MARTINEZ, Ga. (WJBF) – In a world where the written word may seem like a lost art, we found a teacher who helps her students learn to love writing and makes middle school memorable.
Ashlie Fortson teaches 8th grade Language Arts at Stallings Island Middle School. She says just a few short decades ago, she didn’t see herself pursuing a career in the classroom.
“I was an English major and a History minor,” Fortson says. “And then the calling just kept knocking on the door and so here I am. 27-years later.”
And Fortson will tell you, kids have changed over the years. Cell phones and social media weren’t all the rage when she started out.
“We’ve had to quote, ‘get with the times.’ As long as I can teach them that social media is not the be all end all to everything, then we’re good.”
That means getting students to buy into actual sentences.
“They know that if they write like they text, that I’m going to put a big fat black Sharpie line on it and give it back to them. We are consciously working on not writing the way we speak.”