Thanks To All!

I'm so thankful for the collaboration we have with eachother. We are required to comment on each others ideas and thoughts and that helps us to become greater people while also making others feel good about what they do! Thanks to all of you who have supported me throughout my studies! I wish you the best of luck in the future!!

Five Stages of Team Development

When adjourning from a group, one can say there is most definitely a sense of relief. Relief in a way that you are making it one step farther. In this course, it's a release in such a way that you are one class closer to getting your masters! Its truly an amazing feeling to be done with each class and look back at all the information you got out of each class and the knowledge you have learned from your classmates. I would say that high-performing groups in a way are harder to leave because they probe you for information, they may question your tactics and your ideas just so you will push harder to find answers. In another way high performing gropus are easier to leave because you're glad you gained information, yet at the same time you are not forced to question your own ideas. Sometimes in high performing groups, although they are only trying to make you do better, sometimes statements are made that just make me so mad! I think it will be super sad when I'm done with this class and this journey in my life. It has been a wonderful experience to listen to opinions from all over the world, because I've never experienced things anywhere outside of the state of Oklahoma. I've been to a couple other states but thats it. I would never have known some of the things i've learned from my classmates if I hadnt been in this class. I think adjourning is important because it allows others to see that you appreciated them and what they did. And if you didn't they can learn from that also. It gives a sense of closure, like the end of a journey.

Conflict Resolution

When thinking about a conflict or a conflict I have experienced lately at work, I think of an incident with the Speech Language Pathologist. Here's what happens: We have children in Pre-K that walk to speech, some are Tuesdays and Thursdays at 930 some are Mondays and Wednesdays at 930. Some have different times that they must go. She sees our children 1 on 1 or 2 on 1. So before our children go to speech, there is no one in the room with her. So we are at recess last week and we send a child to speech, the speech teacher texts and says "I seen him running around on the sidewalk, but he never made it over here, he turned around and went back." Here's where the problem comes in: she has no children in her room, she seen the little boy running around on the sidewalk, but couldn't even go outside to yell at him or direct him in the right direction. They are expected to walk about a football field in length to the speech room, so we are expected to trust our 4 year olds to walk that far. The conflict is, she has no students in her room when we are supposed to send ours, we have 19 others to watch after. Apparently, she doesn't understand that it should be her responsibilitly to come get the children. At the same time, maybe there is something there that we don't understand on her part. After reading the 3 R's, I do beleive that what could be done is more communicating. Maybe she doesn't know it's a problem because we only gripe to eachother about it and don't let her know. So responsiveness could be a big help here. When she states she seen him running around on the sidewalk, she needs to know that she shouldve went and got him, because we have 19 other kids that we're watching over while she has none. It could be put in a very nice manner. We could give her the information respectfully in a manner that doesn't hurt anyones feelings. Instead of just going off and completely griping at her. And reciprocal could be used in viewing both sides, she needs to see it from our point of view and we need to learn her point of view because apparently neither knows why it is such a problem because we had the same problem last year. By the way this wasn't a child in my class, it was another Pre-K and the other Pre-K teacher text her and just told her she should've yelled at him and it caused quite the argument. I have one that goes to speech at 1:00 in the afternoon and he uses the same route everyday and I text her to let her know he's on his way and she texts me when he's on his way back so we know when to expect him. I don't have as much conflict with her as the others do. I do know that the other Speech Therapist comes to get her speech children, she doesn't expect us to send them that far. Maybe all the Pre-K teachers should get with both Speech Therapists and then we can all learn eachothers strategies!

Week 4

As I evaluated myself on communication. I quickly realized I absolutly do not like to speak in front of my people at all. I do not like attention drawn to myself in front of people I dont know. Myself and my family and colleague rated me the same on 2 of the surveys. On the Verbal Aggressiveness Scale my score for myself was a lot lower than the score that my colleague and family member received for me. Other people see how I am in commication all the time and how if I don't like what someone says I will disagree with it quickly rather than keeping my peace. My rating was low but theirs were both in the moderate area. This week, one thing that really sunk in with me is that you can't judge people based on a first impression. When people meet new people, some tend to get really nervous and scared, therefore a first meeting might be very awkward for them. You must alwas give someone a second chance, don't judge based on the first time. To really get to know someone you must be around that person for quite a bit of time to understand them. Another thing I have learned is that schemas play a big part in your entire life. The things you have been around and the experiences you've had will lead you to communicate in certain ways with certain people and lead you to beleive things also. As in dating, you can't base future or present relationships on past relationships. You can't expect what happened then to happen now. You must make your mind up that this person is a completely different person even though he may be doing some of the things that the past one did, he still isn't the same person and may be completely different and you can't judge him based on your schemas! Or past kids in your classrooms. If a child comes in the first day and things happen all day long that have happened with a past kid, you can't expect immediatly that that child will be just like a past kid. It is a completely new kid. I have learned that you can't use judgement in a classroom at all. Kids can change, they change and grow everyday. They just need you to be open with them and give them room to grow without criticizing them based off of your schemas. Every child is different and there will never be 2 kids that are the same!

