Think for a moment about the following two statistics:

About 195 different countries exist in the world today.

According to the U.S. census bureau, the United States’ population includes individuals and families from 150 different countries.

Japan 1

Our preschool is excited to welcome families from all over the world.  We have the honor of welcoming a family from Japan.  In order to prepare our school for becoming culturally responsive, we will…

We hope that these preparations will benefit both us and the family by…

Creating a secure and supportive environment that is respectful and welcoming.  Providing the families with a handbook with information about our school in their native language if needed is a great way to open communication with families.

Communicating with families to help better the relationship with the child so we can better support the child in the classroom.  Asking questions in an intake interview to get to know the family and child.  Understanding personal relationships with the child will better help the school to understand not only the child but the family members.

In the classroom provide rich materials that are related to the Japanese culture.   Having materials such as books, music, dolls, figurines, block people, props, puzzles, art materials, wall hangings,  and other materials that are familiar in the Japanese culture will not only allow others to learn about Japan, but to help the family to be familiar and welcoming, with an understanding that we also want to know more about them.

Encourage families to attend activities outside of the classroom to help build relationships with other families.  Providing all of the school’s families with a chance to collaborate and get to know each other is a great way to unite families and relationships.  Parent training, ice cream socials, movie night, art night, and even school picnics are a great way to support families in building relationships as well as allow time for the teachers to get to know the families.

Create a resource library with materials in a variety of languages.  Providing a variety of reading resources to better support families will allow them to have convenient materials they can help to support their family and build relationships with each other that in turn provides better support for the child in school.

Why?

We hope that these preparations benefit the family and our school by allowing us to communicate collaboratively and work together at supporting children in educating them and learning about others along the way.

References:

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010) Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves.  Washington, DC: National Association for the Young Children (NAEYC). pp. 28-30

mean girls

My Own Prejudice

When I was in sixth grade I was being raised by a single mom.   She was and still is uneducated (and my driving force to oppose that) and only worked retail.  You guessed it, I was poor.  We were on food stamps and government assistance.  We didn’t have money to buy the clothes that everyone else in middle school was wearing.  No Nikes, no Get Used, no Elyse, it was hand-me-downs, and used (not the brand name Get Used) clothes.  As a sixth grader, I was tormented and made fun of because I didn’t dress like the other children.  I also had celiac (I figured out in my 30’s) which made my skin oily and I had acne, and I wore glasses.  I was the perfect target for my classmates that had to knock me down to make themselves feel better about themselves.  Oh, and I was skinny so they said my mom was starving me.  I am still skinny, even when I was pregnant twice, I stayed skinny, something I will always be.  I was laughed at, ridiculed, and it affected my education so badly that I dropped out at 17.

I didn’t have the friendships, connections, or belong to the groups of students like the others.  I basically hated school and couldn’t wait to get out of there.  Through social media, I was able to connect with some of the students that made me feel that way.  I have to say, I wish I would have known then what I was dealing with.  I have overcome all of that, and my confidence has grown immensely since then.  I love running into people from middle school and seeing how they turned out.  I am friendly on the outside, but will never forget the way they made me feel.

What would have had to change?  I suppose if I was overweight I wouldn’t have been accused of having a mom that starved me?  If I had the smooth skin I would be like all of the popular girls? Nah, I am happy the way I am, and often hope that those people’s kids don’t have to go through what I went through.

mean girls

rainbow

This week our topic of discussion is a time we had a conflict at work, or with a significant other.  The story I chose begins with a story very similar to our scenarios in our assignment.

I had a child placed in my classroom, we will call him Steven.  Steven’s mother was a yoga teacher, I had assumed because she did that, she was full of zen, peace, and allowing her light and love to spray all over the world, like liquid sunshine.  Upon the first home visit, I was excited, as being a yogi, I believed we would hit off with a great connection.  I quickly learned that there were some behavior issues with Steven, biting, lying, fighting, and swearing.  I discussed some of this with mom and wondered if she was seeing this anywhere else, maybe the park, or with cousins.  Mom denied and seemed shocked when I shared this kind of behavior he was displaying.

