with the crowd and don't ask questions. When they watch the show the show can show people what could happen and what they think will happen. They also show what people think is true and they also give the facts.
For this assignment I was thinking to myself about what "love mark" I had and could not think of one! I started a new job and for this job I have a partner that I work with everyday! For the last couple weeks I saw that this girl had many of the same things. John Deere! She has a tattoo of the John Deere logo, car mats, and a John Deere tractor hanging on her mirror. I saw the assignment and asked her what her obsession with John Deere was. She told me that her obsession started when she was eleven. She lived out in California where there are no tractors but she saw the sign at a pawn shop and fell in love (which she ended up buying).  She didn't know what it was so she looked it up. She found out that it is a tractor based company and fell in love even more. Her mother died and she loved animals, deers being her favorite, so she was tied to it. It reminded her of her mother. She has anything you can think of John Deere! Her tattoo of John Deere was her first tattoo when she turned eighteen. John Deere reminds her of home and that makes her feel safe. She has three coco clocks, thirty different mugs, and other little nick-naks.  Her room is painted the John Deere colors. This is her "emotional branding" to be closer to her mother. She feels at home when there is John Deere around. She also said that it like her "trailer trash". She used to live in a trailer and John Deere is like the red neck style. She absolutely loves it! We started our conversation and it lasted all day! She is very dear to her John Deere stuff. After interviewing her I thought about it as well and I don't have an "emotional branding". I buy things because they are good products or they are in my budget. I have no emotional connection to my products. I don't have the same brands, they are all different. Some I don't even know the brands! Talking to my friend I am a little jealous that there is a brand that she has all that emotion towards and I don't even have one! I don't like Starbucks, I like to drink it but I worked for them so I don't like it as much as other people. I don't have any Apple products, or Macintosh products. Brands don't have any effect on me. I'm just glad that I found someone that had an emotional attachment to a brand that everyone knows!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Visit a classroom

Miller Valley Middle School is am Elementary school in Prescott. The classroom had twelve students all in groups. The is a third grade classroom and they were all learning about volcanoes. It was close to lunch time around ten o'clock in the morning. The classroom was a descent size with a small sink and water fountain in the back. They had two for the students to take book tests on one side of the classroom. The teachers desk was in the back on one side. They had two big windows on the far wall with plants and pictures hanging in the window. They had cursive letters hanging up on the wall and rules of the classroom.  They were learning about volcanoes. They learned that some volcanoes were dormant that dont erupt and some erupt once in awhile. They also learned about underwater volcanoes as well. They learned about magma and lava. Most of the students were paying attention and some would talk together. The teacher noticed the students talking and asked if they would like to share. They got embarrassed and said no so the teacher would continue. They used text books and giant diagrams. There was one student that was not at the learning level as everyone else and you could tell. The teacher gave everyone an assignment and then gave the other student a piece of paper and told them to draw a picture of a volcano. The teacher explained that the student should be in a special class but the parents denied the fact that the child needed help. The child didnt know how to comprehend the simple activity that everyone else was doing. After the volcano activity they read books until the bell rang for lunch. Some students that were done with their books took a test to see if they understood their book. They got points for the book they read depending on the level and how many pages it is. Sitting in the classroom, some of the children got excited that there was a guest. They would say "hi" but that would be it. The teacher interacted with the students with help and telling them what to do with their papers when they were done with them. The teacher would joke around with them too. He was a friend to them and wanted to help them succeed.
Going to school at that age there were the same elements in the classroom.  There was the cursive letters, the classroom rules that everyone had to follow, and the small sink. The reading of books and the tests were another element growing up. There was a goal that you had to reach and when you reached it you always got a prize depending on the school. This experience was great see. Watching the class was very inspirational. I also learned that all children learn at a different pace. There are slow learners and fast learners. How you handle that as well is a great way to becoming a great teacher.