Blog Post #10

Do You Teach...Or Educate????

 
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.

An educator is one who gives moral and social instruction. A mentor is an experienced and trusted adviser.

The sentence in bold depicts exactly what has led me to pursue an education degree. I have gone through so many different "teachers" and not enough educators. I want to be the person that arrives bright, fresh and new and STAYS that way. I don't want to be the one to break down and give up half way through the school year. I want to believe my students can do better no matter what the circumstances and I know that I will do all I can to make that happen.

I believe that educating is the one of the careers you can't choose unless you are absolutely SURE you want to be  in that profession. You have to want it badly because if you don't, think of how your behavior will reflect upon the students. If the students know you want to absolutely dedicate 100%  of your time to trying to better their intelligence and understanding, than they will appreciate you more than those they know who don't care.

It really worries me to see people who don't belong in this profession in my education classes. I can tell immediately from their attitudes and how they work. I want to show the world that there is still hope for the public school systems and their employees. Have faith in the few of those educators who still have faith in their students!! There are still excellent teachers out there who want to lead these children into a better future and I am going to be one of them. I love children and I love the idea of guiding them towards a better life and to a better understanding of the world.

I want to become an EDUCATOR because I have every intention of TEACHING children how to be better than they ever thought possible. I want them to explore every corner of knowledge and navigate the vast landscape of learning with confidence and overwhelming excitement.

Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home 

 To begin with, School Curriculum Instructional Interventionist Academic Specialist is a mouthful! Mr. Spencer is asked by Gertrude (the holder of the complex title I previously mentioned) to stop letting the children take the pencils home. He lists off the usual concerns with carrying a sharp pencil, but surprisingly they're irrelevant to the real  problem.

"...students who use pencils at home have lower standardized test scores."

Well Mr.Spencer had a problem with this research. He believes that what he calls "drill-and-kill" bubble testing isn't authentic research. He also feels that the poor are often marginalized and that clever marketers tailor pencil use in poor areas towards entertainment. The children from these areas think these pencils are a sort of toy. Even after explaining how he met with the parents to promote involvement with their child's learning, Gertrude still insists the only fix is to take their pencils away from them at the end of the day.

I thought this to be a pretty interesting post. I love how this "research" blamed low standardized test scores on pencils. Not the pressure to do well or the fast paced cramming of information into the students brains, but pencils. We put our children on overload and they end up learning nothing. Instead of educating them for the long run, we teach them so they can temporarily contain the information for the tests they have to take.

In Larry Ferlazzo's blog posts, he quotes an excerpt from a study released on the usage of home computers by students. According to the study's abstract it reads...


…demonstrate[s] that the introduction of home computer technology is associated with modest but statistically significant and persistent negative impacts on student math and reading test scores. Further evidence suggests that providing universal access to home computers and high-speed internet access would broaden, rather than narrow, math and reading achievement gaps.

This is an example of a post similar to the one Mr. Spencer published. Mr. Ferlazzo is not a “true believer” in technology always having a positive effect on learning. The research he has done with his own students has reinforced that skepticism. At the same time, however, he believes that home computer usage can be used — selectively and strategically — to benefit student achievement.

I feel the same way. I believe that if children are instructed to use technology in the right way, then it can be absolutely beneficial. I also feel that certain things shouldn't ultimately be looked at as the sole sources for low test scores.