Chapter 1: The Construction of Adolescence
After reading this chapter I was really intrigued by the overall content and thoughts about child development. It made me think of a million different things. For example, my sister talking about how her students are jerks. Everyday she comes to my house and explains how her job has been more about discipline than actually teaching what she loves. She is an amazing art teacher and I really feel bad that she doesn't get the opportunity to teach children this neat skill.
Then I thought about my own life and my own experiences and the type of kid I was growing up. I remember being that jerk and it makes sense after this reading. I was in Junior High School and I was a class clown and talked ALOT! I got kicked out of class and had detention almost every night. My teachers were amazed how I still managed to get A's when I spent most of class time not in class. I also remember being overweight and not having that inner confidence in myself which is I think why I acted like this tough little shit. Towards the end of 8th grade I was skinny and became a whole different person. My whole attitude towards school changed, I mean I still talked a lot but I wasn't about being the difficult kid who got kicked out of class anymore.
I went into High School as a completely different girl. I had confidence in myself. I liked the girl I saw in the mirror and I think that made a huge difference. I got straight A's and didn't get kicked out of class. I always still had my little bit of spunk but in a different way. Until tragedy struck and I was back to my old ways. I tested teachers limits and basically did whatever I wanted. I was on an emotional roller coaster for the next three years of high school. I owe it to a few specific teachers for my success. The ones that really stuck by me no matter how much I pushed them away.
As I read the story of Antwon and Ms. Petersen I really thought about myself and my own life. I thought about my actions and what I was doing. " They are testing the nature and boundaries of their relationships and learning environments in which these relationships are created". "what kind of person they should be, who their friends ought to be, in what or whom they should place trust, or what kind of world they should make". This all makes sense to me and really opens my eyes. I was a child who had believed in something her whole life. I believed this world was safe, bad things don't happen, and people are nice. Then something horrible happened, the world I thought I knew was turned upside down. The people I thought were my friends stabbed me in the back and I lashed out. I lashed out on everyone and anything, I was angry. Now I'm not justifying what I did but I see it might have got me to where I am today. People spend their whole lives trying to figure out who they are and what their meant to do. This is something I figured out younger than most and that I am grateful for.
Back to teachers and my sister in particular remember why you became a teacher. Not because you wanted power over children but because you get satisfaction in teaching others something you love.
- Open up and connect with students because it makes a huge difference in the outcome than you expect. So many teachers or professors will shut you down and say you're just wrong. Not enough explain their point of view or are even open to another point of view. Everyone is this world was raised differently. They all have different viewpoints and different circumstances going on.
- Take the time to actually get to know your students.
- Give them a place to feel safe
- Give them tools to be the author of their story
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