“While religious communities may understand belonging as communion or taking part in a covenant, teachers in public schools need only recognize the spiritual significance of feeling invited, included, and embraced in a group dedicated to one’s own learning.” – Eric Toshalis “A Question of ‘Faith'” (p. 192)
Truthfully, I was not on board with this article until he made this claim. This sentence made me finally comprehend what he was recommending by considering faith in the classroom.
In a writing class, students could use YouTube as a modality to publish a non-print text. Instead of writing essays, students can write commercials, speeches, sketches, poetry, or PSAs, and then “perform” their work to be uploaded on YouTube. The perks of using this platform are that students will be motivated by the awareness of an audience, view the projects as an authentic activity instead of a random writing assignment, and gain experience in how to construct, edit, and publish digital content. Many adolescents will also enjoy the “spotlight” of performing for a YouTube audience since they invest such value in their online identities, and it feels more like “play” than “work.” One con of using YouTube is that it requires the school to possess filming equipment and the software to edit. Another con is some students’ unwillingness to be recorded, or their parents may be unwilling to have their child published online. Continue reading Rewriting the Media with YouTube
“At the same time, more women are remaining childless, either by choice or circumstance. Twenty percent of women in their 40s do not have children, Mr. Furstenberg said, pointing out that ‘not having children would have been considered bizarre or tragic in the ’50s; now it’s a lifestyle choice” (Cohen, 2010, p. 2) from “The Long Road to Adulthood is Growing Even Longer.”
I think schools promote traditional and generic “life tracks” simply because their students are so insanely diverse that it is easier to simplify life into a “one size fits all” package. This is reflected in teachers’ formal and informal curricula. In our formal curricula, teachers guide students through books that reinforce traditional ideas of heterosexual marriages, nuclear families, and women as mothers and primary caregivers. Word problems in math may include stereotypical situations that present men calculating business investments, girls finding the price of a clothing item with a “20% off sale,” or young men calculating the tip on the bill for their dinner date with a young lady. In our informal curricula, teachers may skirt around difficult topics present in literature, such as homosexuality, divorce, girls and women who choose to not have children, domestic abuse, substance abuse, etc. Continue reading Curriculum that Encourages Personal Choices
“Then, in what may have been quiet recognition that the source of Clementi’s despair was unknown, and may remain unknown, the show barely mentioned Clementi again. Its primary subject was the meanness of middle-school students. [ . . . ] ‘Bullying’ is trying to be a label that covers all negative interrelations between students,’ [Eric Thor] said. ‘If you say the word enough it starts to lose meaning'” (Parker, 2012, p. 39) from “The Story of a Suicide.”
As a former sixth grade teacher, I felt this struggle at least once a week. I would either witness negative interactions between students in person, or a student would admit to me privately that some students were harassing them. In these instances, when I was already stressed by curriculum and deadlines and grading and policies and arbitrary “to-do’s” from administration, I was often baffled about how to handle the situation. In the classroom, it’s easy enough to shut down or publicly let the student(s) know the words or actions they just said or did are unacceptable. While that step is crucial and sends a message to the entire class, it shouldn’t stop there. However, I rarely had the energy, courage, or wisdom to follow-up with the incident. In the event that a student approached me privately about an issue, I would often feel exasperated, like, “Ugh, another issue for me to deal with.”
However, as I read this horrific story about Tyler Clementi, the emotional impact on me made me regret every “missed opportunity” to intervene. On the other hand, I’m trying not to blame myself. After all, as a first- and second-year teacher, nobody expects you to excel in every aspect of the job. The fundamental task of teaching is difficult enough! Thus, I question the approach taken by educators as a whole.
This passage that I pulled from the article highlights how shallow anti-bullying initiatives are in school. When an outbreak of bullying occurred in our school in my first year, all advisories participated in a “tolerance” unit that we hoped would curb the racially charged bullying happening in our hallways and cafeteria (in particular, the use of racial and homophobic slurs). While it did open up their eyes slightly to the heavy weight of some of the words they had been throwing around, it still was a surface-level attempt to plant a seed in them for compassion and empathy for others (even and especially those who “differ” from us).
I think schools often approach bullying by vaguely alluding to certain trends instead of confronting specific words and actions. One of the most meaningful experiences I had in high school was a guest speaker who came to us and bluntly addressed bullying, sexual harassment, drug and alcohol use, and other touchy topics. He did not “skirt around” difficult issues or avoid “taboo” words. He had the whole school engage in activities that forced us to take responsibility for our actions. For example, he had everyone confront a person they had bullied and apologize to that person. The student body was in tears and the whole school took on a different energy for the rest of the year. Not only did it truly open our eyes to the effect our words and actions have on others, but it united us as a community–one that cares for its members.
My apologies for the lengthy post. 🙂
“…exploring young people as actors within the techno-media culture circumvents the effects paradigm in that young people are shown as ‘active’ rather than being constructed as merely consumers” (293).
“Youth, Technology, and Media Cultures” by Sefton-Green
As someone who has taught media literacy to middle schoolers, I witnessed firsthand the “media consumerism” of adolescents. At the beginning of the course, students often had innocent conceptions of the media and the media’s goals. They made naïve claims about the purpose of a commercial, the effects of a television episode, or lyrics in controversial music. Through the study of how and why media is produced, students slowly gained the critical ability to dissect forms of media to identify implications about politics, race, gender, beauty, etc. within the images. In this way, they became active participants of the media instead of just passively taking it in at face value. This is especially important considering their age group is targeted heavily by marketers due to their spending power in America. Continue reading Becoming Active Participants with the Media