Blog #4

Psomas:

Dear Heller:
Hi How are you? How was the reading for you? After reading this weeks assignments, I have particularly grown to realize that WAC has become an issue in many areas. I see that this is indeed a new revolution amongst writing in general and the education system, don't you agree? I found it interesting in WACNM when ECAC is being discussed as an even newer WAC, negating the word "writing" and replacing it with Electronic Communication across the Curriculum (WACNM pg. 8) I do recall you even helping me when it came to the new version of Microsoft Word...Thanks by the way! Call me old fashioned but keeping up with this technology in my own studies has been a difficult task and I rather miss the "word processing era" twenty years ago, as the book mentioned. I do appreciate the higher learning and new ways to keep up with students, but like anybody with an already busy life it would seem just great to keep things just the way they are- but what would we be learning? So although more work is involved for us as teachers, it appears to have become a necessity in order to keep up with our young students lives.
Bean seemed to me to be the most I can relate to. Chapter one, entitled "Using Writing to Promote Thinking," was a very valuable reading. Bean suggests that "professors who successfully integrate writing and critical thinking tasks into their courses often report a satisfying increase in their teaching pleasure." (Bean PG.1) This to me is very important as students can tell a teachers attitude on the subject. Having pleasure with work is contagious and evedentaly motivates students, do you agree?
Bean also discusses a misconception (Bean pg 11), that teachers may feel they do not have the proper grammar to teach English to their students. This part gave me relief, as I wondered if I too would have my own problems teaching this skill. I like the breakdown that Bean answered a lot of my questions in an organizes fashion.
In my reading I found Bean to be most useful, and although the reading was a lot to intake, I did find many useful findings. What did you find the most useful to you?

Laura