Reflecting on Learning

• An explanation of your most passionate hope for your future as an early childhood professional and for the children and families with whom you work or will work.

My most passionate hope for my future as early childhood professional and for the children and families that I work with is this. My passionate for my future work as an early childhood professional is that I will continue to make a genuine effort to educate myself on the issues that burden down our children and families. This also means being a voice for the small and teaching them how to stand up for against wrongs as well. As I continue to work with children and families and on the behalf of children and families, I will continue to address my own biases and discomforts so that I can make sound choices and without being biased, discriminatory, or prejudice towards others based on those things that make them different such as skin color, economic status, religion, and or sex, or gender. I will provide an early learning environment that promotes and welcomes children and families and my work for diversity and equity will be evident in the learning environment. Not only will I be committed to teaching children and families about diversity and equity, I will also work to share my anti-bias knowledge with my colleagues and peers that aren’t so aware of the benefits of providing an anti-bias education to our children. My commitment to be an anti-bias teacher means advocating and being allies against the institutional entities that can cause individuals to be neglected and abused. So I will be committed to the education of myself, children, and families, because the more I know the more I can help others.

• A brief note of thanks to your colleagues.

As we bring this class to a close, I would like to say thank you to each of my colleagues for helping me to expand in knowledge and wisdom. Engaging in class discussions and blogs has really helped to broaden my perspective on issues that affect our children and families. As each of you, continue on your journey to become an anti-bias educator, I wish you all the success and best of luck. As I prepare to enter into my final course of this program next semester, I wish you all much success and hopefully, I will get to meet some of you at the 2013 summer graduation. Good luck and God Bless.

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

For this blog I will be discussing my finding from the UNICEF website. The UNICEF stands for the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund it is one of the leading organizations that advocates for the good of the nation's children. In this blog I will also address questions regarding what I was able to learn as I browsed this website.

• Share with your colleagues the area of the world you chose and why.

The region that I chose to explore and learn about is Latin America and the Caribbean. I chose this website, because I am always hearing about issues in Africa, China, and Russia to name a few, however, I hardly ever hear much about the children of Latin America and the Caribbean. Most of the time when I hear about Latin America and the Caribbean it is regarding the tourism and cruises as well as the beautiful island lands. 

• Describe in detail some of the challenges that children in this region of the world are confronting.

One of the prime issues that are affecting the youth of these country is the issue of HIV/ AIDS. According to the website unicef.org  in Latin America alone there are more than 68,000 adolescents aged 10 to 19 years with HIV, of which 34.000 are women. In the region are born approximately 2,000 children with HIV annually, and each day 95 women acquire HIV adolescents. This to me is so disturbing because we all know that HIV/AIDS is a serious epidemic that is causing many young people to succumb to death at alarming rates. I also read that children in these countries are suffering from malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies.  It also mentions that pregnant women and children two and under are the ones who suffer the most. The right to equal education for all children is another issue that affects the children of Latin America and the Caribbean. It states that indigenous, Afro descendants, individuals with disabiltiies, and low income families have low completion rates, lack access to educational institutions. 

• Explain how these experiences might have an effect on children’s emotional wellbeing and development.

The lack of medical care, food, and education can greatly affect children's emotional well-being and development in that it all of these factors are needed to help the child to grow in develop in a positive manner. The food is needed to provide crucial nutrients that helps to promote brain, muscle, and tissue development which all help to promote a health start.  The lack of medical attention causes children to miss out on necessary vaccinations that can help combat childhood diseases. The lack of education will prevent the children from further developing their cognitive skills, because the children will not be exposed to the learning experiences that can further develop the brain as well as those experiences that helps to develop their social-emotional skills. 

• Include a personal and professional reflection. Explain the insights you gained and the influences they may have on you as a person and as an early childhood professional.

From a personal point of view, browsing this website has really enlightened me more to the plight of the children of these countries. It has made me really consider the positives and negatives that affect our own children. As I read about their country and I compared it to ours, sadly, some of these same issues are affecting the children in our very own country. Even though, we are a country rich in hospitals, schools, and homes there are still thousands of children struggling to attend quality school, access quality medical care, and consume foods that are rich in nutrients. 

From a professional viewpoint, when I read information such as what was contained in this website, it lets me know that more work is to be done to improve the situations of children all across the world. However, it does causes me to think that even though I would like to help the children in Latin America and the Caribbean, I must be mindful that charity starts at home so I must begin in my own neighborhood, community, state, and country. I can do this by taking the knowledge that I possess and using it to connect with other caring early childhood professionals to create a caring environment for young children to grow and thrive. This also means networking with community resources to help the families gain access to available help. 

References:

http://www.unicef.org/lac

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

This week I read an article that dealt with the sexualization and early childhood and after reading this article, I feel that the authors of this particular article really nailed the subject of sex and our children. The authors called for parents and educators to pay more attention to the many ways our children are exposed to sex by the media. It went on to say that the media uses sex to sell their products and as the children see these advertisements they are exposed to the sexual messages that leave them feeling the need to imitate. Children who see these ads and listen to the messages in our society feel the need to experiment with sexuality. This experimentation can cause young girls and boys to dabble in the sexual acts and experiences that surpasses their current knowledge and understanding. However, it is just so sad that our children are buying into the images and messages of these ads and society is affirming the messages as well.

As an early childhood professional that works with preschool age children, I must say that I have had several experiences where the children in the classroom and even in the neighborhood act, talk, dance, and behave far beyond their ages. I will share a few of my real life experiences that I have had throughout my work young children. I must say that I am very surprised at how aware they are about sex.

