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More Than a Website: Alex Hanna's Digital Media Literacy Final

More Than a Website: Alex Hanna's Digital Media Literacy Final My Website   Before my first student stepped through my doors in 2020, before I opened my first zoom room, I was inundated with a narrative that my students would be the “bad students.” I was told the year before they had a grand total of 6 science teachers, each one leaving cursing the school and my kids.  Each person I met seemed to pity me with their eyes as I excitedly explained I was the new 8th grade science teacher. A fear began to grow in the pit of my stomach, but I reminded myself why I was there: because someone had believed in me and showed me I could answer all of my thousands of questions through science.  Looking back, I am so angry that anyone would try to make me doubt my kids. They are not ‘bad’ they are independent and curious and sometimes confused. They are the mix of emotions and hormones that hallmarks early teen years and they come to school as new people each and every day.  Durin...
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Moana: Disney's Shot at Feminism

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  Before I even start this post, I have a confession to make. I was not excited to do this assignment . I knew after reading the article, Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us by Linda Christensen I would never be able to blissfully watch Disney again. It is important to note that Christensen was not my wake-up call to the pervasive racism, sexism, fatphobia, homophobia, ect. in Disney, however until this point I had only lightly grappled with these truths.  Moana was, and probably still is, one of my favorite Disney movies. For all of its MANY faults, it is still one of the first Disney movies that features a strong female lead of color where she stays human and is still unmarried at the end. But even this fact cannot save it from the blatant ableism and gender stereotypes.  I would like to note there are many other faults with this movie however I want to specifically focus on two: HeiHei as the neurodivergent comic relief and Te Fiti/Te Ka as symbols fo...
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Nearpod : My Online Learning Savior

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  This is an extension on Emily’s awesome tutorial : I explain how to add nearpod features directly in google slides, adding Phet Simulations into the nearpod, and the teacher features to use when presenting the nearpod. Extension Resource: Live Participation + Zoom Tutorial
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Where My Brain Is At: Project Ideas

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 Where I am starting: Things that went well in my class Music My students and I instantly connected through music (lofi versions of popular tv and movie themes)   Want To Know Days I had days where I answered all of the random science questions my students had. These days were full of joy and fun and usually spurred even more questions for the next want to know day.  Showing students bits of my "real life"  My students were always asking about what I do outside of school and wanting to follow me on social media (for obvious reasons I do not let them do this)   I believe students learn when they have ...   Access Autonomy  Support  Connections  Major Influences on my ideas:  Sugata Mitra S elf O rganized L earning E nvironments "It's not about making learning happen; it's about letting it"  Start with a question, gather the resources, and let students do what they do best: learn.    Rita Pierson...
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Am I the Drama?

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 Am I the Drama?  While watching Sugata Mitra's powerful talk, I couldn't help but think of this iconic TikTok sound . Mitra's talk is built on his research that asserts, learning can and should happen in a way that vastly differs from our current system.  Our current system originated over 300 years ago in the former British Empire. The British Empire violently occupied massive amounts of stolen land. In order to keep their oppressive hold over the land and its people, they created what Mitra calls the bureaucratic administrative machine. This machine is how the British communicated and maintained what they thought was 'order.' However, they needed workers to keep this system afloat. They needed to have neat handwriting, be able to read and to do basic computations. More importantly, the 'students' needed to have identical information.  Flash forward 300 years, and our education system still strives to produce students with identical knowledge banks. I thou...
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It's Time to Talk ...

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  It's Time to Talk  Today while I was watching Sherry Turkle give her Ted Talk on my screen, my partner stopped what he was doing to come watch. My partner, like many, has gotten rid of all social media in an attempt to unplug from an increasingly plugged in world.  There have been many times that he has tried to explain to me why deleting instagram felt so freeing, but Turkle's argument was one of the first times I felt like I finally listened.  Too many times have I found myself on TikTok or Instagram after learning sad or disappointing news. Instead of people watching at the mall while I wait for my partner to get his food, I find myself looking at my Facebook page.  Technology has made massive impacts on what 'normal' is.   When we got our first computer at the house, my mom warned me about giving information to strangers on the internet. Now, when I am hungry and I don't want to cook, I invite a stranger to bring food to my house giving them acce...
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Building a Classroom Worth Learning In

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 Building a Classroom Worth Learning In  When Dr. Michael Wesch started his talk with the acknowledgement that the classroom is not the real world I was hit with every disagreement I had ever had with others in education.  I am not a disagreeable person, but I strongly believe that our current education system does not work to encourage active student learning. Dr. Wesch's talk shows exactly why this is:  While watching his son, George, learn to walk Wesch saw the learning process in its most pure form: trial and error. Wesch saw that his son, who had fallen at least 50 times, continued to rise and try again. From this observation he saw that for learning to take place students must fail without fear of repercussion, feel connected, believe in themselves and their ability to accomplish goals, as well as be excited.  Wesch then took this knowledge and made an action plan: he began to reimagine how the grading system should look. Instead of the grading syste...
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