Friday, October 28, 2011

Blog Post #10

Don't Let Them Take The Pencils Home By: Tom Johnson


This post is highly interesting, and I think everyone should read this as a requirement for EDM 310 for now on. To be honest, the lady is very naive and negative thinking: you can learn through anything you do, just depends how you see it. So the kids goes home and plays hangman with the pencil and paper? They STILL learn skills from this such as spelling, creativity, and how to make an educated guess. By using a book to balance something they learn about physics and math...just depends on how you see it. This instructor, Gertrude, needs to have the realization that test scores are only a number and have nothing to do with how students actually learn. Tests are just scores that make a teacher and a school look good. I agree with Tom on his "parent pencil program to help the parents learn about skills their children are learning, and they can take charge of the courses." (http://pencilintegration.blogspot.com/2010/07/dont-let-them-take-pencils-home.html). There was one comment on there I especially liked about letting the students experiment with different things at home, if that's what helps them learn. Many educators do not focus on the solution, but just the problem...such as Gertrude, who focused on the problem of taking home pencils and the students not learning anything, instead of making a solution to problem, as Tom did. Give the students the freedom and flexibility of taking home the right resources to learn in their own way. In this post I noticed something about pen pals, and in my elementary days we used that and we learned about different cultures and what those kids did for fun and what they learned about. As Tom says in this post "anything to keep them interested. So what if they play Hang-Man, at least they are learning something." I believe the point to Mr. Johnson's post is that it doesn't matter what the child does at home with the right resources given to them, as long as they stay interested, learn something about what they are playing with, and can use this knowledge to apply it in school work. 



1 comment:

  1. You missed the metaphor. You are not the first. Additional Assignment: Read these three posts:

    1. Metaphors: What They Are and Why We Use Them

    In that post there is a Special Assignment. Do that assignment in a new post which is Additional Post #1. It does NOT substitute for Blog Post #14 as it did in the Spring semester.

    Due midnight Sunday November 20, 2011.

    2. Metaphor Discussion Update

    3. Jennifer Asked: Why Use Metaphors? Here is My Answer

    4. For more information also see:
    You Missed the Point! It's Not A Pencil…"

    You did not do the Educator/Teacher video.

    ReplyDelete