Identity Texts

 In my opinion, there is great value in having students produce identity texts. First of all, it teaches students how to stop, reflect on themselves, and then communicate their findings through a means of their choice. Their expression of the final product could be spoken, written, or even performed. When done correctly, students take ownership of the text and become invested in it because it represents their own identity (Gaysek, J. 2012). Besides helping non native students challenge the devaluation of their identity, this approach could be specially helpful to students who might be facing identity issues. Moreover, research has highlighted several pedagogical benefits of the framework such as students being able to find and express their individual voices through multimodal identity text projects than traditional means (Mills, K. 2010). Furthermore, the use of identity texts has proven to be helpful in ELL classes. Teachers can promote Ell students' literacy when they connect with their students in ways beyond the usual constricted pedagogical frame. 

Socially, identity texts tend to uncover much about students' identity, culture, and perspectives on relationships. This important because it gives the teacher an insight into the background of the student. Human interaction is at the heart of schooling and these interactions are often more central to student development than other methods for teaching literacy. Academically, educators can utilize these texts to create  an interpersonal space where learning takes place and students' identities are recognized, affirmed, and explored. These texts  help students affirm their identities in various forms such as dance, music, poetry, stories, bilingual texts, etc... 

The main challenge that this approach faces is the rigidity of the one size fits all curricula and mandates enforced by some kind of punitive sanctions. During my school years in a French Jesuit school, I was never introduced to identity texts nor was I ever encouraged to express myself or my opinion. On the contrary, I was often told to keep to myself and stop complaining. Looking back on it, this might have been the reason behind poor relationships with teachers and many colleagues. Had the idea been introduced to me, I think I might have had a more enjoyable learning environment and experience. 

Evidently, students native language is not totally irrelevant to making progress in learning English language. Literacy instruction cannot and should not substitute for literacy engagement. Such engagement could be promoted through enabling students to use their home language as a source for learning. Educators have a choice to go beyond the conventional academic expertise framework and its curricular guidelines and mandates. This could be done by acknowledging students' prior knowledge and attempting to utilize it to serve the acquisition of new knowledge (Zapata et al. 2020). References

Gaysek, J. (2012). Identity texts. Retrieved 30 December 2020, from https://www.slideshare.net/jsplendiferrous/identity-texts

Mills, K. (2010). What learners ‘know’through digital media production: Learning by Design.E-Learning and Digital Media,7(3), 223–236. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2304/elea.2010.7.3.223

Zapata, Gabriela & Ribota, Alessandra. (2020). The instructional benefits of identity texts and learning by design for learner motivation in required second language classes. Pedagogies. 10.1080/1554480X.2020.1738937.

Teacher-Student Relationship and Student Behavior

    Teachers could elicit not only target language from students but also target behavior. In other words, it is the teacher's attitude that encourages or discourages students engagement, participation, and overall behavior in the classroom. Besides the given professionalism, a teacher may have to develop a set of personal traits and professional skills to help achieve these goals. However, this paper will only touch on some of the possible academic effects on the students of one's own instructional behavior in the classroom.

    Learning how to foster a positive teacher-student relationship is one skill which almost all other skills depend upon. Negative teacher-student relationship may drive the student to stop communication, exhibit undesired behavior, or start to hate the subject and/or school. On the other hand, a positive relationship may lead to better communication which would help the teacher gain more insight into the student's academic needs.

    Emphasizing punctuality and timeliness is always best done by setting the example. A teacher who is usually late to class or does not show respect to schedules and deadlines will have a weak argument if he tried to teach or advise punctuality to his students. Similarly, teachers who emphasize the awareness of time to their students can model steady work and sensible time management to their students. For example, they estimate the time to be spent on different  tasks, or in preparation thereof Boston University, (2020).

    Another form of teacher behavior that could help the academic achievement of students is his ability to encourage high expectations. For example, a teacher could set their students challenging goals for learning. Moreover, encouraging student involvement by varying the types of activities including active learning techniques like asking students to present their work to the class. 

    In conclusion, teachers are not only the most decisive element in any classroom, but also the most influential one. Teachers are also the prearranged models people entrust with their children's education and development.

References

    Boston University, (2020). Behaviors of good teachers » Center for Teaching & Learning. Retrieved 16 December 2020, from http://www.bu.edu/ctl/teaching-resources/preparing-to-be-a-teaching-fellow/behaviors-of-good-teachers/

    Sutherland, K. et al. (2008). Examining the influence of teacher behavior and classroom context on the behavioral and academic outcomes for students with emotional or behavioral disorders. The Journal of Special Education 41(223). https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/1019576/mod_book/chapter/257050/Examining%20behavior.pdf

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