My Take on Educational Blogging

An educational blog is a blog that is meant to educate. A blog is a kind of social media tool that allows one to share one's ideas, and allows for a broader outreach than typical means of sharing ideas. Educational blogs are also effective because not only do they allow a broader outreach, but they also allow more opportunity for engagement and discussions or conversations. Blogs can be an effective way for teachers to teach students communication skills and foster a sense of excitement about learning.

One fact that I found interesting from Sabrina Brightman's blog post was that being a teacher has a lot of stress and responsibility, and teachers make very low salaries. This was something that I have been thinking about, as I have interned with an elementary school teacher at Fountain City Elementary this fall. My mentor teacher told me that she almost quit her job teaching because of how stressful it was and how she could barely afford to support herself with the teacher salary. From Kenzie Hall's blog post, I learned about how prominent cyberbullying is, and how a lot of parents and teachers are not aware that their children or students are being cyberbullies because it is only visible to the child and his or her perpetrator. I liked her point that she as a future teacher will have the power to influence her students' lives, and hopefully become a rock and support system to them. From Stevie Makre's blog, I learned about mental health issues in high achieving students. I liked her point about how high achieving students are a lot more stressed because they have pressures from their teachers and parents to do well, as well as the need to compete with their peers to be the best. I think mental health awareness is a prominent issue that needs to be addressed in school. 

I have had a very positive experience with blogging. I like how it takes writing to a different level, and allows a lot more discussion and communication between peers. I have always written papers throughout college, which I find boring and less interesting for someone to want to read. Blogging makes writing fun, and a lot easier for parents and other people to view and read my thoughts. When I teach one day, I will be sure to use blogging to reach the parents of my students and provide resources for them.

School Safety

School safety is defined as school and school-related activities where students are kept safe from violence, bullying and harassment, and the influence of substance abuse.  School safety has become a popular topic lately, ever since school shootings became common following the shooting at Columbine High School in 1999. Therefore, it has become important for schools to recognize the importance of school safety to help prevent further tragedies. Safe schools promote the protection of all students from violence, including exposure to weapons and threats or bombs, as well as bullying and harassment. School safety measures help support students' emotional and physical wellbeing and health, which in turn leads to better academic achievement. One study by the Safe Supportive Learning website analyzes how schools where students feel more unsafe because of fear of harassment, bullying, violence, or gangs, have lower reading achievement scores than schools where students report feeling more safe. Some resources to support school safety include "The Sandy Hook Promise," which helps educate people about the warning signs of school shooters, such as social isolation or behavioral shifts, and this policy also helps educate school administrators and community members about how to report these concerns. Another example of a policy designed to support school safety is from the National Association of School Psychologists, and it is called the Framework for Safe and Successful Schools. This policy provides evidence-based recommendations for improving school safety. The goal of these resources is to decrease the chance of school shootings happening, as well as all kinds of school related violence.

Police help make sure schools are safe from violence

School safety is an important topic to me because I have always felt personally emotionally impacted by every school shooting I have heard about. I remember when I heard about the Sandy Hook Shooting in 2012, and I was devastated. I remember crying and feeling so horrible for all of the children and families affected. Then, I heard about the school shooting at the Stoneman Douglas High School, and then the Ulvade Elementary School shooting this past year. Even hearing about the children killed so brutally, and how devastated their parents were, traumatized me. This also scared me because I realized that I will be an elementary school teacher one day, and it is possible that I could be faced with situations where a school shooter comes into my classroom. I remember when I was in 1st grade, a man punched a hole in the front door of our school, and got into the school with a gun. My music teacher, Mr. Mott, tackled the man and the police quickly came and arrested him. I remember how scary this situation was, and I want to know how to best support my students when I teach one day. I want to become knowledgeable about practices and measures that teachers can do to protect their students if a school shooter were to break into the class. I also want to help my future students to feel as safe as they can in my class, and ensure them that if something ever happened, I would do everything I can to keep them safe.

