As we move on...

It is so crazy to me to think we are already done with another course.  We're all moving on to our specializations and I can't help but think of how fast the time has gone by!  We should all be done by the summer if that is the case....we got this!!!  It has been so nice to be able to see a correlation between my personal and professional life and the courses that I take and this course was no different.  Just a couple weeks, my relationship of 6.5 years ended and I was left with a large feeling of where do I go from here???  Now, I'm not looking for sympathy or pity, but the irony of the situation is when I stop to reflect on where it could have all went wrong, what we truly lacked was communication.  We stopped really talking to each other and drifted apart, which created a lot of resentment in our relationship.  I don't think without this course I would have realized that and I also don't know if I could have kept going if it wouldn't have been for all of you.  The assignments kept my mind focused on something positive and it was nice to have the distraction.  I know we have never met face-to-face, but we have all shared in this journey together and I looked forward to working with each of you every week.  You have shared stories and experiences of your lives and I have learned a lot from all of you.  I wish that I could continue to work with each of you during my upcoming specialization courses in Administration, Management and Leadership, but even if I don't, it would be great to see and meet all of you at graduation.  Thank you for all the words of wisdom and good luck with future courses!!!  Enjoy the next two weeks off.....I think we've earned it!!!

Group Communication

     This post is really hard for me because I don't have a lot of experience working with teams at my work or at least not in the way I think this assignment is referring to.  I think high-performing groups are hard to leave because you are obviously quite good at getting the job done.  I think it really depends on the group though, because even low-performing groups could be hard to leave.  You have established relationships and may have even gotten to know people on a very personal level, so leaving them could be just as hard, even though you may not be as successful.  Relationships are what makes any groups and it's the relationships that are hard to leave behind.
     Again, I have not really worked or had a group that I had to leave, so I really do not know the answer to the question about which group has been the hardest for me to leave.  Just over a year and a half ago, I joined a new team of the managers I work with and I would hate to have to leave this group.  We may not always get everything accomplished or get it done perfectly, but they are a fine group of ladies and I consider all of them friends.  We have yet to establish any closing rituals because none of us are going anywhere soon.  I think we are still in the new stages of team forming and that is more where we are working on right now.
      When I think about this program ending, I think, Wow....I will have a lot of free time and a lot more money!!!  :)    But then I get sad because even though I have never met any of you face-to-face we have gone through this great thing together, struggled together, succeeded together and it is always sad and hard to leave that behind.  I think it is important to adjourn from a group because as you learn and grow, you could be best suited for other places and or you could be needed in other places.  Sometimes when you work with people for too long, no new ideas come in and there can almost be a lack in performance.  While it is hard to change, getting some fresh people and fresh ideas together could potentially make things better or at least different.

Helpful Communication stratagies

    I just read the blog assignment for this week and since I will not be returning to work until Monday, I will not be able to get any feedback from my collagues that will be helpful to this blog.  I do however have conflicts at work that I could use some of the information and strategies we learned about this week to help make them better.  We have a new flex staff member at work that has never worked with children as young as what we have at our center, so a teacher in my building was chosen to be her mentor and to help assist in becoming more comfortable in working with infants.  Since she is in classrooms in my building, I also have to work with her/help her learn the routines, rules and regulations our center follows.  This started last week and it has been a very interesting two weeks.  As the week went on, I felt like I was getting into slight arguments with this staff member every day and today was the worst one yet.   She is constantly stating how "stupid" our regulations are and is slighly disrespectful in my conversations with her. I also do not feel like she is the best person to be working with children this age and I wanted to observe her at some point this week or next to really get a feel for what she does in the classroom and if my feelings are valid or if I am just starting to not like her and in turn just don't want to see her work in my building.  This is a hard situation for me because there are very few people I can't work with or feel like I can get through to understand different things at work.
    In this situation, one of the strategies I would use is to observe without evaluating.  I feel like I have already judged her and may not give her a fair shake when it comes to the observation.  I need to just observe her open-mindedly and take in everything that happens as it is and not think about it or judge it too much.
     I think another good strategy to use would be one of the NVC concepts that says, "state what we want, not what we don't want" (The Center for Nonviolent Communication, n.d).  I've kind of molded this to my own situation and I know this particular staff member has a hard time with rules and understanding why they are important to follow.  I have been giving her a lot of "don't do this and don't do that" and maybe she needs to hear more about what we can and should do.  Maybe going on the more positive side of things would help her see why things are important and why we follow the regulations that we do.
    The last helpful strategy I thought of is to just go ahead and print out the article on the 3R's that I found and give it to her to read over.  It gives a great outline of what makes early childhood teachers great:  respect, responsiveness and relationships.  I think the article also has great guidelines to think about when a new teacher first starts because it gives them something to strive for when working with young children and their families.
    Hopefully through these three things, my interactions with this staff member will go more smoothly next week and I won't feel so frustrated and annoyed after I work with her.

References

The Center for Nonviolent Communication. (n.d.). NVC concepts. Retrieved from http://www.cnvc.org/

Cheshire, N.  (2007). The 3 R’s:  Gateway to infant and toddler learning. Dimensions of Early Childhood, 35(3), 36-38.

Who Am I as a Communicator?

    Well, unfortunately as I write this post, I am still searching for one more person to complete my communication tests for me.  My sister and her family were unable to come for Thanksgiving, like they had originally planned, which was unfortunate.  I missed seeing them for the holiday and she was also going to assist with my assignment, but I still have my boyfriend's input.  Maybe my mom will be able to complete the tests at some point this weekend.
       When I took the tests, I scored a 48 on the Communication Anxiety Inventory, a 68 on verbal agressiveness and I was in group 1 on the listening styles profile, which meant I am people-oriented.  None of this really surprised me because I know I do have anxiety when it comes to certain communication situations, especially public speaking, but luckily for my job I very rarely have to do this.  As I have grown more confident in my position at work, I have spoken out more in meetings and I think this will continue to get better as I work longer in my field. 
    My boyfriend scored me as a 57 on communication anxiety, a 63 on verbal agressiveness and in group 1 also for my listening style.  What I was surprised with was how different our communication anxiety scores were.  It still left me in the same category, but his score left me close to being high anxiety and I really don't know that I am.  I think he scored me this way because I always complain about speaking publicly and how bad I am at it, plus he has no idea if I participate in meetings at work because he isn't there.  But then I got to thinking, maybe that is how I communicate when I am with him or our friends, which is probably what he used for his decisions on the test, so maybe I need to work on my communication so I do not come across as having such high anxiety.  I would hate to preceive this to others.  I also read through the other types of listening style profiles and he definately does not fall into group 1 like I do, so maybe that is why we have trouble with our communications sometimes.  He likes facts, figures and to the point and he isn't afraid if others feelings get hurt.  I am not quite that way and I found the different profiles to be interesting.
    One of the things I learned this week that I am good at when it comes to communicating is my self-monitoring skills.  I find myself to be very observant and I like to just sit back and see how everything is going and what everyone is doing when I am new to a situation.  This lets me see how it is approriate to interact and communicate with others and it also gives me insight on what topics to discuss.  This helps me in both my personal and professional life because I am not a person that has the put-your-foot-in-mouth moments like I know others have.  I usually think things through before I say them and I think this shows respect and also some intelligence.
     The other thing I learned this week was about the interaction-appearance theory and how I really follow that in both my personal and professional life.  Like I discussed during our discussion this week on the picture and my initial reaction to it, I judge a lot about a person based on what they wear.  I don't think this is wrong because I am not a person that is unkind or unwilling to talk to people, I just have initial thoughts about a person based on their clothes.  I think this plays into the interaction-apperance theory because even though I may pre-judge people, the more I interact with them and find them to be pleasant, the more I want to continue hanging out with them or working with them, depending on the situation.  I may even find that I judged a person unfairly or differently than they are, so this is always interesting when that happens.
      I am continuing to learn a lot about my communication styles and also how I communicate based on others preceptions of me.  I hope we can continue to get feedback from others on how well we communicate because I think this is a great way to learn about yourself.

