A Little Bit of Me!

My name is Claudia Suarez, I’m Dominican, I’m Cancer and I am a bilingual PreK teacher. I believe all children can learn as long as they are provided with the appropriate tools and assistance to target the areas that need support and development. I am a proud mom of two boys ages 9 and 2. I am very family oriented and I believe in love, compassion and understanding people’s feeling. I love art, music, nature and food.

While reading about the Habits of Mind, I was able to understand a lot more children behavior. In fact, I was able to identify the mistakes I constantly make when facing a specific situation. I have learned that, reacting with impulsiveness even though is a very common behavior we tend to disregard instead of working to manage our impulses. I understood that responding through an impulse leads to problems, mistakes and inconveniences that we later end up regretting.

On the other hand, in order to teach our students how to behave when they don’t have the answer to something, how to get them produce a response based on prior knowledge, or helping them develop, process, learn, and imitate a critical response either on their own or from others point of view is empirical and needed for their development, especially when facing a situation that is out of their knowledge.

The habit of the mind focuses on finding cues to our responses when facing situations people do not have the answers to. In my opinion, there are important factors we must deal with prior to confronting an awkward situation where we are at lost due to lack of knowledge.

For example.

Managing Impulsivity. Controlling our impulses and abruptic behaviors can be extremely difficult. For many people, been impulsive is the first reaction as a way to protect themselves when they don’t know or have the answer to something. Letting out our emotions is most of time the easiest way to take control of a situation. going off or showing unexpected outburst of emotions and rage tends to be our first response to unknown situation, where we may feel at lost or without the proper knowledge of the subject.

Listening with Understanding and Empathy. Not always human beings tend to take advisement so lightly. It is usually taken otherwise, as an offense or disrespect to their persona and their knowledge. It can be very hard to accept an advice or to listen to others without having to argue back.

Applying Past Knowledge to New Situation. Sometimes we can relate to past situations or experiences to bring them to real life. Reflecting on past experiences is helpful in avoiding falling into the same mistakes and wrong responses. Using background knowledge to build new ideas is essential in our so-called maturing in the way we respond, behave and act among others.

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