Reading Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development was incredibly helpful to me as a new teacher. In order to help students pass through these stages successfully I now know I need to give them opportunities so they can find themselves. I have seen a lot of teachers in my past who had given up on a child, in a sense. When they were helping a student with their work they would just end up giving them the answer because it was too frustrating to help them along. It is one thing to help lead them into the right direction, but if you just tell them how to do their work they will never learn. I think this is important to remember as a teacher because sometimes the easier route of telling a student what to do is tempting. I just need to remember that these students need guidance; they don’t need someone telling them exactly what to do. My concern as a teacher is to know how far to push a student and at what time is it alright to help them when they are struggling.
While reading the different stages I have determined that I am 6 to 12 years old; I feel like I am going through the industry versus inferiority stage all over again. The sense of failure and incompetence are sometimes keeping me up at night because I just feel so overwhelmed with the lack of knowledge I apparently have (especially after reading the Critical Pedagogy book!) .
Another topic I found interesting was the different parenting styles that can impact a student’s ability to learn, which I never had considered before. My only concern is how to counteract these parenting style impacts that negatively affect my students. On top of this I also have to consider the different cultures a student may be brought up in because those parents may have differing morals and ideas on how to raise their child. I guess the most I can do as a teacher is to provide the support to that student while at school and let them know I am there for them and hope all of it sticks with them. I feel that bullying has a lot to do with the kind of family you come from as well, so as a teacher I just hope to be able to show them how to not be aggressive and how to be respectful of one another.
I feel parenting styles and teaching styles change during a divorce. With divorce becoming more and more prevalent I think it is important to know how to speak to the kids of these families. I recall when I was working at my last school I would catch myself wanting to say mom or dad or parents; I never quite knew what I should say. After reading this chapter I now know to say “family”, which makes a lot more sense to me. More importantly though are the challenges that students face in school after or during a divorce and I hope as a teacher I will be able to help them through the time. My personal view is that I think children thrive in a stable environment and since a divorce causes a lot of instability, my biggest concern is to provide that stability in the classroom for them.
The final topic I want to touch upon is cheating. I think the majority of people cannot deny that they have cheated one time or another. When the pressure to succeed is so heavy, how could you not fold under this anxiety at such an insecure age? I know the book said that you need to lower pressure for students in order to avoid cheating, but all I have to say is, WASL. The second graders in my class knew that next year they would be taking the WASL and they knew how important it was. This kind of pressure at this age cannot be good for their self-esteems, so I can imagine a lot of cheating will happen. My question is how do you combat this as a teacher if you are required to give these tests and students have heard from everyone else how important it is to pass them? I know you can try to reassure them, but if everyone else is telling them they need to pass it, they are most likely going to have severe stress anxiety and may resort to cheating.
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