Kassondra Amato Chapter 12

Death is something I've never been comfortable talking about unless it was caring for someone else.  I was able to work in Hospice with other peoples loved ones but that was as far as I could go.  My grandmother died a few weeks back and I went to say my goodbyes to her and it was the hardest thing I have ever experienced. I took one look at her and I knew it was close.  She was a wonderful Christian woman, she wasn't the least bit scared because she knew she was going home.  The very last thing she said to me was, "Don't be scared, remember I will always love you." She died two days later.  She left my grandfather behind, and he's not an easy man to understand.  I remembered the Kubler-Ross's Stages of Grief and he was in denial from the time we put her on hospice until the day of her funeral.  On the day of her funeral something changed.  He left the funeral, without saying goodbye to anyone, and angry.
Watching my sick grandmother slowly pass was what I think of when I think of death and dying.  I knew there was other ways to die but it never really dawned on me that people actually die in other ways. Clinical death is technically when the person has stopped breathing and their heart is no longer beating.  This can be reversed by CPR which is why I urge almost everyone I know to know how to do CPR. Another type of death is Brain Death.  This generally happens when there is a lack of oxygen for about 8-10 minutes.  Once brain death has occurred a person will enter a permanent coma, while the body can remain alive until the brain stem ceases to function.  Then the person is dead. Biological death happens after clinical or brain death.  This happens when the rest of the body functions begin to stop working, when it is "no longer possible to descern an electrical charge in the tissues of the heart and lungs".

Kassondra Amato Chapters 9&10

Immediately after probably one of the most confusing times in a young adult's life(adolescence) comes something called emerging adulthood.  When I first began reading chapter nine I must say, I was unaware emerging adulthood was even a stage.  I believed for as long as I can remember it has always gone from adolescence to teenager and on to young adult. When reading through the table on page 208 titled American Rites of Passage table 9.1 it became more clear how large this portion of a young adults life is.  I have hit many of these milestones, I have a checking account, a credit card, I got my first real job a few years back (or what seems to be a few years), and next weekend I will be getting married. I've never been "hazed" and honestly I'm okay with that after hearing some horror stories! All around the world people have traditions or ceremonies transitioning these young people into adulthood! It's all so fascinating.
A few things in chapter nine really stuck out to me the first one being the obesity rates.  If I read the map on page 213 correctly it showed only one state had  a less than 20% obesity rate.  This is insane to me! I only say this because as I look around and started to really observe the people around me I didn't feel like I saw too many adults over 20 that were obese.  There are many things I believe to incorporate into this to make this chart more accurate and really get a good look at what is going on.  The first one would be to take out the percentage of people with chronic disease or illness that contributes to their weight.  I feel that it is along the lines of being "unfair" to incorporate these people into a general population overview.
Something else that really stuck out to me was the binge drinking chart.  It's really no secret that most people drink or that underage people drink- that's been happening as long as I can remember.  But when I looked at the gender, I was a little surprised that men held the higher percentage. However, when I reflect back to my personal experience I can say there was generally more men at the bars drinking at the bar over women.
On page 223 there is a table, Table 9.3 Number and rate* of births to unmarried women and married women in the United states.  I've heard over and over again there are more people having children out of wedlock and I hold no judgement because I am one of those women.  With that being said I am not surprised that since 1980-2006 the number of births to unmarried women has gone up a little over 20%.  As I look around now, I see many people who have chosen to wait until into their thirty's and married.  I just read an article the other day that said women were waiting to have children until they were settled within their career and married.
On page 244 the text begins to talk about Erikson's seventh stage of psychosocial development ages 25-65. This stage is called Generativity versus stagnation. If I understood this stage correctly Erikson believed at this stage adults either became useful to themselves and society(Generativity) or bored, self absorbed, and unable to contribute to society.  Something on page 244 really hurt to read was that people who have procreated and fall into stagnation resent the neediness of their offspring? What I want to know is how this can happen or why? I look at my children everyday and wonder where I would be without them, I could never resent them.  I'm sure a few sleepless nights get to me and they probably think I am just a crabby person, but I could never "resent" them. It's very sad that a child would be subjected to a parent that feels in such a way.
Both of my parents came from broken homes.  Both of them were abandoned by their parents.  One went into foster care and the other went on her own and somehow made it.  I would not say they successfully completed all prior psychosocial crises that define the human lifestyle.  But what I would say is that they are both successful adults who are in the Generativity phase, Eventually, I would like to do more research on this to see really how "true" Erikson's theory has proved to be.