References

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2009). Real communication: An introduction.  (1st ed.).  New York: Bedford/St. Martin's

Strategies to become a better communicator

When I think about the way I communicate with people, I don't think I necessarily communicate in a different way, but I do share information more with some people than I do others. What I mean by this is that depending on who the audience is that I am talking with depends on how much information I share on different topics or about myself.  When I am with my family, my boyfriend or my close friends, I communicate more with them than I do with my colleagues or other friends who I do not know as well.  It is not that my communication is different or that I treat anyone differently, it is  like I am more myself and can speak more freely with those close to me, if that makes sense.  I share more details and experiences with those close to me than I do others because we know each other better and depending on what we are talking about, I know I can trust them with given information.
     The first strategy to use to be a more effective communicator is to become more culturally sensitive with different groups that I will be working and communicating with.  To me this means knowing enough about certain groups to not use streotypes or assuming they are a certain way based on the group they are a part of.  If I know about the group I am working with, I feel like I will be a better communicator because I won't use generalizations, but will instead get to know the person on an individual basis.
      The second way to be a better communicator is to withhold judgement about people I am working with.  I think this is especially true at work when dealing with parents that have different viewpoints than I do.  Until I have "walked in their shoes" I really can't understand what they are going through, so I should not judge them.  This can affect people's communication because if you are judging people, this is usually obvious in your body language and voice tone.  Having an open mind about a situtation or person will make you a less judgemental person and a better communicator.
     The last way to be a better communicator is through the saying "Knowledge is power".  It kind of goes back to my first strategy, but I think it goes even deeper than that too.  For example, if I am going on vacation to a country I am unfamiliar with, doing some research on their customs and knowing a few phrases in their language will get you a lot farther than going in knowing nothing.  It shows people you respect them enough to learn about their culture because you are being proactive in helping yourself be a better communicator.  If you have knowledge upfront, it makes communication a lot easier and helps alleviate any problems or potential for offending different individuals. 
     I really feel like there is so much more I need to learn to be a much better communicator, but I do feel like I am on the right track.

References

       Beebe, S.A, Beebe, S.J. & Redmond, M.V.  (2011).  Interpersonal communication and diversity:  Adapting to others. In Interpersonal communication:  Relating to others.  (pp.85-114).  Boston, MA:  Allyn & Bacon.

Gonzalez-Mena, J.  (2010).  Understanding and appreciating cultural differences.  In 50 strategies for communicating and working with diverse families. (pp. 36-38).  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Pearson Education Inc.

The Mindy Project

  I have seen "The Mindy Project" advertised on tv frequently, but I really had no idea what it was about, so I chose to watch this for this assignment.  I watched the first 15 minutes with no sound and then switched the sound on.  What I was surprised at is how correct most of my assumptions were based on what I thought I saw through non-verbal communications.
     In the beginning of the show, Mindy and a guy are in a coffee shop and they just appear to be talking in a friendly manner, not as if they were dating.  It looks as though she is trying to get his opinion on something and he is giving advice because she keeps having these very puzzled looks on her face.
   Mindy then goes to work and at first it looks like a very serious work environment.  People are working at desks and Mindy is helping a collegue look up something on the computer.  A male collegue comes over to talk to them and they both appear annoyed based on the large hand gestures that I am seeing.  I noticed the two women are looking at someone's facebook page though on the computer, so then I am confused about the scene because it really does not appear as serious.
     The next scene shows Mindy walking in a hospital and I'm pretty sure she sees the guy she likes (maybe it was his facebook page?) because she does this hesistation in her step and also puts her head down shyly so he won't see her.  She ended up knocking him down and he needs stitches based on the cut on his head.  I guess Mindy is a Dr. (I must have missed this somewhere, but I never saw her in scrubs so that is why I assumed that) because she stiches the guy up.  She is talking a lot during the stitching and I can tell the guy is not interested in her because he just stares at her with this blank and annoyed look and gets out his cell phone while she is speaking.  At one point he even covers his eyes and ears so he won't have to see or hear anymore.  Not knowing their relationship, it is hard to understand how rude this is.  If it is someone she knows, then maybe he is just joking with her and I can't tell because I can't hear what is going on.  If he doesn't know her at all, this is extremely rude and very immature for a grown man to be doing.
    The show goes back to the office where Mindy works and it has become a very casual almost non-worklike environment.  Three of her co-workers are pulling out different kinds of costumes she can wear and she is not looking happy because she is putting her heads in her hands in disgust.  She ends up calling the guy from the coffee shop for advice and also sends him pictures of different costumes she can wear.  At this point, I'm still thinking their relationship is just friends.
   After this scene, I turn the sound on and it really makes everything so much easier.  With the sound off, I found myself drawing cues about what was going on from things around the characters.  I paid more attention to details in their clothes, the pictures on the wall and their hand gestures.
  Not as much action seems to occur in the last 15 minutes as it did in the first.  Maybe this is because I can hear what is going on and I can decide if it is important, where with the sound off, everything is important to figure out what is going on.  The main thing that happens is Mindy decides she is not going to the costume party and calls up her friend, that has a little girl.  The little girl gives her advice and then Mindy decides to dress up and heads to the guys house she is shown with at the beginning of the show in the coffee shop.  It is interesting to listen to their exchange because he tells her the reason he chose his costume is because it was based on her favorite movie.  It makes me think maybe there is something more going on between them, but I think I would need more background info. to understand.
   This was an interesting assignment because with the sound off, a person can make a lot of assumptions about what is going on, but may not be correct.  Most times people's gestures match up with their meanings, but that is not always the case.  Had I been watching, Parenthood, a show I love and watch on a regular basis, with no sound, I could have easily figured out what was going on because I have a lot of background information on the characters.  Maybe in order to be a good communicator it is best to have an understanding of the background of the people you will be talking to and interacting with. 
    

Course 6165-Week 1 Blog

     The person that I choose as someone who is competant in a particular context is my boyfriend, Shawn.  He is a Captain in the Army National Guard and has been in the Guard for over 12 years.  Anyone that knows anything about the military knows they pretty much speak their own language with all the acronyms and phrases that they use when they are speaking with each other and Shawn does this effortlessly.  I know this is because of his time spent in the Guard and how much he is required to know to perform his job well, but he is also a fast learner and really has worked hard and has had a lot of training to know the things he knows .  He is commander of his battery, which requires constant emails and phone calls, especially during drill weekends, to make sure that things are getting done and meetings with his NCO's to make sure the battery is running smoothly.  He also has a lot of meetings with those that are higher ranking than him and he does occasionally have to do public speaking assignments.  For example, he was commander during the unit's last deployment and he had to speak at the going away ceremony and at the welcome home ceremony to large crowds of people and he does great.  He has also gone to schools for Veteran's Day and spoke to an assembly of children about what it means to be a veteran.  He loves public speaking and can do it easily and sound great doing it.  Most of the time he will just have bullets on a notecard and just go with what is on his mind and his points are communicated very clearly and effectively. 
       I, on the otherhand, hate speaking in front of people, especially a crowd and I sometimes even get nervous in meetings with people that are higher up in my organization.  I can't figure out why I am nervous because I usually know the information we are discussing.  I would love to be a good public speaker and be able to get my message across to people without sounding nervous, sweating, and having my hands shake.  My brother got married this summer and I had to do a speech at the reception and I was dreading it!!  I wrote everything down word for word and read straight off the paper with little to no eye contact.  I knew my hands would be shaking too and I am not sure why I have such anxiety about this.  Maybe it is because I do not do it enough.  The irony is if you want me to teach a lesson in front of a group of kids, any age, I could do it, no problem, but adults and formal speaking situations make me so nervous. 
       I think the reason Shawn is so good at communicating in these contexts is because he knows the content of what he is going to say so well and he has had so much practice at it.  I also think for some people it comes very naturally to be a good speaker.  I can also tell that when Shawn speaks, people take notice and listen (which could be because of his rank), but I would love to be able to come across as someone who is a great public speaker and has a lot of confidence in what they are talking about, so people want to listen to what I have to say.


