The Impact of Divorce on Children Research Paper - 1

The Impact of Divorce on Children - Research Paper Example One of the most painful and devastating effects of divorce is the loss of parents for these underage children (Abrams, 2003). This happens when there is loss of contact with one or, in extreme cases, both parents. The loss comes with the loss of assistance and emotional help. Parents give a hugely influential psychological help to their children. This includes their duty as role models. It is estimated that non residential mothers do visit their children more frequently that the fathers (Brentano, 2007). Non residential fathers tend to visit their children at most five times in a month. Study shows that 21 per cent of children do not see their father two to three years after divorce. When this contact time is lessened, it means that children shall have to look for some other person to fill in the gap (Abrams, 2003). Most children who end up in criminal gangs come from none functional families (Hetherington & Stanley-Hagan, 1999). Most of them are said to have lost contact with their fathers and, therefore, try to fill in that gap through negative peer pressure (Clarke-Stewart & Vandell, 2000). The quality of the time spent by the parents and a teenage child or adolescent is what actually matters. This is because there are fathers who are always at home but always fight with their children. These are the parents who do not take intentional steps to create bond with their children (Hetherington & Stanley-Hagan, 1999). Emotional disconnection between children and their parents leads to mental instability (Hetherington & Stanley-Hagan, 1999). ... Fathers who help their children in their homework and show care and affection raise children who are better socially (Hetherington & Stanley-Hagan, 1999). Without this connection, children are left in the dark without knowing who to look to for guidance and direction. When parents divorce, children are likely to suffer economically. This means that they are likely to suffer financially more than children whose family is intact (Hetherington & Stanley-Hagan, 1999). There are instances when parents divorce and consequently opt to live in different countries. In this case, children have to choose which parent they want to live with. There are instances when after the division of property, the father of the children who used to be the bread winner files for bankruptcy. In most cases, he urges that he is not capable of supporting the children (Abrams, 2003). In other cases, divorced families change locations, children are forced to change their social set up and the quality of life they a re used to. In most of these cases, it happens quite abruptly. The process of divorce itself can be terribly expensive to the parents and children alike (Wolfinger, 2005). The well being of children cannot be quantified entirely through money. The economics of raising children involves harmony and peace within the family institution. This is because resources are best shared in an atmosphere of peace and tranquility (Abrams, 2003). Divorce involves loss of some supportive relationships and connections. Sometimes, change in the child’s healthcare programs affects the quality of the child’s upbringing. This radical economic change has a devastating effect upon the lives of the children involved. This financial strain becomes a doorway to many other economic challenges for the young

Motivational Climate Task and Ego Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Motivational Climate Task and Ego - Essay Example Motivational climate ego is of entirely another genre. The motivation for the ego is to win and win at any cost. It will even resort to lying and cheating to achieve victory. The ego thinks it is the best, does not like the second place and wants none else to be the better player (Schwarz, Joel, 2007). The aim of the ego to win at all times irrespective of the methods used to win is not truly satisfying or fulfilling. It inflates the ego for some time but such victories are consigned to history and become fodder for statistics. Motivational climate task dwells on mastery with a difference. It concentrates on tasks for mastery without overtly looking forward to win and humble the opponent. It is more concerned about its performance at the present time in comparison to the past. The proponents of motivational climate task will complement a player according to his performance, irrespective of whether he lost or won (Walling, Mary D & Duda, Joan L, 2009). The investment on a team of players through the application of motivational climate task sends the team soaring in high spirits. The realization that something is being done about their weaknesses is a positive development that not only improves individual performance but also boosts team morale. In motivational climate task "Studies that view coaches' behaviors a... It is not possible to be totally free of egoism in team efforts. There is the mix of task as well as ego-oriented attitudes in any venture. The idea is to raise awareness about the task and not to pay attention to the ego. Tasks motivational climate involves a broad approach to the game. It does not include winning by wrong means. Individuals prefer tasks motivational climate when they play a game to "develop their skills, compete, and interact with others" rather than concentrate totally on just winning (Walling, Mary D & Duda, Joan L, 2009). Ego-centric motivational climate dwells on the methods and abilities of individual players. It defines strategies to win at any cost. It does not consider broad team work and strong and principled stand when playing. Ego-centric