Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

There are several consequences that you would face as being considered different than the majority of people that you are surrounded by.  The first -ism that I have encountered in my first year of teaching would be racism.  In racism, there are a lot of challenges that these families face.  One of the main challenges that these families would face would be the social aspect of life.  The children would have a hard time "fitting in" to their school environment.  It would also be hard on the families of the student.  Not only would it be hard on the students, but it could be hard on the parents.  I have a student in my classroom that has faced several racist comments by other students in my class.  The parents of both students do not get along and they have made the problem so big that they have brought it to the school administration.

Another -ism that I have faced during teaching is sexism.  I have a set of parents of one of my students that has parents of the same sex.  When they have came in for parent teacher conferences, they have had other parents and other students make inappropriate comment towards them.  It is hard for me as a teacher to criticize and deal with these situations.  Especially when there are students talking to other students in class about the problem.

Observing Communication

The setting that I chose to focus on for this week was in the Kidz Klub Classroom at my school.  I observed for 45 minutes before school started.  The children in the Kidz Klub Classroom ranged in age from 3-years old to 12-years old.  I only focused on the communication between the workers and the children ranging in age from 3 to five years of age.

The one thing that I noticed are that these children ask the adults a lot of questions and like to have someone playing with them constantly.  These children actually played with life-like toys and acted as if they were a doctor, cook and a teacher.  The adults acted as the children and the young children acted as adults.  They were having so much fun!

The one thing that could have been done to make the communication more effective is if the younger children played more with the older children.  There seemed to be different groups in the classroom.  This means that the children around the same age played with certain toys and they did not communicate with the older children and the older children did not communicate with the younger children.  The younger children could learn a lot more from the older children than what they will learn from the adults and vice versa. 

The communication interactions could have lowered the young children's self-esteem.  The one time that the young student went to talk to the older student, they pushed the little one away.  The adults should be the ones to encourage all of the children, at all ages, to communicate with others.

One thing that I have learned about myself is that I want to make sure that I allow and encourage the older students to help, communicate and play with the younger children.  Doing this will allow for me or the teacher to sit back and observe more communication with all of the children.

Creating Affirming Environments

If I was opening my own Family Child Care Home, I would want my setting to be in a location that was in a low-class or poverty environment.  I would want my setting to be in a poverty location because I want to make an impact on the families and children in the surrounding environments.  I would make sure to include different staff of different ethnic and religious backgrounds.  Doing this would allow for all of the children to feel welcome.  Not only would it allow for the children to feel welcome, but it would allow the families to feel welcome. 

Another element that I would make sure to include is different toys or manipulatives.  Doing this would allow the children a variety of toys to play/learn from.  The children could have toys that they played with, that was only from their culture/religion.  Incorporating these toys would allow the children and families to want to come to the Family Child Care Home. 

The last element that I would like to include would be field trips or activities that required the families to get involved and go into the community.  Doing this would allow the Family Child Care Home to branch out to others in the community and for those involved to realize that they want to be a part of this organization.

I will make sure that every child and family feels welcomed each and every day.  I would do this by getting out in the community as much as possible and making sure that the families were involved.  I would also teach about the different cultures.  Doing this would make the families feel welcome and comfortable.

What I Have Learned

One of the main hopes that I have when working with children and families from different backgrounds is broadening my horizon to the different backgrounds.  Learning about the different families backgrounds would allow me to become a stronger and better teacher.  It would also allow me to incorporate things into the classroom that I would not have done before knowing the different backgrounds. 

One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field is that every student is able to see evidence of their backgrounds in the classroom.  Not only making them feel comfortable, but allowing me to put different aspects of everyone's background throughout the classroom.  This will develop a stronger and more healthier classroom environment. 

Lastly,  I just wanted to say thank you to my colleagues.  Our communication and sharing of stories have been very open and I have felt comfortable sharing my stories and experiences.  Also, thank you for understanding and giving me advice on what I have shared.  Good luck with the last few classes of your masters and I look forward to having another class with you all again!!! 

Trauma

This week was a very hard and touching week for me.  I have a few students in my classroom that suffer from trauma throughout their home environment.  It is hard for me to see them suffer, which also directly effects how well they do in school.  Below is a poem that I wrote about trauma.  Not only does trauma have an impact in their home environment, but many other factors as well. 

Trauma happens in everyone.
Whether it is shows a huge impact or only in one.
I have adjusted to the impact that it has
Not only on her, but the others it makes sad.
Being an educator, it is my job to support every child
Even if it drives me wild.
Trauma has a major impact on many students at young age,
Which we all need to work to save.

"We Can't Say That Stuff in Class"

Yesterday I was at the grocery store, making my biweekly grocery trip.  I came across a woman that was shopping with her husband and she was on crutches.  The reason that she was on crutches was because she only had one leg.  There was a family of four that was down the same isle as myself and the lady that was on crutches.  The littlest child, probably around five years old, pointed to the lady on crutches and loudly said: "what's wrong with that girl, she is legless."  The parent must not have heard the child say it, because the same child pointed to the lady on crutches again and said: "mom and dad, that lady is legless."  The mom turned to the children and said: "that's not nice, she has one leg.  But she can still get around just like we can."  Then the dad chimed in and said: "she is no different than any person here.  She is the same as everyone, she just has one leg."  After the parents said that to their child, the child could not stop staring at the lady.  The lady on crutches did hear the child say that she was legless both times because she looked at the family both times, but did not say anything. 

The message that was communicated from the mother and father to the child is that: even though she may look different and not have two legs like almost everyone else has, she is still the same as anyone.  This is great to hear the parents say and make sure that their child does not have any stereotypes. 

An educator would have said the same thing.  The educator may have also gave several other examples.  They would have tried to have the students act like they were in that lady's shoes.  The educator would ask the student how they would feel being made fun of if they only had one leg.

Gender, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation

One of the scenarios that I chose to focus on this week was in relationship to the use of homophobic terms.  My parents taught my sister and I from a young age the importance of not using homophobic terms.  Throughout my sister's elementary school years, she was a huge tomboy.  No one would be her friend and she was judged all day, every day at school.  To me, it seemed as though the young children that were making fun of her did not realize that it was a bad thing.  My sister would come home crying every day because no one would talk or play with her.  After my parents talked to the teacher several times about the situation, the teacher said that she would address it with the class.  The problem continued until she was in five grade.  In fifth grade, my sister changed her appearance and she had several people that were trying to talk to her and be her friend.  Even though I was not in her situation, it was still very hard for me to see her like this.

If I was informed by someone that they do not want their children interacting with them then I would try to find the reasons why they did not want me interacting with their child.  I would make sure that I would do all that I could to treat them the same and I would not judge at all.  Just because they have different sexual orientation than others, does not mean they are any different than me or other individuals.  Lastly, I would make sure to respect their decision after talking to them if they really did not want tme teaching or interacting with their child.