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.

Week 6 assignment

When thinking about adjourning stage of the team building, I remember the time that we had to say goodbye to the classmates as we took the early childhood diploma together. It was a very intensive program and all of us needed to study from 8am to 5pm on a daily basis. Through the year, we built strong relationship and we went through difficult situations, such as wanting to give up and making mistakes during practicum, but with the help and encouragement from each other, we kept working hard and passed all the hurdles. When it was the time to say goodbye, everyone was with tears and couldn't let go of each other's hands. The adjourning stage was hard because of the strong relationship we built. 

The adjourning stage is very important because we need to form new relationship with other people to learn new things, techniques, and tasks. We need the new relationship to make us stronger and more effective in different things. Through different teams, we learn new skills, so the adjourning stage is essential for us.

Week 5 blog post

When thinking about conflicts I have recently, I need to mention that I have disagreement with my boyfriend about education for our "future children". I was born in China and moved to Canada. I have experienced both education system and prefer the western education, but my boyfriend didn't think so, so we had a conflict. I remember what I learned from the course, so I remained a very positive attitude when discussing this issue with him. I first acknowledged him and agreed with him that he was right about wanting to have the whole family together. Then I went on expressing my thoughts about the differences in both education systems and explaining him any goods and bads about them. Then I offered a solution that he agreed upon it. The whole conversation was under a supportive communication climate and both of us kept calm and positive attitude to find out a win-win solution. That was a successful conflict resolution.