Día de los muertos Digital Storyboard

 This is a digital story that I created for my ETEC 489 class! I learned how to use iMovie and Microsoft Photos to develop an informational video. Check it out!

My Thoughts on Educational Blogging

Educational blogging is a way for both students and teachers to express things to do with education as it
pertains to them individually. Similar to a journal, a blog is a place for someone to reflect, rant, discuss, share, and reminisce on topics of interest. For teachers, an educational blog is a perfect opportunity to talk about their teaching philosophy as well as things that worked or didn't work in the classroom. An example I found of this is seen in "Reflections, Resources, and Rants" by Michaele Sommerville. On her blog site, she shares techniques she is using in the classroom, new accomplishments, teaching materials, and much more. This can be extremely helpful for other educators to gain insight on new or different instructional practices to use in their classroom. For students, an educational blog can include reflections to things learned in class, a place to practice creative writing, or a way to work on a collaborative project. Although not widely used as a main practice, educational blogging reaps many benefits. In students, blogging is seen to promote self-expression, aid in the development of analytical thinking, exercise creativity, improve writing skills, and encourage the sharing of resources. However, the profits don't end there. Using educational blogging as an instructor promotes professional development, facilitates the exchange of experiences or ideas between teachers for classroom transformation, and offers a space for continual reflection. 

With all advantages comes disadvantages. Although educational blogging can have a lot of benefits for those involved, it may cause challenges if not used correctly. One of the major drawbacks seen in students that are asked to blog is that it takes a lot of time and can sometimes distract students from the educational study of what they are actually learning. Additionally, it is seen that blogs can also be time consuming on the teachers' end since they are tough to grade. Teachers have to create their own rubric when it comes to blogs which can be troublesome due to the creativity aspect of the practice. 

A man typing a blog post on a laptop. 

Throughout the semester in ETEC 486, students, like myself, have been writing blog posts on topics of interest in the field of education. After reading a few of the ones offered by my peers, I have learned and reflected on a lot. The first idea I visited was about LGBTQIA+ students in the classroom. This particular post was interesting to me as I have always wondered what schools could or should do to better support these students. Growing up, I never noticed any support groups or pride recognition until about 2018 when I was in high school. Teachers put rainbow stickers on their doors to let students know they were welcome regardless of their sexual orientation. My school also had an LGBTQIA+ club for students looking to meet friends and form a support group. While I thought these measures were meaningful, I wanted to see more. Hadley's post highlighted how education should involve more representation through LGBTQ characters, narratives, educators, and spaces. I think that this is a great way to facilitate an open and safe space that allows all of our students to connect, thrive, and be motivated in the classroom. It was horrific to see the statistics that showed only 1 in 5 LGBTQ students were taught positive representations of their community as well as that 64.8% of students reported not having access to information about LGBTQ topics through their school resources. Moving forward, I read a different blog post from a student named Rachel about the flipped classroom model. I was interested in reading her opinion on this topic as I have written about this educational topic in my blog as well. From my personal experience, I had rather positive connotations with this classroom design as it allowed me to learn at my own pace and come to class with questions. Although this benefit is addressed in her blog post, she brings up a good point in that students that lack motivation will not do the work it takes to learn outside of class. Being that a traditional classroom is made so that students do the learning alongside their peers and teacher before going home and completing an assignment, it can be seen that students who don't have the drive for learning will skip the at-home lectures and come to class unprepared. This defeats the purpose of the classroom design and can be detrimental to student success on tests. Lastly, I looked at a blog post by Amelia that discusses cyberbullying and its effects on students. She brings up the fact that as technology use has grown in educational environments, so has cyberbullying and its parameters. Students are able to have access to devices where they can say and do whatever they want, sometimes anonymously. I appreciate this blog post because it discusses how this type of online harassment is detrimental to the mental health of all students involved and can cause problems in the learning environment. As a past victim of cyberbullying, I would like to see more awareness in our school systems as well as better communication methods to help students feel safe making reports. 

