Articles for Chapter 10....really this time!

When I was about seven years old I had a computer program called Jumpstart. It incorporated learning with fun games. It worked on spelling, math skills, and second language skills. In an article about children using computers it says that children should start using computer around the ages of 3-4 because it helps reinforce what they are learning. Children younger than three should not be using computers because they need to learn using their senses. Even when young children start to use computers, computers should not be their main way of learning, but more of a levy to keep the information they have already learned. Even though schools should be incorporating technology into the classrooms even more, studies show that only a fraction of teachers have had any training on how to utilize them. I found this to be extremely interesting since I will be in elementary education, this is my freshman year, and I'm taking the technology class now. So what I'm wondering is....are schools sending out unqualified teachers just to have them graduate?

The second article I read about how many teachers aren't creating a classroom environment conducive to critical thinking. A way to rectify this problem is to have media tools in the classroom: televisions, computers, radios, even newspapers or magazines. The standard sit and read from a text box then fill in a A, B,C or D bubble just doesn't work for this generation. This generation have been brought into a world where they are constantly bombarded with media images and are use to having to comprehend at a faster level. This is a lot more from even when I was born. I have a niece that is three years old and knows how to work a cell phone. She knows to press the green phone to call and the red phone to hang up, she doesn't know the numbers that well, but she knows that if she wants to talk to me or mommy or whoever, she has to press them.

The last article talks about how there are several different types of teachers. There is the teach from your gut who believes with absolute certainty that what they're teaching is right, but cannot explain why. The is the teach from the gut with reason...they have the same ability to do the right thing in their classroom and can explain why, but they don't use educator vernacular.
Another type of educator is one who can explain things in educational vocabulary but common language as well; they also have the positive qualities of the first two types of teachers. The last one is the type of teacher who knows all the right words and all the right things to say, but for the life of them cannot tell you why you should learn. From these theories stated above the best one to be would be the educational translator. Or hey, maybe you should try to find your one type of teaching style that works the best for you.