motivational climate does not strictly abide by the rules. It might even resort to bullying and cheating if these help in securing a win. Research shows that majority of adults and even children prefer to play for fun and participation. This certainly augurs well for tasks motivational climate. Normally, any community groups consist of men and women of experience and qualify for mastery in motivational climate task. As such, they are in a position to foster a learning environment that encourages innovation and growth. Thus, the group succeeds in establishing an attitude for competitive and healthy growth in a socio-cultural environment that balances individual strengths and weaknesses and sets the stage for motivational climate that provides the growth curve. "Teaching that is based on adult learning theories of motivation and infused with techniques for

Early life environment and a childs temperament

Early life environment and a childs temperament The question of how dependent a childs temperament is on their environment, biology and other individual differences has been the subject of much debate in the world of psychology. To critically discuss to what extent such factors have on temperament, we should consider what this term means- individual differences in emotional, motor, and attentional reactivity and self-regulation (Rothbart, 1998, p.105-76). This definition considers the childs emotional responses; physical ability; how passionate or responsive the child is and how regulated their sleeping and eating habits are, for example. Possible influences on temperament are nature, including innate characteristics, and nurture, the childs early life environment and socialisation. A childs early life environment itself is affected by a number of factors, such as social-economic status; parenting; culture; school entry age and extracurricular activities to name a few. For the purpose of this essay, the focus will be on social-economic status and parenting. Firstly, individual differences were noted for dimensions such as distractibility and intensity of reaction in children in Chess Thomas (1987, as cited in Roberta, 2009) development of the 9 NYLS (New York Longitudinal Study) dimensions on child temperament. Some newborns were found to cry a lot louder than others if hungry, which showed more apparent intensity in the childs temperament. This indicates that temperament is a result of innate characteristics as at such a young age, little environmental influence is likely to have taken place. Behavioural profiles were also produced using the dimensions and 3 types of temperament were developed from this: Easy, Difficult and Slow to warm up, which were apparently identifiable in children as young as 2-3 years old. There is evidence that caregivers awareness of such individual differences is highly important as this can affect the childs socialisation process developing in early life. For example, those with a Difficult temperament might have more intense reactions and harsher parenting techniques used as a result may not always be helpful. Therefore, though aspects of a childs temperament can be seen as innate, environmental factors and social influences also hold a degree of influence. Parenting practices should be adapted to a Difficult child in order for the parent to optimise their ability to nurture their childs temperament. The NYLS dimensions are still in use today and the construct of child difficultness has been further developed and used in many other measures. However, this could cause issues when considering such research as results will depend on which measure and definition of difficultness is being referred to. Secondly, Kagans (1994) work (as cited in Chess Alexander, 1996) studied temperament by also using a biological approach. 43 children had their heart rates recorded and were observed and rated during 2 simple laboratory tasks. Statistical analysis was used to assess the difference between behavioural inhibitions of the children. Inhibition serves certain social functions such as preventing impulse acts, for example, losing your temper and hitting someone. This relates to impulsivity as an aspect of ones temperament. It was found that inhibited children had a higher and more stable heart rate than uninhibited children. At approximately 5.5 years old, there were a number of significant correlations between heart rate and physiological factors such as pupil dilation during cognitive stress and adrenaline levels. This suggests that individual physiological differences are indicative of varying temperaments in children, in line with other biological studies (Fox Calkins, 1993 as cited i n Rubin et al., 1993). Nevertheless, Kagan commented that environmental factors should be investigated too in order to gain a full picture. The effects of social-economic status can be seen in Dearing et al.s (2001) work investigating associations between children aged 1-36 months and effects of changes in family income by 36 months. Results showed a significant effect of income on children from poor families but no significant effects of income on non-poor families. For families in poverty, childrens school readiness; expressive language and positive social behaviours were negatively affected and behavioural problems more prominent and vice versa. Such research gives support for environment affecting a childs temperament, even at the early age of 36 months. Also, a higher risk for negative outcomes at 36 months was found for those that had spent longer in poverty. Even so, associations cannot be directly translated as causal relationships. It is difficult to be certain that extraneous variables, such as parenting; genetic