Fast forward, I found some in-classroom techniques that helped him, I felt as if we had made huge strides.  Not getting support from the parents, only blame that he wasn’t feeling welcome in the classroom, or he didn’t like one of the other boys in the classroom.  I was always feeling like they were blaming others for HIS actions.  I had noticed that upon pick up and drop off, Steven was extremely physical with mom.  I would intervene and mom was always quick to ignore him.  She would show up after school with treats and on days she didn’t bring them, he would physically hurt her, and kick, roll on the floor, and come completely obstinant.

While on a field trip, Steven took the liberty to use the bus ride to push his limits with mom, this time he was hanging over the bus seat and reaching into another mothers’ purse.  Steven’s mother said nothing.  The other mother said him to stop, and Steven’s mother went off on her, telling her it’s not appropriate to talk to her son.  Steven’s mother was mad and took her anger out of our high school student, swearing at her for not returning a text, calling her irresponsible.  (This went on during our bus ride to our field trip).  Upon arrival of our destination I tried to smooth things over, telling Steven and his mom, that I could get them tickets for another section of the show if they would like, she said NO.  So they got a ride home from the city, and never saw the show.

The next day, I get a phone call from Steven’s father.  He tells me that everyone on the bus needs an anti-bully class and that he would like to gather all of the parents from the bus and talk to them.  At this point, I knew I needed to alert my principal.  As it turned out, there was a previous confrontation between Steven’s mom and the lady he went purse diving with.  As it turned out, we transferred Steven to another campus, for the piece of mind of his parents, he was getting a fresh start.

Fast forward to the last day of school.  I am working in my classroom and heard some bad words being screamed from out on the playground.  It was Steven, in childcare.  He was yelling at the childcare teachers.  About an hour later I hear someone in the hallway kicking lockers.  I peek out the window of my classroom door, yep, it was Steven kicking them while the childcare lady was obviously explaining some behavior issues Steven had been displaying that day.

I happened to be in the office when Steven and his mom were leaving.  She said to me, in front of the secretary, I was the worse teacher they had ever encountered, and switching schools had been the best for Steven, she went on to tell me I needed more education and should be advocating for children more.  I listened to everything she said, and responded with an apology for her feeling that way.  She left and came back.  Steven came over to me and said, “I wanted to see that show and you said no.”  As my son was walking in, he heard what was happening.  I didn’t respond to her, I just listened.  After she left for the second time my son explained to me that he saw Steven’s mom outside coaching him to come and cry to the teacher.

Now I think about week 5 and what we learned.  I used the NVC with her.  Yes, the 3 R’s took place during the year, both with the child and the family, but sometimes there is no way to make everyone happy.

SO my question for everyone is… Steven and my own children will attend the same elementary school.  What do I do if she tries confronting me again?

Evaluation Time

test

This week our assignment was to evaluate ourselves in 3 areas of communication, then have 2 other people answer the same questions about us…

Anxiety

When I evaluated myself on communication anxiety, I was a 26 which is low.  I do feel comfortable in all social settings and feel confident in anticipating conversation opportunities.  I know this is an asset to the classroom, because of the one-on-one talking we do, as well as the big and small group speaking, and public speaking (Rubin, Palmgreen, & Sypher, 2009).

My husband and best friend both evaluated me on communication anxiety and surprisingly we all had roughly the same score.

Verbal Aggression

The verbal aggression scores were not surprising at all.  I scored myself a 62, it is moderate and means that I claim to have a good balance between respect and consideration for others’ viewpoints and the ability to argue fairly by attacking the facts of a position rather than the person holding the position (Rubin, Palmgreen, & Sypher, 2009).

When my husband and best friend evaluated me on verbal aggression, we again had roughly the same score.

Listening Styles

The listening styles test breaks it down into 4 areas, people oriented, action-oriented, content-oriented,  and time oriented.  Because my score was 43, it reads that I am people oriented, this means that I am empathetic and concerned with the emotions

of others, this kind of listening style helps to build relationships cut can interfere with proper judgment because of the level of trusting others.  I believe that having a balance in all listening styles would benefit the classroom the most, and I suppose this gives me a great goal to reach.

The scores from my best friend and husband were very close to my personal score.  I suppose I know that I am pretty consistent in my communication styles.

References:

Rubin, R. B., Palmgreen, P., & Sypher, H. E. (2009). Communication research measures: A sourcebook. New York, NY: Routledge.

diversity

What is Culture?

