Margaret’s Blog

Here is a Ethical Dilemma that our teacher gave us.

Mary is an eighth grader and, until recently, pretty popular at school. Lately, she started finding notes in her locker and in her backpack that were really upsetting. The notes were unsigned and mean. They said things like: “ We don’t like how you’re treading on our territory.” “ You act like a bitch.” And even, “ You better watch out because we’re watching you…”

Mary had no idea who might be sending the notes but she had an idea why. In the last few months she had started accepting invitations to high school parties. She had also fooled around with a couple of sophomore guys. She had a feeling that the notes were from some of the high school girls. She knew how gossip got around and how mean other people said the sophomore girls were.

What was she supposed to do? Almost every day this week she received a note. She felt angry, scared, and hurt. She showed the notes to two of her friends. One of them said that whoever is sending them was probably just jealous and she should just ignore them. The other friend said she should show them to a teacher.

Mary felt like there was no good choice. If she tried to ignore the notes she was afraid they would just continue, and she was not only scared, she was mad. She wanted them to stop. But if she turned in the notes, she was sure the whole school would find out and she would probably have to name names as to who she thought was sending them. If the gossip was bad now, wouldn’t’ it be worse then?

1. What do you think Mary should do?

I think that Mary should just tell someone and say that she doesn’t know who has she has no idea who it could be.

2. What do you think would happen to someone in your school who was in Mary’s situation? (I.e. would she get backlash for hooking up with older guys? Would people gossip about her?)

I’m not sure about that because it depends on the person and their personality.

3. How does gossip play a role in your school, in your community?

Gossiping is like a rumor and it can get around the school/community very quickly. It is a very bad thing to do because if someone tells who started it then they get in trouble.

4. Have you ever been in a situation similar to Mary’s? How was it resolved?

No, I haven’t ever been in a situation similar to Mary’s. I wouldn’t want to ever get in a situation like that because it is hurtful to other people.

5. Why do you think people gossip? Have you ever gossiped about someone? Why do you think you did?

I think people gossip when they are angry with someone or they plain just hate them. To tell the truth I haved gossiped about someone because he/she was very annoying and I was very mad with that person for what she/he did.

- margaret

We saw the DVD Animusic 2 and if you want to see the website you can go to www.animusic.com. This DVD is computer animated. The chapters were Starship Groove, Pogo Sticks, Resonant Chamber, Cathedral Pictures, Pipe Dream 2, Fiber Bundles, Gyro Dreams,and Heavy Light. My favorite ones were the Starship Groove, Pogo Sticks, Pipe Dream 2, and Gyro Drums. Here are pictures of each chapter.

This is a picture of the DVD

this is a picture from one of the chapters.

I think this is a really good DVD and I would watch it if I liked animation!

- margaret

In our class, we each had to make a presentation using OpenOffice.org Impress. The leaders I picked were Chaing Kai-Shek which the first Taiwan president, Mao Zedong who was the first China president, Hu Jintao who was is the current China president, Margaret Thatcher who was England’s prime minister, and last I picked Bhumibol Adulyadej who is the current Thailand king. Some nice facts about Margaret Thatcher is that her first name is the same as mine and her birthday is on October 13 while my birthday is on October 14. Some nice facts about Bhumibol Adulyadej is that he has been king ever since 1942 or something like that. He also got 10 honor awards at one time.

- Margaret

Should students be allowed to bring cell phones to school?

I think students should be allowed to bring cell phones to school but not use it until after school. It is bad to do it during school because people might cheat by telling answers to each other by text message and it will also interupt the classes if someone calls each other. I would be good to so that they can communicate with the there parents if there is an emergency or if they can’t find someone. I really think that we should be allowed to bring cellphones to school just in case, but not for chatting with others until after school.

- Margaret

We have been blogging since April 5, 2006. I think that blogging has been a good experience for me. It is nice because people like family from other places can also read what you are writing in school and what is going on with your life. I think I am following the class rules, but if I am not I am very sorry. I think that this is very good for our classes because then if you have a problem people frm all over the world can help you with that problem. I think blogging can help people outside of school by helping them express their feelings. They can also use blogging to tell other people about what they are doing everyday.  I think that blogging is something good to learn and I will try to keep blogging after this quarter if I can.

- Margaret