• In the dramatic play area, four year olds Serena and Janny play dress up. Janny puts on a dress and then opts for the high heel shoes and says to Serena, " Girl, I look too sexy with these heels on. " Serena, nods her head yes and then says," You going out with your boo (boyfriend) tonight girl?" Janny says," Yes, we going to the club." 

• In the block area Travis and John pretend to make a movie and they use blocks as their video camera. They call to the girls in the near by dramatic play and says," Y'all come be our dancers in our video." The girls put on the high heel shoes and begin dancing, I walk over them and ask them to if they can should me others ways that we can move our bodies. My purpose in asking this was so they would stop shaking their bottoms.
• In the dramatic play area, Kenya says," Tony lets play mommy and daddy." Tony says," Ok." Kenya, then says," If we are going to play mommy and daddy, you have to sleep with me so we can have a baby." Tony says," No, way Hosea!" Kenya then places her hands on her hips and stomps off mad.

I feel the more are children are exposed to these negative ads reflecting sex our children will continue to experience a decline in their overall positive development, because they will begin to lose touch with reality and become more sucked into and absorbed with the fraudulent images they see. They will begin to draw their own understanding of what they think it means to be a female or male in this society. Often times this could mean girls belittle themselves just to receive attention from the opposite sex. The boys will not value women, but instead will treat them as objects of pleasure to be used and discarded. If we allow our children to engage in hazardous behaviors, we will have a generation of children who will turn in to adults that lack self respect and self confidence. Another indication for girls is that they will never feel as if they fit in and are accepted unless they allow themselves to be misused by males in sexual acts or displays. If we are to help them we need to begin now modeling for them ways to have positive self-esteem, self-concepts, and self- awareness. We must address the issues of the over sexualized advertisements seen on television and in magazines. Teaching each boy and girl that they are special and they are unique just they way they are. This can also be done by writing to our local lawmakers to enlist their help as we strive to reach out to the producers of these advertisements. By involving our local leaders may they can help to pass laws or regulations that limits or applies PG ratings to certain advertisements so that parents can be more aware of and in tune to what their children watch.

Read this article really caused me to reflect back on my experiences with the children and I reflected on the numerous incidents where I redirected the behavior or play of the children. It was redirected due to what was being said or done by the children. Thinking back even more it saddens me to have to say that majority of the time these incidents occurred they were initiated by a girl. Levin & Kilbourne (2009) writes both girls and boys, but especially girls, are pushed into precocious sexuality in appearance and behavior long before they understand the deeper meaning of relationships or of the sexual behavior they’re imitating. As I look around me and pass the early childhood setting, I can not help, but to see how the music videos, clothing ads, and even the children's toys and movies are exposing the children more and more to sex. If the children receive these messages from influential people they will definitely be quick to imitate what they see. That is why we must be more proactive in being the positive role models we want them to see, redirect inappropriate behaviors, and talk to children about those things they see and hear in society. 

reference:

Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. (2009). [Introduction] So sexy so soon. The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids (pp. 1-8). New York: Ballantine Books. Retrieved from: http://dianeelevin.com/sosexysosoon/introduction.pdf

Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

For this blog, I will try to describe the consequences that children and families might experience as I deal with as try to address the "isms" that I might be experiencing in my own life.

On of the biggest "isms" that I have had to deal with is racism and dealing with racism is not an easy feat. When a person is the victim of racism it stirs up all kinds of emotions and these emotions can leave one feeling hurt, sad, degraded, belittled, worthless, and angry. So as an early childhood professional trying to promote anti-bias education in my classroom as I try to cope with the "isms" that cause me strife in my own life, I believe that as I worked through this issue, my tolerance level would more than likely be very low.

Even though I would really try my hardest to be fair and just and to promote unity among the children and families that I serve, for those families that do not make an effort to help promote this unity and anti-bias learning and their child consistently comes to school acting all ugly to the other children, I would probably called that parent in for conferences and after that I don't know and can't really say what I would actually do, because no matter what I experience in my personal life, I try really hard not to allow it to spill over into my professional life. I just would like to make a point that hateful racist children majority of the time grow up to be racist adults and the cycle of racism never ends because children mirror the adults in their home, community, and school environment, as well as the other institutional influences that may leave an impression on them.

Observing Communication

For this assignment, we were asked to observe the communication between adults and  children. The purpose was to see if the interactions supported effective communication strategies that we have learned over the course of the week that works best with young children. So below you will find my observation.

For this observation I chose to summarize the interactions between an adult and child from a movie. The movie that I chose to view was Matilda. Matilda is about a little girl who is the youngest child of a car salesman and a BonBon eating mother. Matilda, as a young child exhibited extraordinary skills and abilities. Seeing that Matilda was different from the rest of the family, her mom and dad did not pay her any attention and she spent a lot time alone. During this time alone Matilda taught herself to read and she developed a love for books, because they allowed her to escape the madness in her world. Matilda longed to go to school and soon her parents allowed her to go and she met a young teacher that she could relate to. At the school Matilda and the rest of the children were treated unfairly by the very mean headmaster named Ms. Punchbowl.

What I noticed in this movie is that Matilda's home life did not support her development. She had a yearning to learn and her parents did nothing to help build and promote her development. At home her social skills were not guided by loving and caring parents and she did not receive positive and loving interactions from her family. Her language was not supported by her parents, because they did not sit and talk to her and she had no interactions with her brother. He treated her just like the parents did. When Matilda inquired about certain things her parents did not support her curiosity and her ideas where not allowed to be brought to life in a way that she could make sense of it.

