Jen+Morand

toc
 * Record of Assignments**
 * Name of Student:** Jen Morand

** Adolescence **

** W : What you want to know (curiosities/inquiry questions) **
My name is Jen Morand and I am a second year majoring in Organizational Leadership at the awesome University of Cincinnati. I am really interested in learning about how the family life can effect an individuals behaviors, decisions, and habits.


 * What's the developmental implications of attending an all girl high school?**

** Resource #1 **

 * Read:**


 * In the article it talks about how starting out at a young age, kids like to find kids of the same sex to play with. They find that kids of the same sez are better play partners and are just more compatible and get along better. Once they have made this group of same sex friends, they usually keep with that same group of friends as they get older and older. They have a "style" together. So, once the kids start to hit adolescence, and the same sex group starts to hang out with the other sex, that "style" they have won't really change. So, this means that like the males will try and only impress their friends and only care about what their friends think.


 * Respond:**
 * For a certain period in males lives, the beginning of adolescences and beyond, guys are more worried about impressing their friends than they are about impressing females. Males friends are more important to them than impressing females. An example that I like to think of is in the movie Grease. When Danny Zuko sees Sandy Olsson for the first time at the Rydell High School football game, Danny is so excited to see her then he all of a sudden stops because his friends are right there behind him. He was trying to act cool in front of his friends and not care about seeing Sandy or trying to care about her.


 * APA Citation:**
 * Gender and relationships: A developmental account. Maccoby, Eleanor E. American Psychologist, Vol 45(4), Apr.


 * Read:**
 * A sample of 156 girls was taken from four private schools in Australia. One of the schools was single-sex while the other three were coeducational. 80 girls were from the single-sexed school while 76 females were from the mixed schools, equaling the 156 total girls. All of the girls answered a survey and a bunch of questions about body image, including eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia.


 * Respond:**
 * This academic journal was not as helpful as I thought it was going to be but I did learn from it. It was mostly about body image and friendship cliques. And within those cliques and friends, are they the ones who influence your behavior. I was thinking that the article would talk about the males influence on them as well.


 * APA Citation:**
 * Carey, R. N. (2013-09). Peer Culture and Body Image Concern Among Australian Adolescent Girls: A Hierarchical Linear Modelling Analysis. Sex roles, 69(5-6), 250-263.doi:10.1007/s11199-013-0305-0

** Resource #3 **

 * Read:**
 * In this academic journal, it talks about the effects of single-sex and coeducational schooling. In different studies it was said that coeducational schooling puts males at a disadvantage across all different subject areas, even math and science in which they used to be dominate in. Malacova (2007) studied the effects of attending single-sex school and found that both males and females benefited more from single-sex schooling than from coeducational. Lee and Bryk (1986) examined single-sex Catholic high schools, looking at their tests scores on math, reading, science, and writing. Through this, they found that adolescents in single-sex schools had higher levels of achievement than adolescents in coeducational schools. They also found that girls achieved more than males in the single-sex school system. Van de Gaer et al. (2004) examined the achievement and success rate of high school adolescents. He found that single-sex schooling had a significant positive effect on girls achievement in subjects, especially math.


 * Respond:**
 * This resource is literally perfect for my inquiry question. It talked about both single-sex schooling and coeducational schooling. It also talked about private single-sex schools and public coed schools, which is perfect because for my observation hours I will be observing at two Catholic single-sexed high schools (one female, one male) and one public coeducational high school. Reading the journal, I kept getting from it that girls benefit more from single-sex schools than from coed schools. When girls are in the coed schools they don't acheive as much as they do when in the single-sex schools. And for guys, they really don't gain or achieve much when in the single-sex schools; they basically are the same for either single-sex or coeducational schools. This makes me think that when girls are in the coeducational schools, they are worried about the males and not about their grades. But when girls are in single-sex schools, they don't have to worry about males and can just worry about themselves and their grades.


 * APA Citation:**
 * Gibb, Sheree J., (2008-11-01). Effects of single-sex and coeducational schooling on the gender gap in educational achievement.. The Australian journal of education, 52(3), 301-317.

