Derek+McClintick


 * Record of Assignments**
 * Name of Student:** Derek McClintick

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** Adolescence **

** W : What you want to know (curiosities/inquiry questions) **
1. **How do hormones** **affect adolescent development?**

** Resource #1 **

 * Read:**
 * The article I read was titled " Health Effects from     Chemical Exposure      ." It gave a lot of information about how chemicals in our environment can affect us developmentally. It mentioned that it can affect adolescents more than adults because it can alter      cell development      which can negatively affect maturing organs. Chemicals come from various sources of waste. There are three ways that chemicals enter our body: ingestion, inhalation, and skin contact. Chemicals in the environment have been linked to causing     developmental disorders     such as autism, ADHD, etc.


 * Respond:**
 * It is frightening that these chemicals in our environment can easily enter our bodies and that they can cause such damaging disorders. Especially since the younger you are, the more susceptible you are to these disorders. Logically, I think it makes sense that cities would have a lot more waste and population density than rural areas therefore containing more chemicals to be exposed to. It would be interesting to find a study (or do one if one hasn't been done already) to correlate the amount of different types of waste in the area and the amount of people that have developmental disorders existing in the same area.


 * APA Citation:**
 * Nixon, J. Bureau of Environmental Epidemiology, (2011). // Health effects from Chemical Exposure // . Retrieved from Missouri     Department of Health      and Senior     Services website     : http://health.mo.gov/living/environment/hazsubstancesites/healtheffects.php

> = =
 * Read:**
 * I read an article titled " Fear learning and memory across adolescent development: Hormones and Behavior Special Issue: Puberty and Adolescence." It mentioned that there are frequently more cases of     anxiety disorders      in adolescents. Since adolescence is a time of hormonal release and pubertal change, anxiety and hormones may have a strong correlation. Emotional disorders occur in as many as 1 in 10 adolescents. Hormones also spike sexual interest which can lead to many different thoughts and emotions such as fear, self- consciousness, excitement.


 * Respond:**
 * Hormones play a huge role in adolescent development because adolescence is when puberty starts which is when a ton of hormones are released and these hormones spike sexual interest which controls a lot of the ways adolescents live. Sexual interest can put fear in the lives of adolescents if they feel they aren't good enough or desirable to the opposite sex. This can cause anxiety along which may be why adolescents have an 'imaginary audience' or 'personal fable' because they are so worried about being wanted or desired by their peers.


 * APA Citation:**
 * Pattwell, S. S., Lee, F. S., & Casey, B. J. (2013). Fear learning and memory across adolescent development: Hormones and Behavior Special Issue: Puberty and Adolescence. Hormones & Behavior, 64(2), 380-389. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2013.01.016

** Resource #3 **

 * Read:**
 * Adolescence is a period where signs of psychotic symptoms tend to show themselves. There are many structural and functional changes in the brain at this stage in human development. Hormones play a big role in affecting brain development and there are hormone induced changes that can be linked to future psychosis. Manifestations of indicators make themselves present during adolescence such as impaired attention, dysphoric mood and declines in role functiontioning.


 * Respond:**
 * I think that understanding how hormones affect brain development is essential for fighting anxiety disorders. If they understand how hormones are causing certain areas of the brain to change structurally or functionally, then they can possible use that to fix it or help ease the symptoms of the disorder. Unfortunately, there are so many variables and factors that affect the brain, understanding the complexities of how it develops seems slightly impossible and we can only make educational guess and take stabs at answers and then try it and test theories on animals.


 * APA Citation:**
 * Trotman, H. D., Holtzman, C. W., Ryan, A. T., Shapiro, D. I., MacDonald, A. N., Goulding, S. M., & ... Walker, E. F. (2013). The development of psychotic disorders in adolescence: A potential role for hormones. Hormones & Behavior, 64(2), 411-419. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2013.02.018

** Resource #4 **

 * Read:**
 * In this article they had two studies. I focused on the second study which assessed how the transition to junior high school influenced children's self-beliefs. In order to assess, questionnaires were given to the students to complete during the fall and spring of their seventh grade year. Results showed that during the elementary years, students' self-esteem remained fairly constant. However, during the junior high years it tended to decrease. Children also start to mixed patterns of interest about the importance of different activities. Their interest in activities starts to branch out. Girls and boys start to develop different values and beliefs in regards to gender stereotypes.


