The key questions in the book

The key questions that the author is addressing are:

If all this brain development is inevitable, do adults make a difference in the lives of teenagers?

Why should we worry about how teenagers affect us?

When I work with teenagers why do I get so worked up? 

Why do I act just like them sometimes?

Why do I feel so out of control on occasion?

Do we matter at all?What does it look like when we get affected, or infected by them?

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The main assumptions underlying the author´s thinking are

We all know that whenever we read a book, we need to be careful of whether  or not we accept everything the author takes for wranted in the book. The following are some assumptions found in the book «Relating to Adolescents» that show the author's thinking.

 1. «Since the teenage brain is still developing, teens can’t consistently control their impulses, exercise good judgment, or accurately interpret cues from the external environment.»

      -Some of the things in that affirmation are evident in teenager's behavior. For example, it says that teens cannot control ther impulses, excercise good judgement, etc., but we are not sure if it is due to the level of development the teenage brain has in that stage. It could be real, but there could be some different variables that influence that behavior. We also need to think about those teenagers that act like adults, and that show mature attitudes.

 2. «Adults can use their relationship with teens to better understand themselves, which in turn helps them be more effective in their work in the teenage world.»

      -It can be useful for adults to use the relationship they have with teenagers to better their way of teaching, but we are not really sure it can help them to understand themselves as adults. The problem with this affirmation is that it seems not to take into account that the central thing here is not understanding adults, but teenagers, so that we can have better approaches to adolescents and better the way we teach.

 3. «Adults who work in the teenage world must practice  seven grown-up skills  to deal effectively with the phenomenon of adoadolescents.»

1. Self-Awareness

2. Self-Control/Self-Mastery

3. Good  Judgment

4.  The Ability to Deal with Conflict

5.  Self-Transcendence, or the Ability to Get Over Yourself

6.  The Ability to Maintain Boundaries

7.  The Capacity for Life-Long Learning

      -The author correctly recommends to have a clear sight of these seven skills or abilities in order to assimilate them and better the aproach teachers have with adolescents. Even though there are many other things a teacher can do to improve his/her teaching to adolescents, these are assentially necessary to better the relationship between teachers and teenagers.

4. «Teenagers need us to differentiate between their needs and their wants; to respond but not to react to them; to relate but not to identify with them; to be friendly with them but not be their friends; and to work in service of them, not of ourselves.»

-This is one of the best affirmations we found in the book. It states the terms in which the relationship teacher-adolescent must be defined. The student centered education principle is well pointed when the author says that teachers must work in service of students, not of themselves.

-Teachers must get interested in everything about teenagers because they must keep in minfd that teenage is complex phenomenon that, as the author states at the begining, has an influence on everything and everybody around them.

5. We are responsible for establishing a healthy school community, and as such we must be mindful not only of our own behavior but also of how we support our colleagues and institutions as a whole.

Don’ts

1.    Don’t do anything you wouldn’t want your principal to know about

2.    Don’t touch or have sex with students, and don’t talk with students about sex

3. Don’t talk about personal business with students

4.    Don’t communicate with students via personal email or phone, text or instant message, Facebook, or at your home

5. Don’t lend or borrow personal things from students

6. Don’t spend time with students after hours

7.    Don’t consume or discuss alcohol or drugs in the proximity of students

8. Don’t talk with students about colleagues

9.  Don’t keep student secrets

10.  Don’t go beyond the scope of your role

Do’s

1.    Do understand and follow school policies, procedures, and best practices

2.    Do seek assistance when you get overwhelmed in your relationships with teenagers

3.  Do establish strong ties with colleagues

4.  Do support the grown-up team within the school community

5. Do get a life

-Even when a do's and don't's list seems to be unnecessary, the book presents it showing that the thinking of the author is to give specific direcctions to the teachers that read it. It is very useful to find something like this because we can forget about some important things.

-The only thing we find negative is that the author includes things like not having sex with students, in this simple list. We consider that a book like this should include a chapter about some laws, though we know that laws vary from country to country.

These are some of the main points we consider to show the author's thinking. They are taken from the main sections of the book because they show general statements that are developed in the rest of the chapters. They are specifically covered and confirmed with the rest of the information the author includes in the book.

As stated before, people have to be careful when they read a book. There are some ideas that can be placed in a different way, or some that we could not be in agreement with, and we have to look for the best way to arrange them in order to have a better perspective of the concepts the book promotes. 

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The main purpose of the the book "Relating to Adolescents", by Susan Eva Porter

     As everybody knows adolescence is a distinct stage that marks the transition between childhood and adulthood. For this reason, Adolescents are capable of abstract reasoning and learn easily .In fact,Adolescents have many important developmental tasks to achieve. They are in the process of forming their own identity, separating themselves from parents, and adapting to rapidly changing bodies .Taking all this under consideration,teacher have to understand that the adolescents' world it´s not easy.

 The main purpose of the book is the relationship that have to be created between the teacher and the student in order to develop a symbiotic relationship.sometimes teachers forget how was their learning process or worst teacher want to emulate the behavior of the teacher that they had in their adolescence;as a result,the teacher becomes the knowing all in the classroom and never take in considerations the feelings of the students.

    

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The Frenetic World of Teenagers

This blog was inspired by the book 

¨RELATING TO ADOLESCENTS¨ 

BY SUSAN EVA PORTER

Working with teenagers is one of the most rewarding jobs in the

 Teenagers are energetic, fun, and idealistic; for those of us who 

world.connect well with adolescents, working with them is incredibly satisfy-

ing. One thing that makes our work so compelling is that adolescence 

is a time of great intensity. Teenagers have intense thoughts, intense 

feelings, and intense relationships. There’s no denying that adolescence 

is a dramatic stage of life, and those of us who work with teenagers get 

swept up in this drama all the time.

(taken from the book RELATING TO ADOLESCENTS BY SUSAN EVA PORTER)

It cannot be overstated how important teachers are in the lives of adolescents. Teachers spend more time with a child than their own parents do. It is has been stated that adolescence is a difficult time in development and a time of withdrawal from reliance on the social network as well as a notable withdrawal from responsibilities. Students in this age will usually lack motivation, at least to some extent, and will be confused about their place in the world. So, what can instructors do to make sure that high school students are developing and learning? Additionally, how can we help students transition through adolescence and succeed academically? Taking what I have learned from research on adolescent psychosocial development, the following strategies affect students positively

if you want to read the book you can find it here

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