Reflecting On Learning

“Reflecting on Learning”

 In really thinking about my hopes as an early childhood professional, my hope is to make it an obligation to continually search within myself from time to time for any hidden biases that I do not know exist. In doing so I feel I will be being true not only to myself but also keeping it in the fore front of my mind will help me recognize that I can be showing a type of bias toward a family without even realizing it. Therefore through being mindful that such bias can show themselves at any time, toward anyone, I feel will help me stay more alert of my actions toward children, and their families that I work with. In addition to that, I want to be able to encourage children, and their families. To hold strong to their identities. Never give in to others who want them to change. In doing so families will continue to hold on to their family cultures background, beliefs, and values which I believe truly help young children learn about who they are, and others as well as  individuals and within the family as a whole. “As children grow, they move into ever wider and more diverse settings, and we want them to be open to and respectful of all kinds of people they may encounter” (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010, p. 85).

Lastly, I want to truly thank all of my colleagues for their feedback on the discussion boards, and my blogs throughout these pass eight weeks. I want to also thank all of you for your views, opinions, and truthfulness which gave me a greater insight on the topics we have discussed, and shared while learning about anti-bias education. Furthermore in reading your blogs, and responses on the discussion boards each week I know you all will be great early childhood professionals that will make a change, and a difference in so many children, and their families’ lives. Therefore stay true to who you are, while encouraging others to do the same through being respectful, and accepting of others for who they are.

Thank you everyone, and continue to do much good throughout your lives, and the lives of others.

 

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

 

The part of the world I chose was East Asia and the Pacific. My choice for this part of the world was for no particular reason seeing that while looking through all eight areas I found this one to be of interest to me. However, while reading through the articles I found that young children are still being trained for wars around the world. “While Governments of the world have made progress to recognize children have no place in their armies, the recruitment of child soldiers is still a huge problem, especially with armed groups. Tens of thousands of boys and girls are associated with armed forces and armed groups in conflicts in over 20 countries around the world. Many have been victims of, witness to and forced participants in acts of unspeakable brutality. Children as young as 12, are undergoing military training and have been used as informants, to patrol, to man checkpoints and to guard strategic locations. In some cases, they have been used as suicide bombers and to carry out executions” (UNICEF). However when some young children are able to find their way out of these circumstances the “UNICEF works with partners to support children once they are released from armed groups. This includes reunifying them with their families and providing them with health care, basic necessities and psychological support as well as access to education and training programmes” (UNICEF). Another challenge that children face in this region of the world is children losing one or both parents to AIDS. “in the mid-1990s as the AIDS pandemic began leading to the death of millions of parents worldwide, leaving an ever increasing number of children growing up without one or more parents” (UNICEF, 2008). And then there is the concern for immunization, and how to ensure all children are covered. “Immunization coverage of infants for the six major vaccine-preventable diseases – diphtheria, measles, pertussis, polio, tetanus and tuberculosis - rose from less than five per cent in 1974 to more than 75 per cent in 2006.  Over the last ten years, data consistently shows that over 70 per cent of children under five years of age have been immunized against these illnesses. However despite the success of immunization campaigns, millions of children remain unprotected and at risk from these life-threatening and debilitating diseases”. (UNICEF, 2008).

 

In facing these critical circumstances, and conditions a child’s emotional wellbeing may not even be in existences.  However it was stated that “gender equality furthers the cause of child survival and development. Because women are the primary caregivers for children, women’s well-being contributes to the well-being of their offspring. Healthy, educated and empowered women are more likely to have healthy, educated and confident children. Women’s autonomy, defined as the ability to control their own lives and to participate in making decisions that affect them and their families, is associated with improved child nutrition. Other aspects of gender equality, such as education levels among women, also correlate with improved outcomes for children’s survival and development”. (UNICEF, 2007). Therefore young children may be faced with language, and literacy development, health issues, attachment disorders, trust, poverty, and psychological, and behavioral problems that could last throughout their lives.

