What I Learned From the EdTalks Presentations

Recently in class, I had the opportunity in class to be a teacher for 10 minutes and lead a discussion among my peers about different types of students and scenarios that could be possibilities in our future classrooms. The basis of the project was reading a book about students that were going through something, whether it be PTSD, depression, or even gun violence. The book I read for this project was called Iveliz Explains it All. It was a story about a 7th grader named Iveliz that was dealing with PTSD and depression after going through a traumatic event and how she dealt with it in the classroom. In our discussion that was led by my partner and I, we asked our peers what they would do if they had a student like Iveliz in their classroom and how they would deal with the situation.

These stories all had different scenarios, but one main theme: dealing with children in the classroom. After discussing these different situations in the student-led discussions, I feel I learned a lot. One of the main things I learned that I will be applying to my future teaching career is being a constant center of support for my students. I think it is important to have that foundation for the students, whether they accept the support or not. Sometimes the classroom you foster might be the only safe place some students have. I also learned that we don’t know everything about every student. They might be dealing with things at home that I would have no idea about. Noticing signs that a student might not be okay is important. You shouldn’t force the student to tell you about it, but being there for them as a resource is also important. 

All in all, as educators, we are going to have an array of student backgrounds in our classrooms. Learning to adapt to what they might be dealing with is super important and learning to be a source of support for the student is crucial. You don’t need to make them tell you what is wrong, but always being there for them is sometimes all they need to feel a little better. Through listening to these EdTalks, I learned that it is also okay to ask for other resources as well, keeping in mind the privacy that the students might need. As I mentioned, the classroom might be one of the only safe spaces that the child has, so being an open source of support for your students is such a big step to fostering a loving and caring environment.