Module 1

Woolfolk: Chapters 1-3

Chapter 1

            After reading through the first Chapter some things stood out for me. The beginning where the text through a lot of statistics about who you would likely see sitting in your classroom really put things into perspective. There are many students who weren't born in the United States. As well as students who may have trouble speaking and understanding English or have parents who do not speak English. We are a diverse nation in every way and in the classroom will be no different. All students have very different home lives and some are living in complete poverty. However, even with the many differences that students have the same expectations are placed on all students that the teachers are responsible for making sure they are prepared for which is where The No Child Left Behind Act comes in. It uses standardized achievement tests for all students in grades 3-8, and then again in high school. The results of these tests weighed heavily on how a school would be judged and for those schools who did not test well both the schools and teachers were punished. It has placed a lot of pressure on teachers and students and has moved the focus away from the curriculum and only on the standardized tests. In 2010, under the Obama administration, A Blueprint for Reform was released which has five priorities. They included college and career ready students, great teachers and leaders in every school, equity and opportunity for all schools, raise the bar and reward excellence, and promote innovation and continuous improvement. This reform waived the requirement to 100% proficiency for states that can demonstrate they have adopted their own testing and accountability programs. This new reform wants to move away from there being punished for poor performance. Instead, there be a reward for performing well and providing grants to schools who are improving and demonstrating excellence. I think after the new reform it has taken a lot of the pressure off of teachers to only focus on the testing and instead has moved the focus back into the curriculum where it should be. After reading about, what is good teaching? It made me think about my own experiences. Not necessarily as a teacher because that hasn't happened yet. But, I think back to when I first started personal training I don't want to say I was horrible, but I definitely wasn't the trainer I am today. It was a lot of trial and error and working with various people with varying abilities. Which will be similar to when I am working with different students. I was constantly seeing what worked and what didn't. I liked in the text that it stated "Learning to teach is a gradual process" because I truly believe like anything in life it is very rare that you come out of the gate being amazing at something. It will happen, but it may not be right away. My focus in training has evolved over time, and I feel like once I start teaching I will evolve with each passing school year. What I can only hope for is that giving it my best is good enough, and that my students walk away learning something and that I made some sort of difference. 

Chapter 2

             This chapter dives deep into the brain and cognitive development and how we learn. Throughout school growing up, it was always the question of nature versus nurture and how it shapes development. Piaget was a Swiss psychologist who devised a model describing how humans go about making sense of their world by gathering and organizing information. He describes how through infancy to adulthood our thinking processes change and develop. The four stages are sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. It is all about making sense of the world around you. I think a lot about the transition out of the sensorimotor stage and into the preoperational stage because I have a 2-year old son. He is very much in the preoperational stage in that he can talk and you can understand what he is saying. However, if I were to tell him we are going to the Zoo tomorrow. He would ask me 5 minutes later I thought we were going to the Zoo. He has no concept of time yet and can only think in terms of now, and doesn't understand that he will be doing something but not right away. Something I really found interesting in this chapter was the difference between Piaget and Vygotsky in terms of their thoughts on social interaction. Piaget believed the most helpful interactions came among your peers, whereas Vygotsky believed that interaction with children and their teachers and parents was better for their cognitive development. Then of course as mentioned the text the use of computers also aids in communication. From my own personal experience with my son who as mentioned before is only 2 years old I have seen how crucial both peer interaction and interaction with adults have been to his language development. I think children need both, and I think that children need to be talked to as adults even as babies. Children are truly little sponges constantly learning and they are looking for you and their peers to learn and explore new things. 

Chapter 3

           This chapter talks more about child development. From preschool to elementary and up into the secondary grades children are constantly changing with these physical changes comes puberty and emotional struggles that go along with these changes. Adolescence is a time for a lot of change and development. There has been an increased risk of childhood obesity, especially with the introduction of new technology. Kids would rather stay in on their iPads then be outside in play. That is why recess and physical activity are crucial in a child's development and to help with keeping kids active. As a future Physical education teacher, this is one of the main reasons I went into teaching. As a personal trainer, I see the effects of living an unhealthy lifestyle through adolescence. I hope to help encourage these young minds to live a healthy active life and as the text discusses it helps to support brain development, language, and social development. children can release tension, learn to problem solve, adapt to new situations, cooperate and negotiate all through the use of physical activity. Another topic this chapter discusses is Erickson's Stages of Psychosocial development. His theory was that people go through eight stages of development all of which include a central crisis which having experienced that crisis leads to greater personal and social competence and a stronger foundation for solving future crises. Starting with infancy when infants are developing trust and going all the way to adulthood which involves struggles to achieve intimacy, generativity, and integrity. This theory really makes you think about the sayings "well you live and you learn" or "you won't know what I mean until you go through it" because there are just certain experiences in lives that are just preparation for the next thing, and I feel that is a lot of what Erickson's stages of Psychosocial development are all about.