Connections (Mckamey)

Uncovering and managing unconscious ways of ‘looking’: A case study of researching educational care by Corrine McKamey. Reading this article made me think a lot about being more than just a teacher. As a youth development major that’s exactly what we are aiming to do. The scenarios and comments from the article about caring teachers made me think a lot about our many meetings with Youth In Action. To me youth in action is a great representation of caring teachers. They take an interest in the youth’s life outside of school and they care about how they are doing emotionally. If you listen to the testimonies of the youth they bring to class you can hear the trust and confidence they have in their mentors. Many of them stated that the people at youth in action changed their lives, and can’t imagine where they would be without them.

 The teachers at YIA have a sense of nurturing, and to them it isn’t all about academics. They don’t stop caring once school is over; they are there for them outside of school anytime they are needed. I think a big part of being a caring teacher is being someone people can count on, and being there for a person in need. Creating a sense of trust between a teacher and youth can go a long way, also being someone the youth can relate to. Not just a boring teacher that students have nothing in common with. When I was in school there were teachers I trusted and related to and others I didn’t. I can remember many teachers that earned my respect and others that didn't.  The ones that I connected with were really able to make a difference, and I found myself trying harder because I didn’t want to disappoint them. I new I could talk to them about issues not related to school, and just have a conversation with them. Those were the teachers I enjoyed having and the ones I will remember.

Understanding Youth

Understanding youth by Michael Nakkula and Eric Toshalis spoke about context mapping. Context mapping is taking into consideration all of the different situations in which you exist in. Such as in the classroom, at home, on a sports team, a certain group of friends, and also thinking about how your behavior might change in each place. In the story Mitch asked Julian to do just that. This helped Julian realize that its normal to have all of these different identities, that as an adolescent you are always trying to find what identity will suit you best.

There are four stages of identity. The first is Foreclosure Identity. Foreclosure identity is something that is adopted, based on the fact that it is familiar and easy to do. For example growing up in a house full of Red Sox Fans will ultimately cause that person to be a Red Sox fan without really exploring any other options. Diffusion identity is holding off on choosing an identity. Youth remain in a state of isolation prolonging exploring different identities and ultimately choosing one, the reason being because doing so can be stressful and cause anxiety.  Which brings us to Moratorium, which is what our friend Julian was experiencing. Moratorium is the most stressful of all the stages. The youth are trying on many hats, attempting to find which one fits them best. It can be very stressful and cause anxiety for the adolescent going through this stage. In this stage it is important to provide a space where youth can talk about what they are feeling and share their thoughts on this roller-coaster called Identity.  Finally there is Achieved identity which means you have committed to an identity, this doesn’t necessarily mean a life long commitment but you have chosen one that you feel comfortable with for the time being.

My Context Map

These are my main categories and how I see myself acting in each one.

Home

·      Big brother

·      A role model

·      Setting examples

·      Teacher

Athletics

·      Intense

·      fun

·      wild

·      rowdy

·      loud

Amusement

·      relaxed

·      reminiscent

·      Adventure

School

·      Quiet

·      Laid back

·      Procrastinate

Work

·      Hard at work

·      Valuable

·      Knowledgeable

A World Where Youth Hold The Power (Argument)

“A World Where Youth Hold The Power” by Adeola Oredola and members of Youth In Action along with the Youth In Action documentary both had the same argument. That argument was that we should allow youth to be leaders and be apart of community change. The article and documentary argue that youth is best served when they are asked to lead. When they are given their own tasks and responsibilities and even create their own curriculum at times.

Youth particularly in the providence area are faced with many obstacles students elsewhere aren’t faced with. Youth In Action is a place where kids can go to be themselves and have the support to make it through any hardships they may encounter. At YIA they learn to be leaders, voice their opinions in a safe place, and be the best they can be. It all starts by treating them as adults and not children. Let them be involved in things like politics, government, media, and organizing events.

            I think YIA has it figured out. Treating kids like adults can get them thinking like adults and quickly acting like adults. But not boring adults, active adults with great ideas and opinions on real world issues. We need new ways of thinking, and inspiring minds if we are going to create real change for youth. Providing youth with leadership opportunities is a great way to get them some hands on learning and problem solving, much more than you would ever get in a public school. I think that’s what’s missing from all public schools in Rhode Island. Today everything is based on raising test scores but in reality what we really need to be raising is leaders, youth leaders who are prepared for the real world and real ideas on how to make it a better place.

Positive Youth Development ( Focus on Resilience)

Positive youth development by Jutta Dotterweich was a very informing presentation. I learned a lot about youth and how youth development is changing in today’s world. I related the power point to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs because it describes the basic needs of a person and it is very difficult for someone to succeed without these basic needs. Kids who struggle with these basic needs have to be very Resilient in order to succeed. Resilience is overcoming your hardships in order to be successful. Based on a study of over 700 people resilient people have specific traits individual and environmental. Some individual traits are social competence, independence, sense of purpose, and belief in a bright future.  Some environmental traits are caring relationships, high expectations, and opportunities for participation. As a person in the field of youth development I believe it is our job to provide those environmental traits to anyone who may need them. This means taking an interest in a young persons life, making them feel like they matter. Hold them to high standards and giving them every opportunity succeed and feel empowered.

