Lesson 2: Vision and Hearing

After watching the videos on Vision and Hearing, describe how this information impacts you as a teacher.

Understanding the development of vision and hearing helps me to know as an educator ways to foster their development. Paying attentions to the warning signs and now understanding the different clues will help me to be more astute in detecting problems early on. One thing I learned this week was that even though problems with vision and hearing may be fixed, the brain does not necessarily adjust back to before. The brain can almost be trained to see or hear incorrectly, and then it is very difficult to make progress.

In my classroom, I also want to provide diverse exposures for students that improve their visual and auditory skills. I am going to make sure that the noises in my classroom are neither loud or repetitive. I wonder though, I work with English Language Learners, and there is a lot of repetition. Can I repeat concepts and vocabulary but with different intonation?

Lesson 1

After watching the videos on brain architecture, plasticity, and understanding the impact of the environment on a child, how does this information impact you as a teacher?

Before watching these videos, I did not realize the time span that a child's brain is the most receptive to experience. I did know that children who have positive and stable home environments do not experience as many developmental issues as those with a negative and unstable home. Now I understand that this is because these children are probably experiencing more positive experiences within their home. 

For my students, many live below the poverty level and come from Mexico. I am not sure how these experiences impact my student's brain development. Within my classroom, I want to make sure to provide a healthy and positive environment for my students to get as many positive experiences that they can. I want to encourage a strong foundation in their brain architecture while they are at the age of 7 and 8.