Technology in Schools

Reading the section in the textbook about technology and learning through the internet was interesting for me. I think back to My elementary school years and how much I enjoyed technology class. I also am most likely one of the last generations to remember dial-up and being limited on how long I could be on the internet since it took out our landline to be on the internet. As the internet improved, so did social media outlets. I remember being huge into AIM in junior high. Since I didn't have a cell phone until 8th grade, that was my mass way of communication with friends. Once I got a cell-phone, social media outlets opened like crazy. I didn't have nearly as many resources as kids do now in school. I was never given a school computer, nor did I have to complete online assignments that were due if I missed school. I think it's wonderful that schools are now taking the steps to connect with the internet to make up with missed school work, or to help students work ahead. A downfall is the dangers of technology. I know schools are making every step possible to ensure students have 1) the safety they can while in the school building and 2) to teach them the importance of safety at home. I think schools do a good job at making sure students understand how important it is to stay safe online, but I know there are constantly ways to improve upon it. I also found the article interesting that it talked about how students understood technology has been taking away from their chores. While technology can be a great tool for homework, it also is a huge time suck. If parents use technology to get their kids to do chores then it can be a reward, otherwise kids will want to constantly be tuned into their own world. I also wonder if students were more in tune with the world around them, if the cyberbullying would be less.

Imaginary audience

Reading the section on imaginary audience in the text really got me thinking about when I was a teenager. I remember having the same kind of talk with my mom when I was younger as the girl and her mom did in the book. I would always be worried about who would see me and felt everyone was judging me on my every move. I wouldn't go out of the house without my hair looking perfect or the perfect outfit. I'm definitely more relaxed about my appearance now and less anxious about what other people think. As an adult, I hardly pay attention to other people unless they really stand out. Most times I just don't care and have my own life to worry about. Looking back on it, I think about how silly it was to be so worried about other people. I believe that egocentrism fades away as you grow older. You need life experience to humble you and to make you realize that you don't need other people's approval to feel good about yourself.

Citations:

Berger, Kathleen. (2011). The Developing Person Through the Life Span. New York, NY : Worth Publishers. 

Primate Decision making

I found the movie on primate decision making by Laurie Santos very interesting. I liked when she did the demonstration with the monkeys and the pretend money/reward. It showed that we are very similar to monkeys since the monkeys made the same decisions regarding the money as we would have. I'm a finance major and it made me realize that psychology has a lot to do with finance as well as similarities with many other fields. Statistics show that humans make decisions on money due to their emotional attachment to money. They are afraid of losing money and are usually very risk averse when it comes to money. If i'm able to detect how people will react in certain financial situations or decisions, then i'll be able to plan out how to work my business. I think finance and psychology are both very interesting fields and that they tie in closer to each other than you would think.

The Dangers of Technology

In this day in age, we are all accustomed to using technology. Technology may be either beneficial and terrorizing. Some of the way that technology benefits us are, we are able to learn and enhance our visual spatial-skills and vocabulary. Another example as to why technology is very beneficial is, we are able to communicate quickly and enhances our ways to share information. The internet is very beneficial for networking and it allows contact with family and friends that are faraway. But, there are also a downfall to technology. One of this down fall is the sexual abuse via internet. There are many sexual predators that are online looking for young teens, social media is usually their main targets. These predators are usually in chat rooms, video games, or internet gambling and they seek out young innocent kids. Because many of the kids are usually vulnerable, they return that attention back to the predator without realizing what they are getting themselves into. It is easy for younger kids to get caught in that act because, more and more younger kids have smartphones and they have easy access to the internet. Parents are less likely to pay attention to what their kids are doing and due to this, the dangers of technology begins to occur.

Middle School

When I was in middle school, I remember loving it. I was involved in a ton of organizations, my grades were easy to maintain, and my friends and I had a lot of fun together. I remember the drama, of course, but for some reason the drama circulating around me just did not have the malice, bite, and bullying tone that others seem to have had. I just got lucky, I suppose.

Regardless, in my college career I have firmly decided to never teach at the middle school level for a plethora of reasons. The largest one is the maturity. I need students that I can understand better, and I feel like I can relate better to a high schooler because he/she is slightly more mature- or is dealing with more mature themes that I can help with. When you are in middle school, every little thing matters and can be blown up. While it happens in high school too, I feel like I can talk to high schoolers with more ease and help solve the problems better.

