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🧠 The Brain

Teaching the Adolescent Brain

The adolescent brain is not just a smaller version of the adult brain. It is literally unfinished, and in a constant state of growth and change. Two major processes drive the growth of the brain during this period. The brain prunes neural pathways that aren’t used, and pathways that are frequently used get reinforced via myelination and the formation of new dendritic connections (Santrock, 2023).

Brain development happens back to front. What that means is that the posterior (back) areas of the brain like the amygdala, which are responsible for emotions and instincts, develop before the anterior (front) parts of the brain, which are responsible for higher order cognition, decision making, and self control. That is why adolescents can be capable of great insight in one moment and unwise outbursts of emotion and impulsiveness the next, as their prefrontal cortex is under heavy construction (Santrock, 2023).

Understanding how the adolescent brain develops is important in designing successful instruction. Worksheets may not grow dendrites, but positive emotions, repetition, visual cues, and pattern recognition will. Teachers can directly stimulate growth in the prefrontal cortices of their students by pushing them with lessons that require complex reasoning, decision making, and emotional regulation.

Cognitive Development Theorist Spotlight: Vygotsky

Vygotsky argued that learning is fundamentally social, a process of social constructivism, in which knowledge is built through interaction rather than in isolation (Santrock, 2023). For Vygotsky, collaboration and sociability matter more to development than solitary effort, and cognitive growth is inseparable from lived experience: the attitudes, ideologies, and worldviews of the people around a student shape that student’s own thinking, while culture and society are continually renewed through education and social engagement.

The central concept in Vygotsky’s theory is the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): the range of tasks a learner cannot yet do alone but can accomplish with guidance from someone more skilled, perhaps a teacher, an older student, or a more knowledgeable peer (Santrock, 2023). Social interaction raises the ceiling of what that student is capable of mastering. Language, in Vygotsky’s view, is the primary tool through which learning happens.

This means teachers act less as an authoritative source of knowledge and more as facilitators, coaches, and models. Students take on active roles in their education. The takeaway: students learn best as active participants in a social process, not as passive recipients of information.

Trauma-Informed Teaching

Unfortunately, none of those strategies or theories matter when a student is in cognitive survival mode due to adverse childhood (traumatic) experiences, referenced hereafter as ACEs. It isn’t that traumatized students don’t want to learn or “misbehave” for the sake of it. Trauma, and the stress and anxiety that come with it, have measurable detrimental physiological effects on the developing brain.

Chronic stress floods the brain with cortisol, and that cortisol overload interferes with healthy development of the prefrontal cortex: the myelination, dendrite formation, and pruning processes described earlier are disrupted (Santrock, 2023). At the same time, cortisol redirects resources toward the amygdala, the brain’s “survival center.” This primes traumatized students to respond to emotional stimuli with fight, flight, or freeze, rather than with the reasoned, regulated responses of the prefrontal cortex. Trauma additionally affects the hippocampus, often producing difficulties with memory and recall, impairing students’ abilities to engage with and retain class content.

Strategies for mitigating the impacts of trauma as a teacher (Smith, 2010):

• Avoid the “problem” mindset and interpret behavior through a trauma-informed lens rather than a disciplinary one.
• Create opportunities for students to share and process their experiences in safe, structured ways.
• Teach emotional self-regulation explicitly, rather than assuming it will develop on its own.
• Give students control over how and when they’re supported, rather than imposing help.
• Involve trauma survivors in helping others. Peer support can be powerfully validating on both sides.
• Prepare students for future triggering stimuli so reactions feel less sudden and overwhelming.
• Teach students about trauma itself, so they can understand their own responses rather than feeling defined by them.
• Support social integration, helping traumatized students build and maintain genuine peer connection.
• Discourage avoidance, gently encouraging engagement with difficult material rather than permanent retreat from it.
• Build structure and predictability, so the classroom itself becomes a safe, reliable space.

Bibliography

1. Santrock, J. W. (2023). Adolescence. McGraw Hill.
2. Stewart, G. (2017). The importance of servant leadership in schools. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(1), 119–131. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2085-z
3. Smith, W. (2010). The Impact of Racial Trauma on African Americans. Retrieved August 5, 2026, from fliphtml5.com

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🌍 Culturally Responsive Teaching

“All teaching is culturally responsive. The question is to whose culture it is responding.” (Zaretta Hammond, 2015)

Culturally Responsive Teaching is a pedagogical framework that discourages a deficit mindset and pushes teachers to develop deep, caring understandings of both their own cultural identity and the identities of their students. It reimagines the traditional student-teacher relationship based on authority and top-down hierarchy into something more balanced and reciprocal, and it favors instructional techniques like authentic formative assessment, uncoverage, and constructivist learning that treat students as active participants in their own education.

Educators can only respond to students’ cultures if they first understand them. This is “multicultural consciousness.” Part of this involves recognizing what Gloria Ladson-Billings (2007) called students’ cultural “referents”: the personal cultural touchstones (language, traditions, family structures, community norms, etc.) that students already use to make sense of the world. When teachers learn to identify these referents, teaching gets easier: new material can be explained through a student’s existing cultural lens rather than in spite of it (Moore & Smith, 2019). To connect CRT to adolescent psychology, Zaretta Hammond argues that culture literally dictates how the brain processes and organizes new information, making culturally responsive teaching the most efficient and effective way to achieve excellent student outcomes, especially for minority students.

Caring & Relationships

For a more detailed thesis about the importance of relationships in teaching, see Philosophy of Care.

Research has affirmed time and time again that students are most successful, both in school and outside of school, when their teachers establish caring relationships with them. Caring in this sense isn’t an add-on to strong teaching, but rather functions as a form of authority in its own right: “caring respect.” A teacher who is perceived as caring earns credibility and cooperation from students that strict, obedience-based authoritarian teachers struggle to achieve, because many students, especially those from historically marginalized backgrounds, expect respect to be reciprocal and earned (Audley & Ginsburg, 2019).

Servant Leadership & Teacher Activism

Taking Culturally Responsive Teaching to its logical conclusion means applying its basic principles to your school beyond your classroom, to your district, and to education everywhere. Culturally responsive teachers may not be authoritarian wielders of knowledge on a mission to reform and improve the uneducated children in their classrooms, but they are still leaders, specifically servant leaders.

Robert Greenleaf’s framework for servant leadership trains teachers to be leaders, but servants first: they share power with students and prioritize the growth and well-being of those around them, especially people on “lower” rungs of the educational hierarchy. Servant leadership means operating inside imperfect, sometimes failing institutions and choosing to work to improve them, rather than waiting for top-down institutional changes. The key to this kind of leadership is choosing to lead with love, not fear. Leading through fear is destructive: it drives people away, hampers performance, and erodes institutions over time (Stewart, 2017). In this sense, culturally responsive teachers have the capacity to act as social activists in their profession.

