The End of Class

I would like to thank everyone who posted on my blog and discussion posts.  This has been a great experience.  I hope to see you all in my next class.  It seems that we are a long distance family that is there for one another.  I pray that you all have a great future.  I hope we can get in touch so we can continue to help one another.

Conflict Resolution

I recently had a disagreement with a colleague who just started teaching PreK for the first time this year. She allowing one of her parents still to come in her classroom and just sit around until they get ready to leave. I told her there is nothing wrong with the parents walking their child to the classroom but they do not need to sit around every morning because it makes it hard on the child. When the parents do leave you hear the child crying in my classroom. This has been happening since August. She said she sees that it is becoming a problem but she is afraid to tell the parent. I told her just to be nice about it and show her that it is affecting her child in the long run. I also told her that I would sit in the conference just to be the mediator. Well, she had the conference and it was a win-win result. The parent thought that it was making the transition easy for her child but after the teacher told her what the child was doing when she left. It made the parent feel bad. I stepped in and told her it was okay and I understood because I did the same thing with my first child.

Similarities and Differences

There were some similarities and differences in the evaluation of myself as a communicator. The two people that I had evaluated me were my aunt and my best friend. The only profile that came up in the same category was the one that dealt with listening. The other two we were off by a section. I thought of myself higher than they did. The one that shocked me the most was the verbal aggression profile. I did not think my aggression was visible or that bad.

I also learned that there are some things that I need to work on to make my communication better. I need to work on talking more in public and being confident when I talk. I also need to work on not attacking people about their opinions and attack the what they said.

My Communication Hero

The person that comes to my mind when I think of someone who shows great communication skills is my uncle and Pastor Buckner.  He speaks clearly so that you can understand what he is saying.  He is constantly reading so he uses words that you may not know or understand what it means but he will give you the spelling and define it for you.  I enjoy hearing him talk because he gives examples so that it becomes real to you.  He was not always a great communicator but after working on it for years he has grown a lot in communicating.  As a grown person I enjoy hearing him but when children enjoy him it is taken to another level. 

I would love to communicate like him because he shows confidence when he speaks.  He looks at you like you are the only person he is talking to.  He walks around and not just stands in one place.  His tone of voice is very appealing and it stands out.  He pronounces his words in a great manner.  I could listen to him communicate all day because his communication skills are just that great!

Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have about working with children and their families is that I will make them feel loved and respected when they walk into my classroom. I want everyone who walks through my door to feel important and to know that I am there for them and their child. I want them to know that our differences is what makes us unique. We all have something that we can learn and appreciate about each other.

One goal that I have for the field of early childhood is that we treat children and their families the way we want to be treated. It is important to know that we all have our roles to play in society. When children see that we are treating people differently because of their culture they are going to start doing the same thing. This is a cycle that needs to be stopped for good. It is important as educators to display a positive behavior because children first learn from their parents and then we fall next in line.

I would like to say a special thanks to my professor and colleagues for all of posts and comments that assisted me in my learning in this course. With your help, I learned a lot of information that will help me with my future endeavors. May your futures be filled with much love and respect. Know that we are all unique and deserve our spotlight in this diverse world.

　
　

Welcoming Families From Around the World

The country I chose is Japan.

5 ways in which you will prepare yourself to be culturally responsive towards the family.

• I would have my classroom set up with pictures, books, and different things from their country to make them feel welcome when they walk into the room.
• I would prepare my children for the new child by doing a presentation on the Smart board about Japan.
• I would do some research of things that are important to them so that I want offend them with my gestures or things I say.
• I would find someone that is Japanese that I could talk with to find out first hand about the Japanese culture.
• I would dress like a Japanese person and may have the children dress up also to make the child and his/her family feel at home.

I hope that my five ways to be culturally prepared for a family from another culture will make the child and the family feel welcome when they walk into the classroom. I want them to know that they are a part of our family and that they are special. The family will see that we do care and love them even though they are different but what makes us unique is that we are all different in some way or another. I will get the knowledge first hand of having a Japanese child in my class. I will learn a lot about their culture and things that are important to them.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

What memory do you have of an incident when you experienced bias, prejudice, and/or oppression, or witnessed someone else as the target of bias, prejudice, and/or oppression? Keep in mind that one can encounter such incidents in real contexts, including online environments, as well as in fictional ones, such as movies, books, television shows, and the like.

I can remember when my parents and I took my brother off to visit a college in the upper part of SC and we went to eat at this restaurant. They set all the white people before they set us. We had to eat because we were staying the night there and it was the only restaurant that was close. The other restaurants were about a hour away and we were to tired to drive. After they seated us, it took over 10 minutes for them to take our drink order. Then, when they brought us our food it was burnt. We were to afraid to send it back because we did not know what they might do to it. When we paid for our food they placed my dad’s change on the table instead of in his hand.

