Emily Veenstra EDUC 202 Prof. Steenstra April 30, 2013 !

One of the main things that stood out to me this semester was just how unique

and individual each of the students in my observation class was. This also connected to the project we did on Bronfenbrenners social context for development. There are so many factors that play into the make-up of a child, some within their control, and others not. In my drawing, I depicted the silhouette of a child. This child is surrounded by colorful somewhat distracting elements of the mesosystems, microsystems, exosystems, and macrosystems that play a role in the development of the child. On the left side of the picture, there is a ruler, representing the standards, values, and laws of the larger society. A child is expected to measure up to the cultural norms and values. Since my observing was done in an native speaking classroom, it denitely did not meet the cultural norms in place in the larger North American society. ! Moving inward from the macrosystem, we have the exosystem. To represent

this, I drew owers and grass in the bottom right hand corner. This stands for the envirionment around the child, that is indirectly related to, yet effecting the child. Another thing that represents this is the paper doll chain directly above the owers. The students community and ethnicity plays a huge role in the exosystem, as does the familys religious afliations (cross and star of David). ! Moving into the exosystem, the interactions of the family (family written out) is on

a scale, because so many times, a child must keep in balance family interactions and

social interactions. There are blue paper bags at the top that represent the economic status that the child was born into and/or live in. The economic status of the childs family not only plays a huge role in where the student goes to school, but also how many resources for developing physically, academically, and mentally can be utilized by each individual. In the bottom left corner, there are three cirlces. These circles, are supposed to look like kick balls to represent the peer group that effects the student. The books above the kickballs represent the classroom portion of the mesosystem. Social interactions of the child with his or her surroundings are represented by the sound waves coming out of the childs mouth, and returning to him form many different unmarked sources. Language is a big part of the students development. The orange clouds and the purple swirls represent the childs thoughts and imaginative creativity. Often times, these are blocked away when blinded by the need to achieve on tests or academics (ashlight) that do not promote liberal arts. ! Learning how many factors really play a role in the life of the learner beyond the

classroom setting was eye opening to me. It is no wonder that it can sometimes be hard for students to focus their attention on completing a worksheet when there are so many other, more colorful distractions that surround them. As a teacher, it is important to care for each child as an individual, uniquely made in the image of God. Just as the commitment to professionalism statement says, teachers must commit to learning enough about learners, effective pedagogical strategies, and school contexts to make instructional decisions that support the learning of all their students.