Blog Post #14: Special Assignment on Metaphors

This post is a special assignment from Dr. Strange. Apparently, I missed the whole metaphor in Tom Johnson's post Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home. I am turning this into a learning experience, because I know exactly why I missed the metaphor.

1. Why did you miss the metaphor in Tom Johnson's post, or, if you "hit the nail on the head", why do you think you understood the metaphor and why do you think that others in the class missed the metaphor?

To be quite honest with you and as embarrassed as I am to say this, I do not know exactly what a metaphor is. I remember talking about it in class when I was young ( back in the dinosaur ages) but, I do not remember how to spot them or even why we use them, hence; A learning experience.


2. What metaphors have you encountered since I asked you to create a log of them?

I do not think I have encountered any metaphors since this assignment was posted. So, I googled a list and took a couple that I thought were interesting.
1. The noise is music to his ears.
2. Your friendship is the picture to my frame
jumping for joy
3. it's raining cats and dogs. ( I say this all the time, and didn't realize it was a metaphor, who knew?)

I always say, " it is a frog strangler out there" when it is raining, is that a metaphor?


3. What other things can we do as educators to help our students to understand and to use metaphors?
Other than using worksheets, I would suggest having students making up their own and providing an explanation of what it means to the class.


4. Why do we use metaphors?

I really don't know the answer to this, but I did Google the question and everything that I read said something on the lines of: Metaphors expand our way of thinking about things. It requires us to use prior knowledge to decipher the real meaning of what is being stated.

... and my learning experience continues.....