Technology

Like most of us, I have a love/hate relationship with technology. This week I am leaning towards hate. My students submit everything on-line, with the exception of in-class writing assignments. I sat down to respond to student writing on Sunday afternoon, and low and behold my screen went blank. Luckily, my computer is not quite a year old- in fact we are getting a new hard drive on Monday just under the wire. the warranty expires on 12/13, so in that respect Im lucky. I email everything to myself and back most things up on an exteranl hard drive, but it was still inconvenient. Iwent upstairs to use my husband's computer, and that worked for two days, then it became infected with a virus and CRASH!. The laptop has a broken screen ( my son dropped it off of a balcony at the beach- I don't want to know details) , so we hooked up the screen to the upstairs computer to the laptop so Icould grade. It was extremely annoying, but I managed. Istarted thinking about all the students who don't have a computer at home, much less a back up plan, who don't have transportation or access to a library or other computers. After all, I could hop into my car , go to the library or to one of my two offices. As we become an increasingly technologically dependent society are we leaving students with limited financial resources futher behind? Sadly, Ithink this may be the case. Something to think about as we wrap up a rewarding and informative english/Education class.

Blogging

Well, Ihaven't been on here in a few weeks. Ihave a personal blog and I do a pretty good job of keeping it updated, but I tend to forget about this one for class. To be honest, Iprefer posting to a forum which is more private, and I get to see my classmates posts immediately. I have forgotten about this one especially in the push to wrap things up at the end of the semester. Fall semester always seems particularly stressful, not only am I dealing with freshpeople who have to meet deadlines in all their classes before Christmas for the first time, and they have a habit of going home for Thanksgiving and forgetting about school which adds to the stress when they return, you also have the addded stress of the holiday season. I try to wrap up the semester while cooking Thanksgiving dinner, getting decorations out for Christmas, and participating in the holiday festivities. Enough excuses. I am very pleased with my classes this semester,they are developing into a fine group of writers. I always say if I can teach them how to do a works cited page and spell definitely ( instead of defiantly) I consider my job well done ( just joking). This semester I have several students who plan to major in English and they are well on their way to developing into competent fiction writers. I have used several of the concepts and strategies from this class, one of which is the overarching concept for a unit more than Ihave done in the past and I do see a difference, so I plan to incorporate more strategies next semester. Enough for now. Im on my way to work to listen to presentations, something I do look forward to at the end of the semester!