Blog Post #10

I'm a Papermate. I'm a Ticonderoga

After looking and analyzing the cartoon "I'm a Papermate. I'm a Ticonderoga", I gathered the ideas he was trying to get across to his viewers.

The biggest issue that the cartoon is representing is that pencils and paper are old ways of learning and we should adapt to the new ways of technology. The Papermate is saying that pencils are cheap and schools should use them but they don't really allow you to engage in the real world like technology does. Although pencils have been used for years and years, I think it's time to incorporate technology in the classroom. Technology makes it easier and more fun for the students to learn. Pencils and paper might be cheaper but it's not giving our students all the possible resources. The Ticonderoga in the cartoon supports technology in the classroom. I think it represents the modern day technology that helps out the classroom rather than the old school pencils and paper.

Mr.McLeod Blog Post

The first blog I read was "Why were your Kids Playing Games?". This blog post was quite entertaining and interesting. This particular post talks about a teacher playing games with his class. He was trying to allow the kids to learn in an engaging and productive way. The principal did not want him playing games in class. He wanted the kids memorizing the lessons in order to pass standardized tests. The principal was quite upset with what the teacher was incorporating in his classroom but the kids were actually learning! Personally, I am a more productive learner when I am involved and interacting. I think it is awesome when teachers interact with kids because they learn better rather than just memorizing facts. In a lot of cases, some kids just memorize what they have to for the test then they completely forget about it the next week. If you actually take the time to teach and interact with the kids, the chances of them remembering are much higher. I am looking forward to becoming a teacher because I am going to do all sorts of fun activities just so my kids can learn more efficiently.

The next blog post I read was, "Remember Pencil Quests?". This blog was pretty cool. It's crazy how just a pencil was getting these students excited. These kids had the opportunity to use multiple pages of textbooks to learn. They were so excited about where they were going and what pages they were going to get to explore. I think this all relates back to the internet. The Internet is so unpredictable, you never know what site you're going to land on and what information you're going to gather. I feel like with this post, Mr. Spencer is informing the audience that there is no limit to learning. I can't wait to incorporate these learning activities into my classroom.

Mr.Spencer's Blog Post

After reading, "About Me" I found out some valuable information about Mr.Spencer. Mr.Spencer is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Kentucky. He is known as one of the nation’s leading academic experts on K-12 school technology leadership issues. He is also the Director of Innovation for Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency 8 in Iowa. He was a co-creator of the wildly popular video series, Did You Know? Mr.Spencer is a very accomplished and very interesting man.

I really enjoyed his blog called "Don't teach your kids this stuff, please?" . His post was very different and sarcastic to say the least. He talks about not letting kids use the internet because it will give them a leg up. It says that pens and pencils aren't going anywhere and that the internet will really ruin a kid. He touches on all of the negative points of the internet but there is a ton of positives as well. If the kids are taught how to use it by their instructors, there shouldn't be much harm. I think that kids should use the internet because it lets them know what is going on around them. I do think kids should have restrictions to what they do and what they look at on the internet. There is a lot of non educational things and bad information out there. The internet is a very useful tool and provides useful information to young kids. I do think there is negatives that go along with internet but there are a ton of positives as well. If students use it correctly then it will help them tremendously because if they don't they will fall behind.