Reflection 1 - Learners in Context

I studied child and adolescent development at EWU, my bachelors degree is in developmental psychology with my focused age group being childhood and adolescence. I feel that I am familiar with concepts in this area even though it has been a couple years since I graduated. Our prompt asks us to say what we know about child and adolescent development and that is not the easiest thing to put into one reflection. I can say, however, that one of the most influential concepts that has shaped the way I interact with young people is that every interaction that you have with them could have a huge impact on their lives with out you ever realizing it. Childhood through adolescence is the most important time period in a persons life, it is the time when we look to the world for guidance. This vulnerability is something that I always remember when working with children, knowing that they are building trust, love, respect, good behavior and so much more based off of those who are closest to them. One of the most influential person in a child's life is their teacher, which is probably why I chose the path I did, I wanted to use what I knew to be a good influence in the lives of children. I am currently waiting for our textbooks to arrive and looking forward to reading it because I have read many books on development but none specifically geared for educators.