ADDITIONAL ASSIGNMENT #5

Tom Johnson's Blog Pencil Integration is brilliant. This is an amazing middle school teacher who truly cares about his students and understands their learning processes. He takes the time to get to know his students and identify with them in a way where they have sort of a mutual respect for one another. He uses the idea of pencils to describe his teaching. Somehow he manages to make a metaphor for pencils in everyone of his blog posts. He uses one idea to explain several different ones. For this assignment we were asked to comment on four of his posts.
Just Teach Them to Solve for X  is a post in which Mr. Johnson asks the question, should we simply teach the facts or teach the process behind the learning. He states that memorizing doesn't help a student to understand. There is a quote that I really took to. "Confusion is a process which leads to clarity." In this post, he explains how a fellow teacher questions his teaching techniques on the variable "x". Why not just teach them the facts, she asks. Why not teach them the concept behind it?
Sketchy Portraits: 8th Grade Identity and Pencils    is about how a middle school aged child's life is constantly changing, their moods are constantly changing, and they are struggling to find who they are. They want the independence of being an adult, yet still yearn for the acceptance like a child. "In a fourteen year old's mind, everything is temporary and just about everything is changing." Just like a pencil. A pencil's marks can be changed, shaded, texturized, erased..same with that of a fourteen year old's life.
 He just like the Class for His Pencils Tom Johnson is often viewed as the "nice guy teacher." He is strict when he needs to be. He wants his students to enjoy learning but understand the importance of it and take it seriously. He takes the time to know his students and they respect him for it. This post is about a conference with a student, teachers, and parents, and Mr. Johnson was asked to sit in on it. The other teachers are criticizing him, shaming him, to the point where it brings the student to tears. "But he doesn't act out in my class", Mr. Johnson says.."it's because of the pencils" says the other teacher. "It's not because of the pencils" says the child, "it's because, well I don't know why, but its not the pencils" says the child.
The Medium Shapes the Learning
This blog post was a little harder to grasp the concept behind. So I am not entirely sure.  Here is a statement he makes in this post "Educators often believe that they have the power to wield each tool to fit their own purpose.  They assume that a lesson can remain virtually unchanged when a new medium is added." What I think he means by this is should we use every new technological device for learning? Just because something is fun, entertaining, flashy and new..can it be useful in a learning environment? And how?