Youth Development run down

       Youth development voluntary engagements with youth. Youth develop workers covers the informal teaching to balance out the academic teaching that young people are accustomed to. Youth Development is a commit to be a positive role model, leader, and advocate for youth who  may need it.  They work in communities to changes lives and also stand for justice against prejudice, and discriminations  for all young people no matter the young person's sex or race. Y dev stands for unity and tolerance,  for all young people as well as guiding them in a positive direction.

   Y Dev breaks down into three categories including social work and nonprofit studies. Y Dev uses the social worker classes to teach Y dev.  majors how to advocate for people, relate, handle people's problems. The nonprofit class teaches how an organization/agency that  work with youth might operate. Youth development is about understanding and relating to the future of the world. Like in the article This is Youth Work: Stories of the Practice said in so many words it is too essential  to be overlooked by government.

No such thing as a bad child

    I went to a very interesting seminar called "No Such Thing as A Bad Child" This was held at my job and was part of my training for work. It was held by Charlie Applestein who is well known for  working with  trouble youth in foster care, residential settings and psych hospital settings.  He speaks at these placements to teach ways of interacting with youth and handling challenging behaviors.  He first spoke about his experience in the field of residential work and some things he had to go through. Dr. Applestein was very funny having us laughing to things that only a residential workers can relate to. Dr. Applestein explained how it all starts with making the young person we care for feel good about themselves. He said its starts the moment that we walk in the door and see the kids that are "troubled". we treat them like we haven't seen them in a long time and we are enthusiastic about working with them make them feel good about themselves. He said later down the line it would help  when they are in crisis because the  present of someone who made them feel good when they weren't in crisis trigger a feeling of things being better. He had a few silly songs about following the rules that he suggested that he said works to help remind kids of rules and acceptable behavior, He has these tapes for free if you email him.

   I believe this article relates to our discussion about resilient kids. I believe that Applestein would like the job that the school is doing to deal with behaviors. Both Applestein's seminars and what was said  on the videos about resilient kids put powerful emphasizes on the positive behavior and teaching kids about proper ways of dealing with challenges and stress in different setting. Both models should be used in  the classrooms, residential treatments centers and foster care enviroments. I would recommend Charlie Applestein to speak to the class in one the Y dev classes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR_CoL5_TGs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGnZMGuV0LM


http://www.charliea.com/charlie.html

http://www.charliea.com/images/NoSuchThingAsABadKid.jpg

Psycho Academic Holocaust

     In September I went to a seminar that talked about the continuing  misdiagnose of  African Americans and Latino students in public schools. It was hosted by Umar Johnson  who is a School Psychologist and advocate  for African American and Latino students and their parents who are often negatively targeted in school systems. It was held at Dr. Jorge Alarez   High School in Providence. Before Dr.Johnson spoke, there were a few people who told poems, sang songs, and spoke about issues in the African and Latino communities. When Dr. Johnson spoke; he discussed how African American and Latinos  students are disproportionately put in special education because of cultural differences between the students and the teachers. He said most teachers who are middle age white women who give cultural bias standardize testings set the students up to be put in restricted environments and are given mediocre education. Poor standardize testing is blame on students inability to pay attention which causes the poor testing.  the school system make parents believe that their children need to be on dangerous medications that they don't really need to treat ADHD or other disorders. He said that teachers who have students that they find difficult  including African American boys who are stereotyped to act out in class more than others, are  funneled unnecessarily into special education because schools take in more federal money for each special ed student  that they identify.  in addition to that the money should go to their budget but Unfortunately at times the money is not used to provide the student with the resources he/she needs to perform. He discuss how he is a school psychologist for many  schools in Philadelphia and  attends other schools across the countries and sees this practiced more and more.
   
     Dr. Johnson gave advise to parents about how to protect their children from unnecessary being put in specials educations and given dangerous  medication by school psychologist  that could affect a student's educations and life.   He recommended reading every piece of paper in school meetings and parents knowing their  children's educational rights. He said if something is unclear, have someone else look over papers before signing papers about providing special educations service. This is especially true before parents sign to have their children  medicated. He talked about having a support hotline and a committee for African American and Latino parents to have advocates in cities across the country to make sure the proper legal process is being done.  He is also opening up a school that he is trying to raise money for.

