Chapter 3. Page 70 – 91

Dr. Urie Bronfenbrenner– Lisa

(http://www.bctr.cornell.edu/about-us/urie-bronfenbrenner/)

-born in Moscow

-clinical psychologist

-helped found Head Start program

-theory: “Biological Model of Human development”—-also called the “Ecological Systems Theory”

What is it?

-A system of organizing the physical and social contexts in which we develop

-Described as ecosystems because in constant interaction and influence each other

5 contexts of the Biological Model:

(http://dumchowangdi.blogspot.ca/2015/02/bronfenbrenners-ecological-model.html)

1- Micro system- immediate relationships and activities

2- Meso system- interactions and relationships between all elements of the microsystem

3- Exosystem- all social settings that affect the child

4- Macrosystem- larger society (values, laws, conventions, traditions)

5- Chronosystem- time

Peers- Children develop within peer groups they provide incentives for certain activities.

Peer Groups– Emily

2 types of peer groups :

-Cliques and crowds

Peer cultures:

-Groups of children or adolescents with their own rules and norms

-Cliques and friendship

-Friends are central to student lives

-Who is likely to have problems with peers?

-New students

-Behaviour student

Families– Harlan

-The influence of the family,actually begins in the mother’s womb, before birth and is dependent on the expecting mother’s food intake, drugs alcohol consumption

-Children may be part of blended families, or they might live with one aunt, or may be adopted or grow up in extended families ( with parents, children and grad parents living in the same house)

-So the best advice is to avoid phrases like “your parents” and instead use phrases like “your family” when speaking to students

There are four styles of Parenting Styles

Authoritative- parents who are high in warmth but they also exert firm control; less punishment, more guidance

= Kids more likely to be happy

Authoritarian- parents can seem cold and controlling  but love their children, they are just not open about it

=Kids perform less well in school

Permissive- parents are warm but have little control; view themselves as resources for children

=Kids are immature and demanding

Rejecting/ Neglecting-  low in warmth AND control; put little effort into parenting and are more focused on their own needs

=Kids are insecure in their relationships, non-compliant and withdrawn

-Authoritarian- better grades for African American and Asian students

-Ruth Chao’s studies also show that there is another type of parenting style that better characterizes the parenting stlye in Asian and Asian American families called “chiao shun,” which means ‘training.’)

Reaching Every Student– Rupa

Teacher Support (p.78)

-Teachers are the best source of help for students facing emotional or interpersonal problems.

-Besides respecting the feelings of those students and showing genuine concern, Teachers must set class limits, expectations same for all, stay consistent, and enforce rules firmly.

Academic and personal cares (p.78)

3 qualities defines a good teacher:

1)      Have positive interpersonal relationships

2)      Can keep their class organized

3)      Good Teachers are good motivators

– Students’ academic motivation are significantly related to how their teachers cares for them. Students define caring in two ways;

1)      Academic caring- teachers set high but reasonable expectations

2)      Personal caring- being patient, respectful, willing to listen, and interested in students’ issues, and personal problems.

Additional Resources – Mellissa

Should the Raptors face the Wizards or Bucks in the first round of playoffs?

Paul PIerce recently called out the Raptors in a recent ESPN interview, saying they don’t have the “It” factor. What the Raptors do have, though, is a perfect record against Pierce’s Washington Wizards this season.

As of Wednesday morning, the Raptors had a 71 per cent chance at facing the Wizards in the first-round, according to ESPN’s Director of Production Analytics Ben Alamar.

The only scenario in which the fourth-seeded Raptors wouldn’t face Washington would be if Toronto won their final game against Charlotte and the third-seeded Chicago Bulls lost to the Atlanta Hawks, with both games coming tonight.

But it’s in the Raptors best interest to play the higher-seeded Wizards over the lower-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the first round. Not only do the Wizards give the Raptors a better first-round match-up, but a first-round win would pit them in the Atlanta Hawks bracket (assuming they win), thus avoiding the red-hot Cleveland Cavaliers.

In the head to head matchup, the Raptors fared well against both the Bucks (2-1) and Wizards (3-0), the difference being they were able to sweep the season series against Washington.

