1- Most recently we looked at Cognitive Development, the expected ways that children should development their cognitive abilities, based on the ideas of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Today we are going to look at things that may cause Cognitive Problems for children — some inherited, some developed in the womb, and some occurring after birth. While none of you may plan on becoming Special Ed teachers, ALL OF YOU will work with children who have various degrees of things occurring in their lives that can impact their cognitive development (especially true if you plan to teach in the NYC Public School District). This may involved teaching an inclusion class where children with special needs are incorporated into a “regular” classroom. Or it may involve teaching children who have had difficult lives due to poverty, abuse, toxic stress, etc., who don’t qualify for special needs services yet who, nevertheless, will not behave or learn in ways that you would expect from children.Consider how you might pay attention to children who are not “up to speed”, who may have difficulty focusing or paying attention, who may not learn as quickly as other children or may simply learn differently than other children (I am not talking about the fact that children may be visual or oral or tactile learners, although that may be part of what is involved). Think about different challenges you may come up against as you work with children who are also bringing different challenges into the classroom.
2- Today we have considered a number of different ways that we can look at and understand Intelligence, things we may do (sometimes outside of the box) to help students learn in different ways than we might consider, things that may get in the way of children using their intelligence to the best of their ability, and things we can do to motivate students to use their “smarts”. Discuss especially things that really caught your attention as ways to more fully engage students. But also consider the issue of homelessness, which can create such huge problems for students.
We also considered the impact of online schooling during the Covid quarantine — on children in general, but particularly on children of families who are minorities, who live in poverty, or who live in rural areas (remember, we are talking about all children, not just NYC children). Please thoughtfully consider issues of online vs. in-class teaching, and what you think students are missing out on.