Based on what I know about communicating with young children, I feel that Matilda's communication skills were not strengthened by her parents. Children need to be talked to by caring adults that will help them to develop language and that will help them to add more words to their vocabulary. Matilda's parents barely spoke to her and when they did speak to her it was very indirect and brief. Luckily, Matilda was a bright and     highly intelligent child for her age and she possessed special skills. If she did not possess these particular set of skills, I fear that she would have lacked the language that would have allowed her to communicate effectively with her peers. Without being given the language to express herself, Matilda probably would have trouble building relationships and expressing herself. If children are never given the proper words to use, then he or she will have a difficult time learning about the world around them. Language is our main form of communication and for young children their first interactions with language begins with the adults in their home environments. I imagine that Matilda probably felt terrible that her parents did not pay much attention to her and that they would rather watch television than sit and talk or read a book to her. Even though Matilda is a fictional character, the chaos that existed in her home life was not. Children everywhere experience the same kind of environment that Matilda grew up in. Her parents could have done better with the way they communicate with her. They could have supported her language by allowing her to fully express her ideas and thoughts and given her the proper language that allowed her to fully expressed herself. In the video from this week, Lisa Kolbeck, supported the children's communication and language by listening attentively as the child shared her ideas and thoughts. She also provided the language that supported her idea and she asked her questions that caused her to think critically and open her mind up to more learning about her idea (Laureate Educaton, 2011). The parents could have easily read to her more and talked to her about what it was that she was looking at in the books and given her language that supported what she learning.

Creating Affirming Environments

For this blog, I will describe the type of family day home I would have and the way that it would be supportive and conducive to teaching and promoting anti-bias education in young children.

To begin, if I were a family day home provider I would have a home that visually signals to children and families that they are welcomed in my family day home. I would do this by considering the demographics of the children and families that live in the community. After, considering this, I would take pictures from magazines of children and families and place them around the home in the areas that will be accessible to the children. As the children and families enroll in my family day home, I will take a photo of the families and place them around the room with along with the other pictures of diversity. The toys used in my family day home will be open-ended and representative of diversity. This means that I will include toys that represent abilities, gender roles, and culture. The items found in the dramatic play area will include toys, clothes, and other materials that can be used by both the male and female. The books incorporated in the dramatic play areas will be respectful of the gender roles and cultural traditions. The books in the library will truthfully depict cultural groups and children have a variety of books to choose from. Tokenism will not be a part of my family day home. According to Derman-Sparks & Edwards (2010) tokenism occurs when staff use one teaching material or image to represent a whole group of people. In my family day home, I will include food menus that not only include American food, but foods that represent other cultures. The materials used in the art area will have paper that represent skin tones and supports the need of the children to creatively explore and create.

As I plan activities for the children, I will be sure to include cultural music and the children will be given opportunities to move their bodies creatively to the music. Learning activities will take into consideration the children's current level of learning and abilities. Monthly family involvement activities will be planned to help the families to interact with each other and to help them to learn about the culture of their peers. When the parents need to know about the community resources that are available to them, they will be able to access this information easily as it will be accessible to them on the parent board that has been set up to keep them abreast of what's going on inside the family day home, what the children are currently working on, the menu for the week, and important emergency numbers will also be listed. I really want to provide an environment that is supportive of all the families that I serve and I want them all to feel welcomed and that they really belong. I will also be very proactive in helping children to resolve conflicts that will arise in their day to day play with the other children in the family day home.

What I have Learned

I must say that engaging in this course has really opened my mind up even more to the injustices that burden down many children and families. As I make my final post for this course, I will share my hopes for children and families, my goals, and a note of thanks to my colleagues that have journeyed though this course with me.

One hope that I have as I think about my work with children and families, is that I will be able to give them a Priscilla that understands the issues that affect them and works hard to ensure that these injustices does not occur in her presence. I will do my best to share my current knowledge about Anti- Bias Education with other my colleagues at work so that they can be just as mindful as me about the issues that hinder the health and well being of children and families.

One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field is that all early childhood educators will begin to see each child and family for who they are and instead of comparing them to others, meet them exactly where they are. This means celebrating the good in all they encounter.

Lastly, I would like to give a special thank you to Teresa and Anabel for all the supportive and encouraging members of the early childhood field. The children and families that you work with should be blessed to have you. You two will go far and I look forward to working with you in future courses. It's count down time ladies!! We're almost done!!!

Issues Related to Diversity Collage

The pictures featured in this blog are just a glimpse of what I have been learning about in my Diversity course. Child abuse, lack of education, single-parent homes, rights for LGBT individuals, racial disparities, medical care for all families are just some of the issues impacting our communities everywhere.  Quality early childhood programs, strong families, and advocates such as you and I  are all important to making the world a better place for ALL children in the world.  So let's all do our part!! 

Omg! Did she just say that!!

For this blog, I will be talking about an incident that occurred and the how it was handled. I will also be talking about how implementing the Anti-Bias curriculum can help to ease that uncomfortable feeling for both parent and child.

