Blog Assignment 10

Do You Teach or Do You Educate?

This video was very interesting to me. I had never thought about the difference in teaching and educating before. This video states that to teach is to show or explain how to do something, give information about or instruction in, and cause someone to learn or understand something. It then states that to educate is to give intellectual, moral, and social instruction. It also says an educator is someone who guides and shows the way.
While completing some observation hours this week, one of the 2nd graders in the class asked me "Mrs. Howard, why do you want to be a teacher?". I wasn't sure how to answer her at first because I have never really thought about why I actually chose this profession other than my usual answer "I love kids". After a lot of thought, I have concluded that I want to be a teacher because I love children and I love helping them learn and grow. Being a teacher, I will be helping them in many ways. I will be teaching them things and helping them grow as people. I will be helping them learn what is write and wrong, how to work well with others, and how do things. The reasons I have just listed pretty much fall under the educator category. While teaching them the different subjects I will also be educating them and helping them learn good morals and social skills. Teaching is not just about making sure that they learn about science, math, and history, it is about guiding them in the right direction and showing them the way.

Tom Johnson's Don't Let Them Take the Pencils Home!

I really enjoyed reading this blog post by Mr. Johnson. This post is an actual conversation between Tom and Gertrude about students who take home pencil and paper. Gertrude is arguing that students should not be taking home pencils because an article stated that the students that take home pencils have lower standardized test scores.
Throughout the conversation Tom is coming up with solutions to the problem. He argues that the pencil and paper homework is not what is making the student score lower on standardized tests, it's what they are actually doing with the pencil at home. The kids were being assigned with boring homework which was leading them to play games with their pencils which kept them from learning as much. Therefore, when the kids were taking their standardized tests with pencils they were playing with their pencils rather than paying attention to the test which caused their scores to go down. Tom then explained to Gertrude that he assigns homework that should interest students, but in the end what they do with their pencil is ultimately up to them.
This blog post shows how someone can read information and completely take it the wrong way. There are always different conditions and circumstances that should be taken into consideration when reading information about things. It is important to always take every circumstance into consideration when coming across new information.