Copyright

What surprised me most about copyright laws was that even if you purchase a song or news paper article (or anything song, book etc.) you may not copy it. You can use the one copy as you please but once you copy it you are breaking copyright laws. When I did observations one time the teacher had only one workbook for the whole class, she would copy each page 30 times so each student had a homework page. According to what I learned about copyright she was breaking the copyright rules. As a teacher you should definitly teach your students about copyright, you should also show a good example by following copyright rules as well. Teachers should be cautious of copy right, you never know who is watching and it could cost you your job.

Interactive whiteboards

Teachers have been using boring power point presentations for too long. Don't they know there is a much more efficiant tool to aid in presenting a lesson? Interactive white boards do so much to enhance a students education. Instead of just sitting in their seats nodding off while the teacher lectures they are able to engage in and be part of the lesson. Students increase their ability to learn when they are able to interact with the lesson and actually participate in lessons. For me learning to use the smart board software was realativly easy. There is just so much you can do with a smart board that it was impossible to learn everything in one week. Having one in a classroom is benificial because it gives the teacher so many more fun and student centered options when teaching a lesson. I don't believe there are any cons to having a smart board. They can enhance any lesson. I have written a few lesson plans dealing with homophones, synonyms and antonyms and I wish I had known how to use the smart board before hand. It is so much more engaging to have students come to the board and move words around to match or draw on the board than to sit quietly in their seats doing a worksheet.