This week I’m going to blog about Veterans Day, and try my best to give an insiders perspective. Kevin, my spouse has served 9 years in the Marine Corps, and done multiple deployments to countless deserts. In fact, name a desert in the middle east and he’s probably been there. Now he is with the National Guard and will be deploying in February for a year, to yet again, another desert. I could take this post a completely different direction about how much stress and crap that puts on the spouses, and the stages of grief (I’m somewhere between denial, and thermo-pissed off!) but this is about Veterans Day, Military Spouse Day is some forgotten Friday in May. I digress.

November in general is a big deal to Marines, the 10th is the Marine Corps birthday, where every Marine comes together and celebrate their birthday, in well, true Marine fashion. I’m going to leave that as vague as possible because no description I can assign to the event could possibly do it justice. It’s an experience to witness as an outsider and that's all I’m going to say.

So in November Marines get to celebrate their birthday, then pay homage on Veteran Day. Notice I said pay homage, not celebrate as it is a somber day, and not a day of sale shopping, holiday kick-off B.S., idiots in this country has turned it into.

Back to homage. We are a unique generation where war has been the norm. This is the longest war America has been in, and in its wake are millions of service members. Many of whom say that the time in service was the best they’d ever had. That they’d do it again in a heartbeat, despite the battered bodies, broken families and damage that the war has cost them. From the civilian side, we see these people in our everyday lives. Few feel obligated to give thanks, some give cash and say “go get a beer on me.” I've been with my husband countless times where people have given him a handshake and a thanks, and on some occasions covered our lunch tab. I think these are all wonderful things. People at least notice them as different. Quite frankly they are. But hand shakes and cash, to me, makes the sacrifice seem cheap. I think more than anything on Veterans Day, our veterans want to know that they made a difference. That their sacrifice was worth something. On Veterans Day,families want to know that their sacrifices mean something. I’m so grateful that every time my husband has come home in one piece. Some families don’t get a homecoming.

On this Veterans Day, before you give an empty thank you, think of the true meaning behind the day, the true sacrifices, and what being A veteran means to THE veteran.

In light of recent event, in this weeks blog I want to talk about school violence and how it relates to technology. Currently technology is being used in a negative way that fuels violence, from social networks, messaging apps, smartphones etc. Student are using these ways of communicating to cause harm to other individuals.

I’m curious to see how school violence today compares to violence from our grandparents generation. We have old movies like Forrest Gump to make assumptions from. Can we also assume that the movies created in the 80’s and 90’s portray life as ‘accurately’ as the movies today? I don't think media depiction of social behavior in school is the best way of comparing the norms prior to social networks, and the social norms of today.

Do other countries have the same issues as we do when it comes to bullying and school violence? Can we make any connections between terrorism and our society? A society that is obsessed with social media, social networking and and gadget that connects individuals to the global world? We learn all of our behavior from the internet. We learn what to wear, what to say and what is cool from the internet. Anyone who challenges or fails to conform is cast out.

Regardless of how we compare, we are failing. This post is not about gun laws, its about behavior. Violent behavior is learned, and the triggers for this behavior are coming from social media. So what can we as educators of the next generation do to break this spiral? Technology has created this problem, but the solution must also come from technology, because I don’t see our society moving backwards.

Can We auto-correct Humanity?

^Ironically this video came to me in my Facebook feed.

Parents can either be a great asset for students or they can be the biggest distraction. In the ideal world parents would want to be involved in their childrens education and support the teachers in helping them reach their full potential. Unfortunately, we have all encountered situations where parents are less than supportive, and/or home issues distract our students.

Difficult parents can be good or bad. The best case, parents are really championing for their student and sometimes the school does have it wrong, and parents are truly advocating for what they believe is in the best interest of the child. The worst case parents are absent from the childs life. They may be physically present but fail to nurture the student, and genuinely not care about what's in the best of their child. But this is a whole different discussion.

Getting back to the main question, of keeping parents involved. I think forming relationships and keeping an open communication is key. Parent teacher conferences are great, but take a lot of time. I think technology can really help. I think emails are the easiest and most convenient way of communicating. Having an online portfolio would be great. Ask that parents check this regularly.  Something similar to blackboard that has the assignments, rubrics and syllabi for parents to know exactly the targets of instruction. Then posting the completed assignments would allow the parents to see their child's progress, and if they are meeting the unit goals. Transparency is key, because when a student brings home a less than average grade, parents could feel blindsided and then turn angry on the teacher. By having everything online and easily accessible the responsibility is on the parent.

Tech and Education

   I’m going to just throw out there that I’m 25 and in elementary school the one computer in the classroom was a large square brick, and we only had Oregon Trail and would contemplate how much coffee to buy. In middle school, computer technology was becoming cheaper and easier to use. So we had 5 computers in the library and a rolling laptop cart. I think they were slow but I also think that as new computer consumers we didn’t know what to expect from computers. In high school smart phones had yet to be created and only some classrooms were fitted with computers. My accounting course we had large desktops for each student, and we used Quickbooks and other accounting programs to learn.

      Now I've been in college for awhile and I completed my associates degree mostly online. Last summer I actually took Italian and we used a slew of computer programs to read, speak and video chat with other students to learn the language.

     I've also worked as a substitute teacher for almost 2 years. I actually instructed a 7th grade class to complete their NWEA’s with computers. I found several students were uncomfortable using the computers to figure math problems. They had learned and practiced using paper, pencil and book, an were now being tested using a computer. I couldn't help but to feel how unfair for them. I completed all of my associate level math online with the MyMathLab program. While its an expensive program it does help diversify ‘knowledge intake’ methods, as some students may struggle with the old methods of paper and pencil.

What brings you to SNHU

Well my educational history is lengthy but here it goes. I was always bright in high school and interested in sciences. I've always known I wanted to teach. Originally I wanted to teach high school. My senior year I meet my husband who was in the Marine Corps. So I moved to North Carolina, and started at a community college. I took a few semesters but the pressures of adulthood and living on my own with my husband meant that I had to work full time, and the crazy schedules of the Marine Corps made it difficult for me to complete my degree. In May of 2010 I made the decision to quit my job and go back to another community college and just get it done. I completed my associates in less than a year. My husband had orders being released so I had to wait a year to find out where our new home would be before I could pick a school to start my bachelors. We were placed on Recruiting Duty in North Boston and I had tried to commute to UNH in Durham. Unfortunately UNH wasted a lot of my time and money. I only completed a year at UNH, most of which was a waste. My husband had decided after 9 years it was time to move on from the Marines and settle down. We did so in the lakes region of New Hampshire, and I then made the decision to transfer to SNHU. My goal of teaching has always been my focus since completing my associates. I had worked as a substitute for some time with middle school and high school students. It was through this experience that I realized that I'd rather teach middle school over high school. I chose SNHU's Middle Grades Science Major and this is my first semester towards that degree.