ability and school standards did not affect the results recorded. Differences could have been due t o variables other than family income but the effect of the duration spent in poverty discourages this assumption. Parenting practices and child temperament were investigated using the questionnaire method. Parent perceptions of toddlers social wariness and shyness at 2 years old predicted their preferences for socialisation strategies at 4 years old (Rubin, Nelson Hastings Asendorpf, 1993). Observations of child-parent interactions were also recorded. It seemed that those parents perceiving their children to be shy, somewhat limited their childs opportunities for independence. This was more evident in those parents that were more anxious. Such parenting styles could make it more difficult for self-regulation to develop and for potential interactions with other children to take place. Those children less capable of self-regulation at an early age may develop independent feeding skills later than others for example, which would probably negatively affect temperament with more irritability occurring during meal times. So not only are parenting styles an influence on temperament, parents perception s of their childs abilities and temperament (inclusive of the factors defined by Rothbart, 1998) and how this affects their child-rearing is also extremely relevant. As parent perceptions were being studied, the questionnaire method used is quite fitting. Despite this, we should take into account social desirability bias and demand characteristics potentially affecting validity. For example, parents may be unwilling to convey their children as shy due to partaking in psychological research. Studies on twins have been carried out in attempt to determine whether biological or environmental factors attribute to a childs temperament. Spinath Angleitner (1998) collected separate mother and father ratings on 354 monozygotic and dizygotic twins ranging from ages 2-14. The twins Emotionality, Activity, Sociability and Shyness were also assessed using the EAS Temperament Survey (Buss Plomin, 1984, as cited in Spinath Angleitner, 1998). On all EAS dimensions, except Emotionality, dizygotic twins showed negative or near-zero correlations and the similarities between monozygotic twins were more than half those held by dizygotic twins. As dizygotic twins are expected to experience similar environmental stimulation, it seems that the much stronger correlations between monozygotic twins similarities would arguably be explained by their genetic similarity. Related findings seem to be obtained in further behavioural genetics research (Kimberly Saudino, 2005) which supports the impor tance of innate characteristics in temperament. Nevertheless, we cannot be sure whether parents ratings were affected by demand characteristics and therefore, the validity of the similarity ratings made between the twin pairs. It could even be argued that similarities were rated on perceived zygosity that is to say, perhaps parents and rating family members perceived more similarities between monozygotic twins because of their physical similarities. Experimental methods would conceivably be more useful for identifying the genetic factors contributory to temperament, but familial observations over time may well be more valid, naturalistic observations of child temperament and similarities. Although such research may suggest that the greater monozygotic correlations support the importance of biology in child temperament, results do not explain how relevant it is and certainly does not definitively give evidence for the nature or nurture debate. For more clarity, it seems that a combi nation of methods should be used to explore the dimensions of temperament. Perhaps teacher ratings could have been used in addition to parent and family member ratings alone. Exploring more within-family differences (Kimberly Saudino, 2005) to account for differential treatment of children within the same family, for example, offers more insight to why different family members temperament can vary across a whole range of behaviour. A greater understanding of the influences on child temperament has major practical implications. For example, certain teaching techniques may help Difficult children focus more in school and increase their productivity as a result. Biological influences are arguably less important, as it would imply that temperament is less changeable than a lot of research seems to suggest. For example, a child of slow to warm up temperament, whilst explicable by nature, could benefit greatly from practice of specifically identified socialisation skills. In addition, labelling children with certain temperaments could prove detrimental to their developing temperament during early years and being aware of this is exceptionally important. To conclude, there is evidence to advocate both nature and nurture contributions to child temperament. Although there is significant evidence for biologys role in temperament, there seems to be a general consensus that environmental factors are ultimately of higher importance, as human experiences and surroundings are so varied from person to person. To better understand child temperament, we should look at the interaction of such biological and environmental factors more closely rather than isolating them. A good example is portrayed by Chess Alexander (1987, as cited in Roberta, 2009), where individual differences from birth are apparent, but, what marks a difference is how those innate characteristics are dealt with by parents, and the effect this will have on other social interactions and thus, how child temperament is developed early on in life.