Communicating with Others

How we communicate with others says a lot about who we are. All my life I've been raised to be the same no matter who you are around. But I was also raised by parents who lived on a farm and hardly ever got off of the farm. When working in a public place, it kind of seems different. I mean I do act the same around all the people, but the things I talk about differ with each person. I feel very close to my Pre-K teachers (There are 3 of us). The kindergarten teachers seem a little more distant although we are all in the same building. When it's just the pre-k teachers at lunch, I feel comfortable talking about things that are a bit more personal or being dirty minded.. ya know.. lol! We talk about things I would never share with the rest of the faculty at school. Sometimes you kind of know when the people you are around will allow you to talk about personal stuff or be dirty minded (lol). It's usually pretty easy to read someones attitude before you are even talking to them. I try to treat everyone the same. I don't have much experience of talking with people of others cultures or races. I do know that if I go into a store and there is someone of another culture at the checkout, i am usually WAY more nice to them than I would be an American. I feel like they need to be welcomed properly so they don't look down on the US. I tend to talk more with them than I would an American.

Observing Communication

For this assignment, I recorded an episode of Full House. It's not a show I normally watch but my daughter watches so I had it recorded. While watching it with the volume muted, I noticed that all the family was very close. I noticed there were more than just regular family, there was some extended family going on. It was very weird to see 3 men a girl and 3 kids all in one house plus a neighbor girl who always came over. With the television muted I wasn't able to tell which one was the father because I seen 2 men actually kiss the girls and they sat one all 3 of thems lap, so that was hard to tell.
The Nonverbal behavior was very appropriate. A lot of pouting by the little sister and hateful looks from the older sisters. You could tell how each character felt by the look on their face or the movement of their bodies.
After re-watching it with it unmuted, it was much easier to tell who dad was because they called him dad and the other 2 were called uncle jessie and uncle Joey.and the woman was the aunt. The childrens mother had died when they were young, so the father was a single father. I noticed at the very end there was very dramatic music playing and there was a "life lesson" being learned and it was very teary. It would have been much easier to make assumptions based on a show I watched often because I would know the family and know what their story was. This was an awesome activity and I really enjoyed doing it! You can learn a lot more about a show and people if you watch it without volume first.

Communication

One person I admire for their communication is our principal at our school. One thing is for sure, principals must have excellent communication skills. They are leaders of the teachers along with the children. Children respect her and if they don't she lets them know how she feels about it. She is constantly looking for positive ways to make it known how good our children and her teachers are doing. She is energetic and amazing. The very first day of school I had a kid who I had already chased all morning, then he proceeded to spit on me. I took him straight to the principal, she said "So you've been spitting" and he SPIT RIGHT IN HER FLOOR! Here's what made me admire her so much, she simply said "oh that's cool." I was fuming by what had happened and she handled it so calmly. Well at the end of the week after several observations this same kid got kicked out of pre-k because it took two of us to chase him around and the other children were gettin ZERO attention. I called the mom and let her know we needed to have a meeting. The mom showed up I went over some thigns with her and then the principal took over the conversation and did an amazing job of it. She protects her teachers with all she has and wants us to be able to teach and back up our opinions. I would love to have communication like that. It's not just talking communication. She makes eye contact, uses her head and her hands and is absolutly amazing at what she does. I would love to model her communication skills, but I don't feel I could ever be that good at it. Maybe communication gets better with age, and I'm still a young'en. :)

Professional Hopes and Goals

When I think about working with diverse families and children, my hope is to be more patient and understanding with them. I will remember to not be afraid because they are just like me. Although I can't understand them and get frustrated because I have no idea what theyre saying, I must remember they probably feel the same way. One goal I would like to set it to make sure we are accepting of everyone and never judge someone by their appearance.
I want to thank all my classmates for taking the time to read and leave comments on my blog. I have really enjoyed getting to know each and every one of you and hope to see you in the next class!

Welcoming Families From Around the World

My families country of origin: Egypt

5 Ways I will be culturally responsive:
     1) Research Egypt cultures online and apply that to my teaching and communicating.
     2) Egyptians primarily speak Arabian, I would learn some words of phrases from this language the best   
          that I can and incorporate that to the family.
     3) Find books from Egypt and about Egyptians and incorporate those in my lessons.
     4) Find music from Egypt, we can learn to sing a song in Egyptian or just listen to how they sing songs.
     5) For snack we could possibly have an Egyptian meal. Maybe we could do a different culture each day
         of one week and have a meal of that culture on that day.

