Teaching Teachers to Teach

This past Friday our class was given the opportunity to lead the professional development that the teachers are required to attend. We split up into two groups, one to talk about technology in social studies classes and one on science technology. I was in the social studies group and I covered the idea of implementing vertical learning using schoology discussions. I wanted the teachers to set up groups with both middle school and high schoolers to help each other learn. 

This was something I wanted to do because I don't like the idea of being tutored by people in the same class as me. I felt like they would look down on me for not being able to absorb information as well and I didn't was other people to experience this feeling. By setting up groups between younger and older students, they are given an outlet without feeling incompetent.

Going into the day I was a little nervous, since I had heard that teachers are the worst teachers, but once the teachers started to get there my nerves relaxed. My presentation went pretty well but I felt almost as though it was really short. I am really hoping that I got my point across even though I did spend that long talking about it.

The best part of the afternoon was seeing some of the teacher whom I haven't seen in years and catching up with them. One of my favorite teachers was there and she and I talked for a while and while it wasn't what we were actually supposed to be doing, it was awesome to see her.

I enjoyed leading the PD, and while it was really scary, the feedback we got was great and I'm glad the teachers were able to a the perspective of a student.

5 Reasons Why Everyone Needs Feminism

We have all seen the pictures of women holding signs that say "I need feminism because...." but I thought I would wrap all those thoughts into 5 reasons both Men and Women need feminism.

5) Gendercide

In countries in which there is population control, such as china, familie are aborting female children, so they can have a male. IN these cultures, males are considered worth more, as they are supposed to take care of the family, and work. This has led to a much larger male population than female population, limiting reproductive rates, and making it difficult for men to find partners.

4) Paid Parental Leave

In most countries, working parents are allowed a certain number of days to spend "parenting". In the US this is not provided, therefore enhancing the gender roles of men working and women parenting. The working parent is left wih a weaker relationship with their children.

3) Cat-Calling/ Street Harrassment

Yesterday, I was in Uptown Charlotte, walking down the road, and between the time I left the building and got to my car I was cat-called at twice. It made me never want to go Uptown again. Cat-calling is a form of sexual harrassment, and while much more prevalent in cultures other than ours, it is still something women face daily. People should never feel uncomfortable going places.

2) Rape Culture

Growing up, women are constantly taught how to protect themselves from rape with the littlest tips, like holding their cup a different way, or dressing certain ways. Men however, are not taught to NOT rape. It has become culture that women need to be educated on preventing rape, however constantly, jokes are made about rape, and it has become culture. If the idea of not raping was engrained in the brains of men as much as the ways to protect against it are for women, thousands of women would not be raped yearly.

1) Gender Roles and Slurs

Men are constantly told to "be a man" or that they do something "like a girl" They are expected to be the workers, to be strong, unemotional, and always prepared. Women are expected to be fully reliant on men, and to do more "womenly" things, like cooking and cleaning. Women need to learn to be independent, and Men need to be able to show emotions and not be considered "feminine".

Heres a link to a commercial shown during the super bowl this past year, that really hit me. I am obssesed with it. https://youtu.be/XjJQBjWYDTs

Chattin it up on Twitter and Sisterly Advice

So this week we talked about twitter chats, and I would say I was really surprised at how popular and useful twitter chats are. I am a pretty active user of social media, especially twitter, but typically all I see on twitter is people complaining, and retweeting funny videos. It was cool to kind of see how twitter can be used constructively.

Part of our assignment for the week was finding a twitter chat to participate in soon. I spent about an hour and a half trying to find one about women's rights. I found one on a twitter chat schedule, called #HERchat. The website called it a chat about women's empowerment and rights, but when I looked up the chat, they were discussing how to stay fit over labor day.... I wasn't impressed to say the least. I was shocked that there were no chats almost relatively about my topic, considering how much there is to discuss.  I ended up finding a chat called #SocialMillenial which talks about how millenials (People born from 1986-2004) such as myself, use social media to be a positive influence. While their weren't that many people involved last week in the chat, I'm hoping that maybe it will gain momentum. I would really like to hear what people say about this topic.

If I were to hold a Twitter chat, I would probably have it discussing the issues I'm covering with my passion project. I would probably have each week focused on a different side of institutional sexism. I would talk about Rape Culture, Societies expectations for Men vs Women, Street Harrassment, and things of that sort. I could use a twitter chat to get brains flowing on the idea. I have friends who I know would definitley join in on the chat, and I think the more people I get to chat, the more people who join. If I can get people to just start thinking about women's rights, and institutional sexism, I think it will draw interest into my event. 