This summer as my children and I vacationed in Pennsylvania we were picnicking at one of the state parks. This particular park had two sides one side was a make shift beach and the other side was full of trees, grass, and picnic benches. It was me, my children, my sister and her family, and some of her military friends and their families enjoying the water as we barbequed under the warm sun. The incident occurred as we walked to the beach side of the park. On our way to go take a swim, we stopped in the changing area to put on our swim wear and to wet our bodies. As we were leaving the changing area, there was this woman that was extremely overweight. As this woman struggled to walk to the beach, a little girl and her mother were approaching the bridge about the same time the lady was preparing to cross. The little girl said, " Look, mommy that lady is really fat." Her mother's face instantly turned red and she immediately put hand over the little girl's mouth and said," That was not a nice thing to say." To this day, I am not totally sure whether or not the woman heard her or not, but I am definitely sure that we did. When in all essence, young children are curious and tend to question the things that they see in the world around them. According to Derman- Sparks & Edwards (2010) children notice subtle cures and draw conclusions about issues adults do not talk about, as well as formulate ideas after picking up emotional tension from adults. This little girl probably felt her mother's tension as her mother covered her mouth and did not address the issue, but instead sent unspoken messages to the little girl that she was in trouble and had done something terribly wrong.  If the mother was aware of anti-bias teaching then she probably would not have told her that that was not a nice thing to say. The mother would have handled it differently, because the anti-bias education allows us to engage our children in conversations that allows up to talk freely about differences, in order to help them to understand the various differences they will encounter in their world. If the mother would have been informed about anti-bias education she could have told the child that people come in all shapes and sizes for example.

references:

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

My thoughts on gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation

The purpose of this blog is to share my response or thoughts on the issue of gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation. This topic is one of our nation's most talked about issues. However, as the adults go through the drama of arguing their opinions regarding gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation the early childhood world is fighting their own battle too and that battle is making sure that young children everywhere grow to be compassionate, empathetic, respectful and loving adults. They do this by beginning now to teach them to embrace culture and diversity and yes, this does include being open-minded about gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Below you will find my responses to my selected questions.

*Your response to those who believe that early childhood centers should avoid the inclusion of books depicting gay or lesbian individuals such as same-sex partnered families.

My response to this question is this, early childhood education prides itself on inclusion. This means doing our very best to be inclusive of all individuals regardless of color, religion, sexual orientation, and etc. As we accept children into our early childhood programs we are not just accepting the child by themselves, but we are also accepting the mothers, fathers, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and close family friends as well. This means that children cannot control the families into which they where born, all we can do as early childhood professionals is to help them learn to love and embrace and understand the beauty of his or her family. So yes, this does mean that if a child has parents of the same sex, we must do everything in our power to make this family feel welcome. As we work to make all of our families feel welcome in to our program we will have books and photos of same sex families, because we want to do our best to make sure all of our families are represented in the books and photos in the environment.


If you have ever used or heard homophobic terms such as "fag," "gay," "homo," "sissy," "tom boy," or "lesbo" as an insult by a child toward another child? Or, by an adult toward a child? Describe what occurred. How might these types of comments influence all children? (Note: if you have not had a personal experience, ask a family member, friend, or colleague).

Being in early childhood for quite a bit of time, I often find myself in amazement over some of the things that I hear the young children say, especially preschool aged children. I can recall an event that occurred one day during worktime and as the children played in the dramatic play area. On this particular day, there were three boys and two girls playing restaurant. Each of them were working very busily cooking and preparing food, setting the table, and placing plates and cups on the table. When they where done with that task, one of the little girls told everyone that it was time to go and get dressed for dinner. During this time the children dug through the box looking for clothes to dress up in. When everyone had selected their clothing they walked back to the dining area to have dinner, that's when on of the girls pointed to the little girl that was wearing the suit coat and told her that she was gay. She told her that she was gay, because she was wearing the boy clothes. The little girl with the suit coat began to cry. I feel that comments such as these can influence children in that it will cause them to discriminate in their play. This discrimination in play can occur as children select what books to read, what dolls to play with, and with who they may even play with. When things like this occur in early childhood it opens the door for other problems such as in behavior and the overall morale of the class. When children believe others do not like them they may begin to act out or withdraw. Teaching anti-bias education in preschool is key to helping children learn to be accepting of all people.

Adjourning: The Fifth Element of Team Development

Over the course of my professional and educational careers, I have had the opportunity to be apart of many groups. As I work with these groups the final wrap up is always the hardest. I guess it is the hardest, it normally means the end and as we continue on our own paths. Working in groups, I had the opportunity to work with some awesome individuals, these individuals accepted my ideas, thoughts, and even helped to open my mind to the point of views of others as it relates to the goal we were all working to achieve. As it relates to the performance of the groups,  whether they were high performing or a regularly performance group, the relationships that were and are built make it harder to walk away. Working in groups, it was much harder for me to walk away from those group where I had made friends and the closing rituals that I have experienced made it even harder to say good bye. At the close of a project or course, especially when I was  actually going to a classroom, we would have end of project or course potlucks or we would meet at a near by restaurant to celebrate the end. All of this was great I believe, because it showed that not only did we value the input of the person as a contributor, but we valued the person as a whole as an individual. So adjourning is always in my case has always been a bitter sweet ending.