Shawn with my cousin at a Veteran's Day assembly last year.

Shawn and I at the unit's Family Christmas Dinner last Dec.

 

Professional Hopes and Goals

I first want to start out by thanking everyone for all of the comments, suggestions and insights throughout this course.  I really feel like we learned a lot about prejudice and stereotypes that we did not expect to learn and I am happy that I got to share in this journey with all of you. I enjoyed reading everyone positions during the discussions and I really feel like I learned a lot from all of you!!!  Good luck with your next courses and hopefully I will have more future courses with all of you!!

I have many hopes when it comes to working with families from diverse backgrounds because it is something I really feel like I am still learning and gaining knowledge about, but my one hope is that diverse families see me as someone who is trying to get to know them and their children and assist them with anything that they need.  I love learning new things, especially about different cultures, and researching new places I may know nothing about (like my post on Uganda) and I hope all of the extra work I would be willing to put in for families helps create partnerships with them that will help their child do well in my care.  I really like being able to help people and point them in the right direction if they need it, so I hope families see me as someone who is able to do this.

My goal for the Early Childhood field is to start recruiting more men to work in the field.  I think this is something that is very much lacking in our field and it is something our children really need.  Having a positive male role model in their lives at a young age is very important and it is also important for them to observe a positive relationship happening between male and female teachers, especially if this is something that is lacking in their home environment.  The few men we have that work in our center or come to work with the children every now and again are loved by the children and I think it would be great for them to have this experience more frequently.  With so many children in some kind of preschool or pre-k setting  before they move on to more formal schooling, it is important to break the stereotype young children have that only women are teachers like so many of them currently believe.  I am honestly not sure how to recruit these males to work with children at such a young age, but hopefully somewhere someone is coming up with solutions to this issue.

Uganda

      Even though I have heard of Uganda, I really knew nothing about it and I know that we do get some families from that region in our local schools, so I decided to pick a place I may actually need to know about someday.  I was surprised at how well off this country is compared to a lot of other African nations.  Here is what I found out: 
-Their government is pretty stable right now and overall, people seem to be doing well in this area.  Their government is set-up similiar to ours too with different branches.  Agriculture is the most important resource and where the most people make their living.  52% of the population live on less than $1.25/day (www.cia.gov).
-Uganda has four main ethnic groups and there is a wide variety of tribes in each of the ethnic groups. 
-Their school year runs from Jan.-Nov and education is very much encouraged in this country.  The government has a policy called Universal Primary Education Policy and the government subsidizes a families education costs in a government-run school if four children from that family attend a school.  They also have universities in the area.  The literacy rate for males is 76.8% and females is 57.7% (www.cia.gov).
-The constitution allows for freedom of religion and a lot of the people mix a more traditional religion with beliefs from their tribe.  41% are Roman Catholic, 42% are Protestant and 12% are Muslim (www.cia.gov).  Their holidays are similiar to ours and Christmas is the biggest and most important holiday they celebrate.
-Art and music are important to the different tribes.  Pottery, sculpture, oral poetry, dance and drama are important as are traditional and cultural music and singing.  Ugandans also enjoy soccer, boxing, basketball, golf and cricket.
-I was not able to find too many specifics on food, but common foods include bananas, corn, rice sweet potatoes, cassava, beans and indigenous vegetables (www.compassion.com).
-English is the official language and is taught in the schools, but there is a wide variety of other languages spoken such as the native language as the tribe, Ganda, Luganda, Swahihli, and Arabic (www.cia.gov).
-The AIDS virus creates a high mortality rate in this area.

      After reviewing all of the different information from Uganda, the first way I would be culturally responsive to this family is by learning what language they speak.  If they do not speak English, then I would work to find them language assistance for their transition to the US.  I know we have Arabic schools in this area and maybe that is something they would be interested in.  The second thing I would do is learn more specifics about their culture and the holidays they celebrate.  What kind of music or dance do they like or are they involved in?  When they felt comfortable, I could invite them into my classroom to share with other children about their culture.  When learning about their holidays, I would also want to learn about their religion to make sure it is included in my curriculum. If they are a Muslim family, this would also affect what they eat, since they do not eat pork products, so it would be important to make arrangements for this.  I would also be interested in what the parents did for work in Uganda.  Maybe I could assist them in finding jobs or at least set them up with different agencies that could assist them.  The last thing I would want to learn about this family is about the schooling the children received in Uganda.  Were they in school?  What were they learning about?  I would have to adapt my lessons to include this child, so it would be important to know what they came from.

By doing these preparations before the family came, it would show that I care about their family and want them to succeed here.  By including them and their child in my curriculum, it shows that even though they may be different, they are still important and I want to make them a part of my classroom.  It would be beneficial to me to know all of this information beforehand because I could be more culturally understanding of their lives and also learn new things to share with my other children, which is always a great learning experience.




Resources:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ug.html

http://www.compassion.com/about/where/uganda.htm?referer=124445&gclid=CKDuy-PZj7MCFRGqnQodsGAA2w

The personal side of bias, prejudice and oppression

     I am sure if I thought long and hard about it, I could come up with a personal example that has happened to me dealing with these issues.  However, I am going to focus on the woman who is my spin (cycling) instructor on Tuesday and Thursdays mornings and the few stories she has shared with us in the past week about the men she works with because I think they fit perfectly with this topic.  I attend class at a local fitness center and this woman is in her late 50's-early 60's and teaches a variety of classes each day at the center.  I am not sure how long she has worked there, but judging from her physique and stories, she has worked there for quite a while.
        The first story she shared with us deals with microaggressions and sexism she has faced from the male instuctor that teaches a class after her.  I guess he speaks negatively about her and the classes she teaches and actually knocks over the stereo or fans, on purpose, that we use specifically for spin class because he knows it upsets her.  It is almost like he is trying to intimidate her.  That all seems minor and childish, but I guess he came in one day to get ready for class while she is in there by herself cleaning up some stuff and he went over to where she was and shoved her out of his way, even though the room is huge and he wouldn't need to be that close to her.  He didn't act like it was a big deal and just carried on with his business.  She reported it to the front desk and now he is required to wait at the desk until she is out of the room because he is so rude and aggressive towards her.  She isn't even sure why he is like that towards her and believes it is because she is a woman and he has anger issues towards females.  It is really strange to me and completely sexist, if that is the case.  I think she also felt it was unfair that more was not done to him based on his behavior and he is still allowed to work there, even though he has targeted her with his aggression. 
     The other inequities she talks about are how hard it is to be a female working in a predominately men's field (teaching fitness classes and being a personal trainer).  The fitness center just hired a new male instructor and she was commenting on how he has gotten to do a lot of new classes that she has been suggesting for awhile, but since he is a fresh face and he is male, he is being allowed to try these new things that she has not been able to get done.  She also mentioned that maybe if he requested to get things fixed it would get done faster because he is a male.  She doesn't sound bitter when she talks about it, but I could definately tell that there has been many instances for her when sexism has been a part of her work environment. 
    Now I realize that these are not major situations compared to what else goes on in the world, but I really thought it was interesting how she was discussing this with us and it fit right along with the topics we have been discussing in this course.  I think the director of the fitness center has the power to make these situations into more positive ones and make them more equitable for her.  I really think in the first situation the male should not have allowed to come back because what if he does this to someone else?  The fitness center could really be in a lot of trouble and another female should not have to face the aggressiveness of this man.

