When I was younger, having a movie marathon was one of my favorite things to do with my sisters. We would bake chocolate chip cookies, slip into our pjs and spend the afternoon in front of the television, watching back-to-back Meg Ryan romantic comedies. It’s true that watching movies can be a solitary activity, but we always found it more enjoyable with company. Reading, [...]
I am exactly where I should be. I just completed my MA in Publishing & Writing at Emerson College—a degree that thoroughly supplements my BA in Magazine Journalism from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh (SUNY Plattsburgh). During my undergrad years, I allowed my creativity to flourish, particularly in the areas of fashion, journalism and publishing. I completed an internship at [...]
Zombies! What comes to mind? AMC’s The Walking Dead? The Resident Evil franchise? Education? Personally, I imagine the rotting flesh and deep groans of humans who now walk the Earth (extremely slowly) as the undead—acting on one impulse: to satisfy their ravenous appetite for human flesh. But, surprisingly, it is scenarios like this that are proving essential in teaching college classes about survival and human preparedness [...]
Rachael Barron is a science teacher at Wakefield Memorial High School in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Rachael teaches AP Biology, Honors Genetics and Microbiology, College Prep Anatomy & Physiology, and College Prep Introduction to the Physical and Life Sciences. Rachael holds a bachelor of science in biology with a minor in education from Brandeis University. She earned her master of arts in teaching biology from [...]
I like languages. That’s not to say that I have a good ear for them. In the same way that I struggle with tone deafness and staying on key when I sing karaoke, I have a hard time hearing and repeating foreign phrases. It’s why I took Latin in high school and why I enrolled in an American Sign Language (ASL) course my [...]
It has now been over a year since the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) were finalized in April 2013. While 26 states actively participated in the development of the standards (the NGSS official site calls them “lead state partners”), the adoption process has been slow and controversial. As of March 2014, the District of Columbia and just eleven states have accepted the standards: [...]
When I was in school, I was one of those kids who hated gym class. I would purposely strike out during kickball so that I could return to the bench as soon as possible; I would let myself get hit when playing dodge ball rather than spend the energy swerving; and I always walked the mile during the annual presidential fitness test, linking [...]
The National Spelling Bee, an American tradition since 1925, will take place this month from May 27 through May 29. The National Spelling Bee was originally created to encourage students to excel in the otherwise (seemingly) mundane task of spelling words in the English language. It became the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 1941 after The E. W. Scripps Company took over the [...]
Throughout high school, I had teachers who would rejoice whenever anyone spoke up in class—particularly when they were answering a question correctly. Additionally, they would barely reprimand any student for causing any type of raucous behavior within the classroom. Students loved these teachers. However, I also had teachers who would offer no acknowledgment beyond “correct” when a student answered a question with the [...]
“Come with me.” These are the words that Carl Sagan told us on his PBS miniseries Cosmos: A Personal Voyage as we set off on an adventure to discover what mysteries lie in the depths of space, the earth and humanity. Sadly, Sagan passed away in 1996, but he made his mark. Sagan took us on a journey to educate people on complex scientific matters [...]