Zero-based thinking is a core concept of self-help author and motivational speaker Brian Tracy that allows you to start over by calling "time out" in your life and work. It enables you to kill off procrastination and/or instantly create a turn around if you are heading down the wrong path.
# Face up to those difficult decisions! Zero-Based Thinking puts previous decisions you made on trial. It requires you to examine all your current activities––business, career, relationships etc., and ask yourself the question: “Knowing What I Know Now (KWIKN), would I still make the same decision? Would you get into that relationship, start the same business; make that investment etc., again”? If the answer to this question is “No!”, then the very next step is to ask yourself “how do I get out of this and how fast”? In other words, revert to zero and start from scratch. This is the ultimate ‘drawing a line in the sand’ personal development exercise.

#*Zero-Based Thinking goes against traditional dogma of sticking with something even if it does more personal damage to you than good, which is often one of the biggest problems in personal strategic planning, namely attempting to make something work that you wouldn’t even have gotten into in the first place had you known better.
# Know when something isn’t quite right. The best indicator of a zero-based thinking situation is stress or frustration; something keeping you up at night and continually preoccupying your mind.


#*Often the best solution for your biggest problem is simply to discontinue that activity altogether. Just going cold turkey on your biggest problem can be the simplest and most direct solution to that problem.
# Make a decision to stop. This is like grabbing the steering wheel of your own car and wrenching it, stopping you in your tracks immediately and giving yourself the opportunity to turn around. The key idea here is no matter how long you have gone down the wrong road you can always turn back. As they say, there’s never a wrong time to do the right thing.


#*You will be amazed at how creative you become when you do this exercise, examining every area of your life as though you could start again. Numerous possibilities will arise, difficult situations will be confronted and solutions will emerge.
# Learn how to cut your losses. Zero-based thinking is a great decision-making tool when it comes to money management and investments also. If you know that a particular stock purchase or property investment is simply eroding your wealth now but you’ve had difficulty facing up to this realty, don’t waste a single second more, and ask yourself the hard question: “Knowing What I Know Now... would I purchase that property/stock”. If the answer is no, it’s time to make that hard decision and cut your losses so you can invest your capital elsewhere to get a superior return and build wealth.


# Study the opportunity cost and the law of comparative advantage. The concept of Opportunity Cost and the Law of Comparative Advantage as attributed to nineteenth century English economist David Ricardo, is often associated with macro economics and international trade. However, it can equally be applied to personal development. The chief problem with holding onto a business, relationship or “investment” that does not serve you is not just the limitations it puts on you but the real loss is the loss of opportunity elsewhere, such as business endeavors, relationships, investments you could be making elsewhere that would serve you better.

#*Remember, every activity/situation has an opportunity cost, the cost of not participating/contributing to another opportunity. A good question to ask yourself to assess potential opportunity costs is, "What other opportunities am I missing out on that would serve me better than my current activities do”.
#*Each day we are faced with opportunity cost decisions in our business and personal lives. Another lens through which we could view the law of comparative advantage is the 80/20 rule (sometimes referred to as the Pareto Principle, named after Vilfredo Pareto, the Italian economist). Applying the 80/20 rule here might also lead you to ask yourself “What are the highest value (20%) activities I should be undertaking” and then delegate or eliminate the other low-value (80%) activities.
# Sum up your understanding and start over. If a certain decision you made is now holding you back in life, just be ruthless, use the Knowing What I Know Now Q&A technique to give yourself the chance to start over. There is no honor, no dignity and no purpose in pursuing something that no longer inspires you or serves you. From a wealth creation perspective, Zero-Based Thinking is an excellent way of doing a quick back-of-an-envelope analysis on whether an “investment” you made is still worth keeping or not.


#*All your problems started out as opportunities or good ideas at one stage but that could have been a long time ago. It’s very possible that your life, your needs and your knowledge has evolved and what was once a good idea, opportunity or investment may not be so now. Remember, it’s never too late to do the right thing.  No matter how long you have been going down the wrong road, you can ''always'' stop and turn back.
You are the sculptor of your life. You have the right and freedom to carve out the best possible setting for living your life. Let nothing interfere with this, least of all circumstances and the resultant feelings of frustration or melancholy. Zero based thinking helps enormously in designing the life you want to live.