It will be a battle of offence-versus-defence, regardless of the matchup.

Both the Buck and Wizards have top four NBA defences. In defensive efficiency rating (DER), Milwaukee ranks second while Washington is fourth. Comparatively, the Raptors are 23rd in that regard, the worst DER among current playoff teams.

On the flip-side, the Raptors have the third best offensive efficiency rating (OFR) and are tops in the Eastern Conference. The Wizards and Bucks are both on the lower half of the league. Washington is 18th and Milwaukee is 25th, ranking the worst among current playoff teams.

So while both the Bucks and Wizards are perial defensive teams, the Bucks are slightly better.

Making matters worse is the Bucks height. Micheal Carter-Williams will have a five inch height advantage over the 6-foot Kyle Lowry at the point while Ersan Ilyasova will have a five inch height advantage over the 6-foot-6 Terrence Ross at small forward. Paul Pierce just is 6-foot-7 at the small forward position and John Wall is 6-foot-3 at the point guard spot, making the height easier to adjust to.

This is no more evident than in shooting percentages of the top three Raptors scorers this season in the head-to-head matchups.

Lou WIlliams shot 12/38 (32 per cent) against Milwaukee compared to 21/ 43 (49 per cent) against Washington. Demar DeRozan shot 6/33 (18 per cent) against the Bucks compared to 18/ 47 (38 per cent) versus the Wizards. Kyle Lowry is shooting 15/42 (36 per cent) over against the Bucks compared to 18/42 (45 per cent) against the Wizards.

As a team, the Raptors shot better as a team against the Wizards (43.7 per cent) compared to against the Bucks (41.3 per cent).

Washington also boasts a rather mediocre bench (ranked fourth in point differential) outscoring their opponents by 0.6 per game while the Milwaukee bench (ranked fourth) is outscoring their opponent by 8.8 per game. The Raptors bench comes in at fifth, outscoring their opponents by 7.7 per game, a significant boost over Washington’s.

Just as importantly, if the Raptors defeat the Wizards, they will play either Atlanta (who they are 3-1 against), Brooklyn (2-2) or Indiana (3-0) in a second-round matchup. If they defeat the Bucks, they will either face Boston (2-2) or Cleveland (1-3).

So while the Wizards can outscore the Bucks and own the fifth-best starting unit in the NBA (point-differential-wise) the Raptors have played slightly better against Washington this season and can take advantage of a much better second-round matchup.

The Wizards are my choice for the Raptors opponent in the first round of the NBA playoffs. What’s yours?

Leafs losses working into Shanahan’s master plan

Everything is going as planned for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Or as TSN’s Bob McKenzie put it, it’s a sign from above. The hockey gods planned this all along.

Just when it seemed like the Leafs were going to end their seven-game-losing slide, an Oliver Eckman-Larsson shot from his own end and five second into the third period, served as the momentum shifter in Arizona’s 3-1 comeback win over the Leafs.

You can’t script this stuff, folks.

With the win, Arizona snapped their own seven-game losing streak and game Toronto its eighth consecutive loss.

But it’s all working into Brendan Shanahan’s master plan because as Toronto continues to plummet in the standings, so too does their 2015 first round pick continue to gain stock in a deep and talented draft.

It’s the best plan for the Leafs given that they are too far out to compete in the postseason and don’t to want to finish just out of the playoffs, without netting a top 10 draft pick.

As it stands now, the Leafs would have the eight overall pick in the 2015 draft, though three teams are within four points of them, so they can realistically fall to fifth.

That’s why these losses are just what the Leafs need.

It’s hard to imagine but the Leafs had a seven point lead over the ninth-spot Washington Capitals as they sat in the first wild card spot on Dec. 17, through 31 games. Now, through 50 games, the Leafs are 10 points back of a playoff spot, and the eighth seeded New York Rangers have played four fewer games than them.

After Thursday’s loss to Phoenix, the Leafs have now lost eight-in-a-row and 16 of their last 19. That’s a mere seven out of a possible 38 points in that stretch. They’ve scored just seven goals in this streak.

