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.

Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

Some of the ways you noticed that homophobia and heterosexism permeate the world of young children including books, movies, toys, stores, culture of early childhood centers, and schools

 In response to this question, I have seen that heterosexism and homophobia affect the culture and world of young children in early childhood centers and schools by not including/ showcasing homosexual culture in the classroom. Today people are so focused on diversity, but seem to neglect the diversity of different sexual orientations. Because teachers do not discuss homosexuality to their students, children can make judgments and biases towards those that are homosexual and not heterosexual. In addition, in movies, books, and stories children oftentimes only see heterosexual couples. For instance, all of the Disney princesses have male love interests/ a price charming. Lastly, toys are gender-based. On television commercials certain toys are targeted towards a specific gender. In a girls toy commercial a girl is typically wearing light pastel colors and the toys they are playing with are often pink, purple, or yellow--these toys give stereotypes about how girls should be homemakers, a mother, and a nurturer. As for boy toy commercials, these commercials depict boys to be loud, active, and masculine.

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?
In response to someone saying that early childhood centers should avoid books that depict gay individuals, I would mention how it is important to expose children to different types of families that exist, as this will only help them socially. In addition, I would mention that if they have an issue with this they should talk to the school director or principal, as our school policy accepts and embraces diversity and all types of differences we may have. Unfortunately, it is nothing we can do, as this is the policy; if the parents choose to they can accept these terms, try to change the policy, or change schools. 

Past Eight Weeks...

These past eight weeks have been a whirlwind of knowledge about communication. I want to thank each and every one of you for taking the chance to read and comment on my postings. It has been a great experience. Thank you again for collaborating with and supporting me. I hope I was able to give back as much as I received. I want to wish everyone a great journey and to accomplish all of your future endeavors that might be waiting ahead. The sky is the limit, be who you want to be :)

Adjourning From Groups

    There have been several groups I have been involved in so far in my lifetime; I have been a cheerleader, a member in a work environment, a classroom, etc. Of the many groups I’ve belonged to I would say the hardest group I ever had to leave was my high school. Having been with the same friends and around the same classmates for 4+ years, and leaving to attend another school and pursue college was one a hard experience. I think this is because it was the switch from childhood to adulthood and was a journey I had to embark on my own to further myself.

    According to Gina Abudi, adjourning is the stage in which the team is looked at the “from the “perspective of the well-being of the team rather than from the perspective of managing a team through the original four stages of team growth” (Abudi, 2010). Although, leaving a team might be a difficult hardship, however it is imperative to continue to grow, which sometimes means that we continue on our own or in a new group.

    I would say high-performing groups are hard to leave, but it really depends on what you consider is high-performing. High-performing could be anything from the group in which you work on a project with, the friendships and bonds you have created, or being part of a group in which you have gained a great amount of pride or success in.

    In high school, in order to commemorate our accomplishments and give recognition on our departure from high school, we had a grad night celebration on a night cruise. This cruise consisted of food, dancing, raffles, and giveaways. For me to adjourn from my group of colleagues in my master’s degree program, I will carry over the knowledge and experiences from which we shared. It is significant that we adjourn from groups in order to reflect about all the experiences and moments we shared.  

References:

Abudi, G. (2010). The five stages of team development: A case study. Retrieved from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-five-stages-of-team-development-a-case-study.html

Communicating with Difficult People.

There have been a few disagreements I have had in my personal life, in which I try to implement the 3R’s and nonviolent communication strategies in. For instance, I have someone in my life that often gets stressed and frustrated easily, I try to talk in a calm and concise way. When we are bumping heads with one another I find that this person does not speak rationally and will begin to attack my image. 

With this being said, I think it is important to solve one conflict at a time. When I speak to this person things will escalate in an argument when he is in a bad mood and we will never get to an agreement.  In order to manage the conflict, I think it is important to reflect on the main reason why this argument is happening, and do not get off track and start discussing another conflict until conflict #1 is resolved.  Another way to resolve conflicts is to be sure to not bottle things up. It is important to communicate with one another the things that you do not like/ things that bother you, otherwise if you don’t you will become too overwhelmed.

What is your input on dealing with a person who seems to always be stressed out and has a hard time communicating with others?