Traditional and Diverse Classrooms

 What makes Diverse learning different from traditional learning is nothing but the institution and/or instructor's philosophy and perspective. For example, America has almost always had classrooms that encompassed students with different gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, abilities, and disabilities. What is becoming different today is that educators and education authorities are starting to acknowledge the existing diversity and planning to address it. More educators are starting to realize that teaching in diverse classes requires varied instructional strategies to be effective.  

in my opinion, one of the main differences between a traditional classroom and a diverse classroom is the type and purpose of the pedagogical approach. In other words, the traditional classroom is usually teacher centered where students are not required, or expected, neither to take initiative nor to responsibility of their own learning. For example, students of a traditional classroom are expected to carry out instructions given to them by any adult in school, as Karanasiou, A. (2019) denoted. 

On the other hand, we find the diverse classroom usually student centered. In that we find instruction that takes into consideration not only the different backgrounds of students but also what knowledge they bring to the equation. This is a challenging task for most teachers because it requires teachers to find strategies that would help them recognize the different needs of their students.  Educators need to create inclusive learning environments that promote learning outcomes for all students, as Garibay, Juan. (2014) has explained. 

Another difference is how instruction is carried out. Sessions for different subjects are delivered in an array of ways that differ from traditional lecturing. For example, collaborative learning, peer discussions, group discussions, group projects, pre recorded and online material, presentations, peer evaluation and instruction are all examples of tools that educators use in a diverse classroom. Furthermore, traditional classrooms usually utilize the same material at the same point. A diverse classroom can accommodate multiple content that could be divided according to the levels of students. 

Ultimately, the purpose of traditional education is usually to impart a set of knowledge, skills, and social norms. And in turn, students are supposed to obediently receive and believe such sets of answers. This behaviorist philosophy usually focuses on observable behaviors while discounting any independent activities of the mind. This one-size-fits-all educational philosophy has proven to be inefficient and ineffective.

References

Garibay, J. (2014) Diversity in the classroom. UCLA Diversity and Faculty Development. UCLA, Los Angeles. Retrieved from: https://equity.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/DiversityintheClassroom2014Web.pdf

Karanasiou, A. (2019). Traditional classroom. Retrieved 19 November 2020, from https://www.slideshare.net/aggkar/traditional-classroom

Emotional Resilience and Instruction

 First and foremost, I have say that talking about feelings and emotions is never an easy task, if one is doing it right. However, it is indeed mighty rewarding when seen through.  "It is widely known that attitudes have a direct relationship to teacher actions in the classroom; therefore, gaining an understanding of teacher knowledge and attitudes with regard to students with disabilities is an essential step in improving the educational outcomes and school experiences of these students" Mulholland, S. et al., (2016).

Having personally suffered a partial and almost insignificant disability in my right hand and arm and my left foot due to being involved in a car accident over 25 years ago, I can only imagine what living with a real disability might be like for these children. I will not deny that this unit's readings, including shared real and hypothetical instances of different forms of student disability posted to discussion board, have made me somewhat emotional a number of times. Trying to analyze these emotions, I find them strangely mixed and unwarranted for the most part. An attempt to identify said emotions would find sympathy, remorse, pity, compassion, shame, guilt, anger, appreciation, and gratitude, among other feelings. Each of these emotions could be analyzed even further, but that would drain time and energy unnecessarily. Nevertheless, bringing said emotions on the topic to the forefront of one's awareness, acknowledging their presence, and then letting them pass in peace is a good idea, when it comes to teachers' own-preparedness.  

Teachers know that students are equated to super-sensitive sensors that pick up even the subtlest change in behavioral norms displayed by their teachers.  As captains of the classroom-ship, teachers should never become emotionally compromised in front of their students. This is why addressing these emotions early on and being through with them is a good place to start getting ready to handle similar real life situations in the future while equipped with effective tools and approaches embedded in theory.

Evidently, teachers attitudes towards disability in general,  disabled students, and the required pedagogical approach can be analysed down into three categories: teachers' cognitive beliefs, affective states, and perceived control. The first represents the sum of a teacher's evaluative thoughts and beliefs related to disability, gender, and the perceived difficulty of the process. The second represents the overall feelings and moods experienced by teachers when dealing with disabled students i.e. the amount of enjoyment or otherwise anxiety. The third refers to a teacher's own perception of self-efficacy.

Being able to analyze and understand the significance of one's own meta-data is ultimately indispensable, for it is the teacher's attitude that determines the overall effectiveness of pedagogy and thus, the learning process.

References

Educating One and All. (1997). THE NATIONAL  ACADEMIES  PRESS. doi: 10.17226/5788

Mulholland, S. et al., (2016). Investigating teacher attitudes of disability using a non-traditional theoretical framework of attitude, International Journal of Educational Research, Volume 80, Pages 93-100, ISSN 0883-0355, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2016.10.001.