     This event  relates to what we discuss about single stories. I believe that so many teachers and people in the school system have presumptions of what African Americans and  Latinos are like before getting to know them which leads to them  giving up on them easily. If some teachers were able to see pass some of the preconceived notions about students of colors and recognize that there is more to them, then maybe there wouldn't be so many students in special ed.  There is a system of injustice  for students of  color and the single stories that perpetuates images of students of color as worthless. The ones  who suffer the long term affect of being on meds that they really don't need and miseducation are the African American students and Latinos/ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4WTkw-EGt4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxfKDKxU0Y0&index=2&list=RDZ4WTkw-EGt4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ779V1JEjQ

Resilent Children

      This video seem to be right down my alley of what i want to do when working with youth.  I lost interest in teaching  partly because i felt bored teaching a redundant curriculum that helps with their academic but don't look at other factors that can help kids.  There is not enough focus in schools dealing with conflict solving and in other areas of life skills . I started to see that somehow  i would have to teach students who struggle in and outside of class  how to read and write while their skills to work through problems may not never flourish. I decided that i wanted to focus in this area as i became a child care worker working in residential treatments. Just like the principle in the video I wanted to teach young people  how to be resilient and work cope with stress. I believe having at least some type of thinking of how to go about dealing with daily conflict is an important skill that should be intertwined in the daily curriculum. Since it's not, i felt if I was a teacher I would probably have daily disruptions in my  classroom which sets everyone back in the learning environment. If the students are not where they need to be academically,  I would look bad as a teacher which i don't find fare  

       I watched both videos and looked at their website interested in the method used to lower youth stress. The first video labeled "what i think of resilient " talked about teaching conflict solution and how lowering stress helped make one school in Providence lower their  use of discipline actions  in schools. I only wish that the guy in the video elaborated more  on what is needed to create an environment where the children can be successful in managing their  emotions. I would love to learn this and apply it to the youth at my job who are in residential care. Just like in the classrooms in the video,  I would like to have the kids at my job focus in on solving conflict  skills and appropriately dealing with stress.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

single stories

    I have heard of single stories of certain people growing up. As i grew into a career of being a teacher  i was told of stories of students who were in urban areas around the country. I heard stories of violence and disrespect in the inner city schools and how much more dangerous it is to work there. All this was coming from one of  my professor from CCRI. She seem to speak from experience and i soaked it all in but at the same time I was conflicted due to have been in inner city schools and feeling like it wasn't all that bad  the schools I was in.  By mid semester i was second guessing my own experience like "that fight between  Bo and Andrew was pretty bad.. maybe I been in a violent environment and been immune  to how bad it was  the whole time."  This teacher's perception of what inner city students had me think different about my own environment and had me want to teach in other types of schools.  This perception changed when I snapped out of my trance and said "these are my people who grew up similar to me and  I owe it to them to give back." I had a chance to do my classroom observation in Warwick or in Providence  when i came to RIC one semester later.  I chose Providence to prove to others and tell the story that working with the youths in the inner city would not be as bad as some professors in college classes made them seem. Let me tell you i had a blast working in the schools!! it was the best experience i ever had. I worked in the preschool and kindergarten class at John Hope. I easily related and found that the "violent inner city youth were no more than age appropriate tantrums that a student in a school in the suburbans would have. I chose my path from that moment on. I didn't hear the other side of the story i lived it.

here a pic for your

 

context Mapping

Context map is the different social components and relationships  of one's  life that is separated but overall make up who the person is. People can somewhat adapt to different social settings in their life to fit in and be accepted. There are some conflicts when the different relationships and social component entwine living the person stuck on who they want to be.  this was the case for Julian. Julian had a hard time being in different roles in the  social environments that were parts of his life. Mitchell had Julian write  down the relationships in his life and what each relationships expect out of him which is pretty much a context map.

context map has 4 identities

forclose

achievement  

Diffused Identity

moratorium 

My context map

My family

the Elder and decision maker for young siblings and family members at times. 

Abide by culture 

Educator and career oriented 

I have to be mature responsible one in this role 

Friends

Advisor

Joker

Drink
have fun

goofy
I am laid back more open and playful

Work

teacher

role model

serious
I am focus and requires a lot of planning and organization, i'm serious in this role

Sports fan

Maniac

Loud

Semi aggressive
I am loud and in people's face, i can be more competitive and wild 

construction of Adolescence

(late to due to assignment listing late and it was hard to read)

Context that i learned 

Theoretical thinking

Constructional of Adolescence 

authorship

interpyschological development

interpersonal development

reciprocal coauthorship

what i found interesting

author of our own story 

scaffolding 

meeting of the mind

zone of proximity development

5 people who coauthored my life (Could only think of 5)

my mother Phebean

my sister Bunmi

My brother in law Reggie
My 3rd and 4th grade teacher Mrs. Leduc

My uncle Sina

My cousin Kenny

The person that co authored my life story is my teacher Mrs. Leduc. When I was in the 3rd grade i couldn't really read. Mrs. Leduc didn't only help me learn how to read but helped me enjoy it. I believe that she bettered my life story and I believe that her teaching experience with me was beneficial to her self-esteem on how she felt about herself as a teacher, considering the other classmates i had.  We had a very respectful relationship which helped me gain confident in knowing  people and try to be able to trust other.