Tenets of Servant Leadership

• Empathy
• Stewardship
• Listen
• Respect
• Creating positive environments

Bibliography

1. Audley, S., & Ginsburg, J. L. (2019). Caring as an Authoritative Act: Re-Thinking Respect for Students and Teachers. In Creating Caring and Supportive Educational Environments for Meaningful Learning (pp. 154–182). IGI Global. doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-5748-7.ch009
2. Brandhorst, S. (2016). Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Adolescence. McGraw Hill.
3. Daniels, K. (2026, July 7). Culturally Responsive Practices [Lecture & Presentation].
4. DeMarrais, K. B., & LeCompte, M. D. (1995). The Way Schools Work: A Sociological Analysis of Education. Longman.
5. Hammond, Z. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Corwin.
6. Moore, M., & Smith, M. (2019). Multicultural Critical Consciousness: It’s the New “Caring” (pp. 36–49). doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-5748-7.ch003
7. Santrock, J. W. (2023). Adolescence (18th ed.). McGraw Hill.
8. TEDx Talks. (2016, January 27). The future of families: Four discoveries that change everything | George Carey | TEDxNaperville [Video recording]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLir3pHD3kI
9. Van Dierendonck, D., & Patterson, K. (2015). Compassionate Love as a Cornerstone of Servant Leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(1), 119–131. doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2085-z
10. Durham County, public school system discuss $6 million funding gap in budget proposals: WRAL.com. (n.d.). Retrieved August 5, 2026, from https://www.wral.com/news/local/durham-county-schools-6-million-funding-gap-may-2025/
11. Yuknavitch, L. (2016). The beauty of being a misfit [Video recording]. https://www.ted.com/talks/lidia_yuknavitch_the_beauty_of_being_a_misfit

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🌱 Classroom Climate

As educators, we must thoughtfully consider the ways in which we are cultivating a specific climate in our classroom and in our school. We must also consider the many factors that are simultaneously impacting our students, such as parental involvement, technology, and peer relationships.

Classroom climate and structure must be designed intentionally. Grant Wiggins, co-creator of the Understanding by Design educational framework, reminds teachers to plan “backward”, starting not with content, but with the authentic, meaningful understandings and transferable skills students should ultimately attain (McTighe, 2015). Applied to classroom culture, this could mean deciding what kind of educational community I want by the end of the year, and designing teaching practices, relationships, and classroom expectations backwards from that vision.

How Do We Motivate Students?

Motivation isn’t something teachers do to students through rewards and punishments, as was believed for decades (Skinner), but something cultivated with them, through a classroom culture of curiosity, predictability, challenging yet engaging lessons, and balanced student-teacher relationships (Wormeli, 2014).

On the Subject of Socialization

Peer socialization is one of the most powerful forces shaping a classroom’s culture, for better and worse. Peers can make school feel fun or stressful, introduce healthy or unhealthy pressures to reach greater academic heights or participate in dangerous activities, and play a major role in helping adolescents solidify their sense of identity (Santrock, 2023). Learning alongside peers is generally more powerful than learning in isolation, which is why teachers should design instruction that encourages frequent and meaningful student collaboration. See The Brain for more information on the adolescent psychologist Vygotsky’s research on social learning.

On Family Engagement

Research shows that family engagement is key for child learning, which works out well, because we also know from surveys that teenagers DO want to engage more with their families, despite how it may seem. Adolescents whose parents are actively involved with their education at home and at school are more motivated, get better grades, are more responsible, and have fewer school-related problems (Ferguson & Rodríguez, 2005; Santrock, 2023; Williams, 2024).

One key role that parents play is the introduction and explanation of abstract ideas, like justice and racism. Adolescents can only develop healthy concepts of their own racial identity and beliefs about others when educators and parents teach with those goals in mind. Parents are in a unique position where they can help teens navigate unfamiliar cultural situations, recognize injustices, and socialize with people who are different from them. On a related note, parental acceptance and support is also critical for adolescents who may be grappling with questions about their gender identities and sexuality.

So how can we as educators encourage parents to invest in their children’s education both at home and at school? Some strategies include:

• Staying in contact with parents regarding how their child is doing in school. Especially about the positives!
• Creating assignments that require engagement with parents or other community members.
• Inviting family members to observe class sessions, so that they can more effectively help students with their work at home.

There are many ways for parents to engage with their children’s education, and even more benefits in doing so.

Technology and Mental Health

It’s impossible to ignore the influence of technology, particularly social media, on the modern adolescent experience. Social media invites constant comparison with curated, filtered versions of peers and influencers, which can exacerbate adolescent insecurity and interfere with healthy identity building. Constant screen exposure also shortens attention spans and reduces quality sleep, making it harder to focus at school (Santrock, 2023).

Bibliography

1. Ferguson, C., & Rodríguez, V. (2005). Engaging Families at the Secondary Level.
2. McTighe, J. (2015). Three lessons for teachers from Grant Wiggins. ASCD Inservice Blog.
3. Santrock, J. W. (2023). Adolescence (18th ed.). McGraw Hill.
4. Williams, J. (2024). Parenting in a Diverse World. Center for Parent and Teen Communication. parentandteen.com
5. Wormeli, R. (2014). Motivating young adolescents. Educational Leadership, 72(1). ASCD.

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💡 Teaching Philosophy

“And that, pretty much, is what school is all about- suppressing curiosity and enthusiasm so students can complete assignments in a timely manner. It’s no wonder that the longer students are in school, the less interested they become in the subjects taught. The decline in interest over successive grades in school has been shown in many large-scale research studies, especially for science… One study, however, suggests that the decline is not inevitable.” (Gray, 2013)

This quote from Peter Gray’s Free to Learn encapsulates my motivation to enter education as a secondary science teacher. Children have an incredibly strong innate drive to learn, and our modern school system, with its standardized curricula and focus on grades and test scores, is ill-equipped to recognize and encourage that drive. The underlying force of my teaching philosophy is my belief that all students deserve a holistic and free learning environment that is designed with the needs and interests of kids at the forefront, as opposed to the suppressive, uncaring, and competitive designs of politicians and bureaucrats.

It is a supreme tragedy that students’ interest in science in particular has been shown to reliably decline with successive grades. Although some may not be able to name it, science is the first interest of many, if not most children. Name one kid who wasn’t constantly asking “why?” everything is the way that it is, or why things aren’t a different way. They are all naturally intensely curious, and desire above all else to gain a greater understanding of the world around them. Name one kid who didn’t have a phase in which they were obsessed with dinosaurs, snakes, planets, fish, rocks, bugs, or natural disasters. Science, as a framework in which humans ask questions about and seek to understand themselves and the world around them, and marvel at the endless beauty and complexity of the universe, is the one “school subject” that is universally sought after by children and adolescents the world over, from the time they can perceive the world with their senses. And that is why it is such a terrible and amazing feat for modern schools to have successfully killed that natural curiosity and enthusiasm for learning in most students by the time they have completed high school.

