Blog Post 10

Do You Teach or Do You Educate?
How do I intend to educate and not teach? For starters, I will give my students tools and guide them in ways to properly use them. For example, how to effectively use the Internet to further their education, as opposed to using it for Facebook, video games, and music. It seems like it would be really easy to slam a worksheet down in front of the student and tell them “go.” Anyone can stand in front of a classroom and read a from lecture notes. Instead of just lecturing, I would make it a conversation with my students and actually foster discussing ideas and show them how to properly disagree instead of saying “you are wrong and I am right.”
More than anything, I wouldn’t have them bound by everyday ways of learning. Books, pencils, and paper have worked up until now, but take it further and expand. Show them what awaits them if they just look for it. Yes, I would educate my students in History, but I would also expect them to show me something as well. There is a quote that reads “If you aren’t learning something every day, you are going backwards.” It isn’t just about a teacher educating her/his students, but rather the students showing the educator that they can learn and educate as well.

Don’t Let Them Take Pencils Home
This post intrigued me, as well as infuriated me at the same time. It was nothing on Mr. Johnson’s part, but rather how he hit the nail directly on the head. The reason students cannot take “pencils” home? Because they lower test scores. Ah yes, because everything must revolve around those test scores. It’s rather sad that education has come to that. However, I digress. Mr. Johnson presented a very interesting few on taking home pencils, which I am guessing he is substituting for computers in this post. One of the biggest things I have a problem with, is the generalization that the only thing students in low-income schools can benefit from are standardized tests. In my Education in a Diverse Society class last semester, we learned that viewpoints like this cheat low-income students out of a proper education. If you want to implement technology in all classrooms across the spectrum, then they cannot be left out. I like how Mr. Johnson approached that. He is, in a way, not only teaching the students but their parents as well. Not only that, but he does not restrict them to certain things and hold them accountable. Instead, he trusts them to work on the projects he provides. These students are learning, but in a different sense and for the first time they are open to the same learning other students receive.