Senior Farewell

To my seniors of 2012,

First I want to congratulate you on your accomplishments.  In a day and time when education is put on the back burner for friends, parties, and work, you all continued to push yourselves in your ability in all of your classes.  In your senior year, as senioritis set in, you chose to take the hard classes to challenge yourself and show off bits of your potential and you will be thankful you chose the route you chose.

Potential, that is what the world wants to see from you.  Professional sports draft players based on their potential and future projections.  However, it is just that, projections.  Too many times players do not reach to their full potential and burn-out, not reaching their dreams or potential.  The problem is that these players do not know how to handle failure, how to adjust their abilities, and push through. 

You each will face failure.  I know this is not what you want to hear, but it is the truth.  Each of you will drop the ball, but it is OK.  Failure is not the bad part of life.  The bad part of life is dealing with the failure and making a decision of how it will define you.  If you look at failure as a negative and do not learn from it, it will hinder your potential and draw you back.  However, if you learn from your failure, correct the mistakes you made so you do not make that same mistake again, and push through, then that failure cannot define you.  Instead, what will define is a sense of empowerment, allowing you to reach your potential.

At times you will have to adjust your plans.  It is OK.  Life is about change; otherwise it would be pretty boring.  Obstacles come up in life that have nothing to do with failure.  As these obstacles develop, it will be about how you handle these obstacles that can define you.  If you dwell and focus on these obstacles, they will come to define who you are because you will settle and allow the obstacles to overcome you.  I challenge you, instead, to embrace these obstacles, accept the changes, and move forward.  Some obstacles suck!  That's all there is to it.  But, you can make these obstacles your own and push yourself to climb over in reaching your potential.

Finally, pushing through can be difficult.  Life is heavy on one's shoulders.  It can feel like a wall in front of you.  But, just like the AP exams you took this year.  Stop, take a deep breath, refocus, and push through.  Distractions will come.  Friends, families, pets, or a wide variety of other things that can come up through your adult life leading to these distractions.  However, keep your focus and push through.

Each of you have a very unique potential and bring something unique to the table.  My wish for you is that each of you handles failure, not let obstacles define you, and push through in reaching that true and full potential.  If each of you reaches that potential the world will be a better place with lives being saved or changed. I have enjoyed the time with each of you and the opportunity you have given me to teach you.  Good luck and reach your potential!

Piaget Assignment

picture retrieved from http://prattpsychology.blogspot.com/2011/03/piagets-stage-theory.html


Recently in class we have discussed Piaget's theory of cognitive development and some criticisms toward his ideas. The main criticism isn't so much the ideas and concepts but the ages associated with each stage. The first part of your assignment is to select two of the following features of preoperational thought: egocentrism, a focus on perceptual appearances, difficulty reasoning about transformations, and lack of hierarchical classification. Present evidence indicating that preschoolers are more capable thinkers than Piaget assumed.

The second part of your assignment is to discuss how Piaget's theory can help explain how a child develops self-concept. Be sure to define the term and then explain your reasoning. Be sure to support it with terms from the text.

The third part of this assignment is more on the entertaining side.  You are to examine various websites that sell toys for children.  Identify four toys that would fit into each stage of Piaget's theory (one for each stage totaling four toys).  Describe how each toy fits into a specific stage of Piaget's theory.

This assignment is due Sunday by 11:59pm and be sure to put your initials on your blog post so I can give credit where credit is due.