How do you view the Internet's impact on kids? Do you worry about it - or not? Do you have a story to share?

While I think that the internet is very beneficial for many reasons, I do agree that the internet can impact kids negatively. To begin, the internet can be a dangerous place for children. The number of sexual predators is increasing everyday, and many children and parents are not aware of this danger. To add to this, it is very difficult for parents to monitor their children's activity on the internet. In order to do so, parents would have to have a lot of time on their hands, so that they could be constantly checking up on their kids. Children probably spend a lot more time on the internet than their parents, and for this reason they are more skilled and aware of how to go around parental controls, like the boy in the video. Another reason that the internet can be negative on the lives of children is the loss of physical activity. Children are spending a lot of time on their computers instead of playing outside and being active with their friends. I know this is true with my brother Jeffrey. When he comes home from school the first thing he does is go on the interent to check his myspace and go on aim. He can sit their for hours without getting up and then do it all over again the next day. This lack of physical activity will create an unhealthy lifestyle that can lead to many different types of diseases in the future. One other example of the negative impact of the internet is the lack of academic motivation. For example, in the video one of the students described how he would read spark notes on the interent instead of reading books and got by in school that way. Even though the interent can be very beneficial in academic achievement, it can also create for cheating and academic dishonesty.
In summary, even though I believe in the internet and how it can be an aid in learning, after watching the video I can see how many negative effects the internet is having on your youth. With the internet being such a huge part of the lives of teenagers, I believe that it is important for parents to continue to monitor their children's activity and more importantly, they need to limit the time that their children are allowed to be on the internet.

Should we pay students to do well in school?

Alli: noodle55.wordpress.com
Ryan: ryebread1414.wordpress.com
Angela: angeladodge.blogspot.com

When I first heard this idea the first thought that popped into my head was "Is this for real?" I can't believe that education has turned into a money business. While I can see why some people argue for this, I on the other hand am mostly against this idea. I read Ryan, Alli and Angela's blogs this week. Ryan was the only one out of these three that thought this was a good idea. He made a good point when he argued that with this program students would have money for college and it would give them a head start in their lives. While I agree that money would help students attend college, I also believe that without the intrinsic reward of learning students will fail in the long run. If they enter the real world only knowing to work hard for money they will eventually hit a brick wall and realize they are unhappy with their lives. Alli makes a good point when she says that students need to be motivated by their mastery goals rather than their ego goals. If students only work hard to make money we are teaching them that money is more important than learning and improvement. While I realize that many people get jobs for the money, there are a lot of people who choose their career based on what they are interested in and love doing. By implementing this program into schools, these students will no longer see the value in what they are learning. They will be taught to learn so that they can make money. Education is meant to help expand the human mind and learn and grow to be prepared for the future and life decisions. We can not expect children to discover the love of learning and self-improvement on their own. We need to enforce the power of happiness and self-fulfilment in learning rather than focus on grades and rewarding students with money. Angela brings up the fact that the money that students would be receiving for good grades would probably come from the taxes of citizens. I know that this would make me very unhappy as a United States citizen to know that I was supporting this cause. I really hope that this new policy does not become popular in schools today. In my opinion, we need to go back to the rewards of learning, self-fulfilment and the main purposes of education.

How will you be your own agent of change in the classroom to meet student expectations - is it your responsibility?

K-12 Youtube Video
Vision of Students of Today

Both of the videos that we were given to watch were eye-opening in many ways. All the percentages given really put students and technology into perspective. The average K-12 student will spend three and a half hours a week playing video games and five and a half hours on the internet, while they will only spend two and a half hours reading a book. Only 67% of teachers have ever used wikis, blogs, or podcasts. Also, only 63% of teachers will allow students to use technology in the classroom. Most students these days understand and use technology better than their teachers. I believe that technology and teaching should go hand in hand. With technology consuming the lives of students, it is important to incorporate this aspect of studen'ts lives into the classroom. When teachers incorporate technology into the classroom, they are better able to connect to their students. Because it is such a big part of student's lives, they will be more interested in what they are learning and more likely to be engaged in the classroom.
As future teachers, I do believe that it is our responsibilty to incorporate technology into our lessons. If we continue to teach in the same way we are only going to grow more distant from our students. Technology gives us an opportunity to connect with our students in a more appealing manner. It will allow us to take lessons that seem to be boring and tedious for students and transform them into attractive and engaging lessons where they are required to think, create, analyze, evaluate, and apply what they are learning.
The students of today are digital learners. Everyday they are surfing the web, listening to music, and watching television. Rather than to get lost in the past, it is the responsbility of teachers to constantly be learning and keeping up with new technology. In this way they can find ways of incorporting new and exciting methods of teaching lessons into their classrooms and reach out to the students who would otherwise lose interest.

Response to Mr. Robinson's Video on Creativity in the Classroom

http://ryebread1414.wordpress.com/
http://thesusenews.blogspot.com/
http://acttwointermission.blogspot.com

I have to say that I agree with Susie, Ryan and Jen that the current school wide system is killing creativity. To start, I would first like to reflect on what Susie talks about in her blog. She makes a very good point when she says that the future students that we teach will need to learn how to think outside of the box and no textbook is going to teach a student how to do this. If we focus too heavily on teaching standards in our own academic concentrations, students will lose out on the important life lessons that would guide them to help make important life decisions. I also like when Susie mentions that creativity is a life talent that needs to be trained and toned.

Next, I like how Ryan mentions how in the video Mr. Robinson states that students who started school this year will not be retiring until the year 2065. This is a very fascinating fact to think about because like Ryan says, we don't know what is going to happen five years from now; therefore, how can we expect to prepare our students for their futures by confining them to such a narrow focus of today's education system? We need to enforce to our students that they will make mistakes and that these mistakes will shape them into successful adults. I think Mr. Robinson is right by saying that teachers are only hurting students by instilling a fear of being wrong into their students. I believe it is just as important to use one's creativity to discover life's challenges on your own as it is to learn about academic subjects in the classroom.

Finally, I liked when Jen mentioned that by putting so much emphasis on grades, teachers are in exchange squandering the talents that shape their student into well-rounded individuals. I believe that as teachers we need to encourage our students to embrace their own creativity and go with it. In this way, students are more likely to face life's obstacles and find a creative way of solving them.

In summary, I feel that as a future math teacher the power is in my hands as to how I influence my students. I want to be the teacher that encourages their students to go for their dreams and use their creativity to get there. Together with academics, creativity will take students to where they want to go in life.