What I have Learned Week 8

• One hope that you have when you think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds 

The major hope I have is simply said, yet as we have learned it is a lot harder to do. I simply hope that I remain accepting of others and their difference as well as respectful at all times. I hope I do not let any biases I may have formed to stand in the way of providing the best educational opportunity possible for any child. 

• One goal you would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice (any format and any length)

One goal I would like to set for the field would be more awareness that inequalities do exist within our society and even schools. We hear it exists, but having knowledge of what we can do to provide a school and classroom environment that is accepting, respectful, and the diveristy in the classroom is a begin stage to building social justice beyond the classroom and into the community. Personally, having more opportunities to become knowledgable of anti bias work in education would be beneficial for all. Hopefully, I can be a resource to others within my school for this topic.


I want to say thank you to all my colleagues for taking the time and responding to my posts throughout this course. You all have been a wondeful support system during this class. Best of luck in the next course! Can you see it? It's the light at the end of the tunnel. We are almost there! 

Week 7 Creating Art:Start Seeing Diversity

Before reading, please remember I am a Math and Science teacher. Writing like this is not an area I usually feel comfortable with or much less can do. As I wrote this, I simply thought about the eye opening moments I had during this course that made me realize that the relationships in my classroom were far from great like I thought. I had many biases I brought in every day, and I did not realize that this set up a "wall" between us. It doesn't matter how many activities I did, or what the papers told me about a child; without that building relationship with the child, I was not doing the best I could for them. Now that weeks have past I can honestly say I walk into the building everyday with a completely different mindset beyond grades and tests. In these few weeks, I am starting to see how this has changed my class, and definitely changed my overall attitude as a teacher.

The Wall between their Heart and mine 

Close minded I walk into school

With children different from everything I knew.

A wall between their heart and mine,

I continue to think “all is fine.”

A moment of reflection was all it took

To see that teaching was more than from a book.

It took more than songs, games and a smile

Or even reading words in a student file.

To break the wall between their heart and mine

Is something I will work on for the rest of time.

For the world around us makes it so hard

To see people for who they really are.

So here’s to the rest of time

Looking at differences with an open mind

Away is the closed mind as

Well as the wall between their heart and mine. 

 

Start Seeing Diversity

• A time when you witnessed an adult (or yourself) reprimand or silence a child after he or she pointed out someone they saw as different 

The particular time most recent in my mind was when I "hushed" a child during a performance on a field trip. We were sitting in the auditorium, and periodically during the performance another person in the audience would make loud outburst of noise.  After a few times of this happening, one of my students yelled across to me, "why does he keep making all that noise? It is so rude!" Of course, during the performance I told him to try to ignore it and watch the show.   Talking about this with the child during the show was not appropriate, but I could have taken the moment to discuss it later. Sadly, I did not.

• What messages might have been communicated to this child by the adult's response

Not talking about it during the performance or bringing it up at all sends the message to the child that we should ignore the differences, and recognizing and talking about them is not okay. I feel it may have sent the message to the child that they were wrong for even asking or being curious. However, curious is something my student's know I think is important, and I always stress the importance of them asking questions about things on their mind. My comment back to this child sent a very different message, and by not taking the time to address it later only made that message more clear.

• An example of how an anti-bias educator might have responded to support the child's (or classroom's ) understanding

An anti-bias educator would have taken the time to discuss the situation after the field trip was over. I can picture an anti-bias educator gathering students in a class meeting and discussing differences some people have. It can also be discussed how despite the differences, this person in the audience was also able to sit back and enjoy the show just like we did. They took field trips just like we did, and went to school just like we do. 



    With all this in mind I decided to read closely the story of "Holding Nyla." It is in this story we are able to see what a true anti-bias teacher does in order to help her fact her fears, provide an anit-bias education for all the children, and allows Nyla to feel just as important in the classroom. Truly a story that will warm your heart!

Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

Your response 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

First and foremost I would listen respectfully to their thoughts and concerns. My response to this would be based on my belief that avoiding the subject does not mean it does not exist. The families in any child care center are very diverse. We want our children to be exposed to the different family structures, within this is also same-sex partner families. If we are going to provide books that display single  parent families, families headed by a grandparent, then we also need to include gay/lesbian headed families. We want to help our children develop an openness for all families. 
If you have ever used or heard homophobic terms such as "fag," "gay," "homo," "sissy," "tom boy," or "lesbo" as an insult by a child toward another child? Or, by an adult toward a child? Describe what occurred. How might these types of comments influence all children? (Note: if you have not had a personal experience, ask a family member, friend, or colleague)
 
These comments use to occur a lot in my previous classroom, often in places I did not hear it, like privately on the playground or in the restroom. I clearly remember one time when this was happening to one of my girls in the class. The young girl went home to mom and let her know she was being called a gay and lesbo by a group of girls in her class. Of course, the mother was furious. The mother stated that while she did not think the other girls knew the meaning behind that word, it was still inappropriate ( I agreed).  After this incident we had a class meeting because common situations had become very problematic. When I asked my students, one student stated that being gay was something bad, but no one could give any further information. Because I was not sure  how parents would feel about me having this conversation, I was very cautious in stating only that the word "gay" or "lesbo" does not mean anything bad. I tried my best to explain, but I was honestly very nervous about the conversation myself. It was clear that some of my students had already made a correlation that being gay was something bad.  When we use terms like these as a way to talk down to someone, it sends the message to others around us that it is a bad thing. This could influence all children to believe that using these terms is okay, and possibly lead to learned biases toward gay and lesbian families and individuals.

