Posts by GrreatTeacher

the gorby satire fake report of the annual meeting with the coincidence about russia, is used for real in john cedars yt channel.. please concider it for well prepared satire.. and not much more.. g..

GrreatTeacher

Jesus, Morph, where is your mind?

Did you really just call the title the "tittle" multiple times?

Everybody, give Morph a break. His mind is obviously somewhere else. And it might be his happy place!

37

Should kids learn cursive handwriting?

by GrreatTeacher in

i am an elementary school teacher of the fourth grade.

in times past, students would start learning cursive handwriting in third grade and by fourth should be transitioning to writing in cursive at all times.

as you might be aware, this has all but been taken out of the curriculum.

GrreatTeacher

Cursive and cursing - two different things entirely!

37

Should kids learn cursive handwriting?

by GrreatTeacher in

i am an elementary school teacher of the fourth grade.

in times past, students would start learning cursive handwriting in third grade and by fourth should be transitioning to writing in cursive at all times.

as you might be aware, this has all but been taken out of the curriculum.

GrreatTeacher

La Capra, good point about just taking pictures with phones. I used to worry about the digital divide. My students live in poverty. They don't have computers in their homes and it's true.

But they all have cell phones! And what am I using right now to communicate? A cell phone. Apparently I am slow and stupid for using one finger when double thumbing is much faster! Cell phones are the future of computing. We call people, have a GPS system, take photos, store contact information, create documents for use and sharing, pay bills, FaceTime people to speak to them in person, etc. We can't actually teleport people with them, yet. But they have more computing and other powers in a portable device that is cheaper than pc's or laptops.

This will be the way of the future. We type erratically until the word we're looking for finally appears. And no big deal if we get it wrong, autocorrect has got your back. We google the very beginnings of a thought and myriads of options pop up for our perusal and consideration. And if we don't have the gumption to google something, then we can just use Siri who knows the answers to just about everything.

Kids take these things for granted. While I, not a digital native, have a hard time with technology to this day. I did not grow up with it in my home. I only got a personal computer as an adult and I still struggle because things that should be really easy are often difficult for me. I just don't have a digital brain.

37

Should kids learn cursive handwriting?

by GrreatTeacher in

i am an elementary school teacher of the fourth grade.

in times past, students would start learning cursive handwriting in third grade and by fourth should be transitioning to writing in cursive at all times.

as you might be aware, this has all but been taken out of the curriculum.

GrreatTeacher

LUHE, the camel. I'm thinking maybe it says something like, "Please clean up after your pet," and they post it in the park?

Diogenesister, I think that might be where we are heading. After a few years of this, I am seeing kids who have little writing stamina. And now suddenly writing skills are very poor and we are to focus on them. The organization and elaboration, not the spelling and grammar, though. I just keep thinking how much more exposure they would have to words and writing if we could still teach spelling.

37

Should kids learn cursive handwriting?

by GrreatTeacher in

i am an elementary school teacher of the fourth grade.

in times past, students would start learning cursive handwriting in third grade and by fourth should be transitioning to writing in cursive at all times.

as you might be aware, this has all but been taken out of the curriculum.

GrreatTeacher

Sparky, I think it is very reasonable to assume that cursive handwriting vs block printing use different parts of the brain/neuronal pathways.

I had always used it, then dropped it when I was teaching younger students. It was a bit challenging to pick up again and it took a few months for it to be automatic again.

Sadly, cursive was taught to my son as an afterthought, mostly for children who finished their work early and he never did. He doesn't even have a cursive signature!

But, of course, they all have laptops that the school board lends them. So, all their work is digital now except for the rogue geography teacher who makes them label maps.

They no longer have to take notes: they're just given copies of the PowerPoint.

37

Should kids learn cursive handwriting?

by GrreatTeacher in

i am an elementary school teacher of the fourth grade.

in times past, students would start learning cursive handwriting in third grade and by fourth should be transitioning to writing in cursive at all times.

as you might be aware, this has all but been taken out of the curriculum.

GrreatTeacher

LUHE, I love that! What does it mean?

Road to Nowhere, that is partially how I get buy in for learning cursive: I tell them they can write faster and 'get it done with quicker .'

Of course, I am still struggling with legible block printing with some of them. It's not fashionable in education right now to spend time on learning any process of handwriting. Nor spelling. Because we now have spell-check. Not even kidding. The solution is keyboarding and spell-check with the powers that be currently.

By the way, parents nearly rioted when we told them at the beginning of the school year that there would be no spelling homework this year and it would be folded into the daily curriculum (cough, cough). I don't blame them. I wish they would call the Board of Ed. Maybe they'll listen to them because they certainly don't listen to us.

37

Should kids learn cursive handwriting?

by GrreatTeacher in

i am an elementary school teacher of the fourth grade.

in times past, students would start learning cursive handwriting in third grade and by fourth should be transitioning to writing in cursive at all times.

as you might be aware, this has all but been taken out of the curriculum.

GrreatTeacher

Simon, I'm worried that eventually no one will care about original song lyrics because they won't be able to read them!

37

Should kids learn cursive handwriting?

by GrreatTeacher in

i am an elementary school teacher of the fourth grade.

in times past, students would start learning cursive handwriting in third grade and by fourth should be transitioning to writing in cursive at all times.

as you might be aware, this has all but been taken out of the curriculum.

GrreatTeacher

Sorry. Tried to paste an example, but it disappeared!