Blog 16- Feedly Articles

As a parent and as an educator one of my biggest concerns is bullying. Unfortunately, this is very common in our society nowadays. One of the articles I chose was called "What Is Identity-Based Bullying—and How Can I Stop It?"-https://www.edutopia.org/article/what-is-identity-based-bullying-jinnie-spiegler

This article mentions a new kind of bullying: identity based. This new kind of bullying takes many forms such as:

•   Stigmatizing a student with a disability

•   Teasing an overweight teen about their body

•   Using homophobic language toward students who identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual

•   Excluding a young person because they don’t conform to gender norms

•   Trying to pull off a Muslim student’s hijab

•   Sending a text message using a racial slur

•   Slut-shaming a young woman

According to research, unfortunately, the most common are racial comments and issues affecting gay, lesbian, and bisexual students. Each day, I have seen videos on Facebook where unfortunately young kids make racial slurs and believe they are higher than everyone else. If we want to make this world a better place for our kids we must teach them everyone is equal. WE must teach them to respect our differences. No one is better than anyone else on this Earth. The article also points out how we can prevent bullying in our schools. The three things the article recommends for us to do is: 


-       teach about identity and bias- teachers should have a culturally responsive classroom. All students must feel valued and part of this would be to recognize and appreciate everyone's culture. 


-       -be more approachable- according to the article many victims foo not tell any adults. 


-       -Help students learn and feel empowered to be allies- unfortunately most of the incidents occur while the teacher is not there ( on playground and cafeteria). Since students feel scared to tell the problem to an adult we should help the students help each other out. We should teach them to stand up against bullying. 

The second article I read was called :10 Innovative Learning Stations That Get Students Reading-
https://www.edutopia.org/article/10-innovative-learning-stations-get-students-reading-shelby-scoffield

As an educator, I am constantly looking for ways to update my practice. I cannot stand giving students a paper and pencil assignments, so I usually do quick 15 minute centers for each content's block. This article provides different ways to have students engaged in the reading. I loved how it shows us additional sources to have students think critically. It provides with ideas for centers and what tools we can use for each one:

-       Character Profiles:  Glogster 

-       Interview the Author: Snapchat 

-       Tone/Mood: Have students identify the tone or the mood in different passages throughout the text, and then have them record themselves reading quotes in that tone or in a way that evokes that mood.

-       Theme:  Google Drawings.

-       Movie Adaptation:  VideoNot.es 

-       Plot Development: Tiki-toki

-       The Bigger Picture: Newsela 

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