“There will Come Soft Rains,” The Importance of Science Fiction, and the Elements of Literature in Bradbury’s Story

Image Source Ray Bradbury is one of my absolute favorite authors, especially because he can be so easily implemented in the classroom.  I remember reading “All Summer in a Day” in eighth grade, and it captivated me. This semester in my practicum, my students read “A Sound of Thunder,” which had the same grand effect…

How Video Games and Teaching are Closer Related than You Thought

Image Source My favorite type of video game has always been a story-centered one. I loved slowly making progress through an obstacle, with one scene building on another. Although I had terrible coordination, this task would occupy me for hours. My friends and I used to play the Spongebob Squarepants the Movie video game on…

Why Turtles All the Way Down is so Important

Image Source I have been reading John Green books since I was in high school, so I was thrilled when I learned that his new book Turtles all the Way Down was being released. As soon as I knew the book existed, I preordered it, the signed copy, and counted down until it was released…

“A Game of Shark and Minnow” and “Snowfall” in the Classroom

Picture Source When I opened up “A Game of Shark and Minnow,” I was immediately amazed. The title picture wasn’t a picture. Instead it was a moving GIF that took up the entire screen of my computer, and the title of the article was written in comparatively small letters on the middle left-hand side of…

Teaching social media isn’t just helpful or fun, it’s necessary

Source I tweeted this out September 11, 2017 while using the elliptical machine at the UNO gym; it got 3 likes and 1 retweet, which is probably the most action my twitter account has ever seen, but that is beside the point. Now I’m sure this would have been hilarious to watch. I spent longer…

“The Man to Send Rain Clouds” and Cultural Sensitivity

The first time that I read “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” I was in high school, during the short story unit of my freshman year. In addition to this story, I read “The Scarlet Ibis,” “The Most Dangerous Game,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Necklace,” and several other stories that begin with “the” and…

Ethical issues in education about plagiarism and how we are combating them

When talking about Plagiarism, the ethical issues are an integral part to the conversation. Students are taught at school not to plagiarize because it is wrong, and they are often required to submit their work to programs so that they can be searched for plagiarized material. However, this is often the extent to which plagiarism…