Chapter 8 Kassondra Amato

Adolescence is defined as the period after a child begins puberty this is when a young person develops from a child to an adult.  Now thinking about adolescence myself the first thing I think of is puberty. I generally relate the two because I relate to when a girl begins to menstruate is when adolescence beings. What I didn't realize was that on page 186 in Life Smart it is said that adolescence starts at 11 years old for girls and 12 years old for boys.  There are many other things that are supposed to gauge when adolescence begins.  Some of these things are listed on page 186 as well and include when a child develops an interest in sex, when a child became really moody, and when a child begins to wonder who they really are.  Some of these things, like the interest in sex, threw me off a little bit because it wasn't something I though 11 or 12 year old thought about. Now I'm even more nervous for my children to grow up!
Physical development is also important in adolescence.  Some physical development include breast development, voice change, and pubic hair.  As a young person, I was always taller than most of  the boys and it made me really self conscious.  My mother always told me that boys grew later than girls did and I never believed her.  Sure enough, as I got older I stopped growing and I am pretty average height. Once the boys around me started growing I wasn't as tall as I thought I was!  My brother too, he was so much smaller than I was and then all of the sudden when he was probably 16 he shot up and now hes 6'6"!
Cognitive development is huge in adolescence. Not only does the child go through major physical growth, but the brain of an adolescent grows too! On page 191 it states that "changes in the young adolescent's ability to think may go unnoticed, yet growth spurts in the parietal and frontal lobes of the brain, and well as sub cortical regions, make possible tremendous changes in the quality of a teenagers thinking"
Something that really stuck out to me in this chapter was on page 193, Adolescent ego-centrism.  This was "coined" by Elkind, and refers to "adolescent's tendency to exaggerate the importance of, uniqueness, and severity of their social and emotional experiences.  Their love is greater than anything other have experienced.  Their suffering is more painful and unjust than anyone else's". I believe this really stood out to me because last week was Spring Break here in my daycare center and during that time I was with my School-Aged children from the summer time.  Most of the children were the same children I have been with during school breaks for the last year.  Last week, some of my girls, and one of the boys in my class were just acting out of their norm.  When investigating a little bit, one of the girls started to menstruate that in itself helped me understand her.  The other girls were just very unruly, and everything was drama so much drama in a week it was hard to continue our routine with the children. After reading this portion of the text and relating it to the children and their ages it makes much more sense why they were acting in a such a way I never expected from them. And to think they aren't even at the peak of it, age 13, according to Elkind and Bowen.
Something else that drew my attention was the How to talk to teens about sex (or Anything else) on page 197. I always wanted to be the parents that my children can talk to.  Mostly because I felt like I couldn't talk to my mom about everything.  This is just another tool to help adults communicate with children.  I strongly feel that if adults could communicate effectively with our youth there would be less of many things, suicide, bullying, teen pregnancy.  As adults and future educators it is our priority to help guide our youth, because they're scared, confused, and sometimes just need someone to listen.

Chapter 6 & 7 Kassondra Amato

The development from early childhood thru middle childhood is amazing from growth development to brain development there are many changes!  In infancy development progresses at such a quick speed it is really hard to keep up with! However, during early childhood although growth is substantial it proceeds at a slower rate than in infancy.
Something that stuck out to me the most in chapter six was symbolic play and it's description on page 134.  I believe this to be because right now I am working in two different classrooms-one of two year olds and one of 3 year olds. Sometimes I just listen to them during free play because some of the things they come up with is amazing! Our lessons right now are about imagination so we've been giving them props and letting them kind of find their way through their free play time.  The people they pretend to be are sometimes princesses and such but more often than not they are actually just people in their lives! Today one of the children was a dentist and the other one was her dog and after reading about symbolic play I have learned that they are acting out as these other people because they need an outlet for them to "assimilate reality" for what they believe to be real.  That was just a really great realization   for me as a teacher in early childhood education.
I have realized over the last about year that some parents find "Early Childhood Education" to be not as important as education when children get older.  Working in an Early Childhood Care Center has made me see this even more because of how we are treated by the parents.  Most parents do not realize what we do everyday and sometimes believe we are "just a daycare" or a "glorified babysitter" which is so insulting because we try so hard to teach children and instill a strong foundation for these little ones to evolve from. All of us in ECE pray that each child becomes something great and I really feel that if some of the parents had enough time to just research or read a book and see how beneficial ECE is for their children they would see how much we put into these children! Early childhood education and Head Start are so beneficial to these children. "Research shows that Head Start graduates make further academic progress toward national benchmarks in kindergarten". (page 140)
In chapter 7 Middle Childhood it is obvious there is significant development.  However, physical development again is slower than that of early childhood.  In middle childhood a child only grows about 2 inches and gains 5-7 pounds.  Brain development is important in all stages of childhood, but  in middle childhood by about age 8-9 the brain has reached almost its full size! That's incredible when you think about the ages of children with almost a full sized brain! What really drew my attention in Chapter 7 was that "10% of School-Aged children in the US  have been identified as having a learning disability". (page 159) That's a big chunk of kids!
I also really like Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. I feel like this should be related to all the children who are being diagnosed or sidelined for a learning disorder- I truly believe that all children learn differently and thinking about it in general the traditional concept of intelligence- either you've got it or you don't- doesn't leave room for children who have different learning styles.  I think that if we are going to go so far as to say this many children have something "disabled" about them then maybe it's time to look into how we judge them.  There are many children I have met that have a "learning disability" but they are able to be taught in a way that helps them(and just may be a little different) and they have become more successful in school.    I could be absolutely wrong about this but it is painful to think there are that many children with learning disabilities.