Handling Conflicts

I can recall getting into a disagreement with one of my colleagues and it was about a whether or not the preschool school hall should have such a big gathering for Thanksgiving. See this co-worker was fairly new to our program and she just couldn’t grasp why we put so much work into our annual Thanksgiving Feast. To give a little insight, I worked for a preschool that provided services to low-income at-risk children and families and the area where our preschool was located was in a high crime area. So as we worked with these children and their families, we often enrolled children with many families issues such as poverty, lack of education, and incarcerated parents, and many came from single-parent homes. To make a long story short, this colleague of mine had never really experienced or worked with families with so many hardships that prevented them enjoying the finer things in life. So this was a total culture shock to her, seeing that she lives in and was raised in a more upscale area of the city. To her this was a whole new world and she felt that such a gathering for Thanksgiving was not needed. Since there was such a different in lifestyles for her, trying to understand the difficult circumstances of these families was really an issue for her. I tried to inform her that we make a big to do about our Thanksgiving Feast, because who are we to say that these families will even have a meal for Thanksgiving. All of the other colleagues were really excited about preparing for our Thanksgiving Feast and fellowshipping with the children and families that we serve. It was really a great experience and the families really enjoyed the meal, as we all sat family style and talked and built or formed relationships. At the end of the feast my colleague, stated that her eyes had been opened to a whole new world and to see the smiles on the children and families faces was really exciting for her and that she now understood why we strive to make sure that it is a great event. I also shared with her that we are always open to new ideas if she would like to share some with us for our next year feast.
Understanding this week’s resources about the third side, could have been helpful in this situation. Implementing them in this disagreement would have helped me to put myself in the shoes of the other person, which in this case my colleague’s shoes. It would have helped me to listen and acknowledge the point of view of the other person. Which in this case, my colleague had not been exposed to the lifestyles of others that were less fortunate then she was. This her this was a total culture shock.
To my Walden colleagues, I ask the question: How would you have handled this situation?

Communicating With Others

On a daily basis, I communicate with hundreds of people each and everyday. I communicate with my children, my siblings, my aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, colleagues, and the clients that I serve. As I communicate with each group of people, I communicate with each of them in my own special way. When I am communicating with my children, I use a certain tone and language, this language guides in my nurturing of my children. As I communicate with my siblings and other family members, I am more relaxed and laid back. I tend to use more of a low language and some slang. This type of communication occurs, because I am more comfortable with them and I know that I am free to be me. Communicating with colleagues and clients, I communicate in a manner that displays my level of professionalism. A high language is used as I work with my clients and colleagues.  So as I communicate I am able to adjust my communication skills and levels to reflect the current context.

Communicating through our body language

For this blog I watch a new reality show called Love and Hip Hop Atlanta. This is not a regular show that I watch, but as I flipped through the channels with the volume on mute, I was intrigued to use this show to help me complete my blog. Upon turning to this channel, I noticed the women's facial expressions. One of the ladies had a smurk on her face as if to say "I know she didn't" while the other ladies just sat looking kind of like "yep she said it". Standing in a circle, their body language suggested to me that there might be some sort of conflict going on. I assumed that because one of the ladies stepped back on one of her legs and then proceeded to fold her arms in an angry manner. The other lady that seemed to be in a conflict with her put her hands on her hips and then she rolled her head and neck and batted her eyes rapidly. And by being a black woman, without her even hearing the conversation, I immediately knew that she was pissed off. So after about 20 minutes of watching this show on mute. I decided to rewind it back to see what the conversation was about and just like I figured there was a conflict between two of the ladies and the other ladies were just on -lookers. Listening to them, I learned that one of the ladies is an artist trying to get her feet wet in the game of hip-hop and the other ladie is the girlfriend/babymama of a producer. The girlfriend/babymama has just learned that the potential artist is supposely sleeping with her man (producer). This was not a nice situation, because the women, were both upset and one tried to out talk the other. They used their body language to send messages of disapproval to each other.

I must say that this was an interesting task to engage in, because I have never really watched a movie or television show without the sound before. So it was interesting to try and use the individuals body gestures and facial expressions to try and figure out what is go on. It did make me mindful about making sure that both body gestures and facial expressions do not send negative messages to others. Just like words tells others about our feelings and thoughts towards certain situations, so does our body gestures and facial expressions. This little experiment will help me in my work with children and families because it will make me more mindful of the verbal and nonverbal messages that I am relating to them.

Effective Communicators

The person that I can communicate effectively in pretty much any given situation was one of my old supervisors at an preschool that I used to work at. I mean this woman can keep her composure and you would never know that she was really upset or disgruntled. She would make clear and direct eye contact and her body language showed no signs of distressed. She would speak in a calm voice and she would effectively state her purpose and the reason behind her message. I have always admired her for being an effective communicator. As an early childhood professional, I would definitely like to take a few pointers from her. I think that the first thing that I would like to take from her is her ability to hold her composure. I think for me, I can sometimes let my emotions show as I communicate with others. However, it really depends on the situation. The second thing is that I would like to be able to effectively communicate with others in a way that the receiver can immediately get the message that I am sending in a positive way. I would want to model some of her ways so that I can effectively communicate with the children and families that I serve as well as with my colleagues. Being able to communicate in a manner that is respectful to all is very important to me, because I want to be able to help them and the only way that I can help the families is by being an effective communicator. Communicating effectively will help me to understand how to help meet the needs of the child and the family.

Professional Hopes and Goals

After participating in such an intriguing course about diversity, equity, and social justice, I think that my main hope is that I am always striving to put my best effort forward as I work with children and families and all through-out my early childhood career. Reflecting on the knowledge that was gained during this course, I hope that I will never forget to be fair and just in all that I do on the for the children and their families. This means addressing my own biases first, before embarking on the task of teaching others. Sharing what I know  about diversity with others is equally important in my work. Having a genuine love and passion for the people that I work with and for is another hope for my work.

