Hello all! Please find below the link to my final video blog, I hope you all enjoy! (Apologies for any issues with the vlog, Flip did not want to cooperate for this!)
Alternate link: https://flip.com/s/PWqZcgN-pxTG
After engaging with the resources provided this week, I have come to recognize the importance of building relationships with not only the students, but with their families and relatives as well. It is important to look beyond academics; educators must learn who their students are on an individual, personal level, to ensure that their academic and socio-emotional needs are being fulfilled. It is crucial to also connect with families and collaborate with them. Through meeting and talking with the families, teachers can learn more about their students, and can even come together with the families to ensure that the student is setting proper academic goals and reaching them accordingly. The connection with the students and their families creates a strong, safe, and inclusive environment, where opinions can be shared, and voices will be heard.
The use of social media is a topic which is greatly debated, with many individuals having conflicting feelings over its use and the effects it has on the world as a whole. Concurrently, the topic of technology is also quite debated, with many questioning the extent to which it should appear in our lives. When it comes to both social media and technology use in schools, the topic becomes even more complex, and many different opinions begin to surge. Personally, after having watched and read through the resources provided in the module this week, my stance on this debate in terms of its relationship to schools is a bit intricate. Since it heavily affects the mental health of students, I definitely think social media should be appropriately restricted and students should be taught media literacy, however, I think the implementation of technology as a whole in classrooms is extremely beneficial and should be promoted. In essence, I hold a positive opinion on technological tools students and educators use, while wanting to restrict social media.
Hello everyone, below you will find the link to my video blog for this week. Enjoy!
Alternate Link: https://flip.com/s/VQGDe1xx6EkY
As we have been able to see through the resources provided to us this week, homelessness and poverty are grave issues that affect a multitude of individuals across the nation. The documentary and articles provided this week were eye-opening in showing how this issue impacts youth, and the many facets of this issue beyond the financial circumstances: mental health, discrimination, and even immigration issues. Though these themes and topics are all important to address, two themes that particularly stood out to me were the need to understand and be compassionate towards those with diverse housing situations, and the ability schools or educators have in being a safe haven for the homeless or impoverished youth.
Mental health disorders and illnesses are topics all educators should be well informed about, knowing the signs and symptoms to look out for, how to properly accommodate their students, and how to seek for assistance in order to provide their students with the best resources possible. While there is a plethora of mental health issues one should be knowledgeable on, I chose to focus on obsessive-compulsive disorder. After researching about the disorder and what it entails, the symptoms and experiences associated with it, I feel as though this is a disorder which is commonly misunderstood. It goes beyond repetitive behaviors, it includes intrusive thoughts, difficulty managing obsessions, and of course, the compulsions which are often stereotypically associated with the disorder. As educators, we must truly know what these disorders entail, how they affect students, and the strategies to implement to alleviate them from the stress associated with the disorder. Overall, it was truly eye-opening to see what individuals with OCD face and struggle with on a day-to-day basis, and I hope my slide below serves to reflect just some of this extensive information.
Even in modern times, our country faces a critical issue of racism, homophobia, oppression, and other forms of hatred directed at individuals based on their background, culture, or identity. Though it is an issue that is currently being battled and we are looking at ways of combating it, more can be done to dismantle this negative manner of thinking of other human beings. The educational field must be transformed to address these issues in students’ lives from an early age, teaching both students and teachers how to stand up against discrimination, reprogram their manner of approaching these issues, and not only embrace diversity but celebrate and uplift it.
To begin, it is vital that educators first reflect on their own opinions and biases before engaging with students on sensitive topics, such as gender diversity. Many times, individuals will have what is known as an “implicit bias”, meaning that they hold biases or stereotypes against others based on their gender, race, ethnicity, or other parts of their identity (Álvarez, 2022). In the context of education, and specifically in the context of this week’s focus which is gender diversity, this can look like a teacher thinking negatively of a student because they identify as gay, or automatically thinking that a student will be more violent because they are a male. All educators have the responsibility to break free from these beliefs they may hold, to ensure that their students all have the same possibility to succeed in their classroom. If a teacher does not do the work and does not hold the need to work on these hateful mindsets, then they are automatically putting their students at a disadvantage and robbing them of the ability to achieve their full potential and goals.
After the educators become knowledgeable on these issues of discrimination, after they have done the work and reflected on these issues, teachers must then begin to think about how to present these topics to their students. I believe the best way to first introduce the students to diversity is to be a model of it. This may look like avoiding using binary genders in the classroom, including one’s pronouns in the classroom or email signatures, or simply starting on the first day of school by having students, if they are comfortable, share parts of their gender identity to avoid misgendering them (“Students Exploring Gender Identity,” 2021). Once the students realize that the teacher is not only open to these topics but emphasizes their importance, they will begin to feel comfortable discussing these issues in the classroom.
Free vector: Hand drawn pride day couple collection illustration. Freepik. (n.d.). https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/hand-drawn-pride-day-couple-collection-illustration_13454218.htm%5B/caption%5D
Following the educators establishing themselves as a model of inclusivity, it is then important that they select and utilize age-appropriate tools in their classroom to properly speak on this subject with the students. This idea ties back into the module work we completed last week, in which we looked at multiple resources that promote an anti-racist classroom. There are a multitude of different toolboxes, interactive stories, and activities that are rooted in helping students learn and work through these difficult topics. An excellent example of this is the “Toolbox to Promote Healthy LGBT Youth”, which includes resources such as links to the appropriate gender diversity terminology and definitions, organizations that work with schools to combat homophobia or other types of bullying, and programs to help LGBT students and their families (2021).
Some may ask themselves: Why is it important for students to learn about these societal issues? Why must education be concerned with presenting these topics? The truth is, if students do not deal with these issues from an early age, if they are not taught to stand up against discrimination and hatred, these same issues may appear in their adult lives. It is important to look at The Laramie Project as a prime example of this. Many in the town of Laramie, though they were not outwardly hateful towards LGBT individuals, still had an issue with those who deviated from the norm of heterosexuality. Others, those who did not see any problem with it, still did nothing to proactively address the hatred LGBT people faced, and instead chose to be bystanders out of fear of associating with LGBT people (Kaufman, 2002). As a society, we cannot teach the younger generation to avoid these issues and turn a blind eye to them. To put it harshly, doing nothing when others are falling victim to discrimination makes one complicit in that act. We all have a moral and social obligation to do better, to create a better society for everyone.
In closing, educators must bring awareness to these social injustices, discussing them with their students to stop patterns from repeating and hatred from growing. On a personal note, as a queer educator, it is extremely crucial for me to talk to my future students about these topics and create an environment where all my students feel safe and supported. I aspire to create the inclusive classroom that I did not have available to me and to ensure that this type of education is the standard for modern society.