** Resource #4 **

 * Read:**
 * [insert 1 paragraph summarizing what you read here]


 * Respond:**
 * [insert 1 paragraph response/reaction to what you read here]


 * APA Citation:**
 * [insert APA citation]

** 5. Sexuality Activity **
([])

The article I chose to read and look over was about teaching respect in schools to those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT). In most schools, school is a hostile environment for LGBTs due to bullying and the feeling of being afraid. But, when schools and educators have a LGBT inclusive curriculum teaching about the history, people, and events in their curriculum, studies show that LGBT students experienced school as a less hostile place.
 * Describe your resource:**

Schools with an inclusive curriculum were half as likely to experience victimization (verbal harassment, physical assault) by the other students. Also LGBTs felt safer at school when their school had an inclusive curriculum and about half as likely to skip school due to feeling unsafe or uncomfortable. LGBT students who went to schools with an inclusive curriculum also reported that their classmates were more accepting of them and the LGBT people. The inappropriate use of the word "gay" also dropped in those schools.

Reading all of this makes me feel really good, and I hope the curriculum continues to spread to schools all over the country. LGBTs are just as important and equal as us. So when they feel safer at school and feel more accepting, it makes me feel better about what our schools are doing. Also with the inclusive curriculum, it's teaching those who aren't LGBT to be respectful, understanding, and accepting, which is totally awesome.

[]
 * Link to your specific resource:**

**Observation Site Information**
[you must confirm with site it is okay to observe with your location, then delete instructions in brackets]

** A. Site details: **

 * Name of site: Seton High School (all girl Catholic high school), Elder High School (all male Catholic high school), and Oak Hills High School (co-ed public high school)
 * Link to sites: [] ; [] ; []
 * Contact persons: Mary Agricola, Kurt Ruffing, and Tara Willig
 * =====[[image:elder.jpg]]<---Elder[[image:setonhs.jpg width="234" height="150"]]<Seton[[image:oak hills.jpg width="240" height="137"]]<Oak Hills=====

__ ** B. Describe your setting ** __
__**Seton High School**__: Seton is an all girl Catholic High School (9th through 12th grade). It is on the west-side of Cincinnati and where I myself attended high school! It is a great place to do observation hours because I will truly get the feel of what girls do when surrounded by only girls. There will be no boys to distract the girls from doing what they normally and naturally would do. Since I went to Seton, I kind of know everything about how girls act with only just girls, but it will be very interesting to just be watching and not be the one actually experiencing it. I am kind of very curious though for when some Elder boys do come over to Seton for class. Usually there are a few Elder boys who come over to Seton for an advanced class and I know that when I went to Seton, all the girls freaked out when the few guys came over for class. So it will be interesting to see how these girls will react.

__**Elder High School:**__ Elder is an all guy Catholic High School (9th through 12th grade) on the west-side of Cincinnati. It is actually right next door to Seton. It is a great place for my observation hours because I will be able to truly see what guys do when it is only males around. I'm literally so excited to be going to Elder and observing there. I have always wandered what it is like to go to Elder, or just any all guy school so now is my chance to see what it is like! I'm definitely going to be learning a lot. I have an older brother and a younger brother so I know some of the things that they do, but going to Elder will show me a whole new side of what guys do while just in the presence of other males. Also, Elder has a couple classes like advanced classes where Seton girls can come over and take them as well. So it will be super interesting to see how the guys react to seeing girls in their hallways. I'm so excited to be on the other side!!

Oak Hills is a public co-ed high school (grades 9 through 12). It has over a thousand students and is very diverse. I have never been there except for maybe to watch them play Elder in football. Other than that, I have never been in the building. So I am actually very scared to be going here. I will have no idea where things are and I have never been in the co-ed environment during the high school years. So I'm very excited/nervous/scared to see how the different sexes act with each other being in high school together.
 * __Oak Hills High School:__**

I observed at Seton and Elder on Monday October 7th during one of our reading days so I didn't miss any classes. I observed at Oak Hills on Friday October 18th, I went to classes with my cousin who attends Oak Hills now.