Practicing awareness of microaggressions

    When I read over the assignment this week, I really thought I would struggle with finding something to write to about.  Well, here it is only the 2nd day of this school week and I already encountered two examples of microaggression.  I was excited at first because I was able to make the connection between school and my personal and professional life, but then sad that I was already able to see two microaggressions in just one day.  How many have I seen over the course of my life???

1.) My first encounter happened today at work.  The teacher I used to work with, an African-American lady, was sitting outside with her class getting ready to ride the bus up to the "Big Gym", which is what the children call the School-aged center where they get to go do their sporting/large motor activities with our sports director.  Another teacher, who is Mexican, came by with her class and asked where the children were going.  They all said "the big gym!" and she just stared at them like she had no idea what they were saying.  My old co-teacher said, "the big gym. Have you ever heard of that or do you not understand these words?"  Now this all sounds incredibly harsh without knowing these two teachers, but they really have a great relationship.  The Mexican teacher openly talks about her lack of knowing English words on a daily basis, plus reminds us that she is Mexican daily, so she was not offended in any way.  To an outsider though that does not know their relationship, it was very demeaning and condescending.  It was insulting to the Mexican teachers racial heritage because she speaks Spanish as her first language and struggles at times with English.

2.)  The second encounter was much more obvious.  I went to Buffalo Wild Wings with people from my softball team after our game and there was a high school aged boy that decided to do the blazing wing challenge at the table next to us.  For those of you who do not know what that is, you have to eat 12 traditional chicken wings(not boneless) with the HOTTEST sauce you can think of as fast you can: no drinks, no other food and no wiping of the hands or face during the challenge.  Well, this boy did the challenge in less than 5 minutes and really did not seemed bothered by it.  I made the comment how impressive that was because my medium wings were spicy to me and I only ate one.  The one guy with me said, "Well, I think he has had probably had some practice eating some spicy foods."  I asked how he knew that and he said, "Well, just look at him. He's Mexican or something and they eat spicy stuff all the time.  No actually I think he's Indian, so I'm sure that's nothing compared to what he eats all the time at home.  Yeah, he's probably straight Ingun."  (He used what I was always taught was a racial slang for an American-Indian and I'm not sure how to spell it).  The other two guys at my table both laughed and agreed this guy was probably right.  I was shocked and couldn't believe it because that was a clear example of what we had been talking about in class!!  I am not sure how this kid felt because he was long gone by the time this conversation had taken place, but I felt it was degrading to him to make this assumption based on the outward appearance of this boy.  I realized that my preception was affected because I did not see the kid as anything more than a crazy high-schooler doing a really awful (my opinion) challenge. I was happy that I had not jumped to that conclusion about him, but just looked at him as a male high school student. 

This assignment made me realize that prejudice and discrimination are all around me, even being used by people I hang out with on a regular basis and really admire.  People are very judgemental and I need to work on seeing past these things and helping them see past them as well.

Culture as it relates to my family and friends

For this assignment, I chose to email my mother, my sister, my two best friends and my great-uncle to get their responses to culture.  The reason I chose these five people is because they are all close to me, but they all have different views and experiences that have happened in their lives that affect their way of thinking.

-My great Uncle Jeff-he has a bachelor's degree-culture is developing something or someone and diversity is different ways of doing something

-Amy (my sister)-she has a Master's degree and lives in Kentucky-

1. Culture: A common behavior or belief in a group of people that would include their values, education, recreation and social opportunities
2. Diversity: Differences within a group of people such as education level, race, age, political view and specific religious beliefs/rituals

-Leann-She has a bachelor's degree in Sociology and she lives in the same town as me-1) Culture to me is the way that people live and I believe to be impacted by their previous and current surroundings. Cultures vary all over the world and are constantly changing or evolving.

2) Diversity to me simply means variety or a difference in something. I think diversity is very much impacted by one's culture or surroundings.

 

 

-Sarah-she has a bachelor's degree in communications and lives in Fort Collins, Colorado

 

Culture to me is a person's heritage. Their traditions, beliefs, ideals. A person's culture is how they were raised and they choose to live based on what they've been taught about where they come from.

Diversity is when you have a group of people that all come from different cultures and live in a common place. Whether it's race, religion, or even just the kind of financial background a person has, the differences within that group creates a diversity of lifestyles

 

 

-Mom-no degree-lives in the same town as me and is a social worker minus the title-

1. Diversity - I think it means people from all kinds of backgrounds living together. The differences can be language, ethniticity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, political views and I'm sure there is more. But they can all live together fine.

2. Culture - I think this is more about where you live and the differences about you because of where you came from (does this make any sense?). I guess it would be your customs, values and things like that.

 

 

 

The reason's I defined everyone the way I did is because in the responses my sister and my two friends gave me, they all said these questions reminded them of their undergrad experiences and courses they had in college.  Sarah told me living in Denver for a year helped shaped her views on what diversity and culture is, so I felt these titles were important to explain where they were coming from. 

 

After looking over their answers, I can tell, probably because I know all of these people really well, that where they have lived, the experiences they have had in life and their education has helped shaped how they view culture and diversity.  For example, my sister and my two friends were able to answer right away what they thought these meant, but my mom had to call me and ask what kind of answer I wanted, then she still seemed unsure in her answer.  Because my sister and my girlfriends have had to discuss these ideas before, it is an easy question to answer.  I think they also recognize diversity and culture more because it is something they have had to learn about.

 

 

 

I think of all the answers that I had been given, Sarah's is the one that I like the most, not that I don't agree with all of them.  I like how she mentioned culture is a person's heritage because I think this goes into the deep culture we discussed in class this week.  It covers all aspects of how a person's lives and how they were raised, which is a huge part of how a person gets their perceptions on culture and diversity.  I also like how my sister mentioned education, social opportunites and recreation because, again, these all are a part of the deep culture that we discussed this week.  I really believe that a person's education is a huge indication of their undestanding of culture and diversity.  Most educated people have been afforded more experiences in life and usually make more money in their careers, so they are able to go out and experience more of the world.  This is not to say that those that are not educated, do not understand culture and diversity, they may just not have had as many opportunities to experience it.  For example, a friend that I had growing up went on vacations all over the world, China, Japan, Korea, different places in Europe because his father was a professor at a private university and his mom was a teacher.  They could afford to take him to these places growing up because their financial situation allowed it.  I'm sure he learned a little more about the Chinese and Japanese growing up by visiting these places than I ever did just reading about them in a textbook.

 

When everyone discussed diversity, I liked how they mentioned differences in lifestyles because I really feel like this is a large part of diversity.  Diversity is created by many different factors and almost all of the people I asked mentioned financial background, race, age, and political views.  All of these create diversity in people and can also be affected by the culture they come from.

