Zach Richins

I took this course due to its necessity in my major. I thought that it was going to be an interesting class. I had never taken any psychology or developmental classes prior to this class. My hope was to get an A and gain a greater understanding of my future students. I hoped to learn the best ways to react and build relationships with my students. 

As I created deliverables throughout this class, I learned an incredible amount about how much effort a lesson plan needs and how important each step is. We did a few as a class. The first one I’ll speak on is the deliverable on “first feelings of love”. This was eye opening. We did this as a class and the lasting impact that it had on me was that love is a sensitive topic but needs to be addressed, especially in late adolescence. Informing students what true, real love is so crucial to their eventual happiness.

The second deliverable was on, “Moral Development”. This one was a bit harder for me to do. I tried to create it as if I was teaching this class. I had the teacher candidates learn of research based strategies to help promote moral development within their future students. I taught them to approach students in a way that they will care about what you have to say but ultimately do the right things because they want to. “Increasing concern about doing one's duty rather than pleasing authority figures.” (Pg. 533) As I did this, I learned so much about what it means to have moral development and how to address that need in students. One of the  ways was to be an example at all times and create an environment for students to show respect.

The third and fourth deliverables are kind of a ying and yang type thing. The third is on, “Emotional Conditions”, and the fourth is on, “Physical well-being”. All together it speaks upon the whole child, both mentally and physically. The more I studied and prepared these deliverables the more I saw the connections between them. The body has a deep connection with how we think, act and learn. As teachers, we need to help students avoid dealing with negative mental and physical health in poor ways. Such as,“using drugs and alcohol to deal with negative emotions.” (pg.435) You can dive deeply into both of these but as you balance and care for both of them, you will be the happiest and most fit for learning.

The fifth deliverable is on, “Sense of Self”. This one was made by my group and was presented in class! I loved working on this one and working together to make a great deliverable. I learned so much about a student's perception of themself and the effects that it has upon all they do. I also learned how to manage and approach students who struggle with their self-esteem. 

The last deliverable was on, “Mathematics in a Developmental System”. I really enjoyed working on this one. This fits best with my major of Math Education. I learned more about the importance of showing math concepts in multiple ways. One of these ways is visually, either on a graph or with hand help objects. As I,“guide children through steps to finding a solution” (Pg. 384), I will see where they are getting stuck. Giving students more than one way to learn something dramatically improves the probability of them retaining that information.

A synthesis of my experience creating deliverables and of this class is that everything has a reason. To best understand how to teach something we first need to know the students and what their needs are. Life is a never ceasing learning experience. Everyday we learn things, whether we like it or not. You get to choose what you’d like to learn and how it will impact you and your life. I hope to retain the knowledge I gained in this class and use it in the near future!