Week 8-Siebring

Week 8 Blog-Putting it All Together

          This week’s reading wraps up everything that we have learned about life span development.  We read about how we put all that we learned into use.  But before we put into practice what we learned we need to understand not one theory can expound on every aspect of life development.  I totally agree with that statement because I have found that I have connected with different theories at different stages.  I found the section about the field of lifespan development.  Before taking this class I would not have realize that lifespan development would have as many careers as there actually are.  Especially when considering the business sector which is where I came from.         

          The subject of stakeholders is very important with my future as a teacher.  The student is definitely the stakeholder when it comes to a teacher and school.  Students are affected by how a teacher performs in a class and how a school provides curriculum.  It talks about how the relationship between stakeholders and the environment.  This is so true in education.  Each student is different because he or she comes from a different home life and or culture.  That can make teaching a little more difficult because it can affect how each student learns.  The new growth of lifespan development has proven to bring up some concerns in the education sector and it has to do with curriculum that meet state and national standards.  Of course to meet these standards are based from standard testing.  The issue with this is teachers are teaching for the tests, not what the individual child enjoys.

          I enjoyed the section about the financial and emotional compensation when it comes to lifespan development.  A lot of these careers are becoming a higher paying then in the past, but some are still lacking.  I however feel that if a person really loves his or her job

Week 7-Siebring

Week 7-Dying and Spirituality

This weeks reading was the one reading I was not looking forward to.  The idea of dying has always been an uncomfortable subject for me.  I have dealt with death since I was a child.  As a child I never really put too much thought into it.  As I get older I think about it more and I don’t always like my thoughts.  I have seen and had to deal with death in all different ways from loosing a classmate right before our 8^th grade year all the way to finding my father after he passed away almost 8 years ago.  As for my father’s death I think I went through parts of distorted grief as in I started doing things that my dad did every morning I even drove his truck for a week or so.  I also think I went through complicated grief.  I still feel like I am going through it because new thoughts and feeling about his death.  The role of the visitation and funeral was a big sore subject for my family and we still feel it is.  My dad was cremated and we had a visitation and a funeral.  My grandmother, his mom, was mad because she said that he and her have had talks about not wanting the visitation.  We did it not because of us, but for everyone that knew my dad because he had died so suddenly.  My grandmother never came and still we feel it has caused a rift in our relationship.  The funeral was needed because like the book said it took the burden away from us it also helped us and friends accept his death and start with the grief process.

          As for my own death that is where the comfort level is low.  I believe in God and am spiritual, but the acceptance of death scares me.  Maybe I don’t have a complete belief of the afterlife.  I have been woken up from sleep because I have the feeling that when I die I will fall asleep and not wake up.  I think a lot of this feeling is because of my age.  I still feel I have a lot of life to live and things I want to do.  Maybe when I get older I will be more accepting of death and the afterlife.  The section of If I Had My Life to Live Over is very interesting.  I feel that we all have something we do over.  I am not too sure if that is the healthiest thing to do.  Why not cherish what we had and have and not worry about things we can not change.

Week 6-Siebring

Week 6-Early and Middle Adulthood

This week we read chapters 9 and 10 which dealt with early and middle adulthood.  One would think that with most of us at this stage of life these chapters would be a piece of cake to understand and relate.  I will admit there were things that I did not realize that happen at this stage of life and development.  Then there were things that happen in the middle adulthood that I remember doing in the early stage.  The first point I read that I focused on was achieved identity.  I agree that my self is based on my effort and commitment.  I feel if I do not put forth good effort into anything then I am not happy with myself.  I was very interested in the effect of lifestyle on health.  I knew that obesity has become huge issue and poor diet and nutrition is to partly to blame.  I will be the first to say that I did not have the best diet growing up and in turn let myself become overweight.  I would agree with the book when it says at it becomes harder to lose weight in the middle adulthood.  I think my body has been in middle adulthood for awhile because it has been hard to lose weight for many years.  The reading also talks about social development and the importance in early adulthood.  I feel it is really important because a lot of your long-term friends are met in college and early adulthood.  This is also where we develop our own personality based our own behavior.  I remember this is the time my personality and decisions were made by how I lived my life and not by how I was raised.  The validation section was interesting to me because right now my fiancée and I are seeing a counselor and we were just talking about validation.    We have not validating each other’s feelings lately.  It was nice to read this at this moment.  It has helped. 

Next, we moved on to the middle adulthood and I started realizing I am moving more into middle adulthood.  The hearing loss section hit close to home for me.  I have recently realized it has been harder for me to hear certain things.  I can admit has been the use of earbuds for many years.  I usually had the volume up too loud also.  I feel I am lucky because I do not think my intelligence has diminished much yet.  I think that my creativity has been the key of me retaining intelligence.  I have been creative for years so I think that is why it has helped.  I think the idea of me going back to school to become a teacher is a fine example of a midlife transition.  I really have not felt satisfied with my life professionally for the last few years.  I also do not feel that I have made much a difference so far so need a change.  The final section that I enjoyed reading and related to was the coping with stress section.  Like the reading displays on page 250, while adults have more control over their lives they experience more stress overload.  I have a lot of things causing stress and I have problems sometimes to cope with it in a positive way.  I just know even though I am in adulthood there is a lot I need to still learn about.

Week 5-Siebring

Week 5:  Adolescence

          This week we read Chapter 8 about adolescence.  I enjoyed reading this chapter considering with my subbing this is the age group I am around the most often.  While reading I think about some of the students I have had and I see a lot of the situations I read in the classroom I have been in.  One of the first things I read that I have seen was the section on Body Image.  I have not really seen any of the eating disorders, but I have seen girls in middle school sit at lunch and not eat anything.  Even though I haven’t seen the eating disorders I have seen them talking about what they are wearing or how do they look.  I can only imagine how hard it is for girls because of my weight and me being a guy I was always wondering what people thought how I look. 

            The next section that I read that I see on a daily basis in the classroom is adolescent egocentrism.  Everyone knows a middle schooler that thinks the world revolves around himself or herself?  He or she thinks that his or her problems are the only ones that are out there.  I’ve also seen a simple misunderstanding between two students become a huge argument and or fight.  So, I would consider adolescent egocentrism the same as “teen drama”. 

            Working in a school that is part of a residential facility for children I see a lot of the issues that is in the last part of the chapter.  The first is and big one is sexual identity.  There are many students in the facility that is trying to figure out who and what they are.  One example is there is a girl who wants to be referred to as a boy.  He has a prosthetic to help him feel that he is a male.  He even acts like a guy as in he will burp or pass gas and doesn’t not care if any hears him.  Then he will make comments like he is still a girl like having to shave his legs like a female does.  So even if he demonstrates that he knows his identity he still gets confused.  The other two issues that I have seen and dealt with is sexual abuse and mental health issues.  I read files and see it all the time.  Many of the girls that are in the facility are victims of sexual abuse.  Like it said on 199 many adolescents do not tell anyone about the abuse.  Many of the girls that have been abused and it is in their file, but many still will not tell who did the abuse to them.  Many of the students whether they are male or female come from families that have a history of mental illness.  I never realize how mental illness was such a genetic issue.  I see a lot of times because of the mental illness and abuse many of the students become aggressive and act out.  Some become perpetrator to sexual abuse.  They even just become physically abusive to people and even animals.  There have even been several that have attempted suicide at least once and some even multiple times.    While training for the facility I went through a class that taught us how to speak to the youth in the facility.  A lot of what they taught us is the same as what we read on page 197.