Sharing Web Resources

The organization I chose was the National Black Child Development Institution. The link to the organization is: http://www.nbcdi.org.

This organization helps with children dealing with poverty and racial barriers have an equal opportunity at education. For over 40 years, the NBCDI has helped bring awareness of issues that effect the black community and child and tries to empower them from things like early childhood education, health, child-welfare, literacy, and family engagement.  The organization was launched by the Black Women’s Community Development Foundation, whose leadership, in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, was deeply concerned about the unsatisfactory conditions faced by families determined to raise healthy Black children.  For 38 years, NBCDI was led by Evelyn K. Moore, who got her start as a teacher in the ground-breaking Perry Pre-school/High Scope program, which became the model for Head Start.(NBCDI, 2013)

A trend that caught my eye about this website is just the overall mission of the site which is culture and diversity of African American children. Learning and understanding how to help them rise above racial differences and to provide ways for them to progress is a very great and essential them and focus of this organization. I also like that within the mission statement, they want ALL children to be successful, not just African American children.

I think this is an amazing website, and there is so much to learn. I feel honored to have stumbled across this website as a resources, and I recommend it to everyone who is an educator and non-educator. It is for everyone who wants to learn about diversity and culture and it is a great resource available to educators to help with teaching young African American children and inclusion of their families within the curriculum.

Professional Contact and Resources

This was such a step out of the box kind of assignment. I contacted to individuals, one from Spain, and the other from Morocco. It was hard to choose, but I wanted an email of an actual individual who I felt would respond to me. I sent a brief description of who and what my purpose was, and that I was interested in their views, perspectives, aspirations, dreams, and work in the early childhood education field.  I sent that off a day or so ago, but have not received anything as of yet. I am still hopeful. I know that they are busy individuals, so I will give it another week before thinking about the alternative to this part of the blog.

When choosing the early childhood organization and website, I wasn't sure what I wanted; the selection was so grand. I chose the National Black Child Development Institute. As an African American woman, I wasn't even aware of this website, and was just drawn to it because I wanted to learn more about the organization, their goal, and purpose. One of the things that also fascinated me about the organization is that they are supporters of the T.E.A.C.H. (Teacher Education and Compensation Helps) program to try to help stop high turnover rates in early childhood programs and to motivate early childhood educators to get degrees and to be compensated for their efforts.

I was just wondering if any has heard back from who they contacted, and how long did it take to get a response. Also, are any of you nervous about the process? I am more excited, but just a hint of nervousness; just because I am not sure about how the professional will perceive me. Best of luck to all of you on this journey!

My Supports

I have many supports within my daily environment. The benefits of having these support systems around me on a daily basis is knowing that I have protection and a close bond of individuals that can help me through whatever I need; whether it be with financial assistance, word of advice, or for someone to run an errand for me. I know that having support makes a person do and feel better about their life and situation. It is so hard for me to imagine not having these support systems in my life. My brothers and sisters help me with just daily everyday things and having family in a new town really makes me feel not alone. Also within that category would be my boyfriend of 6 years, who also is a huge support for me, as he is also family to me and helps me with everything from love, advice, studying; you name it, he is there. My father is such a huge support for me because he helps me not just with being my dad, but he makes me stronger for him. My father has always been my male hero, and he makes be believe that there are great male figures out here for young children to look up to. I have the honor to still have this huge role model in my life. My father gives me wisdom of situations that I may not know about that he has been through. My close friends are a huge support because of the bonds and relationships we have. 

With moving to a new state, I have to meet new people, and that can be a challenge. The impact these supports have on my life if there were not there anymore is super significant. It is hard to imagine what I would do and how I could find strength to continue my life the way I live it now. I would have to find strength if my brothers were not close or if I were to not have my boyfriend around. They help me with my day to day process; from relationship building to running errands that I can not because of work related issues to advice, and just comfortability that no matter what, these individuals are there to help me be better and to do better. If I were to loose my father, that would completely break my heart because I already lost a person who was one of my biggest advocates a couple years ago, which is my mother. My father is in stage for prostate cancer, and this scares me daily. He is such a huge impact on my morality and ethical ways of thinking. I love my father to no end, and not having his support in my daily life would be hard and un-imaginable. I would have to learn to find my own support within myself and from others, if I did not have my supports in my daily environment.

