Reflecting on Learning

My most passionate hope for my future as an early childhood professional is to create a learning environment where every child and family feels safe, respected and nurtured. I want to make a difference in the lives of the children I work with from such a young vulnerable age and make a lasting impression. If I could make one wish for the future of the children I have worked with in the past and also the present is that they will remember my name when they are adults and think of me with positive good thoughts.

I thank all my colleagues through this course for sharing their experiences and giving me different vantage points. I wish you the best in the end of your journey at Walden.

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

After exploring the UNICEF website I chose to focus on Latin America. The reason I wanted to explore this area is because of the amount of children I have worked with who have come to America from that area. Many of these families we had in Head Start have conveyed how much better life has been since they moved their family here. I have traveled all around Mexico and I often wondered how the quality of life is different in other Spanish speaking areas.

Children are dealing with a wide range of obstacles. The first one I noticed was The Break the Silence Initiative is a multi-pronged approach to protect children against sexual abuse and the risk of HIV. This is a problem in the region and action is being taken to try to educate. Some of the other topics which struck me were campaigns to fight for girl’s right to education and to eliminate child labor. Many of the other headlines were aimed against violence in regard to children. The information was shocking on commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking. There are no specific data on victims of commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking in Latin America and the Caribbean, but have made global estimates say 1.2 million of children are trafficked each year and two million are sexually exploited through prostitution and pornography. Approximately 80% of women in prostitution were sexually abused in their homes when they were children.

When I explored the website I quickly found out millions of children every day are still living situations of violence, exploitation and discrimination in their closest environment (family, school and community or state institutions), severely jeopardizing their growth and development.

Personally, reading the information it made me extremely sad. I was unaware of how bad the living conditions still are in Latin America for children. I also wonder about the families I have worked with in the past and the living conditions they came from. Many of these issues are things we do not have to deal with living in the United States. I can only hope safety and justice will be the right of every child living in this region.

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

When I think of the topic of sexualization in early childhood it makes me sad. I believe this is a time children should play and enjoy the essence of being a child. Children are exposed to a highly sexualized environment and are influenced by it in many different ways.
Children are exposed to technology at a very young age. The images which are depicted in games are very highly sexualized with sexy clothes, make-up, and over dramatized bodies. This can have a negative effect on a child’s social/emotional development. They may look at these women as role models and think they are what all girls should thrive to look like. The media also has a big impact on the sexualization of children at a young age. It focuses primarily on appearances and not intelligence or what they want to achieve in their lives. The media also portrays relationships between different sexes at a very young age. Boys and girls are no longer friends, but are involved in relationships.

On a personal level I have two girls ages 10 and 12. I watch programs with them and pay attention to the way the characters dress and also the relationships between the characters. I notice the decline from the days when I was little and there was a “moral” of the story. Most the time the female characters are dressing inappropriately and even worse the main character is portrayed as unintelligent.

When I think of this topic as an early childhood educator and mother I want to protect children as much as possible. In the case of my own children I choose to not have cable and manage what they watch on Netflix or movie rentals. We need to focus on children doing and achieving things rather than the need for commercial products to create happiness. When teaching young children I want to create an environment where children can challenge stereotypes and learn to truly play. Most of all I want to be a role model where children feel comfortable talking about these subjects with me and trust my advice and knowledge.
After studying the topic of sexualization this week many of my thoughts have been reconfirmed and I realize this is a subject we need to deal with as early childhood educators and as parents. We need to have strategies to deal with this topic and also feel comfortable collaborating with other adults on the subject.

Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

If I was working in the early childhood field and experienced an “ism” in my personal life it would be something which would always be on my mind and consuming my thoughts. I would feel an inner sense of sadness. I think this is one of the most difficult situations to deal with because it is the discrimination is happening for a reason which you have no control over. I would not be focused at work and have this as a sort of baggage weighing me down. My mental health would be poor and then in turn I would be less productive. When we have these negative thoughts on our mind it can also begin to harm us physically. Stress is not good for our physical or mental health and can lead to many diseases.

I believe the most difficult aspect of the “ism” is it would definitely impact my work as an early childhood educator. When we come to work dealing with young children and all the different energies in the room we have to put our best foot forward and be 100 percent. Our minds must always be thinking ahead and waiting to deal with unexpected situations. I also think we need to be positive and send out good energy to the children, families, and staff we deal with on a daily basis. If I was getting discriminated against it also may make me angry and without even understanding the underlying issue take it out on someone else. I hope by making more people aware through anti-bias education we can create an environment which is free of discrimination and fosters acceptance.