Week 8

Over the past 8 weeks we have been exposed to effective communication and collaboration. Through the past 7 classes we have also experienced what it is to communicate and collaborate effectively. Each of us possess a common goal in which we are all striving to reach. We have utilized each others experiences to help us learn, and we have fought through the tough "bumps" in the road. I know I would not have made it through some of these bumps had I not had such a helpful and close group of colleagues to guide me through. Each of us have different experiences, values, and beliefs that make up who we are. In the past courses, I have noticed the respect we all display towards each other even when others values and beliefs differ from our own. Personally, I feel I have grown as a listener and thinking more about what another person is saying (typing) rather than what I intend to say next.
I would like to wish all my colleagues an excellent next few months as we entire and wrap up our Master's degree experience. My wish is that we all carry what we have learned in this course and carry it with us into the workplace and real world because it is often the lack of effective communication that hinders our ability to build relationships with families, co-workers, and reach a common goal.

If I can be of any help to any of you in the remaining courses please email me. I would love to stay in touch!
jaarmstrong1@yahoo.com

Week 6 Blog Adjourning

When I think about the adjourning stage I think about my grade level team during my first year as a teacher. This group was the hardest to say good-bye because of the trust and partnership we had built with one another. Even though I was a new teacher, all my thoughts and ideas were respected to the point they made me feel very comfortable in taking risks and my general position as a teacher standing on my own two feet.  Comparing this group with the grade level I left last year, I definitely consider the high-performing groups to be the hardest to leave. I was pretty much jumping for joy when I knew my final days were near with my last team. 

            Abudi (2010) mentioned that the adjourning stage is a time to celebrate success and evaluate what happened. This is the type of experience I had when I left the school my first year. The team helped me pack up all my belongings, took me to lunch, and even complied a small book of all the projects we took pictures of that year. This was a very hard group to leave because we had become so close and worked incredibly well together. Abudi (2010) even states that high performing groups tend to stay in touch, which had continued to be the case with this group.

            Adjourning from my colleagues from this program will also be a hard process, because many of us have been in the same sections since course one and have developed great partnerships. I think the adjourning process for this course will be filled with an opportunity to reflect on the successes and challenges with each other. This is an essential part because it gives the opportunity to say good-bye to each other and wish those luck in future experiences. It is a time to reflect on the successes and learning from the struggles for future encounters.

Abudi, G. (2010). The five stages of team development: A case study. Retrieved from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-five-stages-of-team-development-a-case-study.html

Week 5 Blog

 By the time you read this the conflict will be solved in some way.

This conflict is actually one I am currently facing as we plan the places we will visit on our road trip in the next few days. My boyfriend and I are traveling up north to Pittsburgh to visit his family, but we also considered going to other places while on the road trip. He would like to drive up to Lake Erie, while I would like to go to Washington D.C. and see all those amazing national landmarks. After reading the material for this week, I quickly found out my initial response in the heat of the moment was probably not the best one My response being, “Well its my car so we will go where I want to go.”  I played a little bit of a power role with my comment to our conflict.  Two possible strategies we can take to resolve this problem would be to compromise. Possibly go to one of these places on this road trip up North and save the other for when we go in the spring. Knowing us, it will probably be decided with a coin toss, or by taking into consideration the temperature around the spring. Going to the Lake would be more logical now than the beginning of spring.

The other strategy would be a Lose-Lose honestly, because there is no way we could have a win-win by visiting both during this one trip due to time. Therefore, we would postpone both of these places until another longer trip and only visit the places we agree on during this trip.

I feel part of Magda Gerber’s concept of Three R’s would apply, particularly the concept of respect. Despite the conflict at hand, I should remain respectful to my boyfriend and what he feels even if I do not particularly agree. This is significant because being respectful goes back to the Golden Rule and I would not like it if he responded the way I did initially. I personally feel like each conflict can utilize the Nonviolence Communication steps in some way, even my present one. One aspect I probably did not address to my boyfriend would be why I had the feelings I had about not going to Washington D.C. (my needs)

Even though this conflict may sound silly, I would like to know how you would handle such a situation. I will be sure to share what we concluded when I return. J