One goal that I have for the early childhood field is to make it a mandate for all early childhood teachers to incorporate the Anti- Bias curriculum in their programs. As I have been learning through my course work, the earlier a child is taught about anti-bias behaviors, diversity, and equity then they are more likely to develop pro-active behaviors that supports acceptance of all.

Last but not least I would like to thank each of my colleagues for contributing to my growth in this course. Reading your blog postings, discussion responses, and your comments has really helped to expand my thinking as it relates to the topics that we have covered in this course. It has also been a pleasure reading about each of your different experiences with diversity, inequities, and culture.

Welcoming Families from Around the World

My blog for this week is based on an imaginary scenario:

 I have just been told by the director of my program that a young child from Indonesia. Since I do not have any experience in working with families from other countries, I have decided to rely on some of the ideas that I have been learning about in my diversity class to help me prepare for the families arrival. So the first thing that I decided to do to was to familiarize my self with the country of Indonesia and it's culture. I used the internet to access this information. The second thing that I did was talked with my director to see if she could get pictures of the child her family so that I could post her picture along with the other children's family pictures and I also labeled a cubby with her name on it. The third thing that I did was talked to the children about our new friend that would be coming to play with us soon. I did this in an effort to help them prepare for our new friend to come. I read books about the country of Indonesia. Even though the classroom already has plenty of pictures representing diversity and abilities, I decided to add pictures that were related directly to the child's specific culture. I also asked the director to see if she could obtain a list of words that would help me to communicate with the child. These words were the words that the parents used to communicate specific needs such as when she is hungry, sleepy, and needs to toilet. I downloaded an app that teaches me the correct pronunciation of each word as well as other words. I also made sure that my music collection included Indonesian music. I also printed off the classroom news letter in the families home language and make sure that the information on the parent board was also printed in the language of the family.

As I prepared for this families arrival, I couldn't help but to think of the ways that the both the family and I would benefit. When the family finally comes to the program, it is my deepest and my sincere hope that they will feel welcomed and wanted. As I prepared for their arrival, I couldn't help, but to think about how I would feel if I was in their shoes. This is an scary and uncertain ordeal having to leave everything that is familiar to have to travel to an unknown land where nothing is familiar. I hope that as I interact with this family that I will learn about their culture and that I can partner with them to help the other families learn to embrace diversity. Including the children in the preparation process, I hope to broaden their understanding about  cultures, other than theirs. Most of all, I hope that I will be able to model acceptable and positive interactions with all of the families that I serve and that all the families feel welcome and accepted each and everyday they enter into my classroom.

Bias, Prejudices, and Oppression

For this blog post, I asked to tell of an incident where I or someone else were the victim of prejudice, bias, or oppression. Well for this blog I decided to go with a character from a movie called Radio. In this particular movie, a young black man with developmental issues was oppressed by students and individuals from the community. This went on til one of the coaches decided to befriend Radio. The coach took an interest in Radio and tried to include Radio in the everyday events of the school and community. He fought for radio to be included in the school setting and in the community. This coach treated Radio with respect, even as the others tried to ridicule and demean radio by calling him names such as retard. However, in the end Radio became a valued member of the community and won over the students as he learned to function as a productive member of society.

In this movie, the way that Radio was treated by others violated his human rights. He was not treated with equity as he was disregarded and constantly taunted by others because of is disability. He was not given the same educational rights as others and this was obvious because he was not allowed at first to attend the school with the normal children. He was stereotyped by teachers, community, and the students. This was evident as the principle made remarks about Radio possibly harming the other students. I can remember watching this movie for the first time, I felt bad for the way that Radio was treated by members of the football team as they trapped in the storage and threw footballs at the door. This really frightened Radio and he felt unsafe. I felt feelings of empathy and sadness for the way that he was treated. I also felt sad and sorry for the teens that did this to him, because ignorance in my eyes is just like a disability. This whole situation began to change for Radio as he was befriended by the coach. The coach worked hard to help the boys treat Radio with kindness and actually at the end the ringleader of the football incident that occurred earlier in the movie also befriended Radio. He began to see that Radio was really a cool person. He just needed people to see pass his disability.

Microagressions

This week I various kinds of microgressions. The ones that stuck out most to me were the ones that were geared to a group of young gay men that were shopping at the local grocery store. This I thought was really mean, because being gay is just one aspect of a person. It dose not make that person vile. I felt the remarks that were made by some heterosexual males were mean and uncalled for. As I listened to their rude remarks, I just couldn't help but to think what if that was my child. I would be hurt to know that people dislike my child because of  his or her sexual preference. Sexual preferences is just an itty bitty part of who a person is, when discriminating or showing biases to others, some people are so quick to pick out that one thing that does not fit into society's standards, that they seem to totally miss out on getting to know just how amazing that person really is.

This week's observation has continued to show me just how people are so quick to discriminate and stereotype others. Instead of getting to know people for who they really are, people now a days tend to focus more on the flaws or the shortcomings of people. Exploiting them, because they are different than the dominant culture. I feel that if this country is to continue to progress in the area of civil rights for all, the people that live in this great country will have to look pass those things that do not align with the criterial of the dominant culture and accept the fact that different is refreshing and that it can be good all at the same time. Thinking outside of the box can open up a world of discovery and enlightenment.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

This week I asked some of my friends and co-workers for their definition of culture and diversity. One of my friends gave this definition: " Culture is everything that I have learned, experienced, and been through through-out my life. This means the things that my parents and other close relatives have taught me as a child growing up. Also the things that I have learned from peers in my community, schools, and work. Their definition of diversity is " All people of different colors, gender, religions, living together in this world." - close family friend.