　

In what way(s) did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity?

Prejudice was present in this incident. The people in the restaurant need to see and understand that we are all human beings. We should treat people with respect regardless to how they look, smell, or act.

　

　

What feelings did this incident bring up for you?

This incident made me feel like we where back in days when my parents were children. I felt like I was not important and that they did not value us as people because our skin color was different than theirs.

　

What and/or who would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity?

The mind set of the people in that town need to change. They need to stop looking at people for their skin color and start see them as human beings. Yes, our skin color maybe different but we are all God’s children.

Practicing an Awarness for Microaggressions+

This week I experience a sexual orientation micro aggression. I was in church an a homosexual guy was in service. The row that he was on nobody would sit on that row because in their eyes he is different and people do not want to deal with things that are different. I feel they did not want to sit by him because his hair was long, mascara on his eyelashes, nails was long and manicured, and pants rolled up at bottom to sit on top of his shoes. I could scene that he was feeling uncomfortable because nobody would sit on his row. I got my purse and I moved from the row I was on and sat next to him. I spoke to him and told him my name. He smiled and told me his name. I knew that I made he feel comfortable to be at church. After church, he thanked me for coming to sit by him and I gave him a hug. He said he will be back next Sunday. I am glad that I did what I did because now he will feel more comfortable coming to our church.

My experience taught me that we need to change our way of thinking. We should treat all people the same way. We need to think really hard before we do or say something to people. Just because someone is different we should

Perspectives of Culture and Diversity

The first person I talked with was a 20 year old Caucasian female. She defined culture as the way you do things, how you survive in this world including belief, morals, custom, and habits. She defined diversity has differences of culture, background, and experience among individuals and groups.

The second person I talked with was a 35 year old African American male. He defined culture as beliefs characteristics of an ethnic or age group. He defined diversity has the quality of its physical, social, cultural, and intellectual environment which embraces the rich difference within the human characteristics.

The last person I talked with a 54 year old mixed female. She was Caucasian and African American. She defined culture has shared patterns of behaviors and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. She defined diversity has the welcome and support of individuals from all groups encompassing the various characteristics of people in our community.

　

The Caucasian female really thought about the words to give me a definition that went beyond the surface layers of the words. Some of the comments she made was in our first week of class. The African American guy definition of culture was similar to mind before I started this course. His definition of diversity covered the person as a whole the same way we are learning this term in class. The last lady defined culture and diversity deeply going pass the first layer.

　

From talking with 3 of my friends I found that we all have our own definitions of the words culture and diversity but to some point we are all on the same page. I have learned that we have to go pass the outer skin of the words and must look deep into the words so that we cover it all.

My Family Culture

The three items that I would take with me are my deceased mother’s ring, my bible, and my sd card. I would take my mother’s ring that her grandma gave her at the age of 16 because she means so much to me. I will take my bible because that is what I live by on a daily basis. My bible will help me keep my faith walk going strong. It will also keep me on right track on knowing how to survive with it seems like everything is falling apart around me. I will take my sd card because I have all my pictures and videos of my family on there. I have all of my children important events on their from the time they were born. Most importantly I have our family last vacation with my mom on there and I enjoy watching it. If I had to give up one item that would be hard to choose which one because they are all important to me. Each of my three items has its personal meaning to me.

I learned that if you take me from my physical home I still have my culture. You can take all of my tangible things and I still will have my culture.

When I Think of Research....

This course has taught me a lot about early childhood research. The process of research includes :

-selecting a topic

-search and review the literature

-formulate a specific research issue/question

-design the research

-collect data/information

-process/analyse data

-draw conclusions

-write research reports.

It was new to me that research had steps to follow to make the design complete. I also learned that there are different types of research designs and you must chose and follow the design that fits your research question.

With planning, designing, and conducting research it is important for you to chose a research question that is measurable. You have to do a lot of planning before you start conducting the research. Your design plan must match the type of research. I learned that you must get permission of the participants.

One challenge that I encountered was with my research question. I had to change several times so that it was able to be measurable. My perceptions of early childhood has grown from this course. Research in early childhood is important and it affects the way early childhood is viewed today.

Research Around the World

The website that I researched is Early Childhood Australia. The international research topics range in topics. Some of the research topics that stood out to me were: Young Children as active learners, Young Gifted Children: Meeting their Needs, Engaging Families: Building Strong Communication, and The Early Years Learning Framework: Building Confident Learners.

From the website, I learned that Australia has some of the same concerns that the United States have about young children. We both want the rights of children to be heard, leadership, respect, collaboration, diversity, justice, and social inclusion of children.