Mental Health Care in Schools

Young children could be struggling with mental health struggles like depression

 Mental health care is about identifying and addressing signs of mental health struggles, starting with students as young as Kindergarten and Preschool. One in six youths, aged 6 to 17 in the U.S. experience a mental health disorder each year. Half of these disorders can be noticed and diagnosed by age 14. Some of the most common mental health issues that affect youth are anxiety, depression, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. However, only half of these youth received care for their mental health struggles in the past year. This means that many students struggle silently and alone, and this could cause them to do poorly in school and not be able to focus, as well as pull away socially.  School is especially important in addressing mental health care, because most students who receive mental health care receive it in a school setting. Mental health resources in school include trained mental health professionals, but it is important that teachers and other school administrators also look out for and know the signs of students who may be struggling with mental health, because a lot of students are too ashamed or scared to get help themselves. NAMI, which stands for National Alliance of Mental Illness, is an organization that believes public policies and practices should promote greater awareness and early identification of mental illness in students. The goal of NAMI is to help provide more resources for students to help with mental health, as well as to create policies and put practices into place to support mental health. 

Mental health is an important topic to become knowledgeable on as I become a future teacher, because I will have future students who are struggling with mental health issues, and I want to know how to be there to support them. Mental health is also important to me because it is something I have struggled with since I was young. From as early as Preschool, I had horrible anxiety about school. Everything about it scared me, including being separated from my mom and family, eating at school, and using the bathroom at school. One of the things I remember the most, however, was my first grade teacher, Ms. Faison, who was always there to support me with my anxiety. She was calming to me and would help me when I was scared. I hope to be like Ms. Faison to a potential student one day, as I know how much of an impact she had on me. therefore, it is essential that I become as knowledge as I can about signs of mental health struggles, and how to support children with them. I know how much of an impact it can make by addressing mental health struggles at an early age, as this can change the whole trajectory of the lives of these students. Therefore, since I want to be an elementary school teacher, I need to be able to notice and acknowledge these signs of mental health struggles in my future students so that I can help them and provide the best possible future for them.

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that takes place solely online, through mediums such as mobile phones, computers, and tablets. The most common platforms that cyberbullying occurs on are social media apps such as Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook, SMS texts, and gaming. Cyberbullying can include sending negative, false, or demeaning content about a person or persons, and can also occur through sharing personal or private information about a person that is intended to be humiliating. One of the biggest issues of cyberbullying, besides being emotionally, mentally and at times physically harmful, is the fact that social media and the web can be accessed by both family and random people. Anyone can access these negative comments or photos or videos about a person.This takes traditional bullying to the next level, as it can become more humiliating and upsetting than individual bullying in person. Another concern about cyberbullying is the fact that humiliating or personal photos or videos can be shared to anyone, and once a photograph or video is online, it stays online forever. There have been laws enforced that address the prevalence of cyberbullying, such as laws that require any school administrators or staff to report any examples of bullying, and school policies that require disciplinary action if required. 

Cyberbullying can negatively affect mental health

Cyberbullying is an important topic to me, because it has happened to me and I experienced first-hand how upsetting it was. I discovered that an anonymous person had posted a mean, false comment about me on an app called Yikyak, which is an app which is predominantly meant to cyberbully people. It was humiliating that anyone could see this comment about me, and made me feel horrible. Cyberbullying is also an important topic to me because I want to be a teacher one day, and I want to be able to support my future students as best as I can, knowing that some of them will inevitably face cyberbullying. Statistics show that 15.7 percent of high schoolers have experienced cyberbullying before. This statistic is alarming, and shows me that I will have students in my future classes that will experience cyberbullying, so I want to know how to support my students the best way I can. I know that cyberbullying can cause a lot of harm to the social-emotional development of children/ adolescents, especially during a time that they are developing rapidly. Cyberbullying can really affect the self-image and self-confidence of these children, and this can affect their self-conception for the rest of their lives. I recognize the importance of combatting this issue, as well as showing my future students that I care about their emotional and mental wellbeing. I can do this by providing my future students with mental health resources, as well as getting to know each student personally and asking how they are doing so that they know I care. I know that teachers I have had in the past who I felt really cared about me improved my experience in class significantly more than teachers who I felt did not care about my wellbeing.