Skip to main content

Gen Z vs. Gen Alpha

In last weeks Social Studies Methods class we talked all about the Digital Generation. To be more clear, we discussed Generation Z and Generation Alpha. I am apart of Generation Z which ranges from the years 1995-2009, whereas Generation Alpha ranges from the years 2010-2024. Before I start talking all about that, I want to begin with the fun activity that we began class with, which is known as a "brain-break." A brain-break is exactly what is sounds like: a break from whatever you are focusing on at the time. They are proven to show real benefits that include a reduction of anxiety, stress, and frustration. The brain-break that my class and I participated in was an acrostic of our names from the letters A-Z. A picture of mine can be found below!


As you can see, my name is Danielle. So, for example some of the words I chose to describe myself were "dedicated," "empathetic," and "funny." I would say that these words describe me pretty well and others who know me would agree. I really enjoyed participating in this activity and sharing it with the rest of my class. I hope we get to do more brain-breaks throughout the semester. :)

The Many Faces of The Digital Generation

Now, back to the discussion of the digital generation. Technology has become super powerful over the years. Essentially, it has taken over everyone's lives which is not particularly a good thing. Coming from Generation Z, I can say that I am pretty familiar with technology. Although I did grow up with it, I was not truly introduced to it until I got my first phone in 7th grade. Up until that point, the only technology I knew of was the one at school which was the computer. There was no iPad, iPhone, iPod that I was using at the time and looking back on it I am grateful for that because today's generation (Gen Alpha) has developed a dependency on it. Whether it be at school or at home it is extremely rare to see a person from Gen Alpha not using some form of technology. They have truly become infused in it and there is no way to stop it, so we might as well embrace it. As a future educator I hope to immerse myself and my future students in technology in a way so that is impactful. In the future, who knows what sort of new technology there may be. Therefore, it is time for myself and other future educators to learn more about it. In class, my group and I discussed more about this by creating a PowerPoint on the 9 elements of digital citizenship. You can access that presentation here. Ultimately, I look forward to learning more about different types of technology throughout the course of this class and becoming more tech-savvy. See you in my next post!










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Brrr...Icebreaker Time!

 Fieldwork Group 1: The Globetrotters   Miss Maria, Miss Danielle, Miss Mary, Miss Kayla, & Miss Allison It's the beginning of fieldwork and I can't wait! Today, all 5 groups were able to introduce ourselves and play unique icebreaker games with the 4th grade students to get to know them better. After all, it is extremely important to get to know your students before teaching them! All of the students seemed to have a fun time playing each group's game and it was great to interact with them for the very first time.  For my group, we created a game where a wheel was spun with each 4th grader's name on it. Whichever name it landed on was the one who answered the question at that time. After a name was chosen, a question was chosen after. Some of the questions that were asked were: - Sweet or Salty? - Do you have any siblings? - Dogs or Cats? My group did not have enough time to let every student answer a question due to timing, which made some students upset, but the
Post a Comment
Read more

Models, Strategies, or Methods...Which one?

Models, strategies, and methods all play an important role in the lives of educators as well as their classrooms. However, they are not all the same thing. Although they do share some similarities, they also have many differences. To begin, models represent the broadest level of instructional practices and present a philosophical orientation to instruction. They are used to select and structure teaching the strategies, skills, and methods for a particular instructional emphasis. Within each instructional model, there are several different types of strategies. Strategies determine the approach a teacher may take in order to achieve learning objectives. Strategies can be broken down into five subcategories: direct, indirect, interactive, experiential, and independent. Methods are the most direct way of creating learning environments and specifying the nature of the activity in which the teacher/learner will be involved during the lesson to achieve the educational goal at hand. Some metho
Post a Comment
Read more

Making History Come Alive

Engage: I have never seen the painting pictured above before now. Although I do not how whose paintings these are and the history of them, I can guess that they represent important people throughout history. I believe that the first painting is a man standing in a court room standing up for something he believes in while the people around him stare in awe. I think that the second one is some sort of religious representation as the lady with white hair is holding her hands together in a praying position with her eyes closed and the lady next to her is holding a rosary. The third picture looks like a family that is about to eat dinner while the mother/cook serves the food on the table. The last painting I believe is a mother and father tucking their child into bed. I am sure that all of these paintings have some sort of important historical significance and I would love to learn more about them. Explore: Making History Alive Using technology in the classroom can make lessons more interes
1 comment
Read more