Posted on by Dominic Salvucci class work, Cool Stuff, Random Musings, Student Stuff

Gen Alpha: What a Different Perspective

In my US History class we were discussing rationing and the black markets of World War Two. I asked the class what they envisioned black markets looked like or where they too place and what black marketeers looked like. Man, was I surprised.

I know Gen Z and Gen Alpha perceive the world differently than me and my fellow Gen Xers and Millennials, but a student’s comments totally blindsided me.

The student responded to my queries by saying when they thought of the balck market they thought of the Internet and a hacker as a black marketeer.

This is a far cry from my first thoughts of the black market being an alleyway, vacant building, or the trunk on a late 1970’s Pontiac. A black marketeer to me is a shady character in a trench coat or maybe a Robert DeNiro type from Goodfellas.

The difference between the two views was canyon-like, I realize the Internet and “Dark Web” have a plethora of ways to buy contraband, however the generational divide with my students was such that they did not envision my concept of a black market or black marketeer.

It makes me wonder how many others concepts we differ on.

Leave a comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci class work, How To:, Student Projects

How To: Copy from a Google Doc to your Edublogs Account

To copy your Google Doc response to Edublogs, follow these steps:

-OpenYou Google Doc.

-Open Edublogs.

Make sure you are on the correct blog, yours, not the class blog.

-Select all or select text manually.

-Copy text.

-Jump to Edublogs.org

-Paste Text

-Proofread Text.

-Add Categories

-Add Tags

-Publish post

-Copy the correct URL

-Submit URL/link in Schoology.

Leave a comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Class Updates, class work, Cool Stuff, Extra Credit, Random Musings, Side Quests, Student Projects, Student Stuff

August StickTogether Side Quest

Students jumped on this Side Quest during the first full week of school as they completed their in-class work and had free time on their hands. I am working to keep cell phone usage to a minimum, actually zero, but I am unsure how successful that will be.

Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Book Study, class work, Lessons and Teacher Things, Random Musings, Student Projects, Student Stuff

The end of Flip…or Flipgrid

Flip, or as it started out Flipgrid is no more. Microsoft is ending that tool after purchasing it and incorporating it into their Teams. We are not a Microsoft School, so I do not know how cumbersome it could be to use Teams with my students; only time will tell.

In the meantime, I am pulling down my existing videos from the site to store them elsewhere. I am using iMovie to stitch them together by theme, then pushing them out to either TikTok or YouTube. Most of the videos were set up as Optional Enrichment Projects, so student participation varied. I unfortunately must admit there is not a lot of video content to transfer.

Moving forward, in my attempt to gamify my classes I am hoping for more student created content in the near future. I am using the PAECT Book Study on Explore Like a Pirate: Engage, Enrich, and Elevate Your Learners to bolster my attempt at this endeavor. That is a story for another blog post…

Leave a comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Random Musings, Rants

“What Is” or “The Importance of Relaxation”

So, Summer 2024 is not only upon us, it seems as if it is almost over. July 4th usually brings the “Back to School Supplies” displays to the area stores, which in turn sets my brain into school starts soon mode. This year the the displays were seen toward the end of June in stores that will remain unnamed, I will not give them free advertising here, no matter how small the audience. Last week when looking for a replacement umbrella for my deck, I came across HALLOWEEN DISPLAYS!?!?!?! 

What is my point, you may ask? We as a society are always in a rush to get to the next moment in time, or event. (I am struggling with vocabulary as I write this, I have the Weather Channel playing in the background, which is offsetting my focus.) Be they small events or major milestones, we are always looking to the next step once we reach the most current checkpoint. This behavior is disturbing, to say the least. Many people, myself included, are so focused on what is next that we are missing out on “What Is.” 

“What Is” is in the moment, it should be enjoyed, we should let the good “What Is” moments wash over us and savor them. The “what’s next “will still be there, sometimes looming, sometimes roaring at us like a freight train, but we need to savor the “What Is.” As I sometimes rush through my morning espresso so I can move on to the next task or event, I thought why even drink the espresso if I am just going to slurp it down? There is no enjoyment in it, it is just a routine, but not enjoyable. I am not alone in this, I see others all the time in a rush to move on to the next meme, the next TikTok, the next .gif, the next selfie, the next amusement park ride, etc, while not truly appreciating the “What Is Now.”

Last year, I focused on “Intentionality” as my goal for the school year, I was somewhat successful, but I still have more work to do in building that skill.  This year I will add focusing on enjoying the “What Is” to that skill set. I need to relearn how to relax and enjoy the moment and not rush on to the next. I needed to be reminded by THIS SONG from the B-52’s, one of my favorite songs of all time. (As I watched the video to make sure it was appropriate to link to this blog, I became antsy, thinking of when should I go make my espresso. I resisted multitasking, but it proves that I have much more work to do focusing on the “What Is,” relaxing, and enjoying the moment.) 

Stop, Take a Deep Breath, Look Around You, Enjoy the Moment if it is a Positive.

Leave a comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Book Study, Cool Stuff, Random Musings

Time Management: A skill that I need to improve upon

During the PAECT Book Study, I am currently participating in, Thrive Through Five by Dr. Jill  M. Siler, the concept of time management keeps coming up. Admittedly, time management is not one of my strong suites, I know this detail will astonish those who know me well…😂😂😂😂.

In my mind, I do my best work when under pressure from a looming deadline, I understand that is not the most efficient way to function and I preach to my daughter and my students all the time to not make the same such mistake.

Old habits are hard to break? I will get to it first thing in the morning? I’m just not feeling it at this minute? I deserve a break? Yes, these are just some of the rationalizations I have used, “?” placed since often I am not declaring the weak reasons, they are said in a questioning, apprehensive tone.

The Zoom session this past week focused on self-care and taking time for oneself. I brought up one of my self-care/self-improvement plans, better time management. I am a creature of habit/patterns. I like my routines. My plan is to build time management into my life pattern. I am trying to block out time or at least manage chunks of time each day for various tasks I need to complete.

Book study reading and notetaking, a chapter at a time, laundry or some sort of inside work, one or two tasks at a clip. Jump in to work on my presentation for ISTELive24 or the KTI Summit. Make time for family, throw in some yardwork before I hit the pool, and pleasure reading for a few minutes at a time. I try to complete a variety of tasks each day, is it hectic, yes, is it productive, seems to be, is it efficient, who knows? It, much like I, am a work in progress, we will see how this effort goes this summer.

Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Cool Stuff, Random Musings, Student Stuff

SketchNoting

I am participating in a PAECT Book Study, the book is Thrive Through the Five, by Dr. Jill M. Siler. At the end of each chapter, she includes a Sketchnote of ideas to summarize the chapter content. I attended a series of webinars through PAECT on Sketchnoting with Sylvia Duckworth, and have shown the concept to my classes. I need to revisit this skill over the summer and utilize it in my classes for my more visual learners. I am not adept enough of an artist to Sketchnote while taking notes, I would focus too much on the art and lose the content. I am better at revisiting the content after I take notes in a traditional format and converting them into images.

I will add this to my Summer To-Do List.

Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Lessons and Teacher Things, Random Musings

Summer 2024

Summer break officially started this past Friday, June 1, 2024. Since then I have been running to catch up with Summer break as family responsibilities, getting caught up with yard work, gardening, and life in general have been first and foremost on my agenda.

As time unwinds, I plan to make the most of this Summer to rest, recharge, and retool. Self-care is important as is self improvement. While I take care of myself, the plan is to improve things for my students, by way of studying various new tools and improvements to existing tools I use.

I hope to journal about this journey here.