The History Teacher


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TalkingPoints

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Talking Points is a free communication tool allowing teachers to quickly message students' families throughout the day. The free application can be downloaded onto iPhone or Android phones (and managed through a computer). If someone does not have a smartphone, fear not! The teacher's communication is sent as a standard text message as well.  Its primary purpose is to give teachers a quick and direct way to connect with their students' family (assuming you have their mobile number). How is this any different than texting or emailing, you ask? This is where Talking Points stands apart from other apps I've used for family-school communication:  IT AUTOMATICALLY TRANSLATES THE TEACHER'S MESSAGE INTO THE FAMILY'S HOME LANGUAGE.  The individual who receives the message can then respond in the native language , send the message, and it will appear in the teacher's language of choice. As the education field continues to change, I feel tha...
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Fired Up Fourth Graders (Oh, What Fun!)

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"Beyond Pink and Blue: Fourth graders get fired up about Pottery Barn's gender stereotypes"  by Robin Cooley Upon initially reading the title for this article, I thought that it would momentarily touch on the way commercial stores and other forms of media relegate specific colors to specific genders. I did not expect, however, the author to take the reader along with her students and her as they began to challenge the basic gender stereotypes present in society. As I flipped towards the article, I found myself wondering, "What could Cooley have to add and supplement to this discussion?" Since high school, I have been aware of the conversations individuals everywhere are having about raising gender neutral children, starting while the children are still even in the womb by not selecting stereotypical gender colors (by which I mean pink for a girl, blue for a boy). Many people had broached this topic before, but I had not heard anything additive that woul...
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Diving into Disney: Perceptions of the Perfect, Pretty Princess

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Growing up in the 1990s, it was inevitable that I watched the Disney movies and related Disney shows. There were even the biweekly trips to the Disney Store in the local mall, a quick fifteen minute drive from my childhood home (though, I must admit, we went mainly because my younger sister insisted on it). While I did enjoy the trips to the store and the movies, I constantly remember my aggravation that they never had "the right Belle costume" (her blue one, basket in tow  with a book in her other hand) or that they "only had Sleeping Beauty's costume--who wants to be the sleeping princess? That's boring ." As I continued to watch the Disney movies, I remember being happy when the princess wound up with the prince, but I also remember asking my mother, "What else does she get? Is that really it ? Where are her books? Her friends? Who cares about the prince--he didn't even say anything smart!" (In case you couldn't tell, Beauty and the ...
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