Blog Post #10

As a teacher I intend to educate rather than teach by making sure that the tools I use to educate are up to date and relative. From being in Dr.Strange's class I have learned the importance of incorporating technology in the classroom. I did not have this very often growing up and I feel like I was missing out. I do not want my students to feel this way. Technology is such a big part of our society that I find it almost unfathomable to teach without it.

Another way I want to educate instead of teach is to make sure that the children can relate to the material that is being relayed. I am sure that this will not happen for all lessons but I at least want this to be possible for most. For most of my classes all I did was memorize. Much of the material that I would "learn" would go in one ear and out the other. I want to make it possible for my students to relate and remember what the lesson was on. I feel as though I can do this by making the lessons more enjoyable and creative.

Tom Johnson's "Don' Let Them Take the Pencils Home," was very informative. The argument that Johnson wrote about was whether or not children should be allowed to bring pencils home from school because they lower test scores. This argument had a message in it. As teachers we often look at the problem rather than the solution. If we do not take a step back and look at how we can fix the problem, than it just keeps reoccurring.

Gertrude is the name of the woman who is trying to keep the children from bringing home the pencils. She argues that the ones who bring home the pencils play games with them rather than learn. Johnson argues that even if they are playing games with the pencils, they can still be learning. If the play hangman they are practicing writing letters and spelling words. There are so many different ways of learning.