Blog Assignment #10

"Do you Teach or Do you Educate?"

I found this video to be very interesting. I think the question "Do you Teach or Do you Educate" is very, very good question that all educators should ask themselves. In order to be in this profession we need to be able to teach. But, maybe some people that already are or plan to go into the "teaching" profession don't always intend on educating.

Educating to me means that I will give whatever it is that I can give to my students to ensure that they LEARN and SUCCEED. In order to do this I'm sure this will take a lot of time. Probably a lot of the time it will take my personal time. Not the the designated school time from 7:45 a.m. to 3:05 p.m. I'm sure I will have to knock down some of my learning boundaries so that I can find new ways for children to learn. Educating to me also translates into caring. You truly have to love your students and want what's best for them. It means taking a personal interest in their lives. In order to educate I plan to give as much love, support, and time as I can possibly give to make sure that my students get the EDUCATION they deserve!

Tom Johnson's- "Don't Let Them Take The Pencils Home"

I really enjoyed reading Mr. Johnson's post "Don't Let Them Take The Pencils Home". Personally, I thought his writing style helped to make the post clear and fun to read. I believe that the point of Mr. Johnson's post was that so many teachers almost "give in" to the (ever scary) Standardized Testing monster and for-go the day to day reason for "teaching". Mr. Johnson didn't have Standardized tests in mind when he came up with his "pencil project". What he had in mind was something so much more than that.

Mr. Johnson was looking at the bigger picture (Not to say that Standardized test are not important). He was trying to find a way to help the kids (and parents) in his class look at pencils as TOOLS not TOYS. He said that he tried to keep his students busy with projects and assignments so that they could use the pencils but then he was questioned with "what if they play Hang Man with them?" I loved his response to this which was, "But if they choose to play Hang Man or go on the pen pal networks, I'm okay with it. There's probably some learning that's taking place that we don't realize." Yes, you heard it! Straight from the EDUCATORS mouth!