I hope these things will make the family and the child feel welcome in my classroom.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice and Oppression

I can honestly say in my entire lifetime, I've never experienced bias, prejudice or oppression directly aimed at me. I'm not even sure I can think of a time when I've seen it happen to others. Actually I just thought of an experience I had the other day. I'm not sure if it's considered to be any of these three things, but I think it is because it has to do with being poor or rich. There is a local restaurant in our town and it is owned by two sisters. One of the sisters has 2 girls that I went to school with and I love them, they are super nice and the best waitresses ever. The other owner has 3 girls and to me they all 3 act really snobbish. I used to work at this restaurant in the summer time and I felt the same way. I will only eat there if one of the 2 girls I went to school with is working. So before I left that morning, I text the girl and asked if she was working. If she was working I was gonna eat breakfast there, but if she wasnt I was just going to get a sweet tea. I walked in and she wasnt working so I was just going to order a tea. So I waited a minute. The waitress (the other owners daughter) walked to a table and waited on people. Came back to the desk for a minute then fixed their drinks and another man who had ate just walks up and practically gets right in front of me and she walks up and helps him!!!!! I was SO MAD! For one, that he just got in front of me and for 2 when I was standing there it's like she didn't even notice me! I ALMOST walked out!!! I was fuming... I started getting tears in my eyes and I thought "Shanda suck it up!" Finally she looked at me and said "do you need to order some food?" I said no i just need a sweet tea. The entire time she barely looked at me. It's like she thinks she was too good to talk to me! And this was the exact reason why I wasn't eating breakfast there unless my friend was working! They've had complaints on this before, but that's the first time it has happened to me that bad. My dad is a jokester and I've been there with my parents several times and it seems like everytime we go in there my dad cracks a joke to one of them girls and they don't even laugh, they are just so not nice! Even if I go to a restaraunt where I don't know the waiters, they should be friendly! These girls are not friendly at all. So I do beleive that would be considered oppression. I feel it dimished equity by making me feel like I wasn't important and apprently she didn't need my business. Guess I wasn't dressed good enough or something. But I'm the type of person that honestly I don't care I'm not going to dress any better the next time I go in there because I dress comfortable and that's what I like. Of course then again it did hurt me because I felt like I was ignored. I mean really, I literally stood there for about 5 minutes before she asked me! To change this incident, she could have at least said, I'll be with you in just a minute or at least acknowledged me. Also, I went in there with the attitude that they were rude, maybe if I would've went in with a different attitude, then I wouldn't have even noticed (although I still would've).

Practicing Awareness of Microagressions

First of all, I've never heard of a microagression in my life. When I type it in on Microsoft Word it underlines it with the red line, so I had to keep checking to make sure I really wrote the right word (lol). Microagressions are something that I have not dealt with much either. Dictionary.com's definition of microagression is "Microagression usually involves demeaning implications and other subtle insults against minorities, and may be perpetrated against those due to gender, sexual orientation, and ability status." I am from a very small town where there aren't blacks (maybe 1 or 2), gay people are for the most part accepted because they are a part of the community and always have been, and special needs people are treated with fairness (as far as I see). As a matter of fact, I just now thought of a microagression that happened last night. Well actually I'm not sure if it can be called that because it was unintentional. But, by no means do I look like a boy! We were eating at a Mexican restaurant last night and the waiter looked at me and said "and for you sir? mam? sir?" like he didn't know if I was a boy or a girl!!! HAHAHAH! This could be just called a mistake instead of a microagression but still. Then, I walked out before my husband and the waiter brought Dustin our to go box and said "tell that boy he forgot his food." REALLY??? No I'm not mad at him, but what the heck? My hair was in a ponytail and I had makeup on! Makes me wanna look in the mirror and think what in the world? But here's how this could be avoided, if you don't know if it's a boy or a girl then don't put yourself in the situation where you have to say mam or sir, or call it a boy or a girl. He could have just said "and what can I get you today?" And the to-go box wasn't even mine it was Dustin's so why did he have to say "tell that boy". Ok so this is really silly, but obviously you can see it bothered me a little or I wouldn't have remembered it. And I know he meant no harm but still. This is a situation where you can practice those ways of preventing this.
This week I've learned that stereotyping is really harmful whether we know it or not. And apologies are good, but at the same time if you said something you shouldn't have said, it may not help that persons emotion. We must constantly think about what we say before we say it. We must practice to not judge others and to not talk about others and then maybe these words won't come out of our mouths.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

Friend #1: "Culture is your heritage like what we do here is not the same as the culture in Iraq. Diversity is like being in NY City when there are so many different ethnic groups there."

