Educator competencies Cecere

4 domains

Cognitive

  My lesson was designed to help my students become productive citizens with a plan for their future. The Cognitive Domain or need to know for each student was what am I going to do after I graduate from high school.  Students then researched their career that they may want to work in. They not only found out about their career but also found out what kind education that they would need.

Intrapersonal Domain

My students started out with a dream which is a fun way for setting financial goals, They set up a budget, created resumes, interviewed , calculated their investments etc. The students helped each other in many ways throughout the project.

Instructional Domain

 It was based on economics standards from Rubicon Atlas. I worked hard to keep this project true to the standards.  Real life project. Students were able to see if all of their dreams would be able to come true.

Student reflection

 Students reflected on their project through essays several times through out the project.  Many students were able to reflect on how their choices needed to be redone especially after they saw how much their mortgage would be. They all understood that the end game depends on their budget and investing.

The project covered all of these domains

Article - Educator Competencies

Cognitive Domain
This domain includes content knowledge and the development of intellectual skills. This includes the recall or recognition of specific facts and concepts that serve developing intellectual abilities and skills.  Students need to be able to recall, analyze, create and evaluate.  I think this is probably the domain most of us are comfortable in.  We became teachers in a certain subject because that is what interest.  I am so passionate about my subject and showing students how it relates to things all around us.  I like seeing the light come on when they experience science at work in a lab.  It is also rewarding when something doesn't work out the first time and they reevaluate the process and it works the 2nd or 3rd time.

Intrapersonal Domain 
This domain is arguably the most important category of skills for success in college and careers, and also the most difficult to address in school. Together, cognitive, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills are the “what” that students need to learn in high school so that these skills can develop into established competencies when students leave high school.  We teach these skills everyday regardless of our specific role in schools, whether we are teachers, guidance counselors, or administrators.  These skills are important because students need to be able to cope with uncertain, new, and rapidly changing conditions on the job, including responding effectively to emergencies or crisis situations and learning new tasks, technologies, and procedures.  This not only helps in the classroom but also in the workplace.  


Interpersonal Domain
This domain is the social, personal, and leadership skills educators need to relate
with students, colleagues, and the greater community, particularly in multicultural, inclusive, and linguistically diverse classrooms.  Interpersonal skills are extremely important in a PBL classroom.  Students need to be able to communicate with each other and the teacher.  Students need to be able to work on these skills in small activities before they start on the big projects.  While some students will step into the leader role and others will follow, communication verbally or non verbally is a must.  Students need to be able to problem solve and decision make when they are working on a product.  

Instructional Domain 
This domain is the pedagogical techniques that educators use—what they need to do—in

order to sustain a personalized, learner-centered environment for all students.  Since most classes have standards it is easy to create learning experiences based off of this information.  The hard part is making sure that all the diverse needs of students are met.  Students should take some ownership in their learning.  Many just want to regurgitate facts but I feel it is necessary to be able to apply what you are learning.  This is why I feel real life examples and experiences are important.

I feel that all of these domains can be covered through the PBL process.  The process covers all 21st century skills while incorporating, technology and collaboration between students, educators and community members.  While not all teachers will buy into the PBL teaching method, there are many who will try to incorporate some of the processes.  I think the hardest part for people is the process of giving up some of the control to the students, worrying about having to justify failure (the process) to both students and parents, and getting people to accept that all classes do not have to be the teacher at teh front of the class lecturing and then the students doing a worksheet.  This is what people in the past generations went through so they expect the same for their children.  I feel completely sure that educators do not want to see students left behind in the learning process.  Not all students will go to college but the skills that PBL learning can foster in students will be helpful in all types of workplaces.  The whole education system is changing.  Students can leave high school and enter college as sophomores or juniors through dual credit courses, they can go straight into manufacturing jobs at seventy thousand dollars a year or they can, learn skills to discover what they want to try.  I think PBL is the way to go.  I know I still have a lot to learn but the process is one that I am willing to sell to others.

Educator Competencies

This was a great article to read and assisted me in reflecting about our diversity project as we concluded right before Thanksgiving break.  Under the lens of each competency, I can value and appreciate our project with a multifaceted approach.  Looking at each competency made me take away something positive and something that needs work for each area, which will be helpful when trying to determine if we were "successful" at implementing our project.  I believe it is a healthy habit  to identify and take responsibility for weaknesses and improve upon them.  I know we did not do everything perfect in our project and I hope that we can make adjustments for next year.

