Video+Reflection+3

media type="custom" key="19255682" This video is about violence and poor urban areas where the students may be suffering because of their environment. EVERYONE should watch this there are so many great things said within this short 6 minute piece. I think that they first thing I should share is that I would like to work in an urban district. I did some student teaching in Atlantic CIty and met a student who has changed me forever. He was suffering with him home life and now because of that he was in trouble and acting out in school everyday. It seemed to me that the teacher and the school had lost hope for him and that was heart wrenching to me. I paid more attention to this child and I say child because he was only 9 years old, and that led me to a lot of new developments that I found out about him. He had PTSD just as the video had talked about. They had said that these children who are raised in these ghettos are very stressed because of their environment and they cannot move forward with successful learning if their mind is someplace else. My student told me a lot of personal thing, he was crying to me explaining how hard and sad his life was....HE WAS ONLY 9 YEARS OLD!!!!!! I will be forever changed by this student and he is always in my thoughts when my life gets confusing. He makes me want to be a teacher and want to help these children who are in desperate need. This school in San Francisco implemented meditation. I think that meditation is good for anyone especially these students who come from not so great home environments. The principle had stated said "if we continue doing what we always did, then we will always get what we already got." He said this is the 21st century and we need to make a change and try new things and meditation has cut the truancy rate and suspension rate by nearly half. This is obviously working and other schools need to brainstorm new ideas like this school has. Social and emotional roles play out in a person and are very important identifying and recognizing those psychological components for positive change.