But all this is working out perfectly for the Leafs, whether they’ll admit it or not. With virtually no shot at the playoffs coming into Thursday night’s tilt against Phoenix, the Leafs best plan was the rebuild route.

The good news is that teams behind them are also winning. Carolina (39 points) is 7-2-1 in their 10, New Jersey (44 points) has won two-in-a-row and Philadelphia (49 points) have now passed them with three straight wins.

As the losses keep coming, their first round draft pick keeps looking better and there’s no better option for a team that could so badly use a franchise player than this one.

 

Should the Leafs tank?

It’s time to go the tank route in Leaf land.

After an 0-for-3 funk in California, the Toronto Maple Leafs have less than a 15 per cent chance to make the playoffs.

To make the eight seed in the Eastern Conference, teams will need 96 points to have a probable (better than 50 per cent) chance at the playoffs, which would mean the Leafs would have to go 22-10-5 from here on out.

That’s expecting an under-.500 Leafs team (22-20-3) to win 59 per cent games or pick up 49 points in 37 games. No matter how much their defence has improved recently, that’s not happening.

The Leafs should realize that the playoffs are not a realistic possibility and tank the rest of the season.

Since the 2005-2006 NHL season the Leafs have only made the playoffs once and only had a bottom three NHL finishing once (they traded that would-be Tyler Seguin pick). Those finishings in the Eastern Conference? 9th twice, 12th thrice, 13th twice and 10th once.

Bad enough to not make the playoffs but too good to get a high pick in the entry draft. It’s been the theme of the Leafs for the last decade or so — mediocrity.

They need to cut their losses and start tanking for a top pick in this year’s draft. If the draft started at the beginning of play today, the Leafs, 10th in the East, would have the 12th overall pick, again following with the theme of mediocrity.

The Leafs are the 12th worst team in the NHL but there are four teams behind them within four points who have played either the same amount or fewer games. That means they could realistically  take a tumble in the standings and end up with a top10 pick.

That’s better than being somewhere between 11 and 14 and not qualifying for the playoffs, which is where they are today.

The Leafs could use a high pick, too. They need a No.1 centreman and a No.1 defeceman. Even beyond Connor McDdavid and Jack Eichel, there are potential No.1 centremans like Dylan Strome and Mitch Marner. On the defesive side, there are potential No.1 defecmen like Noah Hanifin and Oliver-Kylington.

The difference of five spots could be the difference of a bonafide superstar to a uncertain top-fix forward. That’s the difference of a Nazem Kadri (7th overall) to a Matt Duchene (3rd overall) or a Jiri Tlusty (13th overall) to a Jonathan Bernier (11th overall).

The Leafs can go one of two ways now. They can either fall in that grey zone of mediocrity or they can tank and can truly be bad. The difference in this season will be the same: no playoffs. But looking long-term a higher pick in the draft will get them further to where they want to be.

 

 

 

 

Thoughts on Firing Randy Carlyle

Courtesy Tim Alamenciak/ Wikimedia Commons)

The Toronto Maple Leafs rarely make the right move as an organization but on Tuesday they did by firing their head coach.

It was the first domino that signifies change. Change can only be a good thing for this middle-of-the-pack team that seems destined for another ninth or tenth finishing in the Eastern Conference.

While the timing has been questioned by many, I don’t question it at all. The Leafs have lost seven of their last nine and have played absolutely awful in most of those games. What kind of timing were people waiting for? Something had to give, and after the Leafs 5-1 loss to Winnipeg on Saturday night, Carlyle’s fate was sealed.

Or it could have been sealed after blowing a two-goal lead to Florida. Or it could have been sealed after blowing (another) two-goal lead to Tampa Bay the night after. Finally the Leafs organization came to their senses and said, “enough is enough.”

It wasn’t Carlyle’s fault entirely but some nights you had to question the buy-in of his players or whether he actually had a strategy of any sort. It seemed like every night the Leafs wouldn’t play to a system but just free-wheeled wherever they wanted to.

