Week 5B: Personal Writing

My first year in college was when I was assigned an email address.  Though I had an email account much of my communication with friends from home was through "snail" mail.  I communicated with my educators by going to office hours.  Fastforward 15 years. My son received an email account from his school starting in kindergarten.  I use to open up my inbox and wonder if I had any mail.  I now open up my inbox and always have new mail.  Most of my "personal" writing is in-fact email.  I put personal in quotation because most of my email is work related.  I just checked my sent email box and from the start of the school year alone I have already sent over 1,006 emails. 

 

This is my primary form of communication with my students, their parents, fellow colleagues, and administrators.  So much of what I do at work centers around email.  This will be true for my students as well which is why it is imperative that they receive direct instruction in this genre.  Students need to learn the importance of subject lines, tone, concise writing, proofreading, and reading and responding to "threads". I take a significant amount of time with my 9th grade students providing direct instruction.  I also try my best to model appropriate email etiquette in my email exchanges with them.  This is very much a part of the un-written or hidden curriculum teachers are expected to provide for their students.