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From "The Puzzling Child", I saw a great emphasis placed on viewing children that do not perform as we want or expect them to in the classroom from an alternate perspective. It is vital as teachers that we give students like this the space to share their thoughts and ideas, as they can be helpful to other students, and expand understanding and knowledge. In the "Developing Social and Emotional Aspects" reading, I learned the importance of providing students with the opportunity to learn social and emotional skills. I also learned how difficult this is to do, as many schools do not see a value in social and emotional learning, and don't want it to take away from academic learning. Social and emotional learning can have a positive impact on academic learning when implemented correctly. My one big take away stems from "The Puzzling Child" readings and is that we, as teachers, must acknowledge and celebrate "outside of the box" thinkers, and allow for them to express and learn in the manner that is natural to them.

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One thing that spoke to me in “The Puzzling Child” article was the importance of changing your perspective on the expatiations of different children in the classroom. In the article the researcher noticed that a student who was labeled as “below-average” or “puzzling” was able to connect with the material and express their thoughts but in their own way and on their own time. Since the student did not match typical response or verbalization skills, they were labeled as below-average, despite knowing the information. This is where the importance of perspective is useful because if the teacher was aware of the student’s differences, they may have been better equipped to help that student succeed without being labeled as below-average. It is important for the teacher to create a new approach to teaching the information so that student is able to connect with the material and contribute to class learning. In “Developing Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning” the importance was placed on creating a classroom environment that supports a social and emotional growth. This is an important topic to include in the classroom, but it is often overlooked because of the emphasis schools place on teaching only academic subjects. It has become increasingly important to promote social-emotional learning alongside academic learning. My biggest takeaway from the readings is learning how to encourage students to use their own perspectives to learn as well as adapting your teaching style to look for those perspectives.

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My biggest takeaway from both articles was the importance of allowing disadvantaged, below-average students bring their own experiences and understandings to the classroom. Even though a student might not be on track based on the curriculum standards, they will still have ideas and ways of thinking that could promote new ways seeing a topic. These students could see something in a way that goes beyond the curriculum and can help the other students in the class to think about the topic in a more in-depth way. It is important to stay mindful of this as a teacher and remember that there is usually more than one way of seeing something. From my understanding of both articles, this affirmation and acceptance of different ways of thinking will raise student self-esteem, while also helping them and their peers academically. According to the article called Developing Social and Emotional aspects of learning, the author states, “evidence also exists that creating an overall school climate allowing disadvantaged students to affirm their positive values also had positive impact on learning and potential for closing the achievement gap.”  (Elias/Moceri, 2012) Overall, both articles see the importance in encouraging these students to bring their own experiences/values to the classroom, as a way of promoting their own thinking/ positive attitude toward school, while also exemplifying new and additional insights to their peers.

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My biggest takeaway from "The Puzzling Child" by Ballinger, was importance in recognizing the different ways that children learn and express their knowledge.  There was a lot of emphasis on what the two students learned from a lesson about growth.  Rather than looking for one specific answer, allowing the students to freely share what they had learned in their own perspective not only shows the importance of their individual thought processes, but also gives other students (and the teacher) more ideas about what can be taken away from a lesson.  In "Developing Social and Emotional Aspects" by Elias, my biggest takeaway from the importance to the social-emotional aspect in teaching.  Oftentimes, I feel as though this factor can get lost in the learning and goals of curriculum and that social-emotional learning can be neglected at times.  SEL encourages students to embrace their individuality and emotions on an individual basis.  I think this greatly ties into the Ballinger article and emphasizes the importance of individual perspectives and abilities.  We often talk about the importance of inclusion for all in order to create a supportive classroom climate, and I think that by embracing individuality in both of these cases is one of the steps to take in order to achieve this.

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My one big takeaway from both of these articles is how important it is to teach the whole child; how we should embrace all that students can bring to the table. It is disheartening that teachers will refer to children as “puzzling” but i think that they’re not really puzzling at all, they are unique and that is a part of their identity. As teachers, instead of frowning upon or dismissing the ideas of puzzling children, we embrace them and try to go deeper in ourselves to understand these children and their ideas which can open our eyes to different ways of thinking which we always try to teacher our students. Teachers can learn as much from their students as students learn from their teachers. Using what we learn and know about students can guide our teaching in a way that is relatable and connected to them. I have done a lot of research about SEL programs and I have come to understand how important they really are in academic and social success. We need to embrace students academic and social and emotional identities in order for them to thrive. Teaching the whole child is just as important as teaching the students in your classroom. Student need academic, social, and emotional support in order to thrive, and they need all three. Overall, embracing the whole child, whether they are puzzling or not, and using SEL programs together can have a huge impact on students and guide them toward great success both in and outside the classroom.

