Saša Kovačević

In the above TedTalk, Rita Pierson, who has over 40 years to teaching experiences, makes important note of the influence that teachers have in their students lives. Some of her anecdotes are light hearted and humorous, but others show a deeper truth. Rita believes that we need to believe in our students. She believes that we can make a difference. 

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Throughout this course we have seen that adolescence is a complicated time for youth. There are many changes that are happening, some normative while others are idiosyncratic, and these changes are the result of many different sources. Some of these sources we cannot control, like the home life of a student or how their body changes, but others we can easily influence as educators. Below, I will discuss how we, as teachers, can influence adolescents by aiding in their search for identity and promoting them to make healthy decisions, as seen in topics one and two respectively, but also how they can influence us. 

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Search for Identity 

As explored in Topic One: What is Adolescence? we saw that the search for identity serves a crucial role. We also saw that the disruption of peer groups had a great influence on the individual, and their individual identity. One's identity can have many impacts on other factors as well, like independence and peer groups, which can further influence academic performance. While it is unlikely that we will be able to break social cycles, we can try to influence how an adolescent conducts the search for identity. 

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A very simple way to do this would be to put a little inconsistency in the classroom in reference to seating plans. As the term progresses, I would have the ability to designate different seats for different students, especially if they are situated in a group work environment. Moving the students around would ensure that they are exposed to different students on a regular basis, in hope that they would also be exposed to different points of view. Perhaps we could even the "jock" and the "geek" find a common area of interest, promoting a relationship. This is something that could span the entire semester, but I was also able to find a lesson that included the idea of Identity Charts, found here, which bring these commonalities to view immediately. Students create their own charts of interests, among other things, and then share them. This might be a more effective way for students to find common interests with their peers, and even something that can be done at the beginning of the year when cliques are not solidified. While I do not believe that I can single handedly change the structure of the school social system, I do believe that I can raise awareness of the different ideas that exist. 

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Further, I think that this search for identity will also influence me as a teacher. It will be my responsibility to be open, perceptive, and reflective about the searches and student interactions going on around me. I will also have to attempt to lose all bias' that I may have developed, and promote this to my students as well, so that I can take what is presented to me at face value. If something it working, I should use it again, but if something is not it may have to be changed or altered to be more effective. I think that as adolescent youth change, I will have to change as well to accommodate for their learning. Throughout the teaching that I have received, I have quickly realized that there is no one right way to do something. 

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Promoting Healthy Choices 

So far in this course, one of the biggest things that has resonated with me is that the removal or fear of a specific influence does not mean that it will go away. In our lecture we saw that the removal of junk food in one school lead to a ring of underground junk food trading in Burnaby, with the full article here. In the article it is mentioned that in an effort to reduce this trading, they plan on educating their students rather than punishing. It would be interesting to see the findings of a reversal of steps where students were educated on the hazards and benefits of junk food, and what better choices they could make, instead of removing the junk food as a whole. Often we hear about student centred learning, and giving students choice, so why wouldn't we be able to apply this same approach to instances such as these? 

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As a teacher, I would do my best to normalize things like junk food, alcohol and drugs, and provide the information necessary to make appropriate choices to my students. Growing up, alcohol was present in my home and because my parents took the time to explain alcohol to me, it wasn't such a big deal when it appeared in high school. I wasn't scared of alcohol, and so I could make an educated decision. As mentioned in our text, I had no fear of missing out, and so I did not "want to avoid the regret [I] would feel if [I] were to miss out on something by taking the safer choice" (McMahan & Thompson, 2015, p. 84). I believe that a stigma appears around ideas or influences that are banned, and that the fear of missing out grows more and more when something is not readily available.

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Of course, it may be difficult to normalize everything, and sometimes a more informative or knowledge based approach is needed. The Dieticians of Canada proposed 5 Steps to Healthy Eating for Youth, which I believe would make an excellent resource when discussing dietary options. We could go over each step as a class, and discuss the benefits and limitations of each. When considering the limitations, we could attempt to overcome them with alternative suggestions. Further, I would discuss why these steps are important, and the implications of a healthy diet especially for girls. One specific example would be that I would make sure to try to stress the fact that women need some body fat, especially if they are to go through puberty and adolescence normally. As we saw in our text, menarche usually takes place once a 23% body fat ratio is reached (McMahan & Thompson, 2015, p.39). This would be something very difficult to do if girls are continuously starving themselves.