Greetings from Iowa

Welcome to my blog. I am a thirty-five year old, secondary social science educator in Iowa. I recently moved to Iowa last June from Oregon. I grew up in the Midwest, but have spent the last ten years in Oregon where I taught for nine years at two high schools-- Vernonia and North Marion. My husband was also a teacher (FFA) who decided to try something new and thus we ended up in rural Iowa surrounded by the ag industry and corn fields.

I teach social sciences at the local high school in the areas of government, world history, and sociology. This winter I will finish up my credits for my masters from WOU and be working on my professional project which I hope to be in the area of technology, online learning, and reforming traditional education. I am still trying to figure out what that will look like.

Currently, my sociology class consists of only four students. The school I teach at is a 1:1 school which means every student has a MacBook that they can use in and out of class. It is theirs to take home. Therefore I would like have my students to use blogging in that course as a form of daily journaling. I know this course will help me figure out how to go about doing that and doing it in a way that is rigorous and meaningful for the students. I have already had them create their own blogs. The biggest obstacle I have noticed is their ability to just let go of the concepts "I don't know what to write" and "what do you want me to say".

I have a two year old son who has defined for me what it means to be in the terrible two's and a husband that works with sheep all day. That is a blog of it's own. I also coach volleyball and enjoy reading on my newly acquired Kindle which makes me feel old every time my two year demonstrates his ability to understand how to turn it on and start a movie. I still love the feel of a book, but I have to admit the Kindle is a form of technology that I'm falling in love with. To relieve stress I run and eat chocolate.