The Power of Blogging

A women in a green t-shirt is sitting at her desk 
working on her computer. There is a cloud of thought 
flowing from her computer, representing all her work. 

 Blogging is a powerful way for individuals to express themselves and share their experiences, content and opinions on important topics. educational blogging is a wonderful tool to use in the education system. Blogging is very useful for students and teachers. We learn from Benefits of Blogging in Education by, the NSU, that blogging is a wonderful education resource. For students it allows them to express themselves freely, collaborate with peers, learn different point of views and document their work throughout the school year. This also teaches them how to appropriately interact with media professionally. For teachers blogging allows them to share experiences and help others with challenges that may be shared my many teachers, keep families and students updated on what is going on in the classroom document the work they have done in their career and how far they have come professionally. Blogging is beneficial for all members in the educational world if done properly and professionally. 

I have learned a lot through looking at a few of my peers blogs. Mental health in education is a very important topic to me because I have experienced this myself and want to make this better for the current students in our school systems. Mental health does not only effect children's personal life but spills over into their academic experience and success. From reading Maddison's blog I learned that one in six children face mental health battles but only 50% for these children acquire help for handling these stressors. This is mind blowing for me. This means that at least five children in an average size classroom struggle with their mental health but only two or three of them have help to learn how do navigate these confusing feelings. This needs to change in order to make school a welcoming and fun place for all children. Standardized testing is another topic that is very important to raise awareness about. What started out as a why to test child knowledge on the core subjects they learn throughout the school year has now turned into to something different. Through reading cobi's blog I have learned that what once was a way to asses child learning has now turned into a way to streamline test scores and determines what academic skills the children have mastered throughout the school year. These tests do not take child differences, background or disability into account when giving tests at the end of the year. Now, these tests just determine how well students can take a test rather than what they actually know. We know from being students and up and coming teachers that not all people test well but that does not determine the kind of student they actually are. This is something that should be changed to allow students no mater of their testing skills to have academic success. Lastly, as teachers it is important that we meet children where they are developmentally and socially. Through reading Anna's blog I learned more about how family and home environments affect children individually. She brought to my attention that family characteristics such as SES, parental involvement and where the family lives have a large impact on children's literacy and language development. This is an important factor and relationship for teachers to understand so that we can teach to each individual child and provide them the best supports for them to have the best academic success. 

In my experience blogging has been very beneficial for me. I enjoy that I have a space to express my opinions and document my work through this semester. I think it is a valuable resource that allows me to reflect on how far I have come with my academic understanding and writing. This platform has also allowed me to learn more about education and reflect about it through my posts. This blogging experience has also given me another avenue about technology. I am not very tech savvy but through developing this blog it has given me more tools for my personal life and career that I can use once I am in a classroom and that is very exciting. In the future I think that I will use a blog to document what is going on in my classroom and allow parents to follow what we are doing through the year. It is a great tool to keep students and families updated and involved in their child's academic experiences
. 

Special Education

 Special education is something that a vital resource in schools across the country. Children of all shapes, sizes and ability have the right to an education that is inclusive and that teaches developmental appropriate curriculum for all children. Disability comes n many forms. this could mean having a mild learning disability and needing a little extra support or having a more serious disability such as cerebral palsy or down syndrome. In order to help children with disabilities the IDEA is an organization that provides funding for resources, advises teachers and makes sure students have the rights and opportunities they need to succeed in the academic journey. This website is a place for families to go to learn their options and how best to advocate for their children. One of the most valuable aspects of this organizations is that they advocate for early intervention and diagnosis. This helps set students up with the proper tools form the beginning to do their best. 

Students are all sitting around the lunch 
table enjoying their lunch. Two of the children 
seem fully able while the other two children 
are in wheelchairs, they are all equal to one another. 

I have personal experience with the accessibility of special education and receiving the supports I needed in school. I have dyslexia and cerebral palsy, as you can imagine school was very challenging for me growing up. However, I had parents that advocated early for me and made sure I had access to the supports I needed so that I could excel in school. It was not easy I had to go through extensive testing, have many meetings with doctors and my teachers and i had to learn to advocate for myself at a very early age. My disabilities are rather invisible which opens a whole new box of difficulty in getting the proper help. This is why I am very passionate about accessibility and inclusivity in the education system. Children should have resources that are obtained through a reasonable process
instead of having to jump through hopes to be able to succeed. 

Teacher Salary

 The topic of teacher salary's have been a very interesting conversation for a long time. It is a constant argument that teachers do not make enough for the amount of work and impact that they have on children's lives. Teaching is one of the most important occupations in todays society but it is one of the most underpaid jobs in our work force. Teachers have been fighting for better pay for many years due to the amount of work they are required to do. Sense the pandemic this has become more of an issue. Many teachers have lost steam for teaching especially sense their staffing has gone down in numbers so they are now taking on more responsibility for the same amount of pay or less due to budget cuts. Michael Hansen speaks to the issue of staffing and budget cuts around the education system in regards to the effects of the pandemic. There is less interest for teaching sense the hardships of teaching virtually with minimal support systems. As well as the support staff in the education systems are having a hard time keeping their jobs due to the effects of the budget cuts that have had to take place.

The word "Salary" is made out of
 individual white dice with 
black lettering stacked on top of different
 heights of gold coins 

Personally, I have not had much experience with my teaching salary because I am still in school but through shadowing and observation I have seen the effects of inadequate salaries for teachers. Personally, I have chosen to complete my masters degree for early education because I will automatically make more money. Due to the salary that I will be making I have to set an expectation on the type of life I will live due to the amount of income I will make. I understand that I will have to budget well and limit my extracurricular activities to make sure I can make ends meet. This aspect of teaching is one of the only things that worry about my success in this field I hope that I will not become too overwhelmed or stressed because of this to continue enjoying my job. 

Mental Health Care

Mental health care for children is vital for their success in school and to enable them to reach their goals in their future life. Throughout the past years we have seen a greater need for health care for children, especially sense the coronavirus pandemic came to the forefront in 2020. In KFF's impact of the coronavirus article they bring the differences in child mental health sense the pandemic started verses the rates care was needed before hand. (lopes et.al., 2021) Sense having to be quarantined children are missing out on the vital peer interactions that teach them social and physical knowledge about the world. due to these missed learning opportunities alongside children's peers parents have reported their children experiencing behavioral problems, less success in school and anxiety or stress sense the pandemic started. 

A family of five with their palms facing up 
with the word "Help" made out of
colored wooden blocks laying in their hands.

Mental health is one aspect of life that I take very seriously. I have experienced some trauma over my childhood and young adulthood. Due to this, I have crippling anxiety and regularly seek counseling to learn tools I can put in my toolbox to navigate my emotions when I get into a position that is overwhelming. When I was young I fought the realization that i needed help because I did not want to seem different from my peers. However,  I am very grateful for the time I have had in therapy. When I have my therapy sessions it is one of the only times during the week I get to fully experience my emotions in a safe space. For me it is important for me to have this outlet so that I am able to organize my thoughts and process the events that have taken place and put it behind me.  I believe I am a better friend, student and soon to be educator because of the mental health care i have received.