 

I feel it is always sad to read, and hear about anyone going through extreme circumstances. But when we hear this about helpless children it is devastating. Through reading this information I found that it gives us valuable information as early childhood professionals to help us realize that not every family we work with have had an easily beginning. Also as early childhood professionals we must take into consideration, and remember that every family is different, therefore having different family situations and needs that need to be met. Also that every child, and family that we meet that relocated to another country has chosen this for themselves, but out of safety, and the well-being of their young children.  

 

Reference

Information by country | UNICEF. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/

 

 

“The Sexualization of Early Childhood”

In reading through the article of “So Sexy So Soon” I was not surprised nor shocked by the topic of sexualization. Although we do know as adults “Children growing up today are bombarded from a very early age with graphic messages about sex and sexiness in the media and popular culture” (Levin & Kilbourne 2009, p. 2). But we need to ask ourselves as parents where are we when are children are watching or learning about such information? Are we there to explain their questions or bring up issues that you as parents feel need to be addressed? Likewise so many parents are saying that young girls are dressing more and more like grown women. But who is really buying the clothing for these young girls to wear? Parents also allow their young girls to have role models such as Taylor Swift, and Beyonce, which I feel are very great performers, but some young girls hold on to every word they say, and the way they dress. Moreover some parents allow their children to date at a very young age without telling them the real meaning of dating is to find a mate in life. Furthermore some parents are even afraid that they are stepping out of bound or snooping when asking their children questions about anything to do with sex.

 

The first personal experience I had on how young children are exposed to a highly sexualized environment is when my grandson came home when he was about seven and a little girl had drew a picture and labeled the people in the picture as him and her. She drew a picture of them laying on a bed and him on top of her and had the words coming from her mouth saying, oh baby. She then had two boxes to check saying if you want this to happen check this box and if not check this one and she would get someone else. Now, by all of this flying right over my grandson’s head he brought the note to his mom and asked her what should he do? My daughter then assured him that she would take care of it for him. The next day she went to her son’s school and talked with the teacher, and eventually got together with the parents of the little girl. After talking with the parents she really felt sad for them because they too were lost for words, and so unaware of how their daughter was expressing herself sexually. The second experience I encountered was one year in teaching pre-k we had a wonderful mother and her son in our program. The mother was always willing to help out with anything needed, and was really involved in her child’s learning development. However every time the mother would visit the school she drew a lot of attention to herself by the way she dressed. Her tops were low and her skirts were high. Not only did she seem to make the other moms uncomfortable but the dads as well. But one day after bringing her son in late from a dentist appointment I notice a couple of the boys huddled together looking with their eyes wide open as they could possibly get while looking at this mother’s appearance. I never really got close enough to the boys to hear what they were saying but their expressions did say a lot. My last experience was another professional experience in hearing a group of children talking in the dramatic play area about where babies come from. One of the children said the mommy go to the doctor and the doctor put the baby in and then she go back and then mommy and daddy bring the baby back. But before anyone else could give their say on where babies come from, one little girl said, that’s not where babies come from they come from your parents having sex. The rest of the children looked confused and begin saying to the little girl that she was going to get in trouble for saying a bad word. By this time some of the children begin leaving the area and the timer went off for clean-up time. But in hearing this short conversation I realized that although the little girl mention the word sex, some of the other children had heard it before to even feel that it was a bad word.

Therefore when children do not have a parent or someone to explain what they are seeing or hear through the media or other resources about sexualization, sexuality, or sex, children begin to learn from what they see or hear as being reliable information that could possibly put them in danger. Therefore as parents to reduce the negative impact on young children I feel parents need to use every opportunity of the media, from posters, to the music awards or commercials to help children understand information about sexualization. More so as early childhood professionals we should not shy away from such topics when young children bring them up. “Sadly, today, instead of having the positive experiences they need for healthy development, many children are having experiences that undermine it. Today’s cultural environment bombards children with inappropriate and harmful messages. As children struggle to understand what they see and hear, they learn lessons that can frighten and confuse them. These lessons can seriously harm their ability to grow up to have healthy attitudes about themselves and their bodies and to have caring relationships in which sex is an important part” (Levin & Kilbourne 2009, p. 4).

