In my Education101 class, students selected from a wide range books to then present the class with a discussion. Students then analyzed the essential characters from the book and discussed how we would meet those characters where they are if they were apart of our future classroom setting.

In class, we considered a variety of difficult topics. These situations ranged from mental health, school shooting, bullying, death, and many more. The biggest takeaway I received from the Ed Talk Project as a whole is the thought that as teachers our main goal is to create a strong sense of community in a classroom. It is important to build meaningful student teacher relationships with students to create the most comfortable, supportive environment. Although these relationships are critical, it is also important to keep in mind that you are only a teacher, not the student’s therapist. Based on the context of the situation, adding a third party such as a school counselor can always be another option for the student to receive the best help and support.

Another essential takeaway I received was the phrase we’ve covered prior in the class about “meeting students where they are”. The Ed Talks Project took the meaning of that phrase to the next level for me and opened my mind to applying that phrase is a real life situation. For example, there were multiple scenarios presented that involved characters having problems in their personal life. This often made it difficult for those characters to focus on school. Our class brainstormed some ideas in order to help this character if they were a student in our classroom. Our class came to the agreement that it is important for students going through a tough time to focus on their own personal life, but it is also crucial that those students still keep up with their school work even if it involves allowing a student to take an alternative route such as providing them with less of a workload and setting benchmarks to still make sure the student is still following along with the curriculum if they were still in class with their classmates.

I gained many ideas and takeaways from the Ed Talks Project but these few were most significant to me. This project really opened my eyes in the sense that it is very likely situations like the ones our class discussed will be apart of my future students lives. I feel more confident that I will be able to handle these situations from a teacher standpoint.