Inside the Mind of a History Teacher

 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...

October Already?! I am absolutely mind blown that we are already in October and wrapping up the first quarter of the school year! I feel as if this is around the time that the students are finally starting to get a hang of things and summer thoughts have officially worn off. We are currently exploring the Age of Enlightenment and the American Revolution in US History, and are creating travel brochures for our "Athens vs Sparta" unit in World History. I am absolutely amazed at the level of creativity and artistic ability that I am seeing in my sophomores this year! Although students are creating brochures using actual paper and writing utensils, I am considering doing this sort of project again in the future digitally. It might be neat to see how creative young people can be with technology.  Accessibility Findings This week's module on accessibility truly opened my eyes to the amazing features that exist on the devices that we interact with on a day to day basis. As educa...