As young wizards and witches grow, they go through many changes. At Hogwarts Middle School, we recognize that young adolescents is a time of change in which students will grow physically, emotionally, socially, and cognitively. Team Gryffindor recognizes these changes that students are going through. We work to create an environment that is safe where students have the availability to create their identities without being bullied.
Physical DevelopmentDuring time of adolescents, students will go through many physical changes. Students go through growth spurts with most witches (females) starting at age 10 and most wizards (males) starting at age 12. Students also have skeletal and muscular changes, where individual bones will grow faster than other parts of the body, such as feel, arms, and legs, causing an awkward appearance and clumsiness. Hormone levels increase which cause sweat glands to grow, ache to form, and oily hair to be more common. Young adolescents experience physical changes that prepare them to become reproductive capable (puberty; changes in body hair, voice, and sweat glands). It is important that during this time students are receiving plenty of nutrition and rest. Their appetites will grow and is important to encourage healthy eating as apposed to fast food. It will be harder for young adolescents to go to sleep and wake up early due to changes in the hormone melatonin so students may appear tired as they are adjusting.
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Social DevelopmentStudents will experience social changes. They will develop interpersonal relationships as they meet other students and become more dependent on these friends for companionship. Students will be searching for their identities. Popularity will become important to them and will seek out activities that they believe will make them popular. Consequently students may be interested in joining sports teams, like Quidditch, and wearing the latest designer robes (clothes). Cliques will form of students that share values, family backgrounds, and attitudes. Peer pressure will grow as students feel a desire to "fit in." Those whom don't fit in may experience bullying. While family will remain important, students realize that parents don't know everything and begin to become embarrassed of their parents. Parents lose some of their influence. Others in the community are looked upon from students, including coaches and teachers. Students look to them for encouragement of their passions. Dependance on technology will grow as many students will prefer digital communications over face-to-face communications. There will be increased pressure on having positive social media reputations. At the same time, there are safety issues as students feel a false sense of security as they interact with others.
Moral development takes place as students determine what they consider to be right and what to consider to be wrong. This is a time of development of personal values and students may be looking to teachers and other adults for the proper way to react to moral situations. |
Emotional Development |
Cognitive Development |
With all the changes happening with hormones, there is emotional unrest. Students will experience mood swings but this isn't purely due to hormones as there are a lot of social and emotional changes taking place. Students will focus on imaginary audience and think that they are being watched by everyone all the time. They will have an urge to fit in and seek out more privacy. Students will try to identify who they are. Those with differences will feel challenged. They will experiment with their identities and only seek out opportunities that they perceive as cool. They will become more aware of their ethnic and cultural identities. They may initially want to minimize these differences but they'll eventually understand and embrace these differences. These challenges may show up in English Language Learners and may need additional support from staff. Students will develop sexual and gender identities and may notice differences among themselves as influences in the culture highlight these differences. Self-esteem issues become relevant especially with females.
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Students will experience cognitive changes. There brains will blossom, prune, and go through myelination. What this means is that their neural networks will develop leading to improved short-term memory, reasoning, and problem solving skills. Their brains will become more interested in multitasking so they may become more easily distracted by electronic devices. Singular focus is important in creating long-term memories. The prefrontal cortex will be developing during this time and students will be lacking social and organization skills. Students will have concrete operational thoughts allowing them to classify and recognize relationships. They will develop formal operational thoughts and be interested in planning and exploring the world. They will develop metacognition allowing them to reflect and question their own thoughts. They will become risk-takers as they feel dangers will not apply to them and be more interested in risky behaviors. Examples include experimenting with potions (drugs) and sexual encounters.
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