From Passion to Action

Reflecting on Learning

My most passionate hope for early childhood is that pre-schools become more inclusive of those with varying abilities and that teachers are more open to the idea.  I know the idea is great to have this inclusive pre-school where all different types of children and families are represented, but the truth is is that is is hard.  Some students can be challenging, especially when you are trying to figure out all their uniqueness's.   My hope that is teachers use their resources, talk with the community/friends/families and remember to breath because you will figure out how you can best support the child in your classroom.

I am very impressed this semester how everyone has really jumped on board with anti-biased education.  I am proud to be apart of our learning community and I am excited that everyone will be out in our world teaching our most precious children. We are really in the home stretch now and I am sure some of you are getting ready to start up another great year hopefully with lots of new ideas and plans for your students. 

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

I chose to look at China and South East Asia because I have taught and traveled in those areas.  Traveling to countries that were so outside of my comfort zone really opened up my world to life outside of my own. 

After exploring the website it was clear that a big challenge children face is physical abuse and even sexual abuse.  It was reported that 1 in 10 children experience abuse that resulted in a physical injury and sometimes up to 33% of children are suffering. Nearly 9% of children are suffering from severe phycial abuse, or 1 and 4 children, this might include, beatings with fists or implements.  There was also a report stating between 14-30% of girls and boys have been sexually abused, forced intercourse (UNICEF, 2012).

These experiences can have a negative impact on children's emotional well being.  The damage can last a lifetime, children who suffer abuse, neglect, and re exploited are more likely to be depressed.  They also may experience mental health problems, attempt suicide, and may engage in high risk behaviors (UNICEF, 2012).

My personal experience was while I was in Vietnam. I never witnessed physical abuse in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos or Cambodia but what I did witness was manual labor.  I saw people paying children to message their feet or carry wood for miles out in the villages.  It was interesting when people paid for services, because to me they should have known better.  In the villages it was their way of life, I understand helping out the family but it was a bit much to me.  Although, it is hard for me to understand because it is not a culture that I am apart of.  So I guess this goes to show how much we have to learn about others. I hope that I can continue to travel and be opened up to new insights.

Resource:

UNICEF, (2012). "Child Maltreatment: Prevalence, Incidence and Consequences: A Systematic Review of Research, ." Retrieved http://www.unicef.org/eapro/Child_Maltreatment.pdf>.

Week 6- The Sexualization of Early Childhood

I have often thought about the topic of sexualization of early childhood, perhaps because I was exposed to many shocking comments or behaviors.  It is shocking to read some of the scenarios, but when I think back to my childhood I think that all those things did happen.  The biggest thing that I have noticed over the years is what girls are wearing and toys that children are playing with.  In the article there was a fourth grade girl writing a love letter, though I do not think this is untypical, I believe that her comments were untypical (even though they were not all shared).  I can remember having “boyfriends” in Elementary school but there was nothing sexual about it, I was still wearing stretch pants in the 5^th grade and would have cried if I had to wear something uncomfortable (like a short skirt).  Girls dress so proactive to me now a days, I want to cover them up.  But it comes from the messages they are receiving from the media (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009). I thought about all the media messages that we receive even as an adult. I thought about how when you get to be in your upper twenties or thirties that people expect you to get married, even close friends have said to me “when are you getting married?”  And I always respond, “not until I am sure.”  There is this expectation to get married and have babies and not I try and filter through if it really is something that I want or if I am feeling just the societal pressure (but I am sure that I do want all of this, just not as fast as some people go after it). So of course young girls feel they need to live up to something because it is ingrained in our culture to always be wanting for the perfect body/clothing/boyfriend/relationship/job, etc. 

I have so many examples…

- When I was in high school I worked at an after school program.  Each day we ate lunch with our students and a 4^th grade girl was going on diet because she felt fat and that no one would like her that way.

- A student of mine started to sing “All the single ladies” and then would do a dance and would shake her booty (she would say “I am shaking my booty).  My cheerleading in high school was not this proactive and she is only 5.

- I also have a student who is so attracted to violence, which he wants to act out.  He is five and has Autism, he has a very difficult time filtering though what is expected vs. unexpected.  His father allows him to watch adult movies, movies that are PG-13 or R. He is only five.  His mother has talked with his father about this and he doesn’t see the problem, even with the example of him acting out in the classroom.  He is not intentionally trying to hurt someone but he ends up punching a teacher or a student and then will say it was in the movie. 

I can see the negative impact on children right in front of me.  I can see the skewed views of expectations vs. reality.  Children think that one thing is okay and then being told that it isn’t.  For the little girl singing the song and doing the booty dance.  I showed her a cheer that was appropriate to do at school.  Then I got her to make up her own dance to a song in our classroom, and no, in her own dance she did not do a booty dance.  We talked about the words in her song and I said that is wasn’t appropriate for school.  As for the little boy and violence, his mom talks with me about it and has handled the situation by providing his father with examples.  She says that it might take him awhile to understand. 

As the school year is about to start up, I think that I will pay close attention to where a child may have gotten something.  I feel very out of the loop, in regards to toys and children’s TV shows.  I think that I need to take the time to familiarize myself so that I can react more appropriately to my students. 

Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. (2009). [Introduction]. So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids (pp. 1-8). New York: Ballantine Books. Retrieved from: http://dianeelevin.com/sosexysosoon/introduction.pdf

Week 5- Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

There are always consequences of peoples actions.  I have experiences some sort of ageism at my school for being so young from an older male teacher.  It is constant, until I recently told him I thought that his comments were not funny (ignoring them did not work, good reminder to be a more open communicator). His comments about how young I was made me feel at times that I was not "old enough" to hold the position that I have (negative consequence), however it did make me feel that he has no idea what he is talking about (positive consequence) and that I know what I am doing (and I would never treat a person that way.   

