Hello Wonderful People of the Internet!

Wow it’s been a long time since I’ve even attempted to write a blog. To be fair, the last time I did was for a class as well, but keeping up with THAT sure didn’t happen. Alas, it is true: the purpose of creating this blog is a requirement for a Graduate Course (EGL 614 to be exact).

My name is Megan Callahan (although I’m sure that wasn’t very hard to figure out). I graduated from Stony Brook University in May of 2018 with my B.A. in English Literature and my “Initial Secondary Teacher’s License” (fancy New York talk for “I can teach but I still need more school). I took a year off from the academic world after being hired as the sole Middle School English Language Arts teacher in a small Catholic School in Nassau County. I teach about 75 students in grades 7 and 8 in all things “ELA” (make of that what you will). After (barely) surviving my first year at the front of the classroom, I returned to Stony Brook to begin my MA in English Literature. Once a Seawolf, Always a Seawolf and all that.

This is my second semester as a part time graduate student while still teaching full time. In fact, I am writing this first entry during my last period “prep” after 17 students just left my class for another. I have a feeling many of these posts will be written in the same manner.

So, why did I enroll in this class? The first reason is, selfishly, that it is an online course and the commute from my job to Stony Brook is absolutely atrocious. This class saves me a good amount of gas, traffic, and overall headache. Additionally, I would be blind not to see that digital rhetoric is becoming more and more prevalent in both education, and society as a whole. My school utilizes a one to one iPad program and it always fascinates me to see how my students are learning, creating, and reacting to the world differently with a screen in front of them rather than how I did back in the “Dark Ages.” This class fascinated me in its ability to better understand digital rhetoric as well as (hopefully) introduce me to some new multimedia tools that I could use in my classroom. The funny pictures and colorful text on PowerPoints just don’t seem to impress them like they used to.

Here’s to a new semester, a new adventure, and plenty of digital rambling.

Apologies in advance!

Megan