Cinderella Team

VCU is an up and coming team in NCAA basketball. After hiring Shaka Smart as the head coach they have much improved with a record of 111-39, three NCAA tournament appearances, and a final four appearance. Smart has really turned VCU into a power house which has helped them move up into a bigger and tougher conference. The Atlantic 10 has a lot of promising teams that will help VCU prepare for big teams coming to tournament time. Smarts philosophy is his “Havoc defense” because of his up-tempo defense to get steals and turnovers. They led the league in steals with around 10 per game. They lost some players after last season but key additions like JeQuan Lewis will help this season’s team a lot. They have finally gotten the recognition they deserved with a top 25 rating for the first time. Teams are going to have trouble with their “Havoc defense” this season which makes VCU so tough to beat. They will grind it out till the end of the game with Smart pushing them to victory. #WatchOut

http://www.thebestsportsblog.com/cinderella-man.html

Road to the Final Four

Uconn has just moved into a new conference this year and is looking to dominate and hopefully go far during tournament time. They are led by their senior guard Shabazz Napier who is in contention for the player of the year. He has been superior this season with a game winner and clutch moments to help boost his team to three one point wins. They say he is the best competitor for preseason favorite Marcus Smart for player of the year. He is only 6-foot-1 and he is putting up outstanding stats, averaging 16.4 points, 5.6 assists, and 7.3 rebounds. He leads his team in all three categories which is weird because he has teammates that are way taller than he is and he still averages more rebounds. He is very aggressive and when the game is on the line he can turn on a switch that makes him unstoppable. He is also averaging more points when it’s a close game because he is capable of taking over games. Because of Napier Connecticut is one of the hottest team right now and they hope to continue this play all year long. Uconn basketball is a very exciting to watch and behind Shabazz’s leadership they hope to make greatness. #HuskiePride  

NCAA Scouting Report: Creighton’s Doug McDermott

Doug McDermott is a 6’8” forward from the University of Creighton who is looking to make a living in the next level of competition we call the NBA. Scouts are unsure that McDermott will be able to compete and excel in the NBA. He has always been a leader at Creighton and this year he is stepping up the most because it’s his senior year. NBA scouts are saying Doug’s most impressive attribute is his shooting ability for his size. He has always shot around 50% from 3-point land which is quite impressive for someone who spends most of their time in the paint. They point out he doesn’t have the best form for shooting but I believe it doesn’t matter because he can shoot lights out. He is not the best size for the position he would play in the NBA. He would be best at the 4 spot but it would be difficult for him to guard other 4’s whose sizes are around 6’10”. If he moved down to the 3 spot I don’t believe he would be quick enough to keep up while defending. He has had big games before and this year he has already had a 37 point game against the University of Missouri-Kansas City. If a team is looking for a takeover kinda guy McDermott is not the guy their looking for. He is not a player who can turn a whole organization around or be able to build a championship team around. He is a very skilled player at what he does best. He will probably be a role player at best. Be able to come off the bench and make the defense work differently. You never know about some players coming into the NBA. There has been many surprises in the NBA and Doug could be one of those players who no one expects to do well and ends up proving everyone wrong.  Doug McDermott is a very talented basketball player and it will be exciting to see where he ends up in the Draft. #TheFutureoftheNBA

“The Portland Trail Blazers Are Scorching, But Can It Last?”

The Portland Trail Blazers are coming off some rebuilding years and now are ready to show the NBA how good they really are. After acquiring Damian Lillard from Weber State in last year’s draft they have showed great signs of a becoming a great force in the Western Conference. Damian Lillard was named the rookie of the year and is showing the NBA he is good enough to be an All-Star. The Portland Trail Blazers did some off-season trading and ended up getting two major players. Robin Lopez who is the first actual center to play with Portland in a while and Mo Williams who is an explosive point guard off the bench. They had to give up a few players in return like JJ. Hickson but it was for the better of the team. They have started this year 9-2 and want to keep winning to make the playoffs. The Western conference much harder compared to the East so the Blazers will have to continue this play all year long. Can they do it? I’m not sure, but with a point guard like Lillard and an All-Star in LaMarcus Aldridge it’s hard to doubt the possibilities. Portland has improved their bench and defense from last years which was horrible. Gaining Robin Lopez and Mo Williams puts a bigger guy in the paint to try and stop scoring and scoring point guard off the bench. Their offense is ranked 3^rd while their defense is 18^th through 11 games. Having such a good offense will help not having a great defense. Terry Stotts, Portland’s coach, has decided on defense schemes that he thinks will help and so far it hasn’t been too bad.  This is Portland’s best year in a long time and they hope to continue their play so they can have a chance in the playoffs and just maybe contend for the championship. #RipCity!

 

I just got done reading a little article on ESPN called “What if LeBron took 30 shots a game “by Tom Haberstroh. LeBron had just come off a win scoring 39 points against the Mavericks. He only took 18 field goal attempts to reach to reach that score. This is crazy due to the fact that he was making most all of his shots in a league where there are players who defend the rim at all costs. Also because most other players have to take 30+ shots to even reach 30 points.  The Monday before Rudy Gay (Toronto Raptor Forward) took 37 shots and had a total of 29 points. This is more than twice as many attempts as LeBron with only 29 points.  This was the most LeBron had ever scored with 18 attempts or fewer. I believe he is getting better as the season goes on and will be the best he has ever been by the end of the season. He has just gotten off his recent NBA Championship and now is hungry for another. If he is able to do this he will have gotten his first three peat and possibly started to be compared to the greatness of Michael Jordan. After his game against the Mavericks he was asked about his reaction about other players shooting 30 times or more. “Um…If you give me 37 shots in a game, I’d have 60 ... 70.” He also said “I had [almost] 40 now with 18 shots, I mean ... If you give me 37 shots in a game, I’d put up 60. Easy.” After he said that I thought about how crazy it would be if he was able to score that much. James’ scoring average is 1.6875 points per attempt and 37 times 1.6875 is 62. 4. According to the math he technically would be scoring 60-70 points a game if he took almost 40 shots. LeBron is a crazy talented and athletic basketball player but it is very uncharacteristic for him to be taking over 30 shots. He is a team player but will do whatever it takes to get the win.     