Another twist to gaging the success of our project is thinking about how it was implemented throughout eight different classrooms as we use common grade-level plans.  From the initial plan to weekly plans to how it is interpreted in each teacher's classroom, I did see some varying levels of competencies in each domain, which is kind of interesting.  As my grade level is preparing to meet for a half-day of planning in which we will be looking forward to our next project in the spring, I can only hope I will shed a different light on this past project beyond if it was "good" or "bad."  We often forget to use the deeper level of language and understanding when assessing ourselves, so this article really helped me analyze the project in a more helpful way.

For the cognitive domain, I feel that our project really pushed the first graders to stretch themselves further than they've been stretched before.  Having them research using a variety of online and text sources and then summarize that information into a digital slide was pretty intense, but with the right support, I felt my students were able to successfully show what they learned.  Many of the comments I heard from my team was that this project would be better towards the end of the year, but I disagree to a certain level.  I think setting that expectation earlier in the year for "quality work" is better earlier rather than later.  It shows what they can and cannot do independently and/or with their group.  It also helped mine refine their feedback skills (something we've been working on mostly in writing).  We caught a lot of errors when we looked at the presentation in a whole group setting.  Being able to communicate in the 21st century requires more than just talking to another person face-to-face.  I liked how we used a digital format to have them show what they learned and I hope this sparks more ideas where they can show off their technology skills.  In comparison to other classrooms, I realized I was not doing any kind of crafts or "cute" activities based on my country and I began to worry that I wasn't doing something right in my classroom.  I then had to remind myself what was most important in this project was not providing all the information, but rather teaching my students how to seek out the answers to their questions.  Many parents responded to my email when I sent them the link to the GoogleSlides presentation about how much their child enjoyed learning about the country and how they are still wanting to research at home.  This helped me affirm that their extrinsic motivation was crossing over to intrinsic because they were seeking knowledge without being told to go home and research.  This made me really excited to hear!  One area of improvement I know I would focus on the next time we use this project is scaffolding their knowledge on discerning the most important information, i.e. main ideas of the text and looking at their topic as a whole.  One group that was focusing on holidays and clothing struggled throughout the entire research process and had difficulty understanding what they should be looking for when researching.  I worked with their group almost every day to push them to really look for the information that would answer their questions.  All three students focused on the details and couldn't see the bigger picture.  One way I would change this for next time is to have each group come up with their own questions.  At the beginning of the project, I was trying to invoke lots of wonderings and questions from everyone, so we did it in a whole group setting, but now I realize there wasn't as much ownership because students in different groups had different questions that may or may not have pertained to their chosen research group.

For the intrapersonal domain, this is a huge hurdle for six and seven year olds.  They are still learning how to control their first impulses and this can result in some arguments about work ethic and self-management.  I allowed many opportunities for groups to work together and figure out a solution when there was a problem.  A strategy that worked really well was to have each person in the group responsible for something.  For example, one person gathered the materials while another worked to be the "peace keeper" in the group.  This person especially communicated to me when there was an issue within the group and I assisted by serving as a moderator if they were disagreeing or not staying on task.  It also helped with stressing the expectations that everyone in the group has a job and the group cannot function without everyone on board.  I worked with one individual that was keeping the group from being productive and after we talked about how he could help his group, things were much smoother.  Instead of getting angry with him and punishing him for not being on task, I asked him how he felt about working with his group and had him define what he was supposed to be doing within his group.  One reason he was playing was because he did not understand the expectations for his role in the group.  "Everybody needs a job" in my classroom and I play that out to the fullest extent--everyone in my classroom has a job and they keep their job all year long.

Eventually students are going to struggle, disagree, and be uncomfortable within their group  and that can be hard to watch.  I feel like it made some of my students who are used to being the best at everything start to see that it is more than knowing the material and doing it by yourself.  To manage one's behavior, emotions, and act with intention is a huge accomplishment, but I think it can be achieved through PBL.  Erik Erikson's stage of life virtues "competence, industry vs. inferiority" rings all too true when working with this age group and I try to remember that many students in my class are still very ego-centric with some starting to become aware of others' work ethics and feelings of inferiority/superiority can arise. I think I could have improved in this area by keeping a methodical checklist to know who I conferenced with throughout the project (individuals and groups.)  Something as simple as keeping a running notebook would have helped me as I was reflecting on their rubric grade.  One downfall I've observed in myself occurs when we are getting busy and we're in the thick of learning to not write down my thoughts and reflections each day!

