In this article, students at Scarsdale Middle School are learning to be more empathetic towards each other by doing different things, like hanging out with autistic children after school, and discussing Romeo and Juliet. I thought it was weird when the author described the students as privaleged, I think he could have used another word to describe these kids, because I always feel when someone says "privaleged", they really mean bratty! Also, when I read through the reasons as to why the school has decided to teach empathy to its students, I was shocked. All of the examples were nothing new to me, but similar scenarios as to what it going on at my school. I immeadiatly thought.."do these events happen in everyone's school?" and "should our school be teaching empathy?"


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/education/05empathy.html?em

This article is about a mother who talks about how addicted her kids are to text messaging even after her husband had banned them from it. Although she admits to liking it, she has mixed view points on the issue and secretly wished her husband would bring it back. When I was reading this, I have to be honest and say that I got a little annoyed. I wanted the author to pick a side and stay with it instead of flipping back and forth. I felt like every other paragraph she changed her mind on the issue. Also, in the byline, the journalists talks about how text messaging can cause bullying and driving accident. Later in the article she talks about the bullying part but never mentions anything about the driving part. I don't think that it was neccasary to add in the byline if they weren't going to talk about it in their actual article..


http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/when-dad-banned-text-messaging/#more-861

After I read the article "Good Grief, Nurse Brown" I was shocked to find out that it wasn't written by a journalist, but a nurse! I really liked this article, it was interesting to see a side of nursing that not many people might think about when they sign up for the job. Theresa Brown, an oncology nurse, talks about getting attached to patients, and them coming to work to find out that they have passed away. The first sentance in this paragraph is "It’s hard to have a job where people die, to show up on Monday after a weekend off and find out that three patients, all well known and dear, are dead", and as sad as it is to read, it also hooks the readers attention and makes them want to read on. I believe that it captures the readers attention so easily because it puts them into there own shoes, they immediatly think "what if that happened to me at my job?" I also really liked how the "journalist" helped the reader understand how she felt by adding in scenarios of Charlie Brown. I thought it was really cool to see an episode of Charlie Brown summarized in a very mature article- it almost seems cliche! My favorite part of this article was when she mentioned her bike ride to and from work and says "My ride home is mostly uphill, and the last few blocks can be a killer after a 12-hour shift. But when I finally get home, sweaty and panting, I’ve mulled over the ups and downs of the day — the blanket I forgot to get someone, the home care nurse who drove me crazy, the impossibility of being three places at once — and I’ve also begun to digest the sadder kinds of events that weigh on me over time." I loved how she was able to emotionally analyze herself, which definetly gave the reader a better understanding about her life and what she experiences on a daily basis.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/helping-nurses-cope-with-grief/#more-2477

The IPhone Gold Rush

After going through a phase of wanting an Iphone, the second I saw this article I had to read it. This article is about a man named Ethan Nicholas who was having trouble paying some of his bills in this bad economy. After finding out that his bonus had been cut for this year, he needed to find a way to earn money. Mr. Nicholas decided to try and invent an application game for Iphone's and Itouch's in order to gain some much needed cash. As I was reading the journalist said that after Nicholas had earned up to $35,000, he called his boss and quit his job. I wished that the author mentioned the average salary or house price of the area that he lived, just so the reader could get a better idea of what $35,000 would mean to their family. I think by saying that, it would offer more clarity to the reader. Another thing that the author could have added was the level of difficulty of inventing an application, is it something that everyone could do? Or only something that people with computer programming skills achieve?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/fashion/05iphone.html?em

The Sudden Charm of Public School
by Teri Rogers

When I first saw the headline for this article, I thought it was going to be about how public schools have been improving over the years. Although as soon as I read it I quickly realized that public schools have become more popular because of the recession. I really liked how the author wrote this piece, I felt as if she wrote it in the style of a new's article, even though it is a feature. The bulky, major information is in the beggining, and less important information is at the bottom. I really liked the title "The Sudden Charm of Public School" because it makes you want to keep reading her article!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/realestate/05Cov.html?_r=1&hpw

Pilot Returns Home to a Hero’s Welcome

When I read this article about the pilot who had safely landed an airplane holding over 150 people in the Hudson River because of engine problems, I was glad to see that the journalist was able to show the reader just how low-key and modest he actually is. But, I did notice a few things about his writing that really opened my eyes. While I was reading, I noticed that there wasn't too many quotes in the article, but then at the end there was four quotes in a row. I thought it was odd that the author put them altogether instead of spreading them throughout his article. The quotes were also all from adults and parents. The journalist could have varied the people he got his quotes from by adding opinions of younger people. Also, the quotes all had the same general idea- that the incident was 'never-before-seen' and totally shocking. The journalist could have gotten quotes from passengers on the plane that would have made the reader have a personal connection to the story. I also thought that the paragraph "Standing erect in a dark suit, gray shirt and tie....while their two daughters watched from the front row" could have been placed a lot sooner in the article, because I thought that it was able to show right off the bat that the pilot was a normal guy with a family, that was able to make a difference and save many lifes. I got the impression from the article, that that is what he was trying to show the reader, and I think that if he placed this sooner in the article he would be able to get his point across sooner.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/nyregion/25pilot.html?fta=y