Meeting and dealing with changes in the brain of a teenager.

I am starting a new experience. This time I will have the opportunity  to learn and practice how to teach teenagers, since this will be my very first time teaching teens it will be a very insightful and meaningful experience.

Adolescence  can be a confusing and hard time, because they go through some changes  that they are not aware and because of that some teenagers often know how to act or react to specific problems or situations that are presented in their life. And that is why my perspective  on teaching teenagers make me  feel challenge, because as teachers we always want to teach and give them our best, but teens often feel embarrassed to participate or refuse to do an specific activity, or even sometimes they don't feel that motivated to learn something new.

During this week, I have been studying about teens behavior, and it is quite interesting to learn how actually the brain works and  how the transition is from being a child into a teenager. 

There are many factors  that had influence in the life of a teenager, such as: family, friends, school, technology,  environment, but also their brain. Since our brain are in constant development, during the adolescence the greatest change occurs in the frontal lobe, it undergoes growth and a wave of reorganization. This changes in the frontal lobe are significant in their lives, it not only implies affective connections and maturity but also, it brings with it cognitive and behavioral functions such as: 

• Reasoning.
• Problem solving.
• Organization for multiple task.
• Judgement.
• Empathizing with others.
• Emotions.
• Impulse control.

It is important to remember that as teachers, we need to teach teenagers in manners that enables their brains to see that what they are learning is relevant for their lives, and that is why Ic consider that teachers need to take into consideration the environment, background information and abilities  when planning a lesson.

For instance, my expectations toward this course: "Teaching practicum II: Teaching English to teens." are high, because I really expect to learn a lot, not only about their behavior, but also some techniques on how to teach them, and everything that I require to know to give my best to my future students.