Final Week

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Internet Safe Reflection

For my article of choice I read "I have a question" form the Ensign of March 2001, which address how parents can help their children take advantage of the many useful information and resources the internet provides, but at the same time how to avoid immoral materials and people that are out there. It gives us three suggestions in hoe to do this: parental awareness, family rules, and filtering. this includes having computer and internet rules in the home, always talking and showing support for children, and monitoring computer through filtering strategies internet server can provide. I watched many videos from the Netsmart which provided real life stories of how the internet and misuse of it led lives to chaos and conflicts that were hard or almost impossible to fix. I loved the cartoon animation form Ikeepsafe, it was engaging and fun, and still followed through with informing children to keep their internet safety by not talking to strangers, not giving information, or scheduling to meet people you have only met through the internet. I watched really good videos from the frontline PBS documentary. But one particular video that stood out to me form that website was the "cyberbullying". I was really touched by it, and so disappointed there are actual people in the world who encourage others to take their own lives. And even more shocking to see the type of websites that are dangerously available to children, and my future children, it scared me. I think the most important take away form the articles and videos I watched, was just being blessed for having the Gospel in my life and knowing that it can help as an extra support in trying to guide and protect our students and my children. As I watched the video "The child predator fear", where a mother desperately tries to protect their children from internet danger, but it is a very difficult thing to do having the gospel in our lives, but I noticed it is even more difficult to try to do it without the Gospel. Taking the knowledge I have from prophet revelations and teachings I can help my students be safe, and always council them in not doing anything dangerous and reckless on the internet.

The person I did my "doing" part with knew basic internet safety ideas, such as: having computer in open family space, where everyone can see you and what you are doing; give children time limit on computers; try to know their friends and passwords. The person was really shocked about the  "cyberbullying" video as well as I was, and was glad there are so many resources from church leaders that help us fight against all the danger that the internet holds, if not used properly. I shared Elder Bednar's talk, along with other videos and articles I read, and that stood out to me the most. Not much surprised me about the person's reactions, because they had the same reactions I had to the material we looked over and learned about. I think that the person being a parent will ponder more about internet safety and take it even more seriously in trying to prevent unwanted things happening to their children.

Teaching Reflection - Motivation

Lily and I taught our lesson on motivation. We used many hands on activities that required student participation, to provide them with a better learning. For our handout we used a bingo, which is a fun activity in which most students love participating in. The bingo was also one of the activities we did. I believe that a bingo being an engaging activity, where it takes student’s attention and participation can benefit them with memorable ideas from the lesson. On the bingo students had to match a term to its definition, as they were called by the teacher. The students will probably remember this information for a longer period of time, since it was learning it in such a natural way. Another principle we used was to tie examples and activities to students lives, so they could relate to them and also to activate students’ background. In the beginning of our lesson we had the students write down what motivated them to accomplish their academic tasks, so that helped them relate to the lesson and become a little more interesting on the topic.
I think we used the activities we used as a helpful way for students to learn and remember what they were expected to acquire from the lesson. In brief words the students were able to go up to chart paper that had questions on the walls and answer basic questions, but ones that would help them remember the most important concepts about the lesson. A lot of the questions were based on examples or how the concept was applied, for example: give an example of a performance-approach goal and a performance-avoidance goal. The students were able to think in groups and came up with meaningful and correct answers. I believe we did not use our time wisely during the lesson, I think we got a little carried away talking, when we should have focused more on giving the students more time to complete their activities. Something I would do differently is limit instruction from teacher and even include more activities in there, that students would be able to attain the information even better. I believe that for a future time I could engage students more not only in doing the activities, but in participating more during teacher instruction. Maybe elaborate questions that would make them tell me, instead of me telling them. Using that saying “don’t tell them, what they can tell you.” Other thing I would change is about our visual aids. I personally learn better seeing things and with hands on activities. I think a video or some memorable pictures about the subject would help students a lot, with remembering the information being taught.

Personal and Moral Development

Lily and I did the reading for this week together and we also discussed some thing that we thought were interesting to us from the modules. On module 3 we liked to read about Erikson's developmental stages, and just compare the examples with children that surrond us. I noticed my baby already does things form stage 3, eventhough he is a toddler. But he loves to help clean and carry things around to help us. On module 5 we thought the social-information processing was interesting. The interpretation of cues to be more specific, and how teenagers (and maybe even some adults) interpret something as intentional, opposed to accidental. On Model 2 the divorce rates and it's consequences stood out to us, especially when we relate it to the Gospel. It is very sad to know that 50% of first marriages end in divorce, and that a lot of chilren are going to grow up in single parent homes. We are not making assumptions or stereotyping single parents families. Having the Gospel in our lives we know just how extremelly important it is for families to stay strong in the days we are living.

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