Observing Communication

A Chinese American boy named Kevin was in my class two years ago, when he was five. He was sweet and soft. Sometimes he could be annoying, as he did not want to do any work in the class, but to chat with me. I talked to his mom, and his mom did not seem to care about what happened to hime that much. She told me that they had the tutor at home for the boy, and she believed the boys are meant to be tough even when they are young. I could tell that Kevin wanted to be hugged and cared, but he did not seem to get it from mom. Obviously, dad was too busy with the work to take care of him. Two years later, this year, I heard that Kevin’s mom died, and everyone worried about Kevin. However, I overheard the conversation between the P.E. teacher and Kevin, which made me really sad.

I was walking past the gym, and the P.E. teacher was taking Kevin’s class back to the classroom. Obviously, Kevin was not behaving well in P.E. class, so the teacher was telling Kevin that if he did not behave in P.E. class, he will talk to his mom. Kevin looked at him, talking back to the teacher straight aways: “ No, you cannot, because my mom died!”. I could tell the P.E. teacher was shocked, and did not know what to say to Kevin. He saw me, and whispered to me to confirm if it is true that Kevin’s mom died. I nodded. From that conversation I knew that the P.E. teacher was not informed of the death of Kevin’s mom, and Kevin has realized the truth of his mom’s death. When he told the teacher that, I did not see any special facial expressions from Kevin. He seemed to be really calm and quite. He seemed to state a truth that has nothing to do with himself. I felt really sad and sorry for Kevin. I went up to Kevin, stroking his hair, and smiled to him. Kevin saw me, and he started to smile and gave me a hug. I did not what to say to him, and I just wanted to ensure that he could feel there is still someone there to help and support him.

I believed that situation could be totally avoided. Teachers are supposed to keep each other informed of the children’s situations. The classroom teacher has the responsibility to communicate to the other teachers who work with the child to let them know what happened. In that case, the teachers will know what they can say, and what they should try to avoid. I think collaboration is also about keeping everyone on the same page to make the communication with children more effectively. Meanwhile, I remember he liked to chat with me a lot, and I kind of know why now. Kevin does feel that he is invisible to others. His mom did whatever she considered to be good for Kevin without spending time communicating with Kevin. Dad never has time to talk to Kevin. Kevin is taken care of by mom, maids and drivers at home. As it was stated in the media segment, children need to feel respected and accepted for who they are, and heard (Laureate Education, Inc.2010). He wants people to know his existence. He made that statement probably because he did not want people to still think he is invisible. He made a strong statement to prove his existence and to draw people’s attention. I do not know why Kevin’s dad tried to hide the fact of the death from Kevin as long as he could, and he wanted the school to keep it as a secret. I think the best way for Kevin is to help him face the truth and give him more attention and therapy to support him to walk out of the sadness. I do believe Kevin’s dad needs to be more collaborative with school to build the trustful relationship with teachers and the school to serve Kevin better. With the collaboration among teachers, and the trustful relationship between the school and the family, the communication with Kevin will be more effective than it was, and Kevin can have more support from teachers and the family. Meanwhile, both teachers and the family need to acknowledge the existence of Kevin to make his voice heard.

The communication interactions that I observed will definitely affect the child’s feelings. Kevin would feel hurt because people did not acknowledge the death of his mom. He would feel not respected and valued in school. Meanwhile, he would feel no one cares about him, because no one knows what is going on in his life. He would feel being neglected by both his family and the teachers. He will be in hope of love and care from people to make him feel he is still loved.

What I have learned in this week is plentiful. The observation that I had this week reminds me of the moments that I was dominating the conversations without listening to children. I realize that adults are easily dominating the conversations, and we are supposed to step back to listen to children’s voices and ideas. We need to put our agenda aside (Stephenson, 2010). Children will surprise us with their creative ideas and responses. I should say I used to do it a lot to dominate the conversations to lead the children to the paths that I designed for them. I should be more open to their ideas and creativities. Meanwhile, I also learned that we should encourage children to speak up to share their thinking, and use their own ideas to solve problems in the classroom ( Pierson & Johnson, 2010). The last but not the least is about the communication among the adults who work and live with children. Colleagues at school and parent at home are meant to work together to build up a positive partnership to serve children better. We need to keep everyone on the same page, as we all want the best for children.