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In “The Puzzling Child,” the main takeaway I gathered is that children can express their knowledge in a number of ways. Instead of viewing these children as “puzzling” teachers must reevaluate their own perspective on what is valuable in the classroom. As a teacher, it is important to recognize that students can share their ideas in a number of abstract ways that may not abide by the norm, and this is okay. Next, in the article “Developing Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning” one thing that spoke to me was the importance of creating a comfortable classroom environment that supports social emotional learning. This is especially important for children who may be disadvantaged. The article states, “High-quality programmes must be embedded within safe, caring, well-managed and cooperative classroom environments, as well as wider settings that provide equitable opportunities for positive participation and recognition” (Elias & Moceri 2012). A common thread I see between these two articles is that a teacher has an immense responsibility in the classroom of supporting students both academically and emotionally. With regard to students, everyone comes into the classroom with their own experiences, identity and beliefs; and as a teacher it is so important to honor all of these things.

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Across these two readings, what stood out to me the most was in the “The Puzzling Child” article it spoke about how it is so important to take a step back and alter expectations to fit the needs for each student. I thought this was important to mention because every child has different hurdles they need to overcome, which as the teacher we need to do everything in our power to help each student. In the “Developing Social & Emotional Aspects” article,  what resonated with me was when it spoke about social and emotional needs. Yes, I knew as a teacher I would be providing these for them, but this opened my eyes to how it affects their development of character. My one big takeaway was when the “Developing Social & Emotional Aspects” article spoke about effective intervention.

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Meaghan Ryan                 Both of these articles, about SEL and puzzling children brought new ideas into my mind about SEL. Social and emotional learning is something that has proven to be very important in a classroom. My biggest takeaway from these articles is really just the importance of teaching a child in every aspect of their life. Social and emotional learning contributes to success just as much if not more than academic success will. If students do not have the mental strength to push them through school, they will not succeed to the best of their ability. I also really enjoyed reading The Puzzling Child because it emphasized the strengths of the children. It is sometimes easy to see the downfalls in a child, but as a future teacher we need to not just look at weaknesses, but capitalize on the child’s strengths. 

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Meaghan Ryan                 Both of these articles, about SEL and puzzling children brought new ideas into my mind about SEL. Social and emotional learning is something that has proven to be very important in a classroom. My biggest takeaway from these articles is really just the importance of teaching a child in every aspect of their life. Social and emotional learning contributes to success just as much if not more than academic success will. If students do not have the mental strength to push them through school, they will not succeed to the best of their ability. I also really enjoyed reading The Puzzling Child because it emphasized the strengths of the children. It is sometimes easy to see the downfalls in a child, but as a future teacher we need to not just look at weaknesses, but capitalize on the child’s strengths. 

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From reading both the " Puzzling Child" and "Developing Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning" what spoke to me from these two readings is that it is important to realize what each student brings to the classroom individually. I learned that it is important to see what each student does with their learning individually and as a future teacher I encourage students to bring their own beliefs and values inside of the classroom. One of my biggest takeaways from the reading on "Developing Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning" the author mentions how our social and emotional well being affects how we learn and what we are learning. I think this is important because as teachers we need to influence a healthy social and emotional life not only in the classroom but outside the classroom. In the "Puzzling Child" my biggest take away was as a teacher you need to better understand students but to do this you need to understand not only yourself but also what you are teaching so that we as teachers can help students expand their learning.

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In “The Puzzling Child” I thought the author offered a very good idea when she discusses how a teacher should compare their own thinking and expectations of what students are thinking to what they actually say. Our expectations of what students are going to say may be accurate but also a lot of times students will come out with very unexpected ideas and discussions that a teacher would not have thought about. In this way the author says, student’s conversations can make teachers see subject matter in a new way that they had not previously thought of and can get new ideas from student conversations. It is important to let students discuss and hash ideas out before interrupting them with the correct or accurate information because they may just figure it out themselves and it will be a much more memorable experience. In “Developing Social & Emotional Aspects” I agreed with the point that the school system is too focused on academic achievement and there is no time for social and emotional factors. But SEL is very important to BOTH academic and social emotional factors. My biggest takeaway is that when a student has a strong relationship with the teacher(s) and feels like they matter, then they are going to be engaged and perform better academically. Time can always be made for SEL and it can often be easily implemented, it is not about whether or not teachers are able, it is about if they are willing and want to use SEL in their classroom.

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From the article “The Puzzling Child,” by biggest take away was that each student is different which means the ways they learn are different. As teachers, we need to change our perspective to see where some students might be coming from. Just because we don’t see where they’re coming from does not make them wrong. Having an open mind will allow teachers and students to see what they couldn’t before. In the article, “Developing Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning” it speaks about the importance of social and emotional learning. These skills influence a child’s life and are needed for them to succeed. It is challenging to teach this but will help each student. This helps to show the importance of teaching the whole child. Both of these articles mention the importance of being there for your students and knowing all their abilities. It can be beneficial to change your teaching styles to better help your student’s needs.

