Nothing to talk about...

Journal 2-6


Nothing to talk about...


I. In last week's blog I said that I would research ways to improve the Leadership website. In the previous journal I had examined the website for myself and picked out what I thought was wrong with it. Now I want to start looking into fixing it. Here's what I found:

• http://online-social-networking.com/10-more-easy-ways-to-improve-your-website 
• http://fadtastic.net/2007/06/10/25-ways-to-improve-your-site-today/

The first website lists 10 simple tips for improving your website. The second website provides a categorized guide to enhancing your website's setup.


II. This week in class we watched two different TED talks, both revolving around the idea of compassion. The first speaker was a woman named Karen Armstrong. It was a little bit hard to focus on the things she was saying because of her odd appearance and her accent. The gap between her teeth and her awkward hairstyle made it difficult to stare at her, and her british accent distracted me from retaining the words that she said. Her main idea was religious tolerance. A kind of "centralized religion" centered around the golden rule. The second speaker was a male, whose name I do not recall. His speech was much easier to listen to and focus on, although his ideas were harder to comprehend. I remember him talking about win-win lose-lose situations (like a consumer purchasing a product is a win-win situation). As for the rest of it...I really don't have a clue. Towards the end of the week we played a "game" that had a prison scenario, a car scenario, and a battle of the sexes scenario. The object of the game was to basically use telepathy and cooperate with your partner in a way that would score the most points for each of you.

The Charter For Compassion: Another Huge Step Towards A One World Religion?. (n.d.). The Last Days. Retrieved January 31, 2011, from http://signsofthelastdays.com/archives/the-charter-for-compassion-another-huge-step-towards-a-one-world-religion

As far as the charter for compassion goes, I agree with a point that Jeremy made. That is, the charter seems like a good idea, however it isn't actually a realistic goal. All the various sects of Christianity can't even come to agreement, so there is no way that other religions can be incorporated into this "centralized religion" as well. People will believe what they want to believe and practice what they want to practice. Basically the charter is somewhat taking away freedom of religion. It would be literally impossible to get even two religions in sync, much less all of them. As far as the prison game goes, I thought it was a really entertaining activity. There really wasn't too much strategy to it, you just had to kind of read your partner's mind. Depending on whether you chose to cooperate with your partner or screw them over, you either ended up benefitting or screwing over yourself at the same time.

cyber spirit cafe: November 2009. (n.d.). cyber spirit cafe. Retrieved January 31, 2011, from http://cyberspiritcafe.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html

For my idea that we didn't discuss in class, I want to go back to an older topic. It doesn't have too much to do with this week's topics, but it goes along with the lingering idea of transforming Leadership. We had a bit of a discussion about it in Mr. Schumacher's class on Thursday, I believe it was. We got into a class chat about the idea of a lock-in. Now I understand that a sleepover with 199 other students doesn't appeal to everyone. But it came as a surprise to me that there are several people who simply aren't interested in the idea of Leadership bonding at all. They just don't care. There's no desire to get to know the other kids in the program. I feel like that's an opportunity that would be stupid to pass up. The opportunity to create new friendships is a valuable thing. I hope that somehow we can inspire those people who's hearts aren't in it to change their minds.

Friendship - Loldogs, Dogs 'n' Puppy Dog Pictures - I Has A Hotdog!. (n.d.). Loldogs, Dogs 'n' Puppy Dog Pictures - I Has A Hotdog!. Retrieved January 31, 2011, from http://dogs.icanhascheezburger.com/2008/06/01/funny-dog-pictures-friendship-we-has-it

III. For next week's blog I want to research some more information about the Charter for Compassion. I'll take a look at whatever websites I can find that touch on the idea. Do other people think it is realistic? What would it take to actually make something like that happen?

Leadership Transformation

Journal 2-5

Leadership Transformation

I. In last week's journal I stated that my mission for this week would be to take a look at the current Leadership website and analyze it for myself.
Some things I like about the website:
-that there are a lot of pictures on the home page
-that the website is easy to navigate
-that the home page is mainly black, it makes it look very bold
Some things I would change:
-include other pictures on the home page instead of just the class of 2013
-change the fonts, they're all very boring
-edit the mission statement and program goals to fit the "new ideas" about Leadership

2010 March :: Mitchell Kapor Foundation Weblog. (n.d.). Mitchell Kapor Foundation Weblog. Retrieved January 22, 2011, from http://blog.mkf.org/2010/03

II. We spent some of last week and the beginning of this week discussing what we currently think about the Leadership program. After accumulating all the student input, it was decided that:
-Leadership needs more international relations
-Leadership needs bigger/more service projects that are more beneficial to the community
-all 200 Leadership kids need to have a lock-in, promoting bonding between grade levels
-Leadership needs to involve the rest of the school, as well as interact with it
-there needs to be more sex appeal to the Leadership program
-Leadership and International Relations needs a shortened name
-the Leadership council needs to be expanded to include more individuals
We thoroughly discussed the changes that could be made to our program, recieving all kinds of useful input. There is now an "idea wall" set up in the quad so we can begin our transformation. Also this week we looked at a case study regarding a college "study group" in which students basically trade work for friendship. Finally, we looked at a document that introduced us to the Golden Rule, as well as many other rules that are considered ethical.

