Learning Log 4 or Jack O-Lantern

This picture was done during the early part of the school year before I started to get in trouble for drawing during class time.  It was around halloween hence the drawing of the headless horseman--A story that for the life of me I don't really understand.  I should probably re-read the original and maybe it would be more clear to me.  This drawing was done durning a time when were were listening to the teacher and the teacher was using the smart board but she was so all over the place that I would get a headache from trying to follow.  I'm very much in favor of smart boards and have found them to  be a very useful piece of educational technology.  However in this teachers hands it was an impediment to learning.  I was getting a headache from following all the information flashing all over the screen.  It made me consider just what kind of teacher I want to be.  I have grown up adopting technology as it comes.  Computers didn't really exist when I was starting school and they were huge by the time I graduated.  Although I wouldn't consider myself an early adopter of any technology I definitely took the time to make myself literate.  I follow the same pattern presently, not trying to be on the cutting edge of anything but instead adopting the technology that has staying power.  I think that technology isn't necessary to be a good teacher but it can certainly be a helpful tool.  One teacher I observed using educational technology in a very useful way was a social studies teacher who would run a youtube video of an event that happened during that particular date in history.  That date happened to be the day of Pearl Harbor and was a period newsreel about the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Then the class would think critically about the video and have a little discussion.  It was a very good introduction to the day and a good use of the same technology that I saw misused in the other class.  I hope I will be a good user of my technological opportunities.  Maybe then I won't need to spend my time drawing headless horsemen.