Richard Lavoy

F.A.T is a an informational video in which Richard Lavoy has put together different situations, that a learning disabled child would go through on a daily basis at school. It puts the viewer in the shoes of a a learning disabled child and helps them to see the world as a learning disabled child does; the difficulties of what we would consider a  simple tasks the learning disabled student has a hard time completing.  Lavoy's program helps parent and teachers to better identify with learning disabled children and gives advice and strategies on how they can help the child progress and build confidence in themselves.  This video was extremely educational it helped me to better understand what children with learning disabled children go through and gave me guidance for working with them in the classroom. I Believe that all people should watch this video to help them to better understand children with learning disabilities.   

Gender

When talking about gender we first we have to make sure to distinguish the difference between gender and sex; sex is defined as the biological dimensions of being male or female. Gender is the socio-cultural aspect of male or female. Gender generates an expectation of how a person should feel, think, act in society based on their sex this is known as gender roles.
When a child is growing up they are learning from adults and role model how they are expected to act in society.  By watching how people are rewarded or punished for the way they act. There are two theories on how children develop their socio-learning theory on gender: the Cognitive Development Theory, and the Gender Schema Theory .
The Cognitive Development Theory states that a child learns different concepts of gender and comes to see gender as a consistent. 
The Gender Schema Theory believes that a child develops a concept of what gender is then as time goes on they blend those gender concept with with their own self gender concepts.
I see the gender schema theory as being more accurate especially in today's society where it is more accepted by society for girls and guys to take on roles of the opposite sex.
As teacher we have to be aware and be careful no to cast or teach stereotypes, gender biases or sexual orientation issues.  This can be difficult as each person has their own belief on how gender should act or behave and as time goes on what we believe is accepted behavior may not be what the next generation sees as normal behaviors or attitudes.    

Gardners Multiple intelligences

Gardener believes that intelligence comes in the form of several skills , Verbal, Mathematical, Spatial, Body Kinaesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, naturalist and Existential.  When a individual has a strong intelligence in one of these field it can give direction as to what occupation they would have a strength in. These intelligences are well defined in their name verbal is the ability to use language to express meaning, Mathematical, the ability to carry out the mathematical operation. musical a natural sensitivity to pitch, melody,rhythm, and tone.Naturalist: the ability to observe patterns in nature.The other are not as well described by their names Spatial in the ability to think in 3 dimension this is effective for this trait help architects, artist and sailors.Bodily- kinesthetic skills the ability to manipulate objects and be physically adept good example of these traits would Surgeons, dancers,athletes. Interpersonal skills is the ability to understand and effectively interact with others such as teachers, and mental health professionals.People with Intrapersonal intelligence such as theologians and psychologist have the ability to understand oneself and effectively direct one's life.The ability to contemplate global questions about life such as philosophers have existential intelligences.

                                              

I think that Gardner does have a very good point intelligence is not a single entity people have strength in certain areas and weaknesses in others. An individual can learn to build on other areas of intelligence by using the type of intelligence that they are the strongest at.   

Eric Erickson's stages of human development

Erikson's lifespan theory has eight stages he believes in that if a person doesn't meet the needs of each stage it will be carried with us they don't disappear.  His first stage is Trust vs Mistrust and is birth to 1 yr old the second stage is Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt and includes infants age 1 to 2 years in age in this stage the individual realizes that their behavior is their own, they get their independence and realize their will.  If the infant is restrained to much or punished to harshly a sense of shame and doubt occur.  The next stage is Initiative vs Guilt in this stage the child begins to do things for themselves such as brushing teeth cleaning up after themselves a sense of responsibility increases initiative.  Children develop uncomfortable guilt feelings if they are irresponsible or are made to feel anxious. The forth stage is Industry vs Inferiority and includes elementary in this stage children are building on knowledge and intellectual skills children will never be as curious as when they are in this stage. Inferiority is caused by the child having a sense of productiveness and incompetence.  The fifth stage is Identity vs Identity Confusion this stage happen while a child is in intermediate and high school years this stage is based on the individual finding out who they are such as the people we hang out the music we listen to also where they are going in life.  If they are not allowed to try different identity's they become confused about there identity.  Intimacy vs Isolation is the sixth stage this stage is where young adults in their 20's and 30's develop close and personal relationships with others the hazard of this stage a person is unable to form such relationship and becomes isolated which causes loneliness and a dark cloud over their lives. The seventh stage in Erikson's stages is Generativity vs Stagnation is the stage in a person life when they are in their 40's and 50's. Generativity means giving transmitting something to the next generation helping them develop useful lives stagnation is the feeling that you have done nothing to help.  The last stage in Erikson's development theory is Integrity vs Despair this stage takes place in a person life in their 6o's till death.  In this stage adults review their lives reflecting on what they have done if their evaluation of their life is positive they feel integrity; If not they become despairing and negative.

To an extent I agree with Erikson's theory that every one does go through these different stages throughout life and we do achieve either one or the other of the outcomes in out lives.  However at least for myself personally  I feel that I'm in several of these stages at this point in my life; these include the Identity vs identity confusion I'm still trying to find out who I or more less who i want to be. Intimacy vs Isolation trying to find that one person who I want to have that special relationship with and spend the rest of my life with. Generativity vs Stagnation i've given back to the next generation by either volunteering to coach younger girls soccer I have taught these girls how to improve their skills but also have helped them to learn the skills of teamwork, punctuality, listening skills, following directions, and leadership. I also believe that i look back on what i have accomplished so far and reflect on that to help me see what I feel is best for my future.So why I believe that every person does go though these stages they can be in more then on at a time. 

