Blog Post #10

          Adventures in Pencil Integration

I believe the cartoon is a spin-off of the PC and Mac commercials made very popular by Apple.  The cartoon depicts the use of a Papermate No. 2 pencil as outdated and a broken scheme.  While on the other hand, the technologically savvy hipster individuals write with multimedia instead of pencils.  The hipster being a person who only buys expensive counter-cultural products, such as a Ticonderoga.  Now that the use of pencils is becoming obsolete, the pencil will become an object used when speaking of history instead of a tool for education.

                        John Spencer's Relocatable Retaliation in Retrospect

A life without using a pencil, a pen, or paper.  This is what Spencer is depicting in his novella-like blog with witty rhetoric and humorous puns.  I chose to reflect on his very first blog from January 2010 titled will we fall behind ?  He introduces the fear that trying new things in school must be put behind us.  Mr. Spencer uses the fact that slate and chalk, paper and pencil, and other devices are put by the wayside to allow more advanced forms of exchange of ideas to take place.  For example, Tom (the protagonist of his post) is in conversation with a colleague about the use of paper and pencil usage in the curriculum.  The fear is that these students have been using slate and chalk for years, and with the introduction of paper and pencil the transition would be too much for the teacher and children to handle.  So, delaying the advancement of tools in the classroom has become an issue.  When will the transition be made to prepare the students for what they will experience on a professional level?  That is the message John Spencer is relaying to educators and the point in which he practices in his classroom everyday.

                                                     Don't teach your kids this stuff.                                                                                                    Please?

Empowerment.  Why does the profession of teaching even exist?  Probably a thousand answers to that question, but reflecting on this post by Dr. Scott McLeod I would say that empowering a child to succeed in a world where knowledge is power.  McLeod uses a poetic structure to explain that if teachers do not allow students to learn about the latest technology then they will NOT be prepared for the world after they graduate. To understand exactly where McLeod is coming from there is a small biography available to readers.  I pose a similar stance on the use of technology in and out of the classroom.  Allowing students to use every type of technology I can get my hands on and teaching them how to properly utilize it is one of the most important professional goals I have set for my classroom.  I honestly believe that if students are not empowered by the things they learn in my classroom, then I have failed.