Celebrating Failure in Rm 613

Even though reading is my favorite pastime, it falls by the wayside when school is in full swing. That's not to say that I'm not reading, but by the time I finish reading all the blog posts, assignments, essays I'm too exhausted to read-for-fun when I'm home.  Since reading is a stress reliever for me, I've tried to incorporate more reading into my every day life and the best way, for me, has been through  Audible . Initially, I was against listening to books since 'that is something old people do' but now I'm hooked.  I look forward to my commute.  I've always loved having time before and after work to decompress and reflect, but sometimes it can get a little boring. I've even found I'm more alert and awake instead of getting lost in my thoughts.  It keeps me engaged.  As a teacher, its so important to stay relevant and connected to the world around you. It helps me remain 'human' and also helps me connect with my students ...

Without a doubt, I am a project-based teacher. I have set aside the "sage on the stage" mentality and have embraced my role as one that guides and facilitates learning for my students. If you walk into my classroom, chances are you will find me on the side, monitoring students, answering questions, or providing assistance where needed. But during my professional development sessions, I'm back in front of the 'class', with the learning and focus back on me. I know that its true; after sessions I would be exhausted from all the talking and would walk away wondering if the attendees got anything from my presentations. While the official feedback from the attendees were mostly positive, my worries were confirmed with the constructive feedback that I needed to make it more hands-on. #perfectionistsworstnightmare #imtheworst #whyme Then I realized: I have *mostly* embraced failure in my classroom, but not in my professional development sessions. #fail A...

Recently, I made a shocking discovery: I am considered a Millennial. Yes. I'm part of that generation that is the current bane of everyone's existence as shown below: Ok, I definitely laughed at a few of those and even made me think of my sister, who is also a Millennial. But I also kept thinking that I'm not that person. I don't think everyone deserves a medal. I struggle to decode slang. I moved out at 18 years old. And so on.  These thoughts were pushed even further into my mind by my EDTECH 537 course, where we've been reading about generational differences in regards to technology. The articles raised two major questions: whether or not generalizations about different generations are accurate AND whether or not these differences influences the way people approach technology.  For me, I agree with Professor Reeves who stated that, "It is definitely not recommended to make assumptions about any one individual, regardless of gender...

One of the best decisions that my boyfriend and I have made was adopting our two dogs Of course, we would have gotten dogs much sooner if our previous apartment leases allowed it, but it worked out since we wouldn't have gotten our beloved maltipoos, Leeroy Jenkins and Pacha. Pacha is on the left and Leeroy is on the right. If you have ever had dogs or any animal, you know that every one has a unique and different personality. For example, Leeroy is the goofy and inquisitive older brother who has immense focus and moose-like characteristics (we were told he would be at most ten pounds and currently he is pushing 25). Pacha, on the other hand, is cuddly and sweet little brother who is really the mastermind behind most crimes committed in the apartment.  I never expected that I would have to use teaching strategies and techniques with my dogs. Of course there are the classic ones, like clear and consistent expectations, rewards and consequences, equity, patience, tria...

As a history person, I guess its natural that I love documentaries and all these streaming services provide me with endless access to documentaries. Recently,  9/11- Fifteen Years Later  showed up on my Hulu list and, of course, I watched it. It was definitely a thought-provoking documentary and it got me thinking about how I'm going to teach September 11th next year. If you remember, it was last year that I realized I needed to change the way I teach 9/11 .  I've started to do some research about news ways to teach the event and I compiled some of the best ideas or collections that I found onto an Outliner on Diigo that can be found here . How do you plan on teaching September 11th this year?

Last September, I reflected on my goals and feelings about my school year school. With a focus on creating more authentic project-based lessons, my Google Innovator project , and my work towards my Master's degree in Educational Technology , my fourth year of teaching did end up being epic with lots of unexpected surprises.  The biggest surprise of all was one of my friends and department mates was offered an incredible job opportunity, which he took at the semester. With this unexpected change, we gained a new teacher, class schedules were rearranged (I ended up teaching AP Euro for a semester), unofficial mentorships occurred, and somehow a student teacher was added in. All in all, Minarets and the social science department made this seemingly negative event a positive.  This is why my last blog post was in February. I wanted to stay online and be as plugged in as possible this school year, but the craziness of the year got the better of me. But I'm back and prepared to...

During the first class I took to become a teacher, the professor took half of the class out and informed us that after four years of teaching half us of will have left teaching all together. Now I'm well into my fourth year and I'm still standing. In fact, I feel that this year is going to be... For starters, I have officially started my Master's in Educational Technology. I'm only a few weeks in and, while I'm overwhelmed and stressed, I'm glad that I'm finally taking the next steps in my education. It also helps that one of my amazing friends is doing it with me! I'm also blessed to be going into my second year at Minarets High School, which continues to be my dream school. As many people said, the first year was me trying to drink out of a fire hose, but now I feel confident and ready to be 100% PBL in a 21st century school. Over the summer, I participated in the EdtechTeam's Teacher Leader Certification and becoming inspired to set new g...