I learned that the Early Childhood Australia’s Quality Assurance has six principles for evaluation. The six principles are relevance, authority, content, general design, navigation, and server performance and technical issues.

Research that Benefits the Children and their Families

The topic that I would chose to make a major contribution to children and their families is making Pre-K full day versus half day. Children will learn a lot more coming to school 8 hours versus 3 hours. The students will be more successful in Kindergarten. I know that Pre-K is their first experience in school but they can handle coming to school all day and learning a lot more. Students will have more time to socialize with children their age. They can focus on Science, Math, and ELA each day instead of working only one two each day.

With Pre-K being all day it will save parents a lot of money because they will not have a daycare bill. Children will get a hot meal twice a day at school plus a snack before they go home. Pre-K all day is going to benefit everybody.

Your Personal Research Journey

The first topic I chose was poverty in the early childhood setting but after I did some searching I decided to change my topic to technology in the early childhood classroom. I chose the topic because technology is the way of the world and everything today deals with technology in some way or another. I want to find out how technology plays a role in the classroom, does it affect students social interaction, and is it developmentally appropriate for technology to be in an early childhood setting.
The research chart has open my eyes up to another way of seeing the research process. The key terms really was an eye opening experience.  This journey is going to be a great one with this course breaking each step down during each week.  The process seems to be more manageable. 

Final Blog Assignment

This class experience has been a great one and I enjoyed every minute of it. I have gain a lot of information that is going to help me in my future endeavors. The first insight I gained was on poverty. I did not realize how poverty can affect the whole child. It was overwhelming when I read the stories about people that was in poverty. Poverty can come to anybody at anytime. The second insight I gained is knowing that every child does not get a good early childhood experience before they come to school. I thought this was just a local issue but I found out it is a world issue. Children get early childhood education depending on how much money their families have in their possession. The third insight is that diversity is being look at as a good thing in the education world. It is wonderful to know that education is respecting everybody no matter what they look like or where they come from.

My goal is get in contact with somebody from National Center for Children in Poverty to find our ways that I can help in my community. I want families to get out of the state of poverty to help their children to develop in every stage. I want the cycle of poverty to be broken so that children will have the opportunities to live out their dreams.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts Part 3

UNESCO mission is to support early childhood policy development with the aim to build a solid foundation for children as lifelong learners. They use two strategies to address early childhood. One is phasing and the other one is partnership. A phased plan is when they respond to the needs of young children with an overall commitment. Partnership deals with the care and education of the young child and well as the older child when it is closely linked with the family.
UNESCO plays a lead role in promoting literacy. UNSECO’s advocacy strategy is based on partnerships with governments, NGOs, international agencies, and many other partners. Literacy programmes need various key components:
1. Appropriate pedagogical approaches
2. Training of literacy personnel
3. Beyond basic literacy
4. A literate enivornment
UNSECO’s main goal in this area is to improve literacy policies and practices through qualitative and quantitative research.
　

Sharing Web Resources

The National Black Child Development website can take you to a lot of other sites that gives a lot of information. The one that stood out to me was the Foundation for Child Development. The FCD focuses on the disadvantage child and their well being. They have three programs that they promote. They support PreK-3rd Education, Child Well-Being Index, and New American Children. The one that caught my attention was PreK-3rd Education. This program focuses on children up to age eight. Children that fall behind have a slim chance of catching up.

The website gave information about books written by African Americans and they have the books separated by their age group. They also give some information about each book and a picture of the book.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts

I have not heard back from any of my professional contacts so I am doing the alternative assignment. As I looked through the webwsite the innovation part of the website stood out to me. Their mission is to enhance the well being of children through science and to translate the sciences into new strategies for action. The center has three content areas as priority. The first area is reducing developmental barries to learning. The second is strengthening the early foundations of lifelong health. The last is enahancing the resources and capacities of the family environment.

There are three core elements of innovation. The first one is seeds which relates to the economic and relationships with young children. The second one is soil which talks about communities and their purpose. The last one is climate and it deals with understanding behavior and emotions. Each of the elements are needed to work together for the benefits of the children. They want to introduce new ideas into the arena of intervention.

The site has a partnership ECIP where they work together to enhance young children and their families. The video links also give you more insight on innovation.

Sharing Web Resources

The information that stood out to me was about play. It talked about the importance of play at home and school. It gave three ways that parents should play with their children. One is to find time to play with your children as an individual. It shows that each of your children are unique. Allow the child to decide what they want to play. The next one is to play as a whole family. Allow your children teach you things and do not be shy about it. The last one is child play for those children that are having behavior problems. Play therapy help children work through their problems. It also talked about using exercise as a play time also.

The article made me see play as a major part of a child's life. Children should have time to play alone and with others. Play as therapy really stood out to me. I am going to tell my parents about play therapy because I see it working with children in early childhood.

