Summary Post C4T Teacher #1

In the last couple weeks I have been reading Tom Johnson’s Adventures in Pencil Integration blogs. The first one I read was the article, “Meat the Teacher Fiasco”. This article talks about a Meat the Teacher night where the teachers are putting on a barbecue because of a homonym error (meet vs meat). The parents, students and teachers all gather together and start playing a baseball game. The kids end up playing their own game on the street and their teacher joins in. It then talks about how this was a great way to start a year, by having the students see the teacher as a human instead of just a teacher. It gives the sense of an “all-out carnival” instead of, “an awkward meet and greet.”

My response basically stated that I thought it was a great idea for the students to see their teacher as human rather than a teacher at first. I think that when students get to see their teacher this way they will feel more comfortable in class since they already know their teacher, and then more learning will take place this way. The students will see that their teacher is there to have fun with them and they can learn together instead of looking at it like this teacher is just going to be giving them a grade.

The second article I read was called, “Visitors” which talks about a visitor coming in and asking questions about pencils. These visitors usually miss the beauty of a pencil. However, before the end of the evening, many ask about what the students are learning and not necessarily about what technology they used to get there. Students can be creative with many different forms of technology, even pencils!

My response to this article was that students should learn different ways to communicate their knowledge. I think students should have a good sense of pencil, slates, computers, etc. Then they will have more knowledge in many different types of uses for this varied technology. I agree that technology is changing very fast and most of their knowledge will soon be mostly on computers and other technology, but I do not think that pencils will be gone completely.