Today’s students are some of the most technologically savvy and globally connected kids on the planet… and yet, this generation is also one of the most disconnected generations ever.

Between Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter, our students have the world at their fingertips, and yet, families are more disconnected than ever.

Gone are the days of family dinner at six o’clock sharp. Gone are the days of “Leave It To Beaver” moments in the home.

Here to stay are latch-key kids; breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the go; and the reality that many students only have one parent at home.

…

Every fall and spring, our students file into their classrooms and sit in front of iPads or laptops to face state standardized tests. These tests assess everything from reading to math to science proficiency.

Some would argue we are testing our students to death.

Others would argue we aren’t assessing our students enough.

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which was later usurped by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), both throw state standardized tests to the forefront as the measuring stick for keeping track of student success.

While both of these goverment programs had great thought and concepts…

In late August of 2017, the social media game show, HQ, suddenly appeared in iOS app stores across the globe with Android soon following. What was a brainchild of the creators of Vine, Rus Yusupov, and Colin Kroll, quickly became an internet and social media sensation.

But oh, how the mighty fall as a little over two years later, an announcement would drop on Twitter and on HQ notifications, stunning HQ fans and employees alike: HQ was bankrupt and going under.

But for those who kept tabs on the original host of HQ, Scott Rogowsky, this announcement came as no…

I settled into my chair, an uncomfortable blue folding type that threatened to collapse under me, and I glanced around the room as the speaker approached the stand.

Sitting in a gymnasium with 50 or so fellow staff and support team members, we had been briefed about this training day.

I anticipated a day I would probably enjoy as it revolved around diversity and inclusion, something I was sure I knew quite a bit about.

A woman, who I guessed was probably in her late 50s or early 60s approached the microphone.

But, the minute she opened her mouth to…

What happens when you wake up one morning and you realize that the heart of your marriage has stopped beating?

You do what any normal human being does: you perform CPR, you call 911, you rush it into the emergency room, begging the doctors to save it.

You sit over the hospital bed, clutching the hand that’s now unresponsive, tracing the lines of those hands that you memorized so long ago.

When your marriage has been on life support for so long that you’ve forgotten what it look like alive, when do you know it’s time to walk away?

Do…

My husband and I never fail to argue about money. It’s the one thing we seem to always butt heads over.

A little backstory before I dive in, though. I came into our marriage with a boatload of debt. Some credit card, some student loans. Either way you diced it, I was in a tough spot.

After we got married, my husband and I combined finances. There were both positive and negatives to this, and every couple decides how to handle this differently, but needless to say, for us, it was a mix of both.

My husband knew what he…

I grew up in Trump’s America, before it was Trump’s America.

Trump’s America looked a little different, but at the end of the day, it was all the same.

I moved away from this America, and I’ve been away for quite a long time.

I’ve grown jaded, grown bitter, grown angry.

I used to be very conservative. I used to be staunchly evangelical.

I walked away.

I shifted in my perspective based on what the world showed me through a number of experiences, but while I was learning and growing, the rest of my world back home hadn’t seen and…

I did it. I succumbed. I had avoided it for so long… that “Outlander” thing that everyone was raving about.

… And I’m so glad I finally caved.

Words can’t express my newfound obsession with this story.

My husband teases me that it’s because every woman loves a time-traveling love story… and perhaps it’s true, but I really do find myself enthralled with the characters, the setting, and the plot.

I fell in love with Jamie Fraser from the first moment we met him (both in the book and in the Starz TV series).