Engagement

I was most interested in entry #48, which deals with journal writing. I have always been a little on the fence about journal writing. On one hand, the students get practice writing for fun, about anything they want, and they're usually not graded for punctuation or grammar, but on the other hand, I think students will use the opportunity to try and impress the teacher with their worst experiences or all the problems they have in life. Isn't journal writing just begging for information about illegal, unethical or unhealthy decisions that our students are making? Don't get me wrong, I want to know about my students, but I don't want to have to be their teacher AND their parent AND their counselor. It's not that I don't want to help them, but I don't feel qualified to diagnose their problems, and I don't want to have to break their trust. I will though. I will assign journals because my kids will have problems, and if I don't hear about them, if I don't champion for their future healthy life, maybe no one will.