My
focus is youth mentoring and the need for more adult participation. Being a mentor and working in a high school
has shown me there are skills, abilities, and experiences children could learn
from a wide variety of people.
This course taught me to provide a space for my students to discuss what is happening in the world around them and how to do so in a manner productive for all people who wish to contribute to the greater good. I enjoyed hearing everyone's thoughts, opinions, and seeing the diversity represented makes me more aware of providing the same kind of opportunities in my school. There are teachable moments in all the books and readings; my sociology students are going love discussions based on them. The most interesting thing I am taking away from class is conversation surrounding the space of public opinion and what public discourse looks like to a kid in high school today. I think this will be great for students to ponder and the learning that can come out the conversation will be very informative. Thank you to everyone in the class, enjoy your summer!!!
In conducting interviews for my research project, I found out how much social media meant to high school students. I always thought that it was important, but one of my interviewees commented on their social media presence being purely a way for them to fit in and that is wasn't necessarily something they wanted or need personally. I was blown away by this feeling of having to fit in with their peers in a such a manner that would make them go against their values and beliefs. I really think there needs to be more education on what social media means in life and how people are more than what a profile says about them or the pictures and comments that are placed online. Kids need to learn to value who they are more than what others think of their profile.
To think of leading public intellectuals today was a difficult task. I say this because I spend so much of my time trying to determine how I will convey information to an audience that quite often needs to be entertained more than they want to learn. For me, educators carry a certain amount of the intellectual weight simply because they have an unknown audience that looks to them for information and wisdom. My parents used to was a program called the Tavis Smiley Show when I was younger. Listening to them have conversation about the topics and issues Tavis Smiley presented as well as the people he would have on his show is something that I think helped me to grow. It is not that he was a leading intellectual, but he would raise issues and questions that could be answered by intellectuals which I then saw discussed by my parents and others. I feel that there need to be more of these discussions today so children learn to speak up for themselves and issues...
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