Speaking of moving from an ego-centric mentality to a more worldly view, the interpersonal domain is always one of my favorites to consider when reflecting on my classroom.  So much of what we do requires the need to relate and I feel that I am always striving to develop the whole child in my classroom.  Working in a group can be very tough for such young children, but they are moving into a stage of life where they are beginning to notice others around them.  One group struggled with this part when they were researching because one student continued to play with the materials and not offer any kind of contribution to the learning experience.  Two of them also argued about their roles in the group and both wanted to be the one who used Symbaloo sites to research.  After several conversations where I let them figure out solutions, they did wonderfully when we were creating the presentation because they finally figure out how to work together.  Another group also did not produce as much work because they spent a large part of their time figuring out how to collaborate, but when it came time to produce their digital slides, they finally figured out how to communicate with one another and make a decision as a group.  All year, we've repeated our mantra of "share my materials, share my time, and share my thoughts and ideas," but it didn't make an impact until they were actually being tested in the group setting.  This project required them to work within a group and make decisions for the benefit of everyone.  I got them invested by allowing them to choose the country they wanted to study (after a class vote) and offering choice of what they wanted to learn about.  They also chose what information to put on their slide, they chose a variety of features on their slide from videos to photographs to audio clips.  I think one strategy I would try next time would be a whole group "pow-wow" and talk more explicitly at the end of each day about the pows (struggles) and wows (accomplishments) of working in their group.  This time could allow for the students to reflect on how they are contributing to their group and we could easily practice some self-assessment time through this method.  After we met whole group, they could reflect in a journal how they were feeling about their group.  This could also allow some insight for me to address any needs that I was not aware of during the work time.

The instructional domain may be my weakest area in that I feel there is always room for improvement when I am planning PBL units to be used by a grade level.  I also worry about assessing my students thoroughly enough.  It can be difficult to maintain focus on the project at hand and we could have easily continued our project for another week.  I am at fault in not completing our final step of the diversity project.  Our sharing time for all the other classes ran over the allotted time and we just barely were able to complete everyone's digital presentations before going on Thanksgiving break.  I also felt that our final assessment in which they chose from a menu to define diversity was too loose in interpretation and a little challenging for students to independently access the various modes of expression.  I worried my students would become too caught up in choosing which option to express themselves and not be able to accurately show what they learned.  I also worried they would not be able to access the technology (mainly Blabberize because it was starting to freeze up) that we initially listed on the menu last summer.  In reflecting on this project, I think a better post-assessment would have been to have them answer in the same format that we began the project in the pre-assessment--in which they would post on a Padlet an answer to the question "What is diversity?"  This makes the growth a lot more visible and the students could also see how much they grew through doing the project.  With planning this project within a grade level, I struggle with the revision of content portion because we are expected to have similar, if not the same, plans and assessments.  If I decide to adjust my final assessment, I worry that this will be frowned upon or seen as I didn't teach it well enough if my students do not perform to the level I initially expected of them.  In order to create a change within our plans, I feel a huge burden in addressing this concern with everyone on my team and it can be really difficult at times to come to a consensus.  Even with creating the mid-project assessment, which I administered to my students, I shared what I created in class with my team, but it was not included in the weekly plans and I don't know if anyone else used it.  I found this mid-project assessment beneficial and hope to use something like this again in future projects, but it can just be a challenge and pretty time-consuming to get everyone on board.  Just like in doing projects in my classroom, my grade level responds better to choice and having ownership when they are a part of the planning process.

Overall, I felt this project was strong in helping students develop many intra and interpersonal skills.  I continued to remind myself that this is a process, not just a product and most importantly, my students loved it!

Educator`s Competencies through Socrative seminar (Desai`s Super Students at GHS)

The students successfully conducted their first Socratic seminar in their Environmental Studies Class. I would like to summarize the Educator Core Competencies article using the exemplary teaching strategy Socratic seminar as an example/outcome. In the article the author mentions the words like student-centered, personalized learning models for students. I have struggled for the last eight years in my teaching career since my teaching was more teacher-centered and egoistic in many ways. The switch in my conscious planning towards student centered and personalized learning for students have changed the way I teach tremendously past 1 and a half year.