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Something that resonated with me from Cynthia Ballenger's The Puzzling Child was the focus on expanding our own perspectives to better reflect what we consider knowledge. Limitations of intellectual and linguistic strengths can be attributed to a teacher's own assumptions they have made about the subject matter. This was particularly interesting because it opens the door to reinventing new forms of assessment to actually evaluating academic strengths. As someone who is hoping to teach science I thought the conversation question "Who gets to feel scientific?" was particularly interesting. We need to frame scientific discussions through an exploratory lens so students can contribute with their own experiences. Something that resonated with me from Maurice Elias' Developing social and emotional aspects of learning was the five skill areas that contribute to academic achievement in SEL. I particularly found the Self-Awareness skill quite interesting because it allows one to form their own expectations on themselves and the people they interact with. Understanding this concept and teaching it to people is important in recognizing your social and emotional influences on your learning.

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From the articles about SEL and the puzzling child, they both talk about the different ways of teaching students through the curriculum and also teaching them how to socially aware and build relationships. In the article about the puzzling child the biggest takeaway I got was how important communication is and discussions in the classrooms are for every student no matter what their level of readiness is. It is important as the teacher to take in everything that teach child says to guide the other students in their learning, so that the students can learn from each other not just from the teacher. The article about SEL talks about the Casel fives which are all important tools that should be taught in the classroom so that students are prepared in other settings and as they grow older to be self aware and able to build healthy relationships with everyone they meet. All of these skills work together but could be taught individually with one of them highlighted in an exercise, then once all of them are taught the teacher can use a larger activity where all of them are involved to make the students aware of the differences between each of the five areas.

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Molly Mastrianni            Regarding the first article titled "The Puzzling child" I found this view of teaching to be extremely interesting and something that i could see myself looking more into. With this idea, teachers are paying more attention to how students in their classrooms who are struggling are learning. The kinds if questions brought up in this article are things like how did they find this information and what resources are they using. Stepping back from these ideas about students academic progress was the article titled "Developing Social and emotional Learning". This article i thought was just as interesting because it really stresses the importance of social emotional learning. It stresses that it is just as important to a child's education as is the academic side fo teaching. What both of these article provide are the necessary pillars for how teachers should go about addressing what they call "the puzzling students" as well as students who are struggling socially.  

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Molly Mastrianni            Regarding the first article titled "The Puzzling child" I found this view of teaching to be extremely interesting and something that i could see myself looking more into. With this idea, teachers are paying more attention to how students in their classrooms who are struggling are learning. The kinds if questions brought up in this article are things like how did they find this information and what resources are they using. Stepping back from these ideas about students academic progress was the article titled "Developing Social and emotional Learning". This article i thought was just as interesting because it really stresses the importance of social emotional learning. It stresses that it is just as important to a child's education as is the academic side fo teaching. What both of these article provide are the necessary pillars for how teachers should go about addressing what they call "the puzzling students" as well as students who are struggling socially.  

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In the "Puzzling Child" article, I was reminded to not judge students' responses during lessons.  This article really spoke to me because it was explaining how children think out of the box, especially the ones that might be labeled as the "puzzling" students who are behind academically.  Their brains may think a different way that isn't as typical as other students, but their contributions and thinking is still very valid and contributes greatly to class discussions that both the teacher and students can learn from.  The "Developing Social and Emotional Learning" article reminded me of how important teaching self awareness is.  You can teach students all about mental health and mental illnesses, about coping skills, but if they can't recognize the emotions they are feeling, they can apply any of the very useful information they are learning through SEL programs.  That's why this part is so important.  For example, students need to be able to recognize the feeling of anxiety before they can apply the breathing techniques they learned.  My big take away from these two articles is that the students need to be listened to, and their ideas and contributions need to be validated.  Students need to feel supported and motivated, and treated with patience.  Patience for their thoughts to be clearly expressed without judgement.  And patience for learning how to process and deal with their own emotions.

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My key takeaways from “Developing Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning” were the importance of SEL education and the unfortunate reality that because it is not seen as academic its importance is overlooked and it is often not adopted by schools/districts. The article provided multiple studies showing that, while not directly academic, it does have many positive influences on student academic success (along with self-awareness, less problem behaviors, positive peer/adult relationships, stress management and goal setting). Additionally, “The Puzzling Child” article showed another example of the value of a conversation that wouldn’t normally be considered “academic”. In the article, Serena is considered to be the better scientist/academic because she answers the question of “do plants grow every day?” with numerical evidence from their growth charts. Elena, however attempts to answer the question with a narrative story which leads to the plant being compared to the students, socks, birthday growth charts, etc. Even though this isn’t traditionally academic, these metaphors helped Elena, and her classmates, make sense of the question and answer and understand a concept that they weren’t grasping with the same explanation as Serena. Together, I think these articles show the importance of creating a safe space where all students can develop positive experiences with academics, each other, and themselves.