When -isms show up it is mind-consuming, so I was spending less time thinking about teaching. I thought about his words often for along time and about what I could do differently to make him change his mind.  Then I realized I need to do nothing differently (besides tell him to stop) to change who I was to make someone else see me differently.  I am who I am (a very young looking teacher). 
Having experience gives us examples when we are working with young children and their families.  It is interesting that I have never had a parent question my age, however it was not until this year that they really started to ask me for advice with their children.  I am not a parent, but I do have some pretty great experiences that I like to share with people.  Most often when parents are really concerned with their child's academic progress I tell parents about my brother.  He has severe dyslexia (ex. didn't read his first book until college) and he just graduated with his Masters from Tulane University (proud sister). My story about him seems to give the parents just a little glimpse into my life and how we are are all so different from one another, we have no idea people's stories until we ask or find out. 

I could not imagine what it might feel like for a family or a child to experiences racism or class-ism.  From my experiences I thin that it would play havoc on my emotions and certainly it would be more difficult to perform at work.  When you feel inferior about something it an be more than difficult to try an prove yourself, because often the person who you are trying to prove yourself to has their mind made up.  Not to say that you cannot help teach everyone around you.  I think that if people around me were having such stereotypes it would be so hard for me to come into school everyday.  Teachers are not just supported from their co-workers but also from their parents (I could not imagine if they had stereotypes against me).  I think that physically it would wear me out and I would feel incompetent to do my job. 

So, if I think about my reaction, I could not imagine what young children and their families potentially could be thinking.  Especially, if you think about a child's performance at school.  If I think that it would emotionally, physically and cognitively wear me down... it probably would do the same for them.  This is SUCH an excellent reminder of how important anti-biased education is for our communities.

Week 3: Observing Communication

I chose to observe at a recent wedding that I attended.  There was a huge group of people there that I have known for 26 years.  I chose to observe my sister-in-law and niece.  My sister-in-law is so good at communicating with her daughter (she is three).  My niece is one easy child, but occasionally acts very appropriate for her age. This was her first wedding and my sister-in-law has obviously talked with Ainsley before they came to the wedding.  She reviewed that we could be silly now but when people started to walk down the isle it was time to be quiet, Ainsley had heard this before, she nodded her head in agreement.  She was also allowed to play with the doll she brought.  When the ceremony started, Ainsley no longer wanted to sit, she was allowed to go to the floor with two rules, you have to be quiet and stay with us.  She was on the floor trying to get our attention, but my sister-in-law ignored or reminded the rules.  Ainsley wasn’t scolded for being on the floor; she was doing what she needed to do at the time but at the same time adhering to the rules that her mom had provided her with before coming to the wedding.

What was so good about this observation is that Ainsley was given the expectations before she arrived and she knew them.  She knew she needed to be quiet and stay with us.  Often I think that parents and even teachers forget to review expectations and therefore you get behaviors because children are not sure of the expectations. 

This was a really good reminder for my how often I need to review expectations in your general education classroom you review them often but in my classroom is daily/hourly/every activity.  I can notice the difference when I review the expectations at each activity.  It changes everything.  I also just started extended school year with some of my students and we reviewed those expectation at each new activity and it just goes so much smoother. It gives the child some background to what they are going to be doing.  There are times where, GASP, I forget to go over expectations and then I get frustrated with students running all over the place or hitting their neighbor.  Then I remind myself that I did not tell them what I wanted them to do.  We can learn a lot by observing, especially a lot about ourselves.

Week 2: Creating Affirming Environments

It is hard for me to think about what a in-home childcare facility would look like for me because I have my own classroom, but after watching Adriana I came up with some ideas on how I could envision it looking like.   

Derman-Sparks and Olsen Edwards (2010) suggested that having authentic representations of the community that you are serving (p. 45).  I like what Adriana did in her center, she had a family community wall that showed pictures of the different families that were in the center.  I also enjoyed that she posted pictures of the children playing in the infant and toddler area (Laureate Education Inc., 2012).  I do this in my classroom now and a) my students love it, b) I use it as a reference tool for my students ("Look how nice you were playing with ____").  

Something that was brought to my attention after watching the media segment this week is a transition area. What a great idea for the children before they start their days, especially when it can be a hard transition at times.  Adriana provided the children with a transition area, this helped with "good byes" to the parents.  She followed this time with circle time (which is something that I would do) and allowed the parents to stay if they wanted (Laureate Education Inc., 2012).  This is a great way to have the parents feel apart of the community.  

If I ran an in-home childcare facility I would probably base my planning on themes (monthly), which is what I do now in my classroom.  This would allow me to integrate anti-biased curriculum into all my themes (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010, pg. 47).  I would like to provide a sensory area and I liked the ideas of including dolls in that area to allow children to express their emotions (Laureate Education Inc., 2012). 

Something that I have been working hard at is getting away from the tourist curriculum.  I would like instead to have one family each month either share cultural items with the class or come into the class to do some sort of activity.  This would be a great way to incorporate everyone and really get that community feeling. 

As for materials for students I like to include a variety.  Some of my favorites are random pieces that can be fashioned together, I love seeing what students create (robots, monster trucks, dump trucks, super hero's). I have never used persona dolls but I am thinking that this would be a great thing to introduce.  Currently, I use social stories and draw out scenarios and feelings.  It would be great to transition to dolls for addressing issues especially during circle time. 

There are so many things to consider when you are setting up a center/classroom.  I am sure that as I hear from eveybody else that I will get some great ideas!

Resources:

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and

 ourselves. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Laureate Education Inc., (2012). "Welcome to an Anti-Bias Learning Community". Retrieved

 from Walden University.