Blogging with Brenda

Within my Professional Learning Network (PLN) at work, I feel I have the most to learn and grow cognitively . Since I don't have as much experience as the others in my PLN with teaching, I definitely spend the most time asking questions on how to do things and listening to what has or hasn't worked. The PLN that I mostly work with is the one at my school, where it's three other teachers apart from myself that teach Civics and Economics. Our PLN was new starting last school year, and in my opinion, we grew close to one another because of the shared struggles of teaching a new class and for some of us, for the first time in the building. Looking at this infographic on where I think I fit within my PLN, I can confidently say we're all on Stage 7: Confidant . We've spent time outside of school together, we each lunch together on occasion, and we lean on each other for support both professionally and personally. The tough times we experienced together last year brought ...

Hi everyone! I am so excited to write my very first blog post and share it publically. I swear, I've attempted to create a blog before. It has never been successful, but this time is different! My name is Brenda Lo pez and I use she/her pronouns. I'm a second-year social science teacher at Morton East High School in Cicero, Illinois. Currently, I teach semester-long classes. I mainly teach Civics and Economics to seniors, and an elective for sophomores, juniors, and seniors titled Modern World History. I work at my alma mater and graduated from this school in 2015. Afterward, for my undergraduate degree, I attended the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and graduated in 2019. I am a co-sponsor for a club at Morton East called Operation Snowball, a club that I was a member of when I was a student at Morton. The club's mission itself is to have our students create healthy and positive relationships with each other, and most importantly within themselves. Everything in my...