After watching the Four Corners segment titled ‘Digi Kids’, I found myself thinking about my kids and my teaching practice.

As a secondary English teacher, I experience the difficulties of students coming to my classroom with such a range of abilities and experiences. I see a lack of phonics, grammar and punctuation knowledge, and the stress or disengagement experienced by those students who are lacking confidence in these areas. I, like the teachers in the segment, was never taught these things explicitly yet find the need to learn so that my students can achieve.

My school has shifted focus to lots of close reading and deconstruction of texts with a lens on word and sentence level teaching. We value reading and are bringing student choice to the fore.

Part of my motivation for choosing to go back to study and become qualified as a Teacher Librarian stems from my desire to provide the opportunities that students need to become passionate about reading and seeing learning as exciting and not a means to an end.

As a parent, I worry. I think most of us do. I worry about the impact my behaviors will have on my children. Food for thought and a good chance to reflect on whether or not we are in control of the technology in our lives, or if the technology is in control of us.