SOSU Graduate Weekly Blog

     The Economic Policy Institute created their interactive website Inequality Is Real to illustrate economic inequality that is faced by citizens in the United States. The included graphics and animation serve to enhance the story by way of having the audience be able to project themselves into the data and statistics being presented to them. The website provides the opportunity to explore the history of economic inequity in the United States, the immediate impact of this inequality to community members actively working in US society, and potential avenues in which to push for solutions to economic inequity. After sharing a few points of your own demographic information, you are able to compare your potential earning power against people of other intersectional genders and races. You are also able to pose your own opinion on what should constitute fair compensation in working society between the working class and the wealthy class, and then are presented with the statis...

Part 1: Authentic Intellectual Work/Authentic Instruction & Assessment Authentic Intellectual Work is defined by the “original application of knowledge and skills, rather than just routine use of facts and procedures” (Newmann et al., 2007, p.3). Newmann et al. (2007) continues this definition by stating Authentic Intellectual Work is organized by the construction of knowledge, disciplined inquiry, and its value beyond school. The intentionality of providing students with opportunities to complete Authentic Intellectual Work is to meet the learning needs of all students, as the work is scaled to the unique challenges that are faced in life instead of just uniform, textbook problems and prompts used to measure understanding. Under the component of Construction of Knowledge, a problem that an adult faces is approached with the guise of reevaluated previous experiences and skills to adapt to the current obstacle (Newmann et al., 2007, p.4). This is due to the fact that those previou...

Hello everyone! My name is Max Maloney-Jacobs, and I currently work as an elementary music teacher for Pre-K through 5th grade students at a public school in Tulsa, OK. I am originally from Smithtown, NY (on Long Island), and my undergraduate degree is Interdisciplinary Studies in Music and Psychology from Molloy University. This is my sixth year working in the classroom, with my first two years teaching 2nd grade, and the past four years in music. I have worked my entire career in education thus far in the same school! The school I work at is classified as a Title I school, with community that my school serves having inconsitent or unreliable access to technology in their homes, thus experiencing digital inequities. Digital inequities are directly influenced by factors such as age, race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status; these can also be referred to as “dividing factors” (Ritzhaupt & Hohlfeld, 2022). I am originally from Smithtown, NY (on Long Island), and my undergrad...

Hello everyone! My name is Max Maloney-Jacobs, and I currently work as an elementary music teacher for Pre-K through 5th grade students at a public school in Tulsa, OK. I am originally from Smithtown, NY (on Long Island), and my undergraduate degree is Interdisciplinary Studies in Music and Psychology from Molloy University. In working towards receiving my graduate degree in Curriculum & Instruction - Educational Technology, I first want to enhance the delivery and effectiveness of my instruction for my music students. Our school has a variety of education technology tools at our disposal; I want to ensure we are utilizing them to their fullest potential to elevate students in their educational journey. I would like to continue my career as an education professional by moving into a position where I am able to either guide the development of educational resources for schools/districts, or work within schools/districts supporting their development and implementation of Technolog...