My experience with blogging has been rather minimal as I have just started using it this semester. In ETEC 486, we use blogging as a way to share our ideas on different educational topics and current themes. This has served as a way for me to reflect on various areas of concern that have aided in helping me form a foundation for how I want my classroom to operate in the future. In addition, I have used blogging in my Spanish 410 class. With this, I am placed on the 'student' side where my teacher creates an assignment for us to answer in a blog or vlog post. Contrastingly, I have not enjoyed these assignments as much due to how time consuming they are as well as because of the idea that I never know exactly what I should be doing to get the grade I want. Taking this into consideration, I think that I want to use blogging as a future educator to log my personal endeavors, successes, challenges, beliefs, etc. However, I do not want to impose this practice onto my students for a grade. Two of the major challenges addressed earlier in this post were that it was time consuming for students and that it was tough to grade for teachers. Being that I have had this exact experience with blogging, I think that it is more beneficial for students to use blogging as an outlet, a way to reflect, or an open space to collaborate/communicate with others in the class rather than to submit for a grade. Something that I plan on implementing is having students complete a certain number of meaningful blog posts per semester (not random or super short) for a completion grade. This makes it so that students have more room for creativity and reflection without the worry of being penalized for errors. 

Flipped Classroom Approach

Students engaging in a collaborative
learning activity during class time.

 A flipped classroom is a structure in which the traditional teaching method is reversed. This means,
instead of taking notes on in person class lectures, instruction is delivered in an online format, usually recorded, that the students will listen to and take notes on at home in replacement of doing 'homework'. So, what happened to the homework assignments? Aren't homework activities necessary in facilitating student practice and comprehension? In this class structure, 'homework' is now considered a class affair in which students will come to class and work on exercises, projects, discussions, or other activities that flesh out the learning objectives gathered from the lecture. What is helpful about this is that students are able to receive the help they need on the elements of the lesson that were most difficult to them. This can make subjects like math and science a lot easier as students won't have to worry about understanding everything they learned in class in order to do well on the homework. Additionally, utilizing a flipped classroom has yielded better student performance in comparison to those taught in a traditional classroom. With all of these student benefits in mind, another compelling reason to utilize a flipped classroom is to help yourself, as a teacher, be more useful to your students, better resourceful with your time, and reach a greater level of fulfillment. Teachers that utilize a flipped classroom design report having more time for deeper exploration and application of knowledge. Teachers are also better able to help their students, one-on-one, with any content concerns. 

Although I have not, myself, used a flipped classroom design in my teaching practices, I have experienced this classroom structure as a student both in high school and in college. Something that I like about this structure is that I am able to get a firm grasp on what we are working on in class before even getting the chance to work with the material in a hands-on or activity-based assignment. Having background knowledge on what to expect in the class raises my metacognitive awareness on what I understand well and what I still need help with. To add on, some of the teachers that I have formed the strongest connections with throughout my academic career were the ones that used a flipped classroom design. It was nice to get one-on-one help with the areas that weren't clear while also showing my mastery in the areas that I comprehended well. Another aspect of this structure that I find to be extremely helpful and accessible is the fact that the lectures are available 24/7 whenever you need them. This means that if a student is sick or absent, they can still access the material. This also means that students are able to review on whatever content they need to before quizzes or exams. Being able to watch a lecture as many times as you want and at your own pace takes a lot of the weight off. For all reasons mentioned, I think I would like to try out a flipped classroom structure in the future. 

Class Size

One teacher teaching a small 
class size in a traditional classroom.

