Does Social Media Really Drive Startup Sales?

This article is talking about how GM said that there was no point in advertising on Facebook. Apparently the man who made that decision is not in that position anymore and now GM is going to advertise on Facebook. They were saying that it is difficult to try to figure out how many sales were made from advertising in places like Facebook. So far no one has the answer. I think it is more of a "go with your gut" kind of thing. I don't think anyone goes out and purchases a car because they saw an ad for it on Facebook but making a potential customer see the products as often as possible could make them eventually purchase something from you. I almost think that more people are on the computer now instead of the television so I think putting advertisements on social media would be a good thing for a company.

Lesonsky, R. (2012, August 6). Does social media really drive startup sales?. Retrieved from http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2012/08/does-social-media-really-drive-startup-sales.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed: readwriteweb (ReadWriteWeb)&utm_content=Google Reader

Improving Academic Achievement for Disadvantaged Children

This was an interesting article because it talked about teaching students to become respectful members of society. In doing that, the students that are falling behind in school will do better because there will be a less hostile environment in the classroom. The school also has a committee made up of teachers, parents, administrators and students. The purpose of the committee is to get all involved to work together so that everyone is on the same page. There is less fighting and confrontation which allows more support and collaboration and the students are able to learn more. I found this part particularly interesting, "James Comer's life work suggests that the test-driven regimen in schools will never successfully close the achievement gap. More to the point, it will also fail in preparing our students for the many roles we want them to fill as they become society's responsible adults." (Elias, 2012) I am sure many others feel the same way.

Elias, M. (2012, August 2). Improving academic achievement for disadvantaged children. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/improving-academic-achievement-disadvantaged-maurice-elias?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed: EdutopiaNewContent (Edutopia)&utm_content=Google Reader

No one has forgotten your dad, Braydon

This is a sad story and I am sad for Braydon whose time was cut short with his father. Braydon just wanted his father to be remembered since he was killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. A year after he put his story out there, this was made to give Braydon reassurance that his father was not forgotten. Braydon has gotten over 1,000 comments on his post and the most recent ones were from today. Some people are so caring and generous and I really think it has helped this young boy heal. I wish all people would be a little more caring.

Fantz, A. (2012, August 6). No one has forgotten your dad, braydon. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/06/world/braydon-nichols-chinook-afghanistan/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed: rss/cnn_topstories (RSS: Top Stories)&utm_content=Google Reader

The End of Cable TV? How Everyone Will Watch Television In The Future

This was an interesting article......maybe this is why cable companies are charging outrageous prices right now. I think this will be a good thing, especially for those people who don't watch a lot of television and yet they are paying quite a lot for the few channels that they occasionally watch. All of this new technology is coming out now and it's great as long as it is useful and isn't something that rots our brains. It didn't mention how much OTT costs and no one knows for sure how the cable companies are going to handle it. I think it is time for a change though.

Proffitt, B. (2012, July 31). The end of cable tv? how everyone will watch television in the future. Retrieved from http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the-end-of-cable-tv-how-everyone-will-watch-television-in-the-future.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed: readwriteweb (ReadWriteWeb)&utm_content=Google Reader

What Parents and Educators Want from Assessments

This is an interesting article. It talks about what parents and educators want from their children/students being assessed. The article broke it down but overall it seems that both think that formative assessments are more valuable when it comes to seeing how the students are progressing and they also don't think that it is very important to compare the scores to other students'. Everyone wants what is best for the students but the way we are going about it right now is not working. It is just upsetting the teachers because some classes are better (grades and behavior) than others and sometimes there are a lot of students with special needs in a classroom which will most likely bring down the overall scores of the class and make it look like progress was not made. I don't know what to do instead but maybe something like if students fall behind for a year than it needs to be looked into and see if there are several students in one class that didn't make progress, but I would not say that all students have to make a certain amount of progress each year or else......Each student is different, they come from different circumstances and I think that as long as they make a good amount of progress each year compared to their own scores last year, I think that is good enough. It's just all a big mess right now and no one knows what to do.

OBrien, A. (2012, July 30). What parents and educators want from assessments. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-assessment-parents-survey-anne-obrien

Video shows boy bullied, burned on bus

This is horrible....the poor boy is burned with a hot lighter, called names, and is trapped in his seat on the bus. I don't understand why the bus driver didn't pull that bus over or take it back to school after hearing that child screaming like that. They said that the driver had charges against her but all of them were dropped. I don't think they should have been dropped. She neglected to help that child while he was getting emotionally and physically bullied. I don't know if she just ingnored him because he was labeled "special needs" and maybe she thought he just made loud noises sometimes but she should have pulled that bus over and seperated them at least. This child has post traumatic stress syndrome now and he has been seeing a counselor or therapist because of the damage done. It makes me really angry that anyone would let something like this go on and it makes me even angrier to know that most of the parents of bullies don't think it's that big of a deal, mostly because they are too busy to be bothered with their own children. I think parents with children who are bullies should have to attend parenting classes and the children should attend anger management classes and therapy.

CNN. (2012, July 30). Video shows boy bullied, burned on bus. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/video/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed: rss/cnn_topstories (RSS: Top Stories)&utm_content=Google Reader

Girls Who Code: Crashing the “Brogram”

I am seeing a trend here in the articles I have looked at today.......
Anyways, this article is about getting young girls interested in becoming programmers when they are older. The authors say that something happens when a girl is 13 or 14 and she thinks that programming and engineering is just for guys. This program is eight weeks long and I believe it is eight hours a day. They teach the girls how to program and market. This article talked a lot about how male programmers have "good looking women" around to help make deals like putting pictures with women in bikinis in their slideshow, female waitresses, or even just having the women in hot tubs. The point was that this can be done because there are so few female programmers. Twitter has joined in with the project and is helping fund it. I think this is a good one for Twitter to get involved in because I am sure more women use Twitter than men.

Devaney, T., & Stein, T. (2012, July 24). Girls who code: Crashing the “brogram”. Retrieved from http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2012/07/girls-who-code-crashing-the-brogram.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed: readwriteweb (ReadWriteWeb)&utm_content=Google Reader