 

What I found the most interesting was that I agreed with all of the answers that everyone gave out.  I think this is because I am close to all of these people in my life and my viewpoints of culture and diversity have been shaped by each one of them.

 

 

My Family Culture

     When I thought of this assignment, I thought of my most priceless possessions.  To me and my family, the most important things we have are our photographs.  From my earliest moments as a child, I can remember my mom taking pictures of everything, yes, literally EVERYTHING!!  My siblings and I have all our first moments, first days of schools, dances, school programs, sporting events, holidays, get togethers and on and on.  You name it, I'm sure my mom has a picture of it.  It annoys me at times, but photos are very important to me.  Our refrigerator is covered with photos of important and fun times we have had lately and new babies my friends have had recently.  I think photos are a great way to save a memory and look at it at later time to remember how much fun you were having.  So, if I had to take 3 small items with me, it would be three different photographs.  My brother got married this summer and my entire extended family was able to make it and we have a large family photo of all of us, which never happens!  I would definately take this with me and share it with new people that I may run into. I can show them my family and talk about the fun we were having at my brother's wedding.  The second thing I would take with me is my photo book I just made recently of my boyfriend's and I trip to Italy last year.  It documents everywhere we went and I love showing it to people.   The last group of photos I would take with me is a photo book I made for a girlfriend of mine when she got married a few years back. It is all of our pictures from the time we met in college to her wedding.
    If I arrived and I was only allowed to keep one item, I would choose the family photo from my brother's wedding.  It shows the most important people in my life and is a memory I love thinking about.
   I have realized that a lot of my family culture is tied to the pictures we take.  I come from a close knit family and I am lucky because I see my extended family on a pretty regular basis, which is important to me.  We document all of our moments and share them with each other.  To me, family is extremely important and I feel photographs are a great way to preserve all of the wonderful memories we have together. 

When I think of research.....

     I first want to start by thanking everyone for all of your support during this course.  It is because of your great feedback that I was able to come up with a research question in the first place and then your continued support through the course that helped me complete the final research simulation.  I really appreciate all of the encouragement and ideas.
    I have gained so many new insights through this course.  When I looked over the course titles, this course was always the one that made me nervous and I really thought I would struggle with, but having a great professor and great classmates got me through it.  I have learned so much about the research process and I have come to understand it is not hard if you break it down into small sections and build on your research over time.  Move from the small to the big picture and it makes it that much easier. 
    Some of my ideas about research have changed too.  I have come to understand how to read research papers quicker and yet still get a great deal of information from them.  I loved the week when we focused on the breakdown of a research paper and I really wish we would have had that information from the beginning of our program.  I now understand what is important to read, what you can leave out and what needs to be viewed more in depth.
   Again, I have learned that in order to plan and develop research, you have to start small and then build on your ideas over time.  When the class first began, I was intimitated and I did not understand how I would come up with a research simulation.  But breaking it down into manageble parts made it easy to understand and I feel like gave me a better overall research simulation.
    My biggest challenge came in the beginning of the course when I was trying to narrow down my ideas of what to do a a research study about.  I knew I wanted to focus on autism, but there are so many ways that a person could go with that.  Through trial and error, I was able to narrow my topic to one that I really liked and enjoyed creating a research study about.  I have also  learned that you should be passionate about the topic you choose because you will spend a lot of time with it and it should be something you enjoy, want to learn more about, and want to share with others.
     My idea of early childhood professionals has changed because I have realized that anyone, at any level can do a research study.  Now I realize that if we were really doing a study, it would be a lot more time consuming and potentially costly, but everyone has the ability to do it.  It just takes hard work, organization and support from others.
  Thanks again for all of your support and enjoy the next few weeks of no school work!!!

Research around the world

     I chose to research the Australia website.  What I was most surprised about when I got to the site was how the issues Australia is currently dealing with and talking about in regards to early childhood education is very similar to what the US is discussing too.  I saw a lot of headlines about quality childcare and early childhood education and also how to have affordable care and education for all families.  When I clicked on the What's New icon under July 2012, I read the article entitled "Children Deserve Bipartisian Support for Quality Early Education and Care".  The article was written in response to a proposed change by a government member that would limit support for ECE and care reforms that Australia is currently working towards.  Through the article, I found out that the Australian government has already issued changes that need to take place in ECE and presented timelines for these.  The changes that this government member is proposing could affect the programs and reforms that have already been made to date and the article was trying to point out that that experts in EC should be part of the discussion before anything is changed.  It also mentioned that Australia is working towards a "nationally consistent standard" in their ECE programs.
     Another thing that I found interesting on this website was the Research in Practice Series.  This tab linked me up with a variety of topics in booklet/magazine form, that is available for a fee, that helps educators deal with different issues they may come across.  Each topic is laid out very clearly and educators can order the booklets if they are dealing with the issue listed.  A few of the ones that I found interesting were about:  working to create partnerships with other teachers, a variety of material on diversity, assessments, bullying, young gifted children and aggression in young children.  I think there is so much that occurs in teaching that educators are not necessarily trainined for and have questions about and these are great resources that are available to them.
      One thing that suprised me was when I clicked on the positions statements tab, it said that "Australian Early Childhood Education position statements are being developed".  This surprised me because I really thought they would have position statements complete and ready for individuals to view.  If you look on the NAEYC website, there is a lot of position statements that NAEYC has produced and I just expected that Australia would have similiar statements complete.  It sounds like they may be in a transitional phase right now with early childhood education in their country, so maybe they are either re-evaluting old position statements or creating entirely new ones.


Reference:  http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

Military families

       This week I chose to focus on research studies currently being doing on military families, specifically children in military families and the impact multiple deployments and reintegrations have on these families.    Right now, 42% of people in military families are from birth to five years of age (Williams & Mulrooney, 2012) and it is an important group to do studies on.  The two articles that I included below I got from one of the newsletters I signed up for in my last course from the Zero to Three website:  Coming Together Around Military Families.

     The reason that I chose this group of people for my focus this week is because my boyfriend has been in the Army National Guard for almost 12 years and we have been through two deployments together:  The first was six months in Iraq and six months in Afghanistan followed by the second, which came about 15 months later, to Egpyt for a year.  Through his service in the military, I have become involved in the Family Readiness Group for his unit, which is a volunteer group that meets to essentially take care of soldiers and their families.  I love being a part of this group and I have met so many wonderful people and families through my involement over the last four years.  America is facing new issues with so many Guard and Reserve soldiers having to face multiple deployments and not being attached to a base like active duty soliders are.  Deployments are hard, but intergrations are just as hard and it is a great stressor on families and children when these events are happening.  I was so happy to find these two articles because I think we are taking the right steps in learning how to help these families and the unique issues they are faced with.

Spotlight on: Innovations in Resources for Veteran Families

A recent study in Chicago, Illinois has focused on understanding the current services available for Veteran families with very young children, as well as identifying any gaps in services. Several key issues have emerged from this effort. To start, providers note that it is critical to ask all families, “Are you or is any member of your family military connected? Have you or a family member experienced a combat deployment?” Lack of awareness of families’ Veteran status impacts their engagement in needed services. Secondly, a “system of care” approach is critical to support the needs of both Veterans and their families with young children. As part of this, a method to assess services as “Veteran friendly” would be helpful. Third, civilian human service agencies may benefit from additional training and support on the needs of Veterans and their families, as these agencies will be the primary source of care for Service members transitioning out of the military. This study was funded by the Prince Charitable Trusts of Chicago. Further work is planned to help build a city-wide strategy for supporting young children from Veteran families.