Class size refers to the number of students in a single course or classroom. Although often overlooked as an important factor in education, class size can significantly influence student learning as well as hinder teacher ability to undergo classroom management. Because research has shown that smaller class sizes have a positive correlation to student achievement and higher graduation rates, the expenditures required to sustain the utilization of a smaller student-to-teacher ratio are often justified. With this, however, there are some things to take into account. Firstly, having a smaller class size should not mean that the physical classroom space should be small as well. Having a small class in a small classroom environment makes things feel just as hectic as a large class in a large classroom environment. Secondly, teacher quality is still necessary to take into account. If you have a low-quality teacher in a small class size, the class efficacy will still be low. The main factor to consider when thinking about class sizes is that although it is beneficial in many ways, there is a time and place for everything. It is not impossible to teach a larger class when necessary. With the right instructor, materials, and environment, large class sizes can be just as beneficial (think college lectures). Even so, it is important to take into account the individual needs of each student. More often, students with special needs and disabilities need smaller classes to thrive. 

Although my experience in teaching students is not as thorough as others', I have some knowledge about the differences in teaching different class sizes. As an afterschool teacher through Emerald Youth Foundation in Knoxville, Tennessee, I work with different groups of students from low SES backgrounds that need help in reading and math development. During my first semester of work through this foundation, I would teach smaller groups of students with only 2-3 children per time block. Now, however, I have taken up slightly larger groups with about 5-6 children per time block. Although my experience is not as significant as a teacher who maybe went from teaching 20 students to teaching 35, I still noticed some difficulties as my class sizes grew. One area that I tended to struggle with was my classroom management skills. Having a smaller number of students made it easier for me to keep track of what everyone was doing and keep their focus on the task at hand. I noticed better attentive skills that allowed us to get more done in our allotted time. Switching gears, when I took up larger class sizes, I noticed that it became more difficult to keep students on track which made lessons more hectic and rushed. Although it is more manageable for me with my still very small number of students, I could only imagine how it would be for a teacher who jumped from 20 to 35. Not only would the teacher likely be behind on their lesson schedules, but the students would be more rushed and may not be able to absorb the material to their full potential. Having this experience helps me better understand this factor in education and how it impacts not only our students, but us as teachers. However, referring back to what I said earlier, I do not think it is impossible to teach larger classes in an efficient manner, but I do believe it comes with experience and expertise. 

English Language Learners

English language learner, or ELL, is a term that encompasses our students who are learning English as an additional language to that of which they already speak. In catering to these students, many schools incorporate an ELL education program in which these students are taught through techniques, methodologies, and a special curriculum to help them learn the English language. The goal of the ELL program is to help our students excel academically, as well as

Image of an ELL teacher teaching English
vocabulary to a group of ELL students. 

socially. What makes this particular educational topic important is that ELL programs are specifically designed to help all students obtain their right to an equal and fair education. Although English is not the official language of the United States, most schools utilize an English-only based instruction which can hinder the performance of these students, regardless of if they know the material or not. This topic is crucial to take into consideration, not only by those aspiring to teach ELL, but by any educator in any subject area. ELL students come in all forms, and they are present in the general education classroom as well. 

Because I have a Modern Foreign Language major and a World Language Education minor, I have thought about what possibilities I have when I become a teacher. Although I would love to teach a high school Spanish class, I have also thought about teaching ELL students at the primary level. My passion for helping others and passing on education that is beneficial to our next generation runs deep; I believe that either one of these positions would be fulfilling to me. As someone who lost their first language during my first few years in English education, I think it is important that we not only help ELL students acquire the tools they need to navigate the English language socially and academically, but we also need to provide a safe space for them to express their native tongue, culture, and identity. Currently, I am taking WLEL here at UTK which is a class based on ELL education. So far, we have learned about stereotypes of these children, how language acquisition takes place, and some of the fundamental methodologies that are used in ELL practice. Applying what I already know from my experience of learning English along with what I have learned in my Spanish, linguistics, and ELL classes, I am working with a group of English learners through the Emerald Youth foundation here in Knoxville. In this position I facilitate help in school subjects like math and reading as well as the expansion of their vocabulary and communicative skills. This placement has been eye-opening as I will often hear feedback from students about how it feels to be an 'outcast' or different from their peers at school. I believe that every child should be confident in who they are and have the ability to feel included, but I don't think that means we should teach them to abandon their language/culture to make a full switch.