Friend #2: "Culture is what surrounds a group of people and influences them in some way. To be cultured is to allow oneself to be engulfed in many different cultures/influences and react to them in some way. Diversity is a combination of different ethnic groups and cultures."

Friend #3: "Culture is the developed agreed upon customs and behaviors of a given population. Diversity is having multiple cultures or differing cultures the same click or group of people."

In these answers, I see #1 is focused on race and groups of people. I love #2's answer on culture because she stated that it influences them in some way. That's exactly what I have learned about culture. It is everywhere and we are all influenced by it in one way or another. I realize how much I didn't know about culture before this class. Notice they all said diversity is having different ethnic groups in a certain area. My #3 friend is someone that doesn't really have the same beliefs or "culture" as me. He's quite different to me and I see a lot of things he does as.... weird! (or different from me...lol).  I like how #3 said agreed upon customs, because that can really mean anything. But None of my friends specifically mentioned how culture is the way we move, talk, act, where we work, how we react to certain things or the way we beleive. It has influenced my thinking because I didn't realize how much I had learned about culture and diversity since beginning my studies at Walden. It makes me want to keep digging and learn more and more. These are friends of mine that don't recognize or worry about their culture. They are all of different ages and live in different places in the world.

My Family Culture

If I could take three things to an unknown country with me what would I take? (This assignment is going to make my real personality show through... haha)
This is a very very tough question. The first thing that popped into my mind is my gun. Although I'm sure it wouldn't be allowed on the airplane or boat or whatever I had to ride on to get where I was going. I do have my concealed handgun license and this is definetly one time I would take advantage of that license. To be honest it would not only be for my protection but also for hunting. My whole life I've grown up hunting for food. Of course, we bought food at the store also, but my favorite food is out of the wild. We always killed deer, squirrel, rabbits, ducks, dove and turkeys and ate them for several meals. Money is one thing that didn't cross my mind about taking because I would be able to supply my own food IF they allowed me to take my gun.
This is weird again, but the second thing that crossed my mind was a cow. Fresh milk anytime I needed it and I could raise even more cattle and butcher my own meat for hamburgers and steaks! YUMMY! This question brings up a lot more questions in my mind, because if I was going to live a long time I would bring 2 cows and a gun because I would have to make a living somehow and my family and the family I married into has raised, sold and bred thousands of cattle. The ranch I live on is 1000+ acres and runs over 500 cattle on it. So in my mind I would be thinking survival, along with lifestyle and future.
So in the end I would bring my gun and 2 cows. I have to say that my Bible, money, pictures and sweet tea would come in next, but these things are only material things and won't get you through life (except the Bible)
So if I could only bring one thing, I would have to choose a cow.

What I've Learned About Research

After taking this course, I have learned an abundance about research. I had no idea how much effort the researchers put into making sure the information was valid. I didn't know there was that much involved in research. I thought it was something you looked up on the computer got valid information about and wrote about it. I guess I never actually realized you interviewed and observed people. I mean that sounds stupid but the research i've been exposed to was research on the internet. I've never done a real research project that involved interviews and observations. Now I fully understand the true meaning of research and how much work is put into it. I respect the researcher for all their hard work. I learned that planning, designing and conducting research is very important. When planning, one must have a time frame in mind so too much time isn't wasted on a certain area. The design of your project must be accurate for the type of research you are doing. Conducting your research is the most important part. The atmosphere and observing area must be setup correctly. If the planning and design was setup accurately, conducting should be no problem!
Some challenges I encountered were getting all the names of the research terms straight. It was hard to remember the definitions of several terms. I overcame it by making sure I used the handbook as a tool. It was a major help.
I've had a wonderful time in this class and have learned so much!

Research Around the World

I am in love with Australia, so I was glad to see what kind of research was going on in australia! I clicked on the Research in Practice Series (RIPS) and it came up with tons of stuff. I would say they are researching some of the same things we are researching in the US. This site is equivilant to the NAEYC website. One reason I compared their research to our research and saying they are equal is because I scrolled thru their RIPS and found "Learning and Teaching Through Play" and this stood out to me because this is kind of what I am doing my research over. I also found an "Agression and Young Children" one which looked awful interesting to me too! I think that was one of the questions on last weeks discussion that we had to pick a couple of them and which could you make a hypothesis out of and which you couldn't! I seen one on "Portfolios: Documenting a journey," I looked into this one because I am going to start doing a detailed portfolio on each child. When I clicked on that link I actually discovered that these are books you can order! Then I had to go back and click on "About RIPS" to see exactly what it was. Where it stated, "The Research in Practice Series is a practical, easy-to-read resource, offering effective new approaches for those challenging issues which arise in the care and education of young children.
Early Childhood Australia's Research in Practice Series is an essential resource for those involved in the early childhood field. The books are idea-rich and to-the-point." This is super awesome! I would absolutely love to have this series of books!
I think its interesting they've come out with a series of books on research. Does the NAEYC have something similar to this? Now I will have to go check because I am in awe about this!