__** C. Describe what you did at the site (free-write/journal formatting) **__
While at Elder I was in 3 different classes: College prep Algebra, Old Testament, and Advanced college prep English. I was in all freshman classes. I also was there during homeroom and was in the cafeteria for a little bit. I basically just sat in the back of the rooms and observed as the teachers taught the material. Since I was the only girl in every class, I would occasionally, well more like very often, get glances back at me from all of the freshman boys. It was so funny because in my mind I was like, "haha I am at least 5 years older than all of you" and in their minds they were probably thinking "OMG a girl!". In the cafeteria I was talking to one of my brothers friends and he said "Yeah I guarantee you're getting checked out by at least 15 guys at one time". Also in the cafeteria, all of the tables are long tables and not mini circle tables where they only fit let's say the size of a clique (between 5-7 people). This was very interesting to me because I could relate to the book specifically about cliques and crowds.
 * __ 1st visit: __**
 * Elder High School: ** (3 hours of observation)

Other than being the only girl, going to classes wasn't that bad. The boys were very invested in their classes and interacted well with all of the teachers. They all spoke out when told to or raised their hands when asked a question. They were very serious about their learning I feel. Also, the teachers were very strict and serious about their teaching. But the teachers had fun with it and made the students laugh but they knew when it was acceptable for it to be relaxed and when to be serious.

While at Seton, I was so happy! I knew some of the students still and it was so nice to be able to talk with the teachers and tell them how I was doing in college. It was so nice to see everyone! The really cool thing though was that the teachers were treating me as an adult, a professional. It was so cool to finally be treated that way by people I knew in a high school setting. But, anyways, while at Seton I observed in the cafeteria, College prep Algebra, Honors Biology, and in a Freshman Focus Course. All of these classes were freshman classes. The freshman focus course was my absolute favorite because I was able to relate so many things of what they were learning back to the book!! The course is new to Seton and was made specifically for helping the girls make a better transition to high school from grade school. This was so perfect because we talked about that in class so much (pg. 306-307), how the transition is hard for many students and how it affects their academic achievement. In the freshman focus they were talking about careers and college. They were given an assignment to look up jobs that they may be interested in and what colleges have that major. Again, so relate-able to the book!!! Also, when I was in Seton's cafeteria the tables were also long tables and not small tables. This is a change from when I was at Seton. I asked the assistant principle why they changed it and she said exactly what I was thinking. She said they changed them to lower the clique groups and have more people of different cliques sit together so they aren't all in their separate groups. Hearing this was so awesome because schools are really trying to lower the cliques and crowds finally and that's so just awesome. Once cliques and crowds aren't as important then so many helpful and beneficial things will come out of it.
 * __2nd visit:__**
 * Seton High School: **( 3 hours of observation)

During the actually classes, I noticed a ton of girls who weren't paying attention. They use laptops as does Elder. When I was at Elder the boys never really had their laptops out except for note taking and the teacher made sure that they were all put away when he didn't want the students to have them out. But at Seton all of the girls had them out during every class I was at. They used Skype, email, and played games during class. The teachers noticed but they really didn't do anything about it because they didn't really want to have to deal with that, they just needed to teach their lesson. From what I observed, with the whole not paying attention, the girls weren't as invested in their learning as the men at Elder were. Also the teachers at Seton weren't as strict unlike the teachers at Elder.

While at Oak Hills, I felt to uncomfortable! I don't know if that's because I just have always hated Oak Hills or if it was because I'm bias or what. I just did not like it there one minute. I felt so little and tiny and judged by everyone. It's very weird though because I was only at a high school with boys; I go to college with boys!! I just don't get how a high school with boys made me feel so uncomfortable where as college with boys doesn't make me feel uncomfortable. I guess it just has to be the fact that it's Oak Hills and I just don't like being there because of everything I know and hear about it. It's not that it is a bad school to learn, it's just the fact that (for me) it's co-ed and I just hear rumors and bad things about it all of the time.
 * __3rd visit:__**
 * Oak Hills High School **: (2 hours of observation)

I think I only survived because I was with my cousin who is a junior there. I just went to 2 of her classes with her. Those classes were: College Prep English and College Prep Algebra 2. Sitting in on her classes I kept getting stares and everyone was asking my cousin who I was and what I was doing there and giving me weird looks. Again I could be turning the looks they gave me into something else because of my bias. As I was in the classes I noticed more males raising their hands than females.

