Why and the Wizard of Blogs

 SO, right about now you're probably wondering "what is up with JJ's titles?" Is he gonna put blog into all of his titles for these posts? He's not even addressing what he's talking about and how it relates to technology.  Well you're right. But hopefully they peak interest just enough to make everyone read them. 

NOW, to the point of this blog. One of my Grandma's favorite movies is Wizard of Oz. It scarred me as a young child and flying monkeys still give me the willies to this day. SPOILER ALERT for anyone who hasn't seen it, there's a girl who gets dropped in this strange place and from the moment she gets there she's in over her head. All she wants is to go home and she gets barely any directions on how to do so. Her friends try to help, but they all have their own issues and even when she thinks she has done everything she needs to get what she wants some guy behind a curtain changes the rules and she has to kill a witch. Other than the last part, I think it's a pretty spot on metaphor for what it's like to be in high school. 

How could the wizard and the good witch have made it easier for Dorothy to get home? How can we make it easier for students to get what they need out of our classes and graduate? The same answer for both is to give them more information and more resources rather than just letting them struggle. 

It was incredible to see how many resources that Tricia provided during her presentation for us, and I think in the realm of education providing students with a variety of tools. In my own high school experience I struggled mightily with my grammar and citations. No one really ever explained any of it and it was just expected that it was known. So as an English teacher I want to first let students understand why these elements are needed and secondly give them resources to handle these tasks without extra worry. 

I personally love using grammarly and I think it's a great resource for students, or anyone who has to do a lot of writing in their daily life. https://app.grammarly.com/ 

With apps like these students have AI reading their paper as they write it, giving feedback on how they could change verbiage and identifying patterns of speech. 

As far as citing goes, Purdue OWL was mentioned in class and it saved me in college, but just like teaching kids how to use the search bar I want to teach them how to use the cite while working on their first paper too. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html