 

 In reading this article I believe my awareness of sexualization has been awaken by studying this week’s topic. I believe that as early childhood professionals we have to be aware that sexualization do not only affect girls, but, boys as well. Also as professionals we need to help our families understand that within the family to help keep their children safe their need to be a healthy development appropriate taught about sexualization, and sexuality, and sex within the home environment at an early age. “Early childhood is when the foundation is laid, and that is where we need to start our efforts to understand and respond” (Levin & Kilbourne 2009, p. 5).

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

When thinking about certain ism(s) and the consequences I may face in working with the children and the families I work with, I believe that classism play a big part of my present experience through lack of tools, and resources. Before working at my present job I worked for a well-known center that is consider a high quality center because it had everything a child would need to develop effectively. The center provided well-educated, and qualified teachers, great source of books, effective materials, and a well-equipped environment. However I notice that most of the children were children from higher class families. Also most of the children at the center parents provided them with effective learning tools within their homes before the children had even attended pre-k. However whenever we had our visits from our pre-k consultants, or our state visits the center always passed with flying colors based on the teachers performances, interaction with the children, and the classroom environment.      

On the other hand the center I work at now is where I feel I belong and my professional teaching skills can most be used to help the children, and their families that need my help the most. The ism I feel the children, and their families are faced with is classism because the center is considered to be in a low-income area. The children that attend this center is mostly of the Hispanic culture. Some of the teachers are not effective teachers that I believe can or will benefit the developments of the children in their care. I believe this is due to the lack of education, and trainings when it comes to meeting the needs of young children. As a result when the children, and their families entered our pre-k program the children are not ready for pre-k socially or mentally. The center also lack effective tools, and resources but have gotten much better since me and my co-teacher have made it known that the children, and their families deserve much better. I also noticed that when the pre-k consultant visited our center, and the state person, they seem to never see what we as new teachers saw. Which was the lack of materials, books, and other needed resources that make up a great learning environment for children. I do not know if this was due to us as teachers taking it upon ourselves to bring in library books, and other resource, or having our classroom environment looking set up in which to benefit young children. Nonetheless it always surprised me when they said everything passed okay.  For this reason I believe the children, and their families I work with experience a form of classism.

However as an early childhood teacher I will always provide a wonderful experience for the children, and their families that is effective, and beneficial for all families hoping they will never forget their experience while in my care. Derman-Sparks & Edwards stated, “despite the large numbers of children living in poverty, class and classism are arguably the most overlooked and misunderstood dynamics of inequality in the United States” (2010, p. 101).

Reference

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

 

Week: 3 Observing Communication

This week I notice a conversation between my co-teacher and one of our students in our classroom. The teacher overheard one of the children say to another child, “you are not my friend anymore”. The child was on her way over to tell the teacher what the other child had said when I observed the other child running over in the house area to hide. The child then began telling the teacher that the other child said she was not her friend anymore because she would not let her use the broom, and dustpan to sweep the floor in the house area. The teacher told the little girl, let’s go over and try to talk with her to see if we can all stay friends. When the teacher walked over the other child was kind of hiding behind a shelf. The teacher asked if she would like to come and talk with her and the other child to work things out. As the child was coming out from behind the shelf she began saying, I told her it was my turn to sweep and she said no! The teacher asked them both what are some of the things we talk about in trying not to hurt each other feelings even if they do something you do not like. The little girl that wanted the broom, and dustpan said, we should not say things to hurt people feelings because it could make them cry, and hurt inside. The teacher then said, were you trying to make her cry. The little girl then said no because she is my friend. And as she said this the other little girl said, here you can sweep now as she gave her the broom and dustpan.  

