Blog Post #10: Reflection
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| Horridge, D. (2016). That's All Folks [Online Image]. W&M Honors Fellows. http://honorsfellows.blogs.wm.edu/files/2017/05/that_s_all_folks__by_surrimugge-d6rfav1.png |
There were many important lessons, and skills I acquired while being apart of the course EDU 3650: Critical Examination of Issues in Education. Although I believe everything we learned during this course will be important to me as a future educator, there were a few different lessons that stuck out to me the most, as I believe these two topics in particular will be most critical for me as a future elementary teacher.
One of the lessons that stuck out to me was the idea of social media in schools, and how the world is being taken over by it. As I wrote about in my blog #8 post, social media use amongst children and young teens has bee a huge debate in our society, and there are many different negative effects of social media use on students. It's extremely important to make sure the students are using social media in an appropriate way, as I believe the best approach is to regulate cell phone and social media use amongst children, rather than taking it away. This felt like a extremely important topic to me because technology will continue to evolve and become an even bigger part of all of our lives, and who knows where it could be during my tenure as an educator.
Another lesson that stuck out to me was having that home and school connection with your students, an the parents. Like I stated in my blog #9, I believe one of the most important aspects of teaching is making sure you have a healthy relationship with not only the students, but the parents of these students as well. Creating a better relationship with your students and their parents will help the educator get a better feel of each students life at home, and to ensure that the students are in a safe and healthy environment. This relationship will also help to make it a very open and healthy environment, and make the students feel more comfortable. This felt like a extremely important topic to me because I want to make sure my students always feel comfortable with me as their teacher, and I want to be someone they can come to for help, even if it's not about class.
Not only going through the modules myself, but reading my classmates blogs to hear there different perspectives on these critical issues was something that really helped as well. Making the students feel comfortable in class as the world continues to change around them is my biggest goal as a future educator. Another one of the main goals I have as a future educator is to help maximize the potential of our students, and I believe the lessons that I have learned throughout this course will definitely help me achieve both of these goals.
Nick Incalcaterra
Incalcaterra, N. (2021). Blog #9 Home/ School Connection. April 13 https://criticalissuesinednickincalcaterra.blogspot.com/2021/04/blog-9-home-school-connection.html.
Incalcaterra, N. (2021). Blog Post #8: Social Media. April 9 https://criticalissuesinednickincalcaterra.blogspot.com/2021/04/blog-post-8-social-media.html.
Hi Nick,
ReplyDeleteI thought your vlog was very cohesive and enjoyable to listen to. I also picked blog#8 as one of my blogs to talk about which was in regards to technology. Just like you, I agree that technology will continue to be a huge part of the future both in education and throughout life in general. Keeping this in mind, it is important that we teach our students the correct way to use this tool both at school and at home. This can be done through general assemblies that schools can hold to to spread awareness and knowledge. I also agree that we grew up during the perfect time-this is something I think about often also. Technology was there, but it was not too overbearing throughout our childhoods to the point where we didn't play outside, (etc.). Most of us did not get our first phone until middle or high school, and it was usually a flip phone. Now kids have smartphones in elementary school which is crazy to me. I also liked blog#9 on home/school connections. In order for students to feel safe, it is very important for teachers to have a healthy relationship with the parents of their students as well as the student. This allows for a positive communication system, as well as student benefits such as grade increases like you stated because the student wants to make the teacher proud since they feel like their relationship with them and their family is strong. Great post Nick!