“We hope that every school for young adolescents provides a health education curriculum that addresses these issues and encourages all teachers to be willing to address sensitive physical growth issues when they arise. We believe every middle school teacher is a health teacher because young adolescents have a constant stream of questions about their health, questions that may never be asked of parents.” (Brown D., & Knowles, T., 2007, pg. 19)

As a sexuality educator this passage stands out to me for juxtaposing reasons. In my work, and studies, I appreciate and believe in positive reinforcement about health and sexuality coming from all aspects of a child or adolescents life. I also believe that access to information about one’s own body should be readily available and come from shame-free ,confident sources. Continue reading Every Middle School Teacher is NOT a Health Teacher →

“Culture clearly shapes adolescence. It influences its expression and possibly its length. It can magnify its manifestations. Yet culture does not create adolescence. The period’s uniqueness rises from genes and developmental processes that have been selected for over thousands of generations because they play an amplified role during this key transitional period: producing a creature optimally primed to leave a sage home and move into unfamiliar territory” 

(Dobbs, 2011, pg. 5)

I believe that our identity as human beings, as we get out into the world and become more independent, is more influence from outside culture and our peers are doing. However, it is crucial to understand that teenagers are still are developing and growing into young adults. Dobbs proves, in his experiments, that teenagers are still developing brain activity that allows them to think through their emotions and practice self-control. As a future teacher of high school, I need to learn how to guide and adapt to my students changing behaviors and realize that their emotions at that moment in the class don’t necessarily reflect their overall identity. Also, it’s important to be perceptive on the changes that are happening physically, mentally, and socially as they start making their own decisions away from the close scrutiny of their parents ensuring an environment of trust while they are in school and in the classroom. 

“Young adolescents need meaningful, challenging learning experiences in order to develop and sustain cognitive growth processes. Cognitive processing won’t improve or develop as well if students are consistently taking notes or memorizing dates without opportunities to make genuine connections between content and their experiences” (Brown & Knowles, 2007, p. 27)”

I think this idea is really important in that it captures the idea of how brain development plays a major role in how students learn, and it allows teachers to understand how to alter and modify teaching instruction so that it supports their students’ cognitive development. Continue reading How to Teach a Growing Brain →

We will need to adjust to the rapid flow of technological advances that will replace our traditional methodology in the classroom. With the aid of the world at their fingertips, adolescents will no longer tolerate a learning environment out of the last century.
-Philip (2007) pg 4

I’ve wondered a lot about teaching across generations; over the past few decades, I feel that technological advances have skyrocketed, changing the way people (especially young people, many of whom have had access to this technology from a very young age) live and learn. Continue reading Technology is Changing, is Education Changing with It? →