The four core competencies are practiced in my teaching almost every day and now after having read the article and being more concretely conscious about these competencies, the application of these competencies will be more evident in my teaching moving forward. I agree with the author that learner -centered, personalized teaching models have been pursued by some educators since Dewey`s time and I also like the author appreciate the current massive interest in this mode of teaching due to global markets, career and college ready skill requirements. Using the first core competency , Cognitive Domain,

I had researched a lot and selected the best article for my students to read for their Socratic seminar on Local & Sustainable Food system in their Foody Eco-preneurship Unit. I had made sure that they all had a clear understanding of sustainability and the three legs of sustainability. They were familiar with the involved vocabulary words and understood the content well before evaluating the article and voicing their opinions on these issues. While they were popcorn reading before the socratic seminar, I brought their attention to the key concepts involved.

INTRAPERSONAL DOMAIN: 

I tried out the Socrative Seminar for the first time in all of my Environmental Studies classes. I observed that atleast 30 percent of my students in all these classes were tuned out and these are the same sets of students that I have to put in extra efforts to get their involvement with all the different types of instructions. I will ask  all the students to write down their opinion on their experience with socratic seminar on ticket out of door next week after the second seminar. I shall follow up on those students who were tuned out closely.Make parental contact. Help them see the rewards through splendid reward system and also through the grade book in more involvement on their end.

INTERPERSONAL DOMAIN

This socratic seminar was conducted in the Environmental studies class which I call Global Eco-preneurship class since I have collaborated with the Business teacher, Ms. Kathleen Kennedy and I teach the Science part and Ms. Kennedy helps the students with the business and financial aspect of their final project which is the GHS Global Eco-preneurship contest in May for their Green Business Plans. GHS is a business magnet and this helps my students see opportunities in the current climate, energy, food, waste crisis globally. The students are asked to work in groups and pairs on regular basis on small projects for knowledge acquisition and for collaboration. These builds their interpersonal skills. The teachers sere as their models by being creative, courageous and innovative.

INSTRUCTIONAL DOMAIN

The instructions in my classes are planned carefully where students are provided feedbacks through their returned assignments, Google Classroom posts, Google classroom assignments, Kahoot review, Socrative quizzes etc. Every lesson which is 52 minutes in length is divided into an activating strategy, hook, Bell work, Teacher Directed Instructions, Student -Independent TIME and summarizing activity. I let them know that each second in my class needs to be used for instructions and instructions only. The devices are used appropriately in my classes as per the BOYD  rule. Every two weeks, I started having the individual Student Conferences to help student catch up with their grades, assignments, make-up work etc. All my lesson plans couls be found on my website. Daily transtitional powerpoints are posted on each class calendar and also the supporting documents are uploaded to the calendar for the parent and student`s convenience.

Greenville High School is an ideal school for me to be teaching at. The administration serves as a great model for the teachers in setting high expectations for the students and teacher`s performance, mutual respect, sense of belonging and the culture of Excellence. Most of the educators at GHS are an embodiment of all the four educator`s competencies listed in this article. 

Social Innovators Response

Wow, this was definitely my favorite chapter so far!  I enjoyed reading about the STEM innovators, but reading about innovators that are reaching for social change through their ideas really made me excited all over again for PBL.  Not that I haven't been excited, but I really believe this is how students will continue to be impact the world post-graduation and I can only hope I can support that dream.  I remember reading an article in one of my graduate classes about identifying your educational philosophy and I definitely fell into the social-reconstructive category, namely after studying the Montessori method for early childhood.  I love seeing how students can embrace what they are learning and apply it to the real world.  With each of these social innovators, they clearly took "play" as children and eventually turned it into purpose.  Helping students see there is a problem and learning they can be a part to create solutions, to me, is one of the most important pieces of PBL.

One thing Wagner emphasized that I appreciated while reading at the end of the chapter was his observation of the diversity of the innovators, especially in this chapter.  When we read the second chapter earlier in the semester, I was a little turned off by his interview with Kirk because I felt that he came from a privileged lifestyle and had the means to live without owning up to real "responsibility" as he searched for his true calling.  I liked where he noted that some innovators had done well in school and others struggled--or as still struggling in the case of Syreeta and Zander.

