Module 1

Chapter one started with learning and teaching today and what our classrooms look like. It covered diversity topics and how the majority of our future students will be born outside of the United States. Although most of our classes are diverse, the teachers that are in the classroom are not.  It would be great to have teachers from different backgrounds, as it is important for students to see people who look like them in different positions and that they can do anything that they put their mind to. Another thing that stood out to me is how teachers can make a tremendous difference in students success. Different studies showed how teachers can have so much power over students lives. I personally agree with this myself. There were so many teachers that were the reason why I succeeded and they played a great role in my academic success. I believe that teachers have an influencing platform and they need to use it wisely. I hope to be a positive influencer on my future students, as I would love to do what it takes to help them succeed.

Chapter two talked about Cognitive Development. It started with describing different kinds of developments. Physical development is the change in the body. Personal development changes which covered how individuals personality develops over time. Social development is the change in the way an individual relates to others. Lastly, Cognitive development talked about the changes in one's thinking. Woolfolk also talks about what influences these developments, nature versus nurture. The nature versus nurture debate is something that I believe still has a strong impact on students today. Though I have not worked in the school system for every long, this past year and a half I have had the pleasure of working with a student who was adopted from Haiti. In Haiti, he did not have much access to education or what it was like to be in a formal classroom. In this case, I believe it was his nature that would take over when he was given something to work on. This is because he always wanted to take his materials home with him in order to work on it there instead of in school. We believe that back in Haiti that if he didn't finish working on something in the time given it was then taken away from him so here in the United States he had the association that the same thing was going to happen. Another way to consider nature versus nurture is with students who come from cultures that are different from their teachers. For instance, in Asian culture children are taught that it is disrespectful to look a teacher in the eye when they are talking to you, but here in the United States, we are consistently telling students to make eye contact so that we know they are listening. As teachers, we need to be aware of how different cultures are taught to handle different aspects of education in order to provide a safe and fun learning environment. 

Chapter three talked about the self, social and moral development. This chapter covered many interesting topics, such as family affects on students, how divorce affects students, peer relationships, different types of aggression, and child abuse. The above topics are all major factors in every student's lives. Our job as educators is to be aware of all the changes our students might be experiencing since it could have a dramatic effect on the students' academics. Unfortunately, many teachers do not care about what their students might be experiencing outside of class, and all they worry about is that they test high on their tests in order for their school to perform well.