If you follow me on Twitter , then I'm sure that you are well aware that I attend the National CUE Conference in Palm Springs last week (#CUE16). I've been a member of CUE for the last two years and attended conferences and edcamps put on by its affiliate in the Central Valley, but this was the first time that I ever attended one of its national events. Representing Minarets at #cue16 :) #minaretsrocks #Mustangpride pic.twitter.com/530iMrN0Yd — Kaitlin Morgan (@missmorgan810) March 17, 2016 To put it simply, #cue16 was like the CVCUE Conferences and GAFE Summits that I have attended, but on steroids. Everyone was there for the same reasons: to learn new tools and techniques for the classroom, to network and collaborate with fellow teachers, and to share their excitement and enthusiasm for edtech, teaching, and learning. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous that I would be lonely since I was the only one attending from my school, but these shared inte...

Last year I had my Woodlake students complete a DBQ regarding Progressivism, where they had to argue which 20th century issue they would invest their million dollars into. As always, I had students finish significantly earlier than others so I quickly threw together another project where they had to create a poster describing a current issue that they felt needed attention. This was meant to keep the early finishers occupied, but turned into a project that the students became excited about: Ebola by Mikayla Juvera New iPhone Concerns by Ramiro Padilla North Korea by Henry Pfaff Unfortunately, because of pacing and an upcoming benchmark, we couldn't invest much time into the project, but I wished that one day I could do this project on a big scale. Then a year later, my wish was granted when I was offered my dream job at Minarets High School, a school dedicated to project-based learning. I knew immediately that one of my projects would be focused on muckraking curren...

Created by Wordpandit.com As I was on my way home for Thanksgiving, I was flipping through Pinterest, I came across the image to the right and I thought to myself: Darn it. That's what I should of done for my government PBL... To back up, one of my first projects as a teacher at a fully project-based school was titled: We, the People of Mars ... This project was geared towards my sophomores in World History and the driving question was "How can we as inhabitants of a new planet create a functional government?" The goal was for students to investigate different types of governments around the world to create their own unique government for Mars.  My inspiration came from the PBL training provided BIE,  where my colleagues and I created a project according to their organizational format. After a very helpful brainstorm with another teacher, they pointed me in the direction of Mars One , an international project that hopes to one day settle humanity Mars that would ...

As the school year races to the close, I have reached another milestone in my career by finishing my second year of teaching. With BTSA completed and my tenure gained, I can now smile at the memory of walking down the halls of Woodlake High School in 2013 and realizing that I would be a "real" teacher. Yet with another milestone gained, I can't help but feel a sense of incompleteness. I'm not sure where this feeling is coming from; last year, I eagerly waited for summer to arrive, but this year I'm wishing I had more time. It may be coming from my recent experiments within my classroom. In the past, I have done versions of project based learning, but I recently embraced student choice and did my first 'official' PBLs. I'm still waiting on my students' completion of the most recent project, but overall I have felt a greater sense of satisfaction and happiness watching my students on their own, rather than my direct instruction. As a result, I'...

“Picture a classroom...the first thing most of us think of is a square room with rows of desks….this traditional classroom space is the product of an industrial-era model education. Just like factories, schools were designed to categorize students by age and (supposedly) ability, then deliver curriculum in an assembly line format.” As a history teacher, this statement made by Kevin Brookhouser in his The 20time Project hit me in the gut. While my classroom does not look as Brookhouser described, elements of my instruction still did. I was increasing rigor within my content, but I still had to teach my students in way for them to do well on our CST style benchmarks despite the recent inclusion of short responses. This had been weighing heavily on my mind so when I heard this quote at the Google Summit in Minarets, I felt guilty and ashamed that I was not making my students "future ready." Thankfully, I was not alone in my concerns and convictions regarding the way to teach...

Dates. Names. Details. Facts. No debates. No discussion. Just dates, names, and details. This is how history was (and probably still is) taught. Due to the expectation of the state testing, teachers had to follow the strict pacing guide in order to ensure that students will absorb the necessary information to pass the tests. Thankfully, things are slowing changing because of Common Core. Even so, I’m still faced with the struggle of quality and quantity of topics as a history teacher. My department has been flexible and accommodating to the new expectations of CCSS; we are adjusting our pacing and tests almost weekly to emphasize the quality of information rather than the quantity, which has been a big stress reliever.With testing season upon us (CAHSEE this week, SBAC next week, then SBAC again in May), I can’t help but worry that I won’t be able to cover all the major topics with my students. What if I let my juniors out into the world without understanding how various minority ...