Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

Over the past year, I have been dealing with my own racisms at work from my boss and other co-workers. It has been a very challenging year, to the point where I almost quit on many occasions. Luckily, I did find support with 2 other workers and through them we have worked out several of our issues. However, during the roughest part I could have easily created an atmosphere in which my anger and hurt from my boss was taken out on my children and families. I hope that I did not do this, and in fact I am very close to a majority of my families, but when dealing with the hurt that was caused to me I could have made any one of my families feel bad because of what I was going through. Because I am aware of how my own experiences can affect how I respond to others, I need to make sure that I do not allow my hurt and anger reflect in my teachings and dealings with my children and their families. I realize that it is not the fault of the families I serve, and I need to keep separate how my boss makes me feel and my position as teacher.

Observing Communication

Since I work in an early childhood setting, I decided to observe a child communicating with another adult in a different environment. While I was at the park with my grandson, I noticed several other young children with adults so I chose one to observe. With this observation the child I focused on was trying to gain the attention of his mother. She was talking with another mother and not really talking to him at first. Finally she stops and asks what it is that he wants. She does not seem too happy but she gets up and takes him over to the swings. She tells him she is not going to push him for long and that he needs to find something else to do. The boy does not say anything to this but you can see how happy he was to be on the swing. After she is done pushing him, she tells him she is going to sit back down. The boy waits until the swing stops and then jumps down and runs off.

 

What I noticed the most is that the mother seemed more interested in talking with the other mother than her son. The communication was not very often or long before she left and went back to the other mother.

Lisa Kolbeck, from the media segment this week, discussed how young children should not be closed off while speaking. She also stated that children communicate in different ways, many times using their bodies to help with their communication. From the observation that took place in the park I believe that the mother could have tried listening to her son a little more and that she could have taken the time to allow him to express his wants and needs. The mother could have also engaged more in play with her son at the park also so that he could have felt more important and respected.

 

I believe from what I observed that the child did not feel important and he was disappointed not only with not having the communication that he tried for, but also not being the center of play with his mother. As for myself, I know that I communicate better than what I observed, however there is always room for improvement. I try to engage in conversations with my children to get them to tell me more. Open ended questions are a huge part of the day. One problem that I have is the amount of time spent with each child. In the video segment this week, two girls were shown talking with Kolbeck. That would be great but I have 17 children and I am not able to get to every child like that on a daily basis. One thing that I would love to do is spend that kind of time communicating with each child and help them with their play. I found that the way she just kept helping them along with their by adding tools they needed to be the animals was great. This was a great learning experience for the children because they were not just discussing things about owls and cats, they were doing living it.

 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Communication with your children [Video webcast]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_4066646_1%26url%3D

 

 

Creating Affirming Environments

Welcome to “Child’s Play” family child care center. My name is Elizabeth Garcia and I will be sharing with you the vision of my center. I serve 20 families and their children ages 3-5. The children have several centers for learning and play along with areas that help promote healthy social identities that help with building confidence and family pride. When first entering the center, families will find a “Parent News Board” that not only gives basic information such as daily schedule, menu, lesson plan, and news letter but also resources for the families. Families can use this board for their own use too. They can add letters of their own of things going on in their own lives, up-coming events that they want to share with others in the community and offer services. Each child has their own cubbies lined along the wall with a picture of each child along with their name. The centers are set up so that the “quiet” centers are close together and the “noisy” centers are together. Each center has labels on the shelves and containers in English and Spanish and some have pictures of words in sign language. The centers also have multi-cultural items to help all children feel welcome and included. The library contains multi-cultural books to help “introduce differences and similarities” (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010); the art area contains multi-cultural paints, paper, crayons, and markers to help support this as well. The music area has a “diverse selection of CDs…to reflect children’s home cultures and languages as well as the larger community, country, and world” (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010 p. 52). The dramatic play area contains dolls that support girls, boys, and cultures as well as “clothing and toys for both genders {that} reflects the children’s background. (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010 p. 52). The bock area contains many different types of blocks along with people figures for children to use for play acting and expressing emotions. The walls show diverse children playing in the different centers, different art work or wall hangings that represent different heritages and a section for the children’s art work to be shown. I also have a “Share Your Culture” center that contains shelves for families to bring in something that represents their culture or heritage. The items are displayed for a month and then sent home and a new item is sent back in its place. Each family has a time that they can come in and share the item with the children and explain why it is important to them. My “calming down” center has a large soft pillow along with small pillows on the floor. In this area children can explore their emotions by looking in a mirror that is on the wall above the pillows. Around the mirror are many different faces of children showing different emotions like happy, sad, scared, frustrated, mad, excited, tired, and so on. We eat family style for breakfast and lunch which means the children serve themselves as much as possible; they also help with the setting of the table and cleaning up when finished. Thank you for visiting, I hope you enjoyed our center.

Inspirations:

I was really impressed with watching the video segment with Adriana Castillo and some of the sections that she included into her center. Many of these things I would not be allowed to create at my own center that I work at; however, if I did have my own center I would have them. The main section that inspired me was the Family Culture Share that Castillo has in her center. I loved this idea and knew right away that I needed to include this in my own center. Another inspiration that I received from Castillo was the idea to allow families to use the “news board” themselves. I thought this was another excellent idea for partnership between the center and families as well as a type of support for everyone. I like that the board is not just used to inform parents about daily routines and what is on the menu. I like that it can be used by the families to inform everyone about different things going on in their lives or in the community. The calming down area is another center that I was inspired by Castillo. I believe that this could be a comfort for the children and I included the mirror with emotions so that they can try to evaluate their own feelings. I do have a mirror with emotions on it now in my classroom, but it is by the sink because that is where I was told to put it. I believe it could be of better use in a center for children to be able to explore their feelings.

