Physical and Phycosocial Development in Adolescents

Phycosocial development in adolescents concern on the Searching of identity and the physical development concern in the external changes that our body suffers.  During my adolescence, I experimented many changes that helped me find myself and accept the person that I become. I do not remember with detail all the scenarios that I faced; however, there are some of them that I remember clearly. For example. I remember that I did not care about my physical appearance at all but one day I woke up and I used some makeup.  This is something natural in adolescents because they start to care about what people say about them. In my opinion, Society plays a very important role in adolescents life and most of the time it turns in the only aspect that they care about.
 Moreover, I remember that when I had a presentation I spent hours practicing my walking, my gestures, etc. Now I cannot believe I did this  just because I was too worry about my classmates’ opinion. Besides, I remember that i behave in a very inmature way. For example, when someone gave a command I did not do it because I did want  that anyone told me what I have to do. Now I am ashamed about some things that I did. Emotions is something that adolescents cannot control simply because is a natural process in which the brain is developing. Moreover, adolescents are not aware about the process that they are going through.  All the process that I faced made me realized about my future and the person that I wanted to become.

Now I understand why adolescents are very hard to handled in all aspect not just at school but at home as well. Each adolescent is different and so is the way in which they behave. That is why adults should be very careful at the time to correct them because it could be damage for teens. Teachers should understand that this is just a period in adolescents’ life and it will not last forever. Adolescents are emotional and some times they say things that c
an hurt other’s feelings and the sad part of this is that they do not meant it. I know now that this is normal and is preparing me to deal with this kind of challenge. Besides, adolescents are very popular fro the phrase “I need my own space”. Indeed,  I am sure that we all have said that phrase.  This is the reason why they create a refuge in which there is no space for anyone else that represent an authority. There are thousands of behavior and words that are very common in adolescence; however, should be patient with them since they will continue behaving like this until their brain is ready.

As a teacher I would like to help my students to feel confortable in my class so they can interact and participate. I am sure that it will not be easy but I will do my best. Moreover, I would like that my student participate because they wan to, not because I force them. I think that if they participate willingly the learning will be meaningful. These are some Ideas that I will implement in my classes. I know that they are not enough and I am sure that I will need back up but I have the best support in class my dear classmates and teacher.

Meeting and dealing with the changes in the brain of a teenager.

Adolescence is  a very difficult time in every person and we all have been down this road before. However, adults forget about this time in their lives and make their own speculations. In my case the perspective that I had about them were kind of hard. For example, I thought that adolescents were irresponsable and lazy because of the way they behave. Of course I was sure that they knew why and what they were behaving in that way. Moreover, rebellion was a word that in my opinion fitted perfectly with them. Besides,  Adolescents  according to what I have seen do not care about their future because they do not want to study neither work. Furtheremore, From where I am standing adolescents seemed to be confronting their parents simply because they do not like being told what to do. Adolescents are most of the time emotional and take decisions based on that. Most of adolescents get carried away  for the decisions that their friends take. Besides, they just follow some trends that help them fit in the most popular groups at schools, and in society. Another aspect that in my opinion reflects adolescents’ behavior  is impulsion because they do not think before they act. In my opinion the behavior of adolescents seemed to be something very difficult to deal with.

