Previously, when people said to me they were a blogger I never really knew what it meant in its entirety and thought it was strange for someone to actually say their profession is a blogger. What does that actually mean? Do you spend your life sitting at home in front of a laptop writing about current trends? This QUT unit has really opened my eyes into the world of blogging and as a consequence I now have a newfound respect for people of the blogging world. This reflection will cover my new knowledge base and ideas about Youth, Popular Culture and Texts as well as a response to my first time involvement with blogging.
First things first, for readers of this blog who are not familiar with the terms youth and popular culture, it can be defined by Marsh & Millard (2000) as being considered a diverse term as there is no set criteria of what can and cannot be included in the list of popular culture trends because it is constantly changing as cultural forms are continually appearing and disappearing. On the contrary, the History Teachers’ Association of Australia claims that there are criteria for things to be considered popular culture by stating that: ‘A cultural activity that gains widespread acceptance within a society over a period of time, rather than a brief historical moment. It changes and evolves across time. This is important because it allows us to differentiate between a short lived fad such as Davy Crockett hats and hula hoops, which appeared in the 1950s and a popular culture such as rock 'n' roll which appeared at the same time, but has continued to evolve’ (2013) Throughout this unit, I was made aware of how important it really is to keep up to date with what is happening in our students’ lives and for us to incorporate all of these pop culture elements into our teaching. If we can intertwine their interests of what is trending in their lives with current pedagogical techniques then we can engage their minds on a deeper and more relevant level. McCarthy (2014) supports this statement by concluding that ‘a student’s interest in a topic holds so much power and when a topic connects to what students like to do socially; engagement deepens as they willingly spend more time thinking, dialoging and creating ideas in meaningful ways’. One influential story that has helped many people see how important popular culture can actually be, is Johnson (2005) who argues in his book Everything bad is good for you: How today's popular culture is actually making us smarter that popular culture does indeed have a positive effect on youths. Furthermore, he personally reflects on his childhood and makes connections to a famous board game, which he mentions helped him become an entrepreneur as he was able to gain skills needed to create his very own board game. This is just one example of how current trends that engross children can give them essential skills they will use throughout their lives. LCN639 has enabled me to recognise the positives of technology and current trends, and whilst there are negatives and fashions that may seen inappropriate to us, we need to open our eyes to the positives and employ these optimistic thoughts into our teaching. These days, to be an educator, we cannot get negative about what youths find fun or entertaining, otherwise they will disconnect with our teaching methods and eventually result in disengagement and thus as a consequence, may lead to lower academic outcomes. As we all know, youths can be fickle with the idea of school and teachers, so why are we not embracing what is currently popular and ‘trendy’ in our students’ lives and incorporating it into the curriculum? Without a doubt it draws students into the classroom, enabling them to connect their real lives to the content and engage on both an academic and emotional level – ultimately empowering students to develop higher order thinking skills. Murphy Paul (2013) discusses the idea of student interests and the effects from a scientific point of view by stating that from a cognitive point of view, ‘interest’ effectively turbocharges our thinking. When we’re interested in what we’re learning, we pay closer attention; we process the information more efficiently; we employ more effective learning strategies, such as engaging in critical thinking, making connections between old and new knowledge, and attending to deep structure instead of surface features. When we’re interested in a task, we work harder and persist longer, bringing more of our self-regulatory skills into play. Therefore, proving that by integrating popular culture into the classroom we are establishing a generation of children who have the ability to think deeply, question the world, critically discuss possible solutions and connect and respond to current world issues on an academic and emotional level. Interestingly enough, I found the above information from Murphy Paul (2013), who has a blog that I follow closely. Never in my life would I think to search and follow people’s blogs for academic purposes and reliable information. In my mind, blogging was more about writing entries based on social situations, celebrities, mothering groups and travel stories, however I soon realised after this unit and through self reflection that I was wrong and being very closed minded in my initial view of blogs and bloggers. I started my journey by searching ‘how to write a blog’ and found some fantastic beginners information from Jason R. Rich’s book - Start your own blogging business, who describes the six steps in becoming a successful blogger (Entrepreneur, 2014) these include:
I feel I accomplished most of these steps when I was planning and writing my blog, obviously not to a professional level with millions of followers, but I think I have set up my blog ready for it to be shown to the world. Reflecting on this process allowed me to open my ears to the discussions around blogging at work and when I did this, I realised there are many teachers who have made the comment that they would love to start a blog but are too busy and don’t know where to start. I thought this unit has been exceptionally beneficial in many ways, including giving me the knowledge to now start helping others start their own blogs and even bring it into the classroom by getting students to make their own unique blogging website and use it as a reflective journal of their learning. Morris (2013), an Australian educator who has an educational blog, comments that in the ten years that she has been teaching she hasn’t come across a program that provides as many benefits to students as a well-run classroom blogging program. Before this unit, I would have never thought to create a classroom blog that will benefit both educators and students. I do completely understand that many teachers will never blog or let alone want to, however if I can create a blog that will be useful for teachers who are not yet comfortable with the idea, I feel that by encouraging teachers to read mine and other educational blogs they will find a wealth of knowledge and help as they can gain so many ideas and connect with teachers from around the globe. Blogs are not only useful for ideas, but they engage people on an emotional level. When I was reading other blogs, it made me feel I was part of something and there were millions of people there for me when days of teaching were emotionally draining and mentally tough. It is nice to see we are not alone and be given reassurance and support about what we are doing on a daily basis. Pinard (2014) supports me by describing that when teachers blog ‘it allows us to share our thoughts and ideas with others and by reading other blogs means that we can discover their worlds too. It allows cross-fertilisation of ideas between a wide variety of people and provide an extraordinary amount of support’. This unit has been incredible and helped me in many facets of my teaching. Not only have I learnt how to blog, but I have been able to research and dive into the world of popular culture all at the same time. By giving us the freedom to search our own topics and write our own blogs, it allowed us to be engaged and enjoy the topics we were writing about, which is what we are preaching all the time as the best pedagogical approach to education. I can now walk away with a foundation of new knowledge and be able to not only give advice on the world of blogging but I can now have conversations about popular culture and how best to utilise it in the classroom. I will leave this unit with my head held high and an extremely positive view of Youth, popular culture and text as well as a newfound respect for Bloggers, iPads, Dystopian Literature, Banned books, Minecraft, Pokemon and Shakespeare! References Entrepreneur. (2013). Six strategies for launching a successful blog. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/232478 History Teachers’ Association of Australia. (2013). Defining Popular Culture. Retrieved from http://www.achistoryunits.edu.au/verve/_resources/htaa_popular_culture_defining_popular_culture.pdf Johnson, S. (2005). Everything bad is good for you : how today's popular culture is actually making us smarter. New York: Riverhead Books. Marsh, J. & Millard, E. (2000). Literacy and Popular Culture: Using children’s culture in the classroom. London: SAGE. McCarthy, J. (2014). Learner Interest Matters: Strategies for Empowering Student Choice. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-learner-interest-matters-john-mccarthy Morris, K. (2013). The benefits of educational blogging. Retrieved from http://splash.abc.net.au/newsandarticles/blog?id=138409 Murphy-Paul, A. (2013). The power of interest. Retrieved from http://anniemurphypaul.com/2013/11/the-power-of-interest/ Pinard, L. (2014). How does blogging help you to be a better teacher? Retrieved from https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/lizzie-p/how-does-blogging-help-you-be-a-better-teacher-lizzie-pinard
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Miss Megan Elizabeth
Australian living in Johannesburg, Primary School Teacher, IT Teacher, World traveller Header Image:
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