-I chose this study because it was based in my home state of Illinois and it is filled with important information.  A lot of times, schools and daycares may not know children are a part of a military family because there are Reserve and Guard soldiers that work out in the community each day.  It is nice to see their sacrifices being recognized and studies being done to  find ways to assist these families.

News You Can Use: Increasing Our Understanding of Young Children in Military Families

In March, 2012 the University of Southern California’s Center for Innovation and Research (USC-CIR), housed in the USC School of Social Work, published a policy brief titledIncreasing Understanding of Infants and Young Children in Military Families through Focused Research. This brief, written by ZERO TO THREE Military Family Projects Director Dorinda Williams and Assistant Director Kathy Mulrooney, highlights the current research on military family issues, particularly around deployment and reintegration, and their impact on young children. The report concludes with a series of recommendations for researchers and policy makers so that they may better understand and support the needs of military families, especially on issues that profoundly impact young children and their development. To read the full CIR Policy Brief, click here.

-I love this policy brief because it really talks about so many issues that military famlies face, especially those that have gone through multiple deployments.  PTSD is a known thing that happens to soliders, but all soldiers come back and need to be reintegrated into families and their families need to be reintegrated back to them and it is hard process.  I love that these two ladies are leading the way in creating a research study about these issues and hopefully more studies will happen because of this.

Reference

zerotothree.org

July 2012 enewsletter-Coming Together Around Military Families

MY PERSONAL RESEARCH JOURNEY

       Hello classmates!!!  As I move on in my 5th course at Walden, I am reflecting on the research process that I have gone through so far in the first week and a half of this course and I already feel like I have learned a lot of new terms and new ideas about research.  I have narrowed down my chosen research simulation topic to Autism, although I am still struggling to figure out how I am going to do this exactly.  I mis-interpreted the overall research assignment and took it to mean that we would be picking topics and then completing research (looking up facts and figures) to gain a better understanding of our topic and answering any questions we have about the topic.  With help from Dr. Davis, she  helped me understand we are actually setting up a research simulation, where we get to conduct the research.   It almost reminds of psychology courses that I had back in undergrad where for extra credit we could participate in research studies for those seeking their Master's and Doctorate degrees.  Sometimes it was filling out a simple survey, sometimes it was an interview and other times it was actually having to go into the Psych. dept. and do something related to the study.  Outside of participating in other individuals simulation, I have no experience conducting my own research simulation, so this is completely new to me.
         The reason that I have chosen Autism as my research topic is because of a boy that I had in my classroom last year.  He was very challenging:  very impulsive, at times crying or laughing for no reason, limited social skills and would hit kids at times for no reason, throwing chairs when he was angry and overall not being able to properly express his emotions.  Through all of my work with him, I strongly believe that his behavior falls somewhere on the Autism spectrum, but we are not allowed to suggest this to parents at our center and his parents have refused to get him observed by any outside professionals, even after numerous meetings and staffings.  It was a long and stressful year, but I really grew to love him and miss him sometimes and the struggles we had some days.  I truly feel like he made me a better teacher and showed me how to really have patience with a difficult child.  Through trial and error, I was able to learn ways to help him cope with situations and also how to handle his behavior.  At times I felt very lost when dealing with him and there is no at my center currently who has any knowledge of working with children with Autism.  After my year with him, I really feel like my center needs that and I am striving to be that person, so others won't feel as lost as I did when a child displays these behaviors.  It is through the above reasons that I have decided to learn more about Autism.
         For my research simulation, I would like to possibly observe children in a classroom with Autism to learn their behaviors, observe teachers who work with these children to observe the methods they use in action and then possibly interview these same teachers to gain a better insight into why they do what they do.  I say possibly for all of these things because I am not sure if these are the right steps to take to complete this simulation.  What do all of you think?  Are there any insights that any of you could give me on how to make this simulation better?  Is it to broad and I am not going deep enough?
           My greatest insights and resources this course so far have come from Dr. Davis.  We had a lot of great discussion during week 1 and I took a lot of notes on the information she shared because the way she presented it really made sense to me.  She has also given me great and quick feedback  on all of my questions and I encourage all of you to use her as a resource if you have not already.
           I'll end this blog by asking all of you for your insights and ideas about my topic, resources I should be looking at or just anything in general that has helped all of you get to where you are in your research process.  I really hope I can provide insights for all of you on your topics as well and we can continue to work together as we complete this course.  Thank you to all of you in advance for your feedback!!

Final Blog Assg-Issue and Trends in Education

      These eight weeks have really flown by!!  I've been so busy with work and all the busyness that comes with summer, time management has really come into play.  I've enjoyed reading everyone's blog posts and I hope that you have enjoyed reading mine.  Thank you for all of the great feedback and perhaps we will have more classes together in the future!!
     There are many positives that I found with making the connection to Maria, who lives in Sweden.  I feel lucky that I was able to do this because I know that a lot of people struggled.  The first positive I found through learning about the early childhood community internationally was how it made Sweden seem like less foreign of a place and I was able to get a really good look at their early childhood programs.  To me, the US always seems like a place that feels what we do is always right and it is always the best; rather it is our education system, our healthcare systems, etc.; that we don't take the time to look at other countries and learn about what they are doing.  By looking at the early childhood program in Sweden, or any other country for that matter, we can learn what works for them and, if it is something that we do not already do, we can introduce it into our early childhood programs.   Who knows, the methods or practices that other countries may be doing could bring great success to our own programs.  Sometimes we get stuck in our own ways and the way things have always been done, that it is nice to take time out to look at how other countries fund their early childhood programs, what curriculums they teach and what kind of discipline methods they use to perhaps enhance our own programs.
    The second thing that I enjoyed about conversing with Maria is that she brought up new ideas or things that I either had not thought of or had never heard of.   For example, she talked about Save the Children and the Reggio Emilia philosophy.  I have heard of both, but have never really looked into either or thought much about them.  When she mentioned them, it made me curious and I wanted to learn more.  It goes back to my first point, but when you are learning and discussing topics with someone who has different experiences than you do, there is a lot that you can learn from each other.
    The last thing that I enjoyed about learning about the international community and talking with Maria is just the basic networking skills that come from it.  On a personal level, my boyfriend and I really enjoy traveling and have been fortunate to take vacations to Europe the past couple years and now we have another contact to gain information from or to even potentially meet someday.  Maria also has a group of friends who are teachers and I am sure that they have friends who are teachers, perhaps from other countries, and now the relationship has started and I could network with other educators from around the world, using Maria as my contact person.
     The one goal that I would make for the Early Childhood Field is to make establishing contacts internationally begin at an early time in a teacher's educational path.  During my time at undergrad, which was at a university that is known for their teaching program, we never discussed international education programs and never reached out to anyone working overseas.  I think it is a great learning opportunity, especially for younger undergrads who could then maintain contact with foreign individuals or continue to network as they begin their careers.  Establishing contact with international educators is a great way to get outside of your own bubble and it would be beneficial to everyone.
   Once again, thank you for reading my blogs and good luck with your future courses!!!

Getting to know international contacts-part 3

Maria has shared so much wonderful information with me.  I decided to copy/paste two conversations we recently had because I think both of them give a great glimpse into what life is like in Sweden and what their preschool system is like.  She was a wonderful contact and I am so lucky I was able to find her.  The first conversation we had was about quality in preschools, which was suppose to be posted a few weeks back.  I wasn't able to hear from her in time, so I did the alternate assignment, but I wanted to include what she wrote.

 

Yes, I agree that Sweden is a wonderful place with all the systems that we have. But we also pay about 33% in income tax, and 25% tax on clothes, 12 % tax on food, 25% tax on fuel, and so on. We pay tax on everything.

