I saw the word “webinar” here before, and not knowing what it was, and running around doing the dozen odd things public school teachers do, figured I’d figure it out later.

Later is here.

So I’m jumping in–we’ll start with a private account, sharing thoughts with each other (and to whomever the care to share it with). I’m excited and a bit intimidated–having had this much fun since learning how to prod patients in medicine.

I’m hoping my students drag me into the 21st century.

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I had a student who was absolutely brilliant with imaginative storytelling. She would phrase things in ways that were both simple yet evocative. Her best story was about a family of fish, but you did not realize they were fish until about halfway through the story. But her grammar, syntax, spelling and structure of sentences were so poor, I had to get her to read her writing to me so that I could grade it.

She managed to make an acceptable rating on her 8th grade writing assessment for the state, but if she had an editor, she could be a children’s book author of some quality.

I mention this because, although she got an acceptable rating, it was nip-and-tuck whether she would. I managed to improve her ability with parts of the language, but she moved on into HS where her teacher in 9th grade failed to see her potential, and eventually failed her. I do not know if she passed or what she is doing today, but I often think about her story when I address writing for the two aspects of ‘content’ and ‘usage’.
For her, and other students, they don’t want their writing on display. She didn’t because she knew she had issues with ELA. No matter how much I praised her work, she never wanted to read it or share it outside of the normal class.
I would personally like to see the ‘growth’ in style and complexity diplayed for authentic audiences, but I am still confronted by the vastness of internet copy which is dreck. Do I add to that? Or allow them to edit and post that which is truly good?

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