findings 10-15

We should be teching to students with techonology because plain and simple students want to be using the internet in their studies. They see the web in a different way than the adults today see it. For adults today, the web is a great tool that they can turn to at timesto find information, but for the students today the web is at first a place that they can turn to find information but it also a place that they can go to find questions and insights. they simply see the web as a screen confined extension of the complexies that are adressed in class rooms, and for them it is through this media that they are capable of being challenged and succeeding in a comfortable manor. i too find this to be the most comfortable way to become truly engaged in an academic experience which will both register and expand on my level of understanding. At this moment for example, I have a window open on my screen so that i can easily reread your questions, i have this window so that i can type (obviously), and a third window has the article open so that i can return to it for reference. I'm also listening to Colorado public radio online via my headphones. my workspace isn't a well-lit solitary desk, it's me with my computer on the futon in my apartment, but i find this futon to be suited far better to me that my corner desk at my mom's house. Though i'm not quite on the same level of technical engulfment as the student in the description, just add but buddylist (which i use at times) and law and order (a show i really enjoy) and i match seamlessly at this moment. But as the students in the article said, we (i really shoud just include myself with the kids the article talks about) don't want entirely tech classes. 2.2%! that is astoundingly low. We want the tech to be utlized in a truely stimulating and interactive way with the teacher still communicating with us and driving us but using the tech to elevate the level of complexity that the class is able to engage in.

a tech idea

first of all i've been switching to the small font size (which i still think is a little large) instead of the normal and i wanted to know if that was bothering you at all. if you could just let me know that would awesome. Also i just had an idea that maybe if I were to be doing class room discussions it would be a good idea if i could leave sometype of IM program up and students who had a question of a point that they wanted to make could send me a message. I thought this would be a great way to help students who are nervous to participate in classroom discusions and also a way to make technology a little more integrated into my class. I was wondering if maybe you had any experience with someone who had tried this and whether or not it was a success for them. i think using a blog like this would be great too since honestly i might not have gotten to you about this even in a journal format since I, even as an english major, find the pen and paper somewhat of a pain. anyway any feed back on this would really be appreciated
-justin

why i want to become a teacher

I am someone who very much likes to discuss, well, pretty much anything really. I think i almost have a love afair with language. The enthusiasm that a group of people listening to each other and probing a subject with their ideas and philosphies musters in me is remarkable. I found that classes that let me do this throughout my schooling were always the ones that enjoyed the most and more importantly were moments that enjoyed beyond the scope of "that made a decent class."
this went into my consideration as a possible career since, to me, learning has a great deal of joy associated with it and i always wanted to be near that sphere discussion and discovery. The other aspect of import to me was that i wanted to be involved in a profession that i could care about. i wanted to be able to be making a difference in what i was doing other than a difference to coorporation or in discovering something so arcane that only a few others could appreciate what i may have done. Teaching seemed like a perfect choice to me. I had always enjoyed the school environment and by entering as a teacher i could still be involved in that, though from a different posistion. I will still be able to learn (as i've heard teaching is the best way to learn) and help others learn. This would be able to give me a sense of purpose. When i show up for work, i will be able enlighten others and also connect with some of them and provide a place of comfort for some students.