** Physical **

 * What did you notice about the physical differences between boys and girls (pp. 283-288)?**

You could definitely tell the difference between who was a freshman and who was a senior. The freshman boys were so much shorter, scrawny looking. They have higher pitched voices and most of the freshman had braces where as the seniors voices were so much deeper and I didn't really notice any of them having braces. Elder did have a dress code. The shoes they were allowed to wear were: dress shoes, sperries, or nice gym shoes. The pants they were allowed to wear were black or tan dress pants and the shirts they were allowed to wear were purple or white Elder polos, or flannels. If they wanted to wear a sweatshirt, the sweatshirt could only say "Elder" in block lettering and they were not allowed to wear long sleeved shirts. They also must have their shirts tucked in at all times and be wearing a belt at all times. Mentioned in the book, for guys they start their growth spurt and hit puberty after girls do. And so with guys starting later, it was easy for me to tell the difference between the older guys and the younger guys. I even see it in my brother you who goes to Elder, he didn't hit his growth spurt until about end of freshman year and didn't really hit puberty until summer going into junior year. This is what also happened with his friends.
 * Elder: **

I honestly really could not really tell the difference between the freshman and seniors. The only major way I could tell the freshman apart from the seniors was how the freshman were wearing their name tags. All of the freshman had their name tags on and right at their collar, where as the seniors either were't wearing theirs or had it at the bottom of their shirt. I know that these were the seniors because that is what I did as a senior when I went to Seton. Seton also has a dress code. They can wear sperries, nice gym shoes, or boots as footwear. They must all wear their name tags at all times. They must wear their Seton plaid skirt with a gray, white, green, or black Seton polo and are allowed to wear any Seton sweatshirt when the cold weather starts to come in. I also noticed that hardly any of the girls were wearing make-up. I tried to count and the number was very very low. This was very interesting to me. When I was at Seton I never never wore make-up because I didn't have the need to; I didn't have any boys to impress. So I'm wondering if that is why they don't wear make-up either. Also, about 99.999% of the girls all had their hair up in ponytails. No one's hair was down and I feel that no one brushed their hair that morning either. Again, with having no boys to impress girls will do as little as possible when it comes to getting themselves ready in the morning for school.
 * Seton: **

I could definitely tell who the seniors were and who the freshman were while at Oak Hills. I could tell who was in what grade for both females and males not just the males. I thought that was interesting because when I was at Seton I could not really tell the difference between the seniors and freshman. I was thinking that the uniform at Seton is what helps me not be able to distinguish this. When in a uniform, most of the girls were dressed the same so it's hard to tell. So at Oak Hills, since there is no uniform, most girls dressed how ever they wanted (with a few rules made by the school). I feel with girls being able to express their personality through their clothing helps distinguish their age. I felt that most of the seniors were wearing comfortable clothes and not showing nearly as much skin as the freshman were. I feel the reasoning behind this is because the senior girls have been at Oak Hills for 3 years already and they have been through it all and don't care nearly as much about what the males think of them as the freshman girls do. But however, almost every girl I was was wearing make up. The guys were all mostly just wearing either jeans or sweat pants with a tee shirt and gym shoes. And like I said earlier, I could definitely tell the difference between the freshman boys and the senior boys. The freshman boys were so much smaller, had braces, not much facial hair, and had way higher voices.
 * Oak Hills: **

In all three schools, I noticed the same kind of mood. I went to all three schools on a Monday so i could definitely tell they were all very tired and groggy just because it was a Monday. They were all probably up late Sunday night doing homework and procrastinating. According to the book on page 289, students have expressed low points and low moods of their day when doing adult things like class. This totally makes sense because class does suck (sometimes) and does cause stress depending on the class you are in. But when the students express high levels of their mood, they are with their friends and on weekends. And since I was observing on a Monday, they were the furthest from their weekend nights.
 * What did you notice about the adolescent’s mood (p. 289)?**

