Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

Since taking this class and from previous classes I have grown much when it has come to diversity. I never knew just how much that I did not know about diversity and learning about how many ism’s there are. I have always accepted and respected people for whom they are. To be able to do that is first you must know your self-identity, “The better you know yourself, the better you can understand your responses to children and families you work with,” this is what Derman-Sparks & Edwards (2010) suggest. When it comes to being an educator, it is important for individuals to understand their self-identity to flourish and to lead others in the right direction. 

An ism that I feel that I see not only in the classroom but everywhere is racism; children have been learning that from the very beginning of their life. They hear their parents talking about and seeing it in the news every day. Teaching children to know that being mean or saying mean things about or to someone is not good thing. As educators we must teach the children that we are all equal, and the color of a person skin or where they come from doesn’t mean that they are much different than them. Our focus should be on teaching them to being kind and understanding to everyone. When I hear a child saying that they can’t play with certain people because they are of a different race, I find that to be a good time to talk about how that can make someone feel bad.

In my classroom I expect every student to respect me and their classmates. Children learn from adults and others so I must treat them and others with respect.  Being the teacher I set the tone for the way I want things to be in my classroom.

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).

Observing Communication

My observation took place in a classroom with children that have different disabilities. The grades were kindergarten to second grade.  I was watching a teacher’s assistant working with a child age six with ADHD and the mind of a three or four year old. They were working on learning how to spell their name and to draw a picture of their family. Well with child was not paying attention and not doing what he was supposed to do.

The assistant was talking to him and asking questions about his family who he lived with, any brothers or sisters and if he had any pets, he was answering her questions. In the video Lisa Kolbeck also mentions that children have to have to feel listened to and seen (Laureate Education, 2011). So by her asking him about his family he felt like she cared and he enjoyed sharing the information with her. I believed that by her getting to his level and asking him questions it helped him to connect with what they were doing, he drew his family even though it wasn’t very well she told him how wonderful it was and he became very excited about it.

I work with children with disabilities every day and my grandson is ADHD and is on the autism spectrum and she handle it just has I do with my class and grandson. By showing them that we care about how they feel and we are interested in the things they do will make a happy child. As Stephenson points out, through observation, “I learned that each child has a different style, and is likely to talk in different ways and in different contexts. I needed to find ways they could communicate that were enjoyable for them” (Stephenson, 2009).

 Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). Strategies for working with diverse children: Communicating with young children. Baltimore, MD:

Stephenson, A. (2009). Conversations with a 2-year-old. YC: Young Children, 64(2), 90-95. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database. http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=37131016&site=ehost-live&scope=site

 

Creating Affirming Environments

My Family Child Care home will be displayed in a way to show parents that they are welcome and their children will receive the best educational experience in my care. I would do that by hanging pictures of all the families and some things from their culture. The environment will be a positive and welcoming environment. There will be a lot of multicultural pictures and I will conduct project in which families send information about their cultural.

   “Relationships and interactions with children and families, the visual and material environment, and the daily curriculum all come together to create the anti-bias learning community" (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010, p.51).

My daycare will have a reading area with books on diversity, people who have jobs in the community, and how there are different types of families. I will have a dramatic play area which would have will have costumes, puppets and dolls from all forms of culture and diversity. With these things the children can not only use their imagination, but also play out many characters regardless of their gender. For instance, we will have dolls with different skin colors, gender and dolls that represent different disabilities such as being on a wheelchair or having a hearing aid. I would have a music area and that would have music and instruments from different cultures.

"The toys material and equipment you put out for children; the posters, pictures, and art objects you hang on the wall;  and the types of furniture and how you arrange them all influence what children learn”(Derman (Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). I would have posters and art work from different cultures hanging on the wall. I would ask parents to bring in some type of food from their cultures to have the children try. I would want my daycare to be a welcoming and safe environment for all the children who come.

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).

 

What I have Learned

 

 

One hopes that I have when I think about working with children and families that I can teach them to respect and to treat everyone equally. I would hope that I could teach the children that even though we do not look, act, or have different ways we live that we all are and want the same thing in life, to feel accepted for who we are. That being different is what makes them and others unique. I also hope that just because someone comes from a different background that I do not judge them unfairly. Children are the hope for the future and I want to be the one who starts them off in the right direction.

 The one goal you would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is that all educators especially teachers in the ECE field is that they all should have taken classes on all these issues. If we can learn and teach ourselves how to deal with these issues than we can teach these to our children the world would be a better place.  I would like for the whole Early Childhood field to accept people for who they are and to urge them to promote anti-bias curriculum equality for all.

Finally has these 8 weeks come to an end I would like to say Thank You to Dr. Kein and all of my colleagues. You all have made this course a very informative learning experience. I have learned much about myself and how to work and teach anti-bias and diversity to my students. I could not have made it through this course without all the encouragement and the wonderful ideas from the discussions and blogs. I wish you all much happiness and luck has you continuing your life journeys.

 

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Seeing Diversity Art

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

I can remember a time when I was grocery shopping and had my grandchildren with me. My grandson William saw a man from Burma and he asked why the man was wearing a long sheet. I quickly bent down and told him to please not say that to someone. I told the gentleman that I was sorry for what he said. Than he did something that totally surprised me, he explained to him why he wears clothes like this sometimes. He told him that was how men in his country sometimes wear these garments. My grandson looked at him and said that he was sorry and thanked him for telling him that.

I think that the person responded very nicely and did a great job of not making my grandson feel like he totally did something wrong. Later I talked to him about not saying things or making fun of people who are different because he would not like someone to make fun of him.

As an anti-bias educator I would talk to them about the different cultures and how people dress and do things differently than we do. We are all the same; we are all different understanding more about feeling proud of their own culture and learn respect for others” ( Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010, p. 67). I would do this by picking a different culture to teach about monthly so they could get a good understanding. I would also do this about people with disabilities.

Sparks-Derman, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves. Washington: National Association for the Education of Young Children. p. 67.

 

Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

Homophobia and heterosexism have permeated the world of young children in several ways. In our culture it is implanted that the traditional family that consists of a man and female has the norm. In the early childhood centers and schools you have many books on families in which have a mother and father that live in a happy home usually with a pet. When it comes to toys of families it is the same way.  When watching movies in the classroom you never see one where the couples are of the same sex.

I believe that has an educator childhood center should not exclude books that depict gay or lesbian individuals especially since we live in a world that allows them to be a married couple. In our world there are many same sex couples that are raising children and they will be going to these schools so it means we need to teach the other children this can be counted has a family too.

If I were in a situation where a parent didn’t want their child in a classroom with a homosexual or transgender person I would tell them that we have a curriculum that we follow and that the sexual orientation of the others should not be a problem when it comes to their child’s education. But after explaining all this and they still feel that way I would tell them maybe they should look elsewhere.

I cannot ever remember using any of these terms but have heard people use them. My nephew called his uncle gay along with friends even singing a song. This made him horrible because he is gay and he thought that his nephew cared about him. When children hear this from an adult or parent they will do the same and more than likely they do not know what the word means they are just repeating what they hear. This can lead the child to being prejudice to others. This can have a negative effect on a child and make a child feel bad. I have a boy in my class that is being raise by his gay grandmother and her partner and a child ask her if she was a man or woman. This was because he had heard someone else made that comment.