Ms. Monomial

1.          How would you describe STEM education to a friend or family member in informal conversation? STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.   STEM education is everything to do with teaching and learning in those fields.   STEM leads to a specific kind of academic environment that demands students to evaluate their surroundings, exercise inquiry, and critically analyze or think about concepts.   STEM education helps to create these critically analytical minds that question and seek answers.   Though there are the different subsets within STEM, a lot of the fields work together to create a cohesive learning arena where skills crossover between different classes.   In today’s age of technology, STEM has more emphasis than ever, and focus on it has become the norm in many school systems.   This concept is termed “STEM literacy” and incorporates differe...

In the novel, Somebody Else’s Kids by Torey Hayden (1981), we are introduced to a young student named Lori.   Lori is placed in Torey’s resource class, which is a sort of primitive special education class for the time the story is set in.   Among a few other students who didn’t quite qualify for the very low functioning special education class, Lori works through the school year battling hardships associated with her inability to read, recognize, or remember written symbols, including letters and words.   We are supplied with the story of Lori’s abusive childhood that resulted in a brain injury that is believed to trigger this incapacity.   Constantly feeling stuck and called out, Lori continues to be unable to keep up in her standard class to the point that the overly traditional, and in my opinion, heartless, teacher pushes her to a breaking point.   Lori’s main disability surrounds that inability to read, and, as one can imagine, this im...