THANK YOU!

I want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for your time and effort throughout this course. This last year has been a whirlwind for me and these course have helped me steady each week. Your experiences and comments have brought to light new ideas and insights to consider during my professional career. I wish the best for each one of your and I hope to hear from you soon.

Team Development

This week while discussing team development and working in groups I started to reminsce about my time as a group leader for an overnight summer camp. This was an interesting group of women (it was a girl scout camp) working together to provide fun experiences for girls 6 to 16 years old. This group of co-workers and myself began working in 2004. We lost some members the summer of 2005 but that group ended up being one of the best groups I have ever had the pleasure of being a participant.

We went through all the stages of team development and became and extremely productive group. After two summers and living together our training week turned into a week of fun and preparing, not learning new skills or teaching others. This group was particularly difficult to leave but we handled the stage of adjourning through communication during the year and reunions throughout the years. As graduate students the adjourning stage is graduation and commencement. This is how we come together and celebrate the success of our class.

Adjourning allows a team to reflect on the good and the bad.

Nonviolent Communication and the 3R's

In my professional career I am currently dealing with staffing problems. Conflicts between staff members and different programs. In my recent learning I have found several strategies to help me through these conflicts.
The first strategy that would help is connecting with other's needs and values. This will allow me to understand where my staff members are coming from and how to negotiate an understanding. Another strategy is about emphasizing compassion. This will motivate better than instilling fear, guilt or shame in a situation.
In my situation, the best thing is to look at the situation from their view and see how I can explain what needs to happen for the greater good.

Nonverbal Communication and Television

For this experience I chose to record and watch an episode of WWE Divas. My fiance normally watches the show and I am doing work so I never pay attention. After I recorded the show on Sunday evening, I watched it on Monday on mute. This was an interesting experience as I found myself trying to understand the basis of the "real life" reality show. It was difficult to understand the entire story. Especially because this is apparently reality television and I do not normally watch these shows. You can tell there is tension between some characters and that they are resistant of a new comer but not any real detail about their interactions.
One thing I learned from my horribly wrong assumptions is that it is not a good idea to pass judgement on a situation you no nothing about because it will come back full circle and teach you the lesson. I believe if I had been a regular viewer of the show it may have made more sense on why certain people were fighting but other than that I was a bit lost.
Just remember never assume you understand the situation without all sides of the story. You may be horribly mistaken. 

Communication Role Models

Working in the non-profit organization that I work within, I encounter many new faces and role models throughout my career. One of my more prevalent role models is my executive director, Pedro. I am fortunate that he understand the early childhood education field and supports us, but on top of that he is an excellent communicator. During the last month I have learn many new techniques, including how to receive information without asking a direct question. He is dedicated and articulate when speaking with others, showing me how to actively listen throughout a full conversation and take something away from the process.

I strive to hold that calm and collected method of communication with colleagues, employees and other agencies. Hoping to set a good example for my staff and colleagues on how communication can achieve goals you set for a program.

Communicating Differently?

The idea of culture, diversity, education and perception are all relatively “old” concepts for me as a educator. However, the in-depth look into each portion has shown me new light. I find myself constantly aware of who I am speaking with, but not because of their race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or political affiliation. It’s because we speak about our differences and I am aware of how my words can hurt others without even thinking about it.

I find that I do not speak different with people of different cultures but I may be more inquisitive during communication with people of different cultures. For the last two weeks I have been focused on how I communicate with others and I noticed with the majority of older people I am using polite phrases more often. I am constantly aware that I do not want to disrespect anyone that is older than myself or that has more experience within my field or company.

Strategies to communicate more effectively are easy enough to come by. I believe that every person can work on themselves and how they communicate. I find that I need to be a more active listening and participant in communicating with colleagues within my association. Another strategy that I will use is to develop appropriate knowledge. I will spend time learning of different cultures and learning others communication codes. The third strategy I would use would be to develop motivation. “A competent communication wants to learn and improve.” 

Assumptions in Communication

The show I chose to view was Rookie Blue. I watched an episode a couple years ago when it first came on the air but I have not viewed one since.

I chose to view this past week’s episode. I recorded on the DVR and replayed without sound. I must say the communication used in this episode was more non-verbal than direct verbal communications. After viewing this episode I realized how much we as educators and people rely on non-verbal communication throughout our lives. There are a couple police officers who I believe to be in relationships because of their body language. There are a couple that are friends and a couple that do not like each other. There are two male police officers who seems to be having a tension between them.

The officer with the tension between him and other fellow officer seems to be having a rough time with addiction. He is seen speaking with a dealer (based on the materials this actor was given). He seems upset and anxious with his tense shoulders and jumpy behavior.

