Taylor Dazzo

It seems as if everyone has a cell phone these days, which includes the students in the classroom. Should they be allowed or shouldn't they? Of course, cell phones can be distracting but what happens if the educators aren't engaging enough to have the students look away from their phones. Can we expect students in high school to keep their phones in their lockers? Practically young adults, shouldn't they be able to make the decision to use their phones or not? With technology so apparent in today's world, educators need to do what they need to do to use that technology in the classroom. The classroom needs to be an exciting and creative place for students to learn and grow, and not use their phones. Activities could even be implemented to use their phones for their lessons so the option isn't there to go to social media out of boredom.  People need technology in their daily lives. We have all come to believe that so why not do what we can to make that easier....

This past Friday was International Women's Day and I was absolutely floored by the posts I saw on my personal social media sites. My Instagram was flooded with my friends and celebrities I follow celebrating their womanhood. I was so proud that these amazing women were my friends. A friend from Loyola posted herself in her home country of Ecuador displaying her fierceness and strength. Another friend posted this picture below of her self with the caption reading "empowered women empower women". Her shirt and this photo say it all as she is at Syracuse's School of Law and motivated by successful and powerful women in law. I am where I am at because of all of the powerful women that came before and are currently working for my rights. This made me think about the inspirational women that are in my life and were some of my greatest role models. Of course, my own mother is on that list but also past teachers and professors that altered the way I think about things an...

My favorite kind of teachers were always the ones that were able to tie in real-world situations along with appealing to multiple groups. Teaching while pausing the lesson with conversation about the topic is important for me to feel like I could step in and ask a question or make a comment. As a learner when I didn't feel comfortable asking questions it was usually because the teacher went from one topic to the next feeling rushed. Visual, hands-on, it all came the same to me and one never seemed to top another. But however, the connections between the curriculum was shown from one lesson to another is when I was all about it! Music and film was something that wasn't introduced to my learning until high school and it made a huge difference! Teachers would play music during downtime or free work and I felt zoned in and the creative juices flowing, which carried through to my life now. Films were implemented in my English classes in high school and this was another aspect that...

The most impactful books I read in high school were either banned or challenged in the education system. I couldn't believe there were people that didn't know books existed because they weren't allowed in the school. It all seemed like an incredible disservice to me. Books are meant to be read. Banning can take place due to sexual content, profanity, racism, violence, or religion, but there are also countless other reasons that can come up for reasoning. I'm not sure someone should have the power to take a piece of literature out of the hands of an individual, especially children who cannot make the choice for him or herself. Of course, there is content in books that may not be suitable for students due to age or maturity, but it is up to the adults to be advocates for their students and never say no to reading. As a teacher, I see a few different approaches on how to approach parents that don't want their children reading certain things. It is always the parent...

Technology is changing the world. It isn't something that is just impacting a specific industry or realm but everything! We currently have political figures and news outlets that share breaking news on Twitter and other social media platforms. People are expressing more ideas and opinions globally while connecting to those all around the world. Individuals are able to choose what they want to consume while being at the forefront of it all. So how is this impacting the current and next generation of learners as they are growing up in this changing time? It has to be in some ways, if not all! The experience of being in a classroom while all students have access to their phones or other types of screens is intimidating. How in the world can one compete with a source of instant gratification the students can get from the powerful, little thing in their hands?! Does this mean we, the teachers, have to be that much more interesting? What are we going to have to do to engage our studen...