Week Three Kassondra Amato Chapters 3,4,5

When I began reading Chapter 3 I found myself familiar with some of its content.  I actually felt like I was going back to a Biology class! Except this time I realized I was better able to understand what I was reading. Especially when I got to Meiosis and Mitosis!  

The reproduction of life is an incredible thing! From the moment of conception the journey from birth through infancy is not only flat out amazing but it's also a lot of "work". We all start out as one cell, then as we grow we grow into a whole body with millions and trillions of cells! Every human has its own DNA that carries instructions for growth and development.  This is discussed in the clip "Life's greatest Miracle". As I watched the clip I also felt familiar with its content as I do have two children of my own. However, each time I revisit the topic I am captivated every time! It is truly a miracle! 

When I was going over the handout for this week "Through the ages" there were a few things that stuck out to me.  One is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome- this stuck out because as I said before I am a mother and that actually "made my heart hurt" a little for those innocent children.  Another that stuck out to me was the epilepsy statistics.  According tp the handout at least 10% of Americans will have a seizure during their life and by age 80 about 3% of people will have been found to have epilepsy.  This hits home for my family- I personally have had a seizure and my cousin was diagnosed with epilepsy at age 8. 

On page 71 of Life Smart there is a table (table 3.2) Teratogens: Their Effects, and Time of Risk.  I bring this up because I found it very interesting.  There are the text book things you are encouraged to avoid throughout pregnancy i.e. caffeine, smoking, drugs.  But this goes more into detail of what the consequences could be to the unborn child. I feel this is important table to show to "at risk" mothers.  

While reading chapter 4 something that got my attention was on page 92, Neonatal Reflexes. I knew that neonates had reflexes however, I  was unaware that there were names for the reflexes the babies had- other than rooting. Thinking back to it both of my children had shown these reflexes.  They were just too cute! I had no idea they were each a reaction to a different stimuli. 

I currently run a 2 year old classroom at a local daycare and have been having some issues with a few children and their separation anxiety getting the best of them-and the whole classroom loses it. In the center I work in the teachers are all very aware of the separation of a child from their parents and how difficult it is on the children and parents.  I bring this up because in Chapter 5 on page 121 John Bowlby performed many studies on children separated from their parents and it came down to a "predictable sequence of behaviors" The first being Protest, followed by Despair, and last detachment.  I was drawn to this because I see this often when children begin daycare or if they were on vacation for a week or so. 

Overall, I felt like I have learned quite a bit from this weeks readings. Development is an incredible process that I feel is taken for granted more often than not. I believe if more people were educated on development from conception forward it would be seen for the miracle it truly is!

Week 1 Kassondra Amato Chapter 1

       I watched the "Wide awake on the Mobius Strip" clip first and I must say, I was intrigued. I had never heard of the Mobius Strip until watching the clip.  What I pulled from the video is that we all start out with no distinction between who we are and who we want everyone else to see, and as we age we start to notice that who we are shouldn't be shown to everyone. Later on the video describes the Mobius Strip, what seems to be who you are and who you want people to know or think you are co create each other. One cannot be without the other in the Mobius Strip. 
      Moving on to the reading in Life Smart, chapter one explains how we do not only develop throughout our childhood, but as life goes on we continue to develop.  We each develop differently and at our own rate due to our own personal lives.  Lifespan development is the development of people throughout their entire lives- not only physically but emotionally, psychologically, and mentally.  Specifically, on page 5 in Life Smart the book reads, "Lifespan development refers to an examination of the biological, cognitive/psychological, and social changes that occur over the course of a human life". It is imperative to understand that, as we go on through this course. I say this for me especially because in the past I have only touched on certain time frames in a lifetime and not the whole lifetime itself. 
      The world has a huge impact on how people develop in every aspect of their lives.  This is important to me as a teaching student because i will have many different, diverse children from many different backgrounds. I as their teacher will need to be able to if not understand, try to understand different things about them to give them the best education they can receive.