Blog Assignment #10

Teach or Educate

Do you Teach or Do you Educate? is a powerful video that promotes what it mean to teach versus what it means to educate.  To teach by definition means to show or to explain to someone how to do something.  To educate is to give intellectual, moral and social instruction to someone.  So what do I want to do?  I want to educate!

My purpose is not to cram my students nor my own children full of facts that they will not even retain.  My purpose is to educate, guide, inspire and advise them in life.  That's my main goal.  I want to be there for my students to help them find their way to the solution to a problem.  The feeling that I get when my son figures out something is just priceless.  The light-bulb that goes off in his head once he puts the pieces of the puzzle together glimmers through in his eyes and spirit.  Each of us should strive for that goal.  We are a major facilitator in charge of preparing our students to be able to stand on their own two feet in the future and to teach them to navigate their way to any solution should it be with school, with work, with family or any other challenge.  I intend to use the many skills that I have acquired through parenting, as well as the ones I am currently obtaining here at the University of South Alabama.

Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home

John T. Spencer, a.k.a.Tom Johnson's Blog, Adventures in Pencil Integration, discusses dialect between himself and an academic specialist at the his school and the topic of pencils being sent home.  She is rather ridiculously upset because he sends pencils home with the students.  The academic specialist says that according to her research that students who take home pencils have lower standardized test scores.  Tom, replies with how he has met with parents and has been able to demonstrate positive ways to utilize pencils.

Basically, what the conversation boils down to is testing.  I for one believe that standardized testing is not the best way to measure a student's academic abilities.  I know that I refer to my own child many times while writing my posts, but he is the one thing that I see first hand in dealing with a variety of situations at school.  He is ADHD and has a variety of elements in his learning that are not the "standard".  For one, he has a difficult time concentrating on one thing for an extended period of time.  Secondly, the time and "speed" of the testing would create a high stress environment for him and he would more than likely put his pencil down and not even attempt to take the test.  However, he is unbelievably smart.  I am not just saying that because he is my child, but because he has been evaluated by professionals in other ways of testing and does an excellent job in showing his skills.  He is excels in math and in the arts!  I cannot wait to see what the future holds for my little guy.

With that said, I do understand that he will have timed testing situations arise and he does almost weekly now at school.  Thankfully, we have a principal and teacher who work with Brady and his unique situation and allow him to excel to his full academic ability.  I hope in the future that we will be able to come up with another way to test students knowledge more effectively and in a way that those with special needs will be able to receive the score that most accurately reports their academic knowledge.