Research shows that adolescent brains are much better at learning when instruction is culturally relevant. This conclusion from neuroscience must inform our practices as educators, such that we create learning environments that are maximally effective in the context of providing opportunities for students to develop their intellectual and socioemotional skills. As we have learned in Zaretta Hammond’s “Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain”, teaching needs to be culturally relevant, stimulating, and engaging in order for the neural plasticity of the adolescent brain to activate fully and to reduce the achievement gap among all students, but particularly marginalized students of color. I will use the four tenets of culturally responsive teaching- awareness (of my own biases, and the cultures of my students), learning partnerships (horizontal relationships with students and bottom-up lesson planning), intellectualism, and culturally relevant applications of knowledge to help all my students achieve academic excellence (Hammond, 2015).

My goal as a science educator will be to design instruction that is challenging and engaging enough to bring students into Vygotsky’s “Zone of Proximal Development”- a theoretical spectrum along which tasks that an adolescent undertakes may be categorized, based on whether they can be mastered alone, with some guidance, or only with the assistance of a skilled and capable instructor. Students can undertake more challenging tasks and accept higher degrees of responsibility within social learning settings that put them into contact with peers, older students, community members, teachers, and family members who can be guides, mentors, and examples (Santrock, 2022). Research has also shown that students are capable of learning faster and more effectively in such social settings. Psychologist Jerome Bruner studied the concept of “scaffolding”- how skilled educators and peers (especially in age-mixed settings) can use reminders, hints, and other forms of encouragement to enable novices to engage with new and complex ideas (Gray, 2013). I will use these lessons to design a science classroom in which students can achieve anything they set their minds to, and always feel like they have the support that they need in order to succeed, whether it be from peers or teachers.

Psychologist Carol Dweck’s research on fixed mindsets will also inform my practices. I will design instruction that discourages learned helplessness and learned complacency, and mitigates the damage done in students past educational experiences (Dweck 1998). Some strategies I may employ to this end include emphasizing the “journey” or experience of learning over the “destination” (grades), discouraging the idea that past performance determines present and future capabilities, and cultivating a “Mastery mentality” characterized by the fact that the process of inquiry, experimentation, and application is more valuable to education than results.

With my goals of encouraging mastery level achievement, designing culturally responsive instructional experiences, and holistically supporting students in mind, I will employ a variety of instructional methods and types of assessments. Following the general framework of Understanding by Design, I will plan instruction by starting with desired results (standards, desired understandings, transferrable skills). From there, I will select a wide array of instructional resources that will provide opportunities for students to engage with the core principles of scientific inquiry from many different vantage points. These may include hands-on labs, models, simulations, scientific literature, datasets, demonstrations, and real-world applications (Wiggins & McTighe, 2008). Above all, I will strive to implement as many opportunities for student choice as possible- whether that be choices about what assignments to do, choices about how to complete any given assignment, and choices about the direction for the class in general (wherever appropriate and possible). Students are much more likely to engage with their own education and put forth their best effort when they feel like they chose to do it (Gray, 2013).

As far as assessments are concerned, it is important to use a combination of formative and summative assessment strategies in order to consistently and accurately demonstrate student understandings and areas for growth. Formative assessment strategies- that is, assessments that are quick and happen throughout the class period- may include simply asking questions to gauge understanding, assigning entry and/or exit ticket prompts, and checking in with students collectively via “temperature checks” or digital equivalents. Summative assessments may include testing and quizzing as necessary (and as required by the state) but will also manifest in the classroom as laboratory investigations, projects, presentations, and other performance tasks that encourage students to engage with course content meaningfully and in relevant contexts. As grading is necessary, clear analytical rubrics will provide students with ample opportunities to self-assess, revise, and reflect on their learning.

One thing to keep in mind is that in some situations, variety of methodology and assessment is not the goal. There is value in establishing patterns and routines, such that every day is largely predictable. That is one way in which a classroom can be made to feel safe, which can be critically important for some students, especially those with trauma.

With regards to standards and curricula, I could argue for or against. Standards are conceived of by legislative bodies, hopefully including career educators, at the state level, municipal level, and school level. Whether or not they are good is subject to many factors, including the current political climate. But in general, teachers are expected (and often required) to teach to the standards. A balance can be achieved- the standards can be met, but they need not be the limit of what is taught. Standards are notorious for having holes (intentional or not). The NC Standard Course of Study for high school Biology is adequate, in that it covers most of the expected broad content areas, and sets students up for success in data analysis and scientific modeling. However, it could go further with regards to emphasizing (or even mentioning) hands-on experimental and lab skills, the interdisciplinarity of science, and practice with doing the scientific method. Those are areas in which a science educator like myself may choose to take more liberties with how standards are interpreted and executed.

I refute the idea that content mastery is the single most important thing for effective teaching. While content knowledge is necessary for effective teaching, and is a prerequisite for gaining respect and acceptance in the field, it is only impactful in the classroom when paired with a mastery of teaching itself. Some of my worst teachers were also the most knowledgeable- they just covered as much as possible and taught none of it. Similarly, regarding students, we know that some of the most effective lessons cover only one or two examples, or case studies, but result in such high mastery of those examples that the rest of the pure content knowledge is either superfluous or comes easily enough to be mastered during independent reading. If an educator “teaches” an entire textbook worth of content, but the students remember little to none of it a year later, was any of it worthwhile?

On the subject of grading, I turn to foundational psychologist B. F. Skinner’s theory operant conditioning (adding/removing positive or negative stimuli to change behavior) and the now significant body of behavioral research that refutes that theory. While it is now largely understood that the threat of punishment is an ineffective strategy for inducing high level academic performance, it is still widely believed that the promise of reward is effective for such purposes. However, studies show that when students perform tasks with the expectation that they will get something, whether that be praise, a good grade, or something else, they actually perform much worse than if they had been promise nothing at all and simply performed the task of their own accord (Lepper et al., 1973). It must be possible, then, to strike a balance between assigning grades to comply with institutional expectations and ensuring that students think (and especially stress) about grades as little as possible.

With regards to how my understanding of my particular content area, science, informs my teaching philosophy, it is challenging to overstate the importance of science as a discipline that adolescents are exposed to.

While science doesn’t actually “teach” students how to view the world with curiosity and excitement, or how to be inquisitive (those are innate qualities of all children), it provides a useful framework for applying that curiosity and inquisition with experimental design skills and the capacity to draw upon existing knowledge and expertise. Above all other disciplines, science encourages and rewards pure curiosity, rationality, interdisciplinarity, and objectivity. It provides concrete means by which anyone can approach and solve complex problems, and ask strong questions. While science may not be considered one of the “creative” pursuits, it actually takes a high degree of creativity to think about questions nobody else has thought of and to design experiments that will effectively lead to the answers.

Through an understanding of scientific principles and methodologies, students may gain fluency in 21st century skills including critical thinking, collaboration, and communication. To understand a scientific paper, which is the primary medium by which scientific thought is disseminated, students must be able to think critically about the authors, the authors’ funding sources, the effectiveness and legitimacy of the experimental design and results, and they must be able to evaluate papers overall for their quality.

