Angela's Ashes: Memoir of a Childhood

Many teachers encounter moments that affect his or her outlook on teaching and life. Many children encounter poverty and hardships that can affect performance in life. In particular, Frank McCourt gives a brief account of his families struggle through poverty, alcoholism, and emotional distress in "Angela's Ashes: Memoir of a Childhood." Growing up in Ireland at four years can be a diffuclt time. A father can be the most important person to a young boy. Frank considers his father like the "Holy Trinity," the persons in one. He is someone that reads to him, recites stories at night, and one who does the "bad thing." Franks father cared for his family deeply(Frank,Franks Mother, Franks brother Malachy, and younger twins); however, he did have a problem with alcohol. He is the only source for his families income. The first weeks his family eats, but after the third they are hungry Druring the fourth week Franks father does not return home, and Frank his forced to search town for his father. His mother is torn, as she searches for food and her husband. Frank has to enter bars an inquire patrons of his father. After having to credit more money for food, Frank and his family returns home. His father later loses his job.
Many children today, have had difficult moments during their childhood. They are forced to be parents, sisters, and brothers. I believe that frank,at his age, possessed love and strength that many children havent acquired at the age of four. When children are put in a classroom, they are expected to provide knowledge at the end of the year. Everyday children have obstacles to deal with just as adults. I now understand that children have to tackle everyday stress and then try not to associate that stress with school. I feel that Frank was the type of child that no only understood life from a bad aspect, but he also attained more knowledge through school. Many students may not have knowledge that can be assessed by a pen and paper. For example, I may have a child in my classroom that visualy understand the material. This child may have stress at home that I may not know about. However, it is my job to get to know that child as a person.

Sibling Rivalry, Sibling Love

In "Sibling Rivalry, Sibling Love", Nancy Samalin and Catherine Whitney reassure parents about the causes and effects of sibling rivalry. Many parents worry that fighting leads to hatred, but they use funny stories to illustrate just the opposite. Children enjoy fighting with each other and are "often having the time of their lives bickering and plotting and, finally, loving each other." They also do a wonderful job relating the fear and anxiety a child must feel when a new child arrives to a husband bringing home a new spouse. Samalin and Whitney also discuss the different things siblings fight over which mostly boil down to fairness. They see any subtle differences between the the way they are spoken to or the things they receive as acts of favoritism. Many times though, their fighting has no reason at all, sometimes it's just kids being kids.

I couldn't help but laugh at everything in this article because as a sister and a mother of two I can relate to each of the points they make. I think the main point of the article is to let everyone know that this behavior is completely normal. I can already see a lot of sibling rivalry in my children and it often worries me, but this article made me think a lot about fighting with my younger brother and how harmless it really was. It gave me a lot of perspective and I think it might help me loosen up a little when my kids are fighting over the same ball even though we have three of them. It's just part of being a sibling.

I also think I will be more lenient with my students and let them work through their problems a little before intervening because I see that a little disagreement can be both normal and productive in the right situation. Our textbook states that "Piaget identified social interaction as one of the major variables that facilitate cognitive development." Fighting with their peers and giving rational supporting arguments shows their shift from egocentrism in the preoperational stage to concrete operations. So, I believe this article is a great example of the way children relate to their siblings.

Coping With Attention - Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder by Ann Colin

What a wonderful essay. Authored by Ann Colin, the mother of four year old Willie, this essay vividly depicts the behavior of how difficult it is to deal with children with ADHD. Ann describes in details, some of the behavior problems that she and his preschool teachers have experienced with Willie. Willie has a terrible time follow the rules of the house and the classroom. Neither does he have any sense of negotiation. His behaviour is so disrupting, the preschool teachers recommended that Mrs. Colin hire a graduate student to "shadow " him.
Willie's parents realizes that the medicine prescribed ( Dexedrine) does not seem to be working, they seek the help of a cognitive therapist. The objectivity of therapy is to stretch Willie's tolerance of frustration. After months of therapy and hard work on Willie's behalf, Willie is ready to graduate. His parents and therapist were very proud of him.

I am most fasicnated with what goes on the brain of a child with ADHD. I often wonder what driving force prevents them from seeing the world as others do. This curiosity has driven me to start preliminary research on children with ADHD. As teachers, we will have our very Willie one day. It is important to search for ways of dealing with children with ADHD. Through this article, I have realized how important it is to be patient as Mrs. Colin were. Also, it is just as important to be firm and stand my ground as a concerned teacher. I hope that my research will give me more insight on how to deal with children with ADHD.

