PROFESSIONAL HOPES AND GOALS

One hope that you have when you think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds:

The one hope that I have is that I will be able to meet the need of the children and their families. With that being said I will try and succeed in helping the children to grow and share their culture with the other children to give them a chance to learn something new.

One goal you would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice:What I would like to see and the goal I would want is for children and adults to appreciate people differences. I would do my best to teach the children how to handle all the diversity they will see and how to deal with it. Everyone has the right to be themselves and we should help children to understand that we are alike is some ways but it is our culture that makes us.

To all my colleagues:  I would like to say a thank you to all of my colleagues who I learn so much with. I especially say a special thanks to Dr. Horton who taught us all these new things so we could grow in knowledge.  I wish you all luck in your future classes and if you are done good luck in your chosen field.

 

 

 

 

 

Welcoming Families From Around the World

Before I welcome the family from the country of El Salvador I plan to support their culture show them how wonderful it can be here in the United States and my classroom.  I would find out some information about El Salvador about how they lived there.

1. Encouraging a clear line of communication will free the families of any misunderstandings that may develop. In the classroom we are all connected and we need to make sure that we can discuss anything that needs to be addressed.

2. Providing significance learning experiences will support the curriculum or learning program. This will help the family to develop a way of learning and give them the chance of learning a new culture.  They must be able to know that what their children are learning is will help them to have a better life.

3. When we connect in a positive attitudes regarding the culture, we can see just how important each culture is and what the importance of it means.  Be appropriate toward it entirety will allow families, children, and educators to see things from diverse perspectives and how we can learn from one another

4. We should also make real-world connections that have direction and understanding towards certain goals.  When we see a connection, it stays with us on a consistent basis and may not be easily forgotten.

5. We could let them share some stories about their culture and how their life was from El Salvador. Many families may seem guarded about certain topics in their life, but being a good listener and not judging and with communication you build lasting friendships, trust, and bonds that would go far in the educational system.

 

The way I hope this would benefit the family and me is that we would learn from one another and that I could give the family any help they needed. I believe that we could learn from each other by sharing information and letting them know that I care for their child and to help them understand our ways.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

 

 

One memory that I have of prejudice is when I was working in a school and it there were a lot of Burmese of some of the kids were making comments about how they dressed and the food they brought in to eat. I could see how it was making the kids feel.

The way it diminish equity was that the American kids felt that they were better than the kids from Burmese. They felt their race was superior to them and they should be more American like if they were going to live here.

 This made me feel bad and ashamed of the way the American kids were treating someone who was different and from another country. I just wanted to grab the kids and tell them how rude they were being.

 Like I said above I would like to take the children and talk to them how everyone had the same rights even though they are different. I would explain to them how things were in their country and invite the Burmese kids to tell them about it and how they wanted to keep their culture plus learn the American way of living.

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

One example of micro-aggression that I detected this week:

I was out at the mall and there were some people that were Burmese and the men were wearing what look like wrap around dresses.  I heard some people saying that if they are going to live here in America they should dress properly in pants.

This was a public place that everyone has the right to shop and wear what they feel comfortable in and if it is the way they always dressed than they have the right. It made me mad that those people were so closed minded. Everyone has the right to show pride in their culture and to keep it alive.

My observation of microaggression made me aware we need to be careful of how we are speaking to others because even the best intentions can be insensitive. We need to treat all people with respect to their ways. We are all different and that is what makes us special.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

The three people that I talked to all had about the same definition of culture and diversity. My son defined cultural has the beliefs that people have. Diversity he described is the way people are different about their cultural.

My brother-in-law said that culture is that of a person’s race, choice of religion, and how they live. He believes that diversity is what makes you different from others.

The last person I talked to was a friend who is a teacher and he says that culture is a quantity of the life people live. It includes morals, behavior and the principle that is handed down over generations. Diversity is the mixture of all different types of culture and how people live.

I agreed with them all but words that sounded very familiar were beliefs, way of life, action and everything about them.

 

I think that all the information that I received from the answers to the questions are things that I have studied in this class and others. Especially, when it came to the words of their beliefs, their way of life and how they lived and passed it on.

As educators, we need to put our prejudices to the side and focus on the children and families that we work with.  Another thing we need to do is make sure that we are respecting and honoring their background.

In any case regardless of where you are from you will always come in meet someone that comes from a different culture?  It is what makes a person who they are.  It is valuable to know how to interact with people that are different because that is what the world is made of.

 

My Family Culture

During this catastrophic event, I know that I would have to reevaluate my whole lifestyle.  In choosing three things that mean something important to me, I would pick my bible, photo album, and my tweety pillow. I would explain I pick the bible so that I can continue to worship and read the bible with my family. The photo album would be so we can continue to remember those that we have lost but still have one another. Has for the tweety pillow it was the last gift that I got from my husband before he died.

Arriving in a new place and only be able to keep one personal item it would be very hard to pick just one but I would keep the bible and put pictures that were important in it. It would still be counted has one item I hope because of the pictures being in the bible. I would still be heartbroken but having my family being with me would make the move and loss of the other items worth everything.

What I have gained is that I would be able to still continuing living and remembering my culture and where I came from because our family culture is a major part of our identities.

When I Think of Research

 

During this course I was a little uncertain about it because I wasn't really knowledgeable of what it was all about.  Having taken this course I truly have a new understanding of the structure of research and reporting the findings.  I believe that I have acquired a lot but I also know that I can learn a lot more and improve on the information that I have been presented with to.  I wasn't knowledgeable of the process and now that I am I will pay more attention to studies done and how each part is important to the others because it helps form the broader picture. 

 Designing a research study on a common topic isn't an easy task. As a researcher, it helps that you have obtained some other studies, articles, books or other resources to support what you are covering in your study. Because many times the support you find will help give the study credibility and show whether others are on the same page.  Creating a plan is a good and important ideal so that you know what it is you're investigating but really conducting is the hardest part because now this part has many other variables that can help make it or break it.  The conducting of the research is sometimes way more critical than the plan because as the research goes on the plan, method, process can change according to participation especially if your study needs others to contribute to get a clear and concise meaning.  

Some of the challenges I found were in writing my applications of part 2 papers.  I sometimes, forgot to put in the sources to support what I may have believed in, said or thought  I don’t believe that I was off course with my stated opinion but I didn't always strengthen my words with sources showing that someone else concurred or felt the same. I can say that I didn't always execute into it in each paper, but I did improve at finding sources with or without the resources given to show support. 

 

One thing that I can say is that early childhood professionals have their work cut out for them whether  inside or outside of the classroom.  Aiding and teaching others, especially children, is an overwhelming task but I am thankful to each and every one who has pledged to training, teaching or preparing us all too either is in the field of early childhood education or educating preschool children. It is gratifying either way because it is something much needed.  

I would like to say thank you to all of you for your feedback and through all of you I have learned so much. You made this class so much easier than I thought it would be. I want to wish you all of you good luck in the rest of your courses and I am hoping to see all or some of you in future classes.