Week 3: Research that Benefits Children and Families

This is hard to choose. Two tough choices and I think I'll do both! Option number one: a positive example of research on children and families. One thing I see that research has aided in is children with ADD/ADHD. They have come out with medications that help these children. I do now that it is a tough decision for parents to put their child on medication, but when teachers and doctors bring in all the research that has been done and the positive has came out of the medication, this helps the parent make a decision. I have also heard that Diet Mt. Dew can help children with ADD or ADHD and this is one thing I'd like to research more into also. Now one thing that I would love to research is the causes of Autism! There are so many children born with autism with no known reason why. Also with down syndrome, I know that just has to do with a gene or chromosone or something but I just wonder and would love to research what causes this and how to prevent it. I also know a family who had a set of twins they are 18 now and the girl has never had use of her legs, shes been on crutches her whole life. They just recently started giving her botox shots. I would also love to see some research on this. Why are her legs unable to be used and how could this have been prevented and what can make it better? There are some amazing things that could be researched in early childhood. I know that parents still love their children the same no matter if they have ADD, ADHD, Autism, down syndrome or any other disability, but I also know that if some of these things could be prevented it would save a lot of stress!

My Personal Research Journey

I chose to study Play in Early childhood! This subjects peaks my interest because people are trying to take away childhood! At the beginning of the year, we were told to only stay at recess for 10-15 minutes. Really? How can we do that? I'm going to say this is why there are more children with ADD/ADHD! They are forced to sit in chairs and do paperwork and not allowed to play, like children are supposed to do! Pre-K is now teaching what Kindergarten once taught. We are forcing these children to lose childhood earlier and earlier. I am a teacher who will stand up for the rights of my children. 4 year olds have an attention span of like 15-20 minutes at a time. They are unable to focus any longer than that, yet we are forced to keep them inside and busy. Just busy work. That term gets on my nerves. When I interned the teacher even called it "busy work". Why do we just want to keep children busy, instead of allowing them to play, or teach them something else? This just doesn't make sense to me. Children learn more by playing outside and socializing than doing busy work. They learn socialization skills, gross motor skills and many more skills. I want to research to find more out and let others know Why Play is Important in Early Childhood!

Week 8

One of the best things a teacher can do is explore other countries education. When we see how unfortunate they are, we will stop complaining about not being paid enough. I feel like my job isn't about money, its about children. One thing I have learned from exploring websites and podcasts, is that early intervention is a must. In other countries, I noticed some of their programs start when the mother is pregnant and they work with these pregnant people all the way until the child is toddler age. This is an amazing idea. Especially for people in poverty. Another insight I have gained from all the research is that there is always help out there. If you feel like you've come to a dead end on a child or a situation, you can ask experts, there are people and research based ideas that you can look for to help you. My person growth has grew tremendously since this class, I now see that my kids are well taken care of after seeing what I've seen from children in other countries. I also have grown to recognize the fact that other cultures still exist even though I have only one or 2 different cultures in my classroom, other cultures still need to be recognized.

One goal I have for the field of early childhood is that a college class needs to be added for awareness of overseas educations. Some of the classes I took in college were ridiculous, not even something I have used since I've been a teacher. The issues and trends of education in other countries is one thing that needs to be recognized.

I am thankful for my colleagues support and great positive comments.

Week 7 Alternative..

For this weeks blog assignment I first looked through the website http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/
On this website one of the first things I noticed was the things on the left side of the page that you can click on: Access and equity, quality, investment and financing, coordination and integration. These stuck out to me because these are the things we've been focusing on. I decided to click on quality. Under quality it told about some things in different countries and how early childhood settings are different but how they all focused on being healthy and a positive environment. "The service setting and physical infrastructure may vary greatly within countries. Regular inspection and follow-up of the service setting as well as adequate health and nutrition components are also crucial for meaningful learning to take place." One of my favorite things about this section, it states how important home life is in a child learning. "Active involvement from parents and communities and relevant play and learning materials ensure that early childhood services remain relevant to the needs of the children and all other stakeholders and increases sustainability."
One thing that interested me on this website was on the bottom where it had "News". There were some awesome news articles under there such as "What are the three important skills for a child" and "Early Childhood getting the big picture". These articles are full of great information. When I clicked on the 3 important skills for a child, this was amazingly interesting. Several people commented such as "Firstly, they need to learn about culture – culture is a kind of glue, it keeps us together. It’s like tea with sugar – it creates flavour and the colour we need. Secondly, values and respect. Do we respect our parents and elders enough? Are the gaps here increasing? We need to keep in mind that education comes from home – our families are the first “teachers” in our lives. They are crucial to us so respect and values are important. Thirdly, history – we should know our past so we can improve our future.” This is amazing to me because it states how important family is. How important a proper home life is. Some parents do stupid things and don't realize how much it will affect their child. I learned so much from this website! It was a really great website.

