From October 28 – 30, 2016, I had the wonderful opportunity to be Scholar-in-Residence at Congregation Shalom in Milwaukee, WI. This was the 8th Gill Weekend, a weekend of learning in memory of Norman and Ethel Gill. Being part of this weekend was a great […]
The Most Important Thing
This semester I created a new midterm assignment for my students: The Most Important Thing. The assignment asked them to explore the most important thing they had learned so far in the course. They could do it in essay form, but I encouraged students to consider also […]
The day I turned my students into numbers
My thoughts about technology in the classroom are framed by two experiences: Circa 1992 I feel fortunate to have a computer in my house now that I am in grad school. In college, such a luxury was unthinkable. Now I can sit in front of the computer […]
In Praise of Ridiculousness
I spent a ridiculous amount of time revising the syllabi for my three courses. I did this during the time between New Years and the start of classes, a time that I had earmarked for writing a conference paper that is due next week, a […]
Into the Wild
I am not raising free-range children nor am I a helicopter parent. I view these terms with suspicion, as they are generally used to berate parents or to brand the activity previously known as being a parent. But the fact that we have such modifiers reveals quite […]
The Big Questions: Closing the Loop
This morning I had a meeting with Greg & Nick from Revolution Labs, a Milwaukee pre-seed accelerator that supports entrepreneurship in Milwaukee’s central city. The conversation traveled between shared interests, passions, and concerns. At one point, the conversation turned to The Big Questions. And, you […]
Scalar – Digital Publishing, Mental Yoga
I am currently working on a project about Holocaust memory, motivated by the question: Where does Holocaust memory live? As a teacher of the Holocaust for twenty years, I know that Holocaust memory lives inside survivors and those of us who have been touched by […]
Intermarried
A few years ago, I participated in a project that brought together Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scholars to talk about how our traditions think about “the stranger,” people outside of the tradition. We met face-to-face and also produced a volume of essays; mine was about […]
Turning a Lecture into a Game
Despite disliking the “-acation” of verbs, I’m really interested in gamification — the use of game elements in other areas, such as education. Reading Jane McGonigal’s Reality is Broken helped me to connect some of my own interests in gaming, teaching, and being a mom. I’ve […]
Facebook Pages for Classes
I really like creating Facebook pages for all of my classes. I have to thank UWM’s Learning Technology Center for offering a pilot project in 2010 on the use of social media, because that was what got me started on this path. The website edcetera […]
Digital Storytelling
I’ve had students make digital stories in two of my courses so far. In Spring 2012, I had students create digital stories as part of a grant on the use of mobile technologies. Whereas I had previously had students make digital stories using VoiceThread, in […]
My You Tube Debut
At the end of November, I gave a public talk and lead a teacher training at the University of South Florida. Mark Greenberg has done a great job with USF’s Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, and I really enjoyed meeting the folks there and […]
Rachel N. Baum 