My findings about the changes in the brains of adolescents helped me clarify and understand what happen in their brains during this age. According to the website National institute of mental health there are many things going on in adolescents brain. First, I want to point out that our brains is develop until we are 24. Moreover, I search about an interesting question that was made in class about the size of the brain and what makes our head grow. I found that in our brain we have many neurons and while we are growing this neurons are finding their way to new connections that is the reason why our brain grows. Besides, the gray matter that is the thinking part in the brain continue growing gradually. Furthermore, I found that at the age of 6 our brain is a 95% full-sized. However, this does not mean that our brain is a 100% develop. This means that we have enough space in our brain so the rest of the parts can grow and fit. Another interesting fact that I found is that since adolescents  brains are still under construction they are not able to take appropriate decisions, and as we might seen adolescents do not take decisions by evaluating consecuences instead they take it based on emotions. This is because the prefrontal cortex that is the part of the brain that help them controls impulsions, emotions, and take decisions by analyzing consecuences is not develop yet. Moreover, I found that adolescents brain is dealing with many things at once. For example, they change of mood constantly, they do not want to spent time with their family, they wan fredoom, and they do not want anyone sticking their noses in their lifes. According to this website during adolescent brain development many teachers, parents, and society do not really understand what is going on in the adolescent brains. Another interesting fact is that the development of their brains face many changes that can affect them in many aspects. Basing on what I have read I visualize adolescents’ brain like a  twister full of ideas that they do not even know they exist. That is why adolescents come up with ideas out of nothing  that may affect them. Moreover, teens do not like to obey or take advice of anyone that is why deal with a teen is very difficult in all aspects. Teens are not aware of what is happening to them neither think rasonable because most of the time they are not able to perceive the damage or the consecuences that some bad decisions leading by emotion might have. Research about the development in the adolescents’ brain help me understand the behavior that most of them have.

This teaching practicum II will help me learn and polish some abilities that I will need to deal with adolescents. That is why in this new challenge to work with adolescents I will do my best in order to succeed. My expectations are even more higher because the scenario will be totaly different and new challenges will show up. One of my expectations is that my students learn could see me as a friend however; this will be a hard because I do not want to  lose the control of my class. Besides, I expect that they could learn faster since they have the capacity to do it. Moreover, I expect that we could learn in every class from every mistake. These are just expectations because I am starting this new  road and I am not sure what will happen. However, I am sure that the real experiences will be a 100% better than the expectations. 

My Reflection

Here I am writing about my experience to work with children and is unbelievable how time flies.  I just remember the very first class that I gave. It was a worthy experience and I remember how nervous I was because I had no idea about how students would react or behave.  During this first class I could control myself; however, I was almost shaking because I had audience looking at me and that was extra pressure. In this class I learnt that children understood commands in English, they did almost everything that I asked them to do, and they could do it with almost any help. I felt really good standing there in front of those children that wanted to learn and they would do it with my help. 

Then, the second class came again and I was still nervous but with the difference that I felt more confident. In this class I used different activities that worked very well with my students. They enjoy it and learnt at the same time. That made me feel proud and I realized that teach is something that I enjoy. In this class I learnt that children learnt faster when the activities are appealing to them. Moreover, I experience and learnt that teachers needed to think a lot when creating a lesson plan because the activities should be according to the age of students. Something that I will not forget is that as a teacher I always needed to have a backup plan. This will help me to face any situation because we never what could happen, and teachers should be prepared.

In my last class I was not nervous but exited to teach my last time to this children. I tried to put in practice what I learnt and put in practice the advices that my colleagues and teacher gave in my previews classes. I felt great; however, teachers never stop learning.   I feel great because I could overcome some difficulties at the time to teach. Moreover, I improve a lot from the very first class to the last one.   I decided to improve my skills and acquire many more that would help me in the future. I want to say that it was hard but I like challenge because are in those challenges that people show learn. Things that I would miss are prepare materials for my classes, think about the activities that I will perform, and doing the lesson plan. I know that this was just the beginning of things to come, and I am pretty sure that I will succeed. 

Third Group 

Topic: Playground Fun

Teachers: Luis 

              Wanda 

              Jennifer 

              Deyanira

              Vanessa 

The topic presented for the third group was “Playground fun”. This topic allowed to this group use realia in their lesson and it was awesome. My expectation for this class were that children could learnt through play.

The class started up and so the learning. Students sang the   “Hello-Hello” song as usual in the class. They enjoyed it because teachers perform the mimics. Then, there were some colorful circles pasted in the floor in which students had to sit at, and I was wondering if they will adapt to their spot during the whole class. However, that was just my concern because students respect their spot and they felt more relax.  Every eye was on the teachers and I could notice that students were anxious to start.