References

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

Stephenson, A. (2009). Conversations with a 2-year-old. YC: Young Children, 64(2), 90-95. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database. http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=37131016&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Pierce, J., & Johnson, C. (2010). Problem solving with young children using persona dolls. YC: Young Children, 65(6), 106-108.

Seeing the diversity in the environment

To respect and support diversity in the program, the environment should provide the opportunities for children to see themselves and the materials that honor diversity both within and beyond their own identity groups ( Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edward, 2010). If I am going to open my own Family Child Care Home, I think I would like my setting to be child and family friendly, and to represent the children and their families that I currently serve as my first concern.

In the media segment, Adriana (2010) stated that she believes it is important to greet everyone in the morning, and I believe so too. I will post the good morning sign with various home languages that my children speak on the door, and I will try to learn them as well. In that case, I can greet to the families in the morning in their home languages to make children proud of their home language and feel respected and valued. Meanwhile, the photos, posters, dolls and dresses should be of great variety to demonstrate the diversity in and beyond the classroom. I will have a drama corner, so we can discuss the differences and conflicts in the class with the usage of the dolls. Meanwhile, I will create my own playlist of the music that includes the music from children’s own home cultures (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edward, 2010). Besides that, in the reading corner, the books should be the tools that children can read and learn how to express themselves, to communicate with others, and to discuss their emotions. Teachers have the responsibility to choose the books that can introduce children to the love of reading as well as to human differences and similarities, or help children become critical thinkers (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edward, 2010). I really liked the family corner in the media segment. Each family brings something about their home culture to share with the rest of the class. I will have one corner like that as well in the class. It can be the photos, decorations, toys, or dresses. Anything that families decide to bring to represent their own cultures. Doing that can help children learn about their own home cultures and learn about other cultures in the world. I would like to invite the parents and the children together to give a small speech or presentation of what they bring to school. I want children to be proud of who they are. One of the major parts of the early years setting is the toys. Dramatic play props, puzzles, drawing material and blocks and legos are the toys that children love to play with. As teachers, we are supposed to ensure the pieces of the toys can reflect the diversity of the cultures, especially the home cultures of the children that we currently serve. Above all is the primary elements that I would like to include in my setting, as I really want children to develop views of the bigger world (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edward, 2010).

References

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).

The Final Post of This Course

The hope that I have is to have more channels for the families from various cultural backgrounds to be understood and expressed in the school community.

The goal that I have is to implement diversity into the curriculum to eliminate the stereotypes and biases in children’s lives.

I have learned a lot from the colleagues help and support. I enjoyed the posts of their personal stories and experiences. Thank you everyone for reading and responding to my stories and posts too. I had a great and supportive eight weeks. I hope we can work together again soon. Thank you all.

An Acrostic Poem

When I was thinking of what kind of art I am going to use, one of the simple poem style came to my mind. Acrostic poem is one of my favorites, and I often liked to use it with first graders.

Anti-bias is the goal and the core of being an early years teacher for me,

Not treating people by their skin colors or their beliefs, but to get to know people personally to get rid of my learned biases.

Teachers are the examples and models to demonstrate how to treat each other equally and to encourage diversity to be implemented into the curriculum.

International minded and environment are essential for children’s development to become respectful, polite, and open-minded adults in the future,

But the positive and supportive developsment of a child needs the collaboration between the school and the families, which means that the school and the families should work as a team to address the importance of being anti-bias both at school and at home.

Implementing anti-bias curriculum into the existing one can encourage inclusiveness at school and support diversity in the community.

Anti-bias teachers should know their own learned biases, and it is nothing wrong to admit our own biases. It actually can help us to unlearned those biases to become real anti-bias teachers.

Schools should be the places where children feel safe and comfortable, and meanwhile teachers should be sensitive and observant to the children in the class to protect them from and help them out of trauma situations at home.

We do not say those words

The story I am going to share here is from my husband. He grew up in Spokane, and he did not remember to see any diversity when he was a kid. When he was around seven years old, for the first time of his life, he saw an African American child in the park. He was confused, and he stared at that boy. After a while, he asked his mom “ Why is that child so dirty?” His mom was shocked and embarrassed. She paused for a few seconds before she started to respond back to my husband. She smiled to him and said “ That child is not dirty, he just has the different colored skin than ours.” 