Handed My Own Life

"Handed My Own Life" by Annie Dillard describes the parental involvement and interest in activities, acquired knowledge of the child, and final work productions of their daughter, Annie. Dillard's parents were very interested in drawings and poetry written by Dillard herself at an early age. Her work as a young child received many "oohs and ahhs" from both her mother and father. Later in her adolescent years, when Dillard became interested in playing hockey, discovering amoeba through a microscope, and observing and studying various objects under a microscope her parents were not interested in the final products and the moments of "Mom and Dad come look at this!" were acknowledged but dismissed by her parents. Through out her adolescent years, Dillard's parents continued to hold little interest in her readings, homework, tests, collections (ranging from rocks to animals), and her ability to play the piano. Despite the lack of interest in Dillard's enjoyments in life, her parents provided her with the tools and other necessities to fulfill her enjoyment. Dillard realized she was responsible for herself in life after her parents continued to sit and converse over coffee one evening instead of visiting her new discovery, amoeba. Dillard had indeed been handed her own life to plan day in and day out due to the disinterest demonstrated towards her interest and enjoyments in life by her parents.


Reading this essay allowed me to realize the luxury of life I encountered as a child. My parents were always there for everything throughout my life-school, sports, and "detective work." Anytime I asked my parents to do something or see something one or the other would indeed do so. It was not until college that I had my life handed to me. Upon graduation of high school my parents handed my life to me, allowing me to make my own decisions and began being more responsible for my finances. I am know planning and fulfilling my life, as Dillard did as an adolescent.


"Handed My Own Life" by Annie Dillard allowed me to see the importance of observing and discussing children's discovers, activities, and work with them. It allows students to expand their minds, remain committed, persistent, creative, and enthusiastic about their personal enjoyments in life and educations. Although some children may come from backgrounds similar to that of Dillards, I hope to set a different tone in my classroom by not handing my students their lives at such a diligent age. It is my desire to remain interested at all times in what my students say, do, and have in my classroom. I aim to be a teacher of understanding, question, concern, and enthusiasm for my students and their involvements, while presenting ideas and concepts to be discovered in an understandable manner. By teaching in this manner I will be able to continue to guide my students lives and better educate them.

Prepetual Motion: A Curious Baby

For my blog, I read Prepetual Motion: A Curious Baby. This essay consisted of a mother, author Anne Lamott, journaling about her son Sam and his growth. Throughout the essay, Lamott talked about how much Sam had grown and the different things that he was doing at the time. For example, she talked about when he began sitting up on his own, crawling on his own, occupying himself while playing in the play pen, climbing stairs, remembering places, and dancing. Not only did Lamott talk about Sam's new developments, but she also talked about how she felt as a mother.
Reading this essay reminded me of myself watching my own child grow. It is crazy how fast they grow and how quickly you forget how your child was when they were born. When Lamott talked about when Sam first had incounters with the bathroom, she said that he was simply amazed. Later, she said that he automatically knew what the bathroom was at that he liked the bath tub. To me, this is proof that he had clearly had a schema for bathroom/bathtub and that he liked it, so every time he saw it, after reviewing his file card on bathroom/bathtub, he remembered that he liked it. This is a very early example of how schema is used throughout the developmental stages. When I become a teacher, I hope to use examples like this to understand schema and personal cognitive growth to incorporate in my classroom. I want to take into consideration how children learn and understand things at the particular stage that they are in. I also want to present things to them in a way for them to understand and remember the information that I am giving them.

Mollie In Preschool

The essay that I read was titled "Mollie In Preschool" by Vivian Gussin Paley. The essay is in most parts the words of a preschooler named mollie. She is involving herself in a lot of imaginary or symbolic play in her classroom on this particualr day that the author is observering. Mollie pretends to be lots of different characters such as a wet butterfly, wonderwoman, the big bad wolf, one of the three pigs etc. This symbolic play falls right into the preoperational thought stage of life that Piaget discovered. Preoperational stage is known to between the ages of 2 and seven. I know from my personal experience with having a 3 year old son that with out his imagination life would not be as interesting to him. Even though he may be playing with a small toy, there is a big scene taking place in his imagination. Mollie uses a lot of assimilation in her symbolic play. At one point during the essay Mollie is combining the characters of 4 stories, "The Mushroom in the Rain", "The Three Pigs", Hansel and Gretel", and "Wonderwoman". Mollie assimulates all of these stories and makes up her own individual imaginary play. When becoming a teacher i will be able to know how to comunicate with the young children by drawing them pictures and allowing them to use their imagination to assimulate old things they have learned and new things a want to introduce to them. This will help my young students broadened knowledge of those old ideas

Posting 1, Essay Reflections

Having read your essay, post at least one entry on the chosen essay consisting of one well-developed paragraph summarizing the essay and a well developed reflection on what the essay means to you.

What connections did you find between your life experiences and the essay text? How does the essay relate to cognitive, affective and language development? How can you relate the ideas from the essay to your future classroom teaching? What commonalities do you find between your essay and the reflections of other students?