Landon+Pothast


 * Record of Assignments**
 * Name of Student:** Landon Pothast



** Pre-Adolescence **

** W : What you want to know (curiosities) **
Insert your inquiry questions 1. What are some of the limitations that arise in young boys that do not have fathers to grow up with them in their lives?



** L : What you learned **

 * __Physical__** The physical development of a child is one of the most crucial times in a child's life. Even though many aspects of a child's development is set in stone through the heredity and their genes. There are some aspects that change the way one develops because of outside forces such as eating habits, parents teachings of diet and exercise and many others. So to incorporate this with my inquiry question it can only be compared to an extent. Now when it comes to physical development it will help a young boy with a father learn how his body changes and why these things happen. For example when it comes to shaving, it will be better suited for a dad to help the boy through a time in their life that might seem a little rough and new to him. Also with a father in the house it will help them learn how to treat women. A father there to show them how to treat girls and to be chivalrous is a good thing. A father is just a huge part of a child because in a great percentage of a boys life's problems a father is going to be there to help them through the rough times.

__Cognitive__ Expanding your brain cognitively is one of the biggest parts of life. In my opinion a persons parents is there absolute biggest key to becoming more successful in life. I think that peoples kids are more similar to themselves than anyone else thinks. I think that a persons attitude, temperament, way of thinking and many other aspects are directly linked to their parents. So when it comes to boys without their father it goes to show a huge part of their life missing. Also it shows a huge part of their personality lost and never to be found. Since I think that a kids parents is the biggest factor in their development, having one of them missing is bigger than any other problem a kid can have. The sheer amount of information a child misses out from not having one parent is astronomical. Also in one parent homes there is going to be a lot less attention to the children because the single parent will be working a lot to support the kids, so there will not be much of any one on one time with the kids.

__Emotional__ The emotional development of a kid a large part of ones life. Life is a hard place and so many different things can happen in ones life that will set them back in the future. Coping with problems is probably one of the biggest skills one can have. If one is prone to getting flustered and overwhelmed by a small problem in life it will cause them to not succeed and not try as hard as they would like to. Having a father would also help in this problem. Kids are natural observers and naturally learn on their own. When a child and the father are at home at the same time. Its a great time to learn how to act and display their emotions from a mature standpoint. Maturity, discipline, knowledge are all beneficial skill that can be acquired from pure observation from a father in a household. Also through my research I learned how boys with no fathers growing are prone to aggression. Which I feel can bring on huge problems in school, and in life. I feel that this problem with aggression is huge when correlating the large amounts of fatherless boys going to jail and prison for crimes that they have committed. Again with the observing factor, without fathers there boys might not always learn what's right and what's wrong. Then another idea that comes to thought is that these boys might think since there father is in jail they can do the same crime as them because it is not that bad of a thing to do.

__Social__ Interactions with one another is the essence of being human and learning how to interact with people is the absolute best way to become successful. In the early years in the house social interactions are born and what you learn as a kid is invaluable. Like I said in previous posts having a father teaches you so much how to act and communicate with other people. How you think cognitively and react emotionally is all intertwined with social interaction. Instead of specific situations I would like to name many things that a dad can help you with situationaly. They can teach you how to stick up for yourself, how to talk to girls, how to work as a team, reaching for your goals and so many other. Its almost hard for me to express how much a dad does for one in there life.

** A. Site details: **

 * Name of site:Evanston Academy and The University of Cincinnati
 * Link to site: []
 * Contact person: Jon Steiger (steigejn@mail.uc.edu)

__** B. Describe your setting **__
My observation site is here at the University of Cincinnati. I am with UC mentors for kids and we work with elementary children from Evanston Academy. Most children here are undeer privleged students that are living in the poverty level. Every week students from this school come to UC by bus to meet with their buddy. Each child receives a mentor to watch over them. Each day we have activities planned out for the kids. A lot of the activities try to get the kids to think about college and higher education. Most of the parents of the children in this program never attended college, so most kids are new to hearing about college and new to visiting one. In my opinion this experience is great for kids and it gives them a chance to see outside the realm that they live in. This gives kids something to shoot for in life and maybe it gives them a dream that they want to acheive. Also in this program each astudent gets a college buddy to look after them and to help them in there activities. Having a sigle person for each students gives these under priviliged students the chance to get the utmost attention towards that student. Lots of kids dont get the attention and help they deserve so this is a great chance for them to grow and learn from elders.