Another friend of the family which is Caucasian gave her definition of culture in which she believes that culture are all the things that make you who you are. It is learned from family, friends, and society. Her definition of diversity was different people of various backgrounds living together in unity.

Their responses relate to the information that I have been learning in my current course work. It relates to it, because as I have been learning, culture and diversity are all those things that we have learned since birth. Culture basically refers to how people live and survive. While diversity as I have been learning in my course work relates to the race, soci-economic status, sexual orientation, religion, and even educationals backgrounds.

Though, their definitions touched on some of the ideals that have been discussed through my course work, their definitions omitted some concepts. Such concepts that have been omitted are sexual orientations and social class. These two concepts are very important to both culture and diversity. It's important, because as other cultures try to find their place in this big world; they are still having to assimilate to the dominant culture who has the power.

As I thought about the defintions of culture and diversity given by my friends, it amazing to see how others view culture and diversity. I just think that each person sees it from their own perspective according to how they have been affected by it. I also so think that many people do not consciously think about the two terms. Most of the time it is not until some one is adversely affected by culture or diversity that they begin to think consciously about it.

Preserving My Family Culture

For this blog, I was asked to imagine that a major catastrophe has devastated the infrastructure of my county. My immediate family and I are being relocated to another country where we may possible have to stay permanently. On top of that we can only bring one change of clothes and three items that are representative of my family culture. As I reflected on this scenario, I really had to put some thought into the three items that I would select to take with me. But to be honest, only two of the items were hard for me to decide upon. The first item that was a must to take was my NIV Study Bible, this was a no brainer for me, because my faith in God will give me the hope that I will need to survive in the new country. Understanding that despite the current change that I am going through, knowing that God has a plan for me and my family will help me to survive. the next thing that I have chosen to take are family photos of the family that may be scattered in other countries. Reflecting on photos of my mom, dad, and siblings will enable me to remember and try to hold on to those things that I valued and believed so much in. The next thing that I would take is a hard one to decide.

Making the transition to the new country would be just absolutely life changing for me. Having to leave behind the life that I once knew to embark upon a uncertain journey will truely throw me for a loop. Not knowing what to expect is one of the scariest things and if when we arrive we're only allowed to keep one thing, I would have to say that the one thing that I would definitely keep is my bible. I will need my God to help me to substain and maintain in this new country. Using my bible I can read about the many others that God have lead into and out of foreign countries and how He has protected them along their jouney. Being that I am already leaving so much of my life behind, my faith is apart of my family culture that cannot and will not be left behind. In preparing for this blog, I really found myself in a deep thought about what I would do if this make-believe scenario ever became a reality. I found myself wondering about what would I really take, if this were the case. Of all the things I actually thought about taking my Bible was a for sure keeper.

As I studied in this current course about research, I must say that I was indeed challenged beyond my comfort zone. In this course I was introduced to terminoloy that I had only read about in previous classes, but in this course I was challenged to dive deeper into terminology that absolutely boggled the mind. However, I did learn about conducting researcher. I learned that when conducting research participants and their parents must be knowledgeable about what the research study consist of, so that they can give informed consent. I also learned that researchers should pay close attention to make sure that they are conducting ethical research that is respectful of all particpants involved. Validity was another term that I learned about. This word causes researchers to make sure that all their findings are valid and true. Learning about designs and conducting research also showed me that their are various methods that can be used to collect data and such as data triangualation. All in all learning about how to conduct quality research was a task in itself, but I did learn the importance of making sure that whatever I do make sure it is ethical, valid, and it can be used by others to help make a difference in the field of early childhood.

I also would like to thank all of my colleagues for their encouragement and positive feedback as we interacted during our weekly discussions. I really learned from reading each of your post.

International Research

For this assignment, I took a look at the international website called Early Childhood Australia: A Voice for Young Children, on this particular website  they offer numerous resources and links to information that is relevant to parents, early childhood professionals, and anyone interested about the field of early childhood. I particular chose this website, because it is deemed to be the equivalent of the American known organization NAEYC, which stands for the National Association for the Education of Young Children. NAEYC is the leading organization in support of earlychildhood education and child advocacy. So I figure if the Australian website was just like it why not take a look a it. In regards to research, this website has research and it is called Research in Practice Series. In the Research in Practice Series, provides early childhood professionals insights as to how to put into practice evidence based research that has been proven to work well with young children. Some of the topics covered in the series are assessments, bullying, resilience, the early years learning framework, and diversity just to name a few.

I think the thing that I found that was interesting was the whole idea of knowing that this website was closely matched to being like our beloved NAEYC. Which is great to know that there is an organization somewhere else in the world advocating on the behalf of young children and early childhood professionals. One thing that I thought was noteworthy was that they have a statement of regret that attempts to express regret as it relates to the numerous loss of life, cultural identity, way of life, land, language, and communities  of the Aboriginals and the Torres Straight Islander people. These individuals were the original inhabitants of Australia and were invaded upon by other cultures that soon came to inhabit the Aboriginals and Torres Straight Islander peoples land.