Science is the most interdisciplinary subject high school students will encounter in their core curriculum. Scientists need statisticians and programming experts in order to make sense of massive amounts of complex data, and to present results in ways that make sense to the public. They need lawyers and politicians to fight to pass, uphold, and enforce policies that honor scientific findings. They need doctors and other healthcare professionals to incorporate cutting edge health research into their daily practice. They need educators from the primary to the university level to stay up to date with the latest scientific research so that the general populace has an accurate and complete understanding of scientific consensus. Environmental scientists need to maintain close relationships with wealthy donors, land trusts, and community activists to take resource and land conservation from theory to reality.

The point is, science only works for everyone when scientists are able to work closely with professionals from a wide array of other fields and subject areas. It is impossible for students to gain a deep understanding of science without also gaining the skills to communicate effectively, collaborate with others who may have different motivations, and think critically.

When learning is work, or feels like a chore, it isn’t effective. The best classes are the ones that feel “easy” to students, and in which students feel free to pursue their education as they wish, but that are also designed in such a way that meaningful understandings and transferrable skills are gained. Learning is a terrible uphill battle for students when they feel anxious, coerced, oppressed, and set in competition with one another. If I could boil my goals as an educator down to a single sentence: I seek to reignite students latest love of learning and provide the opportunities they need to grow into thoughtful, capable, and empathetic adults who can take control of their own lives.

Bibliography

1. Gray, P. (2013). Free to learn: why unleashing the instinct to play will make our children happier, more self-reliant, and better students for life. Basic Books.
2. Hammond, Z., & Jackson, Y. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students : [pbk.] (1st ed.).
3. Mueller, C. M., & Dweck, C. S. (1998). Praise for intelligence can undermine children’s motivation and performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(1), 33–52. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.75.1.33
4. Santrock, J. W. (2022). Adolescence. McGraw Hill. (18th ed.)
5. Lepper, M. R., Greene, D., & Nisbett, R. E. (1973). Undermining children’s intrinsic interest with extrinsic reward: A test of the “overjustification” hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 28(1), 129–137. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0035519
6. Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2008). Understanding By Design. Assn. for Supervision & Curriculum Development.

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💚 Philosophy of Care

“Children come into the world burning to learn. They are naturally curious, naturally playful, and they explore and play in ways that teach them about the social and physical world to which they must adapt…. Nature does not turn off this enormous desire and capacity to learn when children turn 5 or 6. We turn it off with our system of schooling. The biggest, most enduring lesson of school is that learning is work, to be avoided, if possible, not joyful play as children would otherwise believe…. Anything a person is forced to do, according to someone else’s schedule, using procedures that someone dictates, is work” (Gray, 2013).

This quote from Peter Gray’s Free to Learn encapsulates the critical need for teacher candidates like myself to develop philosophies of care. School traditionally serves an oppressive and antagonistic role in students’ lives, stamping out their natural drives to be curious, to be playful, to explore, and to learn. Students are not treated as human beings and fellow scholars, but as inferior, stupid, and immoral beings who need to be forcibly molded into more metaphorical bricks for the wall. Using this definition of “learning” (allowing children to pursue their natural curiosity, playfulness, and sociability), we can see that the modern school system suppresses learning at every turn. Curiosity is stifled through the standardization of curricula and testing, and the trivialization of non-standard interests. Playfulness is eliminated via top-down hierarchical decision making, the valuation of grades more than the process of learning, and the constant framing of school as very serious and stressful. Sociability is discouraged through a hyper-focus on individuality and the segregation of students by age- how can they share their knowledge and skills with others if the only people they ever encounter have the exact same knowledge and skills (Gray, 2013)? My role as a science educator is to draw upon culturally responsive pedagogy, adolescent psychology, trauma-informed teaching, and servant leadership to practice education that bucks those trends.

Revolutionizing education may be out of reach for most public-school teachers. But there are still things we can do. Firstly, relationships matter. Drawing on William Glasser's choice theory, Hale and Robey (2019) explain that "children learn best when they are engaged in need-satisfying relationships with teachers, peers, parents, and other school officials," the needs in question being belonging, power, freedom, fun, and survival. A student worried about whether their basic needs are being met is unlikely to learn much of anything, no matter how well I explain it. Relationships contribute significantly to students’ motivation to work hard rather than simply comply and do the bare minimum. Dr. Wubbolding's account of his first one-on-one discussion with a struggling student, Mike, illustrates this principle: he did nothing more than “accept the boy as he was and listen to him," and from that single meeting, his academic performance and engagement with the class skyrocketed, because he “chose to study more than he had in the past” (Hale & Robey, 2019). It wasn’t a switch-up in teaching strategy that brought about this change, it was the simple act of listening to and encouraging him that made all the difference- forming a relationship! Finally, teachers must approach relationship building from a perspective of equity. Teachers must consider students for who they actually are- their cultural background, family dynamics, languages, identities, and traumas- as opposed to who the teacher assumed them to be based on their own biases and social position. Audley and Ginsberg note that “caring respect” means “not respecting a student in spite of who they are, but because of who they are” (Audley and Ginsberg, 2019), and Bullock’s documentation of her anti-racist work with children in the “we are” summer camp leads her to the conclusion that care must be “reciprocal” and grounded “in a place of love” (Bullock, 2019).

Research shows that adolescent brains are much better at learning when instruction is relevant. Teaching needs to be culturally relevant, stimulating, and engaging in order for the neural plasticity of the adolescent brain to activate fully and to reduce the achievement gap among all students, but particularly marginalized students of color. I will use the four tenets of culturally responsive teaching- awareness (of my own biases, and the cultures of my students), learning partnerships (horizontal relationships with students and bottom-up lesson planning), intellectualism, and culturally relevant applications of knowledge to help all my students achieve academic excellence (Hammond, 2015).

My goal as an educator will be to design instruction that is challenging and engaging enough to bring students into Vygotsky’s “Zone of Proximal Development”- a theoretical spectrum along which tasks that an adolescent undertakes may be categorized, based on whether they can be mastered alone, with some guidance, or only with the assistance of a skilled and capable instructor. Students can undertake more challenging tasks and accept higher degrees of responsibility within social learning settings that put them into contact with peers, older students, community members, teachers, and family members who can be guides, mentors, and examples (Santrock, 2022). Research has also shown that students are capable of learning faster and more effectively in such social settings. Psychologist Jerome Bruner studied the concept of “scaffolding”- how skilled educators and peers (especially in age-mixed settings) can use reminders, hints, and other forms of encouragement to enable novices to engage with new and complex ideas (Gray, 2013). I will use these lessons to design a science classroom in which students can achieve anything they set their minds to, and always feel like they have the support that they need in order to succeed, whether it be from peers or teachers.

Psychologist Carol Dweck’s research on fixed mindsets will also inform my practices. I will design instruction that discourages learned helplessness and learned complacency, and mitigates the damage done in students past educational experiences (Dweck 1998). Some strategies I may employ to this end include emphasizing the “journey” or experience of learning over the “destination” (grades), discouraging the idea that past performance determines present and future capabilities, and cultivating a “Mastery mentality” characterized by the fact that the process of inquiry, experimentation, and application is more valuable for real education than an initial grade.