At all three schools, I noticed a really good connection between the teachers and the students. Everyone was laughing and talking with each other. The students taught the teachers with respect and talked to them as they were a friend. They were talking to them with respect but also with a sort of laid back attitude. I feel the reason why teachers and students get along so well is because in the high school environment, the teachers understand how these are adolescents who are almost adults and they need to be treated like adults. In the book at page 289, it says how adolescents want to be treated in adult like ways. So when the teachers talk to the students as adults, it creates a much better relationship rather than if the students were being talked down at.
 * What did you notice about the adolescent’s relationship with adults (p. 289)?**

At Seton (all girl) on the outside, it seemed like absolutely no one cared about boys image because they were all girls and had no boys to impress. Most of the girls hair was up in a pony tail, wore no make up, had either gym shoes or boots on, and wore a Seton sweatshirt. At the coeducational school, there was definitely a difference. Most of the girls put effort into the way they looked, my guess is they did it for the boys, to look attractive to the males. The girls also put more effort into their outfit, some wore jeans and others wore sweat pants; but I honestly felt like every girl was wearing make up.
 * What did you notice about the role of body image in adolescent behavior (p. 290)?**

In the cafeterias of all three schools, you could tell apart some cliques and crowds, like the "jocks" and "nerds", but not much. At all three schools, most if not all of their tables were long tables so it forced people from different cliques to sit next to each other. That was the thinking Seton had and why they made most of their tables long. While in the classrooms, I felt most of the students talked to each other and evenly throughout the room.
 * What did you notice about peer relationships ( pp. 290-291)?**

The boys ate so much food!!!! I swear at every table a guy brought their own lunch from home and then he even bought food in the cafeteria. So much food. I mean it makes sense though because when a male is going through puberty he is supposed to intake about 2,700 calories a day. Also, at Elder over half of the students play a sport, whether that be football, soccer, swimming, lacrosse, or really any sport. And with playing a sport, they are always conditioning for that sport all year round so they need to take it lots of carbs and calories to get the energy they need. The tables in the cafeteria were all long tables connected to each other. Their cafeteria was kind of small so I'm guessing that is why they had the tables like that but I could be wrong. I should have asked why they made them like that but I unfortunately did not ask. But while eating, all guys were talking to each other and just eating their food very chill and normal.
 * What did you notice about eating habits (pp. 291-292)?**
 * Elder: **

While in Seton's cafeteria I noticed a few changes from when I was there. When I went there, most of the tables were small round tables where about only 5-7 people could fit, the size of a clique you could say. But when I observed, they got rid of a lot of the smaller tables and had more long tables like the way Elder had them. I asked the assistant principle why this was and she said that it was to break up all of the cliques and have girls sit with more girls and girls who weren't just from their clique or crowd. This really made me excited because right away I thought of the book and was like "ah omg i connected something to the book!". For girls going through puberty, the amount of calories they should be taking in are about 2,200 calories. Of the girls I saw, most of them brought their lunch from home, but a good amount also bought lunch. Going to an all girl school, I was never afraid to eat whatever, I mean I was eating in front of my friends, we all felt that way. So if someone started not eating as much or was disappearing after eating, it was noticed. We took this very seriously at Seton because anorexia and bulimia is very dangerous and we have had girls do those before.
 * Seton: **

** Oak Hills: ** Oak Hills cafeteria is huge. It was so crowded and packed with students of all different grades. There is 5 different lunch bells there and every single one is so packed with people. The tables were arranged in rows. There wasn't many small round tables, mostly just long tables like that of Elder's cafeteria. The sitting arrangements was what I expected; there was tables with just guys, just girls, and tables of both girls and guys all sitting next to each other. I didn't notice anyone not eating really from the amount of time I was in the cafeteria. All of the girls who were sitting with guys were eating normal sized lunches I felt was an appropriate sized lunch. BUT I did notice that the girls who did buy lunch, I felt they didn't have as big of a lunch as the girls who packed their lunch from home. This made me wonder if it was because they didn't want to spend much money or didn't want to seem like they were buying too much food in front of the guys.

