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.