Additional specific classroom strategies to use in pursuit of these goals may include learning all students’ names and using them correctly, co-creating classroom expectations with students whenever possible, checking in with students frequently regarding what is working for them and what isn’t, and incorporating opportunities for reflections, revisions, and retakes for graded assignments whenever possible so that every student can achieve the level of mastery they desire.

This educational philosophy of care corresponds directly with the NC Professional Teaching Standards I am expected to meet. Standard 2 asks that teachers "provide an environment in which each child has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults" and that I recognize how race, culture, and background shape a student's experience of my classroom. These ideas are directly addressed by Hammond's (2015) culturally responsive teaching framework and Audley and Ginsberg's “caring respect”, both of which will inform my practice as an educator. Standard 1 calls for a "safe, orderly environment" that "empowers students," which is reminiscent of Glasser's distinction between lead management and boss management (Hale & Robey, 2019) and Gray's (2013) argument that self-directed, non-coercive educational environments produce more capable, motivated learners than restrictive and micromanaged ones. Standard 3 requires that teachers "make instruction [the NC standards] relevant to students", something I can only do by building relationships with students and understanding their identities and cultures. Similarly, Zaretta Hammond makes the point that teaching only works when it is anchored in a student's existing cultural and knowledge backgrounds, rather than presented as out of context facts. Standard 4 requires that I "know how students think and learn" and differentiate instruction accordingly- a goal which again is only possible through the cultivation of relationships with students built on trust and care, and an attentiveness to student needs, backgrounds, cultures, and voices.

I conclude with another quote from Free to Learn, regarding the philosophy of Nel Noddings, a preeminent theorist on the importance of care in education, and a frequently referenced author in the other works cited in this essay.

“Children must feel safe and cared for in order to devote themselves fully to exploring and learning, and children learn best from those with whom they have caring, trusting relationships” (Gray, 2013).

Bibliography

1. Gray, P. (2013). Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life. Basic Books.
2. Hale, J. V., Robey, P. A., Hale, J. V., & Robey, P. A. (2019). It All Begins With Relationships: The Glasser Quality School Model [Chapter]. IGI Global Scientific Publishing. (it-all-begins-with-relationships). Https://Services.Igi-Global.Com/Resolvedoi/Resolve.Aspx?Doi=10.4018/978-1-5225-5748-7.Ch002. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-5748-7.ch002
3. Audley, S., & Ginsburg, J. L. (2019). Caring as an Authoritative Act: Re-Thinking Respect for Students and Teachers. In Creating Caring and Supportive Educational Environments for Meaningful Learning (pp. 154–182). IGI Global Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-5748-7.ch009
4. Bullock, R. T., & Bullock, R. T. (2019). Raising Conscious Kids: A Community-Based Approach to Anti-Bias Education [Chapter]. IGI Global Scientific Publishing. (raising-conscious-kids). Https://Services.Igi-Global.Com/Resolvedoi/Resolve.Aspx?Doi=10.4018/978-1-5225-5748-7.Ch012. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-5748-7.ch012
5. Burns, L. D., & Miller, S. (2017). Social Justice Policymaking in Teacher Education from Conception to Application: Realizing Standard VI. Teachers College Record, 119(2), 1–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811711900202
6. Mueller, C. M., & Dweck, C. S. (1998). Praise for intelligence can undermine children’s motivation and performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(1), 33–52. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.75.1.33
7. Santrock, J. W. (2022). Adolescence. McGraw Hill. (18th ed.)
8. Hammond, Z., & Jackson, Y. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students : [pbk.] (1st ed.).

← Back Document

📄 Resume

A full overview of my education, experience, and skills.

← Back References

📚 References & Bibliography

Key works that inform my teaching philosophy and practice.

Books & Texts

1. Audley, S., & Ginsburg, J. L. (2019). Caring as an Authoritative Act: Re-Thinking Respect for Students and Teachers. In Creating Caring and Supportive Educational Environments for Meaningful Learning (pp. 154–182). IGI Global. doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-5748-7.ch009
2. Brandhorst, S. (2016). Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Adolescence. McGraw Hill.
3. Daniels, K. (2026, July 7). Culturally Responsive Practices [Lecture & Presentation].
4. DeMarrais, K. B., & LeCompte, M. D. (1995). The Way Schools Work: A Sociological Analysis of Education. Longman.
5. Ferguson, C., & Rodríguez, V. (2005). Engaging Families at the Secondary Level.
6. Hammond, Z. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Corwin.
7. McTighe, J. (2015). Three lessons for teachers from Grant Wiggins. ASCD Inservice Blog.
8. Moore, M., & Smith, M. (2019). Multicultural Critical Consciousness: It’s the New “Caring” (pp. 36–49). doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-5748-7.ch003
9. Muhammad, G. (2020). Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. Scholastic.
10. Santrock, J. W. (2023). Adolescence (18th ed.). McGraw Hill.
11. Smith, W. (2010). The Impact of Racial Trauma on African Americans. Retrieved August 5, 2026, from fliphtml5.com
12. Van Dierendonck, D., & Patterson, K. (2015). Compassionate Love as a Cornerstone of Servant Leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(1), 119–131. doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2085-z
13. Williams, J. (2024). Parenting in a Diverse World. Center for Parent and Teen Communication. parentandteen.com
14. Wormeli, R. (2014). Motivating young adolescents. Educational Leadership, 72(1). ASCD.

Articles & Chapters

1. Audley, S., & Ginsburg, J. L. (2019). Caring as an Authoritative Act: Re-Thinking Respect for Students and Teachers. In Creating Caring and Supportive Educational Environments for Meaningful Learning (pp. 154–182). IGI Global.
2. Bullock, R. T. (2019). Raising Conscious Kids: A Community-Based Approach to Anti-Bias Education. IGI Global.
3. Hale, J. V., & Robey, P. A. (2019). It All Begins With Relationships: The Glasser Quality School Model. IGI Global.
4. Lepper, M. R., Greene, D., & Nisbett, R. E. (1973). Undermining children’s intrinsic interest with extrinsic reward: A test of the “overjustification” hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 28(1), 129–137.
5. Mueller, C. M., & Dweck, C. S. (1998). Praise for intelligence can undermine children’s motivation and performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(1), 33–52.
6. Smith, W. (2010). The Impact of Racial Trauma on African Americans. Retrieved August 5, 2026, from fliphtml5.com
7. Durham County, public school system discuss $6 million funding gap in budget proposals: WRAL.com. (n.d.). Retrieved August 5, 2026, from https://www.wral.com/news/local/durham-county-schools-6-million-funding-gap-may-2025/

Video Recordings & Podcasts

1. Durham Public Schools Board of Education. (2026, May 28). #DPSCommunity | DPS Board of Education Monthly Meeting | 5/28/26 [Video recording]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG18Ed60LtQ
2. Pierson, R. (2013). Every kid needs a champion [Video recording]. https://www.ted.com/talks/rita_pierson_every_kid_needs_a_champion
3. Robinson, S. K. (2006). Do schools kill creativity? [Video recording]. https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity
4. Sethi, K. (2009). Kids, take charge [Video recording]. https://www.ted.com/talks/kiran_sethi_kids_take_charge
5. Yuknavitch, L. (2016). The beauty of being a misfit [Video recording]. https://www.ted.com/talks/lidia_yuknavitch_the_beauty_of_being_a_misfit

← Home

Media Analyses

Analyzing media through the lens of Adolescent Education.