            The resilience of some people is just amazing I have a cousin who is very resilient. He had very absent parents and brothers and sisters who weren’t exactly good role models.  He was put into foster care and his foster parents gave him a caring environment, made him feel like he was important and gave him opportunity to succeed and feel empowered. Today he is a great kid and goes to college at URI.  It is amazing to see the difference in direction that he went compared to his other three siblings. All because he had a stable caring person in his life. As a youth development professional this is the power we have and we can make a big difference with a small gesture.

Talking Points ( Reflection)

REFLECTION

The article “Digital natives, Digital immigrants” by Marc Prensky was a very interesting that article that I was able to relate to 100%. The whole article reminded me of when I was in high school. I had teachers who were stuck in their old ways of teaching, and others who were trying to bring more technology into the classroom. I found that I had a much harder time learning when I was asked to just read something and memorize it, but when it was put in the form of technology in the form of game or computer program I retained the information much better. Growing up in the time that I did I found myself very confused. I had people telling me that because I had difficulty learning through reading and direct instruction I was lazy, and I believed them. People have been learning this way for hundreds of years, why doesn’t it work for me? After reading this article and taking into consideration the massive change in technology recently I see that I’m not alone. This article is all about the drastic differences that have occurred in the upbringing of kids in the last 20 years. Kids today have completely different learning styles; in fact our brains are wired differently than adults. It makes me think about how teachers are not even equipped to teach today’s youth. It’s like when your parents get frustrated trying to use a computer and you come over and immediately know how to fix it. Today’s world is technologically based and if we tried to teach our parents using only technology they would be screwed. But this is what is happening in today’s schools, kids have technology rich minds and teachers are speaking a foreign language when they ignore that. This article relates to me because I can take all this into consideration when I am addressing youth in the future. I’m sure the way technology is advancing there minds will be even more tech savvy than my own. But I will stay up to date with all the new technology and learn how to use it well. This way I will be able to communicate in a language they can fully understand so they can get the most out of there learning experience.

Something that I plan to bring up in class is how youth today is even more technology based than we were. My little sister is in eighth grade and all here friends have iphones and have access to millions of apps. This is something not even we had I remember in eighth grade when the first iPod came out and if you had a phone it was a flip phone. In less than a decade we have come a long long way. It will be interesting to see if we find ourselves speaking a different language just as teachers are doing now because of how fast technology is taking over.

Talking Points (Quotes)

Talking Points

Article

Child labor and the social construction of childhood by Gwen Sharp

Quotes

1.     “Our ideas about what is appropriate for children to do has changed radically over time, often as a result of political and cultural battles between groups with different ideas about the best way to treat children”. 

To me this quote means that we still have disagreements about how children need to be treated. Although we have come a long way from making children work 10 hour days for pennies. There are still gray areas in what kids should and should not do. This is relevant to the text because it shows the growth we have done from the early 1900s.

2.     “Only 5 pupils present out of about 40 expected when beet work is over…Oct. 26/15, over five weeks after school opened”. 

This quote means that many kids were not showing up for school due to work. This is relevant to the text because it is showing the amount of kids that were forced to give up getting an education just to work. In today’s world you go to school so you can get a job when you’re older. Back then it was more important to work and make money now, then it was to prepare for your future.

3.     “While children working in factories or mines was redefined as inappropriate and even exploitative and cruel, a child babysitting or delivering newspapers for money was often interpreted as character-building”. 

This quote means that there are certain jobs that were acceptable for a child to do and there were jobs that were unacceptable for a child to do. This is relevant to the text because it illustrates the slow changing in values of the people back then. Yes they agreed ok maybe kids shouldn’t be doing such labor-intensive work, but they should still work.

In class I would like to discuss the last quote “While children working in factories or mines was redefined as inappropriate and even exploitative and cruel, a child babysitting or delivering newspapers for money was often interpreted as character-building”. I would like to discuss this because I think the slow change that is happening here is very interesting. Parents are realizing that hard labor intensive jobs are taking a toll on the children. They soon agree that less labor-ridden jobs are acceptable for kids to do. Vs. today there aren’t really any jobs we see as acceptable for a child to do.

About Me

My name is Steven Hunt and I’m 21 years old. I enjoy playing and watching sports. I wrestled for most of my life and would like to coach a High School team someday. I’m a youth development major at Rhode Island College and this is my fifth year at RIC. When I graduate I would love to work with youth in a sports setting. I believe sports teach many valuable life skills and being a part of a sports team is something to be proud of.  I have had experience working with youth in a sports setting doing some coaching at my old school. This is something I really enjoy I feel like sports can bring everyone on the same level and it makes it much easier to connect with one another. I chose youth development because I have always felt like kids really like me and I enjoy working with them as well. I was previously an elementary ed. major, but switched to youth development last year. The reason I switched is because I felt that there was to many restrictions and rules that went along with teaching. Teaching today isn’t about the kids or the teacher its about test scores. I like to do my own thing and bring my own unique thoughts and teaching styles to my work.