Ms. Snow's Social Studies

Have you ever looked at the news and questioned why something happened? This last school year, I ran into this problem; school safety. Students participating in the National School Walkout against gun violence in Minnesota.  Image is free to use under Creative Common Licensing. I was a first-year teacher settling into my first classroom and the rest of the first that I would eventually experience. Sadly, I looked at my phone and saw the events at Oxford High School in Oxford, Michigan. My stomach turned into knots instantly. I couldn't help but think of the students, the teachers, and all the people connected to that horrific day. How could this happen again? But, one question stuck with me. What if we work with various professionals from different backgrounds to find a solution to prevent the next event? This transformation would require two big ideas: reevaluating the questions and changing how we look at the process. Berger's 2014, A More Beautiful Question , explains how w...

Learning how to tackle a new skill can be challenging, but imagine having to learn by only using digital resources. That adds a new dimension to the challenge and uniqueness of learning this new skill. For me, it was the art of crocheting, and now I am "hooked," literally. As I began this journey, I was nervous. I wanted to live up to the expectations of my late grandmother. She was an inspiration for this project, but I knew the digital aspect would be where I would struggle. I found it difficult not to talk to my family members that learned her top secrets and shortcuts. Away from the nerves, I got down to business stitch by stitch until I created some things that resemble crochet. But, I kept asking myself, how do I do this? The first few stitches I started with just learning the basics and allowing myself to be creative. Berger's (2014),  A More Beautiful Question reinforced this push to explore my "how." The book shares the ideas of bringing back creativit...

Is there a moment in your life where you felt that you could have asked more, learned more, and truthfully discovered the meaning of something? Berger's book, A More Beautiful Question , explores the world of questioning from its phrasing of questions, lighting up creativity, to diving deeper into the limits of inquiry in the modern world and the classroom. Yet, are we challenging those thoughts? A cover of Berger's Book I took when getting accepted to MAET! This book challenges one to reflect on how one looks at the world through questioning (Berger, 2014). Are we asking those critical questions that lead us to change our thinking? As a child, we ask many questions, but that is how we learn about something for the first time. As we grow up, we ask fewer "why" questions. So "why" is that? What happened to the creativity? It disappears because we do not take time to engage in the why, what if, and how questions (Berger, 2014, p. 71-134 ). If we go back to our...

QuickFire Conversations Imagine this; you are in a room with school board members, administration, teachers, parents, and students. The topic is a new school policy changing for the next school year that is designated to target cell phones in the classroom. The policy has been shared with the public and even made the news. The mock debate voiced concerns from all perspectives, online and at the school board meeting.  Well, this QuickFire activity was called to session where my classmates and I were assigned roles of various members of the Prescott, Arkansas, community and discussed this hot topic. Our spontaneous roles were given to us at random with little information about our new identity, but even more a lack of information on their recent change. After a given time to research, we "dialed" in our thoughts and began a respectful conversation.  My role in the activity was school board president.  While researching, I dove into the interweb to find information from al...

Let's Bring Playtime Back To The Classroom Remember in kindergarten when you got to build or create something? You would bring home your creation, and your parents would be so proud of you and put it on the fridge. The satisfaction and sense of accomplishment it conveyed. But where did this creativity and hands-on learning disappear? Do schools kill creativity? Check out this eye-opening TedTalk for an intriguing perspective. As you progressed throughout your formative years, the transition to memorization and teacher-centered learning occurred, and education has not been the same. After reading Kindergarten Play , I realized that the learning experiences in kindergarten were practical (Resnick, 2018). They taught one how to think critically and be creative with 21st-century skills . So, how do we change the model? Only one strategy comes to my mind to do this, the design thinking process (Plattner, n.d.). The five-phase model helps one ask a question to go through the steps to fi...

Let's Talk About Tech! As you grow up and learn new concepts in the world, you create memories from those experiences. Whether those memories are positive or negative, they may stick with you forever, and you will be able to share your adventures. As a teacher and graduate student, I have had experiences I can share and relate to with other students, teachers, or faculty. For me, this was participating in the Michigan State University Educational Technology Summit. We brainstormed applications and tools used in our classroom and graduate-level classes during a QuickFire activity . This information would be the content that we would present for the conference . We created categories and teams to discuss those topics. Well, for me, I was in the MSU Library resources group. I expressed my thoughts about using the library website with my partner. As a beginner at MSU's interworkings, I thought about how we would present the information. The design thinking process and QuickFire com...

Lighting Up Your Imagination!- Maker Movement The Purpose for Learning As a student in the classroom, I always enjoyed learning through projects where I could let my creativity shine bright. In my Hybrid course this summer, I have been exposed to material that has helped with the design process of lessons in the classroom. But how do we bring this creativity into the classroom? Image is free to use under Creative Common Licensing. As a student in the classroom, I always enjoyed learning through projects where I could let my creativity shine bright. In my Hybrid course this summer, I have been exposed to material showing me the design thinking process. But, how do we bring this creativity? The Maker Movement has “lit” up a new path in the classroom for student-centered learning. This trend allows students to ask thought-provoking questions and create and improve their thinking upon the original ideas.  Hands-on learning allows students to be more creative, just like the art project...

As I learned how to crochet, I realized that I am “knot” too bad for a beginner! I have mastered the skill of creating a basic crochet stitch!  Before  After Well, it was a lot of trial and error, ripping out stitches and pulling my hair out to get here. The slip knot was the most challenging for me. It was complicated because it felt foreign to be doing the action, and I kept doing movements in the opposite direction.  So, I looked at my resources , and they helped tremendously. I returned to the beginner YouTube video and rewatched it frame by frame to understand how to wrap my head around the hook, just like I had to correctly wrap my yarn around the hook. After finally connecting this piece to the puzzle, I began to plug away at it, and I did it! Here's an update on my crocheting ability! Like the design thinking process, I could evaluate my thinking, improve my work, and imagine a new goal for my skill ( Institute of Design at Stanford, n.d. ). After I understood the...

Imagine this…you are in a kitchen expected to create something with unlimited food resources, but only have a plate, a bowl, and a spatula. This week's QuickFire challenge was that for me.  Little did I know the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework would be the secret recipe that explains my entire teaching experience. TPACK framework brings specific things you know and all of the aspects of how to teach together (Koehler and Mishra, 2009). The QuickFire activity combined this critical framework of the task of cutting vegetables with the element of surprise. The challenge? I had to navigate how to slice vegetables with a metal spatula, and not cut myself. I’m sure you are probably wondering how this went. Well, I used my noodle. I used the plate as a “cutting  board” and the metal spatula as a “knife”. The bowl was mostly for scraps. As crazy as this sounds, it was kind of a recipe for success! Reflecting, this allowed me to think about the TPACK frame...