Week 6

I am exploring the website : http://www.pewstates.org/projects/pre-k-now-328067/
In this website I found a lot of exploration on equity. They have a lot of research on equity. Here's one headline I found "State Works to Narrow Teacher Equity Gap" and here's the overview
"For the first time, the federal government is demanding that more of a state's best teachers work at its poorest, mostly minority schools. In two weeks, states must submit a plan to eliminate disparities, such as in Ohio, where one of every eight teachers in its poorest elementary schools is not rated highly qualified compared to one in 67 in its richest schools"
This was very interesting to me. Wouldn't that be wonderul! I have signed up for the newsletter, but still haven't received anything. Hopefuly I will soon so I can better understand this website because it kind of confuses me because it is all over the place.
One area of the site I chose to explore was titled "STATES." In this spot you can explore their work by state. So of course I clicked on Oklahoma. They have several fact sheets to explore different things. Things such as Obama asking for grants, and gun laws. They have an "Issues in Oklahoma" section. You can find out a lot of issues in your state from here. It is great.
There are a lot of outside links on this website, you can find things about dental health, family support, children health, economic mobility, etc. This is a wonderful website that I feel needs to be a bit more organized. I still have a hard time finding some things. This is not a website I would continue to look at after this class. The main thing I like about this website is it has a "state" section where you can investigate things about your state. Now, maybe after I receive the newsletter, it will help me to better understand the things that are going on with the site.

Week 5!!!!

Alright so let me tell you what really stinks. I would rathers communicate with someone one to one, then listen to videos. I really wish my people would respond or I could possibly find someone from another country. But since I haven't yet done so:
I reviewed the website http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/. While exploring this website I found some great publications. One publication I found very interesting was called The Science of Neglect: The Persistent Absence of Responsive Care Disrupts the Developing Brain. It talks about how much an effect that neglect has on a child.
The Center on Developing Child is also starting a Center in Brazil. It's called Núcleo Ciência Pela Infância and is the first program outside of the united states. This project aims to use the science of child health and development to guide stronger policies and larger investments to benefit young children and their families in Brazil. It's always great to see others helping eachother.
"Un Buen Comienzo (UBC), “A Good Start,” is a collaborative project in Santiago, Chile, to improve early childhood education through teacher professional development. The idea is to improve the quality of educational offerings for four-to-six-year-olds, particularly in the area of language development. This project is also designed to intervene in critical health areas that improve school attendance as well as socioemotional development, and it seeks to involve the children's families in their education."

Next I watched a podcast on the World Forum Radio. Meridas Eka Yora is who I chose to listen to. This guy has done some great things. He is the founder of the Fajar Hidaya Foundation. This foundation provides integrated education systems that aim to give birth to a generation of creative, independent, and progressive individuals perceptive to the dynamics of global and technological changes. He developed boarding schools for children after devastation in Aceh in which 500,000 became homeless. Meridas has established a helping hand and is giving children what they deserve.

Resources
http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio/
http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/

Sharing Web Resources Week 4

One thing I found particularly interesting on this website is all the research they do. There is a section called Projects and in this area I found an article called Proof into Policy: Pre-K milestones and here they have data about how much funding has increased in the past 7 years. I am happy to say Oklahoma is one that is on the higher end of funding. When I look at Texas, this really makes me happy! They are wayyy higher than everyone else. What a great state! I've heard a lot of good things about Texas schools, but I didn't know they were the highest funded state. There were 10 states that do not have state pre-k programs. Wow! I couldn't imagine our school without a pre-k program. State funding for pre-k more than doubled nationwide from 2002-2010. 27% of all 4 year olds are in state funded pre-k programs. It is obvious that this trend in early childhood will continue to rise as it has doubled in the past 8 years. People are finally realizing how important early childhood programs are for children. Once again, even in these articles I found that we are striving for preparing children for the future. Although I feel this program has nothing to do with being against play, but I feel they are focusing on the future and not the "now." I think children or adults shouldn't even worry about the future until the children are at least in mid or high school. We must do our jobs as teachers to teach the children what they need to know and expect every other teacher between now and high school to do the same. As long as we do that, I think the child will be alright.
This website is very informative, but I have a hard time finding stuff I am looking for. And I'm really confused about what I'm actually reading. I guess there are several different things they are looking at and not just early childhood. When I finally find the early childhood section of it, there are some very interesting things to see and research being done. This is a great website with quite a bit of information but just a little bit too much information for me.