We also have very much to do at work right now. This last Friday we had a planning day when we evaluated our goals. Every fall we have to write our goals and how to work with the goals and how to work with the evaluation of our goals. We have discussed a lot about how we must be able to evaluate our goals and also how we can prove that these goals are reached. We also do a parent questionnaire to help us with what we can develop to reach a better quality of work. 

We don’t have any inspections like you have. But I think the National Agency plans to do more inspection in the preschools, which I think is good because the quality is important.
In the fall we are starting to work with a systematic quality assurance. The plan is that we will be working more towards our goals. So we don’t just write our goal on a piece of paper and then we evaluate our goals in the spring. We have to work more systematically with our goals.

 

The second conversation we had was about the assignment for this week:  opportunities for professional development, her professional goals and her hopes and dreams.  She gave such great info!!

 

I think you need to have commitment to your work to develop professionally. At the moment here in Sweden the topic of the children’s influence in early childhood is discussed very much. The children spend many hours of their childhood in the preschool so they should have some influence over their time. But what can they have an influence on?

Our curriculum was revised in 2010 to add the three U’s. Monitoring (in Swedish: Uppföljning), Evaluation (in Swedish: Utvärdering) and Development (in Swedish: Utveckling).

 "The quality of the preschool shall be regularly and systematically documented, followed
up, evaluated and developed. Evaluating the quality of the preschool and creating
good conditions for learning requires that the child’s learning and development
be monitored, documented and analysed. Supporting and challenging children in their learning entails knowledge of each child’s experiences, knowledge and participation,
as well as influence over and interest in the different goal areas. This also requires knowledge of how the child’s exploration, questions, experiences and involvement
are used in the preschool, how the child’s knowledge changes and when they experience the preschool as interesting, fun and meaningful.
The aim of evaluation is to obtain knowledge of how the quality of the preschool i.e. its organisation, content and actions can be developed so that each child receives the best possible conditions for learning and development. Ultimately this involves developing
better work processes, being able to determine whether the work takes place in accordance with the goals, as well as investigating what measures need to be taken in order to improve the conditions for children to learn, develop, feel secure and have fun in the preschool. Analyses of the results of evaluation indicate areas that are critical for development. All forms of evaluation should take the perspective of the child as the starting point. Children and parents should participate in evaluation and their views are to be given prominence.

Guidelines
 Preschool teachers are responsible
• that each child’s learning and development is regularly and systematically documented,
followed up and analysed so that it is possible to evaluate how the preschool provides opportunities for children to develop and learn in accordance with the goals and intentions of the curriculum,• that documentation, follow-up, evaluation and analysis covers how the goals of the curriculum are integrated with each other in pedagogical work,
• that the preschool as a whole i.e. its conditions, organisation, structure, contents, activities and pedagogical processes are documented, followed up and evaluated,
• that documentation, follow-up and analysis covers how the abilities and knowledge of children change over time in the goal areas in relation to the preconditions for learning and development provided by the preschool,
• that evaluation methods, how documentation and evaluation are used and influence the contents and working methods of the preschool, as well as the child’s opportunities
for development and learning in all goal areas are critically examined, and
• that the results of documentation, follow-up and evaluation in systematic work on quality are used to develop the quality of the preschool and thus the child’s opportunities
for learning and development.
The work team should
• regularly and systematically document, follow up and analyse each child’s learning
and development, as well as evaluate how the preschool provides the child with opportunities for learning and development in accordance with the goals and intentions
of the curriculum,
• use different forms of documentation and evaluation to provide knowledge of
the conditions for the child’s learning and development in the preschool, as well
as making it possible to monitor the child’s acquisition of knowledge in different goal areas,
• document, follow up and analyse
– communication and interaction with and between children, their participation and influence, as well as the occasions when children experience preschool as interesting, meaningful and fun,
– how the child’s skills and knowledge change continuously over time in the goal areas in relation to the preconditions for learning and development provided by the preschool,
• document, follow up, evaluate and develop
– the child’s participation and influence in documentation and evaluations, where and how the child can exercise influence, and how their perspective, explorations, questions and ideas are used, and
– influence of parents in the evaluations, where and how they can exercise influence, and how their perspectives can be used." (Curriculum)

We don’t have a requirement for professional development. It's in every manager's interest to offer the possibility for development for their employees. We have been to some lectures, and some of the employees have taken some courses. Right now we work a lot with equality, degrading treatment and values. The teachers are supposed to share the knowledge they have received from the courses. Unfortunately the cost for professional development is so high that only a few of the employees have the opportunity to take some courses. We take advantage of the knowledge each preschool teacher has. I have good knowledge about computers for example, so I have helped many of my colleagues. We also have one teacher who is good at maths. So we help each other very much and that is also a way to develop.

My professional goals have always been to run my own preschool some day, my friends and I have always said that when we were studying to become preschool teachers. At our preschool we are inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy. Are you familiar with Reggio Emilia? Another of my goals is to learn more about the Reggio Emilia philosophy.

My hopes professionally are that when I am 65 (retirement age) I hope I like this work as much as I do now and that I feel that I keep developing as I teacher and person. My dream is my goal: to run my own preschool.

 

I have gained so many new insights from Maria.  The preschool where she works sounds very similar to the center where I work, with the different guidelines and lessons that they follow.  I was also amazed how much they pay in tax for everything!!  And I thought we paid a lot of tax.  After seeing how much they pay in tax, I understand how the government is able to have money to fund the things that they do.  If we taxed like that, we'd have more money too.  I also liked how she talked about professional development opportunities because it sounds very similiar to the opportunities that I have where I work.  We have been dealing with budget cuts and the opportunities are there for professional development, but it is out-of-pocket and expensive.  Overall, it was great having the chance to discuss different things with Maria and find out that the place where she works in Sweden is more similiar to where I work in America, than it is different.

Sharing Resources Revisited

Well it has been another exciting and busy week.  At work, we had our NAEYC 5-year accreditation surprise visit on Thursday and Friday and it made for some very busy days at work.  I saw so many correlations from NAEYC standards to our topics this week:  availability, accessibility and affordability, so that was interesting and nice to see the overlap.
    This week was my first time to look at my new e-newsletter from the zero to three website and what an amazing website it is!!!  If you still haven't had a chance to take a look, it is definately worth viewing.  There are so many resources on there, it is amazing.  It is a great resource to share with parents too.  The newsletter that was emailed to me focused on prolonged separation of children and parents/foster parents.  The article was entitled "Foster Care in the Hospital".  I didn't read the entire article, but it discussed the hardships foster care children face when they are ill.
  I proceeded to the zero to three website and found the WHATS NEW tab.  There was a wonderful video that I shared the link with below entitled "Starting Life Without a Home" and it was based on the first congressional hearing, which just happened on Feb. 16, 2012, about homeless families and children, specifically homeless infants and toddlers.  The video was great and contained wonderful information.  Judy Bigart, from Illinois, was the politician responsible for leading the hearing and she said that 1/45 children are homeless in America and 42% of those homeless children are 0-5 years old.  The video discusses development of homeless children and how a supporting relationship can help a child so much.  The video is about 8 min. and definately worth watching.
    Under FEATURED RESOURCES, there is an article entitled, "Conversation with Experts" and it was suppose to talk about how teachers can better support parents.  It looked like a great article, but was $15 to read and honestly I didn't really feel like paying the money for it.  I did notice though on the side of the page was a link called "From Baby to Big Kid" and it was a free e-newsletter about children from birth to age three.  It is meant for parents to offer helpful strategies to them and I thougth it was a great resource we could pass along to parents who may need extra information.
     I also chose to look under the tab about military families, since that is part of the population that I work with....Wow....there is a ton of great information here!!!  They offer free duty to care training that helps professionals understand their role and how to help families of deployed solidiers through all the stages of deployments.  I was also able to sign up for another free e-newsletter, "Coming Together Around Military Families", which will be another way to assist my military families at work.  We have a group of dads getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan in Aug, so I may be needing some of these resources.
    I checked my old website I was viewing-www.naecte.org to see what was new there.  They did have a new newsletter up (Summber 2012--that made me laugh thinking teachers wrote that), but I only found one worthwhile thing in it.  It discussed "Growing up Wild", a nature-based education program.  The frustrating part was when I clicked on the link   www.pw.GrowingUPWILD.org, it said the domain was not found.
      After looking through the zero to three website, I am so happy that I switched web addresses and e-newsletters.  There is so much information on this website and it can be for teachers or parents.  I can't wait to look through more of the military resources!!!