Having support is such an important aspect of living and learning. When you have to sit back and really think about what life would be like without it is hard. There are individuals without support. If children can get the proper support early on with teachers and parents, they can grow up knowing that they can find support in others and learn to cope and gain support needed if the time presents itself. That is my basic approach if I were to loose my supports.

My Connections to Play

 The quotes I feel summarized what play represented for me in my childhood is one by Herculatus and Fragments and Plato:

“Time is a game played beautifully by children.”

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”

I feel these represent me because time goes by so fast, and when children play, and when I was a child and I played, playing becomes more and more sophisticated as I aged and time became measured by how much I played and what I did during play. As an educator of young children, I see time by watching children grow and play. You also can learn about a person socially and emotionally just by how they play and what they chose to play with. I was that child where you could see what I was playing with to learn so much about my likes and dislikes; just like I can see with young children around me in the classroom.

 

When I was a child, things like bike riding and using a bucket, yes, a bucket, was so fun to me because when riding a bike I can challenge myself physically and socially be with friends, and with my bucket, I could do all kinds of things that my imagination allowed for me to do, like collect 4 leaf clovers, or collect flowers and rocks, an make mud pies with my friends.  Play was supported around me by saying to go out and play and explore. It was healthy to get all of that curious energy out and play amongst peers and myself. When I was in school, recess and gym were mandatory for children to be able to play and release energy and get exercise. Now a days with play, it is more systematic in my opinion; like it has to be mapped out more and not just spontaneous and fun and messy. I do like that now it seems play is seen as important and part of curriculum, I just want to see more of it be more child directed than teacher directed. Children learn best about themselves and their environment by playing out how they see reality. Schools now seem to not have recess or PE be a mandatory thing as it was for me in school. I just hope that in the future, schools can get back to having children play, and let them be messy and explore with some boundaries, and not fully take away from the learning experience play has to offer.

Play is essential not just for children, but for adults. I still love to do things that are carefree where I can re-discover and learn through play. Play for me can be simple as games with my friends, or doing things that children once did, like run and play hide and seek, or travel. Playing in my childhood has taught me to always be open to exploring and learning more about my environment, and never to be afraid to try something new. I have taken that same train of though into my adulthood.

Relationship Reflection

Relationships and partnerships are extremely important to me because it is a way for me to bond with others and gain strength and wisdom. Building relationships help me to be a better person. Learning from others on how to approach and interact with diverse individuals is essential in our society, especially as an educator. Communicating with people who share your interest and/or passions in life makes you want to do more and really pursue your dreams. I am the type of person who likes to be around my family, friends, and significant other. I have positive relationships with my brothers and father, as well as my closes friends and my boyfriend of 6 years. These people are near and dear to me, and help me to become a better listener, person, friend, and advocate of things I hold near and dear to me. My boyfriend is a great communicator, which I am grateful for because it has helped me to be more communicative with not just him and my family, but with others as well. That communication skill has overflowed into my work, were I have also built great positive relationships with my co-workers, children, and parents I serve. I enjoy being able to openly communicate with my student’s parents. The factors that contribute to maintaining each relationship is definitely time, and lots of positive and constructive communication.

I cannot stress how important it is to have an open line of communication. With communication comes sacrifice to be vulnerable and open to different ways to maintain and develop the relationships further. This can be anything from a heart to heart talk, or doing activities together to keep the trust and bonding going. Listening and also know when to fight battles also helps me in maintaining my relationships that I have built over the years. 