__** C. Describe what you did at the site (free-write/journal formatting) **__

 * __1st visit:__**

On my first visit, the UC for mentors group went to Evanston Academy. The next 9 weeks the students will come to UC. The mentors came to Evanston first becasue to keep the Evanston students in a natural enviroment when they met their buddy. They didn't want to overwhelm the students with meeting random people in a place that is unfamiliar to them. So when we got there we found out who are buddies were. My buddy is Katavion. When I came into the school there was a teacher waiting for me, to talk about my little buddy. She told me that he was quite the troublemaker and that he doesn' have any male influences in his life. SHe said that I would be good for them because he has all sisters and no father.

When I started to talk to Katavion I could not picture this kid getting in trouble at all. H was such a pleasure to talk to and had a great spirit and sense of humor. He also was very polite to me and others. He did have a extroidinary level of energy though. This is probably the reson why he is getting in trouble in class. I feel that he might not have the ability to sit still and may always be jumpy in class. Other than that I don't see the trouble that could arise from this kid. At the site though we introduces everyone in the group that we were in and played a name game. Another thing we did is have sanck time where we talked and enjoyed cookies and punch. The last thing we did was play a game where the kids was to run around and samsh baloons. I feel this was one way to get rid of some of the energy that is left in these kids. All in all this day was a lot about learning about the program and the kids learning the rules that we expect out of them. For my second observation the children of Evanston Academy came to the University of Cincinnati to explore the campus and to see different the many different buildings and things that are on a college campus. The bad part about the second visit was that my little buddy could not come because he was kicked out of the program. It was a shame but apparently he lost the privilege to be in UC mentors for kids so I was very disappointed. I really thought he was a great kid that maybe had a bit to much energy and maybe to much spunk but Im not the one that watches him in school. Hopefully later in the year he will get another chance to get into the program. I feel that this program might be the best for him. It would be nice if he could see other parts of life instead of just his school and his neighborhood.
 * __2nd visit:__**

So on there visit I just tagged along and hung out with my group. I helped watch another kid in the group. He was a very mature kid for his age and was very interested in everything he saw. We did a scavenger hunt because it was the first trip for the students to UC. This was just a good way for all of them to see a good portion of the campus on the first day. The boy I was helping watch was very excited to see all of the huge building and all of the different things on campus. They saw the rec center, library football field, soccer field and many other things. This day was just full of excitement for the youngsters and they thoroughly enjoyed it.

[insert here- minimum of 2 paragraphs] For my third visit the students came back to the University of Cincinnati but I didn't get a new buddy so I just tagged along in the activities that they did. On the typical day they start with a snack to give them some energy for the activities. I feel like that should happen because I was always ready for a snack after my school day back in grade school. So we took care of the snack and since it was Halloween we painted pumpkins. When the kids started to paint you could take who was more enthused by the arts. For the most part the girls were very particular about there pumpkins and were trying there best to make the pumpkins as perfect as possible. The boys on the other hand were more about putting as much paint possible onto the pumpkins as they could. Also they mixed more paint together then I could of imagined.
 * __3rd visit:__**

After we got done with painting the pumpkins we took a trip to the greenhouse on top of Rivesial hall. I have never been up there and I didn't even know there was a greenhouse so this was news to me. When we got up there the kids were more excited than I have ever seen them. They were very interested in the plant life. This was kind of shocking to me. I just figured plants might come off as pretty boring to 4th graders. It was nice to see the kids interested in something that I also have interest in. As growing up on a farm I like the outdoors and like nature. Then at the end of the day the kids came out to the McMicken Commons and they ran around and played with there friends. I felt we should of done this first to maybe take some energy out of them. The bad part about letting them play tag is that two of the boys started to wrestle and then then they started to fight with each other. This was no fin because then they wouldn't stop going after each other. Also it was almost impossible to get them back onto the bus to get them back home. But we finally did and that was a day in the books.

