Language - society & cultural connections

 How has gender shaped your experiences as a knower, particularly in the use of language.

For the most part I do not feel that my gender has played a huge role in my experience as a knower, especially since I do not try and let it shape my experiences as a knower. I feel that the biggest part that my gender has affected my as a knower with language is just from phrases that I use that if I was a boy I would not use. For example I will call my friends, "girl" and I know I have a bad habit of saying "oh my god," a lot. I feel that this is highly influenced by the fact that I am a girl, and that these are phrases that mainly girls use. Another big difference is that I try my best to avoid slag, to the point where if someone uses slag most of the time I have no idea what they are talking about. I feel this is influences by not only the way I was brought up, but because I am a girl. I feel like boys are more prone to use slag and short hand things, such as the use of 'ur' instead of 'your.' Every time I am in a situation where slag is used, and I do not understand it, it when I am talking to a guy. I also feel that the way in which girls communicate with each other is very different than when guys talk to each other, or a girl and guy talk to each other. When girls talk to each other it is always very positive and polite, especially if you are not close with the other person, which I believe is very different than when guys talk to each others. Girls also always manage to find a common interest between them, and it usually is a mutual disliking about somethings. I feel that this is very unique to girls, and this changes ourselves as a knower, because the way in which we act and the things in which we experience make us know what we know and act how we act. 

Superstition & belief

This article claims that lucky charms and superstitions have no affects on the performance on how you do. All the lucky charm does is put you in a certain mindset that makes you belief that you can do it and then you have more confidence in yourself and therefore set a higher goal for yourself. The lucky charms do not actually have any magic to them, it just has to do with the belief that you put into that object's power. If you do not belief in the power of the object then it does nothing for you, since it is all just in ones brain. An example of this is when players on a hockey team feel that they cannot shave during the playoff session and every member of the team must have a playoff beard or else they will preform badly and cause the team to lose. This beard helps the hockey players because they is more confident in themselves because of the beards and therefore sets a higher goal for themselves with the mindset of "I can do this." If they do not have this beard then they will feel uneasy and anxious and feel that they cannot succeed without the beards, making it so they have lower standards for themselves. If one has low standards for themselves and the mindset of "I cant do this," then they will not preform very well. There are both positive and negatives impacts on holding superstitions. A positive impact is that one will feel a lot more confident in themselves if they have a lucky charm or follow through with a certain ritual, and confidence is key in preforming well. Another positive impact is that it gives a person something to belief in and something that is always true to them and will not turn on them, which makes people feel comforted. There are also a lot of negative impacts of superstitions. One negative impact is that one can become completely dependent on the superstition to the point where if they do not have their lucky charm or follow through with a certain ritual then they will feel off and extremely anxious to the point where they keep messing up on the task they are trying to preform. Another negative impact is that you give all the credit to the lucky charm or ritual for everything good that happens instead of giving credit to yourself. For example, if someone has a lucky charm that they use during a test and then they do well on the test, they will give all the credit to the lucky charm and not yourself, who is the one who did all of the work. This relates back to being dependent on the object and since you have so much confidence in the object you do not have so much confidence in yourself as a person who is doing all of the work.
Why "Magical Thinking" Works for Some People article:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=superstitions-can-make-you&page=2

Truth and Deception

• Describe a specific example from any area of knowledge (AOK, eg, the arts, history, economics, psychology, mathematics, business), where you feel that deception may be necessary to knowing. The example may or may not relate to your direct personal experience, but make your views as a knower clear; it may be the case that person(s) involved in the example you relate have a different perspective on truth and deception than you do.

There are many different times when deception is necessary in order to know the truth. In mathematics the teacher often deceives the students in order that they learn something and understand it completely. In math a teacher will often teach the students a rule and tell them that this rule is always true and to learn it and live by it. But then later on the teacher will tell the students that that rule is not necessarily always true and that really there are a lot of exceptions to the rule. There is a very good reason for this deception. If the teacher did not deceive the students and told them that there are tons of exceptions to the rule, then the students may get lost or discouraged and in the end not learn anything. The teacher deceive the students for their own benefits, and so that they actually learn something. Another example of deception where it is necessary is when talking to little kids. One time where you would lie and deceive a little kid is with Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, etc. During Christmas time a parent will tell little kids that Santa is coming, and the lies become their truths and they fully believe that Santa Clause is real. In reality, there is no Santa Clause and it is all just for fun and makes things seem magical for the kids. But eventually the lie must come to an end and some one tells the children that Santa is not real. Everyone finds it out differently, some children figure it out for themselves, some people have someone slip it to them, and others have their parents break it to them in a calming manner. Without the deception of Santa Clause children would never know what it is like to believe in something as magical as Santa Clause, and during the time where children believe in Santa they do not know that they are being deceived because from their knowledge it is the truth that Santa is real. 

