Blog Assignment 10

Do you Teach or Do you Educate?
This video was a great wake up call to the difference between being a teacher and being an educator.  When you "teach" the material you are instructing or explaining how to do something.  When you educate you inspire, enlighten, and empower your students.  I want to strive to be this type of educator one day.  I don't want to drill the information into my students brains so that all they do is memorize it.

I will have interactive activities that will keep them involved in their learning.  I want to be there for my students when they need to be advised.  Questions will be fully welcomed in my classroom.  I don't want any question unanswered.  If I don't know the answer to their questions, I will for sure find an answer.  I want my classroom to be inviting and to be a place that my students will enjoy to learn.

Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home
This was a very insightful post.  The blog post is an argument about whether or not children should be allowed to take pencils home from school with them.  One argument is that if you let the student bring the pencils home that it will lower their standardized test grades.  The woman, Gertrude, who is against the students bringing pencils home says that they just will play games with the pencils and not learn.  Johnson retaliates by saying even if they are playing games, they can still be learning.  Games like hangman help students writing letters and to spell out words.

This is not just some random blog post about pencils, there was a message behind it.  As teachers we often look at the problem, rather than looking for a solution.  We need to step back and look at the problem because if we don't then it will just keep occurring.  Johnson was optimistic about the pencils.  He knew that even if all the students at home were playing games with their pencils, at least they would be learning something.

As a teacher, I want to be a problem solver.  I want to be able to find solutions to problems in the classroom, like the case of the pencils.  If I have a positive outlook, I feel that I'd be able to find a good solution.  Any way to keep the students motivated to learn is good to me.  I know I will face times that are so tough to get through and frustrating, but I will have faith that my students are willing to learn from what I have to educate them in.