 * Respond:**
 * The information in this article contrasts our book a bit. Our book says that self-esteem tends to rise in adolescence. While this book says that during middle school years self-esteem decreases. Though, our book could be referring to a little later when students are entering high school. The other trends they noticed make sense to me though. I remember in middle school I started to get interested in the guitar while keeping my interest for sports. I also became interested in girls while still caring about sports and video games. And I loved to read. Those are a ton of different things to be balancing in life. This is the age, though, where you wanna experiment with things so you can find out what you really like and what you want to pursue. It is almost like we intentionally overwhelm ourselves so we are forced to prioritize what we really want and start to lose interest in the things we don't.


 * APA Citation:**
 * Wigfield, A. (1994). Children's competence beliefs, achievement values, and general self esteem change across elementary and middle school. // Journal of Early Adolescence //, // 14 // (2), 107-138. Retrieved from http://jea.sagepub.com/content/14/2/107.short

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

I selected my activity from the 'Unheard Voices' section of the website. It has various interviews from LGBT individuals of stories from their life when they may have been treated unfairly. The interview that I read was about a guy named Kendall Bailey. He joined the marines and served for five years until one day he was at a recruiting event and one of his officers caught him texting his boyfriend. He told his officer that he was gay and his commanding officer replied that 'it is a phase, you just need to go through counseling'. Then he was sent home and he's never allowed to serve in the military again. There is a hand-out which provides good discussion questions for a classroom setting such as, "Do you agree with Kendall's commanding officer in the sense that a person's sexual orientation is a phase?"
 * Describe your resource:**

[] []
 * 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: Hughes High School
 * Link to site:**hughes **stem.cps-k12.org
 * Contact person:
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/HughesHighSchoolCincinnati.PNG width="472" height="302"]]

__ ** B. Describe your setting ** __
Hughes High School is located in Cincinnati, Ohio down the street from the UC campus. The building is large with a few different floors. To enter the building, you go up the stairs and buzz in at the right. Then someone looks at you through a camera, and you can enter. Then, you have to sign in at the front desk in the main office. The main office is a pretty hectic area. There are lots of people flying around trying to get stuff done. The secretaries seem used to it though, and are able to help get to where you need to go.

My class that I am observing is on the second floor. It is a freshman algebra class. I sit in the back and take notes while the teacher has normal class. The kids are generally well-behaved. They pay attention to their teacher and actively participate in activities. The females are all African-American, and the majority of the males are also, with the exception of one Caucasian male. The teacher is an African-American female. There are a couple other adult 'helpers' that sit in the back by me with a boy to help him. The class is from 10:45-11:41. The students have one more class period after that, then they have lunch.

__** C. Describe what you did at the site (free-write/journal formatting) **__
My first visit was on October 1, 2013. My observation time was at 10-45-11:41. I ended up walking in the building at about 10:40 because I had to stop at the library to print something out when my printer in my room decided not to work that morning. I was not intending to arrive so close to the class time because it was my first day and I wanted to make a good impression. I was told by the people in the main office to use the name-tag machine to get my name-tag. The machine ended up being broken so I just used my bearcat ID as my name-tag. The five minutes I spent messing with the machine caused me to get up to the class at 10:48, three minutes too late. The teacher sent me back down and said to come back another time. She is strict about observers arriving before class starts.
 * __ 1st visit: __**

I went back down to the main office and started signing out when the secretary told me that I shouldn't have to leave because I was here on time I just got held up by the machine. They told me I could stick around for an hour and wait to observe during the next class period. So I went and stood outside the classroom for about an hour waiting. I saw a lot of things out in the hall while I waited. Particularly, I took note of one young African-American boy standing in line waiting to go into a classroom down the hall as an older African-American boy walks by with his group of friends. The older boy walked confidently with his head high as the younger boy stood watching him, almost gaping. The older boy glanced over at the younger boy sees him staring, and then looks away pretending not to notice. The younger boy looks the older one over from head to toe, taking note of his shoes and in general, his physical demeanor.

