Taylor Dazzo

My generation is pretty tech savvy to begin with. Being the first generation to have the internet we really had no other choice. So six weeks ago when I walked into my new course, Technology in Education I was excited to see the new things to learn and boy, was I blown away! I was given the platform to create and grow my own professional  Twitter  and found so many incredible new tools to use in the classroom. The goal I have for my future students is to help foster a collaborative and growing environment. The fact that there are technologies in place to make that easier, fun and just plain awesome is AMAZING! The power of Google within the classroom is a game changer. We can literally transport students to anywhere they want to go in the world through  Google Earth . We are no longer confined to the four walls around us. The world is our playground and we have the tools to show and give our students that. Looking back, I have learned an incredible amount of things t...

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...