Discussion Post: Social Media, Body Image and Sexting - Teens and Sexuality 21st Century
Teens in America are immersed daily in media. In addition to the media exposure related to marketing, teens also have access to and the ability to share and create information in ways previous generations did not. In this DB you are going to examine some of the challenges for health teachers in the 21st century as they prepare teens with the awareness, skills, and education to navigate some of the particular issues facing them in the digital age.
Part I: Brainstorm an Initial Ideas for Educating Teens Regarding Sexual Health in the Digital Age.
A content warning: The article we will be reading on teens, "sexting" and suicide is tragic, hard to read, but a reality for our times. (reach out to me with any concerns about this article/material)
First: Read the article "Sexting, Shame and Suicide" by Nina Burleigh (Rolling Stone, 2013).
For this first part of the DB, I want you to brainstorm out your best idea(s) for how you as a health education teacher would create a teaching and learning unit to help students cope if a situation as described in the Rolling Stone article happened at your school. For this DB -- create a learning unit that addresses the following items in your brainstorm idea:
• Create a learning goal statement to address all of the following: using grief and healing in a positive way to create a socially supportive environment where students are empowered to create changes in a way to stop cyber "sexting" and digital sexual assault.
• Describe how you will know if the goal(s) of your learning statement has been met. In other words, how will the learning be assessed? How will you know if the students actually can do, know or understand what you wanted them to accomplish?
• Describe how you would create a program -- with no budget -- to achieve the learning goal, AND how you would involve parents, school staff, and other members of the community to contribute to or be a part of this program.
• List a minimum of 3 concerns that might be raised by either parents or school staff regarding your plan, and how you would address these 3 concerns.
Remember you are brainstorming - you are free to be creative and informal (which still writing using correct grammar and presenting your work in an organized fashion).
Part II: Using the input and ideas from other people and sources to improve upon your work
For Part II, the goal of your work is to take your initial brainstorm idea and consider ways to improve upon it by using both the information from the textbook, supplemental material, and ideas from your classmates. For Part 2 please complete the following:
• Watch and read the material in the "Supplemental Materials for DB 4" folder. Take notes for how you might use ideas from the supplemental materials AND the ideas of your classmates in order to improve/modify your brainstorm idea.
• Write a brief paragraph to reflect on this process. Follow the next 3 prompts in order to think critically and reflectively about your process.
Prompts for Reflection:
• Based upon what you read and saw as presented in the supplemental material -- How would you use the material to modify and change your brainstorm idea for the better? Explain your reasoning.
• Give an example (at least one, two is better) of what would you added or how you change your idea, and why. I will be looking for specific references to the supplemental material, your text, and your classmates' ideas in this section.
• Finally, briefly describe what was the most surprising thing you learned from reading and seeing how other people approached teaching and learning, doing, and engaging others in addressing the health topics of social media, body image, and sexting among teens.
The response should include a reference list. One-inch margins, Using Times New Roman 12 pnt font, double-space and APA style of writing and citations.