Getting to know your international contacts - ALTERNATIVE

None of my contacts have responded, therefore I'm researching the http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/ website instead! I chose to research china. I discovered that china is e most populated country in the world! They have done a grea job of getting out of poverty! They went from 250 million in poverty to just 35 million! That's still a very huge number!  Out of 1.2 billion, 250 million were in poverty in 2001! 4.2 million of children are in absolute poverty and 8.7 million are in disadvantage conditions. This is very sad. But on the bright side I found that 80% of western chinas children complete primary school! From these statistics I have found, I am very thankful to have a home and a family and food to eat! There are many people out there in poverty! Crazy amounts of children and families!! I feel I need to be more thankful for what I have, after reading these statistics! I've always wanted to adopt or help a child in need... I think this has motivated me to push more toward helping them, these are very sad statistics!!

I also listened to the world forum foundation radio...
The first person I listened to was susan lyon she started by talking about a little boy who inspired her by his words and actions. She advocates for children by listening and using environments which is connected to the Reggio Emilia approach. She brought the 100 languages exhibit to a large city. http://ccie-media.s3.amazonaws.com/podcasts/WFR_10_SusanLyon.mp3

Sharing Web Resources

The name of the organization I chose is Pre K Now - The Pew Charitable Trusts: http://www.pewstates.org/projects/pre-k-now-328067\
This website is organized to campaign for high quality pre-k programs. They want to take the current K-12 system and change it to Pre-K-12. "The Pew Charitable Trusts is driven by the power of knowledge to solve today’s most challenging problems. Pew applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improve public policy, inform the public and stimulate civic life."
This caught my attention because I am a Pre-K teacher. We are not mandated in our state and I think it would be awesome if we were mandated!!! That's the reason I chose to research this website. I just recently signed up for the newsletter, so when I get it I will be sure to update my blog!

Establishing Early Childhood Contacts and Expanding Resources

Im going to admit when I read the beginning of our Blog Assignment, I turned the music down and looked at my aide and said "THIS IS CRAZY!!! We have to contact an early childhood profession in another country!!!" I was thinking we had to call them. Then I continued to read and I said "oh, we just have to email them." HAHA! I was scared because I hate talking on the phone. I was thinking what if I can't understand them. Anyways then I started thinking oh wow this is going to be so cool to contact someone from another country!
I must say I am really in love with Australia, so I chose to find someone from Australia. I contacted the UNICEF in australia for the first profession.
The next I chose was from Jordan! I cannot wait to hear back from them!!! I will update as soon as I get a response!
The website I chose to explore and report on is the: Pre[K]Now: A Campaign of the Pew Center on the Stateshttp://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/initiatives_detail.aspx?initiativeID=31672(Newsletter: http://www.preknow.org/signupform.cfm )
I chose this because Pre-K is the grade I teach and it has a section called why pre-k matters and I felt that this would be very meaningful to my job!

My Supports

First of all, my daily supports would be my coworkers. Everyday I'm at work, we support eachother. If I need something I can run to them and they will help in any way they can. My aide is the greatest person I've ever worked with. I can talk about my personal life. If I'm down, she'll pick me up. The rest of the people in my building are the exact same way. If I worked with people I didn't like, that would be very hard. I don't think I would enjoy my job.
Next my family is the greatest support system. My parents will watch my daughter and son anytime I need a break, my husbands parents will do the same. If me and hubby need a night alone, either of our parents are always willing to watch them. My sister is also great about watching the kids if I need to make a quick run to town. Our kids are the same age so they love to play together. My husband is great also!
My friends are the greatest friends in the world. We all went to high school together, and after 8 years, we are still best friends that get together anytime we can. One of them moved away to New York, but we skype with her. They are the best support a person could have. Most of my friends have kids now also, so we plan playdates and stuff like that.
My daughter is my BIGGEST support! Even though she is a mean 4 year old, she is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. Me and her dad got divorced about 4 years ago and he hasnt seen her since she was like 10 months old. She thinks my husband now is her dad. How sad is that. It would kill me if she EVER had to go away for a weekend. I just hope my husband can soon adopt her. When I cry, she will cry with me. She has helped me through so much. She helped me get through the divorce. I don't know where I'd be without her.
The biggest challenge that could happen to me is if I didn't have a family or lost my job. My family helps me through anything. If I lost my job, I wouldn't be able to support my family which would not be good. If I lost my job, I would have to find another job and I would probably hate it! I don't think I could ever work in a place as great as this. Our principal is one of my friends moms also. So everyone at my school is like family. Everyone needs a great support system, sometimes I feel I need more, but then I look around at everyone that loves me and remember I have the BEST!

