Blog Assignment #10

        In the YouTube video, Do you Teach or Do You Educate?, it explains the difference between being a teacher and being an educator. They start off by giving the verb form of "teach"-"(1) Show or explain how to do something. (2) Encourage someone to accept as a fact or principle. (3) Give information about or instruction in. (4) Cause someone to learn or understand something. (5) Induce by example or punishment to do or not to do something. These things all sound great until you actually think about the difference in that and and educator. The video then gives some examples of what an educator should be. "(1) One who gives intellectual moral and social instruction. (2) A mentor. (3) An experienced and trusted advisor. (4) To guide a person. (5) Who advises and shows the way.

        I never really thought about the differences in the two words until now. After reading the definition of a "teacher" though, it seems like everyone, including myself, is and has been a teacher in their life. I work in a nursery and I am able to play with younger children quite often. Naming colors, numbers, letters, and shapes are a daily thing in this class. I suppose I am already considered a teacher since I show and explain how to do something. When I am with my friends, I might help them learn or understand something too. Everyone is a teacher at times. It takes someone different to be an educator though. Now that I think about it, I have wanted to be an educator (not a teacher) this whole time. When I was in high school, I had an amazing "educator." She was someone I looked up to and made me want to learn. Although she was my Journalism and English teacher, she taught me a lot more than that. She taught how to handle life situations and even helped me understand history better. She was someone I trusted; I think this is what an educator should be and I hope to fit all the definitions of an educator.

        In Tom Johnson's Don't Let Them Take the Pencils Home!, he has a conversation going with Gertrude, the School Curriculum Instructional Interventionist Academic Specialist. I will admit, this blog post was a little bit confusing to understand at first. After rereading it, I believe I understand the point of this post. Obviously the two people were not really talking about pencils, but technology. Gertrude tells Tom that his students are not allowed to take home "pencils." Tom mentions that there is no danger to the children and he's talked to the parents about damage property. Gertrude tells Tom that it is because those that take home pencils have lower standardized test scores. Tom argues with her that a bubble test does not prove their knowledge. Tom then talks about how many parents who do not use pencils at their work believe it is just a toy, but he can fix that and show them ways their children can learn with pencils. Gertrude then argues that the children will still go home and play hang-man and other games with their pencils when they are done with their assignments. Tom argues that is okay because there is probably some kind of learning going on through the games. Gertrude then says, "Okay, you keep telling yourself that, but don't blame me when your test scores are lower."  Tom then points out the use of "your" in this sentence. 
      After having my mind replace "pencils" in this sentence with "computers" this was a cute post that made perfect sense.Tom first tells that they cannot physically hurt the children and that parents have signed a form for property damage. Gertrude talks about how children will just play on the computers and their test scores will be lower. She believes they will just play games on the computers the whole time and not learn anything. Tom states his ideas on how to get the parents involved and how playing games is probably giving some kind of knowledge without us knowing. Gertrude is too concerned about the test scores for the school and not that the children are learning. The whole point of this post is to show people that students taking home computers will help them learn in great ways. They might play games, but that's okay. They will learn more by taking their "pencils" home. Their parents can become involved and learn ways to help their children learn with this technology.