health care disparities :: essays research papers

An informal network of providers allows access to a limited number of free or low-cost drugs, mammography, treatment and other services. This network includes volunteer physicians on both sides of the border, the local federally funded community health center, the local Catholic hospital on the US side, the Shriner’s Hospital in Phoenix, hospitals in Tucson, the Mexican public social security hospital in Sonora, and the Santa Cruz County health department. The promotoras support the Santa Cruz County health department, doing home visits and translation on its behalf. When the county identifies diabetics, follow-up management is often handled by the promotoras. The promotoras have also been involved in a number of community issues. When the controversial replacement of a local well was proposed, promotoras and Institute-organized volunteers headed the county steering committee and organized door-to-door activities to advertise public meetings on the issue. Given their cross-border environment, the Institute has also fostered close working relationships with Mexican consular officials and municipal officials in Nogales, Sonora. The Institute has assisted Plan Retornowith donated supplies and health education. Plan Retorno helps deported individuals who have been dropped off in Nogales, Sonora far from their towns and villages of origin. The Way of the Heart model is different from what is more commonly seen in other promotora initiatives: It is a freestanding entity that has built a set of collaborative relationships with clinical providers and social agencies. Most other promotora projects appear to be sponsored by existing clinics and hospitals that use them to augment their outreach and patient management efforts. Staff Recruitment, Training and Retention Promotoras are recruited mainly through word of mouth, postings in community agencies and sometimes through newspaper ads. In the future, promotoras may be recruited from the teen promotora program that has developed out of the Institute’s peer counseling work. The program explicitly seeks promotoras who reflect the culture, economics and demographics of the Nogales community. Persistence and resilience in navigating systems are the most sought after attributes. health care disparities :: essays research papers An informal network of providers allows access to a limited number of free or low-cost drugs, mammography, treatment and other services. This network includes volunteer physicians on both sides of the border, the local federally funded community health center, the local Catholic hospital on the US side, the Shriner’s Hospital in Phoenix, hospitals in Tucson, the Mexican public social security hospital in Sonora, and the Santa Cruz County health department. The promotoras support the Santa Cruz County health department, doing home visits and translation on its behalf. When the county identifies diabetics, follow-up management is often handled by the promotoras. The promotoras have also been involved in a number of community issues. When the controversial replacement of a local well was proposed, promotoras and Institute-organized volunteers headed the county steering committee and organized door-to-door activities to advertise public meetings on the issue. Given their cross-border environment, the Institute has also fostered close working relationships with Mexican consular officials and municipal officials in Nogales, Sonora. The Institute has assisted Plan Retornowith donated supplies and health education. Plan Retorno helps deported individuals who have been dropped off in Nogales, Sonora far from their towns and villages of origin. The Way of the Heart model is different from what is more commonly seen in other promotora initiatives: It is a freestanding entity that has built a set of collaborative relationships with clinical providers and social agencies. Most other promotora projects appear to be sponsored by existing clinics and hospitals that use them to augment their outreach and patient management efforts. Staff Recruitment, Training and Retention Promotoras are recruited mainly through word of mouth, postings in community agencies and sometimes through newspaper ads. In the future, promotoras may be recruited from the teen promotora program that has developed out of the Institute’s peer counseling work. The program explicitly seeks promotoras who reflect the culture, economics and demographics of the Nogales community. Persistence and resilience in navigating systems are the most sought after attributes.

Qualitative Research Methodology Essay

In this essay I am going to express my understanding of the key principles of qualitative research. In order to understand the nature of qualitative research, we must primarily look at the constructivist ontology and the interpretivist epistemology, which will allow us to develop an understanding of the context in which the qualitative methodology is conceptualised. Furthermore, I will look at the research design process and the inductive nature of this subjective, value laden procedure. I will then go on to look at the principles of qualitative research, with focus on the concepts of trustworthiness and authenticity from a qualitative perspective, which can help sociologists gain Verstehen with individuals. To conclude my essay, I will look at the strengths and weaknesses of qualitative research, making reference to specific methods. Ontology and Epistemology Researchers using qualitative methods of inquiry believe that social phenomena are constructed through human interactions and not determined by governing laws. This is known as the constructivist ontology and aims to understand how a social phenomenon is created through interaction and intersubjective meaning. From their perspective, they believe that social actors create the social world through interactions as opposed to objectivists who believe that social structures determine individual actions and behaviour (Bryman, 2004, p. 3-25). This constructivist ontology needs to be investigated using an interpretivist epistemology, and by understanding this epistemology we can therefore appreciate the key principles of qualitative research. By using interpretivism and an inductive form of inquiry, sociologists aim to understand how individuals