Educational Blogging

Educational blogging seems like a pretty self-explanatory thing. It is when education professionals write blog posts about how to teach and things going on in their schools right? What if we took a deeper look into what educational blogging is as well as its benefits for teachers and parents alike. According to an article from the Center for Teaching Excellence & Learning Technologies at Fort Hays State University, educational blogging is being “used to communicate, as instructional resources, as collaborative tools, and showcases for student projects.” Not only do the blogs serve as a way for educators to talk about what is going on in their classroom, but it is also a way to communicate about pressing issues in the education world.  Blogs can provide an outlet for educators to discuss current events in education as well as share some projects from their schools. It is a versatile way to show people what is going on in education.

image of an open laptop, cell phone, and coffee cup on a wooden desk

One example of an issue that could be talked about in an educational blog is school safety. School safety is a hot topic in the United States every year due to the increasing number of violent crimes targeting schools. In her blog regarding school safety, my peer Mackenzie notes that school safety does mean the security and physical safety of students, but it also can cover more safety topics like cyberbullying and mental health. She writes that school security should be a top priority for schools across America because things like shootings and bullying have a major impact on students’ mental health. These events also impact the community and families of those students. In another blog regarding school safety, my classmate Maya notes that “immediate change in our schools is necessary.” She mentions how differences in opinions are holding America back from making a constructive change in school safety, but either way, something needs to be done. Another useful topic for an educational blog could be about something separate from the students, teacher’s salary. In her blog post, Sabrina discusses how important paying teachers a fair wage is to education. She states that overall educator’s salary has gone down 1.3% when since 2000 when inflation is taken into consideration. Even though it seems that an educator’s salary has nothing to do with their teaching, the stress of being able to afford rent or groceries can weigh on teachers and students notice. She writes that 82% of teachers work a second job. Sabrina ends her blog by asking some questions for the reader to consider regarding teaching salaries. The most compelling to me is “[h]ow can people expect parents to teach their children, and sometimes expect them to raise their children when they get an unfair and an insulting salary?”

Educational blogs can serve as an effective way for teachers to express frustrations and joys about their jobs while also speaking on topics that impact the educational world. For me, I have only blogged for a couple months, but it has benefitted me greatly to research relevant education topics. Not only have I become more versed on issues within education, but I have also been able to have conversations with people outside of the education world regarding these issues. I think blogging is a great thing for teachers to do as long as they are being respectful of their students and administrators. Blogging can be used to vent, but I would hesitate to write about issues within my own classroom at length. Overall, I have enjoyed blogging about education and think educational blogging is beneficial to teachers and students. 

Are Our Schools Safe for Our Kids?

Picture of an empty classroom with rows of desks

Kids spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week at school. A majority of their formative years are within the confines of those walls, so it would be an expectation that these kids would be safe at school. Right? Public school safety has been a concern for families since public schools as we know them have been established. It is an expectation that the place your kids spend most of their day be safe, but unfortunately, this is not always the case. It seems that every day we see headlines about school shootings and breaches in security within these schools. According to an article from The Gallup News, 44% of parents are fearful for their children's safety when they are at school, and 20% of parents say their own children have expressed concerns about their safety in schools. As the 2022-2023 school year takes off, parents and students have rising concerns for their safety due to the 2021-2022 school year ending with the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

I was working in a school when the shooting in Texas occurred, and the day after, our principal came over the intercom and gave us a rundown of some school safety updates. No doors in the entire building could be propped under any circumstances. The day before was field day. Doors outside were propped for convenience, and countless students and adults were in and out of the school all day. Anything could have happened. The air in the school was heavy and many parents kept their students home out of fear. There were increased police patrols for the final 3 days of school, and every single teacher was on edge. School safety is a huge issue for students, teachers, and parents/guardians. Personally, I believe there needs to be increased funding for public schools to put towards security as well as federal legislative measures that need to take place. Making schools safer is not as simple as installing bulletproof windows and having practice lockdowns once a month. There need to be steps taken at a higher level than the schools themselves. This is how we can make our schools a safe place for our students. 

Are Our Standardized Tests Up to Standard?

(Picture of a test scantron with questions 1-3 bubbled)

 I think it's safe to assume that any American who went through the public school system has an opinion about standardized testing. We're all too familiar with sitting in a silent room for hours while your school's soccer coach paces between rows of desks to check if you're cheating. Before diving into the effectiveness of our nation's standard of test taking, we first need to define what this test is. A standardized test is "any type of examination administered and scored in a 'standard' manner." Some examples of standardized tests in America would be the ACT or SAT. Each state also has its own standardized tests for various subjects depending on grade level. Not only do standardized tests measure a student's level of knowledge about a certain subject, but they also hold teachers and administrators accountable for teaching the material to their students. Now that we understand what standardized tests are, we need to ask a very important question about them. Are these tests really measuring our students' knowledge accurately and is it fair to gauge a teacher's value based off of these scores?

According to an article from Penn State, standardized test scores are usually linked to very important stages in students' lives like getting into college or graduating high school. Standardized tests are viewed as an effective, fair way to test students because every student is taking the same test. What this viewpoint doesn't consider is how these tests are biased against certain communities. Lower-income students are at a disadvantage compared to their more fortunate peers as they cannot afford many of the prep materials and tutoring sessions that help them to succeed on tests like the ACT or SAT. Standardized tests also pressure teachers to "teach to the test" in order to ensure test scores will be high. Teachers are often blamed for low test scores without taking into account disadvantaged students or students with test anxiety. While I typically tested well in these kinds of exams, I came from a middle-class, white family who could afford to buy me ACT prep books. I believe that testing is needed in order to assess a student's retention of information, but I think these tests need to include open-ended or essay questions that are graded by humans and not a computer. These kinds of questions, in my opinion, do a better job at showing a student's knowledge of a subject than solely multiple choice questions. This is a very complex issue, but there are solutions that will benefit many students, rather than just a few.

Virtual Learning: Helpful or Hinderance?

 In the past three years, everyone's lives have been majorly disrupted and thrown out of balance. Schools were closing. Working from home became commonplace. Online shopping and contactless delivery boomed. Basically, every aspect of everyday living moved online. At the time, this was the most logical solution to social distancing. Can't come into the office? Hop on a Zoom call. Need to visit your doctor? Contact their Telehealth line. But what effect did going completely virtual have on our younger generations? How did online classes affect their ability to successfully learn and retain vital information in regard to students' future careers or even their ability to recognize the alphabet? While some schools reopened, others opted to stay online for the 2020-2021 school year, and we are now learning of the consequences of that action. 

Drawing of a young man 
attending class and working on a laptop

Schools all across the nation are scrambling to close the gap between where students are testing and national benchmark requirements. According to an article from The New York Times, students who attended in-person schooling during the 2020-2021 school year experienced a loss of "20 percent worth of a typical school year's math learning" while students who attended virtual schooling lost, on average, "the equivalent of 50 percent of a typical school year's math learning." While all students are feeling the effects of COVID online learning, this event had a disproportionate effect on students of low socioeconomic status as well as negatively affecting black and Latino students. In my experince working in a school, these students want to learn and are more resillent than most people give them credit for. Kids are capable of coming back and reaching those benchmark requirements. I have already been able to see them overcoming their set backs and obstacles from COVID. Personally, I undestand why it was necessary for schools to go online, and I believe that schools did the best thing for their students that they could do, given the circumstances. It is possible to close this gap of achievement as long as schools are willing to work with their students and put time as well as resources into those students. I think that students can come back from the effects of COVID and be stronger than ever.