What I notice through this situation was that the co-teacher did not run over and insist on making the child apologize. She calmly talked with the two girls, not at them which I believe helped the girls solve their own problem. Also what I learned from this situation was that as teachers we can be the mediator for children in helping them come to their own decisions of what is right or wrong. I also believe if the teacher had talked more about sharing, and turn taking this could have been more effective as well in helping the girls understand that there are only limited toys within our classroom therefore we must understand that other children want to use them as well. In addition I would have touch on how words do hurt our feelings, emotionally. Because as teachers we know the littlest words can stick with a child and make them feel bad. Furthermore in watching the co-teachers communicating with the girls I have to say that we have similar communication styles, and we both learn effective communication skills from each other when different situations occur with the children. Likewise I believe she did take more time out directing the children to solve their own problem, while on the other hand I myself would have probably asked the other little girl to apologize for saying she is not the other little girl’s friend. And the reason for this is because I know how little words sometimes hurt more than a child hitting another child.

Finally in reading through this week’s resources I appreciated how Stephenson stated, “I also learned that it was only ever possible to see a tiny part of life in a center. Even after five months of observations, I knew that I was seeing only a few hours each day. Adults and children were often spread out, so there was always much that I missed. But most significantly, I learned about the importance of listening to children. Stepping back became a strategy that helped me listen with an openness that allowed me to hear unexpected meanings in what children shared with me” Stephenson, 2009, p. 6). Moreover as teachers we too can understand that when we are communicating with other children within the classroom we too are missing out on other effective communication that the children are having between themselves that could also be effective tools in helping us as teachers, and adults when communicating with children when situations or problems arise. This is why I believe we should always take out time to just sit back, if possible, and listen to children while they communicate.

 

Reference

Stephenson, A. (2009). Conversations with a 2-year-old. YC: Young Children, 64(2), 90-95. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database. http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=37131016&site=ehost-live&scope=site

 

 

“Creating Affirming Environments”

In creating a supporting environment that support all children within my family childcare home, I would first start off by getting to know all of the families’ cultural backgrounds within my community now and in the past. I feel in getting to know the cultures within the community I will be better prepared in setting up the childcare environment for when families enter the classrooms for the first time hopefully getting the feeling of a diverse childcare setting. Therefore within each classroom setting I would first start off with the basics. I would have the typical classroom alphabets, numbers, colors, shapes, diverse games, puzzles, books, dolls, and pictures of both diverse cultures, and children with and without disabilities, helping families understand that diversity is not only about a child’s color of their skin, but a child’s differences are a much broader picture of a child’s identity. In addition I would have pictures of boys and girls in the dramatic play area, and the block area displaying different types of jobs that some children’s families would not normally consider for men or women.  I would also have a map within our social studies areas. This map would consist of highlighted areas of family cultures within our programs. Also within this setting I would have an area and space for families to bring in something’s to share about their cultures. I would not first put out things that I thought represented a culture because it may not be appropriate for that particular family’s culture. Derman-Sparks & Edwards stated “do not show images that depict misinformation or stereotypes about a group-to avoid this, you may have to check with families from that particular group” (2010, p. 45).  I would also have a welcoming word wall saying welcome to our classroom in different culture languages. Again showing that we not only welcome diversity, but we are expecting diversity within our classroom. “An anti-bias environment is also culturally consistent for the children and families it currently serves. In other words, anyone who enters your classroom can tell immediately who is in your program at that time” (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010, p. 43).

Moreover I would have different materials that reflect diversity, but I would also make changes to the classroom environment when I got to know all the children, and their families much better through open communication, and building relationships. I would also have a “Family culture tree” within the classroom for families to hang their family pictures on showing diversity. Therefore “in addition to seeing themselves in their learning environment, children also need materials that honor diversity both within and beyond their own identity groups. This includes learning materials that accurately and nonstereotypically reflect; all the children, families, and staff in your program in their daily lives” 

(Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010, p. 43).

Also in planning my weekly themes I would plan accordingly to all children needs in different areas. I would also make sure that each theme does not offend ones culture or gender. Therefore before planning my curriculum, “I should ask myself, how can I design activities for this topic to include all children, given their differences in culture, family structure, language, racial identity, gender, abilities, and economic class? How can I be sure no one is invisible or unnoticed?” (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010, p. 47).

Lastly on my parent information board I would have weekly information about anti-bias education information and the pressures it causes or could cause on young children, and their families. In having such information I believe it will help families talk privately among themselves in understanding what they are teaching their children about the value of respect, and respecting others different than themselves for who they are.

Reference

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