On the fourth visit I had with the students of Evanston Academy I finally got a new buddy to hang out with. He was a young boy in the 6th grade who was very friendly and I felt in many ways kind of how I was when I was in my younger years. He likes sports a lot and is very fond of football. Its his favorite sport and was the one thing we talked about for a good portion of the time at UC. We also talked about cellphones because even at the tender age of 13 he had the same smartphone as me. I feel like a smartphones is not very beneficial to a student at this age because I just feel that its a huge distraction for kids. I also think its a huge distraction for college kids so I can't myself being able to not get distracted by a phone at the age of 13.
 * __4th visit:__**

One of the things that we did that day was a few chemistry experiments. On that day we did an experiment with a bag of water salt and baking soda. In the first part of the experiment the kids put baking soda in their bag of water. The kids were asked to observe the bags and see what happened to them. In the baking soda bag the kids felt that the bag was becoming very warm. The kids were surprised and very curious why this was happening. The next part was putting salt into the bags. In this part of the experiment salt was put into the bag and the kids were asked to observe the bags again. They felt the bag but this time the bag was very cold. Again the kids were excited to see this. In the next experiment the students put milk onto a plate then dripped different colors of food coloring onto the plate. Once on the plate the students got a dab of soap on the top of a cue tip. Then they dabbed the milk and food coloring with the tip. Once dabbed the colors jolted in every direction making a wide array of colors in the plate. The kids were so excited to see the colors blend and move in a way of magic. It was nice to see the kids so excited about science and maybe it opened there minds to something new they want to further investigate.

On the 5th visit the students arrived at UC and we began with our usual snack in Baldwin. In the UC mentors for kid program we have a system called buddy bucks. Buddy bucks are given to the students after each day if they behave properly. After each day they can receive a maximum of 3 buddy bucks that they can use in the sale at the end of the year. Since my buddy was only in the program for two days he only received 6 buddy bucks. Since he couldn't his football that he wanted he was very upset. Like other kids many of them couldn't afford the things they wanted. In my opinion they got way more upset than I expected for sixth graders. I figured they wouldn't be so so upset over small gifts but they were. After that we went to a classroom to listen to a presentation done by the Army ROTC. In the presentation the officers talked about the program and the many opportunities that the ROTC brings such as scholarships, job opportunities and meeting tons of new friends. The kids seemed to be more curious about war and all of those factors that come with. They asked questions such as, "Who do you shoot." " Who do you guys go to war with," and "Have you ever been shot." These questions were funny to here. The presenters answered all of the kids questions even though it seemed that they kept reeling them off for close to a half hour.
 * __5th visit:__**

Another presentation that was done on that day was one with a few professors. These professors talked about lots of different majors and you use them to get jobs later in life. They spoke of many different majors and the kids seemed to be a little confused about what a major was and why you just don't take all the normal classes that you do in primary school. After some explaining the kids began to gain some knowledge about what college is really about and how they can use it to help them. I feel like this activity is probably one of the most beneficial activities for these young kids. I feel that this is great to open their minds to possibilities that they didn't know existed before the activity. This gives the kids a chance to dream and think about their future which I think is what college mentors for kids is all about.