“Culture is your family history.” ~Maxie Kessler, my mother.

“Culture is beliefs and or articles of importance, religious, traditional, or spirituality of a person or persona in a designated group.” ~Matt Faul, my husband.

“Culture is who you are, where you come from, and the values you hold.”  ~Lindsey Tyrell, my co-worker.

What is Diversity?

“Diversity is the differences in your background because not everyone is the same.” ~Maxie Kessler, my mother.

“Diversity is the collection of beliefs and values of a community of a larger group of people across many cultures.” ~Matt Faul, my husband.

“Diversity is not setting us apart from others.  Not in a bad way, per say just different.  Who we are and where we come from sets us apart from other teachers and how they teach.” ~Lindsey Tyrell, my co-worker.

How does this relate to readings?

The aspects of culture and diversity that I have studied in this course are included in the answers I received—and some examples are, when Gonzalez says that life is influenced by, race, gender, age, abilities, disabilities, language, social class, social status, ethnicity and national origin, religion and or spiritual practice, location of growing up, and sexual orientation (Gonzalez, 2008).  Aside from sexuality, the answers touched on all of these.

The aspects that have been omitted are sexuality and ability and disability.  I believe if I had asked someone with a disability their answer would be different, only because of their own personal experience.

The ways that thinking about other people’s definitions of culture and diversity influenced my own thinking about these topics are knowing and understanding that there are so many different answers to this question.  There are educated answers, uneducated answers, age differences, and background differences that make everyone’s view on these questions completely different.  Remembering this when communicating with others is important because every person has a different perspective.

References:

Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2008). DIversity in early care and education, (5th ed., pp8-13). Boston MA: McGraw Hill.

communicating and diversity

This week we are to think about the cultural diversity you see in our colleagues at school, in my neighborhood, in my workplace, and also, possibly, within my family. Consider all the aspects that makeup culture, including race, religion, political affiliation, sexual orientation, varying abilities, and so on.

• Do you find yourself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures?
• I ways f yes, in what do you communicate differently?

Based on what you have learned this week, share at least three strategies you could use to help you communicate more effectively with the people or groups you have identified.

When it comes to communicating with others, understanding where they come from, and how they look at life is important.   In my workplace, I believe that I use a lot of visuals for the children and families that don’t have the same language skills as myself.  I try to find supports to help them.  I want them to be understood and heard just the same as someone else that may not have the same language skills as others.

As for communicating with others of different religions, I believe I try to have an open mind when communicating with them and not holding a judgment can be an effective way of communicating.  An example in our text this week reads about perceptions, and that if the opportunity arises to communicate with a Jewish person, joking about the Holocaust wouldn’t be appropriate.  I believe being thoughtful and considering your audience in any situation is important!

Keeping in mind that not everyone communicates in the same way.  There are positives and negatives to body language that can be offensive, and even rude.  Keeping abreast of my own communication styles is important.  With everything, keeping in mind my own skills when communicating with families is important.  Keeping in mind that these children that come into our classrooms have lived with their families for years and have tried to the best of their ability to gain as much knowledge possible.  We as teachers should take the information and skills they come to us with, and grow them.  We are not fixers, but growers of their skills and abilities (Gonzalez 2010).

culture love

References:

Gonzalez-Mena, J (2010).  50 strategies for communicating with families. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.

Our assignment this week is to observe a TV show we don’t typically watch.  I typically don’t watch TV at all, so finding a show wasn’t hard.  I chose Bernie Mac…

Bernie Mac ~  Without Words

At first, I noticed this was based on a family.  A group of people,  together in a house.  There were some children seated on a couch, appear to be fighting over a popcorn bowl.  You can watch Bernie stomp his feet and walk over, quickly to the children with a grumpy face.  The children look defensive, in their conversation with Bernie and his grumpy face.  There are a lot of facial expressions, body language, and it looks like a typical family may interact with each other.

bernie

Bernie Mac ~ With Words

This is based on a family, however, it is the aunt and the uncle that are raising the children.  The children were, in fact, fighting over a popcorn bowl.  The brother was in trouble with the uncle because the popcorn was dumped on the floor and the uncle blamed the brother because the uncle favors the littlest sister.  The children were defending themselves because the uncle blamed the older children and it was the little sister that dumped the popcorn and the uncle blamed the older children.