Evaluating Knowledge Claims

Tongue Personality Article

CAS-TOK Connections Reflection

4. Recently, we've discussed knowing and believing and having good reasons. What are good reasons for claiming learining outcomes for a CAS proposal? Refer to one or more specific CAS learning outcomes. [TOK critical thinking]

The reason that we can claim learning outcomes for CAS is because we do not know if they will be achieved but we believe that we will achieve them. The reason that we believe that we will acquire these learning outcomes is because we have faith that we will learn certain things from the CAS activity. For example, commitment is one of the learning outcomes for CAS and it is one of my learning outcomes that I believe I can achieve from going to yoga every week. I believe that I can be committed to going to yoga because I am motivated to do it and have the mindset that I will try to achieve this goal, but it is highly possible that I just stop going to yoga class every week and therefore I will not be committed to the activity. I will not know that I have learned to be committed to an activity such as yoga till the future where I have evidence of being committed to the class. The CAS reflections are a wonderful to make sure that I stay committed and follow through with something I can believe I can do, because when doing CAS reflections it forces you to write down your thoughts about the activity. I know as of right now I am struggling to stay committed to my yoga class because I feel that I do not have time to go to yoga with all of the homework I have to do, and by the time I get home I am too tired and have to drag myself to class. If it wasn't for the CAS reflections I would not go every week and I would probably eventually stop going and I would not think anything of it, but because of the CAS reflections and having a learning outcome that I want to achieve being commitment I know that I have to go and follow through with the class. 

Self as a Knower

Two ways of Areas of Knowledge that describes myself are math and natural sciences, because I have a very logically way of thinking so therefore to me maths and sciences makes more sense than something like the arts. Also when I started high school I knew within the first year that I was going to take HL biology and HL math. Another thing is that even though I have no idea what I am going to do with the rest of my life I do know that I am going to do something that has to do with the maths or natural sciences because is what I hae always been interested in and passionate about.
My two Ways of Knowing that describe me best are reason and emotion. A lot of the things I do have to have a solid reason behind it and I will not just accept something as it is and will always question it until I am told a reason behind it. For example in math I cannot just accept an idea i need the reason behind it explained to me before I accept it. Also when I do something I need to have a reason behind it and most of the time it pertains to a bigger picture. For example I knew that I would be taking HL math as a class not only because I love math but because I know that it will help me out later in life. Also my reason behind doing the full IB is because I knew that it would benefit me and make me a more well rounded student. Even though I know a lot from reason I also consider emotions a lot, but usually not my own. I know things based on other people's emotions and try to consider other people's emotions when reasoning out a decision that I need to make. For example when I go to concerts and decide who to take with me I always consider other people's emotions. In August I went to a concert and had two extra tickets but I only brought one friend because I knew that if I brought another person someone's emotions would get hurt.
I personally think that I am a very reflective person because I always look back at the things I have done and the decisions that I have made and think of ways that I could have done something better and if I was put in that position again in the future what I could do better. Also every time I make a mistake I always try to learn from it and think of things that I could do better the next time. Also I think it is hard for me to be a risk taker and to express it well. In general I do not like to do things that there is a chance that I would not succeed. Sometimes I would take academic risk taking such as taking HL math but for the most part I general like to play it save and stay in my comfort zone, which is something I know I need to improve on.


I feel this picture describes me because I think a lot and always have something going though my head but since I am generally quiet and shy it stays in my head instead of being expressed.
 
"10 Myths About Introverts, article from CarlKingdom.com | eesahmu - [isamu] : Japanese for courage." eesahmu - [isamu] : Japanese for courage | Race and Faith from an Asian American Perspective. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2013. <http://eesahmu.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/10-myths-about-introverts-carlkingdom-com-writer-director-artist/>.