Title of the proposal
Blogging in the College Classroom
Bio
Toni Hernen/ Instructor
Toni Hernen- Brzeski
Instructor
Education & Reading
Toni.Hernen@bcc.cuny.edu
516-459-3846
I joined Bronx Community College in 2010 as an adjunct lecturer in reading. I am currently holding the position as an instructor in the Education and Reading Department. Prior to coming to Bronx Community College, I was an elementary school teacher in both the Rockville Centre School District and the New York City Department of Education. I received my B.A. in History from Queens College and my M.A. in Elementary Education from C.W.Post Long Island University.
My teaching interests include, remedial reading, child study, elementary education, and student development. I have also worked with the New York City Teaching Fellows Program where I mentored and observed first year teachers. I have developed a new course for the First Year Seminar Program for Bronx Community College and presented at the CUNY Conference for Best Practices. Along with my work at Bronx Community College, I have also helped pilot the first year debate team at York College.
My primary research interests are in the fields of elementary education with specific interests in pedagogy, child development, and effective use of technology in the classroom to promote learning.
I currently reside on Long Island with my husband and two children. In my free time I am a youth girl’s lacrosse coach and enjoy exploring new and exciting attractions across the city and country.
General description of the initiative or project
In today’s world, in between attending school, working at part time jobs and internships, participating in extracurricular activities and spending time with family, it seems that college students are too busy to fit all of their activities into the hours of the day. Given the hustle and bustle of their everyday lives, most students simply do not have the time to reflect on any part of their day, let alone what they learned in their college courses (Sharkov, Daniel, 2012). It is our responsibility as educators to try to keep up with our students, understand them, and make reflection on their course work a priority. If our students are not taking the tools we give them in class and thinking about them, and absorbing them to make them part of their everyday lives to use in their future endeavors, then we are not really doing our jobs as educators. Are we? So, in order to get to the bottom of this issue, and make reflection a priority, we must ask ourselves, what are we doing inside of our classrooms to promote reflection outside of the classroom? Even further, we must ask, what are we doing in our classes to develop better reading, writing, and critical thinking skills, as these are the most basic skills that our students need to succeed in their future college courses?
Do you know what the most common electronic device that college student’s possess? According to Joshua Bolkan, a multimedia editor for Campus Technology and The Journal, “85% of college students own laptops while smartphones come in second at 65%”. If technology is becoming a common practice among our students, what are we doing as professors to incorporate it into our classrooms? How can students use technology to reflect on their work? How can instructors use technology as a supplement in reading and writing courses? How can technology be used to deepen our student’s critical thinking skills? These are questions we should be asking ourselves in a world where technology is paving the way to learning. Blogging is and can be used as a learning tool to connect with our students both inside and outside of the classroom.