Week 6 blog assignment

For this week's assignment regarding international organizations, I would choose United Children's Fund (UNICEF), Save the Children, and United Nations Educational Scientific Cultural Organization (UNESCO). I have known UNICEF for a long time and I pay close attention to the website to find out what are happening to children around the world. UNICEF updates information and responds to situations and disasters very quickly, so that children who are affected can get support as fast as possible. The next international organization is Save the Children. This organization strives to help children to improve their lives by providing enough food, needed education and literacy, and medical care. It focuses not only the States but around the whole world. The third international organization I chose was UNESCO, which it works to support civilizations, cultures and peoples, and promote respect to each other. Civilization is an important part for children as well as recognizing cultures and differences.

I would like to work as an early childhood educator in various preschool settings to support children and teach them the necessary skills to become civilized. I would also like to be a trainer for other early childhood educators so that children can get the best support and education. I want to be an officer working in one of these organizations, to collect useful information and resources for children, families, and educators so that we can continue to meet the needs for different groups. 

Week 4 blog assignment

I chose National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), Early Childhood Education of British Columbia (ECEBC), and United Nations Children’s Fund Canada (UNICEF Canada). NAEYC has so many useful resources for helping teachers in developing their knowledge and skills by providing research, conferences, and journals/articles. I have found the website to b e useful to my capstone project. I chose ECEBC because I would like to work as an early childhood educator in british columbia when I go back to Canada, and this website provides updated information in the child policies, resources and job opportunities in BC. British Columbia is a multicultural province and the website also supports teachers in helping children recognize cultural diversity, so it would be very helpful for my capstone project as well. UNICEF Canada would give me wider perception when I look at early childhood education, and I’d like to learn more information about children from different countries.

I would like to work as an early childhood educator in various preschool settings with different age groups of children, so that I gain enough experiences as working as a teacher. I would also like to work as an administrator so that I learn to manage the school setting, including financial piece, human resourcing, professional development support, parent/family conferences and so on. After having leadership skills, experiences towards working with children, families, and different teachers, I would want to open my own center and have my own business.

Exploring roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

As working at an international school in China, I have met different people and organizations getting together to provide better education and support to children. Parent Support Association (PSA), is one of them. This organization was built by a group of parents intending to offer parents and teachers supports that would be helpful for children. PSA provides after school activities for children, speech and discussion about popular topics and issues regarding children and their development, and most importantly, parent involvement in the school curriculum. PSA supports teachers in many areas, such as finding useful resources and providing opportunities for parent involvement. As an early childhood educator, I have been working with PSA to get more parent involvement and learn new knowledge about different cultures. I would like to work as a member of PSA in the future, so that I can provide more useful information as both a teacher and a parent. Another organization is the Early Childhood Educators of BC (ECEBC), which is from British Columbia, Canada. I love this organization as it supports early childhood educators in so many ways. It collects related resources, articles, and journals that teachers can use, and gathers information for teachers' professional development. It also holds early childhood annual conferences for early childhood educators to meet and discuss important issues and topics. The next one is Developmental Disabilities Association (DDA), which supports children and adults with special needs, to overcome difficulties and obstacles. This organization provides inclusive programs which help young children reach their full potential and give them opportunities to be in an equal and anti-bias environment. I would like to work as early childhood educators in this organization to support children and create a fair and equal environment for children.

I need to be more aware of families coming from different cultures, learn and support their cultures so that families and children feel comfortable and being recognized and respected by others. All of these organizations provide support to children and families, and they also offer job opportunities. I would like to work as an administrator in the future to make sure every early childhood educator should have enough and related trainings about issues and trends in the early childhood field, to provide children the best education they should have.

EDUC 6358 week 8 blog assignment

As an early childhood educator, I would like to promote equal rights and fairness for children. I want every child to have the right to be educated and be treated equally. To have an anti-bias curriculum can help children understand and learn justice and fairness. I want parents to be able to listen to their children, to figure out what their children's needs are, instead of making all the decisions for them. Children should have the right to decide on their own what they want to do and what they want to be in the future. Moreover, parents should treat their children as children, to give them time to play and explore new things and challenges. Some parents give too much pressure to their children too early, and these children don't have childhood, and they dont know how to play. It hurts me when I see children not knowing how to play. 

Finally, I would like to thank all the colleagues I have been walked through during the past 8 weeks, or even more. I have learned new ideas and been inspired by your brilliant thoughts. I wish you all the best in your future career!

Regards,

Lufei

EDUC 6358 week 7 blog assignment

I chose to explore China since this is the place I was born and grew up. I stayed in China until I was 15 years old and moved to Canada with my family. I have had lots of experience which might have influence on my emotional development. 

When I was young, I experienced the Tiananmen Protests of 1989. I didn’t have a lot of memories about it but I do remember there were lots of people on the street, as well as policemen. Sirens were everywhere and I felt scared and was kept at home all day long. It was the time that I felt so unsecured because I couldn’t see any of my friends from school, and my parents were stressed about the situation too. I could feel the stress and anxiety from them. My parents knew I was scared so whenever they were at home, one of them was always with me for sure, reading books, watching TV and/or playing games with me. It wasn’t very long before the chaos finished and because of the comfort my parents gave me, it didn't leave a horrible scar in my memory, but it did affect my thoughts and emotions as I am quite scared whenever I hear chaos happening around the area.

