geek.teacher

…you need to read this post by Bill Ferriter.  This kind of stuff makes me glad I’m slowly getting more involved in the edublog scene and using the new communication tools out there, because it’s things like this that challenge me to become a better educator in a way that nobody I speak with face to face does.

It makes me glad to see this interview, because she comes across as way more clued-in than she did in that terrible press release from before.  She still blames internet communications for terrible writing skills:

You would think that with blogging and text messaging, the younger generation to be among the “super” communicators; but I feel that iconic text messaging, while certainly an enhanced skill, is without substance. It takes little critical thinking or analysis to reply with an acronym, nor is there any punctuation involved.

But she also says a lot of things I agree with, such as:

If you teach children to take tests, they will learn the answers. If you teach writing skills, you teach children how to think about the consequences of a statement; and how to draw on the historical aspects, the why and wherefores of how events evolve into a present situation. Writing makes one draw on all possible resources of intelligence—the factual, historical and emotional. An answer is an answer, but why?

She also artfully doges this terrible question blaming special ed:

Many, many , many teachers that I talk to blame inclusion and mainstreaming for many of the poor writing skills- they indicate that so much time is consumed with IEP meetings, paperwork etc relative to mainstreamed students, that there is little time for writing instruction. Your thoughts?

So, hooray for KISS lady.  While we disagree about the use of internet communications, we share a lot of other common ground.