Observing Communication

          I had an experience yesterday at work watching interaction between a parent and child I have in my classroom.  The child had had a difficult day at school.  He was fighting with other children, had a bathroom accident and seemed not himself.  The mother rushed in to pick him and his brother up (they are twins), then rushed out so quickly I did not have a chance to talk to her.  When I was cleaning up the room I found his wet clothes in a bag in his cubbie which she forgot to check.  I put them aside and continued to clean.  I then saw her and the boys walk by the classroom going to their car from the playground.  I stopped her and opened the door.  I quietly said, “I’m glad I caught you,” and gave her the wet clothes.  She looked at her son and rolled her eyes.  She then said his whole name with a sigh.  He usually goes by a shorter nickname.  She then told me loudly that he had pushed another boy on the playground and that was why they were leaving.  She kept looking at him with a disapproving look.  She then told him she was not happy and they walked away. 

          The communication was very one sided.  When relating this to the media-presentation this week the “Communicating with Young Children” the communication was not reciprocal and respectful.  This boy has a problem communicating in the classroom and by relating it to the snapshot of the interaction with his mother it is easier to understand.  Talking negatively in front of another adult who the child respects makes them feel very unworthy. 

          I believe the adult-child communication should have been done privately where the issues could have been discussed in detail and worked out.  No knowledge came out of the communication which happened outside of the classroom.  I would have talked to both the children after the hitting happened, and not scooted him away from the playground.  If I needed to have a conversation with the teacher I would not have done it with the child present. 

          In regard to my own communication with children this week the main thing I have learned is I always treat children respectful and never put them down.  I try to have meaningful conversations and deal with problems as they present themselves.

References

Laureate Education Inc.(Producer). (2011). Communicating With Young Children. Baltimore, MD: Author

                

Creating Affirming Environments

If I opened my own Family Child Care Home I would want everything to look very natural and have elements of bringing nature inside. I believe it brings a calming effect to the room and to the children. I would find beautiful real pictures of multi-cultural children and hang them on the wall in frames to make it feel very homey. The photos I chose would also show pictures crossing typical gender roles. For example: girls playing cars. I would also show different family dynamics in photos, like single parent households. I would have multi-cultural dress up clothes in the dramatic play with all different types of pretend food from sushi to pita bread. The baby dolls would have all different skin colors from light to dark. I would have elements in my classroom from other parts of the world. For example: a wall hanging from Indonesia. The language displayed around the room would be in every language my families used. If there were four home languages I would use all of them in correspondence. Anyone who entered my care center could tell immediately who was in the program at that time (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010 p.43). The books in my center would have personalized topics to relate to the children and we would make them ourselves if needed. The puzzles would have real photos of children who represented the classroom. I would have a family board where photos of the families were displayed in frames. When playing music I would choose music with different languages as well as culturally diverse music. In my dreams I would create a beautiful classroom where all children were represented and respected.
References
Derman-Sparks, & Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-Bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington D.C. National Association for the Education of Young Children( NAEYC).

What I Have Learned

One hope I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is I as an Early Childhood Educator can embrace all cultures and ways of living. I also want to teach children about different ways of life and how each of us have our differences and similarities.

One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is to foster the development of the whole child by helping them understand themselves and the world. They need to have cognitive and social-emotional skills developed to question the world and make their way through it.

Thank you to all my colleagues who have supported me through this class with meaningful discussions and feedback. I wish you the best on your journey.

Start Seeing Diversity Blog: Creating Art

"We Don't Say Those Words in Class!"

A couple of months ago I was standing in line behind a woman and her child. In front of us was a woman who was missing a leg and had a prosthetic with crutches. The child said loudly, “That woman has no leg!” The mother looked mortified and her face turned red. She then leaned down to the child and whispered something in his ear. After that the child did not say anything else.

I think the message communicated by the adults response to the child was to not say another word and her facial expressions also let him know this was not an acceptable comment. Once the child saw his mother’s face and also heard his words he stopped talking and stood there quietly.