After I viewed the show with sound, I was incorrect on the relationship between a detective and one of the officers. It seems from their conversation they are no longer a couple. Although non-verbally the sexual tension is still their between them.

If you were to watch a show you knew well the assumption from non-verbal may have been much closer because you would know the relationships between the characters and the plot as the storyline grows.

My experience and insight from this exercise is that we as humans need to be more careful about how we make assumptions of situations without knowing all of the facts. This is especially helpful in early childhood education while dealing with different families with many different cultures.  

Communication with Others

One person in my life who can communicate effectively is my boss. He is the executive director at the community center and is able to hold a full conversation with anyone that walks into the building. He communicates with everyone effectively because he observes the situation before beginning to communicate. He uses body language and verbal communication to form a cultural context for the discussion. 

In my short time working with him I have already began to mirror some of his habits for communication. For example, I am willing to be flexible with my behaviors to ensure my communicator is comfortable in the nature of the communication. This helps when speaking with staff and families.  

Our Hopes

When thinking about my hopes, I am faced with a struggle. I am very fortunate to truly enjoy working for the company I work with and to enjoy my co-workers presence. I hope that in my career working with children and families from diverse communities I am able to offer some support and education to parents and guardians about the importance of school readiness and provide the best rated childcare center in the capital district within the year.
One goal that I have set for myself is to include training for my staff members on issues of diversity, equity and social justice. This is to ensure a cultural  competent staff and accepting atmosphere. This goal is set on a one year plan.
I wanted to thank each of my colleagues throughout this course and program. We are fortunate to work and study in a field that works hard and strives to provide quality education for young children. Allowing our communities to strengthen through our work. Great job everyone!

Family Origin and Welcoming Different Family origins

Looking as a childcare provider/school worker a new family has arrived in the office. They came over from Pakistan.

The first thing I would do when learning of the new immigrant family would be to research their home country and city. Learning about the language and traditions of their country. I would also spend time learning about the climate, agriculture, and sports/music. The second thing I would do would be to learn a few simple phrases in their primary language to show them respect to their culture. I would try to line up a translator to ensure communication between myself and the family to ensure proper care for their child. I would try to prepare a welcome packet for the family of all important information so they have it in writing as well as take the time to explain the policies of the center. The last thing I would do would be to set up a meeting with the child's teacher and all over staff to ensure a cultural responsive atmosphere upon the child's arrival.

I would hope that this preparation would allow for the teachers to learn more about the family they will be working with and for the family to feel welcome and invited into the early learning community. Coming to a new country must be a bit scary and having a welcome environment for their children would put them at ease to immerse themselves into the community.

Microagressions

In my time as an educator I have been faced with many different cultures and situations. This week being a short week, I had less students and less things were happening. However, one major microagression that I saw was with two students. After the beginning of our program they spent some time arguing over some toy but as the fight continued name calling began. At this time one of the students was sent in to see me regarding what they said. I was a little confused, as an administrator I don't normally deal with name calling situations. This is when I found out the student called another student "White Girl." Now this other student is lighter skin but not white. The little boy didn't understand what he said wrong, he is 7. 

I was a little hurt by the comment, as he used the term as a form of negative name calling. He obviously heard someone say it but he didn't understand what he said wrong. 

My observations within programs is that parents perceive the program and staff in a certain way. Stereotyping their behaviors and actions. Most parents will walk into a situation in attack mode to counter any prejudice they perceive. 

My Family Culture

The challenge of uprooting your life and being evacuated to another country with a completely different culture is a difficult task to swallow. What's even harder is choosing just three items to take with your family? Just three small items to describe your culture.

For my family there is an important point to make, besides the human members we have three pets. These are included in my family, not the items we would take. I think this is an important point to make because these animals are not just pets but family. Lucky (dog), Thomas (cat), and Izzy (cat) are all additional members with my fiance and daughter.

For our family, one of our photo books would need to come with us. This would be needed because it holds precious family moments and photos of our departed dog, Cinnamon. The second small item we would take would be one of our laptops. We hold most of our photos on the laptop and even in third world countries you can find locations that would allow for the use of computers. Our laptop/tablet would also allow for the communication between other family member through video (when accessible). The third item is more difficult to come up with, there is just so much that we use on a regular basis that describes our culture as a family. But it would probably be a kindle/some books for our daughter. We are both avid readers and love to read to our daughter. Without that, I think our lives would be disrupted.

