How the iPad Has Helped Us Learn

This is my second year using a school-issued iPad, and I have to say, I love it. Since I first started using an iPad for learning purposes, I've become familiar with many apps, including notability, schoology, educreations, flipboard, nearpod, flashcardlet, and many more. These apps have greatly enriched the curriculum for the classes they've been selected for. Notability, for example, is perfect for note taking, organizing, completing assignments, and even starting rough drafts for papers. What I love about an app like this is that it's like a huge folder that I can divide up into different subjects. I'm not the most organized person, so this really helps me out because I don't have to keep track of a million papers; they're all together on my iPad. Other apps, like schoology and flipboard, are helpful because you can observe things that other students and teachers post. We even access most our assignments on schoology. I consider apps such as educreations, nearpod, and flashcardlet excellent study/practice tools. I use flashcardlet to study my AP Bio terms every week, which is so convenient because I don't have to worry about carrying around a bunch of little notecards. Nearpod is often used to have interactive presentations in classes, where teachers design the slides to have questions on them and students can type and submit an answer. Educreations is also a great app to learn from because you can type, draw, insert pictures, and create an audio recording to go along with it all. It's like a much cooler and more improved version of a PowerPoint presentation. It helps me understand material so much better when I can write or draw it out and explain it in words with an app like that. Those are just a few of the amazing apps I regularly use on my iPad. They continue to prove very useful in my comprehension of material and ability to be prepared and organized for classes.

Open Market Operations

http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/06/openmarketoperations.asp
This article about open market operations is such a great connection to what we've learned in class. It goes into depth about each of the two open market operations, and clearly shows the connection between changes in aspects of the economy, like money supply, interest rates, investment, and inflation, due to the effects of these policies. Just like we discussed in class, the article pointed out that the Federal Reserve System (specifically the Federal Open Market Committee) is responsible for the control of money supply and, therefore, inflation, by putting these policies into action. The article distinguished between buying securities to increase the money supply (expansionary) and selling securities to decrease the money supply (contractionary) and even mentioned that the securities used in open market operations are Treasury bills, bonds, and notes, just as we learned. Something the article really helped my understanding of was the effect the policies have on the amount of lending money banks have. We had already covered that concept this chapter, but reading this article even furthered my comprehension of the topic. In my opinion, articles like this one are really useful studying tools because they reiterate the material we've learned in class and from reading the chapters in our textbooks, and sometimes they present ideas in ways that might be easier for us to understand. Plus, repetition of the concepts can never hurt.

Janet Yellen to be Next Chairwoman

President Obama has nominated Janet Yellen to become chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, replacing the current chairman, Ben Bernanke, as he retires. This decision has created a lot of controversy among U.S. citizens, but I happen to support it. First off, Yellen is very well-educated; she completed her undergraduate studies at Brown Univeristy and received her PhD from Yale University. She has worked hard to become qualified for this job, through being an economic advisor to Bill Clinton, being President of the Federal Reserve in San Fransisco, and currently working as vice chair of the United States Federal Reserve, alongside Ben Bernanke. Besides being qualified, I believe she would make a good chairwoman because she plans to continue with the Fed's current policies of improving employment rates while controlling inflation, which are low-interest-rate policies. These policies have definitely helped the economy already, and they would only continue to help by her enforcement of them. She also addresses possible issues in the economy, like future inflation or the continuation of monetary stimulus policies for too long, and devises plans to handle those situations. In my opinion, Janet Yellen has more than enough experience and wisdom to efficiently take on the title of chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, and will make helpful decisions concerning the future of our economy.