Educational Blogging Reflection

 Educational blogging is a blog with an educational purpose. This type of blog can be written by students, teachers, researchers, administrators, parents, etc. The NSU Flordia article about the Benefits of Blogging in Education discusses why blogging is essential and how it gives anyone who creates a blog a voice. Blogging for teachers can be used for their professional development and promotes the exchange of their teaching experiences or ideas for transforming education. Blogging for students can promote self-expression, develop analytical thinking, exercise students’ creativity, Improve students’ writing skills, and encourage resource sharing among students and teachers. Blogging can also create relationships with parents. Being able to communicate your lessons and ideas can build rapport with the parents and they are at liberty to see what is being shared and taught to their children. 

Cartoon graphic of hands on a laptop with
 different blogging symbols above as if it is in a
thought bubble. Some of the icons include a light bulb,
mail, thumbs up, pencil, music note, camera, heart, etc.
To the left of the laptop is a coffee mug and to the right
 of the laptop is an open journal with a pencil across it. 

In my Educational Technology class, I had the opportunity to read my peer's blogs written about educational topics that were important to them. Like my thread, I focused on promoting mental health and the protection of students. I resonated with two of Meghan Thorton's blog posts. Meghan blogged about two topics that were similar to my own, Mental Health Awareness in Education and Cyber-Bullying Awareness in Education. While I spoke about mental health awareness it focused on teachers, she focused on the student's mental health. She emphasized the importance of ending the stigma for students to ask for help mentally. She went on to say how it is important for teachers to be trained to recognize the signs of distress and how it could prevent their situations from worsening and allow them to get the treatment they need. The second blog Meghan wrote about cyberbullying also resonated with me. Meghan blogged about the different forms of cyberbullying and how it can negatively affect a student's mental health, leading to anxiety and depression. The third blog post that resonated with me was Katerina Scott's blog post about Anxiety in the Classroom. Katerina spoke about ways to decrease student anxiety in a classroom and finding a balance between challenging students vs overbearing students with pressure. 

My experiences with blogging for my Educational Technology class have been nothing but positive. It was a fun and creative way to discuss educational topics that I hold dear to my heart. I can see myself using blogging as a way to communicate with parents in my classroom. Since I plan on teaching third grade or younger, I do not see myself tasking my students to create and use their own blogs. I could see myself making a class blog to document the children's work or making each student their own blog for themselves and their families to see and celebrate their work.

School Safety: Targeted Violence

Targeted Violence refers to violence that is premeditated and directed at specific individuals, groups, or locations. According to the Schoolsafety.gov website, targeted violence is "distinct from the violence that is impulsive, random, or spontaneous and is often distinguished by pre-attack behaviors that suggest violence as a possible outcome". The Sandyhookpromise. org website highlights the statistics of school shootings and targeted violence stating " In 4 out of 5 school shootings, at least one other person had knowledge of the attacker’s plan but failed to report it." The website also states, "In a comprehensive school shooting study, the Secret Service and Department of Education found that 93% of school shooters planned the attack." These alarming rates are so high, people need to understand we can help end school shootings when people see the signs and get the help. 

Yellow background image of a red cartoon pistol
and on top of the barrel of the pistol is a school
 building and a bench. 

Going into teaching has been a dream of mine since I was a child. School was a place of friendship, learning, caring teachers, and overall learning skills to help you grow up. Today, teachers and students now have to proceed to school with caution and fear. Tragic events have happened at all different stages of education. People never believe that school shootings and targeted violence will ever happen at their schools or directly affect them, but sadly for three of my close friends, it became reality. Two of my old teammates went to Saugus high school in Santa Clarita, California where a sixteen-year-old shot five people, killed two, and committed suicide. My best friend transferred to Michigan State this year and was on campus when a forty-three-year-old gunman shot and killed three students and injured five others, before committing suicide. Hearing all three friends recall the events of that day tears me up inside and knowing those children and humans were innocent bystanders in selfish and horrific acts. Another heartbreaking event was the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting. I was in fifth grade when I heard about it. I was in disbelief at the age of twelve, but now that I am going to be a teacher in a few years, it is unfathomable. The shooter killed twenty-six people, twenty of those victims were children between six and seven years old. I will never understand how a human being can look into the eyes of innocent children and murder them. It is a terrifying reality knowing that going into my career targeted violence is so prevalent and could affect me in my lifetime. If I have to, I would risk my life to protect my students but teaching should not have to be a life-or-death choice, and it has turned into that. I believe that gun restrictions should be tightened and become more difficult to obtain a weapon along with enforcing physical security measures to mitigate threats and reduce the amount of harm inflicted if incidents occur. We need to take drastic measures to protect our students and teachers before it's too late. 

Putting an End to Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is bullying that occurs over digital devices like cell phones, computers, and tablets. Cyberbullying often takes place through SMS, Text, and apps. It commonly occurs through social media, forums, or gaming where people can view, partake in, or share content that is negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else. Cyberbullying can harm the online reputation of everyone involved. The StopBullying.gov website lists how Cyberbullying is unique compared to other forms of bullying. Cyberbullying is persistent, permanent, and hard to notice. It is persistent because "digital devices offer an ability to immediately and continuously communicate 24 hours a day, so it can be difficult for children experiencing cyberbullying to find relief." It is permanent because "most information communicated electronically is permanent and public and a negative online reputation, including for those who bully, can impact college admissions, employment, and other areas of life." It is hard to notice because "teachers and parents may not overhear or see cyberbullying taking place, it is harder to recognize."  The statistics on how many children experience cyberbullying are astonishing. The Security.org website highlights the statistic studying the parents of children between the ages of 10 to 18, 21 percent of children have been cyberbullied, and 44 percent of all internet users in the U.S. said they have experienced online harassment. Cyberbullying is unacceptable and needs to be put to an end. 