Once I started observing my actual class an hour later than I was scheduled I took note of a few things. The teacher did an activity where everyone writes down answers to questions on a strip of paper, they trade the paper with a peer, then grade. Just by observing this activity I could tell which students were strong in math and which ones weren't by how confidently they volunteered answers, if volunteering at all. You could tell which students took it seriously, and which ones didn't really care. One thing that I noticed about the teacher is how much time she takes to make sure everyone is disciplined. She even took time to mention in her lecture, "I believe it is worth it to take time away from math to focus on teaching you how to be better people." My second visit was on October 8. I showed up really early this time and caught the end of the class period before the one I typically observe. The teacher mentioned how one class asked a ton of questions about a presentation and how a different class asked hardly any. I thought that was interesting. It will be interesting when I am a teacher and I get to notice the subtle differences (or possibly great differences) between reactions from students to the material I teach. Watching between bells is kind of funny. It is a brief period of chaos, then when the bell rings everyone scurries to their desks and begin working on their warm-up problems. Ms. Miller then harps on bringing in notes for missed class. Building maturity and responsibility is a very important. She then talks about extra credit which raises a lot of questions. Extra credit is highly valued. The instructor gives a lot of encouragement for impressive answers.
 * __2nd visit:__**

For the warm-up questions, she has the students who know the answer explain it, as well as the math going on in their head without saying the answer. This forces the students to start thinking about how to explain math. They need to know how to explain because the rest of their homework for chapter two is a completion grade that they have to be able to explain.

A young girl in the back is in need of an eraser is offered to use the eraser of a male classmate in the row in front of her, but she refuses. She almost seems insulted. Then a girl sitting diagonal from her offered her an eraser and she gladly accepted. I thought that was a little strange. The male seemed sincere. I figured the "ew, that's a BOYS eraser. I can't use that" thought processing existed in earlier age groups, not in freshman in high school. But, I supposed some freshman still have that kind of mentality.

The class consists of two Caucasian males, ten African-American males, and 15 African-American females.

My next visit was on October 15, 2013 which was my 21st birthday! Woohoo! This time I observed the The class enters noisily. Ms. Miller stresses to sit down and start their warm-up silence. She has a rule and says that you need either a pencil, a quarter or five big red bucks in order to get a pencil. As she reads one of the warm-up questions, students that are confused murmur "huh's" and "what's" which frustrates Ms. Miller. She says it frustrates her because she knows that when people make those comments out loud it messes up the math going on in someone else's head that might be understanding the problem a bit better.
 * __3rd visit:__**

Ms. Miller takes a minute to say that she is irritable today and human and even though the class is awesome most of the time she is just a bit grumpy today. Things definitely seem a bit tense in the classroom today. It seems like they are trying to get too much done without enough time. They had a big discussion about spirit week which is starting next week. Things are a bit more strict at Hughes about spirit week then they were at my high school in Mason. From the way Ms. Miller talks about it sounds like spirit week has caused some problems in the past resulting from overly rambunctious behavior. Their rules and things that they do for spirit week are a bit more mild than I remember. I think it also has something to do with Hughes requiring uniforms. Even though it is spirit week and they are allowed to wear goofy stuff, they still have to adhere to the proper dress code. They got a bit too wrapped up in the discussion about spirit week and started running out of time before Ms. Miller could start individually updating everyone on how their grades were doing. Some of the students started getting annoyed. One boy is sent to the back and put in 'timeout' because he stood up in the middle of class and un-tucked his shirt. I helped a couple students out with problems at the end while they worked on some busy work. I really enjoyed that!

This next observation date is nearly a month later on November 12. I skipped writing about two hours I observed in between this date and the 15th because I didn't write as many notes as I did for this day.
 * __4th visit:__**

It takes the fourth bell a little longer to get to their seats and quietly focus. When they do get there though, they stay focused and work diligently on their warm-up problems. It seems that today their schedule was a bit different; it seems they attended an assembly in the previous bell. After their warm-up they get their homework out to be collected. They have midterms on Monday, so naturally the class is preparing. They start talking about grades, and assignments that need to be made up.

For each of their warm-ups, Ms. Miller has a student chose a popsicle stick reading either "no grade," "completion grade," or "accuracy grade." It is funny because she usually hints the student to choose the "no-grade" popsicle stick because Ms. Miller, like the students, does not want the warm-ups to be graded since she has to be the one to grade them!

Ms. Miller continues to call students to her desk, making sure everyone is aware of the assignments they have missed, their current grades, and what they should currently be working on. It is certainly a process and it takes a group effort. As the noise level steadies, then slowly escalates Ms. Miller redirects the class and reminds them that it's a privilege that she is letting them make up all this extra work and while they are in class.

