Additional Post #1

Metaphors: What they Are and Why We Use Them
1.Why did you miss the metaphor in Tom Johnson's post, or, if you "hit the nail on the head", why do you think you understood the metaphor and why do you think that others in the class missed the metaphor?
A: I know I missed the metaphor, considering I did not completely understand the post. But as I was reading that post that Dr. Strange wrote on the EDM 310 Blog page, it became clear. As I read Mr. Spencer's post, it seemed quite literal and also joking, but I was not quite sure what to make of it. The reason I believe that I missed what he was saying in his post is that I was not reading it clearly, and took it too literally while reading it.


2. What metaphors have you encountered since I asked you to create a log of them?
A: There have been a few that I have encountered such as: "many older teachers do not want to learn new tricks", "a child's attention span is about as short as their fingernails", "computers are like papers: fancy and neat until you really look at minor detail". This last metaphor I found on Google one day and I thought it was very true. There is always something, no matter how major or minor that can be tweaked.




3. What other things can we do as educators to help our students to understand and to use metaphors?. 
A: Since teaching metaphors can be a bit tricky, especially for young grades, we can use the internet and find really good activities. There is a smart board website that has every kind of lesson plan there is, and we can use that and Google to find interactive activities and little projects or things like that. We can help them to grasp the concept and be able to use it correctly and have the ability to recognize it instantly.




4. Why do we use metaphors?
A: In my opinion, we use them to describe something in a way that makes it easier for people to understand. Plus is adds a bit of humor and you can relate anything using a metaphor. We use metaphors as a way to make things seem prettier or worse...depending on how you look at things: "glass half full" or "glass half empty".