Middle School

Middle school is a funny age if you think about it. These kids are tiny adults in a childhood body, wanting more and more freedom and responsibility like adults. I would love to be a middle school music teacher someday, and some think I am crazy for wanting that mess of hormones. Really in my mind, these kids just want to be loved and most want to learn. While some may not want to deal with middle school kids and their hormones and attitudes, this is a great time to teach them how to behave appropriately. You also have to do activities to pull the kids in, especially if it is music centered. I remember my middle school years, and if I could go back and redo two years I would definitely redo 8^th and 12^th grade. Both years in school I had great friends, I did well in school, and I truly enjoyed where I was in life. While middle school is a fragile part in a child’s life, I think the teachers can make the most impactful moments. School is also about building those moments that you’ll remember forever. I also really love middle school age students because this is when you see them truly growing into the adult they will become, and see how actions require consequences. Besides the hormones and being awkward, I wonder what other reasons are that people like to avoid teaching that age. I guess that age requires a special person to handle and teach them, and some day I would love to be that person.

Egocentrism

Thinking the world revolves around you is a part of growing up.  In fact it is a part of healthy development.  However, continuing to be egocentric after adolescence can lead to many problems in relationships, and really life in general.  Right now I am still trying to figure out how egocentric I am and how to change it.  As an adolescent I did not care at all about what people thought of me or if I was making you mad.  My friends and I would joke with each other by saying "its my world you're just living in it".  Truthfully we were just in a normal stage of development according to David Elkind (Berger page 408).  Unfortunately due to some other circumstances it took me a little longer to move pass this stage of development and I can still be very selfish and think that all eyes are on me and that I am running the show.  The biggest help for me with this issue is by accepting that their is a higher power and that he is truly the only one in charge.

Reference

Berger, Kathleen Stassen. The Developing Person Through the Life Span. Worth Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Education Issues

Some parts of this chapter dealt with schooling, which is right up my alley as my degree will be in education. One of the quiz questions, the one about standardization causing dropout rates to climb, actually sparked this rant.

This semester I am writing my thesis on how a certain standardized test, PARCC, is working very, very quickly toward completely automated scoring for student essays in three years. My argument is that this will only perpetuate the issues within the standardization movement and cause even more disinterest in showing up every day for school for both the teachers and the students. I just find it disheartening that so often in education money is the most important aspect of education as opposed to the students. For example, the textbook also noted that while large schools are more cost effective, they also decrease learning across the board.

How do teachers, policy makes, administrators, and the general public make school a place that kids want to go to? How do we do this economically?

Youth and Technology

While completing this weeks reading the second topic I found interesting was the topic of technology and education. Technology is all around us all of the time, from cell phones to TV's and of course computers. Technology is rapidly becoming more and more implemented in our daily lives not only for leisure but it also helps us learn. In schools student's are using laptops and instead of chalkboards some schools now what are called smart-boards, but the question is, is all of this technology going to help our kids? There is a huge divide between what it was like forty years ago when my parent's went to school versus what it is like now. Students now computers at home to do their school work, and when they do not have one or they have to stay after school or go to a library to complete their work, their grades can suffer. One good thing is, there can be a lot of learning done through the internet. There are countless videos out there that can help explain concepts and demonstrate how to do something to help better the child's education, not to mention online tutors that are available virtually around the clock. Not only are we using technology more in schools but kids are using it more than ever at home and in their free time, but is this bad for our children and their future? Can this behavior harm our future, or will it push the future forward?

Reference:
Berger, K. S. (2011). The Developing Person Through the Life Span. New York: Worth Publishers.

Stress

When talking about stress it can mean a wide variety of things, anything can trigger stress, and anyone can have stress. Everyone in their lifetime will encounter some type of stress at least once, its like we can't avoid it. Stress is your body's way of responding to any kind of demand or threat. When you feel threatened, your nervous system responds by releasing a flood of stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol, which rouse the body for emergency action. Stress can cause serious harm on your body, can make your hair fall out, cause aches and pain in your muscles, can cause serious damage. When you are stressing you're causing your body to react and it is something people find things to better their time or ways to take stress out in their life. 


For adolescents stress comes with finding a college, studying for the SATs, fitting in, and if they will make into the college of their dreams, bullying, and society in general. Today, growing up I feel their is more pressure on you to go too school, and study your butt off to make it into a good school and get a good job. They just want to relax from time to time and hang out with their friends and just not stress about being an adult. I would completely agree, I got into a serious relationship, I had a job, paying bills all at 15/16 years old and I feel I missed out on my senior year of High School. In the end, being stressed about working and trying to make money to pay bills I still do at the age of 21. I can only hope my education and hard work pay off and I don't feel so consumed and overworked. Being stress has caused health problems for me I can't discuss, but i hope we can teach adolescents being worried about things they can't change and stuff that won't matter in 5 years and to just be a kid. No one should feel pressure as an adolescent to where they have so much stress it affects them and their every day living.

