Kayla Carew's Teaching Portfolio

The second YA novel that my PLC group read was  Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, the novel that the new major motion picture Love, Simon  was based off of. In the novel, 16-year-old drama-loving Simon Spier explores his sexual identity as he works up the courage to come out to his friends and family. Only two people know that Simon is gay. The first person to find out is Blue, an anonymous classmate who has been corresponding with Simon via email since the summer. Blue is also gay and has yet to come out. The two talk using nicknames in order to maintain their identities. As Simon's feelings for Blue become real, he has to decide whether or not this relationship is worth the potential hardships.  The second person to find out about Simon's sexuality is Martin, a fellow drama-lover and the grade's class clown. Unlike Blue, Martin knows Simon's identity. He uses Simon's secret as blackmail in order to force Simon into being his wingman. Wil...

Hi guys! Today's blog is brought to you by myself, Rylee Booth, and Allie Cullen (check out their blogs if you have time!). Adolescence is a time when emotions essentially control the mind and make it difficult to think rationally. There comes a time when an adolescent begins their journey into adulthood and must learn how to think, act, and regulate for oneself. The purpose of a coming of age ritual is to break from the norms that characterize adolescence. While some coming of age transitions are planned and purposeful, some events force adolescents into the transition to adulthood.  As Maslow’s hierarchy illustrates, safety is imperative, on all levels, for self-actualization to occur. In accordance with this philosophy, Vygotsky emphasizes the importance of social interaction through his concept of scaffolding, and how it is essential to cognitive development, especially throughout adolescence.  Using the various philosophies of Maslow and Vygotsky to guide our design...

In my adolescent development class, we were assigned a weekly placement in a neighboring school. Different students in the class have different roles in each of the schools they visit. I have been paired up with a 16-year-old girl named Binsa from Nepal (note that I have changed her name for privacy and confidentiality). Binsa came to the United States in 2015 and is in the beginning levels for speaking, listening, reading, and writing English. Nepal is a Himalayan country in South Asia landlocked between China and India with the rough population of 27,474,000. The official language is Nepali and it's spoken by 44.6% of the population. Hindu is the predominant religion in Nepal with 81.3% of the population practicing. Nepal was closed to the outside world until the 1950s. It is one of the world's poorest countries with the bulk of the economy relying on tourism and aid from other countries. In April of 2015, a devastating earthquake hit, killing thousands of people, des...

Teaching styles vary from teacher to teacher. However, most teachers have one or two educational theorists that they relate to the most. After learning the basics of about five theorists, I found that I relate to Abraham Maslow and Lev Vygotsky. Maslow was an American psychologist who created a hierarchy of needs, predicting that in order for a human to reach self-actualization (in order for students to focus and learn in school), he or she must fulfill basic human needs first (they must have a solid foundation in which they feel comfortable in). The below chart shows Maslow's hierarchy of needs in greater depth. The base tiers of physiological and safety needs emphasize the need for a guarantee of food, water, warmth, rest, safety, and security before anything else can be considered. The middle tiers include belongingness and love needs as well as esteem needs. These incorporate the need for intimate relationships, friends, and strong self esteem that can be focused on o...

On Monday, February 5th, I went to the showing of "Screenagers" at Shelburne Community School. The movie discusses the usage of screen time for adolescents and its negative impacts. The central storyline revolves around the filmmaker's own experience of deciding whether or not to give her 12-year-old daughter Tessa a smart phone. The trailer for the film is below. The film explores the ways in which adolescents are addicted to their devices and the impacts it can have. On average, adolescents spend over ten hours a day looking at a screen. This does not include the time they spend doing homework. Another interesting fact that the movie discusses is that students who are on their phones during class are actually distracting the students next to them. Sitting next to a classmate that is on his or her phone can be more distracting than being on your own phone. During adolescence, the prefrontal cortex is still developing. This is the part of the brain that is in char...

Throughout the course of the semester, each PLC group will read three YA novels. The first novel that my group is reading is titled  Dumplin' by Julie Murphy. The novel revolves around the life of "self proclaimed fat girl" Willowdean, nicknamed Dumplin by her mother. Willowdean is comfortable in her skin until she falls for Bo, a private school boy who she works with. As her positive self image begins to crumble, she distances herself from Bo and from her best friend Ellen. Willowdean's mother is known for running the local beauty pageant that captivates the town for half of the year. Although her mother never says she should enter the pageant, Willowdean decides to register in order to regain the self confidence she had before meeting Bo. The novel teaches adolescents to be happy in their own skin and that a good self image is important.  As of right now, we are currently through the first third of the book or so. Throughout the novel, strong connection...

Video Summary: The speaker of the TED Talk on failure works for X- The Moon Shot Factory. At X, the goal is to uncover a huge problem, think of a radical solution, and then try to prove that you’re wrong. If you do the hardest parts first, it will keep you from hitting a dead end farther down the road. Discovering problems in a project sometimes puts in on a better path. For example, one team at X was working on a car that was almost in complete control and would only turn the power steering on if something went wrong. When the feedback came that this was a terrible idea, for drivers weren’t paying attention like they should have been, the team shifted their perspective and began working on a car that is in complete control. Screenshot from the video showing X’s thought process for projects Employees at X are rewarded and promoted if their idea fails in order for them to feel safe in failing. This idea stemmed from the consensus of being uncomfortable with working on risky...