aspiring art teacher

  *This image was taken from Simple Psychology and depicts Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The idea is that the bottom level of the hierarchy must be met before a person can structurally build upon the upper levels (Mcleod, 2020). As a future educator, one of my goals for my classroom is to help every student succeed. Part of this success to me would be helping my students be able to graduate. Do I know that this will not always be able to be a guarantee for me, yes. This fact does not deter my determination nor the faith I have in my future students. Every student will be affected by their environment, and the only environment I can control around my students is my classroom. I want to ensure an environment for my students to feel safe in and know someone is on their side rooting for them. Having housing insecurities can be a huge stressor, and I want to make sure that my students know someone is on their side and there to help them.  Temporary housing can affect grades and schooling. Th

          I am a huge advocate for mental health awareness, so it would make sense for me to want this to be a significant part of my classroom when I become a teacher. Prior to my journey to become an art teacher, I graduated from Oneonta with a bachelor's in Psychology. While I am no expert, I am knowledgeable about mental health and its effects on people. On top of my schooling, I am also one of many who suffer from depression. The image above has a brief overview of Depression but does not explain what needs to be said. I want to break it down into a digestible concept and help people better understand how to deal with depression.       Depression can have many causes. It may originate from one or a combination of sources. Depression may be caused by abnormal brain chemical levels (Clevland Clinic, 2020). This includes chemicals that are produced by the gut. Levels of serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and cortisol all have an effect on the mood of the body and can lead to s

(Image credit: Image by Hatice EROL from Pixabay )     Cyberbullying has been a festering problem as technology and social media expand. I remember watching an episode of Black Mirror , titled “Nosedive” where society functioned off of liking and rating other people (Booker, 2019). You had to be likable and conform to the specifics of society to advance in life (Booker, 2019). Things like renting an apartment or moving up in your job were all determined by your rating (Booker, 2019). Authenticity was rare; everyone said and did whatever they needed to move further up the social ladder. If you did not conform to this mold, you were chastised (Booker, 2019). This concept is displayed in today's society as well.  In the film Dark Cloud: The High Cost of Cyberbullying there are clips of Tik Toks talking about different experiences with cyberbullying (Dupej, 2020). One clip mentions how people on social media bully others “because they don’t meet their expectations” (Dupej, 2020). This

 https://youtu.be/VYOjWnS4cMY Above is a link to This is America by Childish Gambino.    I was in 10th grade the first time there was a very serious bomb threat at my high school. On the day of the threat over half the school was absent. I remember my classes being scared of people. My 30 person social studies class only had 10 kids in it. Thankfully it was just a false alarm. I was a sophomore in college in Oneonta in 2019. I had just gotten to the school gym when I got a text message on my phone that there was an active shooter on campus. Again thankfully it was a false alarm, but none of us found that out until much after the hysteria had died down. There were students barricaded in classrooms hiding under desks, and police officers crawling around campus trying to find and take down the alleged shooter. One theme that was common in the media provided this week, and more largely in America, is this overwhelming idea that the need to maintain the right to bear arms supersedes the