Reflection on Dr. Wesch's Ted Talk

 Reflection on Dr. Wesch's Ted Talk

I really connected with the video "What Baby George Taught Me About Learning" because much of it reflects thoughts I've also had about education. I myself experienced trials in my life that impacted my ability to focus in the classroom. From middle school through much of high school, I was not a good student because I was dealing with hardships at home that made it nearly impossible for me to be present. Because of this, I thought that I just "wasn't cut out for school" like Dr. Wesch recalled other professors saying. 

I stopped trying because I thought it didn't matter how hard I tried - I just wasn't capable of being a good student. This is in direct conflict with the kind of student I was before this period of my life. I was curious, engaged and loved school. But my teachers in middle school and high school didn't know why I wasn't doing well and they never really tried to get me to open up. That is, until I had a teacher in high school who completely changed how I viewed myself. He told me I had a talent for journalism and that I could do something with my life. 

He sparked a passion in me that led me to love learning again. It's true that many students at some point lose that curiosity because at some point they start trying to just survive. But when we engage with them, learn about their lives and try to help them love learning again, it can completely transform who they are as students. This is what I try to do in my own classroom as well. I try to get them to see their own potential and to explore what interests them. 

So many of my students think they aren't smart or capable of great work because they're in special education. The stigma of being put in these classes wears on them, as well as the struggles many of them are going through at home. I see many of my students just trying to survive and do the bare minimum. But when we show them that they don't need to just get by and that this is a safe space for them to learn and grow, it transforms their relationship with myself and the classroom.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Final Blog Post

Image
Final Media Project: Digital Drop Box I believe that students learn best when they are able to, at least to a healthy degree, process and let go of the stressors that are weighing them down. This could be a hardship at home, in school or even inside the classroom. I believe when students are giving an opportunity to release that stress by sharing it with a trusted adult, it helps them share the burden of achievement. I also believe that students learn best when the adult they are learning from is someone they feel connected to and who they feel understands them. In terms of technology, I believe that our digital lives allow us to connect with people in a way that feels safer when we are behind a screen. For my final project, I proposed creating a digital dropbox to allow my students to have a space to express and thoughts or concerns they may not want to voice in front of their peers. This came to mind not only from my own experience as a student, but also from my experience as a teach...
Read more

Kahoot Tutorial

Image
  Kahoot Tutorial Kahoot is an educational platform that quiz games to teach students about various subjects. Teachers can either use pre-made quizzes or create their own quizzes on virtually any topic. The game can be played through computers or through smartphones. Each game usually takes around 10-15 minutes and is the perfect short activity for students who are eager to compete against each other. Being in a special education classroom, this resource has been great because most quizzes can be modified easily and can be good for students when they need a break from regular instruction. Kahoots can be used to give out rewards like snacks, gift cards, certificates or any other kind of prize.  It is also a popular platform among teachers because they have many resources for free, although many teachers also get premium features through their paid accounts. Towards the end of a lesson, students are usually begging me to let them play a Kahoot so they can take their minds off o...
Read more

Review of Encanto

Image
Encanto Review When I started watching the Encanto film, I was admittedly skeptical. I never really got into the Disney film fandom in part because I was so turned off by the whole marketing of raising girls to be like Disney princesses. That was never something that appealed to me. Having two parents who worked in advertising, I have always looked at Disney with a critical lense and a money-making machine designed to manipulate their consumers. But they do it well. In fact, they teach us many of the lessons we've learned in this class - like Baby George, it's okay to fall and try again. Which is something that happens often in Encanto. Like many young girls, I didn't see myself in these Disney princess tropes. As author Linda Christiansen writes in Unlearning the  Myths that Bind Us ,  "My waist didn’t dip into an hourglass; in fact, according to the novels I read, my thick ankles doomed me to be cast as the peasant woman reaping hay while the heroine swept by with he...
Read more