Do you Teach or Do you Educate?
Overall I thought that this was a good video. It was inspiring and had some great sound and visual effects. However some of the text was difficult to read because of the colors blending into the background. The main message of the video is that we need to be educators not just teachers. To teach is to instruct students with information or facts. To educate is more than teaching information. Educating is providing instruction to students and making sure that they understand. Educating is stimulating their learning abilities. Educating is inspiring their mental and moral growth. An educator leads their students in their journey of learning by being a teacher,mentor, coach and motivator. A student should be enlighten through education. An enlighten student can understand the world around them and is prepared to meet the challenges that they will face in life.
I want to educate students about history and social studies. I want my students to understand why we study history and social studies. History enlightens us about who we are and where we have been. History can help us to learn from our mistakes and we can also focus on the good things of our past. I want them to understand how our government works. Not only the strengths of our government, but the weaknesses as well. I want them to understand the importance of being an informed citizen. As well as the importance of voting so the voices of all citizens can be heard. I will strive not only to provide my students with information, but I will challenge them to think about what the information means and how it can be applied. I will challenge them to form ideas and opinions, rather then memorizing facts. I will encourage them to participate in debates with their peers on different topics to stimulate their thoughts. I will use multimedia technology to make the instruction more interesting and informative. I will use the internet and any other available technology to be more efficient at providing a stimulating learning environment.
Tom Johnson's Don't Let Them Take the Pencils Home!
Tom Johnson's post "Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home" was a very interesting and humorous story. It's about a school teacher having a conversation with Gertrude the School Curriculum Instructional Academic Specialist. Gertrude tells Tom that he cannot allow the students to take pencils home with them. He uses satire when he talks about the pencils in the story. The pencils really represent computers of some form like lap-tops or netbooks.
The school administrator cites a journal article that states that students who use computers at home have lower standardized test scores. Tom says, "The only measurement of learning was a drill-and-kill bubble test. How is that measuring authentic learning?" I agree teaching kids to pass standardized tests like we are doing in school is not really helping students to learn. Kids need to be able to analyze, critique, explore, create, and understand how to apply knowledge to the real world. The school administrator claims that the parents in the low income area of the school don't know how to use the computers so their kids will only use them to play games instead of school work. However, Tom says that he met with the parents and taught them skills that they can use to take charge of their kids with the computers at home. He admits that some kids may still play games on the computers, but there may still be some learning taking place. He also tries to find projects that will keep them interested. I believe if teachers give students assignments that are challenging and interesting they will be engaged in the learning process.
Mr. Dunnam,
ReplyDeleteI really love how you wrote about understanding when you talked about educating. I think it's very important to allow students to form an understanding of who, what, where, why and how. These questions are so fundamental. I was thrilled to read them in your post. Do you think that in order to be an effective educator we have to involve understanding in learning? I think you'll be a wonderful teacher, if you follow what you wrote about in your above post.
I also thought that Tom's Johnson's blog post was very interesting. However, I disagreed with part of your interpretation of his blog post. I do not necessarily think that Tom Johnson was referring to computers in his post. I did read the piece by Larry Ferlazzo on home-computer usage, but I feel the Tom Johnson made his post on pencils to show the lunacy of taking a single possible result and tying it to one definite outcome. I saw Gertrude as an example of someone who doesn't think about any other factors or possibilities. With all of that said, I do think that Tom Johnson wrote his post as satire.
Best,
Eleanor Pomerat
James,
DeleteI am so glad that you want to be an educator and not just a run-of-the-mill-teacher. I too believe that history is a key component to our society - well any society - and needs to be given more weight in the curriculum of today's public school system.
I am SO GLAD that you understood the satirical/metaphorical nature of Tom Johnson's blog post. Mr. Johnson was indeed commenting on computers and their place in the educational system. Your thoughts were both appropriate and interesting, so please disregard what Miss Pomerat has to say about your post. Your post was wonderfully done.
Thanks,
Rebekah Lloyd