Blog Post #B

A Career That Matters...

What a great way to start off Chapter 2, by stating the obvious "Teaching is a career that matters to everyone..". Most people say oh anyone can be a teacher and man does this get under my skin. Yes, anyone can go and get a teaching degree. But not everyone can be the teacher their supposed to be. Who is to judge whether or not you are the teacher you are supposed to be? It is too often that students come across less engaged teachers. From my experience I could hand pick the teachers who stood out to me still to this day. Because those teachers were the ones who evaluated  their students and attempted to adjust to each students learning styles so that they got the best education possible. I have always been the one to say that teachers are the ones who make up society. They teach the future generations, they are the ones who mold children for 13+ years of a childs' life. In the book it said educators often teach as they were taught, it said that these practices often fail to engage at least half of the students. This is all true for the teachers who do not make that extra effort to expand their horizons.

The next point I came across was the key issues for technology-using teachers. There were six questions to survey your current thinking about technology and teaching. The questions that stood out to me were:

• What is your readiness to integrate technology into teaching and learning in schools?
• What are your reasons for wanting to use technology in teaching?

Although there were four other questions these two got my mind thinking. Because I have experienced the schooling I had as a child in a technology society, I believe I can go into my teaching career as something totally new. I can go into teaching using technology as a professional because i'm starting from a clean slate. What I mean by clean slate is I do not have to accommodate my old teaching styles, because i'm starting in a world of teaching were technology has already been introduced. As for the second question, my reasons for wanting to use technology in teaching is pretty clear. Technology has already proven itself to be a great resource to teach students at every level. My main goal as a future teacher is to involve each student in their own way of learning. Yes, it seems to be a difficult task, but I believe that it can be done.

My next point is kind of hard to pin point where I've gotten this idea from but I guess you could put it around the heading called students and their technologies. As of right now my main focus for technology is as a teacher not as a student. What new things can I bring to the table that enhances learning. As for students being able to google in class and such during lectures, I think we have to remember who we are dealing with here. These students have to be confined to what they use because of the distractions that they bring up. Students can easily go off and google what their not supposed to or go on inappropriate websites. It is important for us as teachers to limit their usage so that we don't get stuck with the wondering... Sadly we aren't always dealing with "angels", we have to be cautious. And that is why my focus will be on how I can introduce technology as much as I can with out it getting out of control.

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References:

Gonzalez, I. (2016, September 11). My bold padlet. Retrieved September 11, 2016, from https://padlet.com/ivanajogonzalez/62s83m4ic6zs 

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.