construct meaning. For interpretivists, subjectivity is incredibly important due to the subjective nature of individuals, and they try to gain Verstehen. They would see value neutrality as unnecessary because it is impossible to gain Verstehen without using qualitative methodologies (Berg, 2007, p. 19-52). The Inductive Research Process To conduct qualitative research, you would primarily need to select an area of research and research questions, and in this sense the type of question ou select will guide your research process. Qualitative research is inductive, so it does not require an initial hypothesis, unlike quantitative research. This is because behavioural and socio-cultural patterns emerge over time and in some cases are not noticed until after the research has been conducted. After selecting an area of interest, the researchers would need to decide on the research setting and establish what method/s they will use to conduct their research (Bryman, 2004, p. 265-290). There are many methods that can be used in qualitative research, which, according to Strauss and Corbin is used to describe â€Å"any kind of research that produces findings not arrived at by means of statistical procedures or other means of quantification† (1990, p. 17). The researchers themselves play an important part in the research process as they bring their values to the research, which complements the interpretivist epistemology. Researchers have to be aware of the ethical guidelines set out by the British Sociological Association (BSA). Researchers have to take into consideration professional integrity, anonymity, privacy, confidentiality and informed consent (unless research is conducted covertly). Covert research has ethical implications if the research is not important and in the public’s interest. The researchers are in a sense a tool used to collect primary data, and the flexible nature of qualitative research means they are not bound by a rigid process and can adapt their research when needed. The final stage of qualitative research is writing up findings. Research results can be compiled to form a book, journal, article or report (Bryman, 2004, p. 61-82). The Principles of Qualitative Research Qualitative research looks at the micro sociological context. That is, qualitative researchers like to study people in their natural environments. This means that qualitative research is context specific. Qualitative research is concerned with the quality of the social research and aims to be explanatory by looking at the interaction between variables. You can get expert help with your essays right now. Find out more†¦ Qualitative researchers want to understand and explore social situations through generating descriptions from on-site observations and interviews. Qualitative researchers focus on understanding patterns and themes as stated by the author of Jones International University web site: The real world is complex; qualitative research focuses on the elements of that complexity: emotions, meanings, symbols, motivation, thought processes, feelings, patterns and themes. Qualitative research seeks to make sense of this world by finding meaning through the eyes of participants. (http://www. jonesinternational. edu/schools/courses/edu793. hp) Using qualitative methodology, researchers are able to give detailed accounts and descriptions of socio-cultural phenomena which do not need to be conveyed quantitatively. In contrast, quantitative, positivist, deterministic research generalizes findings to the whole population and aims to be conclusive by discovering governing laws (Bryman, 2004. p. 3-25). There are also many other methods qualitative researchers can employ, for example, focus groups, interviews and case studies. After the researcher has decided on the methods, they need to conduct their research. Qualitative researchers are not bound to one particular research method. They can use a variety of different methods if their research requires them to. This use of multi methodology is called triangulation (Berg, 2007, p. 19-52). Qualitative research design is circular. Qualitative researchers needto repeat and adapt their design to suit the flow of their research. After selecting their methods and collecting their data, researchers need to analyse their findings, which can be done in various ways. For example, the research findings would need interpreting; this can be done by linking data to a larger sociological context and generating concepts. Findings can also be analysed by detecting patterns and trends in the data. This can be done by using textual analysis, such as coding using computer software such as MaxQDA (Bryman, 2004, p. 398-416). There are different theoretical approaches involved in qualitative methodology, for example naturalism, ethnomethodology, emotionalism and postmodernist research. Each approach is used as a means of interpreting social phenomena by using a value laden perspective where a researcher applies his/her own values to a social context through an unscientific, flexible process and finally an in-depth, subjective methodology. These principles shape the methods used for qualitative research as they compliment both the constructivist ontology and the interpretivist epistemology. I am now going to discuss some of the different methods used by qualitative researchers that apply these principles. Qualitative Methods Qualitative data collection can be conducted through observations. Participant observation is one of the most common methods for qualitative data collection. Participant observation has strong authenticity but it does lack in repeatability as the research is difficult to reproduce in the same way. There are many different ways of conducting participant observation, and it typically requires the researcher to become a participant in the culture or context being observed. Participant observation is often longitudinal; the researcher needs to spend long periods of time with the focus group to be able to gain a â€Å"native’s point of view†. Participant observation can be conducted either overtly or covertly, depending on the nature of the research. Covert participant observation involves the researcher hiding their true identity and motives of their research from their subjects. This is effective in socially sensitive areas, such as