My Path to Mind The Education
First and foremost, I would like to introduce myself as our path to Mind The Education (MTE) is strong and intertwined with my life’s work.
I completed my undergraduate degree at Kocaeli University in Turkey, as a Homeroom Teacher. After graduating, I went to the UK for my postgraduate education. I got my SEN, Curriculum and English Teaching master degree at the University of Exeter. I worked in the UK for 3 years and then moved back to Turkey to spend more time with my family and continue my career in Istanbul. I worked as a homeroom teacher, International Teacher Leader and coordinator for private schools until the idea of MTE came into my life. In this first blog of mine, I would like to thank those who I worked with in collaboration and trust. I always consider myself lucky as I have met great managers during my time as an educator. I learned a lot from them; I felt and got their support at all times. I searched and worked hard to meet the same standards they have exemplified.
Foundation & Purpose of MTE
On this web site, you will see paintings, each painted by my students. These paintings are only a few parts of my memories with them. They are the answer to why I love this profession grately. I have begun my journey in teaching by learning with my students. I am always excited to learn new aspects of my profession when working with them. Learning academically and emotionally with my students, rather than just focusing on teaching, has always inspired me as an educator and awarded me a distinct experience that enriched my views. I am glad and proud to share my memories with my dear students here as children are the main focus of MTE and they are the seeds that sowed the idea of it.
We will be sharing everything about us and our work on our blog and website, here at Mind The Education. We plan to share posts with you on individual topics and these posts will be supported by seminars and workshops. MTE will be the gates to our memories and experiences as well as a platform of collaboration and engagement with our professional training and tutoring sessions, seminars/workshops. You will be meeting with our open-hearted, trustworthy and earnest teachers, specialists and psychologists.
Adaptable Education & Development During the Time of Pandemic
MTE, due to the needs of now, is planned to serve online. Most of the people, schools and communities were strangers to online teaching and learning when the pandemic started. The pandemic brought many challenges into our lives and caused the education systems to be reshaped as well. Maybe one of the greatest challenges for the educators and parents was the social impact it would have on our students and children. Children as the key members of education are not only threatened by the virus physically but also mentally and socially. Socialization has a great part in a child’s development. They need to interact with their friends to learn from peers how to collaborate, discuss (deal with raws), and grow intellectually. With the new challenges the pandemic brought to their lives, they could no longer go to school, visit their friends, or sometimes even go outdoors. Parents and children were suddenly at home together all day dealing with multitasking—learning, working and playing—for months on end. This sudden change in our lives left many with concerns for the social and mental development of children in our cares. We can expect that the effects of this worldwide pandemic will leave an indelible impression, especially on our children and youth.
In addition to the changes implemented in our social lives, our relationship with the media has also changed during this time. With the media becoming more and more involved in our daily lives, we, as well as our children, are always informed of the current news about Covid and people who we have lost in the past months. Being in constant fear for their lives and their loved ones affected our children’s emotional development. As we are all going through difficult times, children may be having the hardest as they may not even yet comprehend the extent of the influences of this pandemic although many experienced closely how the pandemic affected their families.
Many child development professionals also raised their concerns about the amount of time children spend in front of screens, while other experts think that time is not a relevant metric. Parents have also commented on the effects of increasing usage of the Internet both negative and positive, on children’s behavioural and social skills, their ability to focus, emotional maturity and creativity. For instance, one can work on their focussing skills with meditation videos whereas another becomes unable to manage their time accordingly because of video games. Indeed, it may be more important than ever to provide the healthiest possible environment for their children’s development to consider whether or not the amount of time children spend in media activities and the content they are accessing reflect the kinds of people we want to help them become.
“With every challenge lies an opportunity for growth”
With their classrooms, social circles and daily routines changing, many, if not all, students also quickly adapted to the new normal. There, we have observed the positive impression of such a threatening world-wide issue. Children learned various new educational tools and strategies to continue with school work and intellectual development.They took responsibility for following their own lesson timetables. Amount of time they started to spend reading was also found to have significantly increased since the time the pandemic started. This is a reminder that we should always keep in mind that each student is unique and their coping styles and adaptation to new situations and life’s challenges differ.
Impacts of the Coronavirus can, of course, be discussed further; but I will leave it here for the time being. We plan to share more posts regarding the virus and its effects on students, parents and schools.
I would like to sum up by stating that whatever the climate, our duty should always be to provide the best tools and environment for our students to achieve their goals and wishes in life. Our duty may be tested in times like this when it may be harder to connect with our students. Any decision, especially regarding the emotional development of children, should be discussed and implemented with great care and responsibility. We should take into consideration that implementations of educators, policymakers, schools, parents and child advocates may be our direction in the future. Children’s future will be shaped based on that.
As Mind The Education, we will work to provide children, parents and schools to be surrounded with quality content and equipment for education.
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