Inside the Mind of a History Teacher

I know it's becoming very redundant of me to say, but the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in many negative changes to the education system. Students all around the globe have been dealing with the negative effects of the pandemic and virtual learning for the last few years and will continue to deal with these effects for years to come. One of the biggest issues that we have been dealing with at my school, that I have made efforts to try and mitigate, is chronic absenteeism. The goal was to develop daily bell ringer activities that are fully digitized and accessible when in class. The process for this instructional plan was one that I feared would be a difficult one to get approved by my school administrative team due to the nature of the assignment resulting in grades being impacted negatively in the short-term. I was pleasantly surprised to find out, after reaching out to my administrative team, that this idea was one that they were in favor of and willing to try. I have since implemen...

 Since returning to in-person learning post-pandemic, there has been an increase in unexcused student absences, tardiness, and truancy all across the nation. We have noticed this trend at my school in full effect. As a result, student grades have been suffering, and behavior issues have been on the rise. This issue has led to a school-wide brainstorming session to try and solve the problem that is student truancy. One of the strategies I have decided to use to try and solve this issue is developing daily digital bell ringer activities that can only be completed for full credit in person. The steps that I have taken thus far have been to digitize my bell ringer activities via Google Forms or Pear Deck. I have turned all Google Slides lectures into Pear Deck lectures in order to ensure that students are only able to access the bell work with the code provided in class. Doing this has allowed me to better keep track of who is present to class for bell work and who is not. In addition,...

 Social media has truly taken over the lives of millions upon millions of people around the world. Our lives have been engulfed by devices and technology. This generation's youth are struggling to make it through their school days without their cell phones in their hands, and their grades are suffering as a result. Schools all around the country have been trying to solve the problem that is cell phone usage in the classroom, yet it appears that we are all without much luck. Many of us struggle to understand why young people can not seem to put away the phones, and I believe that it is necessary for the teachers to learn more about why there is such a struggle.  The "W hy"... Greg Taranto's Edutopia article, Understanding the Science of Social Media   starts off by quoting Brian Solis' comment that social media is more about sociology and psychology than it is about technology. The article discusses the chemical reactions that occur in the brain when using social m...

 How are we already over halfway done with October and in the last week of the course? Time has truly been flying and it is slightly frightening! We are currently also in our final week of the first quarter of the school year at my school. This week has been filled with review, projects, and exams, and I am sensing that the students are beginning to feel overwhelmed and stressed. I believe the students at my school are still in the process of returning to normality following pandemic life learning.  Looking back... While reflecting on my experience as a student in EDU 776, I realized that my views on technology in education have strengthened. I have always been a proponent of using technology as much as possible in the classroom, especially in this day and age. Making my way through the modules of EDU 776 forced me to reflect on my own technology usage inside and outside of the classroom, which caused me to ask some questions of myself as an individual and as an educator. Am I...

Having grown up in the 90s and early 2000s has played such an interesting role in molding my personality. In my opinion, Millennials are the most fluid of all of the generations. We remember our active childhood, spending hours upon hours playing with our friends outside, yet we can also hang with the best Gen Z technology geniuses. Having grown up alongside the internet, I feel like my generation has experienced so much of it, which is what makes us so technologically proficient. Although there are so many pros to having grown up and experienced the internet in all of its glory, doing so also means that we have been leaving our trace on the internet for decades. With that being said, I have been through countless social media platforms that I have long deactivated and deleted. I imagine that performing a data mine of myself will not include those older social media accounts that have been abandoned and deleted. Let's find out...  My Results... The first step in my data mining was ...

Professional Learning Networks PLC or "professional learning community" was the buzzword of the last decade or so in education. Every school I have been a member of in any capacity has made it their goal to be a "model PLC". I have become very familiar with what a PLC is, the benefits of having one, and how a successful one runs. It was not until this course, EDU776, that I had heard of a PLN, or a "professional learning network". Hearing this new teaching lingo made me curious as to how a professional learning network is any different from a professional learning community. After doing some research to find out the distinction between the two, I came across creative learning strategist Barbara Bray's blog post on the very topic. In her blog post, Barbara Bray establishes that a PLN, or a professional learning network can help you meet your personal and/or professional goals, whereas a PLC, or a professional learning community, is where you focus on s...