Journals+2008

 __** Journals Fall Semester 2008 **__


 * Oct. 23/08**

I went to Heritage today to conduct my first survey on SE, using the Crocker and Rosenberg scales. I worked with two Gr. 9 classes and it went very smoothly. Some students even asked for clarification of certain questions and seemed genuinely engaged and responsive and took time to finish it, rather than rushing their way through it. I think using students in Gr. 9 for the survey was a good idea because they may feel inclined to be more honest about answering questions about self-esteem as they don't know me and I don't know them. The anonymity works well for this on such a sensitive topic I think. After scoring the surveys, I found that the results supported Crocker's work which states that people with high self-esteem have fewer contingencies—that is, they say they just feel good about themselves and it doesn’t depend on anything such as their physical appearance. This didn't surprise me, as I went into Heritage thinking that this would probably be the result with these particular Gr. 9 students as well.


 * Nov. 3/08**

Today I went back to Heritage to conduct the next survey with the same group of Gr. 9 students. This survey was on Body Image, which I compiled using information from a few different sources online (mentioned in the resource section of my revised Action Plan). I wanted to score this survey and correlate it to the earlier SE survey if possible. Luckily, I have a mother-in-law who used to be a professor at UBC who has access to software that can measure the correlations of certain things to eachother in a survey. She was able to do this on my behalf and input the results from my surveys which showed expected things but also brought about some interesting ideas.


 * Nov. 14/08**

Today I went to Heritage to perform my last bit of research on the Gr. 9 subjects I've been dealing with. I facilitated a focus group discussion on technological mediums and how they affect young peoples' self-esteem today. I audio recorded our conversation and was a little worried in the beginning that I was only going to be hearing my voice on the playback, but I was pleasantly surprised that all 12 students participated, even if it was only one statement or opinion. I asked the two teachers involved to just pick out 6 random students from their classes and I think 12 people for this discussion was a good number to work with; any more and it would have been too many.

I thought the discussion went really well. It was interesting to hear the opinions of 13 and 14 year olds about how they use the Internet, what TV shows they watch and how they feel the media portrays young people today. I was originally thinking that I wanted to use the high self-esteem group with the low self-esteem group but the more I thought about it and planned for the focus group, the more I realized that to get a true sense of where teenagers are on these topics, it would be best to use a random group, selected by the two teachers involved, hopefully including students from the low self-esteem group, the high and somewhere in between.

What I thought most intriguing and encouraging was that they truly have a strong sense (at least it seemed that way to me) about what is real and not real on TV and in the media today and more than one person responded saying that they think that the definition of "perfect" is different for everyone. They went on to say that even though the media portrays people in an unrealistic way, they only want to strive to be the best that they can be and realize that it is going to be different for them in their own lives than it is on a TV show such as "Gossip Girl," where everything is exaggerated and everyone lives a lifestyle represented by only a very small portion of the population in reality.


 * Nov. 24/08**

I learned a lot from this field study, more than I had originally anticipated, to tell the truth. With all that’s going on in my life at the moment, I was worried that I wouldn’t get much out of this field study but I know that wasn’t the case and I will take away important findings from it and remember them in the future when I teach again next year. I think it is important to realize that all students in the P.E. setting need positive reinforcement and encouragement in order to help develop their sense of self-worth and hopefully improve their self-esteem and body image. P.E. can potentially be a damaging place for some, and after discovering that even the A students in my field study struggle with their body image and self-esteem, it is so crucial to me that I teach my future students to learn to accept themselves and their bodies. I think it’s also important for me to teach my students to be mindful and critical of the media’s slant on body types and the Internet’s approach to things like weight loss. With all the information that is made available to youth today through many different forms of technological mediums, I think it would be dangerous and irresponsible as a teacher not to teach our students how to use a critical eye when viewing or participating in such things. If I can reach even one student and help them develop a positive self-image, I feel like I will be extremely satisfied and rewarded in my teaching practice.