I loved the part that Zander's neighbor plays as the catalyst that fuels his interest in sea turtles.  What a true testament to being a "life long learner"!  I hope I am like her one day as a retired schoolteacher, helping neighborhood kids learn. :)  I could easily put a face on him especially.  I have taught many students so similar to that typical hyper, unfocused, and seemingly uncontrollable student.  It just makes my heart hurt that his school did not recognize his talents and achievements at such a young age.  We are not meeting the needs of all students when we try to put them in a box and expect the same results from everyone.  Everyone deserves some form of positivity--even if you have to stretch for it.  What a disservice his school did for him.  Also, it sounds like he and his mom have different expectations for college.  She understands that learning is lifelong and shouldn't be "what you do when you graduate high school."  It sounds like Zander is an unconventional student and will go on an unconventional path to attain his credentials.

Syreeta's story also touched on the struggles she has as a student.  And what a wonderful support system she has in her mentors!  It's amazing what she is learning through her experiences in working with the inner city youth.  I saw there is a chapter called "Innovator Updates" at the very back of the book and I'm having to practice self-control to not read ahead because I really want to know how her story turns out in present day.

This chapter made me feel a lot better because I think it was a more realistic view of our student clientele, perhaps not at my school, but other students I've taught where I knew they were probably not going home to the best situation or had every opportunity handed to them to explore their interests.  It gives me hope for all my students that they can all be active participants in their learning and therefore their futures.  With so much violence, fear, and disrespectful discourse going on in the world today, I feel assured knowing I am helping to teach a generation how to be more patient, tolerant, and kind to one another by teaching them the soft skills of PBL.

Social Innovators---ch 4

Social Innovators-----

I really liked this chapter because I have always felt that giving back through service is one of the best ways to participate in the community. I think I get that from my family, as my father was quite active when I was small in several service organizations and I always knew that he was involved in one fundraising scheme or another as I was growing up. He was active in one group at the University of Cincinnati where he was Physical Plant Director that I recall in particular, a group called Sigma Sigma, where at the Bearcat football games we attended during the football season the members of Sigma Sigma had a special manner of inviting new members. Annually at one football game my father would join the other active and alumni member on Sigma Sigma in attendance at halftime and form a huge circle on the field with several hundred men. The public address announcer would call out to the stadium, "Sigma Sigma calls so and so to the circle..." over and over with different people's names each time. The invitees would come out of the stands one by one from their seats and, dressed in their topcoats and old-fashioned felt hats (as was the custom in that day, the 60s) join the circle as the alums and actives swayed side to side. For a kid, me, the halftime routine was all rather mysterious, but I always knew the outcome, the new people would help the group raise money for different causes; the Cincinnati Children's Hospital, attached to the UC medical center complex, was one of the agencies receiving money from the group annually as I recall. I think one year my dad was even president of the alumni group. So when I started reading about the ways in which social innovators are created I was a bit familiar with the entire process of creating people who work to give back. We have to nurture social innovators the exact same way that we help tech innovators, with support and guidance and encouragement. In this chapter one can see that the innovators had learned by examples from their parents and from other supporting adults. The education system can encourage social innovators as well by modeling the social innovation experience via planned activities and programs where helping others is foremost. We need to have more social responsibility and the upcoming generation seems to haeve a lot of community spirit for aiding others and for producing projects aimed at bettering the lives of others. All in all, I liked the chapter and I will likely go on to finish the entire book.

Kelly Dill's Chapters 1-3 Reflection

Kelly H. Dill

Chapter 1

After reading chapter 1, I reflected on my classroom and practices. Educators are constantly pressed for better test scores. It seems as if yearly, requirements change; forcing teachers to step back and create lessons to meet new needs. I would love to fully embrace developing a child’s intrinsic motivation through play, passion, and purpose. My hesitation is this philosophy requires opportunities to “explore, experiment, and discover” (p.30) in non-structured settings. I am searching for the balance between teaching my students to read and write proficiently, and surrendering instructional time for play.