We can talk about why the Leafs made the move now- I think it should have ideally been done it at the end of last season- but give the organization credit for even firing him whatsoever. This is an organization that prides itself in standing pat, so the fact that they fired him, in any event, is surprising to me in a good way.

Now under the coaching of Peter Horachek and Steve Spott, it will be interesting to see how the team responds.Will they play with heart? Will they forecheck or backcheck or protect the slot or any of the little things that good teams do to win? Most teams would be emotionally charged after a head coach gets fired. Will the Leafs be emotionally charged or will they be the emotionless gutless group they usually are?

Courtesy Tim Alamenciak/ Wikimedia Commons)

Their first test begins Wednesday night in a battle of the wild cards against Washington.  It’s a crucial game considering the two are neck-and-neck in the Eastern Conference standings and the Leafs could use a big win following the coaching change.

 

Raptors new logo could be perfect

As the Toronto Raptors upcoming logo for the 2015-2016 season was released today, reaction among Raptor fans seems to be mixed.

Upon first inspection, the logo looks eerily similar to that of the Brooklyn Nets, a team the Raptor fans would rather not associate with after losing a heartbreaking seven game series in the first round of last year’s playoffs.

Both logos have: a circular shape, a basketball with white seams in the centre a primary colour scheme of black and white, and a print of the team’s city atop the basketball.

It’s a far difference from the innagural logo featuring a cartoony purple dinosaur or their current one featuring a fierce red claw.The ‘Raptor’ element appears to be gone, as does the notion of them being ‘Canada’s Team’ as their is no maple leaf.

The Toronto Blue Jays recently added a red maple leaf on the top of their logo to give them a Canadian identifier.

Or maybe, as Masai Ujiri suggested, not all is at it appears

“We’ve been working on it for a while,” said Raptors GM, according to the Spec. “When you see the whole thing, it’s actually nothing like (Brooklyn). Our colours stay the same.”

Then, the Raptors tweeted this from their Twitter account:

Their new logo looks nicer already with any of these four colours (OK, maybe not the black) in the middle to replace the white. Red would be a cool Canadian idenitifier, gold would give the team a majestic feel, and grey — I’m not the biggest fan of.

I’m not convincingly sold on their new logo, whatever colour it ends up being, but I think that their new logo might just be exactly what they needed.

First, though, my main problems. Even with the new colours, it looks very Borrkln Nets-esque in shape, reliance on black and placing a basketball in the middle. It doesn’t say, “We the North” quite like the quiet symmetry of a perfect Raptor claw. A claw rips up anything it comes in contact with. It is smooth, sharp and efficient.  The new logo lacks the killer instinct of like that of a raptor’s claw.

The lack of Canadian identifiers also displeased me. A maple leaf, the numbers 416 or a background with the Toronto skyline would have been nice to see.

But for once, there is no wacky purple dinosaur or Raptor claw rallying cry. For once, the Raptors logo look like every other one of the 29 teams in the NBA. And that’s important. That’s the reason for the generic ball and simpl

I also think the circular shape is supposed to represent a shield, a new concept that hadn’t been explored before as far as the Raptors are concerned. The reason for a shield is simple: defence. Defence in the physical sense —the Raptors are top six in fourth quarter defense and were second there last year — and defense in the, “We need to stand our ground” sense.

The Raptors have already established that they are Canada’s team. They don’t need to belabour that point any more. Raptors fans came out in masses to Detroit and Celeveland this year. And after cramming thousands of people in Raptor Sqaure last playoffs, no one is questioning the Raptors hardy, passionate fan base.

The Raptors are already Canada’s team. They don’t need a maple leaf or to smack in the colour red, as they had to in the past to say, “Hey, look at us.” They have the attention of their own fans and now they’re trying to gain the attention of the rest of the league by…well, fitting in.

Their new logo is sleek, professional and crisp. There’s nothing to laugh at, it simply means businees. It sweet and to the point: “We’re here to play basketball.” It’s a logo of defense and standing their ground. It’s a logo that says, “We don’t have to be different anymore. We know we have Canada on our back and we don’t need to gain anybody’s acceptance. We mean basketball.”