deviant or criminal subcultures, where a researcher can gain Verstehen by using qualitative research methodologies (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1995, chap 8). An example of observational methods is ethnography. Ethnography focuses on the sociology of meaning through observation of socio-cultural phenomena; typically, the ethnographer focuses on a small group or community and uses largely participant observation. This research method was employed by the University of Chicago during the 1920’s and 1930’s. Robert Park, an important figure at the University of Chicago in the 1920s, encouraged students to go outside and collect primary information by using observational methods to study social phenomena: Go and sit in the lounges of the luxury hotels and on the doorsteps of the flophouses; sit on the Gold Coast settees and on the slum shakedown; sit in the Orchestra Hall and the Star and Garter Burlesque. In short, gentlemen, go get the seat of your pants dirty in real research (Park, cited in Prus, 1996, p. 103-140). Overt participant observation contrasts with covert, as the identity of the researcher and intentions of the research are known to the group being studied. Researchers using this method will often record their findings by making detailed field notes; this, however, can become difficult if the research requires them to take a covert stance, as their ‘cover’ may be jeopardized if they were recording their findings in front of the group. Qualitative research analysis is dependent on building interpretations of the research to gain authenticity and trustworthiness. This may be difficult because of the subjective nature of this method, but due to the ideographic nature of individuals and the interpretivist epistemology, this would not be an issue for qualitative researchers, who ultimately aim to gain Verstehen. Conclusion In conclusion, while this approach can be criticized by positivists for its subjective nature and lack of empirical methods, it does, however, offer a more in-depth perspective into individuals and their lives. Qualitative research is rigorous and highly subjective because the researcher’s investigation is overly influenced by the views of the researcher involved. Also, qualitative research does provide a way of extracting more complex, in-depth and comprehensive information from social contexts that would be difficult to retrieve using quantitative methods. However, this methodology has been criticised by positivists and the objectivist ontology because of the value laden perspective it takes. If the researcher does have any preconceived ideas of the findings, it may cause bias in the results and therefore affect the authenticity of their work. Also the researcher may misinterpret the social phenomena they are studying and therefore have difficulties establishing the real meaning of that particular social situation. Qualitative research can also be criticised because of its lack of representativeness of the larger population, as qualitative research typically deals with micro social issues that cannot be generalised to the wider population because they are context specific. However qualitative researchers would see this as an advantage because they require a deeper understanding in order to gain Verstehen. Another criticism would be that qualitative methods are also very expensive to conduct, mainly because of the amount of time it takes to interpret data and conduct observational studies. Despite these criticisms, qualitative research is a flexible, in-depth form of enquiry that is not dominated by statistics or rigid research methods. It is largely dominated by the constructivist ontology and the interpretivist epistemology which believe that the social world is built upon actions and interactions. Researchers adopt this qualitative approach to enable them to form Verstehen with their research topic or group.

Classroom Observation and Reflection Paper Essay

Curriculum Constr. and Assessment: Reading and Language Arts, I had the opportunity to not only observe but teach a lesson that I created for Mrs. Watson’s Class at Little Rascals Daycare and Afterschool Program. Throughout this paper I will reflect on my lesson plan experience. First, I introduced the concept of letter blends to the students. I explained to the students that letter blends can be at the beginning, middle, or end of a word to make specific sounds. I then explained to the students that I was going to be teaching them beginning letter blends. I went n to explain to the students that since there were several beginning letter blends that I chose five to teach about In the lesson. The blends that I chose were dr, n, bl, gl, and Ch. I went over each beginning letter blend, demonstrated the sound each make and provided several examples for each letter blend for the students. Next, I gave the students an opportunity to participate In the lesson. I held up picture flashcards that had different objects on them. The students had to raise their hands and tell me what the object was and the letter blend for that object. I repeated this process until ach student in the class had a chance to participate. Once we finished, I answered any questions or concerns the student had. I noticed that the students were actively engaged in the lesson and seemed to have really enjoyed. Most of all they seemed to have understood the lesson with ease. Lastly, the students were given a cut and paste blending worksheet to complete. The worksheet had 1 5 different picture objects and letter blends on it. The students had to color (if they wanted to), cut, and paste the correct picture to its letter blend. Once the students finished the worksheet we went over it as a class. Again, I answered any last questions or concerns and wrapped up the lesson. In conclusion, this was my very first time teaching a lesson. I have done several lesson plans before but never had to actually teach them. I believe the lesson went pretty good. The teacher and the students were both very welcoming and provided positive feedback. Although the lesson went well, the one thing I would change if I had to do it all over again would be to pick two or three blends at a time to teach instead of all five. Sometimes when a lot of information is thrown at the students it makes it harder to understand.