• Photograph Bush signing “No Child Left Behind” ›
• Podcast Cult of Pedagogy: Trauma-Informed Education ›
• Song Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2 – Pink Floyd ›
• TV Show The Legend of Korra ›
• Board Meeting DPS Board Meeting Reflection ›
• TED Talk Every Kid Needs a Champion ›
• TED Talk Do Schools Kill Creativity? ›
• TED Talk Kids Take Charge ›
• TED Talk The Beauty of Being a Misfit ›

← Media Analyses

Bush signing “No Child Left Behind”

The cultural context that preceded the signing of NCLB in 2002 was a general sense of American educational failure. Americans needed to “take accountability” for their low reading and mathematics proficiency levels among students, and this culminated with NCLB. The enactment of NCLB is personally significant to me because it happened right after I was born (2001) and set the stage for my entire K–12 public school education. Every school, class, teacher, and test I encountered as a student existed or was created in the context of NCLB. What that means in practice is that my peers and I were subjected to endless standardized tests and that my teachers were forced to design their classes around those standardized tests, so that they would not be penalized. I am sure that many great teachers and other educators quit the profession in this era due to frustration with NCLB, and many great classes were fundamentally altered. In what ways might I be different today if I went through school before NCLB?

By shifting the focus of education and schooling away from understanding and curiosity to performance on standardized tests, NCLB has significant implications regarding adolescent cognitive development. NCLB fundamentally altered why students were in school, and how they were trained to approach their own education. One result of this is that based on how well students tend to perform on standardized tests early in adolescence, they may gain fixed mindsets: either they are not capable of intelligence, and must constantly battle to prove their worth to themselves and others, or they may perform well on tests and end up tying their self-worth to their high scores, leading to anxiety and possibly an expectation throughout adolescence of achieving great results without struggle (Santrock, 2023). Furthermore, the equation of education and constant high-stakes testing has likely had a devastating effect on adolescent brains, by making K–12 education highly stressful and competitive, and introducing potential for unnecessary mental health crises and traumas as a result (Santrock, 2023).

As we know, chronic stress and trauma during adolescence may negatively impact brain development by inhibiting prefrontal cortex development, overstimulating the survival brain, and disrupting the hippocampus (Santrock, 2023). Instead of giving teachers the freedom to design classes and lessons according to what is great for optimal adolescent brain development (enrichment, stimulation, safety, security, high-level cognitive activities, socialization, etc.) they are forced to put students in competition, “teach to the test”, and encourage high scores above all else. In addition to tying into Carol Dweck’s theories (see below), these ideas may be framed in relation to Vygotsky’s social constructivist theory, in that NCLB-oriented education individualizes learning and broadly segregates peers and grade levels from one another instead of encouraging social and scaffolded learning (Santrock, 2023).

Relevant Quotes

“Carol Dweck argues that a mastery orientation (focusing on the task and process of learning) produces more positive achievement outcomes than a performance orientation in which the outcome—winning—is the most important aspect of achieving.” (Santrock, 2023)

“Developing a positive identity is central to healthy adjustment and academic success in adolescence and emerging adulthood.” (Santrock, 2023)

“Researchers currently are studying factors that might inhibit and promote neurogenesis, including various drugs, stress, and exercise.” (Santrock, 2023)

← Media Analyses

Cult of Pedagogy: Trauma-Informed Education

I selected this episode of “Cult of Pedagogy” because it reflects many of the ideas we have been reading about and discussing in class about trauma. The guest speaker, Alex Shevrin Venet, has written a book about trauma-informed education, which she provides the basic framework for in this episode. Venet argues that trauma-informed education consists of:

• Schools responding to the impacts of trauma in the school community
• Schools preventing things that cause trauma within school
• Schools being a place of societal change, in that they disrupt cycles of trauma

She also goes on to discuss how trauma-informed teaching requires educators to be culturally responsive and consider equity in their approach. Because traumatized students often exhibit “problematic” behaviors, she also discusses the need for an asset-based mindset as opposed to a deficit-based mindset. She underscores the critical importance of building trust in trauma-informed teaching, and emphasizes the critical (and yet also very limited) role of teachers in helping traumatized students—a.k.a. not trauma detectives. Finally, she outlines what she believes are the four pillars of creating a great trauma-informed classroom: predictability, flexibility, relationship-building, and student empowerment (Gonzalez, 2023).

Just as Venet believes in the importance of building relationships with students, the text “It All Begins with Relationships” also speaks a lot about relationship building: “We constantly work to improve our relationships because we know kids won’t learn well from people they don’t love and who don’t love them.” Apropos, the text “The Importance of Servant Leadership in Schools” notes that the empathetic servant leader must “recognize that all individuals have ‘special and unique spirits’ and value these differences” as well as “lead with love”—which ties right into the episode’s focus on getting better at trauma-informed teaching by using an asset-based mindset and focusing on building relationships (Hale et al., 2019; Stewart, 2017).

In our classes, we have learned about ACE scores. This podcast episode cautions teachers against putting too much stock into these holistic scores, because they can cause educators to miss students who are traumatized but whose experiences don’t fit into the traditional ACE categories.

One idea from this material that I’d love to share with secondary students: You are far more than your past, or what other adults have labeled you as. You are special and talented and worthy of love, no matter what.

Relevant Quotes

“Some researchers think primarily in terms of risk factors when they study adolescent problems, whereas others argue that conceptualizing problems in terms of risk factors creates a perception that is too negative.” (Santrock, 2022)

“Emotion-focused coping includes avoiding a problem, rationalizing what has happened, denying it is occurring, laughing it off, or calling on religious faith for support. If you use emotion-focused coping, you might avoid going to a class that you find difficult. You might say the class doesn’t matter, deny that you are having a problem, or laugh and joke about it with your friends.” (Santrock, 2022)

“In some instances, a specific person may influence an emerging adult in very positive ways, as was the case for Michael Maddaus… after a childhood and adolescence filled with stress, conflict, disappointment, and problems, his connection with a competent, caring mentor in emerging adulthood helped him to turn his life around, and he went on to become a successful surgeon.” (Santrock, 2022)

One of the five C’s of Positive Youth Development is “Connection, which is characterized by positive relationships with others, including family, peers, teachers, and individuals in the community.” (Santrock, 2022)

← Media Analyses

Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2 – Pink Floyd

We don’t need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teacher, leave them kids alone

In the overarching narrative of Pink Floyd’s album “The Wall”, “Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2” tells part of the story of a rock-star who has a psychological wall of isolation in his mind that is made of “bricks” (traumatic experiences), in this case abusive teachers. In interviews, Roger Waters has stated that he also wrote the song to protest oppressive schooling in general. Per the lyrics, schools are coercive institutions that turn creative, free-thinking students into “bricks” in the homogeneous wall of society.

