The ELC Writer’s Blog

One of my students recently wrote about how he thought grades affected students in a negative way.  He wrote, “Sometimes grades just make a person feel bad, and it doesn’t encourage them to do well.”  I, myself, am not a genius or anything; I have gotten bad grades before.  However, I always felt that I have to do better the next time. 

I always remind my students that one bad grade will not affect them adversely if they do better on their remaining assignments.  Of course, if they continue to do poorly, their grade point average will do poorly, as well.

What is your opinion on this point?  Do grades affect students negatively or positively?  If teachers cannot use grades to encourage their students to study the material, what can we used instead?  In other words, how do teachers test their student’s knowledge of the material without testing them?  Your comments are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Axharris

Dear ELC Writing student, 

I believe one of the worst inventions in the last 20 years has to be the mobile/cell phone.  People tend to use them inappropriately not taking into account other people around them.  Is it impolite to talk on your mobile phone inside of a movie theater? How about in the middle of dinner at a posh restaurant?  When driving, is it proper to talk on your mobile phone as traffic begins to backup behind you?  Haven’t you seen traffic affected by drivers on a cell phone?

I few days ago, I say an older women (she looked over 70 years old) in a popular department stores answering a cell phone and speaking loud enough for everyone around her to hear the conversation.  Even more surprising, a popular network reporter’s mobile phone went off during one of the President’s press conferences.  It blarred out a popular hip-hop song about ‘riding dirty’ – a song in reference to driving a car with drugs hidden inside.  She immediately reported that her young daughter must have downloaded the song without her knowledge.  Shouldn’t the phone have been off in the first place?

My question is, how appropriate is mobile phone use in public?  Is it OK or should they be used more discreetly?  Please list your comments and opinion about mobile phones and their appropriateness.

Thanks,

Axharris

Dear Students,

I’ve decided to experiment with an ESL Writing Blog this session in order to share your writing with your classmates and possibly people all over the world.  I believe this is a great opportunity for all of us to share our thoughts with each other.  I plan to give you more details about this blog as the sessions progresses, but don’t be afraid to post your ideas and opinions or to response to someone else’s.  We will work together to make this blog fun and interesting.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 Thanks,

Axharris

Welcome to Edublogs.org. I decided to experiment with a blog for all of my writing classes this session.  My future plan is to expand on this idea.  So far, we are all a little confused with how to use this website.  I am slowly coming up to speed, however.  Now, I have to explain it all to my students.

Let’s make this a great place to write and interact with each other…