Has blogging become a trend of the past? Perhaps the permanence of the words is now clouded with the momentary showers of social media, Snapchat, the history that no one desires to capture for longer that a mere moment.
Within the various genres of my life, I currently find new beginnings at this moment in winter, February 5, 2016. The most obvious beginning that of recommitting to this history of my journey in and out of the classroom on this very page.
Students have changed; they always do. Yet, the change from the view of my eye resonates with my opening contemplations. Many of today's youth are momentary. They are momentary thinkers, momentary writers, momentary readers, momentary listeners. Of course students always have been seemingly shortsighted, these students reflect the new record of their time. Their life, their existence as but a flash on a screen. Then, gone. Little remains but the interest in the second flash, then the third, only to be erased by the fourth.
The pedagogy in meeting this changing, temporary, disappearing, student requires new approaches and content. For many students today, books, novels, are a device of the past. The prerequisite for attention simply fails to exist. This must be considered in how we tackle those monsters, those texts that tell a story, lasting beyond five seconds. Each chapter, each assignment is a new beginning. . . in the middle.
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