My Experience with Educational Blogging

Blogging has been a recent endeavor by society. Since 1994, blogs have been platforms to post short writings and the author's thoughts on the chosen topic. Posting snippets of one's thoughts and opinions on specific issues has become popular, especially within the last two decades: this post will specifically focus on the popularity of Educational Blogs. Educational blogs serve an educational purpose - typically written by students, teachers, administrators, or education researchers. 

A person creating a blog post.

From the teacher's point of view, educational blogging allows instructors to increase professional development and exchange their experiences and thoughts for improving education with other academic personnel. If used in the classroom, teachers can also provide resources for their students and update students, parents, and guardians about happenings in the class. From the student's point of view, educational blogging allows students to express their voices and practice communication with others who may have different opinions. Student blogging for a class also increases their analytical thinking skills and improves student creativity, which may be a secondary focus in classes. Despite the plethora of educational blogging benefits, there are also a few challenges. Blogging can take away from classroom learning time, students may struggle to stay on topic, and interactions have the potential to become disrespectful if opinions differ. 

My Educational Technology class has allowed us to create blogs to share information related to academia, which we are passionate about. Amanda Curran's "Mental Health Care for Teachers" post focuses on tips and tricks to prevent teacher burnout. As I touched on in my post titled "The Importance of Mental Health Care in K-12," advocating for student mental health resources should be a top priority of the school system. However, our students are not the only ones facing mental health challenges. In Curran's post, she shares that teacher burnout is a massive issue across the education community due to being overworked, underpaid, and have little to no time to care for their family. Some tips she shares for teachers are focusing only on what one can control, setting boundaries for your classroom, and staying in touch with loved ones. These tips are the first steps in advocating for teachers' mental health. Just like students, providing mental health resources for teachers should also be a top priority for the school system. Because like Curran said, how can we expect our teachers to take care of their students if they do not have adequate time to care for themselves? Meghan Thorton's "Mental Health Awareness in Education" post also focuses on mental health advocacy for the students from the teacher's perspective. Thorton mentions that one in five people have a mental illness, meaning that many of our school-age population live with one. As she notes, since our children spend most of their day in class, they need access to mental health resources, including their teachers. Although I do not believe our teachers should have to handle all students' mental health problems, I agree with Meghan that training our teachers to recognize student distress and hardship could save lives. Finally, Katerina Scott also addressed advocating for our students, specifically our neurodivergent population, in her post titled "Diverse Neurotypes in the Classroom." Scott mentions that schools provide screening for different neurotypes; however, educators can do more to provide a welcoming environment for these students. She recommends giving visual supplements for instruction and allowing students to express their creativity on tasks more freely to help enhance the overall classroom environment for all. 

Though my experience with blogging has been short, I have enjoyed all of it. Being passionate about many different things and having an outlet to express my opinions has been relaxing and fun. I can see myself continuing to blog throughout my teaching career, showcasing my passions, student work, and as a way to communicate with parents and guardians. 

The Importance of Mental Health Care in K-12

Mental health is an individual's overall well-being involving emotional, psychological, and social aspects. Individual mental health affects the way one thinks, feels, and acts. Mental health can fluctuate over time due to internal and external factors. If faced with several, it can result in poor mental health, impacting how one responds to stressful events, grades, and making healthy choices. Within the last ten years, all indicators of poor mental health have increased steadily amongst our adolescent population. From 2011 to 2021, the percentage of students that experienced persistent sadness or hopelessness, considered suicide, planned to commit suicide, and attempted suicide all increased. The increase in the percentage of students that experienced steady sadness or hopelessness was the starkest of them all: there was a 21 percent increase for females and an 8 percent increase for males. Though these statistics include the entire K-12 population, some groups were found to be more heavily affected by poor mental health than others. The above indicators were more common in LGBTQIA+, female, and minority communities. 

The rising rates of poor mental health in adolescents have also been tied to the COVID-19 pandemic and the struggle for racial justice in minority communities. In 2020, suicide became the second leading cause of death among 10 to 14-year-olds and the third for 15 to 24-year-olds. As previously stated, mental health affects how one thinks, feels, and acts. Poor mental health can lead to increased drug use and violence as a way to cope with internal and external factors. With our youth spending most of their day in the classroom, our education system must continue providing mental health care to our students. 

Both my middle and high schools had staff trained to assist students in times of need. In middle school, each grade had one assigned counselor we would report to when we needed to talk about things happening. Counselors and social workers were assigned in high school based on the student's last name. Both sets of staff were equipt to help students with their problems, but the social workers spoke to the mental health facilities in the area and student families when problems became more severe. I never experienced anything throughout my schooling that required me to talk to my counselor or social worker. However, I had someone close to me rely on their social worker for three of their four years of high school. Had it not been for the mental health support we were afforded in our education, I am not sure they would have ever reached out for the help they needed. 

Teachers can not be expected to handle all of their students' problems; frankly, they are not equipped to do so. With mental health rates on a steady incline, it is crucial to continue to provide our students with mental health care in schools. Adolescents spend over half of the year in school, and if their mental health is not doing well, we can not expect them to perform at their highest level in class.

A school counselor meeting with a student.

Aside from learning, student well-being should be the school's top priority. After the outbreak of COVID-19, many school counseling services were halted, pushing the weight onto parents and guardians, all while students' mental health continued to decline. 

To help our students grow, we must provide them with resources, including mental health services. Counselors and social workers can help students feel comfortable talking about what they are going through, but implementing support groups can also curate bonds between students and students with adults. The first step to a successful student is providing them with the means to care for themselves physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially.