Topic: Issues
Blogs in Schools
Today my weekly newletter from NCTE came, and they had a link to an article from USA Today about the problems schools are having with blogs. Apparently, students are using the freedom of expression found in blogging to say bad things about their teachers and friends, and schools are going after them. I think the legal questions are pretty interesting: it's clear to me that schools have some control over what goes on in their buildings, but what about what they do at home? I'm going to be interested to hear how the courts decide that one.
I think the students who have gotten in trouble for making comments that are potentially libelous or for describing illegal behaviors are getting off lightly if their punishment comes from the schools rather than the courts or the law. Again, I'm going to be interested to see what happens.
NCTE
Also in the NCTE Newsletter there is a link to an interesting article on writing poetry research papers...in 8th grade...using the Internet. The article is a bit dated but worth checking out. This link will be good for 30 days only if you are not an NCTE member so go ahead and print it out.
Linked to the November NCTE Calendar, there are a couple of intertextual (bookweaving) lessons plans for secondary schools featuring Native Americans. One asks students to compare the voices of Patrick Henry and Tecumseh, and the other is about Native American folktalkes (but has plenty of resources for any research project on folktales).
While I was spending so much time on the NCTE website, I discovered that there is a blog. Check out the link to the left.