Success

Richard Saint John while at a TED conference held a seminar  after 7 years research and 5000 interviews he came up with the 8 things people need to do to become success full
Passion- you need to enjoy what you are doing
Work- you have to work hard and have fun doing it
Good- to get good you need to practice practice practice
Focus- on one thing at a time
Push- push yourself physically, mentally
Serve- something of |Value
Ideas- to get you need to listen observe, be curious, ask questions and make connections 
Persist- through failure , through CRAP Criticism, rejection assholes and pressure 

I believe that this list is extremely accurate and gives people the guidelines they need in order to be successful in their lives

In groups in class we made our own list that as students we thought lead to academic success some of the top choices that students picked were:
Studying
Leading a Healthy lifestyle
Sleep
Determination
The want to learn

We also watched a interview with Malcolm Gladwell the topic of discussion was what role does talent play in success?  He Believes that success doesn't have much to do with talent but mostly to do with hard work and perseverance and practice.  That Talent is the desire to practice and the willingness to put your time and effort into practicing.  He also believes that culture can affect talent by creating a power distance, this is how you speak to someone that is higher up on the chain of command or has more superiority or your elder, This is because in some cultures it is unacceptable to correct seniority a good example would be a culture like china. Malcolm believes that the only way to be talented is to work hard at what you do.

I Believe that Malcolm Gladwell is right that to become talented at something you need to work hard and be dedicated to practicing no famous athlete has ever gone out on the playing field and was naturally a pro they had to put many hours of practice and training in to become the talented players they are.

Brofenbrenner's Ecological Theory

Erie Brofenbrenner bio-ecological model of development focuses on the social contexts in which students live, the people who influence their development and the interaction between students' characteristics and their environment His theory has Five environmental systems which are wrapped around the individual the first stage is called the Microsystem this includes the students family, friends, and school the microsystems is controlled by the students; because they control interactions and help to construct the settings. The next Layer is the Mesosystem and this is the sytem that connects all the microsystems together.  The third is the Exosystem this is the system that the has an impact on the individual but they have no control over, such as a parent losing a job or the availability to parks and recreational facilities in the area where they live.  The Forth system is the Macrosystem this involves society's values and culture and the last layer is the Chronosystem which refers to socio-historical conditions of students development. An example of this would be the conditions we learn in our different from those of our parents, we have access to wireless internet everywhere, being able to talk on the phone at anytime and texting.

                                                           
When dealing with children Bronfenbrenner wants us to think of all the microsystems.  As teachers we need to look at not only what is affecting the child during school hours but also in their lives outside of school.  I do agree with him that when dealing with children you have to look at all the areas that affect a child because things that are happen around us influence us directly and indirectly, they have a large affect on a person.  I think as a teacher that this will be a hard task to do, as you are caring for a large amount of students with different cultural backgrounds different circle of friends, coming from different neighborhood these children deal with situations affecting them differently; for one child it could affect them one way, same situation with a different child and it doesn't affect them at all.

Vygotsky's Theory

Today in class we talked about Lev Vygotsky theories on how a child's mind develops. I personally agree with Vygotsky's theory compared to Piaget's theory.  Vygotsky's theory takes into account that each child is different and that they learn at a different pace and in different ways. The 3 main points to Vygotsky's theory are assumption, zone of proximal development and scaffolding.  To go into detail about what Vygotsky mean about assumption is that a child learns by developmental trajectory is what a child knows can be used to build on, to teach them new things. A example of assumption would be math you can't ask a child with no mathematical background to multiply until they have learned the basics, so if you present them with the mathematical problem of 4*3 they must first know that what this equation means to solve that problem they also need to know the basic skill of addition.The second point is that cognitive skills are structured by language, as a child language is used as a tool that helps children plan activities and solve problems. The third point is importance of social relations and culture, a child's development is link strongly with the environment that they are brought up using the inventions of society such as computer and watching television they will be further along then those without.  This point is one that is extremely important, Piaget theory does not take into account that the use of technology and the culture you are brought up in plays a huge roll in the development of a children`s minds.  The last point to go with assumptions is learning is situated and collaborated this suggest that knowledge can best be advanced through interactions with other people.

The zone of proximal development is a range of tasks that are to difficult for children to master alone but can be learned with guidance and assistance.  In the lower limits a  child can solve problems and tasks by working alone and the upper limit is the level of additional responsibility a child can accept with assistance from an able instructor

Scaffolding is the level of support that a teacher or mentor gives to a child and is based on each individual child's zone of proximal development.  When first teaching a Child a new concept you give them step by step instructions then you allow them to do problems on their own when a question is asked you show them how to fix the problem they have encounter as time goes on when a problem arises you ask them to go back to the problem and go over the steps to see if they can figure out where they went wrong on the problem by themselves.  This helps give  the child the support they need to be able to solve problems and be able to think through and solve problems on their own.

Vygotsky's theory makes the most sense to me and takes into account that the way each child learns is different.  He also understands the culture and society that a child is brought up in plays a role in that child's development.