Sunday, April 8, 2012

Blog Post 10

Do You Teach or Do you Educate

This video was short with few words, but it was very inspiring. To teach is to show or explain how to do something, to encourage someone to accept as fact or principle or to cause someone to learn or understand something. To educate is to inspire and empower. To give intelligent, moral, and social instruction. When I think back about past teachers that touched my life in some way, I realize that they weren't teachers..they were educators. They inspired me to want to learn, they were mentors that gave me guidance, and they inspired me to want to pursue a degree in education. I've always said that if I become a teacher, I'll be so much more than that. A friend, a mentor, a role model, as well as an educator. I want to inspire my students to want to learn, we cannot simply give students information and force them to learn; we have to show them the way to obtain and use information to help them become functional outside the classroom. I want to give my students lessons that they can they take with them and use later in life.


Don't Let Them Take The Pencils Home

 I thought it was very interesting how Mr Johnson expresses his opinions about the many flaws in our education system today.  Mr. Johnson is arguing with the school’s curriculum instructional interventionist academic specialist, Gertrude. She is adamant that Mr. Johnson does not allow his students to take home "pencils" after reading an article that stated students who come from a low income neighborhood and bring pencils home ultimately have lower test scores. The kids "play" with pencils instead of using them to learn. Mr. Johnson does not necessary agree with the article, but rather than continuing to argue with her, he offers a solution that involves meeting with the parents and explaining how "pencils" could be used for learning. She still is not convinced this is going to work and for Mr. Johnson to take their pencils away from them at the end of the day. Through this conversation, Mr. Johnson, creatively divulges his annoyances with the educational process today.  He expresses his distaste for the use of standardized test, and the degree to which many teachers go to teach toward those test.  He expresses the need to get parents more involved with their child's education.  He points out the importance of project based learning that keeps students interested.  He expresses the need to have some level of trust in our students and children. Far to often, we look for insignificant causes of problems rather than finding solutions. Or everyone just plays the blame game, instead of actually finding and addressing the problem.
pencil with computer
The pencil in the story can be replaced with a variety of tools. One could think of computers, internet, and other media tools as “pencils” that student just use for entertainment and have no idea how they can be used as educational tools. I believe that if children are instructed to use technology in the right way, then it can be absolutely beneficial.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Tina! I enjoyed reading your blog post. I agree with you saying that your past teachers made an impact on your decision to become an educator. I also want to be a trusted mentor to my students. For the part about not letting the students take pencils home, you explained very well. I found you using technology as an example interesting. It is so true. The education system could find all sorts of excuses. You also said that Mr. Johnson found a solution to the problem. That is great the Mr. Johnson found a solution, instead of following Gertrude. Good post!

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  2. You got the metaphor/allegory. Many of your classmates did not.

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  3. Thank you for your comments!

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