It has confidence in itself, just the Raptors. It doesn’t need to be flashy in order to stand out. The Toronto Raptors are no longer the laughing stock of the league but a team to be taken seriously. A team that, at 21-6, leads the Eastern Conference.

I think the logo could be perfect for Raptors because it speaks to the evolution of the franchise. They let their team do the talking, not their logo. They don’t need a purple dinosaur to put them on the map, they’re already there. What they need to do now is to fit it, so that this way, they can attract high-end free agents and, in a greater sense, be taken seriously.

All they need is a basketball and a sense of pride, two elements this logo clearly shows.

Follow me on Twitter @hnemers

Mike Babcock to Toronto? Please…

Can we stop talking about Mike Babcock coming to Toronto already?

It seems like every week, there’s a new twist to this story., the latest being Sporstnet’s Ron MacLean telling Sportsnet 590 The Fan that he was watching the Leafs closely.

“I think he’s probably watching Toronto as carefully as anything,” MacLean told Brady & Walker on Friday. “Not his own team, but Toronto, to decide if he wants to come here.”

With Babcock’s contract expiring at the end of the season, it’s left ‘experts’ wondering if the 51-year-old would sign with his home town Toronto Maple Leafs.

Can we talk about the current season rather than jumping seven months from now?

Randy Carlyle has guided the Leafs to a strong start in the Atlantic division at 16-9-3, including a current 7-1-1 stretch, Babcock has his Red Wings off to a hot start at 17-6-6 and just a point back of Tampa Bay for the division lead.

After nine playoff-filled years in Detroit and International success, Babcock has deserved the right to pick which team he wants to go to.

He’s a free agent. He’ll see who is offering him the most money for the best term, he’ll see which General Manager is offering him the most power in terms of running the show and he’ll see which teams have a shot at making a splash next season.

Just because he’s from Toronto (he’s actually from Manitouwadge, Ont., which is about 13 hours away) the ‘logical’ notion is that he’ll come back home.

Babcock has never once openly said that he’s either leaving Detroit or that he’s made his decision to come to Toronto.

Why would he publicly say he was planning on leaving the Red Wings? It would be a slap in the face to his current employer to say that he was hoping to go elsewhere.

The Toronto Star was harping about Babcock coming to the Leafs as early as September,  even before the regular season started. At the time, it made sense, as the Leafs had just lost 12 of their final 14 games and failed to make the post-season.

Instead, they rewarded Carlyle with a two-year contract extension in early August.  But now the Leafs are looking solid as the top wild card team. It’s still early on, but there’s no reason we should be talking about Randy Carlyle’s job should be in jeopardy or about his ‘eventual’ successor.

The Mike Babcock rumours have got to go.

Why Drew Doughty should have won the Lou Marsh over Kaillie Humphries

The Lou Marsh is a coveted award. It’s like the NHL’s Hart Trophy or the NBA’s regular season MVP. It’s given out to the most outstanding Canadian athlete, of any sport, each year.

Earlier today, Olympic gold medalist Kaillie Humphries  was named the 2014 Lou Marsh winner, beating out candidates like Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings and and women’s singles Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard

Tennis star Milos Raonic, and Six Nations lacrosse player Johnny Powless rounded out the five nominees.

However, Humphries should not have won the Lou Marsh award in 2014.

The 29-year-old Humphries did win a gold medal the Olympics but so did 62 other Canadians at the Sochi Games. (Canada won 10 gold medals, but 63 individual members won one when you count all the players from the hockey teams, curling teams, and the two-member bobsleigh team.)

If Humphries won two gold medals, that would put her in an elite category of her own, but she won just one. No Canadian won more than  a single gold medal at the 2014 Games.

Also, it’s not as if a Canadian had never won a gold medal for bobsleigh coming into the Olympics. While she was the first Canadian woman to win a gold in bobsleigh along with teammate Heather Moyse, Pierre Lueders won a gold in the same event 16 years earlier in Nagano.

Why does she stand out among the pack of the other 62 Canadians that won a gold in the Olympics?

The answer is simple. She doesn’t.