I assumed that the children were in trouble because of the body language Bernie was using.  I could also see his facial expressions.  Because this is not a show I am familiar with I figured it was a family that was a natural family.  But was able to learn with the sound turned on that it is the uncle raising his sister’s children.

catastrophic event

A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of my country. The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees. My immediate family and I are among the survivors of this catastrophic event. However, we have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. I have been told that my host country’s culture is completely different from my own and that I might have to stay there permanently.  In addition to one change of clothes, I can only take 3 small items with you. I have decided to take three items that I hold dear and that represent my family culture.

The 3 items I would choose would be…

The ashes of my French Bulldog, Owen.

owen

My wedding ring and my wedding album.

My explanation…

I would explain to others what each of these items means to you by sharing the story of how important Owen is to our family.  He loved him and miss him so much.  Our family loves dogs!  And when my husband and I were dating, he would make us laugh so hard and so much.  He loved the boys and tried to keep them from misbehaving.  As for my wedding ring and for my wedding album, they are also very important to me.  My ring is a symbol of my marriage that is so very special to me.  Our wedding album allows us to relive the special moments with our family.  It shows the love and fun we shared that day.

My feelings if, upon arrival, I was told that I could only keep one personal item and have to give up the other two items I brought with me, would be devastation.

How do I choose, I guess I could always hold Owen in my heart, but I still go to that box of ashes daily and talk to him.  As for the wedding album, I suppose I could always have those memories too.  But my wedding ring, I could never part with.  It symbolizes all of the dreams I have had, and how they have played into reality.

Insights…

I gained a few insights about my family, culture, diversity, and myself through this.  I first gained that my family doesn’t pass anything down from generation to generation.  It’s not like I have my grandmothers earrings or anything.  I believe our culture is to celebrate good times with food, fun, laughter, and memories.  So if given the chance to continue living in another country, I believe we could pick up where we left off here.  I also believe that what we hold in our heart can’t be taken away.  Some of the things we want to hold on to can’t be replaced or taken away.  Considering this exercise hold a truth one day and this is completely possible, I will continue to hold things in my heart and not my hand.

I am currently taking two courses at one time and will begin to put the section number of the course in which the post is related to.  Sorry if this causes any confusion.

dreams

stress love

talking preschoolers

The why’s of this research

My research simulation is based on preschool children’s social development. Because I believe that children develop more socially when they have the ability to explore the classroom freely using materials and socializing with who and when they would like to, I believe that many teachers try to prevent conversation between children. When teachers are doing this, I feel that it is hampering the children’s social development. I know many teachers that establish centers, and activities that help them to get the work done that they as teachers need to accomplish. However, I believe when a classroom is established, it should be designed and stocked with things that support the children. Just as High Scope explains, when materials are available and the child can choose how they manipulate them, and they are able to freely communicate their needs, feelings, discoveries, and ideas through motions, gestures, facial expressions, and sounds. Children learn by the ability to make their own choice. I believe that teachers that support these ideas in their classroom and allow open active participatory learning, support students in their social development.

Talking Preschoolers

Who Benefits From Research?

If I were to conduct my simulation proposal, I believe the biggest audience benefiting would be the children who were lucky enough to have their teachers and parents accept and practice this idea of allowing children the experience of gaining language skills through their own explorations.

Preschoolers exploring

Changing Perceptions

Some of the ways my perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of this course is a bigger, better understanding of the hard work and effort that it takes to assemble a study. Also, I believe that I am able to examine resources in a completely different way.

play and learning

Introducing my research topic…

Children’s benefits of play.

I chose this topic because preschoolers playing make-believe is diminishing.  As a teacher in the classroom, I use COR (child observation record) and am finding the make-believe play with other children is a note that is getting harder and harder every year to collect.  I personally believe there are many happenings with technology that are affecting children’s play in the classroom.

Play Fred Rogers

Through this process, if any readers have any information or experience with play and the benefits, please share them in the comments below.

During the process of filling out the requirements for the understanding research chart, I was able to see that research begins with a question that someone asks.  Then they look for information about that question, if they can find the credible information then possibly they can formulate their own answer if not, they must further the questioning and find answers.