** Physical **
The chapter on physical development has some relationships to my inquiry question. My inquiry question is about fatherless boys and how they fair growing up without them. As young boys go through puberty they might not have anyone to tell them the different things they are going through. There may be teachers in special sex ed classes to tell the student about it, but no one that could relate to the boy as much as their father. Also there is many hard times on students when it comes to differences in what their friends look like and how their body acts. This could cause peer relationship problems. A father could help to clear up these issues on how everyone is different and evolves differently through life.

Also students are growing at very fast paces. In my program UC mentors for kids we have a snack every time we meet. The kids need their nutrients to help them grow big and strong. I feel this is very vital. As a kid I was always hungry and was always eager to eat after school. Also when a kid has not eaten or is not getting his daily nutrients he will probably not focus in school as well as he or she should. Creating a healthy lifestyle is vital for kids to become productive in their everyday life. pgs. 225, 226, 227 230, 231

** Cognitive **
Participating in UC mentors for kids was a huge experience for me, It gave me the chance to see how students learn, interact, and grow with elders and with each other. At the program I saw how many students learned cognitively. There was a few discrepancies on how students retained information from activity to activity. I felt that the students were learning from visual activities the most. I felt this because they were the most enthused by it and were showing great amounts of participation. I also felt they learned tons in the hands on activities because they were always asking questions to the presenters and I feel that questions are the source of being engaged and retaining new information. page numbers 234, 235, 236, 239, 240

** Emotional **
Emotional problems arise often to students that are having troubles socially interacting with one another. These troubles occur because of bullying, having troubles in school and many other problems. In my visits to Evanston I experienced many social problems that occurred between the students their. A lot of the social problems occurred with the same students over and over again. The main reason also was because of bullying. The students were often boys and most of the time the problems would arise from a petty argument or two of them started to mess around and play practical jokes on each other. Then the practical joke would develop into serious problems because the boys would get carried away and bring it to a whole new level with shoving and almost fights breaking out. Usually for the most part the girls were very nice to each other and they mostly stayed side by side with their buddies.

** Social **
Social problems arise in kids through problems caused by differences in views of each other. Judging each other is the main cause for bullying, gossip, and people getting hurt. The late grade school ages is probably the age group where kids criticize each other the most. It is truly a popularity contest and the comparison of each other is at its highs. Also in these ages groups and cliques form. More often than not these groups are of similar students that have the same views as each other, So I feel that these groups often attack in a group. Since these groups have the same views many times attacks come one after the other.

** Revisiting Your Curiosities **

 * W : What you want to know (curiosities) **
 * 1.** Kids not having fathers will always be a part of children's lives. Some will have them and some won't and it is just a shame. To best answer how children will have limitations without fathers is to explain what true fathers do for kids and what they miss. A father is like a second mother. Someone who watches over the kids, protects them, feeds them and provides for them until their old enough to do it for themselves. Without a father mothers have to do that themselves. Fathers teach their children how to fix the every day problems, they learn how to socialize, write, play and be themselves. Also a family without a father may not be as fit financially. So money will be tight on the family and the kids may not get everything they need to prosper. Good fathers are priceless and I am blessed to have a great one.

The question that emerges the most is how I will adapt to all of the problems that arise in students. For example the issue of not having a father is just one problem. Kids are so different and they come from so many different types of backgrounds. So there will be so many different types of problems that they may have. For example they might not have a mother, they may have a adhd, some other disability, and the list goes on and on. These problems can cause things as fights in the classroom, people not paying attention, children not doing homework and many other situations. So overall the thing that worries me the most is being able to adapt to all of these different types of problems that may occur. =**References**=
 * 4. What new questions emerge for you as a future teacher?**

Thomas, J. (1994, May 17). Study paints bleak picture for kids without fathers. Los Angelas Times. Retrieved from [] Mary Margaret Thomes

Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Feb., 1968), pp. 89-96 Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/350226

Balcom, D.A. (2010 August 6) Absent Fathers: Effects on Abandoned Sons. Retrieved from []

Anonymous (2013, June 9) Father’s Day Without Father Retrieved from []