In China, there are still lots of families living in poverty. Due to increased income inequality, lots of families still live on less than $2/day. Children from these families drop out from school because their parents can’t afford the tuition. In most cases, these families have more than one child, thus making their living conditions even harder. This lack of education impacts children’s development in all areas. Parents without education don’t seem to understand the importance of children's emotional development and early childhood education. They let their children wandering on the street and put them into elementary school when they are 7 years old (According to the Compulsory Education Law of China, children receive free education until they complete middle school). They also don't have the knowledge to support their children's emotions. All they care is whether their children have good academic performance.Nowadays people start to realize the importance of early education and try their best to put their children in childcare centers. Parents understand that this early education could have impacts on shaping their children’s personalities as well as their future.

6358 week 6 blog assignment

Nowadays, children are surrounded and exposed to the environment full of sex and sexuality. Children start to encounter these ideas at younger ages, and they haven’t had the ability to understand or deal with them (Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. ,2009). According to the book “So sexy so soon” by Levin and Kilbourne, children are too young to understand the meaning, but they have always been curious about sex and sexuality, and if parents and schools can provide them with honest and age-appropriate information, it would be good for their understanding of the topic and their development (2009). However, what children are being exposed in the environment teaches them they should be beautiful, thin, hot, and sexy, and these are not the ways children should understand sexualization.

When walking in the shopping mall and in the stores, there are full of posters and advertisements with beautiful, hot and sexy ladies. The music in the mall is completely not suitable for young children to listen to, but it is so loud that everyone will have to listen to it. When seeing girls or ladies being tall, thin, and wearing sexy clothes, I have heard people complimenting them “so beautiful”, “look at that girl, you will never be as tall and thin as she is”, and so on. This information sends out messages that will have wrong definition to children about sex and sexualization. Children should not be given the ideas about “being thin and sexy is beautiful”, and they will get the wrong messages about sex and learn the inappropriate knowledge. As early childhood professional, we should always remind ourselves and the parents, to have developmentally and age appropriate books and music for young children. When they have concerns about their body parts and are curious about the topic, we need to deliver the right and proper messages, so that they do not learn negative information about the topic. We cannot control what the environment shows the children and what children learn from people other than their parents and schools, but we can at least minimize the negative impact on children when we choose to address the concerns in the appropriate way.

Reference

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

week 5 blog assignment

As an immigrant family living in Canada, I have experienced racism and stereotypes myself. When going to school, I didn’t make friends with local Caucasian students because I couldn’t communicate with them. I didn’t have the language to build relationship with others and I sometimes felt other students didn’t like Asian students because we were labelled as “perfect academic students” or “study machines”. This was clearly bias and I hated it but I couldn’t do anything to stop people’s thinking. Language is such a big barrier for immigrants to merge into the new society and the culture. Enough now, I have been living in Canada for more than half of my life, people still treat me by looking at my skin color and my race. 

It has influenced my own well being as working with young children. When seeing families coming to the program with limited English, I always try my best to help them ease any hurdles they might have, especially for young children. They are sensitive and fragile, needing our assistance so that their transition to the program will be easier and smoother. I know language is a big part in people’s every life while in another country, from my own experience. So I like to arrange interpreters to make communication with families more fluent, to help reduce families’ pressure about not understanding what teachers say, and have more ideas of how to help their own children getting settled in the program. 

6358 week 3 blog post

I took a few minutes off from my classroom and went to visit another teacher’s 3-4 years old classroom. I noticed that the teacher always bent down to children when they spoke, and listened to what the children had to tell her. She seldom interrupted what the child had to say, and she waited very patiently until the child finished talking. Some children were English language learners, but she never cut them off when they tried to express something with their broken sentences or simple words. During circle time, she gave everyone chances to speak out, and she gave the children a long time and never rushed them to finish their sentences.

I really like the way she listens to children and makes sure everyone has the same opportunities to express themselves. I also remember in the this week’s video segment, Lisa talked about children needed to feel respected and secure to speak out, and heard. She also mentioned that she waited and didn't take away children’s words (Laureate Education, 2010). The teacher I observed has used similar ways to communicate with children.

I believe communication is very important for both children and adults. Like Lisa mentioned in the video, teachers need to pay close attention to children’s body language as well, and this is something I have been working on because sometimes I focus on the spoken languages and didn't pay enough attention to children’s body languages, as their body languages can also tell me their stories and thoughts about what they are doing. As I work at an international school, more than half of the children speak languages other than English. As a result, observing their body languages becomes crucial to understand their ways of communication. I like this activity as being able to observe other teachers in their classrooms, because I seldom have this opportunities to sneak out from my own group of children, and I learned a lot from observing other teacher’s communication styles with children.