Sportsnet’s Jeff Blair says, “ [Humphries], did everything we can ask of our athletes: winning a gold medal in an Olympic year – no second chance for that folks, choke and it’s a four-year wait – while winning the world title for a second consecutive year.”

There are two problems with this.

Yes, Humphries won gold. But so did 62 other athletes “in an Olympic year” and they weren’t given any second chances either. If he’s implying that some athletes who win gold medals are given second chances, then that’s even weaker.

Also, Humphries did not actually win a world title in 2014, as Blair writes. She has won two consecutive world titles but her last win came in 2013. If you’re wondering, there was no world championships in 2014 – there are never world championships during Olympic years- making her 2013 world title irrelevant in terms of the 2014 Lou Marsh.

Actually, he’s actually not entirely wrong, so much as misleading by using the word ‘world,’ without specifying which event it is. If he means World Championship, then he’d be wrong. But if he means – and I think this is what he means- a World Cup title, then he’d actually be right. Humphries won that World Cup title on Jan. 26 just before the Olympics Games, and that’s something she ought to be given credit for.

Still, though, it doesn’t quite cut it for me.

Take a look at Drew Doughty, who not only won a gold medal but also won a Stanley Cup for the Los Angeles Kings in the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals, albeit with incredible individual stats in both championships. Or take a look at Eugenie Bouchard, who became the the first Canadian — either male or female — to reach the finals of a Grand Slam in singles when she did so at Wimbledon.

The player who I think should have won the award is the aforementioned Doughty.

Doughty helped lead a Canadian team to their second straight gold, leading Canada in both goals and points (tied with Shea Weber) and was top three in plus/minus. He also lead the Kings to their second Stanley Cup in three years, finishing the regular season top 20 in plus/minus among defencemen and top 30 in points by a defenceman. During the playoffs, he lead all defencemen with 18 points while logging top-five ice-time minutes among all skaters.

Humphries won a gold medal. So did Doughty.

What separates Doughty is that he also won a Stanley Cup, and was one of the best defencemen individually — as stats show — for Team Canada and the L.A. Kings in both championship runs.

It’s not that Humphries wasn’t good. Doughty was just better.

This is no feeble recognition, we’re talking about the Lou Marsh award, and there’s no doubt Humphries was not Canada’s top athlete in the 2014 calendar year.

A brief introduction

With so much spare time on my hands and a lot of suggestions from people in the journalism ‘biz’, I have started to once again start blogging. I watch nearly every Toronto sports game and have opinions of my own so I decided that I’ll come back to blogging in order to share those opinions with the rest of the world.

My blog will be centered mostly around Toronto sports teams, since I watch about 80 per cent of their game – I try to watch all their games but I can’t when I’m working- but occasionally I’ll write about other teams.

Most people also know that I’m not the biggest soccer fan – I lose integrity when I see players faking injuries- so you probably won’t hear much of the Toronto FC on here either, unless something big happens, like them making the playoffs.

I might blog occasionally about the UFC – I am a minor UFC fan, though I lost some interest after Georges St. Pierre retired. Still, I follow the No. 1 Canadian Rory MacDonald and the general landscape of the welterweight division.

This is a blog where I’m going to speak my mind so be ready for that. I am a strong believer in hockey analystics (Steve Simmons shakes his head) so be ready for me to talk about the Leafs lack of puck possession dooming them for another eventual collapse.

I’m going to critique –and sometimes rip- sports commentators. Certain ones- like Bob Cole- get my approval, while others -like Paul Romanuk- I despise.

That’s a brief introduction to my blog. To see my posts as they come along, follow me on Twitter @hnemers. If you have any comments, let me hear about them.

Everything else is fair game!

PHOTO: Is Trent Tornincasa Canadian or American?

According to the the Windsor Express website, Trent Tornincasa is listed as being from Chicago, IL, but he’s mistaken as being Canadian.

 

On the Express training camp roster, all Canadians are highlighted in bold and so too is Tornincasa’s name.

Tornincasa also lists himself as being from Chicago on his official Facebook page, begging the question: When did Chicago become part of Canada?