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer) (2011). Welcome to an anti-bias learning community. [Video webcast]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_4066646_1%26url%3D

What Have I Learned

One hope that I have with regard to working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds includes the hope that they are being listened to and that their needs are being met. Many times helping our diverse children and families just takes listening to the family members and carrying through with the things that they may need to help their child be successful. Little things can make a big difference in a child’s learning environment and out diverse families are no different.

One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field that I work in, related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice includes trainings for teachers for anti-bias classrooms. Every year we have trainings on so many different things and they are important, but one thing that we have never had trainings on or even had someone come and speak about is an anti-bias classroom. I believe that all teachers would benefit from an anti-bias workshop and they may even find someone to help support them in trying to make their classroom a better place for all their children.

As always it has been great working with all of you, you have been a great support to me through this class. I appreciate all the responses and comments they have helped me look deeper and think harder. Thank you so much for everything and I hope to see you all in the next class on our journey!!

 

Creating Art

When I first read this assignment I knew I wanted to paint something, I have been painting for as long as I remember but I haven't painted anything this size in almost 15 years. When I began I thought I might paint some children doing something or several different children of different cultures. But when I paint it just kind of comes out and when I started with the sky I just kept going with the colors and then the outline of the castle. I also love history and have always wanted to visit an old castle, but my thinking for this painting went deeper than just a love for history. The purpose for the castle is to show that even people who live in the most wonderful homes deal with issues whether they are a target of racial issues or the cause of it. One does not have to be poor to be a target of any type of biases; and just because one has money does not mean they are not racist. The same can be said for children of abuse and the abusers. The bright sun behind the castle is the dawn of a new day; the dawn of understanding biases and how we can make the world a better place for the next generation of young children. The dawn of a new day is passed due; that is why I chose the dark colors, but there is still hope in the brightness. It is a new day for me and I intend to continue forward with my learning and teaching in an anti-bias classroom. Even after I finish this course, this degree, I intend to continue to grow and learn so that I can help in the development of our children so that their future may be brighter than the sun.

“We Don’t Say Those Words in Class”

This is unbelievable, this just happened in my classroom today. We were eating snack and waiting on a few children to join us so that we could finish and clean up to go outside. I turned to my assistant and ask “who are we waiting on?” when all of a sudden a little voice at the table on the other side of me said “we still waitin on those Spanish girls”. So at first I was frozen and all I could think was I can’t believe she just said that, but then I heard my assistant say, “did she really just say that?” I said yes, she did. Before I could respond my assistant said “we don’t talk like that in this class, they have names use them. But then I jumped in and added “A, yes they do speak Spanish because they are Hispanic, but when you say it like that it is like you are calling them names. Do you like when people call you names? No, it’s not nice and it hurts their feelings, they can speak two languages and it is sometimes hard for them to understand everything. We need to try to help them; do you think you can do that? Good, because you all are special in here and I love you all the same.

The message that might have been communicated to A by my assistant is that yes it was wrong, but she might not have understood why it was wrong. She only told A not to use those kinds of words in our class. She did not explain further for clearer understanding. A did at first look confused and hurt herself and this may be because she has heard this term used by others around her and she did not know that it is not all right to use.

 

I am not completely sure if my response is totally anti-biased, I am still learning; however, I do believe that after expanding on what my assistant said she did understand more as to why it is not okay to talk about the girls like that. I do not believe that she meant to be hurtful; I just think that she did not know any better. I hope that by explain about the girls and that they are Hispanic and that they do speak two different languages, but that is a good thing that A will think before she makes another comment like that about the little girls in the future. I understand that children this age are “confused about racial group names and actual color of their skin” (Pelo, 2008). But I was hoping to help them obtain some understanding that different does not mean bad. I also believe that the other children listening understand a little more also, so this was actually a good moment for understanding to take place for the entire class not just A. I wanted them to know that just because they are different does not mean I love any of them more or less.

 

Pelo, A. (Ed.) (2008). Rethinking early childhood education. Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools. 

Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

I have heard children use the term “gay” as an insult toward other children on many occasions, not so much as name calling but when they are referring towards something they may not like they will say “that’s so gay”. I do get frustrated when I hear this because for one thing these children are too young to understand what they are saying so I know this is something that they hear often enough to know how to use the saying. These comments can influence all children especially those who are hearing these comments at home create further misconceptions and stereotypes causing homophobic tendencies to be included in their own social identities. Like we have discussed, we learn first from our families and the world around us, so we also need to counter these misconceptions before they become full blown biases towards others. When I hear children use terms like this, or any name calling, I immediately tell them that those are words we do not use in this classroom like that. I do try to find out where or from whom they heard the words from and if the child even knows what they are saying. Many times the child does not even know what they are saying.

 

My response to someone who believes that early childhood centers should avoid the inclusion of books depicting gay or lesbian individuals such as same-sex partnered families would be the same for someone who does not want their child to discuss religious holidays or allow their child to celebrate birthdays. I would tell them that I can appreciate their concern and their views and if they did not want their child to read the books that is fine, but the books will be here for those who do want them included. I would also allow them to read the books themselves if they would like so that they could see what the books are teaching. We need to be respectful of all the families we serve not just the ones who think their views are right. I do not stop discussing Christmas, Chanukah, and Kwanza, but for those families who do not want their children to learn about these different holidays, their child can go to another room or even stay at home. So if a parent does not think the books appropriate for their child, I will make sure their child does not read or look at the book. If we are reading the book in class I would have the child go to another room.