It's interesting to watch how the class of freshman treats this time to improve upon their grades. Some of the class is working silently, taking full advantage totally focused. But the majority of the class is half focused and with the energy level being where it is, the noise level doesn't stay down for long. It is only a matter of minutes before it begins to escalate.

This observation is from Tuesday, November 19.
 * __5th visit:__**

I like the way that Ms. Miller uses her warm-ups. They are a good way to get the class focused and ready to think about math. She also provides lots of help and repeats the answers a few times so there is little to no confusion. It just emphasizes the fact that it is a warm-up, something to help you; not trick you and confuse you. The class this period is focused on correcting their homework from 3-1 to 3-3 because the next time they all come to class on Thursday, they will be taking a test.

Ms. Miller was in a good, silly mood today. She had the whole class laughing a few times. With freshman, though, it's more difficult to go from joking around back to being serious than it is with an older age group. Ms. Miller has to state specifically that joking around is over let's bring back our focus to math.

Regaining focus is fairly easy though still. Ms. Miller starts going over problems and the class's focus returns. They do really well following along with Ms. Miller and volunteering their answers. She commends one of the students after he notices an implied triangle, demonstrating impressive spatial intelligence. She makes that clear to him. The boy is early-maturing and takes the compliment well and definitely swells a bit with pride on the inside.

Ms. Miller gives a spiel about how it is okay to talk and joke around and have fun and a lot of times it can make learning better and more fun but when the teacher starts talking again it's time to focus and be quiet. I actually wrote down that point before she mentioned it out loud to the class because it was apparent they really struggled with it. After Ms. Miller said something though, it got a lot better and the class would re-focus more quickly.

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

Boys have broader shoulders relative to the hips. Girls have broader hips relative to the shoulders. Boys have more skeletal muscle, longer legs and girls typically have more fat.

What did you notice about the role of body image in adolescent behavior (p. 290)?

Body image seemed to be very important. Almost everyone cares considerably about how they look which is obvious when you notice the effort they put in to wearing a certain shoe, certain hair

** Cognitive **
Girls seemed to be more focused than boys as a whole. I didn't see one boy that slept in class though and I saw probably three girls sleeping in class. Boys tended to participate more in class and would raise their hands more often to be called on. When Ms. Miller asked everyone to yell answers out there were an even amount of boys and girls chiming in.

** Emotional **
What did you notice about the adolescent’s mood (p. 289)

They seemed to either be drowsy, or rowdy. Typically, student's seemed to be in an overall positive mood. There were some who looked a bit grumpy, but much less.

** Social **
What did you notice about the adolescent’s relationship with adults (p. 289)?

From what I saw, student's respected their adult figures. Student's at this age are able to talk and interact with teachers on a professional and personal level.

What did you notice about peer relationships ( pp. 290-291)?

It was pretty hard to tell which students hung out with who and if there was any dating going on. The boys interacted with mostly things to annoy each other: stealing pencils, pushing, slapping, hiding calculator. Or the guys would just joke around verbally. Girls would talk among themselves quietly unless they were interacting with a boy. Boys would normally find reasons or ways to touch the girls and their was a lot of spontaneous flirting that would go on.

** Revisiting Your Curiosities **
[Answer your original questions as best as you can, given the course material and your observations. You must make at least 4 references to the text with page numbers.] Testosterone and estrogen have an extremely significant affect on adolescent development. Hormonal changes, which begin occurring in adolescents at around age 8 or 9, underlie the physical transition to adulthood we know as puberty (p.284). Biologically, hormones cause body proportions to grow as well as maturation of sexual organs. There are several key differences between girls and boys. Testosterone is an androgen (male hormone) and estrogen is a female hormone (p.284). They are both present in each sex but the amounts vary. Estrogens trigger growth hormone secretion more readily than androgens which is why girls usually hit their growth spurt around 2 years before boys (p.284). Being farther along in puberty and adjusting to these hormonal changes quickly is typically advantageous for boys. Among boys, athletic competence is strongly related to peer admiration and self-esteem (p.285). For girls, developing early is not typically beneficial for their self-esteem. The book mentions a girl named Sabrina (p. 285) who worried about her weight because she accumulated more fat than her friends whom were later-developing.
 * W : What you want to know (inquiry questions) **
 * 1. How do the hormones testosterone and estrogen affect adolescent development?**


