Blog Assignment 10

Do You Teach or Do You Educate

The first assignment for the blog post this week was to watch this awesome video!  In the video it asks a simple questions as the title suggests.  It gives the dictionary definition of the word teacher. Then, in contrast, for the words educator, mentor, and guide.  I don't want to give it all away, so go watch the video.

I thought this video was very compelling.  It inspired me to think of being an educator not as a job, but as a way of life.  I want to be that teacher, you know that one.  The one that when my students look back at high school or middle school they think "Man, he was awesome." or "That guy really helped me, a lot."  I feel like in order to be that I can't just have a job that I go to and teach at.  I have to be an educator.  I have to be better than just an informant.  The video ends with a quote from Socrates that I liked a lot. "Education is not the filling of a vessel, but the kindling of a flame."

Tom Johnson's "Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home"

I love blogs like this!  In this post Mr. Johnson takes inspiration from a few experiences he's either been a part of or had a colleague relay to him.  He creates a post in the the style of Hemingway's "Hills like White Elephants" in that it is only dialogue and and there is no description.  It is a rather candid back and fourth between him and Gertrude, the School Curriculum Instructional Interventionist Academic Specialist, about not letting the children take the pencils home because she says it will lower test scores.  It is very well written and you should read it for yourself!

Did I already say that I love blogs like this, because if you hadn't already caught on to that it bears repeating.  I love blogs like this!  It is well written, there's sarcasm, and there's a message.  The message I gathered as I read was there's no use focusing on what is the cause of the problem without offering to provide a solution.  I am definitely going to read more from Mr. Johnson's blog.  Consider me subscribed.  Great stuff!