The Development of The Teenager

As Teachers, we need to know with what we are working and this days, I have been studying about changes in adolescence and I want to share what I learned about it.

ADOLESCENCE

YES! that's the way in which many people think about that beautiful stage of the life and I wasn't the exception. 

Adolescence as many people think is the stage of the catastrophe with whims, endless discussions and incomprehensible rebelliousness, girls and boys that go to parties every Saturday night ignoring rules, guys who want to discover everything around them, without thinking in it's consequences, but when they are at home they sleep a lot and then, don't want to do anything else. That´s the concept that we have seen all our life, because our parents told us, or we saw that in someone that we know, even, we can see that in many cartoons and TV series. and everything  is true. adolescence is a process of physical and cognitive changes in the life, is a transition from the childhood to maturity, in other words, been adult. However, all those things have a reason.

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What I found

Adolescence

Is the transitional period between puberty and adulthood, in human development, extending mainly over the teen years and ending legally when the age of majority is reached; youth.

Physical changes

Thanks to school, these are things that we already know, but it's right know them again.

For girls these changes take place around 10 or 11 years old, but they might start as young as 8 or as old as 13 years old. On the other hand, for boys these changes usually start around 11 or 12 years old, but they might start as young as 9 years or as old as 14 years old.

Some of these changes are: 

- changes in body shape and height 

- growth of pubic, body and facial hair (in boys),

- breast development and the start of periods or menstruation (in girls)

- growth of penis & testicles, erections with ejaculation (in boys)

- changes to voice (in boys)

Cognitive Development

All parents wonder, Why this step is so difficult? Which is the cause of rebellion and all problem? but nobody takes the time to research and learn about it, and to be honest, I didn't have idea of this.

In this stage of the life, there is a process that take place which is called Prunning. This is a process in which a part of the brain called the gray matter are pruned away, one the other hand, other connections are straightened, this is a way of the brain to become more useful and ready for the next stage of the life.

This process begins in the back part of the brain.Otherwise, there is a important part of the brain which is called prefrontal cortex which is located in the front part of the brain, but why is so important? well, the prefontal cortex is that little voice that help you to make decisions.His main function is plan and think about actions and their consequences, solve problems and control impulses and the strange thing is that this part of the brain is the last to be remodelled.

"Because the prefrontal cortex is still developing, teenagers might rely on a part of the brain called amygdala to make decisions and solve problems more than adults do" (Raising Children Network)

The amygdala is associated with emotions, impulses, aggression and instinctive behaviour.something that it's important to be mentioned is that all teens develop differently, which is why some give more problems than others.

Psychosocial Development

This is a process of development of personality, including the acquisition of social attitudes and skills, also, is a Psychiatric process of interaction between a person and her environment, through stages from infancy to adulthood.

Erick Erickson describes that a central concern during adolescence is the search of identity which involves, sexual and values components.

Erich Erickson proposed a lifespan model of development, taking in 5 steps up to the age of 18 years  and three further stages beyond. In addition of dealing with physical changes, teenagers have to discover who they are and that's other of the reason of why they tried to follow what they see around them. These involve establishing a sense of trust in others. Erickson makes a big emphasis in adolescence, due to , this is a crucial stage of developing a person's identity. " The successful compilation of each stage result in healthy personality and the acquisition of basic virtues" (McLeod, Simply Psychology) 

My own experience

Of course I already pass Through this stage, but in my own experience as teenager, I didn't have too much Problems, I mean, I wasn't one the girls that went to discos without the permission without the permission of their parents, on the contrary,I was a person very shy and insecure and I still have problem with that. I can remember that when I was in class, something that was very afraid for me was speak in public, I didn't like to participate in front of all my classmates, I couldn't raise my hand when the teacher ask something even, if  I knew the answer. and that happens to all teenagers.

However, one of the big reasons that made me feel like that, was that I had many bad experiences with my teachers at school, they were always little patients, which should not exist in a teacher, their strategies were humiliate their students when they didn't know the answer, instead of help them to find the right answer.

Thinking as a teacher

Nowadays what I had seen is that many teachers have forgotten his real role, which is be a guide for the new knowledge, maybe because they are tired or simply  they don't know what to do.

my ideas: 

Based on my own experience as student, I would like to create a comfortable atmosphere for my students, with activities that involve sharing thoughts in groups, like role-plays and interviews, but taking time to students to feel sure to pass in front later on. 

Their interests and choices

I think that it's important think in what they like and what they need, I would like to use activities in which they can express their preferences like use music, technology, or watching a movie, also activities in which they use their own creativity, for example create a task and give them the chance to do it in their way, for example the choice can be in the type of tool that they can use or the way to present it, teenagers enjoy being autonomous. .Also, I would create difficult activities that make them challenge themselves, that can help them to be motivated and self-confident.

References

"Your Teenager's Development Brain" raisingchildren.net.au. Centre for Adolescent Health. 12 Mar.2014.15 Aug.2016.http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/brain_development_teenagers.html/context/1152

"Erick Erickson" SymplyPsychology. 2008.15 Aug. 2016.http://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html

MY PROFILE

My name is Hazel Abigail Pineda. When I was a Little girl, one of my favorite things was teach to my teady bear the ABC. years later, my mother  told me that I used to make my own paper board and teach the multiplication tables to all my teddies every afternoon; time later, when I was 12 years old, I decided to work in the minestery of bible school of my church, since then, I teach to children about the immense love of God.

 Now, I'm 20 years old and I´m studying a degree in languages with specialization in english teaching at Universidad Don Bosco, El salvador. To be honest, it was very difficult for me learning English, I didn't have any extra study of the language before entering to the University, so I had to make a double effort to not fail. However, I'm in 4th year of my career and I'm so proud of myself for all that I have done and I have learned.

I think that all people have to do what they like, in my case, my decition to be a teacher was rejected by many people and still is, but that was not an obstacle. In my second year, I had the opportunity to be a teacher in a educational program from the Colegio Don Bosco, I gave class of language and literature to girls and boys that coudn´t  finish their studies of  high school for different reasons. That was the first time that I worked with teenagers and even, some of them were adults, much older than me. It was hard for me, due to, the class was every saturdays morning from 8 to 12 and my students were all the morning sitting in front of the board and when they had class with me, they were tired and bored, but I made an effort and finally, they took their exam and completed the course.

The first time that I give a class at the university, was for the subject Practicum I. I was standing in front of 10 kids teaching them "the family members", I remember that I was very nervous to make a mistake, because of my teacher and all my classmates were looking me, however, I realised that the kids were more nervous than me, so I tried to forget my nervous and I looked for ways to make them feel comfortable. At the end of the class, I feel so happy to see that my little students feel excited to return the next class. I really enjoyed teaching children because there are many activities and games that you can do, and they always semeed to be eager to participate, I remmember my childhood working with them. Also, with the help of my good teacher, I learned to have control of my voice and of course control of  the class, and I learned many things from my classmate too.

  She was my excellente colleague Abigail.

they were our students at Practicum I

That was the closing ceremony, we made a little party to say "thank you" to our students to be part of our experience.

  Now, I´m excited to my new challenge, this time I have been gettig ready to work with teenagers, I have had excellent help of my teachers from the Universidad Don Bosco, but there is much more to learn and I will make my best effort!