Our photos are important because they show our families history. This is important to me because each family holds different experiences in a different light. Our adventures and big moments are the most important to us, this is shown through our photo books. COmmunication between our extended families is very important to our small family. I come from a loud Italian American family that is connected through many generations, where my fiance has a very large extended family of first cousins and aunts/uncles. Keeping in touch is important. Literature is important to us because it shows how important learning is to us as a family.

If someone told me I could not keep all the items upon arrival I would be very upset and frustrated. Unable to live where I wanted with my family and being kept from our extended family in a culture unlike our current one would probably break my spirit if I was told I was unable to keep what little I had left.

This exercise taught me that there is a lot that we could live without but the few items that mean the most I would not part with, but the most of all is keeping us all together.

building research competencies throughout my career

This course has opened my eyes to another level of early childhood education/studies. The methods of conducting research have expanded in my eyes and opened new career paths for the future, as well. I enjoyed learning about triangulation and the methods used during qualitative research. As a student, I am familiar with research but until this course we never discuss multiple methods data collection.

 After this course, I realized how in-depth the planning and designing of research studies can be to complete a competent study. Each step is important to the overall completion of the study, itself, and the contribution to the early childhood field of study.

The one challenge that I met well learning about research methods, was the amount of time needed to conduct these studies. I believe that for a study to be valid, the research must be given the time to complete all aspects without any time constraint to pressure their results.

The final question to answer would be how my perception of the field changed throughout this course. I would not say my perception changed about the early childhood field. However, my eyes are open to the research that still needs to be completed and the advancements that need to be made within the field to better serve the children we educate and their families.

It has been a great eight weeks working with my fellow colleagues and learning about their work experiences.

Early Childhood Australia

I chose to look into the Early Childhood Australia webpage. Below I have listed to link and basic information provide by Dr. Myers. 

Early Childhood Australia: This is the Australian equivalent to the U.S. based NAEYC. You can access several links to early childhood research from the menu on the left side of the home page.
http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

Some of the current research topics being explore "down under" are school readiness, baby sleeping, child health and childhood obesity, and the Early Learning Years Framework. These resource themes are available on the sidebar on their homepage. 

I was wondering around the webpage when I noticed their code of ethics portion after exploring I was excited to see a literature review within this section. Ethics is very important for me as an educator and student.  

I enjoyed reading a bit about the Every Child magazine and the guidelines for authors. 

What is Equity?

For my research project simulation I will be researching how equity effects early childhood education and the educators who work in the field. From a professional stand point this research effects me as I review staff requirements and pay rates. Personally, I feel early childhood educators need to be given more respect and offered more training within  the field. Although my overall focus is equity in the field of early childhood education the subtropics will be focused around educator requirements and standards of learning for children. This is a very broad beginning but I think with a little refining and suggestions for directions from colleagues this topic can be researched in depth.

Consequences of International Early Childhood Programs

After speaking with colleagues, i believe there are several consequences to learning about the international early childhood field. One is the idea that we are virtually unable to help those impoverished countries reach their goals in the classroom. This can lead to a positive consequence of changing goals to serve overseas in those countries that need help within the early childhood field. Another consequence can be a personal drive to join organizations to help those in need of help.

My personal goal is to contribute to missions that go to impoverished countries to help children. Working with my program to create care packages from the children here to children there.

Ghana; Trends in Early Childhood Education

Ghana is a small nation in Africa. A colleague of mine, works over there with children for months on end for missions. She brings love, faith, and education to those children. Unfortunately, I have not heard back her response this week.

As alternative I looked into the podcast. The United Nations education site explores different aspect of the system. I explored the quality section of the webpage. This section discusses "High quality childcare, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, promotes motivation, confidence, good cognitive and linguistic development and school readiness."  

I will post up about Ghana as soon as I hear back from her. I want to apologize for the short post. My family has been going through a rough patch this past week. We thought we may have to put our beloved dog down. But thankfully she has made a  turn for the better and seems to be healing a bit. Thank you all for your understanding.

Exploring More of Zero to Three

After a long week, it was enjoyable to explore more of the ZerotoThree organization webpage.

I decided to look as a parent today: Exploring the Resources for Parents Link.
This link directed me towards an area which revolved around information for parents of children birth to three years old. Searching more into this area I found informative brochures and fact sheets about child development, milestones, other valuable information as a parent. I decided to read the pamphlet for the 6-9 month old (my daughter is just 6 months old). I gathered some great information to pass along to my fiance regarding the importance of bath time play and structured good night.

The website also offers information regarding the Early Learning Challenge Grant, a federal grant to help support early learning environments for infants and toddlers. I have learned to explore things and see where it takes me. After looking at the website for six weeks I just found a great new resource for parents and friends that have young children.

