High School Contemporary Issues - Mrs. Kelly Egan

Connected Opportunity - “I have connected with 7 other classroom throughout the United States via the Classroom Management website, Schoology. I proposed creating a group discussion centered around current events in a Social Studies group I am a member of and 7 other classrooms joined. As a group the 7 teachers take turns posting discussion prompts to our students. The students are required to post a response to the discussion and to reply to one other student's posts.”

Teacher Reflection - “The greatest potential benefit in providing this classroom connection opportunity is gaining perspective on contemporary issues. I have over heard discussion and participated in discussion with my students about how others feel about the discussion prompts and why they feel this way in comparison to our own interpretation of the issues. This simple opportunity has allowed my students to think, process and develop their own opinions and to understand the opinions of others.” ~Mrs. Egan

Student Reflection - “Different backgrounds and experiences are the biggest part of it. We all do not share the same background and being almost adults we have our own ideals and things we want to believe. Basically the different opinions is the biggest benefit because if you can see that side of the story it makes a whole lot of difference.”   ~Noah Burdorf, 12th Grade

Student Reflection - “I think that the biggest benefit of connecting with others outside of my classroom is the fact that we can see such different views. I think it's really interesting to see what they think is important in current life and what they take out of those issues.” ~Emily McCalla, 12th Grade

Blog sample from Noah Freebury, 12th Grade

Mrs. Egan

Noah Burdorf

Emily McCalla