Lots of Sleep

Over the past week I have been making sure that I got at least 8 hours of sleep a night. I found it very hard to do since I usually never get more than 6-7. I did notice however, that I was in a more agreable mood each day until I had to go to bed early that night. I was also able to pay better attention in my classes. The main method I used for this personal learning experience was to make sure that everything in my room was turned off and I was back by 11:00 every night. That was also hard to do since my roomate likes to stay up late and watch TV or mess around on the computer. If this experience taught me anything it is to take a nap during the day so that I do not need as much sleep or need to go to bed as early that night.

Technology and Education

When it comes to technology being used to teach, I am definately not an advocate of it. I think we already have enough problems in our society with identity theft and young people getting picked up online because they have their name out there. I don't see the point in putting it out there even more because it's not just their names their using, it's their email address', their regular address', their phone numbers, and their age. Some may be uncomfortable with their names being out on the internet for so many people to see and on so many sites.

Also there are students that aren't technologicaly inclined, like me, who will just end up getting frustrated with the added work and the inability to understand what their doing. The end result of which is falling behind in school work.

The bottom line is I don't think technology should be used unless it's for research or showing a movie or power point on the board. Besides if students are getting lazy anyway why should we make it easier for them to take a shortcut through technology?

PE Cutbacks

The issue I want to discuss is, schools cutting back on physical education programs. Schools have been cutting back on PE because it's not an academic course. What they don't understand is that in the long run without PE they will be paying more in health care costs.
One of the nations biggest epidemics right now is obesity in children. PE can keep that in check to a certain extent. PE may be the only excercise that a child gets during they day. Some say that it should be cut because it's not an academic subject, which is true, however it does enable a student to find out different things that they can excell at physically other than purely mentally.
PE, in most schools, only takes up one period of the day, usually 55-90 minutes depending on the schools schedule and the ones that have 90 minute blocks only have PE every other day. The physical educators aren't asking for an obscene amount of time in the gym, so it's not taking that much away from the academic subjects.
PE should be left in school because it will save money in the longrun. It is also keeping the health of our students positive instead of negative. It will be a sad world if PE gets cut from the curriculum of every school.

Blog #1

Why do we teach?
We teach so that future generations will be able to live successfully with the knowledge that we've provided them. Once they have gained that knowledge they will go out into the world and pick up new things that they will then teach to the generations that follow.

What is the difference between student "work" and student "learning"?
Student work is when the student just goes through the motions of the assignment or paper they are given and student learning is when they retain the information they are working with. In order to get the student to learn you have to spark an interest in them about what you are teaching or else they will just do the "work".

What makes for good teaching?
Good teaching is always positive and uplifts all the ideas that students have. It also gets students as involved as possible and is very hands on. Good teaching has many different creative ways to make learning fun and at the same time educational.