I believe my classroom provides students with a culture that is curious and safe, where trial and error are norms. We have determined roles within collaborative groups and we can work with hands on problems together. Students need an understanding that our world is ever-changing and the solutions to current problems will continue to change. When presenting our students with problems, they need develop the skill of knowing the correct questions to ask. Communication and collaboration skills should become second nature, where using these skills align with a student’s creative thinking. Classrooms need to become driven to nurture these behaviors and allow students to fine-tune their passion. Children who are exposed to this philosophy of education are the innovators of tomorrow’s work force. “We need to outinnovate, outeducate and outbuild the rest of the world.” (p.6)

I was intrigued by the correlation of innovation with MIT college pranks, the process of creating, planning and executing with a nominal budget. I can see the value of the motivation, process, planning, and collaboration. These students have an intrinsic motivation to execute the prank.

My questions and concerns would be about the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Not all students are going to have a passion and internal motivation to excel and explore the standards I am required to teach and assess. Therefore, developing an intrinsic motivation becomes more difficult. Secondly, there is a relationship between play and the development of these skills. Play is very difficult to schedule once standardized tests become the norm. Also, play is not always aligned with standards. How to I willingly give up classroom and devote it to play when I already feel pushed for time?

Chapter 2

As I reflected on this chapter, I thought about my role as a parent and also and educator. I am completely on board with the concept of unstructured play when students are outside of the classroom. I believe a true partnership with parents can develop students who are genuine innovators. Today’s young people are not encouraged to go outside and play. They have the mindset of wanting to be entertained continually. Imagination is being lost in-between Sponge Bob and Family Guy. I hear students groan with “extra recess” and the repeated “I’m tired” comments of the day. This is a drastic change from 25 years ago when we prayed the teacher would forget what time we needed to go back inside.

I believe school and home should be a partnership with a unified vision, but visions are only successful when everyone is on board. I’ve noticed that parenting seems to have 2 extremes: parents that freak out over mistakes, “because my child has always been straight A’s” or the parents who schedule a conference and then never show up. This month I have been amazed at the parents who are frustrated because they want more worksheet, busy work homework. Daily, I send a parent email with details of what happened and questions they can ask their child. I usually include vocabulary and tell parents to have students retell stories. I would much rather encourage parents to communicate with their child and ask them to describe what they are learning, than complete a worksheet to add to the plethora of papers on my desk.

Ultimately, humans usually repeat what they know and are comfortable with, because it is safe. Parents seem to expect to see a repeat of what they did in school and if mom was all A’s then that is the expectation for their children. If both parents are busy with their work and life, the pressure of discussions or listening to your child read becomes less important than paying the bills. The rush and pull of everything in life seems to make it OK for a child to just “go watch TV.” Listening to my sweet eight year olds, I have very few who really experience the unstructured play when they go home.

Although, these examples are from middle class homes and experienced some of the same parenting styles; the kids had intrinsic motivation. Yes, the parents were guiding their children and allowing them to have meaningful experiences; but the teenagers or young adults were not satisfied. It is ultimately the individual who determines their path in life. Parents and educators can guide, make suggestions, and provide experiences, but the student has to have the desire for change.

Chapter 3

I would love to see both of my children pursue their passions, but I must confess; I have had the same conversations with my children that David’s father had with him. I don’t think any parent wants to watch their child struggle with finances through life. We all want our children to have better lives than we had. Parents want to see their children successful and happy and let’s face it, income does make a difference.

After thinking back to my own life, my job as a teenager was working in the local hospital pharmacy as a technician. At the time, it was fun, but there is only so much counting and labeling you can do before you want or need to talk to others. The pharmacist encouraged me to go into pharmacy, we discussed the hours, education I would need, and the pay. Then when time for college came, I chose to go into education. I believe I made the right choice, because I feel very effective in my job, not only did my job help my dyslexic son, but other families where I can honestly say, “I have been there and I will help you develop a plan and begin this journey.” I followed my passion, but like all of us, my passion doesn’t reflect my paycheck.

So far with this text, I feel like I reflect more like a parent than an educator. The students I teach are with me for 180 days, but my children are with me until they are self-sufficient (hopefully before the age of 30.) As a parent of 2 teenagers, how to you trust your child’s judgement? Even though they will be on their own in several years, they still don’t have the ability to analyze all elements of a situation. We continue to have family discussions on decisions that will impact their future. For their entire life I have developed their leadership skills, confidence, encouraged their interests, and allowed them the opportunities to apply their skills. I feel like I have provided my children with a lot of the same guidance and support discussed in these chapters.