Speaking of my Passion Project, this week I spent a while talking to my sister about some ideas to get the "Day of the Girl" to gain momentum. In college, my sister was part of the App State Women's Club, and from that experience she has some good contacts in the community for me. She has found a few people for me to contact about being a mentor, and I am hoping to have a lockdown on my mentor in the next few weeks. Another thing we talked about is how to get people to come. There is nothing people love more than free stuff and food, so she advised that I find some businesses in the community, like restaurants, to donate items like gift certificates that I can raffle off, and also contact local organizations to see if they can give me items like stickers to give away. I'm really getting excited about this project and can't wait to keep moving on it!

Thrown in with the Sharks

This week we worked as a class to develop our ideas by doing "Shark Tank" style presentations. In these presentations we explained what we we are doing for our projects in just about a minute or two, and the class asked us questions to clarify the details. My presentation was less about the "Day of the Girl" event and more so about the ideas I am trying to get across. People asked me questions about my opinions on certain things, and who exactly I am trying to target. This really helped me clear up my thoughts, and what I want to include in the event, booth wise, etc. I am hoping to get help from my schools feminist club to help me work the event and things of that sort, but the club was just approved by the school and hasn't begun meeting yet. I am also hoping to have found a mentor and contacted them by the end of next week. I'm thinking of looking into professors of local colleges and universities who teach gender studies or women's studies. 

Listening to other people's presentations was really cool. It's interesting to see what some people are really interested in, and I've even been suprised with some. I've known some of my classmates as long at 7 or 8 years, yet I keep finding out more about them. Some of the idea's brought up some tough topics, such as the differences in sexual orientation, and awareness of mental health, and I'm really excited to see how they go about this and how they go about talking about these issue's with high schoolers. I'm really impressed with everyone's ideas and can't wait to see how they play out!!

Not a thing of the past.

This week I started to look into some organizations and projects that I could expand off of relating to my passions, and I came across a website called dayofthegirl.org. The website is about a UN started holiday about awareness of the issues women face, and the accomplishments of women. On the website they guides to holding an official "Day of the Girl" event. One of the options was a night of the arts, both musical, artistic, and written. This caught my eye because I am very passionate about music and wish to go into to the business side of music, so this idea would be combining two of my interests and passions.

In my event, I would have locals artists of all types perform, preferable songs or art with a message advocating for gender equality. Additionally at the event I would set up a series of booths with information on issues facing women today. To advertise the event I plan on creating a video, SoulPancake style, asking people basic questions about women in their life, and hopefully getting some really hardy answers. At the beginning I will ask them whether they think they are a feminist and then again at the end.

I think that the issues that I will be bringing up in the event, such as rape culture, the gender wage gap, domestic violence, human trafficking, use of derogatory language towards women and "The Trans Question", are really important because people think that the womens rights issues have been solved and that the movement is a thing in the past.  In reality, the injustices women face today, are institutionalized so people don't realize that they are being sexist or that they are taking away human rights. My goal is to help de-institutionalize sexism, and help people learn to pinpoint the problems. Feminism and the womens rights movement isn't a thing of the past, so why is it so stigmatized? 

Dissecting My Passions

In the past week we have discussed finding our passions and looking for things that we could focus on for projects. To take a deeper look we made heartbreak maps. A heartbreak map is an idea that came from Angela Maiers, in which you look at what breaks your heart about things you love. You can read more about it here->  ow.ly/PEeMc    
On a heartbreak map, you draw three layers, the things you love, the things that break your heart, and solutions. This is my heartbreak map.

                                        
As you can see, some of the things I love are Music, Human Rights movements, and the movement towards awareness of Mental Illness. I am very passionate about the human rights movement and would call myself a feminist. While I was going about making my heartbreak map, I was scared to put feminism as something I love and that got me thinking. The stigma around feminism is a prime example of the institutional sexism in today's society. If you ask many people what they think of feminism, they will describe a feminist as a men-hating pessimist, and while there are some feminist who are like that, the majority of the feminist population just want equality.  I think exploring into the stigma around feminists and the effect it has on society would be something I would be very interested in. I would like to give people the truth about gender equality and hopefully help to break the stigma.

Speaking of stigma's to break... another stigma that I would kill to break is the stigma around people with mental illness. Many times, people with mental illness are scared to get help because they think people will see them as crazy, and that is just ridiculous. About 25% of all people deal with mental illness themselves in their lifetime. I'm pretty sure that 25% of people aren't crazy. I would really like to get involved in spreading awareness of what mental illness actually is and to help break the stigma. So many people with mental illness go undiagnosed due to fear of judgement, and hundreds of thousands of people commit suicide each year. If people were more accepting of mental illness then lives would be saved.

The heartbreak map really helped me dissect things I am passionate about. I'm looking forward to digging deeper into these topics and really trying to make a difference in people's daily lives.