Question: Kate is intentionally vague with her students about her sexual orientation. How much about their private lives should teachers share with students? Why do you think so?

I think teachers must have a firm baseline and stance on what a teacher wants to disclose with students and what they have to disclose. If the information about a teachers personal life is being used to teach a lesson or speak from experience it could be critical in getting across a point or giving information that can help a students understanding. In Kateā€™s situation I think letting her students know her sexual orientation and situation could have helped defuse a situation. She is teaching high school bio and she has to see these students everyday. For her to be fully honest with her class would take away all that wonder for students who might be trying to figure out who Kate is. This full disclosure i think, would let the students get to a point of developing their learning and understanding of the actual subject, instead of wondering who their teacher really is. The classroom is supposed to be a honest and open environment and a subject like biology might be the most appropriate space to have a discussion about sexuality. I know that it is not an open and safe environment at all times but as society moves forward i think the classroom will be the guest space for a conversation such as this.

Philosophy: How can teachers act responsibly and still be open-minded about the use of social media in the classroom?

Social media is here, it is abnormal to meet a person at almost any age that does not have a social media account on one site or another. I mean even cats and dogs have social media accounts. For teachers in this day and age to act like social media has no place in the classroom is fighting a losing battle. I think it is important to recognize social media as a teacher and bring attention to it at the appropriate level. Instead of dreading it. There should be enlightenment on the subject, bring attention to it, and show students the wrong and right ways to behave online. Social media is a great space for collaboration, communication, learning, displaying, and even a source of income for people. Being a social media influencer is a real profession in 2020 and we will encounter students who want to follow this career path.

Now, just to be clear i am not saying it should take over classrooms but teachers must recognize social media. Show students how to set up groups like the one our cohort uses to communicate. Bring more attention to cyber-bullying and be very clear on the ways that it can affect peopleā€™s real lives. Open-mindedness is severally important in the classroom and i think social media, if used correctly, can add to student experience instead of take away.

Implications for Practice: How might you maximize the benefits and minimize the limitations of journal writing for your students?

In the article ā€œBlurred Reflectionsā€ there is a bright-eyed new professor in a bachelor of ed program, his name is Ben. Ben is using a strategy that we are using in many of our classes in TRUā€™s bachelor of ed program, reflection. Ben, at first, thinks he is getting great engagement in his students reflective pieces but then he encounters a veteran teacher that was very negative about reflection and two students that are exhausted by all the reflecting! I can honestly say the conversation overheard by Ben between the two students is one that is had often around campus. With six classes and many of those professors requiring reflection, yes, reflection gets very old and dis-engaging. In our program I think the teachers should get together and discuss how many are using reflective journals or more than one reflective activity. To be fully engaged with reflection, at least for me, requires time and serious consideration. So when a student is asked to repetitively reflect in class after class it becomes more of a burden than an engaging activity.

In young students, to maximize the use of reflection, the use of a reflective period once a week where students can journal might be more effective than requiring this day to day. After this period serious engagement in this journal by the teacher might help students keep a running reflective dialogue where the students feel as though it means something to them and their teacher.Ā  It should be stressed that these reflective journals can be more than writing, they can be drawings, words, phrases, or whatever the student might seem fit. It needs to be open to expression an open criteria that provides opportunity for freedom.