References

www.zerotothree.org

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid4853363001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAAP1OrgE~,Pg4k-7G5h8q5f5a18Ed-9RBn57qq9pZW&bctid=1543532738001

Getting to know International Contacts-Part 2

Well, unfortunately I emailed Maria over a week and she has not gotten back to me, so I am not able to share any information from her on Sweden.  It is a little frustrating to depend on someone else to complete an assignment, so I chose to do the alternate assignment this week.
    I first went to the Global Children's intiative website and here is what I found:

Zambian Early Childhood Development Project-researchers had found that there was not a lot of research from Sub-Saharan African on education, to they created an assessment that tested how well the anti-malaria intiative was doing in Zambia.  It started in July 2010 and there are follow-ups each year.  I looked up information from the 2010 assessment final report and it talked about the country's background, the history of the test and development across Zambia (which varies).  The assessment tests a variety of skills, such as fine motor and verbal skills.  Through the assessment they found the intitiative is successful and is working well for children.  Depending on where the children lived in Zambia depended on there overall successful because there was a large difference in areas.

Brazil-Nucleo Ciencia Pela Infancia--This center was to guide stronger policies and get more investments for early childhood programs that benefit young children and their families.  They also want to adopt a center model curriculum, but include local context as well.  I really liked the idea of having an established curriculum, but then also making sure to include the children's home cultures in their learning.

Chile-Un Buen Comienzo-This center wants to improve early childhood education through professional teacher development.  I thought this was interesting because so many programs look at what they can do for the childrn and teacher development is a huge part of quality education.  The center also wants to improve language offerings and include children's families.

I was able to find a really interesting podcast on early childhood education from http://edlab.tc.columbia.edu/index.php?q=node/6156.  It focused on the economic gains of early childhood education and Head Start.  I thought this fit right along with our topics we have been discussing plus I am interested in knowing more about Head Start.

The podcast starts with the two men talking about and quoting James Hackman, who states "early childhood education is a great investment and their is a high rate of return on it."  They went on to discusse that they best way to improve equity and combat inequality for all is to focus on disadvantaged individuals and improve Pre-K to make it assessable to all.  Hackman is quoted as saying, "it's not just or fair, it would increase our overall productivity". When disadvantaged children have access to Pre-K their IQ is raised to normal cognitive levels and they have increased behavior.  It has been shown that these same children than increase labor productivity and participate more in the job market.

The next conversation was about Head Start.  They called it a high quality program that does a "decent" job of educating children.  The two men felt their Pre-K programs were of better quality than most public or private Pre-K.  Head start improves cognitive ability and has been shown to keep kids in school longer.  They quote Jen Curry from Columbia who has discussed the "fade out" affect of Head Start (which I had not heard about before).  There is a jump in cognitive skills for disadvantaged children while in Head Start programs, but as they get older, the jump in cognitive development disappears.
 
Even thought I learned a lot from the website and podcasts, I would have loved to shared with all of you more about Maria's school.  Through the alternate assignment, I was able to learn about places that I do not know much about when it comes to education and I was also able to gain more insight on Head Start.

Resources
http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/

http://edlab.tc.columbia.edu/index.php?q=node/6156

Sharing Web Resources #2

I know this week we are focusing on web resources, but I wanted to include what Maria, my international contact had emailed me this week about Sweden and the poverty there.  I'm learning to email her earlier, so that I am able to get my responses in time for blog posts.  I thought her response was so interesting, I just copy/pasted the whole thing to share with everyone.

Hello Amber!

Poverty, what a difficult subject. It’s hard to define what poverty is. For me it’s when you don’t have enough money to buy food every day, and don’t have money to pay the most important bills, like the rent on your apartment and electricity and worse if you don’t have an apartment at all. And if you don’t have enough money to buy clothes and shoes.

If you live in Sweden and have children you get money from the government, like a child support, every month. You get 150 $/month for the first child. And if you have more children you get a “large family support“.

We also have another system, Government Healthcare, were you can get social welfare. So a child in Sweden should not live in poverty. But in the report from Save the children 13% or 248 000 children grow up in low-income family or are dependent on income support like social welfare. And the number of children who grows up in poverty has grown from last year.

Save the children says that the most exposed group of children is the children to single parents, children of parents who doesn’t have any work and children to immigrant parents. According to CRC, Sweden is obliged to ensure that all children have a fair standard of living, and that no child is discriminated against because of their social origins. Save the Children believes that discrimination exists in Sweden today, since the children living in economically disadvantaged families are at risk of poorer health, less educated, and less opportunity for recreational activities.

In the preschool we must report to the social services if we are worried about a child. But I have never had to deal with it at my workplace. But sometimes my colleagues and I think that some kids have fewer clothes and also outgrown clothes. The preschool have some clothes that the children can borrow if they have to. I hope that you got the answer that you need.

Maria. :)


Now on to sharing web resources....
   The more and more that I look at the site that I first chose, naecte.org, the more I do not like it as much.  It seems very limiting in what it offers, unless I sign up to be a member and I have a hard time wanting to be a member when I'm not super impressed with the content that they have on their main page.   For this week, and possibly for the following weeks, I chose to look at www. zerotothree.org.  I already signed up for the newsletter because I really like what this site has to offer.
    I looked under the policies tab on the website and I was pleasantly surprised by all of the great information that I found on what the federal government, state and communities are doing to support children.  From the way Dr. Grace spoke in the video segment, I kind of took on her thinking that politicians are not doing much in the way of helping children except when it helps their own agenda.  I found this not to be true.  There is an amazing amount of programs and intiatives out there that the government is working on.  The website links to OESE, the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, and there is a lot of information listed there as well.
   I decided to look up Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge because I have heard of it, but I was never sure what it really was.  The challenge is to increase the percentage of low-income children and disadvantaged children in each age group of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers enrolled in high quality programs, to design and implement high quality programs and have assessments that follow the National Research Councils.  The grant is awared to states that are creating these programs.  I didn't see the results though of who has been awarded these grants.
   The website also containted a lot of research-based information from neuroscientists and other scientists about brain development, challenging behavior and literacy to name a few.  I did not see anything on the page about economists becoming involved with the early childhood field though.
  Hopefully by the next blog post, I will have more opportunities to read newsletters on the zerotothree website and be able to share what these newsletters are discussing.   The website kept saying that the newsletters were not available at this time and to talk to the site administrator.  Hopefully they will be up and running soon.  It is a wonderful website and I probably should have chosen this from the start.


Resource
www.zerotothree.org