“Understanding one’s content is one criterion for successful teaching-but only one. Effective educators at all grade levels possess something more significant than content knowledge: a deep understanding of their students. Commer (2005) noted the following in studying over a thousand schools across the United States:
It became clear that both academic and behavioral success were more likely in places where teachers and administrators bought into the value of basing their work on the principles of child and adolescent development. The focus on child development that is largely missing from the preparation of educators probably contributes more to creating dysfunction and underperforming schools than anything else. (757-58)”

From a student to an educator, I myself clearly know that, compared to teaching students content knowledge, there are something much more important, that is deep understanding about our students. This is especially important for adolescents in the middle and high school. Their physical and psychological changes are more dramatic than any other time in their life. As teachers, we all ever lived through this stage in our life. Since I had experienced the sensitive, confusing and vulnerable stage, I ever felt very stressful to be a middle school teacher in the future. I clearly knew the responsibility was much heavier than I could take. In other words, because I was clear about the importance of understanding them, I lacked confidence to take over it. Understanding and knowing about students is a skill we need to learn for the whole life, because everyone is different. I am really glad that I have taken this class, which gives me a chance to learn a lot about adolescents, not only from perspectives of theories about their physical and psychological development, but also from aspects of social and emotional traits. All of these studies inspire us to think about, as teachers, what and how we should do. Now I feel I have more confidence on teaching adolescents. Sure, there is no time that I can say I am ready. However, at least, I have learned how to get my self well equipped based on theories and methods I got from this class.