Reflection

It all started last year when I decided to take this class. I was scared at first because I didn’t think I would be able to write good enough papers or I would get stressed out. I hadn’t had Mrs. Baldwin, my English teacher, for a whole year so I forgot how cool she was. Since the year has started we have written 4 papers, and I haven’t done as bad as a thought. I have actually learned quite a bit. We have had a whole session on commas and learned how to use citations and where to put them. I still have trouble with both of these but the year has only started. My biggest difficulty is not using weasel words. It’s extremely hard to avoid using them for me. Switching sentences around just to get rid of them takes forever. I’m hoping to learn more good qualities and techniques to become a better writer. I want to be prepared by the time I get into college so I don’t have too much trouble.

This is the first English class I enjoy because of my great teacher and hardworking classmates. We always joke around and make writing fun. I never enjoyed English in all my years so it surprises me that I can make it through class time without falling asleep. This class has taught myself to become a better writing in my mind, and I hope to get even better by the end of this class.

Video Games in Classrooms

                                            Video Games in Classrooms 

Video games are a topic being discussed whether or not they are effective in school classrooms. All teachers have a different way of teaching and some believe video games can be used for educational purposes. Six out of ten teachers say that digital games “help personalize instruction, better assess knowledge, and collect helpful data” (Richardson 46). Most of the teachers who incorporate video games choose the ones created specifically for educational purpose, focusing on math, spelling and other subjects. But some teachers and parents are still questioning the video game philosophy and aren’t sure teachers can use them to teach students.

There is increasingly widespread evidence of the positive effects of video games on learning. “Gamers are able to explore different scenarios and ideas they wouldn’t be able to do in the regular classroom setting” (Mifsud, Velina and Camilleri 33). Minecraft is becoming one of the most popular games to use in a classroom. It allows players to have the freedom to create anything in a Lego-like environment. They can create their dream vacation or the house of their dreams easily. Older students can use this program to recreate historic scenes and battles to help understand had happened in that era (Richardson 46).

Some students prefer to be taught using video games because of their strong interest in them. This can lead to more motivation and participation in the students for class work. “Some parents also agree that video games can be tools for learning in specific subjects and skills like decision-making, design, strategy and cooperation” (Mifsud, Velina and Camilleri 34). Students will become more interactive through video games than just the regular lesson in books. Teachers might also see grades go up due to the students who are more interested in school now because of video games.

The main reason that teachers incorporate video games into the lesson is for more motivation and interaction with the students. “Some teachers would not consider using video games in their teaching as they deem these to have little or no educational value; they believe there are better types of resources, and there is no time for such activities” (Mifsud, Velina and Camilleri 34). Teachers need to have a balance of letting kids explore on their own while having time to do school work on the video games. If someone uses too many video games or school work they might either get bored from school work or get too addicted to the video games (35).

While playing gamers can encounter new symbols, letters, and words that they must learn. “Children who participate in literacy programs, which include online games, have significantly better letter-naming and letter-sounding skills and demonstrate significantly story and print concepts, and knowledge of letters in their names.” Some difficulties can occur while teaching video games to students like addiction or disobey there teacher. Thus teachers need to have support from the school so no delays ruin class time (Mifsud, Velina and Camilleri 35).

What kind of video games are best for learning? Game developers are still debating on this topic. While research is still limited the National Research Council found in 2011 that in science, “simulations and games have potential to advance multiple science learning goals, including motivation to learn science, conceptual understanding, science process skills, understanding of the nature of science, scientific discourse and argumentation, and identification with science and science learning” (Richardson 50). Sylvia Martinez, president of generation YES, says there are games out there that just ask for an answer and others that challenge students and make them research the answer. Games that challenge student’s brains should be the ones used by teachers (Richardson 49). Video games can provide many different possibility’s that the player must explore and find out.

A teacher in Flint, Michigan, let his students use games and he said that when the students learned on the game it didn’t transfer over to when they took their tests. Even when it seemed they grasped the information on the game they would forget it when taking the test. He thought that since the games were more fun than the assessments, the students weren’t as interested. He would always have to remind them that they just did the same kind of problem on the game (Mader). Video games in general can be a disadvantage. Video games can become addicting to the player. Kids are skipping school now days to play their favorite games because of addiction. (Windhurst). I knew a kid from my school that chose video games over education and dropped out. Violence can come from video games if kids decide to imitate what they do in the game. Obesity is another factor due to addiction to games, because of lack of exercise and unhealthy eating habits (Windhurst). These are just some disadvantages of video games outside of school. This does not mean bad habits or violence will come for students playing during school. If teachers can control what types of games students play and for how long they play nothing should escalade out of control.

In what research I have done I learned some very interesting ways of how video games can be used. Having students use them during class is totally up to the teacher whether he/she believes they help. Kids can get more motivated for school work from video games. Letting them learn hands-on can open up another way to understand. It’s not like the students are playing all day, but if they are allowed to play some days they can possibly be more excited about school. Games do have some disadvantages but they can be eliminated if the teachers knows what they are doing and how to control the games. It’s all about if the students are learning and if they aren’t with regular books and lessons it can’t hurt to try something new.