Adolescence and the importance of the teacher recognizing and knowing its characteristics

Introduction

Adolescence is a stage of life where many changes occur, physically and psychologically, there is a development, this is a transition between childhood and adulthood. It can be a hard time for someone, and for others it can be a good time. It also depends of the context in which the adolescent lives, and the relationships with parents, friends and teachers, this last is very important too because adolescents spend a good amount of time at school, where they learn, they make friends and live many experiences. The adolescents can have a positive or a negative view of the teacher, sometimes because of the rebellion typical of this age; their relationship with the teacher is not good. The teacher can be a person who orientates them, if they are confused, someone they can trust in, but it depends of the way the student and the teacher relates. The teacher must recognize and understand the characteristics of this stage of life, in order to understand them better, and know what they act in a certain way, the typical problems of this age, and also to know if one of the students is having problems, and they can give them an orientation. Also this knowledge about the characteristics of adolescence is important because it can help the teacher to design teacher strategies, to know the process of learning in adolescence and also for know when it is more probable to obtain a better academic achievement, to be able of know the environment of the classroom and detect some problems. It would improve the experience of both teacher and student at school; help them to have a better relationship.

Insignificant is something that does not have an impact in our life, something that does not affect us, something that is not important for us and can be ignored, is something that does not have transcendence and can be ignored without having consequences in our life, and wont make a change. Meaningful is when something has an importance, has an impact in our life or is something that would remain through time in our memory, something that would make a change in us, and cannot be erased of forgotten that easy. These concepts are present in all the aspects of our lives, so they are present in education. We as teachers have things to share, to teach and show to our future students, and it is very important for these things to be meaningful in the life of our students. I can think of the things that I can share with my students, also of the knowledge that I would transmit to them not only in English, also in other subjects if I have the chance to teach another, or if not, I would like to help my students in other subjects if they are having problems, no matter if that is not my class. But also, I would like to share them values, I know values are taught at home, but there are some that can be learned or improved at school. I would like to teach them that they have ti fight to get what they want, not only at school, but also in every aspect of life, and that if they work hard they will get a good result; that they do not have to take any chance if they really want to be successful. Also I would like to show them my way to see life: That everything is possible if you work for it, that is important to do our best in everything we do, the importance of be ourselves and do not get influenced by others or by the things that other say or think about us, and the importance of the persons that are in our lives, and that everything we do, every experience we have, helps us to construct our life. Self-awareness is being conscious of ourselves; know who we are, what we want, and what we will do to get our goals. Is accept ourselves, with all the things that we cannot change about us, accepting the good and the bad things, and recognize our feelings in each situation, being able of control them.

For a teacher, self-awareness is very important. We all need have an idea of who we are, is the way that we see ourselves, sometimes is different from the perception that others have of us, and can be influenced by it. A teacher needs self-awareness because has to have clear his role, who he is, the way he sees himself, to distinct if from the vision of the others, and that will help him to be more self- secure, and that is very important for the development of his work, that would help him to put discipline in the group, to get the trust of his students and also to transmit them self-secureness too, especially in adolescence, a stage where the students can be insecure. A good way to improve our knowledge, our vocabulary and get more culture, is reading. When we read, we can know other places, without having to go there, just by reading the description of the book, and is also a good source of entertainment, better than television and internet. Our generation does not spend enough time reading; there are low levels of reading comprehension in the students of our country, also people does not enjoy reading and only read something when it is really necessary, and most of the time they do not understand what they read, also with the mass media, they do not spend time reading. Also people do not visit libraries or book stores very often, and sometimes books are expensive, so the access to reading is reduced to the people that cannot go to a library, or afford a book. It is necessary to have a clear vision of life, in order to have clear our goals, but also to enjoy our life, to know where we came from and where we will go, what we want to achieve and to have solid values to guide our life in all the circumstances we pass through life, to guide our decisions and be a reference for our actions.