Module #1 Blog

ABOUT ME

Hey there! My name is Justin Haretoun and I am a 28 year old high school social studies teacher in the Northwest side of Chicago. I am a first-generation Assyrian-American, with parents from Baghdad, Iraq. My identity as an Assyrian-American has played a huge role in my life and has played a big part in molding me as an individual and an educator. I am currently in my fifth year of teaching, having spent my first two years teaching 7th grade social studies, and my last three years teaching both US and World History at the high school level. During my time teaching middle school, I regularly questioned my career choices and wondered whether or not teaching was for me. I struggled in almost all aspects of the job, and truly despised going in to work every day. After making the shift to teach high school, I have discovered a new-found love for teaching. Nothing about this career feels like "work", and I finally feel like I can truly be myself in my own classroom. I currently work at a school where 30% of our student body is ELL. This component of my school community inspired me to obtain my ELL endorsement from Dominican University, which I just completed a couple of weeks ago. One of my passions inside and outside of school is volleyball. I have spent the majority of my life involved in the sport to some capacity. I have played for most of my life, and in the last 5 years, have been coaching at various levels, including my school's boys volleyball team. Coaching and volleyball are a huge part of my identity. 

Source: Blog Author


    TECHNOLOGY

 My relationship with technology is complicated.. I love and   am truly fascinated by all types of technology. I have always   tried to educate myself on any new technological advances,   and love to buy the newest gadgets. In recent times, I have   come to the realization that technology has been taking over   my life more than I would like it to. Since that realization, I   have made the decision to limit my technology usage outside of the workplace. Since the start of my career, technology has played a huge role in my classroom. I teach at a school where every student spends most of their school day working on a Chromebook, so it is almost necessary to use a variety of creative technological outlets to educate our students. Padlet, Peardeck, Nearpod, and many other resources have become a regular part of my history courses. As awful of an experience as the pandemic and remote learning was, I do believe that I have gained so much knowledge and grown tremendously as an educator because of it. With that being said, when I decided to join this program and elevate to a MA in Education, I chose the Technology Specialist path in order to further elevate my skills as a modern educator. 

SpongeBob gif. SpongeBob pumps his arms up and down excitedly, biting his little yellow lip.
Source: giphy.com


Comments

  1. NMZumpanoAugust 31, 2023 at 1:04 PM

    Thanks for the honesty about teaching and technology, Justin. I'm happy you found a different position and with it a new love for the profession. That's something you should think about writing about. I imagine there are several teachers that feel that way.

    Your relationship with technology (love/hate) is more common than you might think! Like any tool in education, we need to decide if it's the best fit for the task at hand. Looking forward to unpacking this with you this fall.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 11th gradeSeptember 1, 2023 at 8:30 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. 11th gradeSeptember 1, 2023 at 8:31 AM

    Emily V response-
    Hi Jason!
    Welcome to the class-it's great to read about your background. I work at the high school level and every student has their own Chromebook as well. It's interesting because this year it took about 1.5 weeks for Chromebook distribution, and I had plenty of students come up to me and say they liked pencil/paper approach. When I asked why, they would say something along the lines of they felt like they were learning better. As a teacher, tech has definitely helped keep my curriculum and student work organized. However, after hearing student feedback, I do plan to take a break from tech every once in a while and do traditional pencil/paper.

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  4. Kenecia MooreSeptember 3, 2023 at 11:12 PM

    Hi Justin, Nice to meet you. I love technology and and then I also hate it because I think kids spend to much time on technology and it sometimes hinder them, but then this is where our world is going. Then I love technology because I grew up in the first uses and the start of the technology movement (so to speak) in schools. So I grew up learning and continuing to grow in this field. I look forward to reading more from you.

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