State and local leaders can help with the funding of early childhood education. They are needed as a voice in funding for early childhood education. The site has ways you can donate to help with the issues and trends that are current. The site also had a representative that attended the speech President Obama gave on education. You can read the article on the website.

There is a conference for Head Start. It is for people involved in early childhood education. The conference talks about issues pertaining to early childhood today.

Getting to know your International Contact

I have not heard back from any of the professional contacts that I tried to contact from other parts of the world. Since, I did not hear back from any of the professionals I decided to do the alternative assignment. I am not giving up completely on the professional contacts. I am going to keep trying and maybe I will hear back from someone before this class is over.

I looked at childhood poverty in India. Between 1999-2000 the poverty rate was over 250 million. India has the highest poverty rate in South Asia. The rural poverty is cause by the lack of education, health, and skills. Over the past five decades they are trying to reduce the rate of poverty. One way is by their anti poverty programme. The three main programmes are rural employment creation and infrastructure, self-employment, and good subsidy.

This week I have learned a lot about poverty. Poverty does not have a name, color, or type. Poverty can happen to anyone at any given time especially the way the economy is going now. We as educators must let our voices be heard. If we have students that are going through poverty we need to help them find resources that can assist them during their hard times.

Sharing Web Resources

The National Black Child Development Institute was brought to life by the Black Women's Community Development Foundation. In 1970, the organization was started and they began to build a voice to improve the lives of African American children through policy changes. Their mission is to improve and advance the lives of black children and their families through education and advocacy. Their mission is carried out by giving information out that directly work with children and providing services throughout the nation. Throughout the years, millions of children have benefited from the program. The organization works to expand the following core program areas: Love to Read, the Parent Empowerment Program, African American Parents Project and Spark, Entering the College Zone, and the National Affiliate Network.

The NBBCDI received $300,000 from WalMart Foundation to promote healthy eating among families. The funds will promote nutrition to black families.

I subscribed to receive newsletters from NBBCDI. I am excited to learn more about this organization.

Professional Contact

I emailed around 7 different people and have not heard back from any of them. Several of the emails I sent came back to me. I am going to try up until Friday this week. If I do not hear anything by Friday I will do the alternative assignment. I would love to get in contact with a professional from another country to learn from them. It would be a great experience.

The National Black Child Development Institute is my choice for the organization to study. I would love to learn about them. This is a organization I know nothing about. I think it is going to be exciting to study and learn about them.

My Supports

My Supportive System:

Jesus Christ is my main source. Without him, I could do nothing but with him I can do all things. I pray to him every morning for the strenght, guidance, grace, and mercy to make it through the day making all the right decisions.

My Children are the fire that keeps me going from day to day. When I get them up in the morning and see their beautiful face, I know the day is going to be a successful one. They encourage me and tell me that you can do it momma and that gives me that extra push.

My dad is the baby sitter and best papa for my children. It does even more now that my mom is gone home to be with the Lord. It will stop whatever he is doing to come get them so I can go to after school functions and etc... Now that is retired after working 45 years, he told me he is willing to help me in whatever I need him to make my life easier.

My phone is a part of me. I used my phone everyday. I no longer use my house phone. I use it at work doing my break, on my way home from work, and at home. I mostly text. vox, or email from it so I depend on it greatly.

My truck is how I get from one place to another place so without it I would be helpless. I drive it everyday where ever I need to go. From taking my child to daycare to going to the grocery store.

My laptop is a big part. I have all my websites that I pulled ideas for my students on it. I use it to check my school email, and do my school work.

It would be difficult for me to exist without these supports. They all place a major role in my life and they keep me going from day to day. They make my life so much easier and more meaningful.

Relationship Reflection

Relationships are very important and everyone should have a positive relationship with someone. Relationships are built on trust. It takes work to have a relationship and get it to work. All relationships do not happen at the same time nor do they last for the same time.

My relationship with my mom is one that I would not trade for nothing in this world. We have been close since I can remember. If you saw one of us you saw the other. We have been leaning on each other when we were down and we would talk about anything and nobody would know what we talked about. She passed in '09, and I missed her dearly. People say it will get easier at this point it still seems like yesterday. Since my mom has passed, my relationship with my dad as improved. I find myself talking to him more and being in his presence more. He has been in my life since I was born but I was just very close to my mom. My relationship with my children are inseparable. I love them more than anything. We are together all the time except when I am at work. I see them as my little angels that I have to take care of just like my parents took care of me. Nothing can come between the relationship that I have with them.

I have learned that relationships take work. A relationship only works with all the parties are equal participants. In a relationship, you must be willing to work towards the same goal. From the relationships that I have I know that I can build relationships with my parents. I will advise them that this is a working process and that we should be on the same page for their child.