As a young child I used to go into my basement set chairs up and tell my siblings to come downstairs and we would pretend to play school. Of course I was the teacher and they were the students and we would do this every summer I can recall. This is called the magical thoughts (p130) the idea that children believe the thoughts that are going on in their mind. Not only did I continue these magical thoughts into adulthood where I now teach so it's proven that the thoughts that you have when you're younger can develop into your adulthood.
Of course I didn't really believe that I was going to be a teacher when I was six years old playing School in my basement. However each time my sister's with tell me that we were just playing and it wasn't for real my feelings would immediately get hurt. So as I've read the theory of mind (p137) I can relate because that theory is stating that children begin to understand what it means to desire something and recognize that the success or failure to obtain that thing results in feelings.
Now in middle school children have different emotions than they did when they were in Early Child. During Middle School children learn and experience the world much differently. They have longer attention spans they're memories better and they have matured more. The biological and environmental forces work together to sharpen the development of the brain. (P157) it was so interesting that as I was reading page 157 and 158 it discussed health and nutrition for middle schoolers. I can totally agree most of my students in Middle School have supper with asthma and I have had more broken bones in six to eight grade this school year. And I have to say it must be because of the food that they're eating and the lack of exercising they have. Some of them don't eat well-balanced diet and others or not physically strong. There's been a lot of improvement to the lunches provided to our students trying to get them to eat healthier overall. But it's definitely a task considering that most parents like meals that are quick and easy because they're less time to prepare. But it's very important that we feed our children healthy versus quick and easy.
Health and nutrition for children has been a widely debated topic for some time. I completely agree that in my experiences as an educator at the high school level that the eating habits I see consists of high fat and high processed foot. The balance is to find healthy and tasty food. The issue with this is that food often times is chemically designed to taste good and providing natural food is a battle against what our brains are used to. It is still a battle worth fighting to get better foods ins our school.
ReplyDeleteI agree that when children's basic needs are met that they can learn better. Reducing stress and encouraging healthier lifestyles for kids is always sound advice. I truly think in situations where the hierarchy of needs are not being met the ony outcome that can be found is a negative one.
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