Effects of home environment on learning

 Though most of the factors that Schunk mentioned to be key influences on a child's learning and development are inherently interconnected, the home environment, in my opinion, is the first major factor a child encounters. It is the child's initial environment where he first learns. In other words, the home environment is the first school for emotional learning, as Doley, D. (2018) denoted. In the home environment, children unintentionally learn to feel good or bad about themselves, how to express these feelings, and how others react to their expressions of said feelings. 

Similarly, the home environment has a significant effect on a child's cognitive development, especially around infancy and early childhood, as Meece, (2002) explained. In other words, home environment has a significant effect on the development of intelligence in a child. For example, Hoff (2003)  mentioned that children with high socioeconomic status had better and more varied vocabulary, due to their parents speech properties, than their middle socioeconomic status counterparts. A positive home environment stimulates children's curiosity and encourages exploration, play, and learning. 

On the other hand, we find that negative home environments have an equally negative effect on a child's whole-development. The socioeconomic status of the family and poor role-modelling demonstrated by parents in the home environment is bound to reflect in the child's behavior, learning, and academic achievement. For example, a home environment marked by lawlessness, negligence, or even rejection will definitely be visible in the child's behavior, disposition, and overall efficacy in the school environment. Furthermore, most practicing teachers would agree that students of dysfunctional families or those who witness frequent disagreements between parents are more prone, or likely, to struggle academically, or become involved in all sorts of misbehavior or otherwise negative situations.   

In conclusion, I believe that the home environment is one of the most important factor that teachers should look at and take into consideration when analyzing students' behavior and academic achievement. 

References

Doley, D. (2018). The Impact of Home Environment Factors on Academic Achievement of Adolescents. Researchers World, 9(1), 137. Retrieved from https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P4-2015382863/the-impact-of-home-environment-factors-on-academic#:~:text=Parental%20involvement%20can%20have%20a,affect%20the%20pupil's%20academic%20achievement

 Hoff, E. (2003), The Specificity of Environmental Influence: Socioeconomic Status Affects Early Vocabulary Development Via Maternal Speech. Child Development, 74: 1368-1378. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00612

Meece,  J. L. (2002).  Child and adolescent development for ed- ucators (2nd ed.).  New York: McGraw-Hill.

The Adolescent Brain and Neuroscience

 Cerebral cortex

Cerebral cortex, or cerebrum, is the outermost layer of the human brain and is generally associated with many, higher-order, brain functions such as perception, memory, association, and thought Cerebral Cortex | Education, Society, & the K-12 Learner. (2020). It is not only the largest part of the brain that is associated with the control of physical action, but is also considered to be the ultimate information processing center in the brain. In other words, the cerebral cortex is what determines intelligence, personality, motor function, planning and organization, language processing, and many more. 

Being an ELA teacher, I could safely say that most activities I conduct in the classroom are aimed at the student's cerebral cortex. For example, activities that aim to stimulate students memory or association capabilities are all processed in the cerebral cortex. Furthermore, instructional techniques, like scaffolding, inherently depend on the cerebral cortex to bring about necessary information from memory. Evidently, the simplest activities that require the most basic skills like reading and thinking, motor functions like speech and movement all take place in the cerebrum. 

Hippocampus

On the other hand, we find the Hippocampus to be a small, two-part, curved formation inside the temporal lobe in the human brain. Besides its association with the formation of new memories, it is also involved with learning and emotions. The hippocampus could be damaged due to disease or injury. Persons with hippocampus damage can experience loss of memory, or the ability to make new memories Thomas, D. (2020). In other words, all long term memory depends on the hippocampus. It is also involved in the detection of new events, places, and stimuli. 

In that, we see that no new learning of any type would take place without the help of the hippocampus. It consolidates new memories from short-term memory into long-term memory. God forbid, if any student would to hurt that part of their brain they would not be able to register any new events, in general. 

Researchers have found an equally important role for the hippocampus: feeding information to brain areas responsible for learning. "It is really important to think of the brain as an interconnected structure, with different parts that work together to produce our impressive mental feats" Arizona State University. (2019).

