NCTE Centennial Celebration

Posted By: Anonymous User on 4/6/2011 7:26:49 AM

TECHNOLOGY, TECHNOLOGY, TECHNOLOGY.......... the pendulum continues to sway further to each side every time we turn around. Teaching English right now is exciting. There are so many opportunities at our doorstep, that it's difficult to keep up with all of the possibilities.

Posted By: Anonymous User on 12/28/2010 12:12:26 PM

In teaching, we have gone from blackboards to whiteboards. Literacy education has been compounded by, perhaps, the most rapid change in student demographics any nation has ever undergone--and the teaching profession, while playing catch-up, has responded admirably at times and in many places. Bill Younglove

Posted By: Anonymous User on 6/23/2010 12:34:43 PM

In the last quarter century (spent teaching at the community college), dazzling changes have occurred in academe. The most visible change has been the evolution of delivery systems, with instruction brought to students electronically. But less visible has been the transformation of students themselves. The notion that students come directly from high school and will devote themselves to their studies full time has been relegated to the dustbin of history. Now, college students tend to be older, have families and obligations of their own, and work outside of college. Howard Tinberg Bristol Community College Fall River, MA

Posted By: Anonymous User on 6/3/2010 9:01:08 AM

Not so long ago, I was very content as my students and I wrote together with pens on paper in what Donald Murray called the daybook. The students and I are still after intellectual seeds on paper, but we're all also typing up our drafts into blogs, customizing the looks of the virtual pages we publish, and we have much easier access to each others work. Students who used to write just for the teacher now write for an authentic audience: at least their classmates or if they choose, for thousands on public blogs or in their Facebook posts. It used to look like the world was gravitating towards a seat on the couch watching television or playing video games, and now many of my students are daily, sometimes obsessive, writers. I'm excited and also anxious about what all this will mean for literacy. I write more about some of these issues on my own blog at TheTorg.Wordpress.com Best, Bill

Posted By: Anonymous User on 8/26/2009 7:02:59 AM

The most significant alteration I have witnessed is a focus on brain research and the ways the brain retains information--through the use of color, consistency, "chunking" information, and the focus on a common visual language for the eight cognitive skills. My realization of these facts, along with my knowledge of the four learning styles, made such a difference in my classroom and other teachers' classrooms as well. We must recognize and address these factors in student achievement and retention.