Me and The Internet

 The Internet and about me post

I will be doing a mix of blogs and vlogs depending on the topic I am assigned to. 

Hi, my name is Jaime Paredes. I am currently enrolled in the Education program at Brandon University. I am a Latin American male who moved to Canada from El Salvador in June of 2007. I have lived most of my life here in Brandon, Manitoba. I never once thought I would ever be a teacher because I was on the path of being a autobody mechanic. I had gone to school and had competed in a few autobody events in Manitoba. One day I decided to quit the trade that I was successful at and had no back up plan. I went on for two years not knowing what I wanted to do and was working at any job just to make some money. I was looking for a new job because I didn't like what I was doing which was selling life insurance door to door. I posted on Facebook to see if anyone was hiring and a friend contacted me suggesting I apply at the YMCA. I knew that the YMCA was a gymnasium and thought to myself "I could work at a gym". I applied not know what the position was and got hired. I was told to meet my boss at King Gorge school which I thought was weird because it wasn't at the gym. I thought maybe she had to do something there and it would be easier to meet there. I went to the school and she started walking through the YMCA policies and guidelines with me. As she was doing that in a room at the school, kids started to walk in and I was confused on why we were there. She then proceeds to introduce me to the kids and says "this is Jaime and he is going to be looking after you from now on". I was shocked. I never once wanted to work with kids. I ended up staying and that is where my road to becoming a teacher began. Up to this day I could not be more grateful to have gotten that job because if not for that job and those kids, I wouldn't be where I am today.

Today on my first blog I will be talking about The Internet.

The internet is one the most wonderful things that has happened to us but it can also be one of the most dangerous. It has given us the power to look up anything in minutes, to publish our thoughts so the world can see, and look for resources. This has enabled us to do so much more than we were able to before, but it has also hurt us. We can look anything up and look for resources but not everything you find is set to be true. We tend to click on the first link that catches our attention and read enough of it to start believing it without doing enough research to see whether is true or not. Before we would look this up in books that were published by accredited companies and it was simple to know if it was true or not. Now we will see things like "Kanye is having an affair with Jeffery Star" and we will click on it and believe it without any proof because "if it's in the internet it must be true". Being able to post our thoughts and feelings on the internet for the world to see sounds great because you think you will gain positive feedback, but it can also lead to cyber bullying. Now, you can't just worry about the big dude at lunch that will steal your lunch money but also have to look out for the millions of people who sit behind their screens looking to put you down and make you feel bad about what you think or believe. Don't get me wrong, I love the internet and think it's a beautiful tool, but we have to teach our kids how to properly use it so they don't fall into the darkness that hides behind the funny memes and cute emojis. 

I tend to use the internet a lot! I use it to communicate with family and friends, to look at funny videos, play video games, and look for different ways I can integrate it into my future classroom. I want to use it as much as possible when I become a teacher. I want them to get used to it and to learn different things they can do with it. I feel like it's very important for them to learn and evolve with technology because in the future, jobs will require internet skills. I feel like many teachers are scared of the internet but we shouldn't be. Instead we should be curious and always learning to provide our students proper information. We need to teach them how to use it properly so they do not fall into the dark pits of it. Whether you like it or not, the internet is here to stay and will never go away so we can either run from it or safely explore the new world that has opened to us.