Midaber 10 - Distance Learning: Good or Bad?

 In most schools pupils study for the Bagrut exams in class. However few years ago the Ministry of Education allowed some of the pupils to study for the Bible exam online. In this program the students are taught by a teacher through the internet, online. I wouldn't like to join this program and  to study online.




First of all, studying online alone doesn't develop your social skills. Studying alone, in-front of a computer, without any company, doesn't acquire you communication skills. You don't make any friends, you have no company. In distance learning you don't meet your teacher face to face - every thing is done through the computer what make the explanations about the studying, harder to understand.

In addition, studying online isn't suitable for everybody. If you want to learn online you need to have self-discipline and responsibility. Because when you learn alone, you don't do your homework, you get lazy. The reason for that, there is no one who pushes and force you to do it. Therefore this program is suitable for some students and the others need someome, such as teacher, who will push them.

In conclusion in my opinion, the new program which turns the class to an "online class", is bad. Because studying through a computer is harder than regular studying. In addition you need to have self-discipline and responsibility, moreover you don't make friends. Therefore this program is a bad idea.

Midaber 9 - Volunteering: Good or Bad

Pupils have a lot of things to do in the afternoon. Some join a volunteering program and some prefer to hang out with their friends, stay home,  play computer-games or watch TV. There are a lot of places you can volunteer in, such as the Civil Guard, MDA, helping children with their homework. In my opinion, volunteering is important. I prefer volunteering to staying home or hanging out with friends. I volunteer once a week in the Civil Guard.

When I volunteer I help people. For example, when I volunteered in (the) Civil Guard, we found a suspicious object which looked like a bomb was hidden in it. Later on, we called the police and we discovered that a bomb was actually in the bag. Therefore, when we called the police and reported a suspicious object we, in fact, saved lives. Another example for helping people when volunteering, when you volunteer to help an elderly person - you make him happy.

In addition, volunteering doesn't make only the person who is helped happy but makes you, too, happy and proud. Because the feeling of helping someone is wonderful, it makes you feel like you (are) really do(ing) something important instead of sitting in front the computer.

In conclusion, joining a volunteering program is recommended because you help someone, and by the way it makes you feel better. Instead of watching TV or hanging out with friend, you can help people, save lives or make other people's lives better. Therefore, in my opinion, volunteering is important. I volunteer 3 hours once a week.

Excellent work!
(97)
Daphna

Midaber 8 - Mechanical Teacher: Good or Bad?

The story "The Fun They Had" was written by Isaac Asimov,  50 years ago. The story is about a child who lives in the 22th century. This child finds a book, which is a rare thing. The book is about the way the students used to learn in the past.  The future children are taught by a mechanical teacher. I prefer our method of learning, which is in class with a teacher. Even though studying with a mechanical teacher has some advantages. 

                              

In our method of learning we need to go to school, which forces us to do an exercise from our home to school. In addition, in our home we are alone, we don't make any friends. With the mechanical teacher's method of learning you stay at home and you study alone.

In our method of learning the teacher is human, he can understand us and our feelings and be more than just a teacher who teaches, but a teacher for life, who teaches the students about culture and politeness. In addition, human teachers can understand humans better than a machine can, they understand our mistakes in homework and in tests and can teach us how to correct them. The mechanical teacher can understand only what he is programmed to.

To conclude, in my opinion, the best way of learning is the way we learn, with a real teacher in a school because a human being needs company. Moreover, a human being needs more than just a teacher who teaches, but also a teacher for life who can understand him, as a human being. 

Better, but it's still a bit messy.
(75)
Daphna

Midaber 7 - Piracy: Good or Bad?

Piracy is an illegal break of copyrights. Today, piracy is very popular and almost everyone downloads songs, movies and games illegally. One of the reasons for this popularity is that downloading anything is easier than ever with the Internet. Also, downloading songs and movies is very accessible and free. Unlike buying them legally, what you need to go to a store and to pay for the movie/song/game.  I am against piracy.

Downloading songs or movies or games or anything else with copyrights is a violation of the law and in other words - piracy. Piracy is illegal. if you download songs from the Internet you are considered criminals. According to the law, downloading songs illegally is the same as stealing! In Israel breaking this law can get you either 5 years in prison or  thousands of NI'S' fine.

Downloading is a substitute for buying, therefore when you download your favorite singer's songs you actually harm his livelihood and reduce the chances he will record a new song. If you like your favorite singer - buy his songs, because when you don't buy songs but download them, the singer doesn't get his money and can't release more songs.

In conclusion, piracy is a bad thing, which is considered a violation of the law and harms people. Therefore in my opinion, piracy has to be forbidden drastically. I suggest that the law against piracy will be enforced(gr.) more severely than it is, until piracy will lose its popularity.