With the same positive factors, the challenges that can come when trying to maintain relationships is not putting in the time and effort of communication. When life happens, we as people tend to let things slip through the cracks, and unfortunately, this can be our partnerships and relationships. When you talk to individuals who have been in friendships, worships, friendships, and relationships for a long period of time, the main thing they say that helped keep the relationship strong and going is open communication and sacrifice to put in the work to make the union a positive and productive one. These are the insights and wisdom I take from people who keep relationships for such a long time, and I try to put in the work and sacrifice as much as I can to build and maintain the current positive relationships I have, and the ones I hope to build in the future. Knowing how to build and maintain positive relationships will help me with getting parents involved in the early childhood program I am teaching their child, as well as create new partnerships down the line with new parents, and even connect on another level that I possible did not connect on before with current parents.

What I think About Child Development

This has been such a great journey this semester in Early Childhood Development. I have learned so much this semester about children and how to measure their development at each stage of life from birth through adolescense. It is amazing how we can assume we understand a concept until we actually take the time to research it and look for the data to support these amazing developments in children. There is a quote that is important to me that pertains to the development of children.

“Playing should be fun! In our great eagerness to teach our children we studiously look for ‘educational’ toys, games with built-in lessons, books with a ‘message.’ Often these ‘tools’ are less interesting and stimulating than the child’s natural curiosity and playfulness. Play is by its very nature educational. And it should be pleasurable. When the fun goes out of play, most often so does the learning.”

 ~ Joanne E. Oppenheim. Child development expert and author.~

There is another quote that drew my eye because it discussed observations of children, and we did several observations this semester. I have observed children many times, but only this semester, I learned how to observe children objectively to get the best results of their development.

 “Close observation of children at play suggests that they find out about the world in the same way as scientists find out about new phenonoma and test new ideas…during this exploration, all the senses are used to observe and draw conclusions about objects and events through simple, if crude, scientific investigations.” 

~ Judith Roden. Lecturer, Canterbury Christ Church University College~

I hope to stay objective and to continue to practice all of the techniques learned this semester through this course, and the insight and wisdom from my fellow colleagues.

Testing for Intelligence

When looking at a child’s education holistically, we must consider what that sort of education would entail versus a more traditional approach to learning. While researching holistic education approaches, what seems to be the commonality is that children who learn holistically are learning to see the meaningfulness of what they learn. Holistic learning is also helping children to have flexibility when learning. Standardized testing expects children to learn the same thing and the same pace and to comprehend the material at the same rates. As an educator and someone who has had to take multiple standardized tests in the past, know that children learn at different rates and speeds, and understand things on a different level than their peers. It is easy to label a child who is very capable and smart with this standardized test as a child that is lacking skills and the know all of their age group, but this is a misconception.  What should be measured when a child is assessed to make sure they are maturing and learning at an appropriate rate is of course, the basics of math, science, reading/language arts and social studies/history. With that said, it should be what the children are learning in that particular region and of what they have already learned. Children should not be made to feel inadequate of learners because they are getting tested on material they do not understand and have yet learned. In addition to the basics of testing, children should be assessed in a natural social setting to see how they are coping with being in a social society; emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Asking behavior building and character building questions could help the child with emotional and possibly spiritual growth. Children learn in more ways than the standard subjects in school. To understand the whole child, they child has to learn in an environment that understands they are not standard, but unique and growing at their own pace.

I looked at an article of children being tested and taught in France. The French have a much different approach to teaching and giving standardized tests. Teachers in France are rarely fired or dismissed, and they expect children to dictate and learn in an all-inclusive, teacher directed atmosphere. International schools are great for short-term use of 5 years or less, but private schools and French schools are for children staying in the country who plan on learning French, since that is the primary language. Teachers are not really held to any great standards of teaching, and the children are expected to understand, keep up, and know all educational standards for their grade until about age 14-15 when they take a standardized test. If a child doesn’t pass this test, they are held back with younger children. Before the big standardized test between the ages of 14-15, “At the end of each term there's a conseil de classe - a meeting of teachers and parents' and pupils' representatives - at which each class and each pupil are assessed.” (Laredo, 2013) This is very vague to me, because it is not really explaining what is being tested, but it seems that France really is big on language and math.

References:

Laredo, Jo. 2013.  Education in France. Paris Voice.  Retrieved from: http://www.parisvoice.com/practical-paris/474-education-in-france