Reference:
By recognizing the symptoms and causes of stress, you can take the first steps to reducing its harmful effects and improving your quality of life. (n.d.). Stress Symptoms, Signs, and Causes. Retrieved October 26, 2016, from http://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-symptoms-causes-and-effects.htm 

Resilience and Stress

The first part of this weeks reading that I found interesting was the part on resilience and stress. Children face stress all of the time, and how they deal with that stress can effect them for a life time. Not only does it come down to how much stress the child faces but also how resilient the child is to stress. Berger says that resilience is, "a dynamic process encompassing positive adaptation within the context of significant adversity" (Berger, 2011, p. 353). According to Berger children handle stress in all kinds of different ways, but Berger states that children handle stress based on how they perceive it. If children are repeatedly exposed to stress their resilience decreases dramatically, but children handle stress based on how those around them handle stress as well. If, as Berger states, children see their mother being abused by their father, and their mother leaves the abuser and moves on with her life and is not depressed Berger states that children can have a positive view of the situation. But Berger also states that when children are repeatedly exposed to stress their resilience becomes less and less as seen with children of hurricane Katrina. The children were uprooted from their homes, and repeatedly were exposed to stress along the the journey. The way children cope with stress is somewhat of a mystery because some children go through so much difficulty in their lives but turn out seemingly unharmed. So why do some children handle stress with apparent ease and others cannot?

Reference:
Berger, K. S. (2011). The Developing Person Through the Life Span. New York: Worth Publishers.

Adolescents and driving

In reading Berger (2011) for this week, I could not help but be reminded of a tragic experience I had in high school related to driving. My boyfriend at the time liked to drive fast. He had access to his mom's BMW, which was substantially faster than the old car that I drove.

One night, we were at a party and my boyfriend took home a good friend of ours. Who knows if he was driving fast, but it was kind of assumed that he was.....
It was an icy night and there was a bridge that he had to cross. The car slid and ended up sliding and was hit by a truck. Our friend was air lifted and in a coma for 2 weeks. He was later withdrawn from life support and died. We were 16 years old.

In the months to come I saw first hand how this affected my boyfriend, close friends, our friend that passed away's family, the community, the school, and so on.

This weeks reading made me think about how young we are when we get our license. Our frontal lobe of our brain is not even fully developed, which affects our ability to reason and make sound judgements. It makes me question the age that we get our license. Should we really be driving at age 16? Or allowed to drive friends and siblings around? If not, when is a good age to start?

Social Support and Religious Faith

As I was reading the social support and religious faith section, I could relate to that very well. While having my family around to support me has been a tremendous help, I do rely greatly on my church family to help with anything I may need guidance or help with. Sometimes it’s nice to have a mentor from outside of your family who is there to listen to you when you need it since they don’t know every detail of the situation (if your family does), and they can give you an honest outsiders opinion. I know growing up I enjoyed being involved in youth group. In youth group we would lead various Sunday morning worships, and have Sunday school geared and directed towards what we were going through in our daily lives. I think personally growing up in a very supportive Church helped me to realize the importance of different relationships with different adults I can come into contact with. Not only are these adults’ family friends and grew up with my parents, but I’m close with their kids too. These relationships have taught me how to handle myself as a young adult and how to interact with those around me besides my family. I’ve also been able to network with these parents and nanny for some of them. With that babysitting experience, I know I can rely on them for a future reference if I would ever need one. I also found church to be an outlet from what is going on around me currently. We would have different youth group activities or weekends away where I could forget what was going on around me and focus on the present time. I’m so thankful for how I was raised and the experiences my parents had me go through. I’m also thankful they have instilled in me the importance of friendships and values in life.

Stress

To me, it’s amazing to see how younger children are affected by stress. I feel like administrators are making school more stressful for children today than it used to be. While it is important to teach children to manage their time better, they also feel the pressure to do well and succeed at a younger age. I also feel with social media, children are more aware of their surroundings and what is going on around them. For example, two weeks ago with the clown incident around my home area, my brothers middle school was being targeted. Of course he saw this and freaked out. He did not want to go to school that day for fear of what could happen and he felt much safer at home. Naturally nothing happened, but it took a lot of reassurance from my mom the night before to tell him that he would be safe at school and he could text her throughout the day if there was anything going on. I know he also feels the pressure from school to do well in his classes looking forward to his future. I don’t remember feeling that much pressure to do well in school until I hit high school. I found the textbook to be interesting as it addressed issues such as home life troubles, or major traumatic issues that they have gone through. It’s so sad to see that children aren’t always raised in a home life like you may have been brought up in, and they are struggling with issues that no child should be facing. The stress for some children makes me want to help them in the best way I can as a future teacher.