Ms. Snow's Social Studies

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...