Stephanie Mitchell

Quote: “Students have difficulty navigating websites, using links in resources and require a lot of scaffolding. But, they have no problem navigating TikTok because it’s social.”

Demographic: 

• Age: 42
• Gender: Woman
• Occupation: Middle School Social Studies Teacher
• Income: $55,000
• Education: Teacher Certification, Master’s in Education, Endorsements in Social Studies
• Nationality: American

Descriptive Title: Mrs. Mitchell is a Social Studies Teacher at a public Middle School located in the DMV area.

A Day in the Life Narrative: Two days every marking period, Stephanie attends a full day of professional development to learn about new technological strategies and materials she can use in her classroom. It is also an opportunity to share ideas with her colleagues. Ever since Covid, technology is used on a daily basis in the classroom and students’ academic proficiency levels have fallen. Consequently, Stephanie tries to use it to improve student engagement by using social studies related websites and educational multimedia platforms. These sites sometimes also include the gamification of course content well as informative databases/archives. But, in spite of the fact she is already using technology, students struggle to appropriately use the provided technological resources and websites. They have issues navigating websites and finding the necessary resources. They also don’t seem too interested in learning new content. Phones are a frequent issue as they distract students from the content.  Students tend to be using social media in the midst of class by taking photos or videos of what they are doing and posting it to Snapchat or Tiktok. It is also not helped by the fact that students also struggle with their reading and writing skills on a national level. They struggle with reading context clues and engaging with the content. There is a lack of enthusiasm amongst most students.

End Goal: To improve student engagement with social studies by using educational technology to improve interest.

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Faith Cooper:

Quote: “I have always struggled with social studies. BCE, Mesopatamia, 1700s…I just don’t get it.”

Demographic:

• Age: 13
• Gender: Girl
• Occupation: Middle School Student
• Income: None
• Education: Kindergarten through Eighth grade
• Nationality: American

Descriptive Title: Faith attends a public middle school in the suburbs of Northern Virginia.

A Day in the Life: Faith attends school on a daily basis. Her school does not have a restrictive cell phone policy so she has her cellphone on her at all times. She checks her socials like TikTok frequently if she is ever bored in class. As a result of Covid-19, the school system issued laptops to every single student in the county and she depends on it to complete digital assignments for most of her classes. She uses the following platforms to complete work: Google Drive, Kami, Lumio, Code.org and Schoology. She is an average student who does her best. She achieves mostly B’s and C’s. Social studies is her least favorite class because there is a lot of reading and writing and she also does not see how it is relevant to her. She prefers to procrastinate by going on YouTube, checking TikTok or playing a game on her phone. Her parents have recently gotten on her case about her grade in social studies as her interim report card reflected a D in Social Studies.

End Goal: To get better grades in social studies and try to like it so she doesn’t get grounded for having a D on her report card.