Harvard's Global Children's Initiative

The Harvard University website on Global Child Development was a great new resource to explore this week. I was even a little excited that I was late contacting my colleague from Ghana. This website offers a new insight to the world’s effort in child development and the advance the field is trying to make, as a whole.

The Global Children’s Initiative focuses on development awareness of early childhood education/care throughout the world.

• Building a unified science of health, learning, and behavior to explain the early roots of lifelong

impairments;

• Leading the design, implementation, and evaluation of innovative program and practice models

that reduce preventable disparities in well-being;

• Catalyzing the implementation of effective, science-based public policies through strategic relationships

and knowledge transfer; and

• Preparing future and current leaders to build and leverage knowledge that promotes the healthy

development of children and families and brings high returns to all of society.

I will be adding this website to my ever growing lists of resources for fellow educators and future use. 

Changes in Early Childhood (ZERO to Three)

Over the last few weeks I have been exploring Zero to Three. In my current career position, I am exploring new avenues to enhance my knowledge and explore the field of childhood. After having my daughter I have stayed home for the last six months. I am currently looking into new positions and interviewing, but my focus has changed a bit. Before my focus was how to ensure my staff is educated and continuously learning how to create a positive learning environment. Currently, my focus is on finding a quality program and ensure any program I am working with provides quality education for its children.

The Care and Education section of the website offers a variety of information from different sources to speak about these parenting issues and finding quality care. One topic that can be seen as controversial is the issue of multiple children (from the same family) in the same classroom. From an economic standpoint, financial concerns can have a poor influence on the choosing of child care for a child.

This website offers an abundance of information on many different topics. This article is a great option for teachers and parents to understand the changes happening in early childhood education today.

 http://www.zerotothree.org/early-care-education/child-care/changing-practices-in-early.html

International Poverty

I had planned to discuss the poverty issue in Ghana this week but unfortunately I have not heard from my conservation partner yet. Her name is Jes Sudol. She taught in Ghana over the last two years at different times.

After listening to Dr. Grace's video and reviewing the articles, I learned an enormous amount of basic information about poverty statistics within the United States. The Childhood Poverty Research and Policies Centre is an online publication offering information on poverty throughout the world.

Here is some basic information about poverty in Ghana:

"While overall poverty was almost halved in a decade and a half, from 52% in 1991/92 to 28.5% in 2005/06, one-quarter of the population still lives below the poverty line and 18.5% of Ghanaians live in extreme poverty, with inadequate resources even to meet their basic food subsistence needs" (Unicef, 2009).

"Child deprivations are correlated with monetary poverty, residence in rural areas or the more deprived regions (particularly in northern Ghana) and a low level of maternal education." (Unicef, 2009).

"Child poverty remains a global phenomenon. State and non-state actors worldwide must prioritize children to break the cycle of life-long and inter-generational poverty." (odi, 2009).

The Overseas Development Institute focused on research throughout the world. The Childhood Poverty Research and Policies Centre website is a great new resource for worldwide information.


I hope to have an update sometime this weekend to update you all on my colleagues personal experiences over in Ghana.

Zero to Three

Zero to Three 

http://www.zerotothree.org/

Zero to Three is an organization dedicated to providing parents and professional the knowledge and know-how to nuture early development. This site has information on many different issues in early childhood development.

One trend that caught my eye while exploring the website was the article "The School Ready Child." 

http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/school-readiness-infographic.html

This policy graphic says that are five parts to preparing children for school. These are:

1. It's all about relationships

2. Everyday experiences shape early learning

3. Emotions

4. The importance of play

5. What a school ready child looks like.

This is a fresh new graphic is a great new tool for early childhood educators. 

Early Childhood Education Around the World

As I read our assignment for the week, I first thought "I really have to communicate with people across the world". After that initial thought, I began pursuing my contacts. I used the resources to locate emails from professionals in Ghana, Canada, and the Czech Republic. I have sent an initial contact email and I am hoping to hear back from these professionals soon. I chose these countries for different reasons. I decided to contact Lucie Rastocna from the Czech Republic because my great grandparents were born there. I chose to contact Yvonne Dionne from the Canadian Childcare Federation because it is our closest culture and I chose to contact Reverend Charles Arko-Nanoo from Ghana because I know other professionals who have worked in Ghana with their early childhood programs. I will also be working with my former co-worker Jessica Sudol, as she has spent time in Ghana working with the children in classrooms for several years.

As I look at many websites in regards to trends in Early Childhood Education, I will be following Zero to Three. This organization is great for not only professionals but also parents providing information that is needed to provide quality care to children in our lives.