The first step was present the vocabulary and it was presented by teacher Vanessa. She just focused on the vocabulary that students will use during this lesson. Something interesting about this group was that 

they spoke just in English and when students notice that teachers were talking in English they could not stop stared directly to them because they wanted to understand what they were saying. They looked as though they understood, that is why teacher Wanda continued talking in English through the whole lesson. She explained four prepositions next to, behind, in front of, and between. The explanation was great because children understood what the meaning of each word was. Besides, she transmitted her enthusiasm to the class. The next step after the presentation and some teaching about prepositions was practice. During the practice teacher Jennifer asked students make two lines and she gave a piece of paper to each student. Then, one student gave a command to one students of the other line. The command included touch the ball nest to the bath, touch the jump rope behind the bicycle, etc. 

In this activity students practiced the prepositions and vocabulary; however, some of them could not read the sentences written in the paper and they needed the teacher’s help. The last activity was the warm up developed by teacher Deyanira and it consisted on played the hot chair game.  Students walked around the chairs and when the music stopped they had to find a chair and those left standing answered a question. Students enjoyed this activity because it was interesting they had to run and pay attention to the music in order to find a sit and not to be the one that answers the question. There were many meaningful activities that helped both students and teachers achieved their goals.

Second group 

Topic: My Home

Teachers: Jackeline Martinez

                 Yanet Argueta

                 Brenda Rivas

                 Nancy Membreño

                 Gloria Gonzales

The third week started and this group was ready to teach for second time. By this point my expectations for this group were even higher because they performed an excellent job in their preview class. The topic was really interesting and I for the class I expected that students would learnt at least the most common vocabulary that this unit includes

The class started as usual “singing” but this time it was totally different and this encourage students not to feel bored at the time to sing. The “Hello-Hello” song in this lesson changed completely because it was singing by using some poppets.

Each student had the opportunity to have one puppet. 

There were a plenty variety of animals and students were exited to used them. 

The first teacher on presenting was Nancy she developed the warm up in an interesting way. Students play basketball in this stage they tossed the ball in a small basket trying to make a point. In this activity the students that did not make a point would say a word of the vocabulary that they studied the previous class. In this way the class continue and students seemed to be engaged during the whole lesson. Teacher Yanet presented some vocabulary and the question Where is the ___________? In this presentation she sat on the floor where the students were sat at. Students really paid attention to this introduction and by this point they were able to understand what the teacher was explaining. The idea of be in the same level of the students in my opinion helped Yanet to have the attention of the students. Then, teacher Gloria make their students practice with an audio.

The audio included some sentences such as the pillow is on the sofa, the lamp is under the sofa, etc. Students had some pictures that matched with the sentences that the audio included. Then when teacher Gloria asked where is the ______? They will listen and show the picture that represented the sentence that they listened. The activity was creative and the majority of the students could perform it. So far students were doing a fantastic job and this helped teacher Brenda with her activity of practice a little bit the vocabulary and the prepositions. The teacher sat down with the students and they began to practice each students were asked to participate and say a sentence using the question Where is the______? Then the rest of the students helped each other answer this question.

The last but not least activity was the one that teacher Jackeline performed and it was called “mica” this activity has a quite weird name; however, students really enjoyed it. They were gathered in a section of the classroom which has plenty space to run. They ran all over the space trying not to get the famous “mica”. The ones that got it asked a question and in some cases they said a complete sentence. This class was very productive I learnt lots of things. For example, children learn faster when the activities are interesting and attractive for them. During the whole class I was paying attention to the activities and the teachers as well that is why I can say that my expectations were fully achieved.

First Group 

Topic:  My Home

Teachers in charge: Thomas 

                                   Eunice

                                   Eduardo

                                   Bryan 

                                   William

Undoubtedly being an English teacher is not an easy task; however is a rewarding experience. This Monday the first teaching group performed their class entitled “At home”. I was inpatient to see how the students would react in this class, how much they knew about the topic, and what kind of activities teacher would use. Those were some of my expectations for this class.

 The first group was ready to start, and students were inpatient to start. In this class there were just two student but they did not have trouble at all to stick with the class. Despite, this inconvenient those students seemed to feel more confident in the lesson and the interaction between teacher and students grew. They started by singing the “Hello-Hello” song. 

