What I Have Learned

I hope that families put their children first and make sure they are getting the right resources if necessary. It is important to have the family and teacher have a bond to make sure that everyone is on the same page. I hope that families express to the teacher what they want from their child's education. For instance, I have a 3 year old student in my class that is struggling with language. This particular student is learning three languages and the child acts out because he cannot communicate clearly what he is trying to say; so he gets frustrated and pushes and hits others. This child is spoken to in Castilian, which is Spanish but from Spain, his home language in Spanish, plus he is also learning English. This child attends speech classes, however I feel the parents should sit down with the teachers, director, and speech instructor in order to collaboratively find a solution to help this child further his language development.

My goal is to talk to my director at the school I work at and tell her the benefits of connecting with the families in our school. In addition, I want to continue our efforts at the school I work at to creating a more diverse environment. As of right now, the school I work at does a pretty good job at creating a diverse environment by having a diverse array of toys and other teaching resources.

I want to take this time to thank everyone in the course for having read and made comments on my discussions and blogs. I really appreciate the feedback. I am thankful that we have this support group here to lean on; I wish everyone luck on their future endeavors.

Creating Art

Differences are everywhere.

People have biases towards what is different.

We all have biases.

Having biases are seen as a negative.

If I like everyone else has a bias does this make me bad?

We all have biases.

I am not perfect nor is anybody else.

Work on the things that make you uncomfortable and overcome what you fear.

We all have biases.

People everywhere are different

Make a difference.

Change your ways.

Think positive. Overcome your biases.

  

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

I remember as a child seeing a man at the grocery store with a metal prosthetic arm. At the time I saw a boy pointing and acting scared about the man's arm. According to Derman-Sparks & Edwards, "[we need to] use these moments: Pay attention, ask questions, listen carefully, and then respond as appropriate to the child and the situation" (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). Instead of the boy's mother acting upon this situation and educating her child about his actions, the mother told the boy to "Shh" and to not stare. By the boys mom telling the boy to be quiet and to turn his focus away from the man this might communicate that this man is someone that should be shunned or is viewed as an outsider. This stigma could be something that might be carried on with the boy into adulthood, and is something that the mom should not have done. The mom should have told the boy why it is not okay to stare, ask the boy why he is acting differently, and perhaps ask the man with the prosthetics questions about his arm to avoid any negative thoughts from the boy. Situations like these are teachable moments, and is something that should be given a more in depth answer than to simply be quiet (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).

References:

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