Mom talked about the different colors of skins in a soft and gentle voice to make my husband feel it is something normal for people to have different colored skins. She paused before she started to respond, that behaviors made my husband feel his question maybe not appropriate in public. However, after that experience, my husband felt a new world in front of him. He wants to be open and respectful to those people who are different from himself, as he does not want to see any misunderstanding happen again just like what he did in his childhood. He wanted to be the model to show respect to people around him and to help people who are still racist to become anti-biased people. He told me, the experience that conversation with mom in the park was one of the motivations to get him out of the country to work overseas to help more people who are different than him and need help.

As an anti-biased teacher, if it happened to us in the classroom, we could use that as a good entry to introduce diversity to children. That would be a good lesson for children to know there is nothing wrong to be different from others. We could have an activity to share the photos from each family in the class, and talk about the similarities and differences. Teachers also can share the personal experiences with children about skin colors and diversity. It would be helpful to invite children to try to look at things with a different perspective , to learn something new about the human experience and be open-minded to the idea” Do people choose their colors? Is is better to be one color than another?” (Pelo, 2008). It would be a good and real experience for children to talk about it and to see it as a whole picture with other children and the teacher. Children will hopefully gain the idea to feel proud of who they are.

References

A. Pelo (2008). Rethinking Early Childhood Education

Start seeing diversity

The diversity of family forms is the trend in the early childhood field. The traditional families are still the majority in the school community, but many other nontraditional families become more visible in this community too. Those non-traditional families are like same-sex parents, single parent, and many other forms. That is a new trend that we all need to adapt ourselves to it, and help our children and their families to be open-minded to it.

To those who believe that early childhood centers should avoid the inclusion of books depicting gay or lesbian individuals such as same-sex partnered families, I would like to say no to them. Books are considered to be one of the most visual and vivid way for children to get the information and transform what they learn or see from the book to reality. They can make the connection between the content in the books and the reality. In reality, there are children from the families who have two moms or two dads. If children read about it from the books through lovely stories, they will be open to the discussion later on in the class and be more respectful to the families like that. As inclusiveness is the core of many early childhood centers, including the diverse families should be the first step that the centers take. Books, and posters can be the appropriate and direct resources for children to explore and understand diversity in the world.

I believe there are traditional families who do not want their children to be interacted with children or educators from non-traditional families. To those parents, the first thing I would like to address to them is the school that their children are at is encouraging inclusiveness and diversity. That is one of the goals in our school’s curriculum. Besides that I would like to ask why they are against the interaction between their children and children from non-traditional families, as it stated in the video (that one of the most helpful ways to respond to biased comments is to ask why they think that (Laureate Education, Inc.,2010). Only if we find out the problem, we can solve it collaboratively. 

Anti-bias curriculum and practices at school is a long term process, children at the young age are easily influenced by the stereotypes and biases that they sense and are told from the society or from the families. That is an influence that children will bring back to school when they are interacting with their friends and teachers. In that case, anti-bias curriculum should be implemented with diversity and the inclusion of families participation as well. Only the school and the families have the agreement to encourage diversity, equity, and inclusiveness, children will have a clear picture and model to follow. They will know what the expectations are.

References

Course Media: "Start Seeing Diversity: Gender"

Course Media: "Start Seeing Diversity: Sexual Orientation"

Stages of the team work

Three months ago, I started to learn driving in a driving school. I went to the driving school and got to know the instructor that I was going to work with. In the following three months, we were working as a team to learn the skills. There were other two girls learning with me at the same time. We were like a team. We helped each other, when we had some difficult time at doing certain things. Including the instructor, we were forming a very strong team. However, it took us a while to get to know each other and became friends. 

For me, the most difficult time was the adjourning stage. After three months, we had been practicing together everyday, and we helped each other. We became the real friends. By the time to say goodbye to each other and the instructor, I got very emotional with tears.

I think the reason it is so hard to leave this team, as we were really supportive to each other, and we were open to others’ opinions and thoughts. One of the girls had to go back to her hometown after the graduation from driving school, but we made the promise to keep in touch with each other to maintain our friendship.

Adjourning stage is the stage to end the project, but it is also the time to say goodbye. In my opinion, this is the essential stage in teamwork, as it gives us time to close the project, reflect on what we did, and can be a new beginning of a new relationship with the team members that we worked with.