(70)
Daphna

Midaber 6 - Cell phones in schools: Good or Bad?

Cell phones are very popular these days. Almost every teenager and even young children own at least one. This has created a problem in schools, since students bring their cell phones with them to class, and sometimes use them during a lesson to play games, send messages and listen to music. A month ago, my principal decided that students would not be allowed to bring cell phones to school because the cell phones disturb to normal lesson and help to cheat on exams. In my opinion, this rule is fair, but not all the pupils have the same opinion as me. 

I support the rule, because:

First, Students often forget to turn off their phones in class or just don't want to, and the ringing noises or text-message alerts disrupt the learning. Even if the cell phones are set to silent mode, cell phones can still cause distraction, since text messaging has become a high-tech method of passing notes in school. For example, if I forget to turn off my phone and the phone rings in the middle of a lesson, all the students will be distracted by the ringing phone, and so will the teacher.

Second, Phones can be used as cheating devices during exams. Before the cell phones were made, or at least became popular, cheating on exam was more difficult. The cell phone is more accessible and easy to hide to use for cheating on exams. Cheating on exams is a violation of school rules and when the violation of rules has become easy to perform and difficult to catch, more people will do it and it will become more popular. As a result, it'll be more difficult to catch pupils cheating on an exam than before.

In conclusion, I agree with the new rule, which says that cell phones are not allowed in school, because cell phones are used to break rules, for example, using cell phones in a lesson, cheating on exams with the help of cell phones. Now, with the new rule, less pupils are cheating on tests, because it is more difficult without cell phones. Also, there are less distractions in the class than when the cell phones were allowed.

Good work.

(92)

Daphna

Midaber 5 - School Tours: Good or Bad?

School activities are supposed to expose the students to culture and art, as well as enrich their knowledge. One example of my class' school activities is a visit to the Tel Aviv University which, in my opinion, was the most interesting school tour which I have ever been to. I think that school activities are very important but that depends on their topic.

In my opinion, school activities are very important, because first, the school activities teach beyond the material which is taught in the class. In school activities the students learn facts, which improve the general knowledge, widen horizons. Facts which are learned in the school activities, may be more important than the school learned material. For example, at the lecture about sleep, we learned about ways to remember dreams, an important thing which is good to know. Secondly, some pupils wouldn't go to places like theatre, muzeum on their own.

Another reason, In school activities the students learn the facts in a more fun and interesting way than in school, which in my opinion is better. In that way the facts and the information are learned better than in school.  For example,  in "She-la-ch" trips the pupils don't just learn the material in class, they go outside, to the field, and visit the places which the pupils learned in class.

In conclusion, school activities are very important for general knowledge and to get out from the school to the field and understand the learned material in a better way. In my opinion, school activities are very important, but there are some activities which I think are superfluous, for example, going to the theatre, because I don't think that going to the theatre teaches necessary things. In addition, the tour spends studying day.  In my opinion, school activities, like visiting in universities, museums and lectures need to replace the theatre.

(88)

Daphna

Midaber 4 - Favorite personality

My favorite personality is Albert Einstein.

I first heard about Albert Einstein in elementary school. Albert Einstein was a theoretical, physicist and philosopher. He was and he is one of the greatest genius men in the history of science. He was known for his physical discoveries that influenced the modern physics.

Albert Einstein was born in 1879 in Ulm in Germany. In 1889, Max Talmey introduced Einstein to key texts in science, mathematics and philosophy. In 1895 Einstein wrote his first scientific work - "The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields". Einstein was sent to Aarau, In Aarau, Einstein studied Maxwell's electromagnetic theory. In 1896 he enrolled the "four year mathematics and physics teaching diploma program" at the Polytechnic in Zurich. Who was also enrolled to there was his future wife, Mileva Marić. Over the few years they learned together, their friendship became a romance. Einstein and Marić married in 1903. They had three children. In 1919 Einstein and Marić divorced, after a few months Einstein married again with Elsa Löwenthal.

Albert Einstein discovered a lot of things, he wrote some of them in his "General relativity" some things he published in the science magazine ("Annalen der Physik"). In 1922, Einstein was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics - "for his services to Theoretical Physics and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". On April 17, 1955, Albert Einstein experienced internal bleeding caused by the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He died in the Hospital early the next morning. Einstein was a pacifist and a proud Jew. In 1972 The Bank of Israel issued bills with Einstein's face on them. In 1999 the American news magazine - "Time", named Einstein "The Person of the Century".

In conclusion, Einstein was a very good scientist and in my opinion was one of the most important men in history. In addition to his discoveries, Einstein was a proud Jew and this is the reason why I chose him for my favorite personality. Without Einstein our physics won't be so advanced at all. So for me - Einstein is definitely the man of the century.

I think this essay need to be checked again.

Good work.

(85)

Daphna