My personal thoughts regarding the transformation of Leadership are basically the same as the majority. The lock-in idea originated at my first period table, and it's my favorite suggestion. It would take a good bit of work to organize, considering we would have to find a location to hold the lock-in as well as set up chaperones. However I think it would be an awesome bonding experience for the kids in the center. My thoughts regarding the case study about "the file" are very negative. I think it's a ridiculous concept because not only do I view it as cheating, but also the "friends" that you gain from this group are fake friends. Friendship can not possibly be based off of a trade of work. That's not a good enough foundation. Also, if this group ever gets caught, they're really going to be in for some trouble. As for the Golden Rule packet, I thought it was very interesting to be introduced to the other "metal rules", shall we say. First of all I had no idea that any of them existed. While I don't fully understand some of them, I think each one holds it's own different values.

Mendoza, G. (n.d.). Leadership Development « Clayton Early Learning. Clayton Early Learning. Retrieved January 22, 2011, from http://www.claytonearlylearning.org/blog/?cat=17

Something that we didn't touch on too much in class is how we're going to involve the rest of the school in the Leadership Center. I definitely think it's something that needs to be done, and it was briefly mentioned in class, but there wasn't too much discussion about it. I know from personal experience that most people show no respect to the program. I've heard remarks like "the Leadership cult" and "you only got into that club because you're in leadership" and "the leadership kids think they're better than everyone". Hearing things like this tends to take away the pride of being in the program. Somehow we need to establish an understanding with the rest of the school, getting them involved in our endeavors.

this one was an experiment: creating the gold color and using the thck acrylic flat brush in callgraphy style - Essentials Cafe. (n.d.). Essentials Cafe. Retrieved January 22, 2011, from http://essentialscafe.com/forums/p/3542/12290.aspx

III. How can the Leadership website be improved? For next week's class I want to research ways of giving a website more pizazz. I'll come up with new ideas for the Leadership website that will draw more attention to it.

d0cum3n+@r!3$

Journal 2-4

d0cum3n+@r!3$

I. In my last journal I decided I wanted to do some research on two very similar cereal brands (Kellogg's and General Mills), to see what persuades customers to buy one or the other. Here's what I found:
http://www.acaloriecounter.com/breakfast-cereal.php >> This website has nutritional facts for a variety of Post, Kellogg's, Kashi and General Mills cereals. This research shows that General Mills makes 5 of the top 9 best cereals to eat, and Kellogg's only makes 1 of the 9. It also shows that General Mills makes 9 of the top 23 worst cereals to eat, while Kellogg's makes 10 of the 23. Based on this information, General Mills is the healthier choice. Other than this, I was not able to find much information dealing with the comparison of these two brands. Personally, in my house we prefer General Mills to Kellogg's, Post or Kashi.

Rose, S. R. (n.d.). LifeStyle Group. LifeStyle Group. Retrieved January 17, 2011, from http://lifestylegroup.blogspot.com/

II. During the entire holiday season we worked on our midterm documentaries. We had to form a group, choose a topic, choose interviewees, get release forms signed, do filming, edit, make a trailer, and produce a final product. We were to create an ethical or unethical documentary that ranged anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes long. We could choose to use fallacies and loaded language, or avoid them. There was a requirement of at least 3 documentary making techniques such as: camera angles, phantom interviewing, behind-the-scenes work not shown in the film, etc. Once the final product was produced, it was turned in along with a written portion of the exam, in which we discussed the purpose, techniques and analysis of the documentary. We then viewed the documentaries in class so we could see what our peers came up with. When each group's documentary was viewed by the class, the group gave an oral presentation as well.

DOCUMENTARY APPRECIATION CLASS: LOUIS THEROUX DOCUMENTARIES. (n.d.). DOCUMENTARY APPRECIATION CLASS. Retrieved January 17, 2011, from http://www.documentaryclass.com/2008/09/louis-theroux-documentaries.html

Personally I thought the documentary making project was a very positive experience. It provided an opportunity for extreme creativity. There was an endless amount of possibilites, basically. One of the biggest issues my group was faced with is that we made a poor decision with who we selected initially to be in the group. There was one member who made it particularly difficult for the rest of the group to function. That person was the owner of the computer on which we would do all of our editing. However she never seemed to be readily available to work with the group. This situation made for a very challenging editing process. Also, due to technological issues, she failed to turn the documentary in on time as well. This caused us to get points docked on our overall score. Besides the teammate issues, my group worked very well together and we had a blast. It was so much fun to do the filming, especially since we starred in parts of the documentary ourselves. I thoroughly enjoyed this project and I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

Ali., & 2010. (n.d.). List of Enlightening Documentaries: Watch for FREE Online | S. Ali Myers | www.alimyers.net. S. Ali Myers | Holistic Metaphysician | Holistic Health & Metaphysics. Retrieved January 17, 2011, from http://alimyers.net/archives/769


One thing that was briefly mentioned in class was the idea of using our documentaries outside of the classroom. Corey suggested that we perhaps make a documentary for the Leadership website, showing off what it's all about. I think that's a great idea. Now that we understand documentary techniques and we've had a chance to make our own, we have a good enough understanding to produce them for other topics. There are so many ways in which documentaries can be used. I definitely think it would be a good idea to see where else we can use them. Taking our skills beyond the classroom is one of the major goals of the Leadership program. Therefore we should consider ways in which we can use documentaries elsewhere. Not only can they provide the most honest information possible, but they're fun and fairly easy to make.

Free Documentaries (DocumentaryGuy) on Twitter. (n.d.). Twitter. Retrieved January 17, 2011, from http://twitter.com/documentaryguy

III. At the end of this week's class we started talking about ways that we can improve the Leadership program. We discussed some ideas such as: going on international trips, shortening our name, doing broader and more commuity service, etc. For next week's blog I plan to take a look at our website and analyze it for myself. I'll go through every aspect of the website and provide my own feedback as to how we can improve it.