Response to Laura's Response

I loved Laura's take on the reading we did, about using media with a purpose. I was definitely one of those kids who would put my head down and take a nap during movies. It was a good point she raised about the man teaching through 16 and Pregnant only having access to that show because he had a teenage daughter. It is an important thing to think about, as teachers, maintaining our access to the media our students value. I’m sure we can all think of a teacher we had in high school who “just didn’t get it” and for the most part, these teachers were older and very set in their ways. This does not mean, however, that when teachers get older they become irrelevant. It doesn’t happen that way. A teacher becomes irrelevant and ineffective when they stop TRYING to have access to the media that their student’s value. Teachers also don’t need to have teenage daughters to be able to teach their teenage students. Access, here, means trying to connect with your students in a way they will understand. The example of the man teaching using MTV’s 16 and pregnant was a really good idea, the problem that Laura talked about was how he got to that idea. He only thought of it because his daughter. We need to, as teachers, be aware of what is going on in the media world. We need to be aware of the media that our students value. If that means having a twitter account your students can follow where you post reminders about homework that is due, that’s fine. If it means having a blog account where students are required to post responses to reading assignments, that’s fine. It does not mean that you have to think like your students, watch what they watch and do what they do. It does mean, however, that you need to know what they watch. You need to know how they think. You need to be able to access their media in order to teach them through it.


This, is a terrible example of access. This is what NOT to do, while trying to have access to your students' media:
I was reading in the news about a teacher in Colorado who was fired when someone went through her twitter and found tweets about smoking pot. She made comments about smoking weed when she gets home from teaching, she made comments about wanting to try teaching while high. She posted links to photos of her either half naked, or smoking pot.
One of her students found her on twitter and everyone found out.


Click HERE for the article. CRAZY, right?