There are two types of philosophies on how a teacher should teach their students.  One philosophy is call constructivism.  This style encourages learners to draw off of previous knowledge in order to develop deeper thoughts and come up with ideas on their own.  Another philosophy is objectivism.  This style is more structured and is based off a teacher saying facts and students taking those facts and memorizing them.

The TIP Model is a strategy used to integrate technology into the lesson in three phase that works as follows:

• Phase 1: The first phase is answering the question "Will the use of technology enhance this lesson?"
• Phase 2: A teacher must ask themselves these three questions while deciding on how to formulate their lessons: "How will I know student have learned?", "What teaching strategies and activities will work best?", and "Are essential conditions in place to support technology integration?"
• Phase 3: This phase is all about reflecting.  "Did this lesson work?", "What would I do differently next time?", "Are there any changes I should make?" are some if the questions a teacher should ask themselves in this phase.

The TIP Model can help a teacher decide if they need to incorperate technology into their lesson.  Let's say that a teacher tried to teach his students about World War II last year, but the children seemed uninterested and did poorly on the exam.  About a week before the teacher plans to teach this lesson again he/she stumbles accross a movie that they find facsinating about World War II.  The teacher can use the TIP Model to decide if playing this movie could help their students have a better understanding of World War II.

Poor Scholar's Soliquy

The Poor Scholar's Soliquy represents how a teacher is not able to effectively grab the attention of their student.  It was clear that this student was bright, but it was difficult for him to achieve success in the traditional classroom setting.  He had trouble relating to the topics being taught, and could not wait to turn 16 so he could drop out and "start learning".  He struggled with economic geography, yet he was able to plan out routes for delivering livestock, and figure out the profits.  In wood shop he wanted to make something that he found useful, but the teacher vetoed that idea and made the student do what the rest of the class had to do because what he wanted to do involved wood and metal.    According to the teacher he had to use wood first, so he became uninterested in the project and it came out sloppy.  I believe that constructivism is important in the classroom because it helps keep the students involved and interested. For me personally I always found it difficult to memorize things that I didn't really care about like the capitals or presidents because I couldn't relate a president from the 1800's and I have no intentions of going to Idaho so why would I care what the capital is. Teaching using situations that students have lived through or enjoy can help them understand  the material.  If we are able to keep the students interested and participating, they will be able to reach greater levels of achievement.