Blog Post #10

Teaching versus Educating

These are the first definitions to the terms "teach" and "educate" from dictionary.reference.com

Teach: to impart knowledge of or skill in; give instruction in: She teaches mathematics.

Educate: to develop the faculties and powers of (a person) by teaching, instruction, or schooling.

I thought teaching and educating were supposed to be the same thing. Apparently, these things have changed. However, if I did not receive worthy education, how am I writing this blog post? I've come along this far because of my teachers and self will. I truly believe that my teachers have educated me, therefore, they are educators as well. The only subject that I took that was centered around facts was history. Now, there are better ways to teaching history through technology. I definitely plan to educate my students, but I will still be an educating teacher.

I truly hope that the children I teach will leave my class with the skills, reasoning, and knowledge they need to succeed and overachieve in life. If one method fails, then I will try one that works. I do not want to "burb back" my students, however, I don't want to leave them teaching themselves. I also want to help them reason opinions of others. We can't have our children being too gullible. Encouragement, love, and guidance are three things that I plan to teach by. God has placed in me the passion to teach. I will not let a "brick wall" keep me a way from something I was born for.

Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home

I was very confused at first when I started reading Mr. Johnson's blog post because I was anticipating the blog post to have a theme of anti-pencils. However, after reading a few of the comments, I realized what it was all about...

Mr. Johnson starts off the piece with a teacher getting a visit from the School Curriculum Instructional Interventionist Academic Specialist. She comes to complain that students test scores are too low. In order to solve the problem, the SCIIAS tells the teacher that the students are not allowed to take home their pencils and papers. The reason for this command was because she read an article that said that students that take home his or her pencil and paper score lower on tests. The teacher does not agree and suggests having a parent pencil program where the parents, for whom are not familiar with pencils, may learn the same pencil skills that their children are learning. The SCIIAS is not thrilled with this idea, but allows the teacher to carry through.

During the piece, the over all concern is over the children's test scores. The "solution" for the low scores is not letting a student take home his or her pencil, however, this is no solution at all. The focus should be on why the students performed badly on their tests instead of assuming it's the lack of knowledge about how to use a pencil correctly. There is too much assuming and not enough researching when it comes to what children need in the classroom.