Project #14

Project #12

Project #11

Blog Post #10

This is an interesting picture. I wasn't sure what a Ticonderoga was or why it was better than a papermat so I had to do some research. I found out that a Ticonderoga is a thicker wooden pencil and it is almost a little more expensice. I think that this picture illustrates that the quality of a Papermate is less than the quality of a Ticonderoga. When I first looked at and read the picture, I wasn't sure what it meant. Now, I still am unsure. Maybe it's just a sarcastic little skit. A little confuse, I started reading through all the comments and found out that this particular blog post is a spoof on the different between a MAC and a PC. I am a little unsure which pencil they are trying to symbolize as the MAC and the PC, though. Maybe I'm just not getting it.

Why Were Your Kids Playing Games?

I can tell Mr. Spencer has a great new mind. He knows kids love games, however; games can also be used for learning purposes. There are several games and Internet sites made strictly for games to exercise the brain. The principal, like most, is older. I can tell just by the discussion between the two. The principal has certain standards he/she must meet and make sure that his/her school meets, however; the ideas are old and outdated. It's okay to try new ways and techniques to teach children. We as educators can never know what will and won't work unless we try. Mr. Spencer cannot argue with his boss, unless he wants to get on the bosses bad side. What he can do and what he does is take his boss's words and use them to make him/her see that the game his students are playing are indeed useful in the exact way he/she wants the students to learn.


Acceptable Use Committee

Mr. Spencer joins the Acceptable Use Policy of the district. In this blog, he discussing his conversation with the leader. He says the leader misses his point completely, even after his nice little speech. Mr. Spencer makes a lot of sense. Some subjects are run by a sort of code, the does and don'ts. Basically, this means there is a limit to what the educator can and cannot use in his/her classroom. If teachers sculpt creative and realistic minds, most limits would not be needed. If a child grows up learning what is acceptable and right, then everything else won't be so much of an issue.



Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?

Who is Scott McLeod? His blog is definitely interesting to say the least. I have to agree with him to an extent, though. Social networking and collaboration with everyone in the world is useless in the classroom. We do not need cell phones or Ipads to teach our students. A student cannot watch a video some other student their age made or read a blog from 2 years ago to learn about history, a book, or anything else. That is what the teacher is for. The teacher, in my opinion, should be able to use any materials necessary for educational purposes. Technology, to the teacher, can be useful in several ways, however; a 12 year old student has no business getting on a personal computer during class time to look up whatever he/she wants instead of paying attention to a chalkboard or smart board. The teacher is there for teaching, if we replace him/her with Internet then we will all be out of a job. If we allow a classroom to be run by blogging and collaborating with others throughout the world, then we will replace our teachers with people who only monitor the students while they surf the web all day.