This video talks about something called Tinkering School. It's a place where kids can go for six days and work on whatever they choose. They're given real tools and build bridges, forts, and one group even made a Rollercoaster. All of these projects are designed and built by the young children who go there with minimal help from the Faculty.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/gever_tulley_s_tinkering_school_in_action.html

    I wish I could have gone to the school in this video. I've always enjoyed learning in a hands-on environment. Learning by doing is a very effective way to not just to learn but also to remember. The kids who went to the tinkering school didn't just learn how to build something with hammers, drills, and nails. They also learned how to plan out a large project. Any serious undertaking requires that you be ready to improvise.

       Sometimes when you set out to construct something, nothing you planned on doing works out. You can't be afraid to mess up or make mistakes, and you have to be able to come up with something new using what is available to you. Most importantly, you need to maintain a calm positive attitude no matter how daunting the task can become, because it takes motivation to accomplish something in order to make a creation that is truly great.

    I went to a lot of Tech classes in high school but none of them really instilled the values of improvising, self-planning and problem solving. Every project, assignment and test was laid out with precise directions and any wandering from those directs was going to affect your grade negatively. I found I learned the most when the teacher made the mistake of giving to few directions and not explaining how to use something like a computer program or sometimes tools. While some just waited until another student asked the teacher to explain to the class I enjoyed experimenting with what I didn’t know.

   

     It is my personal belief that the best teacher is you. By experimenting you can not only learn what is at hand but it is better for your mind to observe what’s around you and decide on that, rather than just doing what you are told. There is obviously a downside to this. Things often go wrong, don’t work out, and hell you’ll probably break something. But mistakes are great teacher’s as well.

Blog Post #2

   The topic of this blog was to be something about my weekend. Unfortunately, I worked two 10 hour shifts this weekend so I didn't really get to do anything, well thats a lie, but I didn't do anything appropriate to write about in this blog. Which brings us to today's topic; Time Management.
   Sometimes I feel like I don't have enough time to do my homework and have any fun between working and going to class.
   Any Western students reading this blog should hopefully remember what we were told at Orientation. The speaker told us to be careful about overcommiting ourselves to work and other activities outsdie of school. Each class is supposedly going to take two hours of study and homework time for every hour of actual class time. I have 15 credits and my five classes have about 18 hours of class time. So someone with 18 hours of class needs to set aside 54 hours a week for school. This part has a lot of math so bear with me. There are 168 hours in a week, so I subtracted my 54 hours a week for school, and 56 hours for sleep if I sleep 8 hours each day, finally I subtract my 33 hours a week for work. That leaves me with 25 hours of free time.
    After working that out I'm actually pretty happy, now I know I have enough time to do my homework while I'm working and going to school full time. Since I have that 25 hours of free I know I have no excuse when I don't have my homework and errands done. Well, I do have one excuse: I didn't feel like it!
UPDATE!: I just found out my job worked around my college stuff, now I work only one weekday for 4 hours and then I work 5pm to 6am (not that bad for me I've done it for months at my other job.) on friday/sat plus one shift on sunday. Now I can sit on my butt weekend nights and somehow get more hours.

Introduction

My name is Mike Somers. I'm from Sparta, Wisconsin, and I just recently moved here to La Crosse this august. I'm enrolled at WesternTC in the IT-Computer Networking program. I've just started my first semester at Western, although I did some summer classes this last season. Most nights, I'm working at perkins on highway 16 as a cook. I try to use my time when I'm not working, going to school, or doing homework to hang out with my friends and enjoy myself. I'm not sure whether I'll enjoy this blogging assignment, I'm gennerally not a fan of writing, but it is definitely something different than writing assignments I'm used to doing.