Hello from Victoria

Hi Everyone,

My name is Chris and this is my second or third MET class (I’m currently in 500 as well). I’ve been a teacher in Victoria since 2014 and I’m currently teaching Grade 8 at a local middle school. It’s my first time with a contract in a middle school and it’s definitely been a unique experience. Hard to believe the school year is almost over. This year has turned into a ridiculously busy year in regards to work, personal life, and education. At the moment I’m just letting it carry me along and trying to keep up. So far so good.

I chose this image because of the students I teach. It’s amazed me how low their spelling skills are at this stage in their education. What amazes me more is how little they often seem to care that their spelling is wrong. Their reliance on spell checking and auto-correct has reached a point where they don’t need to learn from their past errors as they will be caught and corrected again and again (or at least this is what they think). Of course, I have fallen victim to this as well. My spelling has deteriorated from where it once was, and while I can recite phone numbers for childhood friends I haven’t seen in 20 years, I still don’t know my fiance’s phone number. By far the most common error I see these days is not capitalizing “i”. It often drives me crazy until I remind myself about the fluidity and evolution of language. I wonder how much of the “proper” grammar rules will need to be memorized in the future as computers continue to anticipate and correct our “errors”?

I’m looking forward to working with you all.

Atwater, M. (2011). Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/opensourceway/5496629643