An anti-bias educator might have responded to support the child’s understanding by giving the child a respectful understanding of others. Young children need caring adults to help them construct a positive sense of self and respectful understanding of others. They need adults to help them begin to navigate and resist the harmful impact of prejudice and discrimination (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010 p.11).

References
Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

I began by looking around my own classroom. At Head Start we value diversity and different cultures. We even have policies in place to make sure we have books to include fathers, grandparents, and depict multi-racial families. When I look at all the books we have in regard to families all of them have a heterosexism undertone. Either the books are two parent families with a man and a woman, or a single parent family. I did find one book about adoption, but the family who adopted the child was a two parent family with a male and female. I have two children and have watched and looked at a multitude of media targeted for young children. I can’t think of one instance where a same sex partnership was displayed. Looking around at the walls of the elementary school we are located in there are not any signs of different family dynamics. The fifth grade actually had a family tree displayed earlier in the year, but there were still no signs of same sex partnerships.

When I think of early childhood centers avoiding the inclusion of books depicting gay or lesbian individuals such as same sex partnered families I think this is a wonderful idea. Especially if you have children in your center or classroom who have these family dynamics. We as educators want all children to feel welcome and a part of the classroom environment. Children thrive in school when families are involved. When a family is validated and included it makes them want to be a part of their child’s schooling. This helps children with their self-concept and the connection to their own family. The world is such a diverse place with all different types of people in it. I believe we should do whatever possible to help each child feel included.

Team Development

In my own personal experience it is most difficult to say goodbye to groups which are high-performing. I think about this in regard to the team I work with. We are very high-performing. We always get very high CLASS scores and our classroom functions extremely smooth. We have had other teaching teams come in to observe our class and use us as a model. We work very closely together through the year. In my team there are three teachers. I am the Lead Teacher along with a Family Support and Teacher Aid. We have very established norms in place where we each know how we should act in situations and with each other. We all have roles in our workplace and the part we play in our team. When the end of the school year comes we do not know if we will be in the same team again in the next school year or switched around. We put in our requests and hope for the best. I have been lucky enough to be in my current team for four years now. When summer comes it is a hard goodbye. We pack up our room and get all our personal belongings ready to go home. We then take all of our files to the main office and turn them in. This has been our closing ritual each year. It is hard when the group is high functioning because you work together to to achieve your goals through the year.
In the past courses when working on my master’s degree it is a strange feeling when you leave a class and your colleagues. You start off the class figuring out the expectations and navigating the coursework with the other students support. You also start to form relationships through the discussions and learn about others viewpoints. Adjourning is an essential stage of teamwork because the group will have finished the task and need to move on to new things bringing the experience they have learned.

Personal Conflict

I recently had a disagreement at work about responsibilities assigned in the classroom. We share a classroom with an AM and PM class. We work in teams. I have an assistant and then the afternoon has an assistant. We share a teacher aide who sets up our meals. This can be very difficult because the children in the two classes have different interests and we are constantly using materials to support their needs. This means constant collaboration between the two teaching teams. We were having issues with the cleaning of the classroom and who was responsible for each duty. We are required to have a meeting with each team every other Wednesday to discuss classroom business. This is nice because we already have a scheduled meeting where we have to sit down for an allotted amount of time. The two strategies which worked in this meeting were first writing everything down. This worked well because you could see who was responsible for what on paper. This was effective because it was very clear how many responsibilities each person had. It also was a written record to follow if the task actually got done. The other strategy on a personal level was compromising and volunteering to do a portion of the tasks which needed to get done. I think it worked well because others also started to compromise and take initiative.

I did use some of the principles of Nonviolent communication because we were all listening to the needs of each other and working toward peace in our workplace and coming to terms with a common goal. Through the practice of NVC, we can learn to clarify what we are observing, what emotions we are feeling, what values we want to live by, and what we want to ask of ourselves and others. We will no longer need to use the language of blame, judgment or domination. We can experience the deep pleasure of contributing to each others' well being.

NVC creates a path for healing and reconciliation in its many applications, ranging from intimate relationships, work settings, health care, social services, police, prison staff and inmates, to governments, schools and social change organizations ("The center for," 2010).

References
The center for nonviolent communication. (2010, 01 25). Retrieved from http://www.cnvc.org/learn/nvc-foundations

Who Am I as a Communicator?