References

1. Schunk, D. H. (2012). Learning theories: An educational perspective (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.  
2. Cerebral Cortex | Education, Society, & the K-12 Learner. (2020). Retrieved 4 October 2020, from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/teachereducationx92x1/chapter/cerebral-cortex/
3. Thomas, D. (2020). Don't Let Your Hippocampus Stop You From Being A Successful Investor. Retrieved 4 October 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2018/05/10/dont-let-your-hippocampus-stop-you-from-being-a-successful-investor/#1ba34c532694
4. Arizona State University. (2019). More than just memories: A new role for the hippocampus during learning: Study shows how the hippocampus provides information to other brain areas during learning. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 4, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190306081704.htm

Learning Domains

 Education is the process of imparting knowledge and bringing about desirable changes in the learner's behavior. Classroom instructions and activities are the gate way to the process of education. Accordingly, teachers of all subjects plan the objectives of any particular instruction, aka instructional objectives. In other words, instructional objectives refer to the goals of each instructional session. Leaning and/or teaching outcomes are usually based around instructional objectives.

The classification of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives includes three domains: The cognitive domain which is knowledge related, the affective domain which is feelings related, and the psycho-motor domain which is action related. All three domains are interconnected and interdependent. In other words, every educational activity is supposed to address at least one of these domains. However, for the sake of brevity, will only reflect on some of the preferred instructional activities related to the cognitive domain.

At the lowest level of the cognitive domain, we find the ability to recalling knowledge followed by understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating is at the top level of the classification. Teachers know that they have to come up with instructional activities that address the exploration and stimulation of these domains.

One of the basic questions facing educators has always been “Where do we begin in seeking to improve human thinking?” (Houghton, 2004). Depending on the scope of the new knowledge whether it is factual, conceptual, procedural, or meta-cognitive, I try to utilize the adequate tools for formative assessment of my gr.12 students. In other words, I try to use the right prompts that correspond with both, the type of knowledge and the cognitive process dimension. For example, in order to check the student's ability to recall factual information I would use the prompt "list".However, if I wanted to test his memory of a conceptual knowledge I would use the prompt "describe". Similarly, if I wanted to test students understanding of a procedural knowledge I would use the prompt "predict", as opposed to the prompt "construct" if I wanted to test their meta-cognitive capabilities. I make point of having the activity challenge revolve around answering said prompts. In my experience, using the correct prompt is key to realizing learning and/or instructional objectives.


Refernces
1.
Forehand, M. . (2010) Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology, Global Text, Michael Orey. (Chapter 3). Retrieved from https://textbookequity.org/Textbooks/Orey_Emergin_Perspectives_Learning.pdf

Barriers to Learning That Teachers May Overlook

 Based on child development theory, the Association for Curriculum Development and Supervision developed five tenets which underpin every student's rights to be healthy, safe, engaged, supported and challenged Slade, S. & Griffith, D. (2013) . Though educational theories that support a "whole-child" education have been around for years, many education systems concentrate on a tiny sliver rof students cognitive abilities and development. Thus, we see emphasis on transmitting content knowledge that is usually memorized by students and called upon in the same form it was recieved. Subjects like science, math, and arts usually dominate curricula. Understandably, not all teachers take into consideration the emotional and cognitive abilities of their individual students when they start a course. However, a "whole-child" education involves more than acquiring inert knowledge in any of these subjects. A whole-child approach to learning involves the development of students physical and mental health, social and emotional development, cognitive development, identity development, and academic development, as Whole Child Approach to Education, (2018) denoted. 

Based on their backgrounds and socioeconomic status, students bring different levels of skills related to attention, perception, and memory to the classroom. According to Data and Statistics About ADHD | CDC, (2016), the estimated number of children ever diagnosed with ADHD, according to a national 2016 parent survey is 6.1 million (9.4%). Many other students have ADHD, or similar disease, but have never been diagnosed. These students are more likely to have issues with behavior, academics, and overall learning. These are also the same students who need differentiation the most. 

Many teachers who are bound by heavy curricula and head of department guidelines to prepare students to sit for their finals, may not have the time to pay attention to individual students needs, let alone students with special needs. These educators forget that the classroom is a major developmental context for cognitive development. Even busy teachers can promote this by structuring a cognitively stimulating learning environment that is student centered.
In conclusion, be it an undiagnosed student with special needs, a busy teacher, or otherwise, many students with special needs are not getting the cognitive attention they deserve and the ACDS announced in 2007.






References
1.
Whole Child Approach to Education. (2018). Retrieved 11 October 2020, from https://chanzuckerberg.com/blog/explore-the-whole-child-approach-to-education/
2.
Slade, S. & Griffith, D. (2013). A whole child approach to student success. KEDI Journal of Educational Policy. 21-35. From https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287320346_A_whole_child_approach_to_student_success#:~:text=A%20whole%20child%20approach%20to%20education%20is%20one%20which%20focuses,child%20to%20fulfill%20their%20potential.
3.
Data and Statistics About ADHD | CDC. (2016). Retrieved 11 October 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/data.html

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