I honestly did not notice much about this topic. I know that at Elder (all male), if a student did get a girl pregnant, nothing really happened to him. He just went to school like nothing ever happened. At Seton (all girl), the girl student is still allowed to attend school even when she is big and showing. But I am not sure about the co-ed school and their rules.I did however notice lots of students holding hands, flirting, and sometimes kissing in the hallways at the co-ed school. This really made me feel uncomfortable; these are high school kids showing so much PDA (public display of affection) and I am in college and I have never done that!
 * What did you notice about issues around sex (sex education, sexual references, sexual activity, teen pregnancy, etc.) (pp. 293-299)**

On page 300 in the book it says, "...high school students, by tenth grade, 40 percent of U.S. young people have tried cigarette smoking, 63 percent drinking, and 38 percent at least one illegal drug (usually marijuana)". Based on my observations, I can definitely see the truth in those statistics. When I was at Elder and Seton (the all male and all female high schools) I did not notice the substance use or abuse anything. But what really surprised me was when I was observing at Oak Hills, the coeducational school. When I got to the school, right away I saw police officers and dogs. I asked my cousin about this and she said that they have permanent dogs at the school to smell out drugs in the lockers and on the students themselves. This was crazy to me that the school had to have smell out dogs everyday due to the fact that so many students are doing illegal drugs.
 * What did you notice about substance use or substance related references (pp. 299-300)?**

** Physical Cognitive **
__All Girl:__ While observing at the all girl school I noticed one true thing: NONE of the girls cared about their physical, outside appearance of themselves. They are all girls so they have no one to impress, i.e. the boys. I observed that very little of them brushed their hair that morning and most of the girls hair was thrown up in a pony tail. I noticed very few girls wearing any make up and with having the all school uniform, everyone was just wearing the school skirt and a school sweatshirt or school polo. With having no one to impress everyone pretty much looked the same and so I felt there was no criticism. When I attended this all girl high school, there was really only criticism if you actually did try to look nice because everyone thought it was pointless to look good. __Co-Ed:__ While at the co-ed school, the first thing I noticed was the outfits of the girls. Everyone was wearing something completely different. Some of the girls were wearing just sweatpants and a tee shirt, others jeans and a nice shirt, some who went full out in the “I need to look hot” look, and others wore nice cute outfits. I have to admit, it was cool to be able to see the girls express themselves in what they wear, but when they wear things that are disrespectful towards their body, that is when I am glad I never went to a co-ed high school and proud of the uniform I wore when I went to an all girl high school. Also, whether the girl was dressed nice or in sweats, they were ALL wearing makeup. I went with my cousin to this school and her and her group of friends would sometimes go to the bathroom just to redo their makeup. This really bugged me because I don’t see how or why they can care so much about their looks at school.

** Emotional and **** Social **
__All Girl:__ While observing in the cafeteria, you could definitely tell there was a bunch of cliques. The school even noticed and they put in long tables to prevent the separation of cliques to make the girls all sit at one table. This idea didn’t really work however, the students just left a few seats in between each clique. With the girls being in uniforms you could not really tell what their label was for their clique but when I got up close to their table to try and listen to their conversation you could tell by just what they were talking about. __Co-ed:__ While observing in the cafeteria for the co-ed school, the room was so crowded and filled with students. Males and females were all sitting together eating lunch and talking. I did not notice a table with just females or just males. And with everyone dressed in their own clothing you could tell the different cliques of what their labels were but the surprising thing was that one clique was sitting with a few different other cliques.

