Tara Blair

Tara Blair is a Digital Marketing Specialist for Gale, a Cengage Company. In her spare time, she is a total crime junkie and spends her days listening to podcasts—especially those of the unsolved.

Archives Unbound and African-American History and Life

The past few years have seen many anniversaries related to African American history and the Civil Rights Movement – 2013, the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech,” stamped the Civil Rights Movement firmly in the minds of Americans and the worldwide community; 2014, the anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction; and, this year is the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which provided additional safeguards for African Americans to exercise their right to the ballot box.

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To Change the Way Students Learn, We Must Change Professional Development

By Dan Alpert, Program Director: Equity/Diversity and Professional Learning, SAGE Publications

Each year, scathing critiques of public education flood our newspapers and social media.  It may be an old story, but public school K-12 educators are at a critical point in time this school year.  We are deep into the massive project of implementing rigorous new standards for college and career readiness.  Despite the passage of 60 years since Brown v. Board of Education, 50 years since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and despite significant shifts in our nation’s demographics, we’ve made little progress closing sizable achievement gaps between our privileged and marginalized student populations.  And the inauguration of new high-stakes assessments, the brainchildren of two interstate consortia – PARCC and Smarter Balanced — will undoubtedly launch a fresh, new wave of dire predictions.

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In Other News: Martin Luther King Jr.

A look at a current news item through the lens of different titles available on GVRL.

By Michelle Eickmeyer

That the marches which fueled the Civil Rights Movement occurred 50 years ago is unbelievable. How can it be 50 years already… and how can it only have been 50 years? Present history will tell us that race relations in the United States are far from equal and the conversation rages on regarding fair treatment and assumptions.

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In Other News: King Abdullah

A look at a current news item through the lens of different titles available on GVRL.

By Michelle Eickmeyer

This week, you get a bonus post. I had nearly finished a post on Martin Luther King Jr when news broke late last night of King Abdullah’s death. Its available, nearly finished, here. Stay tuned for what will surely be an upcoming post on Yemen.

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Will teachers embrace students’ smart phone addiction?

By Bethany Dotson

As a current master’s student as well as an employee of an educational technology company, I find it fascinating to witness firsthand the broad spectrum of attitudes that my professors have toward smartphones (and technology in general) in the classroom. According to this January article from Tech Crunch, “fighting against the tide is futile” and “U.K. experiments in which schools give students mobile devices in classrooms showed higher motivation, attentiveness and achievement.” Personally, using mobile devices in the classroom for me usually means checking my email and playing solitaire, not higher attentiveness, but I can only speak for myself. However, since we at Gale know that this is coming (and has been going on), we have made great strides in the last twelve months with upgrades to our mobile app and mobile-friendly user interfaces.

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