Discussion 1: Examine the picture of the school principal, Ms. Trunchbull. Compare to what you are being taught about being a caring, responsible, critically reflective and accountable teacher who should support learning in diverse educational contexts to the aggressive displays by Ms. Trunchbull.

Core business of the school is to provide learners with a rich learning environment that is open, respectful, caring and safe. This type of learning environment optimizes the well-being of leaners. School should be exciting, stimulating and welcoming place. Teachers need to be more welcoming and approachable, learners need not to be afraid of their teachers. Learners should not be afraid of their teachers or principal but they have to respect them as their elders for the culture of teaching and learning to be conducive. All the above mentioned did not apply within Ms. Trunchbull’s school.

Examining the picture Ms. Trunchbull is unfairly disciplining one of her learners, the reason I say she is unfairly disciplining her, she lifted the learner with her pigtails and swung the learner several times in the air before throwing her. No civilized parent could do that to his or her children no matter how angry they are unless they are cruel and not thinking straight. Worse thing a principal doing that to one of her learners.  Ms. Trunchbull is not a caring, responsible, critically reflective and accountable teacher. She does not care with the well-being of the learners.  The way she punishes her learners is very unacceptable shows no signs of caring and accountability.

A caring, responsible, critically and accountable teacher is the one that bring out the best in her learners through encouragement and affirmation above all she must have love and care for her learners. She or he needs to have a good relationship with her so that her learners could feel safe around her. Ms. Trunchbull is a big, terrifying and fierce monster, she uses her power as a headmistress, both the learners and the teachers are afraid of her because she is rude and bossy. Ms. Trunchbull has the totally opposite characteristics of a caring teacher.

Ms. Trunchbull need to be accountable and critical reflective. What she is putting the learners through is unacceptable. Children need to be loved and they need to feel loved and cared for. Ms. Trunchbull should be the one protecting the learners not the other way around.

The unmentioned might of a woman.

THE UNMENTIONED MIGHT OF A WOMAN.


"Being a woman is a terribly difficult trade since it consists principally dealings with men." Joseph Conrad.The article is written from a man point of view,he does not include himself but he address woman as YOU ARE A WOMAN meaning that he isn't a woman. I personally think that if he was a woman he was also going to include himself too.
actually the man is giving praises to his woman,  he is honoring and showing appreciation to his woman for always being the backbone he needs."Every king needs or deserves a queen,"the man on the article understands that very well.


Values and attitudes reflected in the article about gender relationships most men do not truly express their feelings yet women has the ability to express their emotions without any fear. The ability to be able to express your feelings shows how strong and fearless one is. Most men do not express their feelings because they can not handle rejection all this shows how weak man can be when it comes to the matters of the heart. For any gender relationship to prosper both partners have roles to play within the relationship, both partners should offer support, love and care to their partners. The little things we do for our loved ones that seem to have no effect are the ones with the great effect. The simplest choices like what items your significant should wear on a certain day will not only please your partner but it will also cultivate one's courage and confidence,giving him strength to take on the world with every compliment you send my way.


I disagree with the writer's portrayal of men in the article, as this article is based on one man points
 of view, They are all views of one person, people differ from one person to other. Some men do celebrate their women , do show love and care to their significant. Men hate being controlled and they do not want to express their feelings to women. Man alone are weak they need women as their pillar of strength not all of them but some. Man are not celebrated as much as women are. The women of this country are very celebrated and very appreciated- the writer feels as if men do not celebrate women as they deserve. Not all men wait for the women's month to celebrate their women. Some men honor and praise their women every day. There is 16 days of activism where the focus is mainly on women and children, Women's month, take a girl to work, and some many more campaigns to empower women.

Yes the writer's style of writing is very persuasive. The use of small in length paragraphs usage makes the reader not to be lazy to read the blog to the end.

WEBLOGS AS AN EMERGING GENRE IN HIGHER EDUCATION.

                              Weblogs as an emerging genre in higher education.



Blogging in general involves the development of  a  singular , sustained voice, one that is often explicitly linked in its emergency to specific real-world activities and development. Weblogs or blogs were inverted in the past decades as an internet application genre. Weblogs are more like personal diaries where one is free to express and reflect on any matters with different themes. In higher education weblogs are used for different reasons they can be used as a platform of communication between lectures and students. Blogs promote an on-going interaction between bloggers(lectures~students, students~students) where they discuss each other's ideas critically and cognitively so. The weblogs  makes the  internet more approachable and comprehensible. As a student in higher education you are expected to make research on certain topics, you need the internet and some sources to do research , blogging do assist in that as the love of reading and writing would be evoked because one is used and enjoys blogging. Weblogs assist lectures in conveying insights about identifying and hypertext.


I was introduced to blogging last year, as a form of assessment. I did not see any need of blogging before because I was not aware of the good things that blogging bring about especially to a student. Because of its format similar to that of a personal diary, weblogs encourage informal communication, creativity and self -expression. For non computer science students including us teachers in training, weblogs provide the chance of learning about web, page creation and hyper linking. Weblogs can serve as another way of introducing technology into classrooms.

 Weblogs have the ability to reach a large audience meaning whatever information I will be trying to convey to the world will be accessible to many people out there. One can promote his/her own weblog through the social networks one is using(Facebook/Twitter) without losing information quality and allowing different levels of detail. Weblogs also create connections between students with diverse interests and opinions.This can encourage critical thinking and teaches the value of respects towards students, where students will have to respects each others points of views.

Discussions in weblogs promote higher levels of thinking and reading  because people need to first read the whole post and think critically so before answering back. The weblogs information can be accessed anytime and anywhere. Blogging promote reading and writing, it also improves the use of language and vocabulary.

The effective use of blogs can be improved by introducing personal diaries to learners in high school, for the format of a blog is the same to that of a personal diary. In that way learners will be used to writing they will not have to start using blogs in tertiary.  Students can be given chance or tasks to write their own stories and publish them in their blogs. Frequent blogging should be implemented as early as in first year.  We not all into blogging and reading if students could be allowed to choose their own topics that they find interest in , and let them reflect and express their feelings based on those topics that will generate the love of writing and reading and language and writing skills will be developed.
" The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one "~Malcolm Forbes. Let make blogging to be interesting by allowing students to write about what they find interest in.






Sergio Luján-Mora, Susana de Juana-Espinosa. The Use of Weblogs in Higher Education: Benefits and Barriers. Proceedings of the International Technology, Education and Development Conference (INTED 2007), p. 1-7: IATED, Valencia (Spain), March 7-9 2007. ISBN: 978-84-611-4517-1.














  

unit 1.2    11