Square: 4 things that align with my thinking or experiences...
- "They might ask: Are my current friendships appropriate? Should I find new friends? What about having a girlfriend or boyfriend" and so many more questions (chap 4, pg 33). You feel as if this time is defining who you are for the rest of your life and you worry if you are going down the right path of not. I can remember having a terrible, toxic friend from first to seventh grade and I felt like if I didn't get out of that friendship then (seventh grade), I never would and all my other friendships after would be toxic as well.
- "As frightening as this new setting appears, it also provides the exciting and challenging prospect of meeting new people and gaining increased control of their lives" (Chap 4, pg 34). My experiences through middle school really align with this quote from "What Every Middle School Teacher Should Know". Going into a bigger school after 5th grade meant meeting a bunch of new people. I can remember the first day of junior high being so nervous yet also excited to potentially meet my future best friends. Sure enough, I met so many different people and junior high was the place that I was introduced to my best friends still to this day. So much changes socially when you change schools and although it's scary, it ended up being the best thing for me.
-"Technology has a dramatic impact on the young adolescent in both positive and negative ways" (chapter 4, pg 39). Technology has significantly developed since I was even in middle school but it is very clear technology changes schooling and adolescent lives. I think school wise, technology can help students communicate better and learn more things that generations before could not without technology. On the other hand, the social media part of technology in middle school can be a lot of pressure. Young adolescents lose the sense of communicating in real life and behind a screen becomes easier and normal for them.
- "... the values they choose often parallel their parents' values" (Chap 4, pg 42). This is specifically true in middle school, in my opinion. Adolescents are finally starting to understand what their parents are talking about and automatically agree because thats what they hear and they respect their parents opinions the most. Middle schoolers don't know enough to form their own opinions on important topics (politics, values, etc.) so they start to say what their parents say. I do not think it is until high school that kids start to think for themselves and get knowledge outside of their parents and household opinions.
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Triangle- 3 things that were new to me
-"Socialization skills, however, do not always come easily to young adolescents. An underdeveloped prefrontal cortex of the brain may cause young adolescents to completely ignore or misread facial expressions of others. Adolescents may interpret messages of surprise or concern as anger, threats, or insults" (chap 4, pg 36). I realized that because the prefrontal cortex is not fully developed, teens commonly misread expressions and messages, causing more intense reactions and sometime random outbursts for no reason.
- "Although we can attribute some mood swings to chemical imbalances of rapid hormonal fluctuations, thats only part of it. If we consider the wide social and intellectual changes young adolescents are experiencing, as well as their continued brain development, their emotional variability seems understandable" (chap 5, pg 44). Teens mood swings are not solely based on their "crazy hormones". They have so much going on socially, trying to fit in, their brain literally changing from a child, and so many other changes, we cannot blame them for having frequent mood swings. They don't always know how to respond to their emotions and mood swings can be the result, and we have to understand that.
- "Few, if any, students develop their full identity during young adolescents, nor should they. Young adolescents should be preserved as a time of identity exploration" (chap5 5, pg 47). Young adolescents are just starting to find themselves and it's definitely not the end of them figuring that out. It's only the beginning and so much still changes after this phase. We, as educators, need to help them start this process but keep their minds open to their future and how much they will still learn and grow.
Circle- questions that I have
-"When asked who the most important person was in their life, young adolescents we interviewed almost universally picked one or both of their parents" (chap 4, pg 38). Do YA become closer to their parents or pull back and distance themselves?
-"In addition, they are convinced that they will live forever and that the horrible thins that happen to others will not effect them" (chap 4, pg 45). Why is this? Have they not experienced enough life to see these things effect others in their lives or do they just feel invincible?
- "Despite interest in conforming and belonging to a social group, young adolescents still want individuality" (chap 5, pg 46). Do YA want to fit in and not be noticed or do they want to be different and stand out?
"Sexual orientation, whether heterosexual or homosexual, originates in the brain, and geneticists believe that it is determined by a combination of genes affecting concentrations of sex hormones in the brain when it is forming prior to birth" (chap 5, pg 55). Are YA just starting to realize they are homosexual because their sex hormones are starting to heighten or are they just old enough to realize what they are feeling means?
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