This song relates to our class discussions about how to be a “warm demander” for positive student outcomes and healthy teacher-student dynamics, as well as our discussions about the impacts of trauma on adolescent cognitive development and behavior.

This song also gets at educational philosophy, which we are studying in MAT 703. What is the purpose of education? Are schools positive institutions? Is public education used to control opinion?

In our reading “Caring as an Authoritative Act”, author Audley Ginsberg discusses the often toxic and authoritative teacher-student power dynamic, and how “research suggests that students are successful – academically and personally – when they perceive their teachers as caring” (Audley, 2019). Similarly, in our reading “Multicultural Consciousness”, it is stated that a study done by Ladson-Billings (2009) found that the most effective teachers are those who demonstrate caring and warmth in their interactions with students. These teachers tend to be more successful in helping students achieve scholastically higher” (Moore & Smith, 2019). Both of these texts outline pedagogical frameworks that redefine the classroom as a caring place, where teachers respect students. These works reflect recent trends in education which seek to address the sentiments expressed in “Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2” and other anti-school pieces.

One idea from “Social Justice Policymaking in Teacher Education From Conception to Application: Realizing Standard VI” that I would like to share with secondary students is Stereotype Threat. Thinking about or being aware of a stereotype can make students perform worse at tasks related to that stereotype, regardless of their actual ability. It can help to be able to identify exactly why you feel under pressure in a given moment (Burns & Miller, 2017).

← Media Analyses

The Legend of Korra

Available now on Paramount+

Overview

The Legend of Korra is the sequel series to Avatar: The Last Airbender. In a world where some people have the ability to manipulate or “bend” a natural element (either earth, fire, water, or air) with martial arts, one individual—the avatar—has the ability to bend all four elements and is expected to maintain the political and spiritual balance of the world. In Season 1, Korra, a hotheaded teenage avatar, must take on Amon, a revolutionary “equalist” who seeks to eliminate bending and benders from the world.

Besides the fact that it’s set in a fictional fantastical world where people have elemental superpowers, The Legend of Korra is popular with teenagers because it has relatable teenage protagonists. They struggle with identity, young love, and communication, just like real teenagers. It also helps that the story is well-written!

Three Favorite Episodes

A note: the following assumes familiarity with the show!

• Season 1, Episode 10: Lin puts awkwardness aside, and puts everything on the line to protect Tenzin’s (her ex’s) wife and children, going so far as to be willing to sacrifice her life. It’s a very emotional series of events.
• Season 1, Episode 11: A significant portion of this episode is dedicated to relaying (via flashback) the full tragedy of the bloodbender Yakone and his two sons, Tarlok and Noatok. It’s moving, and reframes the events of the entire season in a new light.
• Season 1, Episode 12 (Finale): My two favorite moments from this action-packed finale are when Asami confronts her father—“You really are a terrible father” (crying)—and when Tarlok and Noatok finally reunite and escape at the end, reflecting on the great tragedy of their lives. (I won’t spoil it.)

Tenzin, Korra, and Pedagogical Failure

Korra easily mastered three of the elements—water, earth, and fire—from a young age. One of the main focuses early in the season is Tenzin attempting to teach Korra how to airbend. Korra is highly motivated and excited to learn, but Tenzin fails to capture this energy.

He uses an authoritative style of teaching in which he is the source of knowledge and Korra must listen to him and do what he says. He doesn’t involve her in any of the decision-making related to her own education. His teaching is not culturally responsive. He does not seek to understand Korra’s personality and learning styles or incorporate that knowledge into his lessons, nor does he attempt to create an equal and non-hierarchical teacher-student partnership. The lessons aren’t relevant to the way she thinks or applicable to her as a person at all. And lo-and-behold, his methods are completely ineffective. Both parties become frustrated by the disconnect and lack of progress. Korra feels inadequate and dumb, even though she is prodigiously gifted, and begins to resent Tenzin. Tenzin grows even more punitive and restrictive.

Initially, Tenzin views Korra in a stereotypical light, assuming she is not capable of making decisions for herself, that she must continue to be sheltered, and that He Knows Best.

When Korra is able to apply what Tenzin had been trying to teach her in a setting that made sense to her (pro-bending—basically team-based arena fights), it finally clicks. Tenzin, seeing this, realizes his mistake. They start communicating more honestly with one another, Tenzin stops trying to force Korra to be someone she isn’t, and the teacher-student dynamic becomes a more equal and effective partnership. Trust is built.

Identity, Adolescent Brain Development, and Chronic Stress

In alignment with Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development—which states that teenagers are conflicted about their identity and roles (Santrock, 2023, p. 27)—one of the central themes of TLOK Season 1 is Korra’s uncertainty and turmoil regarding her identity. Is she the avatar? Does she deserve to call herself the avatar if she cannot connect with her spiritual self? Is she a failure for not connecting with airbending sooner? Can she live up to the shadow of her past life, Avatar Aang? These and other questions dominate Korra’s mind and shape the narrative.

We know from adolescent psychology that teenagers’ brain physiology predisposes them to exhibit certain tendencies and behaviors that contrast with most adults—such as impulsive, emotional decision-making, a general lack of forward thinking toward long-term consequences, a heightened susceptibility to peer pressure, and a strong desire to comply with authority figures (Brandhorst, n.d., p. 247).

Korra, who is 16 or 17, showcases all of these classic features of adolescent brains: she agrees to join a dangerous police task force under pressure from a city council member and otherwise engages in frequent reckless and dangerous behavior with real possibility of imprisonment, torture, extortion, and death. At one point, after becoming frustrated by an ineffective airbending lesson from Tenzin, she destroys a priceless two-thousand-year-old airbending artifact in frustration and storms off. Another time, at the very beginning of the series, she impulsively runs away from her sheltered and remote home to the big city with no regard for what she will actually do upon arrival or how she will survive on her own.

One of our Topic Cycle 3 videos (The future of families: four discoveries that change everything | George Carey | TEDxNaperville) discusses the evolution of modern family dynamics over the past several decades and notes that when polled, 21st-century children’s primary concerns are things like war, the future, getting arrested, and school shootings—whereas children of the past were concerned with things like “having more fun,” “getting what I want for my birthday,” and “spending more time with friends.” Similarly, Korra is concerned primarily with war, world peace, and the deaths of herself and loved ones. What are the impacts of this chronic stress on her cognitive development? It is surely impacting her ability to learn effectively, make sound decisions, and form healthy relationships.

A Note for Secondary Students

One reading, “Engaging Parents of Secondary Students” (Ferguson & Rodríguez, 2005) offers ideas I would love to share with secondary students. Tell your parents, siblings, and other members of your community that you would love for them to engage with your education! Talk with your parents about school and about planning for your future, use them as resources, bring them to school. You might be more successful at school and have stronger relationships with your family.