Cartoon Image of a girl sitting on a laptop
 on her knees, with her hands covering her face. On the laptop
with her is an orange cat, and a phone with scrambled
 words coming out of it in a text message bubble.
 Coming out of the computer screen is five arms,
pointing a finger at the girl. A boy in an orange sweatshirt
 and sunglasses is also coming out of the screen, pointing
 his finger at her, with a speech bubble coming from the
 boy with scrambled letters. Surrounding the girl
is chat bubbles with a thumbs down, sad face and
heartbreak emoticon. 

Cyberbullying can be hard to detect but it is not impossible. Working in Education, Teachers and administrators should be familiar with warning signs of a child being cyberbullied or who is cyberbullying others. Some of the signs include noticeable increases or decreases in device use, including texting, a child exhibiting emotional responses (laughter, anger, upset) to what is happening on their device, a child hiding their screen or device when others are near, and avoids discussion about what they are doing on their device, social media accounts are shut down or new ones appear, a child starts to avoid social situations, even those that were enjoyed in the past, and a child becomes withdrawn or depressed, or loses interest in people and activities. I have experienced an indirect form of cyberbullying. While I was playing on the softball team at The University of Tennessee, a forum was brought to my attention by another teammate, and its only purpose is to talk badly about The University's athletes. There are forums about every sport. I am speaking directly about the softball forum and how unnecessary comments about body weight, appearances, and personal lives, that had nothing to do with performance were often said on the site. The comments were also filled with negative and hateful comments whenever we lost, made errors, not had our best games, and had any way to pick and tear us apart, they would. It was always so surprising to me because the people who are hiding behind these screens tearing girls who are 18-22 years apart are supposedly our biggest fans.  It directly affected me because I found myself going through the forum after every game, praying that my name was not mentioned.  However, I was reading all of the negative about my teammates and best friends. I was consistently checking it in an unhealthy way. Another way cyberbullying has affected me is receiving hate comments on my TikToks. I posted a video that went viral, which got 1.8 million views. That video alone got me from 100 followers to 12.1 thousand followers on TikTok. While it was exciting that I was receiving attention with likes and follows, the number of hate comments I got was absurd. That same video had 885 comments on it and probably 600 of those were negative and hurtful things. After a while, I had to stop reading the comments because it was altering my days. I would want to know what people were saying about me and it was starting to affect me in every way. Over time with posting more videos, I had to realize that people are cowards who hide behind a screen and will say anything to try and bring a human being down to make themselves feel better. Cyberbullying hurts and can tear people apart. Technology and social media are going to continue to grow, we need to find a way to spread more awareness and put an end to cyberbullying for everyone's sake. 

Mental Health Care for Teachers

Mental Health Care includes finding ways to care for ourselves emotionally, psychologically, physically, and socially. The Mental Health.Gov website gives insight into factors that may lead to mental health problems, including Biological factors, such as genes or brain chemistry, Life experiences, such as trauma or abuse, and Family history of mental health problems. Mental Health Care is just as important as any other health care and should be treated as such. In The United States, we are experiencing an alarming rate of Teacher Burnout because of low pay, an abundance of take-home work, and extreme exhaustion, mentally, physically, and emotionally. How are Teachers expected to take care of their students, if they are not getting enough time or resources to take care of themselves first? 

Cartoon Graphic of a side profile of a head,
specifically the brain.  The brain has flowers coming
out of it. Includes cartoon characters on ladders and on
the ground tending to the flowers and adding other
elements to it. (a heart, lightbulb, watering can, and
another flower. 

Teacher burnout is a real issue in The United States. Teachers are overworked, underpaid, have very few resources to help them, and do not have adequate amounts of time to take care of themselves or their families. I have interviewed and discussed with multiple teachers who have told me, they never get burnt out from the children, but they never have time for themselves and feel extreme amounts of exhaustion. It makes me apprehensive to teach. I have dreamt about being a teacher since I was a child, but now that it's getting closer, I am only hearing negative things about it. I am trying to find ways to promote mental health care and prevent teacher burnout. The tips I have found are to try and set boundaries early on, focus on what you can control, stay physically active, stay in touch with loved ones, and many more ways. In my first three years of college, I was a part of the Lady Vol softball team and part of the NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee which represents all of the NCAA athletes of The University of Tennessee. The subcommittee I served on was Mental Health and wellness committee. We discussed ways sports and athletics can help spread awareness of mental health. We researched ways to promote self-care in ways that are controllable by maintaining a healthy sleep routine, managing stress with healthy coping mechanisms, and practicing regular self-care activities such as exercise, meditation, and yoga. I have struggled with anxiety and depression since my freshman year of college, so advocating mental health care is one of the most important things to me. I will continue to passionately advocate for mental health care going into my teaching profession.