Relationships are a vital part of one’s life, and humans thrive for this from the time of birth. Harry Stack Sullivan describes six stages of relationships in which humans go through from childhood up until adulthood (Sullivan, as cited in Adolescence, p. 339, 2015). For instance, children have a need for tenderness and companionship and rely on their parents to meet this need. As children age, they begin to develop relationships with peers, seek acceptance and become intimate with same-sex friends. In early adolescence, teens begin to seek a romantic partner and experiment sexually with them. As adolescents enter adulthood, they refine their relationships with significant people who will be lifelong friends they can rely on. It is important to understand this timeline since us as teachers will experience alongside our students the positive and negatives of these relationships. For instance, a student may be pleased to tell you they have just gotten into a relationship, or a student may be suffering from a terrible break up. We need to be cautious of our actions, but also be supportive to our students. While they may be having difficulty with their peer or partner relationships, we as teachers can proactively deepen our relationship with our students by offering guidance and support.

This week we were asked to find pictures that resembled what intimacy was to us. The pictures I found are right here on my ePortfolio. The photos I chose do not necessarily resemble a sexual relationship. Rather, they convey messages of closeness, happiness and connectedness. During our interactive lecture, we formed groups and participated in an activity where we placed photos on a spectrum of intimate and self-disclosure. Some of the photos/topics were: likes on facebook, oral sex, going to a movie, and making out. Our group consisted of males and females. It was really interesting to see people’s views on what they considered intimate vs not intimate at all. At times we had a hard time negotiating where to put the photo on the spectrum. We also discussed how an adolescent may rank this compared to us as adults. It is important that we as teachers be cognizant of our own perceptions of intimacy and self-disclosure because the students we are working with may have a very different stance on a topic. It is important to respect their views, but also be open to explain our reasoning for our own perspectives. Another thing to respect is the stats and facts that many teens are sexually active. While we are responsible for promoting abstinence, we must also take sexual education very seriously. We need students to understand the consequences of their actions, but also promote safe and healthy sex. Being as open, honest, and informative as possible with our students is key to healthy relationships both sexually and intimately with same sex peers.

I have accumulated an abundance of resources on relationship types, teaching sexual education, and how to deal with problems our teens are having regarding relationships. RaisingChildren.net provides many resources on topics such as first crushes, sex and teenage relationships, sexual experimentation, and dealing with breakups. The amount of information they provide is immaculate and is very precise and easy to understand. Pure Intimacy writes on some of the reasons teens are involved in sex. They write about inner drives, lack of supervision, and peer pressure. They also provide ways to reduce risks of teen sex. It was an interesting website for me as it talks about this from a religious standpoint. As I am Catholic with full intentions of teaching in a Catholic school, this website was the perfect balance on sex education and religion. CBC News posted an article on how social media is affecting teen relationships and intimacy. It is an interesting read since we live in a generation where kids are born into technology. As discussed in previous lectures, it is important to stress having a rather close identity online as the one you present in person. EducateEmpowerKids has plenty of resources that offer advice on how to teach emotional intimacy, self-worth, prevention, the effects of porn, etc. There are resources for parents and educators, along with lesson plans. The website is very well designed and definitely something I can refer to in the future. Sex Etc. is another amazing website where teens provide information to other teens. There are blogs, activities, and even a magazine that teens can subscribe to. I found this resource to be so effective since the information posted is always new and up to date. People can go on the website to seek information or to provide it. It is designed to cater to teens and has endless topics on birth control, pregnancy, relationships, abuse, the body, and LGBTQ. It is definitely the best resource I found to provide to students.