Current Events Activity 2.2

  Damaris Benitez

10/22/2015

Period-6

1.   The recent Bastrop fire could have been caused by two reasons, an accidental overheating shredder or someone could have intentionally set a burn pile in violation of the county's burn barn. At 10:30 am officials allowed displaced residents to return to their properties. According to Jim Boyle, we should come back in 2 years. The interviews from the residents who lost their homes, made me feel sad for them and it also gave me a good understanding on the feeling of those residents. For sure made me feel more pity for them.

2.   Austin and Leander school districts are now converting their math and social studies textbooks from paper to online books. According to the leading line, the author shows his or hers opinion on the online textbooks, by saying that the paperless books speed up materials. The Robertson family had noticed that their daughter started having a lighter backpack and less textbooks. One day their daughter was doing math homework and her dad was attempting to help her through using the online textbook, he found it pretty difficult to flip through the pages because the computer would slow it down, so instead he payed 75 dollars for a paper textbook. Melissa Prepster a teacher from our own AISD district, said she supported the online textbook, because not only do the students get the information from the books but she is allowed to upload videos with information making it more interactive. I feel like Eanes and Leander actually have an advantage because since they are distributing electronics to their students making it easier and no excuse to the students not to have access to the textbooks. However, in my opinion, I hate using online textbooks because there is so much temptation to click on a different website. I prefer everything on paper. And this story would be great for The Shield, I feel like many students and teachers can connect to this. 

3.   Justin Trudeau, has the victory of the Canadian presidency. Some changes Trudeau has decided to make a marijuana legal, drop out of the U.S bombing campaign against Islamic state and deficit spending to pump up the economy and rebuild infrastructure. Trudeau plans on giving Canada a voice again, and he seems to have a good relationship with Obama which means we might have a closer relationship with the Canadians as long as Obama is still president. 

4.   Alan Guckian, if he won he would let their kids have pizza party. Saul Paul was the person who nominated him. He is one of the 25 semifinalist. He is about to win the award for 2016 music educator award.

5.  The UT coach, would like to get his players in the mindset of mastery and ownership. He has shown this by getting his players out of their comfort zones and training them in things that are stronger than just their fortes. 

Current Events Experience 2.1

 Damaris Benitez

Period- 6

10/9/2015

1.   A small perk that has been raising brows in Austin is that, those who work in the park and recreations, council members, or anything in favor for the Zilker Park,  get two free ACL passes for one of the weekends. The excuse for giving these passes up, it to allow the members to know how one of the biggest festivals in our city functions. However, some members will not take the passes because they feel like they have no right being there, especially as one of them being a 71 year old, and is walking with a cane. They also add that they do not feel like it is fair for those who want to go, and them wasting passes for some who do not want to go, especially because this year the ACL passes were sold out. However, Sabine Romero does believe it is a good thing that the members accept the tickets, and that it is a good way for the members to understand how one of the biggest festivals in the city works. Both Kitchen and Houston seem to not like the idea of the free passes not because they think that they are useless, but because they do not seem to agree with the ideas of the ACL festival, and Kitchen added that free passes would not put her in favor of the big music festivals in the Austin parks.  In my personal opinion, I do not think that the passes are bad thing. But it is an opinion of a 14 year old who would do anything for free passes, in a point of view of an adult, I feel like the passes should be able to be exchanged with free passes to other events in Austin, besides ACL and SXSW. Just so that the members do not feel as forced and pressured to attend the events. 

2.   Oklahoma has had a struggle with death-penalty executions because of a controversial drug that is being used in lethal injections, which is harder to carry out executions for the state of Oklahoma. However, they are not the only ones struggling with an issue. The beautiful state of Tennessee,(also one of my favorite states) was dealing with a very similar situation in 2014, when authorized prison officials were to use the electric chair if lethal-injections were unavailable. Although a couple of states were told to buy a drug that was not even available in the US, and the FDA finally caught them and told them that, the act that they are doing is illegal. Midazolam is a drug that has caused this chaos making it the hear of the story. 

3.   The prime minister has barred his ministers from visiting an old contested Old City Holy Site. He ordered the police to, stop members of the parliament from going there. He sated that he did not want them there because he would not want to alter the status quo at the site. The people of the parliament seemed to disagree with him and say that it is  not like they are terrorist. Halabi, is kind of like our source to the issue by sharing information on social media.

4.   Sevtlana Alexievich won a Noble Prize recently, she is well known for her deep research in female Russian Soldiers in WWII. I think that her being female was an impact of rarity, however she also created a new genre according to the article. She has literature and has also blended in a journalism in her work, by giving people a voice in her work. She seems to be very content with the future, however she seems very serious about her self now. 

5.   The professor has decided that he will not come back and teach for UT students next fall. They were aware because of a university student's paper on the Daily Texan(Go Mr. Winter!!). In a way it is UT's first because it will reflect bad on UT's attractiveness in academics. Things that drove the professor away was because of the sizes in the classes, the campus carry law, especially knowing that the fact of students being able to carry laws on school campus, I do not blame him. 

FREE RESPONSE:

      Well as a big fan of the Houston Astros, I chose the article that brags on how well they are doing. Springer hit some beautiful homers in the game against Kansas, and pulled out a win. They also recently won the game against the Yankees. Which is really good news, because we were starting to get put under the category that we do not pull off wins on the road, and now we did. YAY! However, I feel like the perks of being able to use the newspaper online, is that we are saving paper. It is faster updated, we do not have to look through the articles to find the rest of the story. I also have a feeling that using computers, tablets, phones, ect. is more exciting than looking through paper. It also contains more color which is better for your mind, since it has been proven that things in color help you remember things. It also keeps you updated in your surrounding and the world around you! :)