In both face to face and online learning teaching SEL is so important in our pedagogy, even more so now with the emergence and reliance on social media. Too often our students are putting stock in their likability based off of the amount of likes that they get on posts or the greater their following is on sites like TikTok. Therefore it is our responsibility to teach them how to use these constructs safely and to learn to rely on who they are offline showing them that their social media sites are a way to highlight who they are, not where they get to pretend to be someone they want to be.
Some of the strategies that I could include in my teaching context are to ensure that my students are aware of online bullying and know how to be mentally and emotionally strong enough to overcome it should it happen to them. Unfortunately it is something that as an educator I cannot help to control as I can with in person bullying, but I can work with my students so that they are prepared to deal with the situation should they ever be put into it. I also would like to include allowing time for silliness! We often are taught that we need to lead by example and be the respectable adult at the head of the class, but that doesn't mean that we don't get to be silly. Being silly is a way to connect with the students, to show them that we are humans, and we are approachable and that we can be fun. It will help us to get by in, but it is also a great habit to teach the students to just learn how to laugh at themselves so that they can brush off mistakes, learn and grow. In addition, I listen to blogs on how to help cultivate positive mental health habits that my students can look to implement, I have designed several assignments and reflections based around personal emotional reflections, and I am not afraid to talk to my students about my own struggles that I have had with my body image over my life.
People are ranking their identities around who they present themselves as on their social media pages, some people are making tons of money as influences and some people are being turned away from jobs because of things they have posted. As we now live in such a digital world, these are topics that we cannot avoid discussing with our students, because even if we avoid it because it is sensitive, they can pull up google and find the information anyways...so why not teach them how to approach the topics and how to handle themselves in stressful uncomfortable situations? Teaching how to be rejected?! Because self-worth is now placed on the amount of likes one gets on a picture/video post the younger generations are forgetting what the purpose of rejection is for, it is an opportunity to learn, grow and evolve...but right now we live in a world of expectation and privilege that our students aren't as prepared for their lives as contributing respectful citizens.
Physical Health and Education Canada offers free online resource videos as educational tools to help brush off fears and to encourage how to properly teach these sensitive topics in our classrooms. Please see the linked playlist on how to include teachings on resiliency into your classroom.
How does this connect to environmental sustainability and the OCT Standards of Practice?
- getting our students to discover the joys and inner passions where health and wellness is concerned! So many students are scared to participate in things like intramural or extracurricular activities because of self doubt, they are self conscious about how they look, or they feel that they are not athletically inclined...but it is though encouraging these SEL practices that we provide the students the opportunity to allow these thoughts to disappear so that there is room for so much more and that they can be so much more without being bogged down by negative feelings of not being good enough
- It also helps to break cultural stereotypes and constructs that students can get stuck into based off of disabilities, sexual identity/status, LGBTQ+ rites or SES status. It can create so many more opportunities for so many students to become contributing citizens in society
- It is a student centred approach providing care and integrity towards our students to ensure that they are getting a well rounded education, but also that we are not teaching them to shy away from sensitive conversations/topics because we are afraid due to our own cultural biases
- There are endless opportunities for professional development that is offered though governing bodies like OFSSA, OPHEA, or Physical and Health Education Canada
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