Quotes

“During the adolescent years, individuals explore who they are, what they are all about, and where they are going in life.” (Santrock, 2023, p. 27 — on Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development)

“We have become a society that assumes that children are, merely because of their age, irresponsible and incompetent… The belief that children and even teenagers are incapable of rational decision-making and self-direction is a self-fulfilling prophecy. By confining children to school and filling their time with forced busywork, we deprive them of the time and opportunities they need to practice self-direction and responsibility.” (Gray, 2013, p. 70)

“These findings suggest a much stronger tendency for adolescents than for young adults to make choices in compliance with the perceived desires of authority figures.” (Brandhorst, n.d., p. 247)

“Forty-one percent of secondary educators said their students were ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ unmotivated. By contrast, only 14 percent of students indicated they don’t feel motivated to do their best in school.” (Education Week, n.d.)

“Authoritarian parenting is a restrictive, punitive style in which the parent exhorts the adolescent to follow directions and to respect work and effort. A recent research review of a large number of studies concluded that authoritarian parenting is linked to a higher level of externalizing problems (acting out, high levels of aggression, for example).” (Santrock, 2023, p. 261)

← Media Analyses

May 2026 DPS Board Meeting Reflection

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG18Ed60LtQ

The DPS board meeting began with a lengthy award/celebration section, highlighting the achievements and recognition of state athletes, teachers/employees of the month, award winners, governor’s school attendees, and others. Following that, and some updates from the superintendent, four members of the public, all DPS teachers, commented on Board Policy 4132 (asking the Board to reconsider). After the public comments, the most significant agenda items were an update from the financial department, a five part outline for the district’s primary near-term strategic goals, and finally a meeting of the Policy Committee, which revised an existing policy and approved a new policy.

Based on this one Board meeting, the School Board is primarily concerned with overarching long-term district strategy, budgeting and finances, and DPS policies, as opposed to day-to-day school operation. The fact that the Board is a public-facing body is significant. At the risk of sounding naive and optimistic, my impression is that one of the Board’s primary functions is to elicit and receive feedback from the community (largely teachers and employees at DPS schools) and then use that feedback to create, revise, and eliminate DPS policies, as well as form strategies for the district as a whole. The four members of the public who spoke during this meeting were making a case for the Board to revise a recently-passed policy, Policy 4132, because it was having the unintended effect of pushing experienced teachers out of the district. Although the rules of the meeting forbade direct responses, it seems likely that the Board will take that feedback into consideration by revising the policy in question. There was tension and frustration during the speeches, indicating a possible communication barrier between the policy makers and the “boots on the ground” in schools.

In addition to hearing from the public, the Board seemingly remains informed and accountable by collecting and presenting quantitative data whenever possible. For example, in this meeting, data was provided for bus timing, district enrollment, system migration status, finances, and more.

Rules governing Board procedure seem to be created and amended by the Board itself. As far as who should… I believe that district administrators, teaching faculty, and employees should have a much more direct role. Maybe policy votes should include both Board members and locals. The best way to enforce policies in this context may be peer accountability. I am not sure whether withholding incentives (or funding) would be appropriate.

← Media Analyses

TED Talk: Every Kid Needs a Champion

Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/rita_pierson_every_kid_needs_a_champion

In “Every Kid Needs a Champion”, lifelong educator Rita Pierson shares her wisdom by discussing the importance of building relationships with students. By getting to know her students and forming genuine connections with them (all her students—even the ones she didn’t “like”), she was able to bring them joy, empower them in their lowest moments, and be their champion. These ideas tie directly into our studies of trauma-informed education. Students present with a wide variety of backgrounds, abilities, perspectives, and traumas, and because of this, it is necessary to be trauma-informed in one’s practices as an educator. For example, as we have learned, it is important to make your classroom a safe space, to connect to students with culturally relevant teaching practices, and avoid a deficit mindset. Just as Rita Pierson tells us that “Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like”, the author of “It all Begins with Relationships” notes that “We constantly work to improve our relationships because we know kids won’t learn well from people they don’t love and who don’t love them” (Hale et al., 2019) (Pierson, 2013).

← Media Analyses

TED Talk: Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity

In “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” Sir Ken Robinson argues that we “have to rethink the fundamental principles upon which we educate our children” because intelligence is diverse, dynamic, and distinct. Schools have a narrow view of intelligence, and label students who are intelligent in low-value subjects (dance, music, art—anything creative) as deficient, problematic, and incapable of greatness. He notes how our modern education system arose during the industrial revolution, and prioritizes academic ability over all else. This ties into our study of the Functionalist theory of education: “Functionalists believe that schools prepare students for the work force in part by teaching attitudes, technical skills, and social behavior appropriate to the work place, such as cooperation, conformity to authority, punctuality, gender-appropriate attitudes, neatness, task orientation, care of property, and allegiance to the team” (DeMarrais & LeCompte, 1995) (Robinson, 2006).

← Media Analyses

TED Talk: Kids Take Charge

Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/kiran_sethi_kids_take_charge

In “Kids Take Charge!” Kiran Bir Sethi discusses educational successes in India in which learning and lessons are embedded into culturally relevant scenarios with real-world applications for knowledge. Students first become aware of what might be changed in the world, they form identities and opinions, and are finally empowered with the knowledge that they can make change, and the skills and opportunities with which they can actually make the changes they want to see in their communities. The teachers were highly successful in this program, and through their schooling, hundreds of thousands of Indian children have made differences in their community. Culturally relevant teaching, as we have learned, encourages educators to incorporate specific strategies, including “community support, empowerment, constructive use of time, positive values, social competencies, and positive identity” (Santrock, 2022). This TED talk illustrates an example of our class material, in that almost all students are capable of great success if education involves them in their own education, treats them with respect, brings real-world issues into the classroom, and focuses on meaningful community-engagement (Sethi, 2009).

← Media Analyses

TED Talk: The Beauty of Being a Misfit

Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/lidia_yuknavitch_the_beauty_of_being_a_misfit

In “The Beauty of Being a Misfit”, Lidia Yuknavitch recalls her experiences as a “misfit”. She never felt like she fit into any of the “boxes” or labels set out for her in life, and experienced failure after failure until her fifties. Her message to listeners is that if you feel like a misfit, all you need to do is give voice to your story. Her struggle coming to terms with her identity recalls Dr. Gholdy E. Muhammad’s Cultivating Genius: “They were able to make meaning of their many and complex identities including their collective Black identity in America to their larger global identities and positions in the world… [literacy] helped them to gain confidence in knowing who they are”. In the same chapter, Dr. Muhammad goes on to criticize deficit-based mindsets (Muhammad, 2020). As we have discussed in class, instead of viewing “problem” behaviors as weaknesses to be fixed, we as educators should notice and encourage the strengths of all students. “Too often the achievement of ethnic minority students—especially African American, Latino, and Native American students—has been interpreted as deficits by middle-socioeconomic-status non-Latino White standards, when these students simply are culturally different and distinct” (Santrock, 2022). If Lidia Yuknavitch had had educators who helped her form a healthy sense of identity, and leaned into her natural strengths instead of her weaknesses, it’s possible she would have had an easier life (Yuknavitch, 2016).