Homework - June 26

Our topic for discussion this week is Summer Plans. What are your plans for this Summer? Anything special? Are you planning on taking a trip somewhere? Are you relaxing at home? Tell us a little about what you plan on doing.

My First "Journal" Entry

As I am an educator, I figured it would be best to post something about education for my first entry. Feel free to ask questions, comment, or even write about your own thoughts on the subject.

Who hasn't heard the phrase "life-long learner"? Learning and Psychological development are life-long and are greatly influenced by the ongoing diversity of human experience. This statement is even more essential in terms of our society and our society's classrooms now and in the future. There is an ancient Chinese Proverb that states “Never stop learning as long as you live”. This saying is at least a thousand years old when learning was slow and life spans were shorter. It is even more relevant today when science and technology make advances on a daily basis and people live twice as long as they did a thousand years ago.

The world seems to be advancing, changing, and morphing faster than I can remember in my lifetime. With all these changes, changes that come on like a wave when you turn your back to the ocean, we as humans, and maybe more importantly as educators, have an unyielding responsibility to ourselves and our students to adapt, learn, and grow with the changes – to turn and face that unwieldy ocean. I went into my Master's program hoping to be squeezed out on the other side as a perfect, uniform, all-knowing teacher – a “Ken” doll of a teacher if you will. What I came out as though is quite the opposite: an imperfect, misshapen mold of an educator who was then in full recognition of his flaws. I did not fret however, for this is a wonderful thing! I am now fully aware of my faults, my struggles, my imperfections, and am more capable of improving upon them. We must continue to learn throughout our time as educators as we are entrusted with our world’s future, the children. They must become even more capable than us, and we are the ones to show them the way.

**Figure - (Verb, informal) to conclude, judge, reason, or think about. This is much more common in speech than in writing.

**Post - (Internet Language) to place (text) on some sort of website, blog, message board, etc.

**Life Span - Another word for lifetime, or the maximum or average length of time something is expected to survive.

**...come on like a wave when you turn your back - (simile) If any of you have ever been swimming in an ocean that has large waves, sometimes when you turn your back you get hit by a wave unexpectedly.

**Morph - to be transformed.

**Unwieldy - not readily handled or managed in use or action, as from size, shape, or weight; awkward.

**Squeezed out on the other side - like an unshaped lump of clay being pushed through a tube and coming out the other side a perfect circular shape.

**Ken-doll of a teacher - (metaphor) A Ken Doll is the 'perfect' boyfriend of the Barbie doll. I used it here for humor to state that I thought I would come out of my graduate program as a perfect teacher.

**fret - to feel or express worry, annoyance, discontent.

**...on a daily basis - everyday, once everyday.

Homework - June 19

So, we decided in class to discuss the vuvuzela controversy at the World Cup in South Africa. Please read this article about them and then post your opinion. According to many of the African soccer fans, the vuvuzelas are a huge part of soccer culture in Africa, but many fans (from other countries and continents), players, and coaches have complained about the noise they create. Do you think these horns should be banned?

Homework - June 5

Let's consider that neither Israel, nor Palestine will refuse to give up Gaza. So, what is the best way, in your opinion, to resolve this conflict?