 * 2. Hormones and Development**

For my presentation I basically just collected information about hormones, what they do, and the differences they cause developmentally in boys and girls. I also noted how hormones affect adolescent self-esteem. The book says that, typically, early maturing boys have high self-esteem and early maturing girls have low self-esteem. I used what I learned to pick out early maturing boys and girls in the class that I observe at Hughes. I observed their behavior to see if I could verify the book's claims. I found good evidence in the boys in the early maturing boys I picked out they seemed to definitely have higher confidence and self-esteem than the other later maturing boys. I didn't notice anything different about the early maturing girl's self-esteem in comparison to the other later maturing girls.
 * 3. Creative Presentations**

How do I use this knowledge to better myself as an educator? How do I react to this when I see it in the classroom? What is the best way to help adolescents who struggle through this time of their life?
 * 4. What new questions emerge for you as a future teacher?**

Late Adulthood

Describe your Older Adult Project:

For my Older Adult Project, I spent a couple hours with my grandma at the Kenwood Mall. We met at around 1 pm, and we decided to eat at the delicious Cheesecake Factory. My grandma is almost 70 years old. She is a very healthy, active woman. She lives in a house with a decent few acres and has a nice, big pond stocked with fish and complete with a fountain. The property is beautiful. It brings back so many wonderful childhood memories every time I visit. My grandma has been a big part of my life. She lives only 15 minutes away and has always been right there to spoil me rotten. I am a very lucky person to have her. She has prioritized my life above her own countless times. After we went to the Cheesecake Factory we went to the Apple store to see how much it would be to fixed a cracked Iphone screen and my grandma gave me some money to get mine fixed. See? That's what I'm talking about. Spoils me rotten, but hey it's pretty much known that Grandma's are the best!

At the Cheesecake Factory, I brought up some of the topics in class while she gave her thoughts on them. I also asked her about some of the questions we had on our survey so I could compare her answers with some I had already seen. She had a lot of great input. She has a best friend whom she knew as a teenager and they have been close all this time, but now her friend has Alzheimer's and it was very interesting hearing about that. My grandma also had some insightful views about hospice, nursing homes, and retirement communities.

Describe your experience (2 paragraph minimum and make 4 references to the textbook):

I first asked my grandma what she thought about the fact that the rate of suicide in people 75 and older is the highest among all other age groups (p.481). She said it makes sense because if someone that old is feeling lonely and losing their independence it might seem more appealing to die than to let others take care of you if there are even others (loved ones) to do so. I asked my grandma if she ever feels lonely. She said that she does sometimes, but she keeps pretty busy so not too much. My grandma is still married so she counts as the statistic in the book (page 487) it says that even with the high divorce rate in the U.S., between 20-25% of first marriages is expected to last at least 50 years. My grandparents just had their 50th anniversary a few months ago.

I asked my grandma about her friend who's name is Dianne, also. She has Alzheimer's. It seems that Dianne was is my grandma's only intimate friend and they can't really be intimate anymore because her friends mental functions are on a steady decline. My grandma seems sad about the lost connection to her past and not being able to talk or relate to this person too well anymore. I think my grandma has more of what the book refers to as "secondary friends," people who are not intimates but with whom they spend time occasionally, such as a group that meets for lunch, bridge, or museum tours (p. 492) My grandma plays bingo, volunteers at a hospital, visits kids at a Juvenile Center, and helps out a ton with our family. My grandma also exercises everyday. She walks and does light weights. I think she will be healthy for a good while, considering now at 70 years old the only time she sees a hospital is when she's volunteering at one. I asked my grandma how she felt about nursing homes (p. 511) since she helped and watched her mother experience these in her time she knows a lot about them. My grandma is not totally against nursing homes and says if she ever lost the ability to take care of herself she would be able to stay in one, but only if she lost her independence. She says the worst part about nursing homes that so many people have problems with is how they take total control of your life. It is like being a child again almost and that is hard for a lot of people to accept which I can understand. She the experience with her mother being in hospice was nice though. The hospice does a great job of easing people and their families through death, which is not an easy task.

I actually took a picture of my grandma and I after I got a new Iphone at the apple store but the picture got deleted when I took my phone home and plugged it into my computer to sync all my old preferences and stuff. And apparently my grandma doesn't like her picture taken because this is the next best photo I have of us, which is clearly a very bad picture hahah.