The students were encouraged to sang and enjoy this part of the class by gathering in a semi-circle. They sang twice this nice song and students seemed to enjoy it. Then, teacher Eunice was in charge of the presentation of the topic in. She presented the possessive adjectives with some flashcards that had big and colorful pictures. The purpose of the flashcards was to catch the attention of the students, and the objective was successfully achieved. Besides, she presented the vocabulary of the unit including some of the most common objects that students find at home such as telephone, bed, lamp, refrigerator, sofa etc. Students were focused during the whole presentation of the topic. They seemed like if they were learning something because did not blink any second. Moreover, they felt confident enough to asked questions about the vocabulary and clarify some doubts. I really love the way in which she explained.

Then, teacher Thomas was in charge of the practice. In this part of the class a page was given to every student to practice vocabulary and the possessive adjectives. This exercise made students think by themselves; however, he was close in case they needed some help. In fact, they asked for helped and the teacher did his best to control and give an eye to the students.

Teacher Bryan was the one that made students practice in the board by writing a sentences using the possessive adjectives and the object that they studied. Students wrote without hesitation what they thought was the correct answer. Then, they checked answer with the help of the teacher. In my opinion it was a nice activity to let students use the structure that they learnt by themselves.

The wrap up was presented by teachers Eduardo and William that presented an activity to make their students practice what they learnt. The activity consisted in paste some small signals in the floor with the shape of an “x”. Then, students had to walk all over around the chairs while a sound was being produce and when the sound stopped they had to find an “x” to stand on. The student that could not find an “x” had to say a sentence using an object and a possessive adjectives. This activity was funny since students stood up, walked, laugh, and the most important put in practice what they learnt. I would like to point out that the class was very meaningful either for students and the rest of the teachers that were observing the class. I learnt new teaching techniques that I will definitely use in the future. My expectations for this class were reach and I am anxious to see these teachers again.

Third group

Topic: My Town

Teachers:   Vanessa

                    Jennifer 

                    Wanda 

                    Luis 

                    Deyanira 

This was the second class for this group and the topic that they developed was “My Town”. Personally I like the classes that this group perform because they are very creative. So I expected that students could show excellent results throughout the class.

The class started and the students were glad to start singing the “Hello-Hello” song. Then, teacher Deyanira took the control of the group and asked them to make a line in order to form a train. She lead the students to different spots in the classroom where she had pasted the places that they would teach to students.  I like the activity because it was a different way to give a little introduction to the topic and the vocabulary. 

The next activity was the formal presentation of the topic this was in charge of teacher Luis. He presented the structure “I want to go” and the proper use of the “s” when the pronouns “he and she” is used. I was surprised because students got it super-fast, and they started to talk and asked questions about the topic.  Teacher Luis seemed to have the control of the students so he could manage pretty well the group. The following activity was developed by teacher Wanda and this activity consisted on practice a little bit what the previews teacher did. She was very energetic, and students felt excited about the activity that was about to perform.  Each students had a page with an alphabet soup and had to find the words that they just saw some minutes ago. 

 They did it fast of course with the help of the teacher. Then, a bigger version of the alphabet soup was presented to them. In this time the dynamic change because now they had to stand up and go to the board, find a word, and circle it. Something that I really like was that students did not fell push or intimidated while they participate. On the other hand, they wanted to do it and participated without hesitation. The next activity encourage students to show what they learnt. Teacher Jennifer was in charge of this stage and she made that each students participate. I saw that students seemed a little bit nervous but she cheer them up every time they were in front of the class. The fifth and last activity was the wrap up and activity that has a purpose make students think, participate and practice in a freely way. Teacher Vanessa was very creative and came up with an interesting activity called “The Spider”. The tool that she needed was a bun wool and she was ready to star. Students had to say the name of a place and took one piece of wool. Then, they had to throw the wool to other students and so on. 

The activity was new for me and so for students because they were really engaged on it.

 In this class I realize that our students are very smart and understand commands and the use of the structures pretty well. That is why the use of interesting activities just like the ones that this group used work pretty well at the time to teach. So I can assured that the expectations that I had at the beginning of the class were completely achieved.