Square
When reading the article 6 ways to help your child thrive socially in middle school I definitely can relate to feeling lonely in middle school. I felt like my group of friends was constantly changing and at times I felt isolated and thought that it was my fault just like the article portrayed. It's interesting to read this and think that others might have felt the same way even if it didn't seem like it.
When reading Developmental Characteristics of Young Adolescents in the Intellectual category I can relate to this by always remembering wanting to do group projects with the class and be more active in school. I remember liking teachers the best when they did lessons that allowed up to move around.
From the moral development section in the Developmental Characteristics of Young Adolescents is can definitely relate to because this was a time that I remember my parents constantly saying to me that "things aren't always fair" but constantly arguing back "that things should be fair" and then thinking about others that maybe had a different life than me and questioning it.
From Chapter 4 of What Every Middle School Teacher Should Know I related to the section on pg. 39 The Role of Technology. I remember being in middle school and it was the time that yahoo messenger and AIM messenger were really popular and after school everyone would log on talk but sometimes that would lead to cyber bullying and a way for kids to be mean to one another which really had an affect on my social experience because you would never know if someone was talking bad about you.
Triangle
From the article 6 ways to help your child thrive socially in middle school I thought it was interesting when discussing the affects of feeling isolated as a sixth grader and then as a 7th grader and then as an 8th grader having anxiety or depression. I found this really interesting to me and a new things because I never really thought about how middle school could be the source of a lot of challenges someone may face later on in life. Reading it though it does make sense that if a child feels constantly isolated that they may start to form depression.
From the physical development part of the article Developmental Characteristics of Young Adolescents it really got me thinking about the development of the brain and how as your interests and thoughts are changing that could affect your social circle. If your thoughts are changing while your friends haven't yet or vise versa that could cause a strain on the relationship. This was new information because I never realized how much physical development could affect a students relationship with their friends. This could be what is going on with their bodies, such as growth spurts or brain development.
Another pieces of new information to me was in Chapter 4 of What Every Middle School Teacher Should Know students in this age range really do not have total control over their emotions. While they are starting to understand new things and think more about others than theirselves they are still very much trying to understand their emotions. If someone is mean to them and you try and rationalize with them with things like "well maybe they are dealing with things at home and taking it out on you" or "they might not have meant it the way that it came out" young adolescents often have not developed the critical thinking skills to process an event or conversation this way so it is important to frame the way that you help adolescents in a way that helps them understand the situation better (pg. 40-41). This is new to me because I have never thought to consider that maybe the advise I am giving to adolescents may not be helpful and need to help from a different approach.
Circle
What are the best ways to help students while they are battling "feeling out of control" due to puberty?
How do you help students feel less isolated with peers?
What are activities in class that can help bring students together?
How do you handle the idea of cliques in classrooms?
There was a mention of students are constantly observing their teachers, how do we approach students after making a mistake?
How much intervention is too much intervention?
Should teachers get the parents involved when they notice social struggles?
I think the parts about technology in this book are really interesting. I struggle because I sometimes wonder if they are outdated and it is interesting to me that it is in this particular chapter. However, there really are social and emotional connections that we need to know how to navigate.
I resonated with your very first point so much! I always said in middle school and high school that I had a lot of "school friends" and that I was popular at school but not outside of school. When it was the weekends, I either hung out with the same 3-4 friends, or I just stayed home. All of my "friends" that I had in school weren't truly my friends. I was a social butterfly and mingled with all the cliques and stereotypical groups. I played sports, so I was friends with some "jocks." I was in all honors classes, so I was friends with the "nerds." I did theatre, so I was friends with the "theatre people." I was…