** Revisiting Your Curiosities **

 * W : What you want to know (inquiry questions) **

Through all the research I found and the observation hours I did, I really did learn about many different implications of attending an all girl high school and a coeducational high school. Attending an all girl high school does have its benefits and it also has some setbacks. From my research, I learned that going to an all girl high school does improve the overall academic learning for the girls and they have more leadership roles. But, going to an an girl school does cause more stress on body image and self-esteem for the girls.
 * 1.** ** What's the developmental implications of attending an all girl high school? **


 * 2. Examining Developmental Aspects of All Girl Schooling**

My presentation is basically all words and has one graph on it. I just had so much information and I didn't want to leave anything out so I squeezed it all in the presentation, no matter what size font I had to use! I described my observations hours and how they matched with the research I found.
 * 3. Creative Presentations**

I do not want to be a teacher so this question does not really apply to me. But, having done this project, now I have more deep specific questions about all girl schooling, especially about how cliques and crowds affect an adolescents body image and self-esteem.
 * 4. What new questions emerge for you as a future teacher?**

Late Adulthood

Over the Thanksgiving holiday break I got to spend time with my only living grandparent. My grandma is my mom's mom and she is 93 years old! I love her so much. When I was in grade school, everyday after school I would walk to my grandma's house and I would spend the day with her until my mom got off work and picked me up. I really got to learn about my grandma during that time. She also taught me a lot. Everyday we would do something new. She taught me how to sew and I made so many crafts with her that made great Christmas presents to give to family members. She also always had a snack waiting for me when I got home from school (: My grandma is really special to me and is always there for me to talk to. She is one of those "old fashion typed grandma's" if that makes sense. She has no idea what technology really is! The only technology she uses is a home telephone that is connected to the wall! My grandma has 5 sisters and has about 30 grandchildren and great grandchildren all together. Her husband, my grandpa, died in 1989 before I was born.
 * Describe your Older Adult Project: **

Describe your experience (2 paragraph minimum and make 4 references to the textbook):
 * While sitting there with my grandma, the first thing I asked her about was how her living situation was going. My grandma has been living on her own her entire life until recently. My grandma lived in her big house, the house where she raised all of her kids, the house she moved into after she was married. She lived in that house until about the year 2000. We didn't think she needed a house that big just to herself so she moved into an apartment for elderly people. She lived there until about 2011 where she moved in with my aunt into her house. We thought she should have someone there with her so that's why she moved in with my aunt. On pages __484 to 485__ it talks about the living and housing arrangements of the elderly. The elderly want their independence. They want to have control over their everyday lives and not have much help from others. Well, having talked to my grandma, I know that that is a true fact; my grandma absolutely hates living with my aunt. My grandma told me how she doesn't have much control over what they eat for dinner and is always asked if she needs help with anything. This made me sad talking to her about this because I know she wants her independence but all we are trying to do is help her and make sure she knows that we care and love her.
 * Although my grandma does live with my aunt, she does have a lot of alone time because my aunt does work until 5 everyday. During the hours where she is alone, I asked her what she does with her time (I already know the things that she does but I felt I should ask her again!). She said that she reads a lot,writes a lot about the family (family trees), and plays with the dog and talks to the birds she has. Hearing her say this makes me sad; my grandpa died in 1989 meaning my grandma lost her loved one over 24 years ago. I can't even imagine how lonely she must feel. I never really thought about that until when we were talking. I mean yes she has so many kids and grandchildren to keep her busy but the one man she was with since 18 years old being dead is just crazy to think about and so sad. On page __488 and 489__ the book talks about widowhood and loneliness. Women are more likely to live longer than their male spouse and are less likely to remarry after a deceased husband.
 * When my grandma told me about how she writes a lot, most of what she writes is just all by memory. This memory is known as remote memory, very long termed recall memory (__page 465__). It's so weird, she remembers so much about the whole entire family and so many things from the long ago past but she can't remember what she told me a day ago. All of the time she complains to my mom saying that she told my mom something and my mom says no grandma you never told me that but yet my grandma can tell you everything that happened ten years ago on any day you ask her.
 * While talking to my grandma I had to talk louder than normal. She has, well had, hearing aids. The dog just ate one of her hearing aids so she basically can only hear with one ear. So talking to her was a little bit of a struggle but worth it. On __page 448__ the book talks about the effects of having hearing loss. Hearing loss can effect social life and more loneliness. This is because the elderly feel bad having to ask so many times to repeat something so they either just talk about themselves the whole time or they don't communicate as much as they did before. I feel with my grandma having her hearing aids it really does help her communicate more and be able to talk more.