Is the internet helping or hurting the way students learn?

         Today mostly every middle and high schooler have a cell phone with the internet. They have a device in their pockets at every second, so why would they want to sit there for forty minutes and learn about what happens next in a novel or find out the meaning of a poem when they can look it up in a second? Why are we making them read out of an outdated textbook? And why are we teaching them to write if they can just use spell check and grammar check on Microsoft word?
           We have to think of a different way to approach teaching or else our students are going to keep relying on a machine instead of their brain to do the work. When I was in elementary and middle school no one had a cell phone and ten year old kids didn't have myspace, facebook, blogs, or twitter. These just didn't exist yet so it was understandable that we were taught in that way.
           Now it is eminent for teachers to incorporate things such as blogs, youtube (talk shows on prevalent issues that relate to a book/topic being taught), activities for classwork on the internet, and other forms of technology. When it comes to students learning we are not doing a good job relating their lives to this fast past changing world.

"No one manages to write better without teachers"

            When thinking about revision in writing, I realized it is true that only the author can decide when a draft becomes a final draft. As a future teacher and a writer, I want to teach my students how to write to the best of their ability. However the concept of revision is a hard one to teach. Throughout my high school and even college career, I was so proud of every word I wrote and I didn't want to get rid of any of them. When I saw those red marks on my papers it was unsettling, so I can understand how students feel when it comes to revision.
          As a teacher you must also not mark every line with commas and other grammar corrections or else your students will feel like their writing is completely wrong. I think you must chose a certain aspect of their writing to focus on. You should either focus on content or just a few grammar mistakes. It is hard because you feel like it is benefiting them, but in the long run it is only stunting their writing ability.
          In Is It Done Yet, the author tells us that as teachers we must teach our students to find their errors themselves. The students should be able to recognize the parts of speech and make sure the topic is being addressed correctly. In order for the students to be able to revise their writing themselves, we must practice everything from nouns to punctuation, spelling, and forms of writing. It is essential that as teachers we allow our students to become self sufficient with their work.

My View of Writing in The Classroom

          My name is Dinamarie and I am an English Education major. I would love to be a teacher in one year after completing my masters. Hopefully the job market opens up for teachers. Writing is crucial to English because it is a really good method of expressing oneself. As a kid I wrote journals whenever I felt like something needed to be said, but no one could know about it. Then once I learned to write poems and short stories, I began to write all the time. It really amazed me how creative I could be. During my teen years I was a more shy person and I wrote my ideas down as my form of expression.
         In the future I want to teach my students how powerful writing can be, but I also want them to know how important it is to learn how to write correctly. I would love to teach a creative writing or a poetry writing class because I feel it is a great tool for not only expressing yourself, but for getting a job one day in any field. In high school students are thinking about colleges that require essays. Sometimes the colleges require multiple essays and I want my students to be able to write these essays. As teachers we shouldn't just teach kids how to write for the state tests because they will never learn how to write any other forms of writing. Also you might never know just how good one of your students is at writing a scene of a play if you don't allow your students to practice and read all different types of literature and writing.
         I also believe that reading is the key to good writing. The more you read with your class the more your class will not only enjoy writing, but will understand more components of writing. I hope that when I become a teacher I can empower my students to love writing just as much as I do.