I chose my husband and one of my coworkers to evaluate me this week.  The one thing that surprised me most is my evaluations matched up with the results from the other two questionnaires.  I have made it very well known to my husband and my friend who I have worked with for four years that I have anxiety when speaking in large crowds.  I figured I would rate myself differently than they would just because I see myself from a completely different vantage point.  It did make my goals related to communication very clear.  The aspects I chose to work on are also seen by others I am close to.  One of the other interesting outcomes this week was in regard to my Listening Styles Profile.  I fell into group 1 which is considered people-oriented.  It states I am empathetic and concerned with the emotions of others.  This listening style helps you to build relationships, but can interfere with proper judgement because you tend to be very trusting of others.  This was very profound because I can see myself in this description.  I am going to start analyzing myself at work and in my relationships and take notice of when I portray these attributes.  There may be times where I need to be more clear-to-the-point, or business like.  I really enjoyed learning more about my communication style this week and thinking about goals which will help me improve on a personal level.  

What Ways Do You Communicate Differently?

I communicate with many different people through my daily interactions. When I communicate within my family I am very relaxed and feel like I am able to talk about any issue whether personal or professional. My communication is very unguarded, and many times I bounce ideas off my immediate family for feedback. When communicating within my family the communication is different with my two daughters because they are also female and we can talk about “girl” stuff. many times the communication between my husband and I is about business related to running our family and is more of a partnership.

When I communicate at work it is in a very professional manner. I always keep my personal issues out of any communication. I become a very active listener with the families and children I serve, but also give input on the children’s education to the families. Many times it is a collaborative communication where we are talking about the goals of the children and working together. When I communicate with different cultures I adapt to their norms and try to respect their families customs.

TV Episode and Communication

For this assignment I chose to watch the TV show Malcom in the Middle with the sound turned off.  It is a show my daughters just started watching on Netflix and I had not sat down to actually watch the show myself.  Based on how the characters are communicating I believe they are all part of the same family.  There is  woman and a man around the same age who share a bedroom and sit at the opposite end of the table at meal time.  They have three boys very close in age also sitting around the table who seem to be the children.  The conversation makes me believe the parents are very upset with the children.  They are opening their mouths wide and saying something to one of the boys and their faces look angry.  The boy then also looks angry and holds his spoon up with mashed potatoes on it as if he is going to throw it at his mother.  They keep having a back and forth exchange which looks like they are arguing.  At the end of the conversation at the dinner table they all start laughing and then it goes back to the son who again looks angry and seems to be yelling.

I then turned on the sound and watched the same episode.  When the show started and the couple woke up the man referred to the woman is honey.  I was right in assuming the couple were married and the children did call them mom and dad.  During the dinner scene the boy was joking around with his mother and put the mashed potatoes in the spoon and acted like he was going to throw it at her.  The mom replied, “Don’t you dare!”  The boy then said, “I was not going to!”  This kept going back and forth until the youngest boy made them all laugh by telling a joke.  At the end the boy had his spoon up again and acted like he was going to have a food fight again.  

My assumptions were definitely wrong when I watched the episode with the sound on.  I thought the program was much more serious than it really was.  The whole premise of the program was very funny and that was something which was very difficult to tell without the sound on.  If this was a show I had been familiar with I would have known the premise and understood the comedic nature.  I then would have been able to understand the show better without being able to hear the dialogue.

Communication

When I think of communication and a good communicator the first person I think of is my mother. She recently died of cancer, and in part it has made me realize how much I miss the communication we had and just how good she was at listening and also giving advice. She was an elementary school counselor and used communication skills as part of her job on a daily basis. When I moved away to go to college most of our communication happened over the phone. I did see her quite often since the city I moved to was only three hours away, but we probably talked three or four times every day. I always felt comfortable bouncing all my ideas or problems off her and really appreciated her advice. I never felt judged and when I needed someone to talk to she was there to give advice and listen. I really noticed how much I cherished the relationship when I had two daughters of my own. She always listened to me talk about parenting in good times and times which were very difficult. I knew she loved them as much as I did and she collaborated with me about many issues which arose. I definitely want to model my communication behaviors after my mother. She was a very active listener and took the time to make me feel like any issue I had mattered big or small. The biggest attribute I want to model after my mother is I always felt comfortable talking to her and never felt guarded. If I can make the families I work with feel comfortable talking to me and know I do not put judgment forward, then I feel I am on the right path to making a difference.