An Example of the benefits of Research for children and families

A positive example of research is the Perry Preschool Study. In 1962, David Weikart and his colleagues set out to prove just how beneficial quality early childhood programs are to children, families, and society. In his research, Weikart followed  123 preschool age children some went to a quality preschool and others did not attend preschool. The children participating in this study were all African American and from low-income and were all considered at-risk. The study tracked the children through-out their entire academy career, professional, and personal life. What the study found was that the children that attended the quality programs scored exceptionally well on standardized testing, had a higher high school graduation rate, low teenage pregnacy rate, earned more money, and were less likely to have a criminal background. They also married, became homeowners, and were overall productive citizens. This study has had great influence on helping others to understand the importance of children attending early childhood programs.

This program has influenced the program that I had previously worked at for the past eight years. The whole basis of this particular program was based around the High Scope curriculum, which was the same curriculum the children in the study were taught with. Having to use the curriculum myself with preschool age children, I can say that it works and it does gives children power and support and helps to set them up for success. High Scope uses the plan-do- review, which teaches children how to think, follow through, and to reflect. This is an awesome curriculum and this study should be read by the many nay-sayers that might not believe that early childhood can make a difference in the lives of young children.

The objective of this blog is to tell my colleagues about a topic I have chosen to research and why I have chosen this particular topic. The topic I chose to research is poverty. I chose this particular topic, because it affects so many children and their families. So many children in the United States live in poverty and are not being able to get the necessary basic life necessities needed to survive on a day to day basis. This is also a topic that is close and personal to me. It is close and personal to me, because I spent many years when I was growing up in a housing project, I became a single mother at the age of 18. By age 23, I was the single mother of 3 children. I struggled for many years only making pennies about minimum wage. However, education and faith were the two driving forces that helped me to make it to wear I am now. I think that if provisions are made to help and inform families, then many of young children can be helped out of poverty. As I continue to build on this topic through out this course, I have chosen subtopics such as what are the causes of poverty, poverty's affect on young children, and how do we help children and families overcome poverty. As early childhood educators understanding poverty helps to make us prepared and knowledgeable. We need to be prepared and knowledgeable because it helps us to know how to better help these children and families and to teach them as well.

Harvard University Center on the Developing Child

As I browsed the Harvard University Center on the Developing Child website, I had the opportunity to learn about new initiatives that are being implemented around the world to help improve conditions for young children and families. These initiatives also help to improve that quality of care that children receive in early childhood programs. This even includes creating early childhood programs. The first insight I gained was about an initiative that is currently being implemented in Santiago, Chile. The name of the program is called Un Buen Comienzo (UBC) or “A Good Start.” The main goal of the program is to improve children’s early childhood experiences by improving teacher professional development, in hopes of improving the children’s language development. This program will also focus on improving children’s health, socio-emotional development, and family involvement. The next insight that I gained is about how individuals looking for opportunities to work in the field can apply for a position to help jumpstart the child development initiatives being brought forth in Brazil. Such opportunities as these can provide hands on experiences in administering and facilitating child development. Last insight that was gained was the how the Center on the Developing Child, has created a short video that is similar to the video games used on the Xbox gaming system. Unlike the video games used on the Xbox, this video is being used as a teaching tool to demonstrate how children’s environments and the individuals in the child’s environment can have positive or negative effects on the child’s brain and development. This video is the Center’s first video to be translated in another language.

Sharing Web Resources

One of my favorite websites it the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) website. I frequent this website a lot, because as an early childhood professional this particular website there is tons of information that is relevant to the field and what I am studying in my courses. When I visit this website, I do most of my search under the Early Childhood Professiona tab, public policy tab, the resources tab, and the DAP tab. All of these tabs link you with valuable information that covers a range of topics from professional development, current policies, resouces to be used by teachers and families, and practices that work best with young children. In my opinion all the things that were listed are relevant and vital to me becoming the best early childhood professional that I can be.

 The information that I find on this website pretty much goes along with my current views about early childhood. I say this because NAEYC has disposition statements on a variety of issues and one in particular talks about play being necessary for young children. I view it as a great way for children to learn key skills to help them learn about the world around them and to teach them new concepts. So the information that is found on this website also enlightens me about current policies as it pertains to improving the early childhood of field for children, families, and professionals.

This website helps me to understand how politicians support the early childhood field by providing links under the public policy tab. The information that I found under this tab, helps me to become aware of policies, initiatives, and bills that are being passed to help the early childhood field. Policies and initiatives such as the Race for the Top Early learning Challenge, the progress that of proposed bills, and ways individuals can advocate by calling local congressmen, or state legislators. By exploring this website, I am always amazed at how NAEYC really advocates for the early childhood field. They strive everyday to help make others aware of the importance of high quality early childhood programs and the beneficial effects that it can have on the lives of young children and families everywhere.

Early Childhood Resources

This blog is about an online early childhood resource that I like to reference for information. The name of this of this online website is the National Association for the Education of Young Children, better known to many as NAEYC. NAEYC is one of the leading forces for the betterment of young children everywhere. They help to put in place standards and developmentally appropriate practices that work best for young children. This particualar organization also recognizes early childhood programs that provide children and families with high quality services. The website is packed with information for early childhood professionals that helps them to better support children's development in all domains of learning. As I browsed this website, I found information pertaining to issues/trends affecting young children and families. As I browsed through the links, I found position statements that deal with cultural and linguistic development, inclusion, how to assess young English language learners, and early learning standards just to name a few. The link to this website is ww.w.naeyc.org. Also on this website early childhood professionals can find information about upcoming conferences, books to use with children, membership information, and how to take early childhood webinar courses.