I thrive with a teacher who is consistent, understanding/patient, and engaged. I value a teacher who I feel confident in talking with, not to, someone who I trust to steer me straight and not reprimand me for things I struggle with. I had one math teacher who made me feel like a lazy idiot for […]
Category: Second Quarter
Mindset Ch 3: The Effect of Praise on Mindsets
1) Did you always assume that success came right from innate talent or ability? Discuss people you know who are brilliant or talented but never went anywhere. And people who are not so brilliant or talented, but are highly successful. How did they do it? I think I’ve always thought that success came from a combination […]
The Teen Years
In her TED talk, Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore explains how the brain, contrary to popular belief, continues to develop well into the 20’s and 30’s, and how different parts of the brain change during different periods of life. She says that social skill development occurs as the prefrontal cortex and limbic system develop in the […]
The F.A.T. City Workshop– How Difficult Can This Be?
Introduction (0:31) “Give me five children who aren’t functioning in the classroom. Take away the child who is mentally impaired or retarded in some way. Take away the child who has a primary emotional disturbance. Take away the child who’s not had the opportunity to learn, and take away the child who has some […]
Trip to the Toy Store
Overall, was there any toy that stood out so strongly that you felt it was truly the ideal toy because of its developmental appropriateness? Explain. I remember being completely enraptured by pretend vacuum cleaners. I think the play vacuum cleaner is the perfect toy for 1-3 year olds, because it simulates doing chores and contributing […]
The Hurried Child: Growing Up Too Fast Too Soon
Living in Ashburn your whole life can give you a skewed perception of the world- I can attest to this as I’ve been working to undo such perceptions as I’ve been getting older. I am so lucky to have the life I do. I don’t need to worry about providing for siblings, making up for […]
Cognitive Development: Jean Piaget
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, in my opinion, are like that of much of psychology: the theory is relatively logical, and might be accurate for some percentage of children in the world, but the conclusions drawn by Piaget are simply too specific and limiting to be applied realistically. In general, the Sensorimotor stage is the […]
Moral Development: Lawrence Kohlberg
What is the school’s role in moral development? To what degree is it the school’s role to encourage moral development? To what degree is it the family’s role to encourage moral development? What are your hunches as to some primary influences on moral development? With what aspects of Kohlberg’s stages do you agree? Kohlberg’s theories […]
Psychosocial Development: Erik Erikson
Erik Erikson’s theory states that each stage of life has psychological crises that need resolution; how we resolve each crisis determines how/if we move on to the next stage. To illustrate, consider this Autonomy vs Shame & Doubt stage situation: a chore needs to be done, but the child does not know how to do […]
Sociocognitive Development & Language: Lev Vgotsky
Who is Lev Vygotsky, and what is the Vygotskian Sociocognitive Theory? Lev Vygotsky was a Soviet psychologist in the 1920-30’s. He is best known for his research in educational psychology with a sociocultural/cognitive theory. Vygotsky’s theory suggested that a child’s cognitive development is dependent on social interaction and their cultural environment in forming their own […]