Reference

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). “Communicating with Young CHildren” (Video webcast). Retrieved at https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_2652530_1%26url%3D

6358 week 2 blog post

If I were to open my own family care home, I would try to create an anti-bias environment and use anti-bias curriculum. I would include books from various cultures and backgrounds. As Derman-Sparks and Olsen stated in the textbook (2010), selected children books should include all the children, families, and staff in the program. The books should reflect diversity in cultures and languages, and help children get to know other people in the society to prevent stereotypes (Derman-Sparks & Olsen). I would carefully select various posters to be hung on the wall reflecting diversity of both majority and minority of people. Open-ended materials are important so that children can use their creativity and imagination to create their own artworks. Different colors of paints should be provided with children’s skin tones as well, so that children it is okay to have different skin colors and they all look beautiful. There should be a parent board and updated information is to be posted regularly for parents to know the program better. It is a good way to maintain positive communication with parents. Puzzles need to reflect different groups of people to avoid prejudice and biases. One important thing I learn from the textbook is to first include the majority group of children and families in the materials, and then expand to other children and families who might not appear in the program. These include people from different races and/or ethnic identity groups, various economic status, people with various abilities, and also diverse family structures. Making sure that the environment and the program provides an equal and diverse learning for children is very important and both children and their families would benefit a lot from the program.

Reference

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).

6357 week 8 blog post

When thinking about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds, I should be more aware of their different values and cultures. Getting to know more about the families can help me a lot when setting up goals and expectations for the students. Each family is unique, and I hope I can be more open to the parents so that parents are more willing to share their values and thoughts with me as well.

One goal that I would like to set in the field is to continue to provide an anti-bias program and environment for children. I would also like to start having regular parent sessions to discuss different issues of diversity, equity, and biases so that parents can also be more aware of the influences from these topics.

I would like to thank all of my colleagues for sharing your valuable thoughts and comments on the discussion board and the posts. I have learned new ideas and gained useful knowledge by reading your discussions. Thank you again and wish you all the best for your future.

6357 Week 6 blog assignment

I remember seeing parents pulling their children away from the people that are physically or mentally different. I even saw parents purposely covering their children's eyes to avoid them from seeing or contacting these people. I asked one of my friends to find out whether she had seen disabled people when she was young, and how her parents dealt with it. She told me she remembered as walking on the street when she was young, she saw one man without right arm, and she couldn't turn her eyes away and asked her mom why that man had only one arm. Her mom didn't say anything but kept pulling her away from the man. She was very curious and kept looking back at the man. Then her mom told her, "if you can't be a good girl and listen to what I say, you will lose your arm just like that man. He was not a good man so he lost his arm." My friend got so scared and she never asked this kind of questions again. Of course later on she realized that people won't lose their arms by not being good people, but it has given her an impression that disabled people are probably not good people. She knows this concept is wrong, but she can't help it and still tries to stay away from disabled people.

I was so shock when I heard this. How ridiculous that parents would tell their children so untrue facts like this. Moreover, this fear and impression affect people so deeply when they are young, and they will probably affect their own children later on.

Parents communicate negative messages to children by reprimanding or silencing them, and children might act in negative ways next time when they see people different than themselves. When in the classroom, it is very important for early childhood educator to create an anti-bias environment so that children learn to treat people equally. I like the book "it's okay to be different" by Todd Parr because the book illustrates in the colorful pictures the differences people and their families might have, for example, single parent or two dads/moms. When responding children regarding this situation, I will explain to them why this person sits on wheelchair, what could be the reason that he/she cannot walk, and what we can say or do to him/her, for example, we can help them open the door or if they need help pushing the button to cross the street. This is very good opportunity for children to learn that people can be different and there is nothing wrong to be different.

Reference

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for youngchildren and ourselves. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

6357 Week 3 blog assignment

I have not experienced any situations regarding homophobia and heterosexism in the centers. I think the reasons could be that I work in China and Chinese people are afraid of letting others know if they are gay or lesbian. As a result, I have not encountered any unpleasant or aggressive situations about homophobia and heterosexism. If I get requests from parents to remove books depicting gay or lesbian individuals, I would ask parents why they feel this way, and show them I understand how they feel, but children should be given opportunities to explore different things. I can also provide a workshop for parents to attend, so that they can express their understandings and feelings, and I can also present useful information and knowledge about how children perceive and learn about the world. I would let parents know that exploring this kind of books would not make children become gay or lesbian, but giving children more flexible and broader ideas about gender (Derman-Sparks & Olsen, 2010).

As working in China, I have noticed lots of gender stereotypes in the books, stories, movies, and cultures in China. For example, a lot of Chinese children’s books create girl’s image as doing dishes, organizing the house, cooking, housewives, and create boy’s image as firefighters, policemen, officers, etc. When in the centers, I have heard boys saying, “only girls wear dresses.” I brought this up within a group of boys, and asked them what they thought about this. I had one boy showing disagreement by saying, “I like wearing dresses.” I then continued with this conversation by asking additional questions like presented in the video from this week, to give children more opportunities to think and explore gender issues.

Reference

Course Media, “Start Seeing Diversity: Gender & Sexual Orientation”

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for youngchildren and ourselves. Washington, DC: NAEYC.