My Connections to Play

“Play builds the kind of free-and-easy, try-it-out, do-it-yourself character that our future needs.” ~ James L. Hymes Jr. (child development specialist, author)

“It is a happy talent to know how to play.”  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson (writer)

When I was a child, my mom and dad would always say stuff about what you could do with stuff, such as, " I bet you can build a teepee with those sticks." Or when it rained my mom would always tell us to go cook some mud pie. People loved to see kids outside playing when I was young. I lived down a long dirt road and I would ride my bicycle as far as they'd let me then ride it back. At school, we could play out as long as we wanted. The teachers knew what they had to teach and they got it done and allowed us to play too.
I feel that play today is discouraged. Parents want their children inside at school doing work. They want them to learn everything and they don't understand that these children need to be outside to relieve stress. They can't sit in a chair all day and expect them to learn anything. Also, when I was a child, my parents hardly ever bought us toys, Christmas and birthdays was about it. We always played with what we had. We played with pots, pans, utensils, sticks, dirt, mud and anything else we could find. Children are so dependent on technology and toys these days that it's crazy. I have to admit even my daughter knows how to work my ipad and iphone better than I do. I have started teaching her that she doesn't need a toy everytime we go to walmart though and that we're not even going to look. Children have forgot how to make due with what you have and they are drawn away from sticks and mud and pushed towards phones and ipads and toys. It makes me sick honestly because my childhood was SO FUN! I didn't have anything but it was fun. I got up every morning since I was probably 4 or 5 with my dad to help him milk. I enjoyed working! That has followed me through adulthood. I worked hard all through high school and all through college. Children these days are going to grow up thinking they can just sit on a phone all day and not do anything. I played all kinds of sports in high school. I thought of it as play even though it was VERY hard work. It was fun for me. I still play today, I love being outside and I feel that when we clean up brush and stuff, that is play to me. Anything I find fun is play for me. We sometimes go out to eat and go to walmart or shopping. This is a type of play for adults in which I greatly enjoy!
Play is very vital and people need to step back and see how it has changed from past to present!

Relationship Reflection

I find relationships to be an important part of my life! I've been married and divorced already because he was an untrusty man. Relationships must have trust, even with children! I have been married now to a man for 2 years and we have had no trust issues at all. He is one of the main relationships in my life. We don't have children together, but I have a child and he has a child. He fathers my daughter and I mother his son. The next relationship I want to talk about is with God! I have a close relationship with God and I trust him and turn to him in time of need. I let him down time after time, but I know He will always be there.
I have great relationships with my coworkers in our Early Childhood Center. We go out to eat on a monthly basis. We have gatherings at eachothers house. One coworker in particular, I hang out with all summer. Our daughters play together and have a great time. I can tell her anything and she can tell me anything and we trust eachother with it. I feel that if I worked in a place where I disliked my coworkers, I would dislike my job. I love my coworkers and they make my job so much more fun! They are always there to help anytime I need anything. We are a team. We never try to outdo the other, we always share our ideas and learn together how to better our children in our classrooms.
My family has to be my number one relationship. My mom and dad are the best people I've ever met. My daughter is so in love with them, we visit them at least twice a week. They help me with her anytime it is needed. They live on a farm so anytime she is sick and can't go to school they are able to keep her. My sister is one of my best friends also. She has two little boys and one is the same age as my daughter. So they love to play together.
I have the best friends EVER! In high school, they were my best friends and we are still best friends and we hang out once a month at eachothers house and cookout. There are 7 of us. Only one is far away in New York and we skype with her when we get together. It is rare that you find people still being friends after being out of high school for almost 8 years. But we are even better friends now than we were when we were in high school! Almost all of us have children now and get togethers are so fun with our little ones.
I feel that I am a trustable and a fun loving person. I can keep a secret. I am not judgemental. I am a good advice giver. I feel that I am a good friend and a good person.
One relationship that I enjoy having is a relationship with each of my students parents. I add them as my friends on facebook and I get to know their child through social connections first. Then, throughout the year we gain trust and build our relationship. I allow them to have my cell phone number and text me throughout the day if needed. I enjoy receiving texts from parents. I feel that the more I know about the parent, the easier it is to understand the child. I feel that I am close to each parent of children in my room. This relationship continues to grow and then I have personal relationships with them. This also helps me to enjoy my job. I'm not sure what I'd do if I had parents that didn't appreciate the type of relationship I gain with them. This makes my job so much easier when I can just text the parents to ask a quick question.
Relationships are a crucial part of early childhood. You must build a relationship with the children, the parent and your coworkers. Your job is made easier by each of these. You build a positive relationship with the students and they will enjoy coming to your class. You build a positive relationship with the parents and they are able to trust you with their children and have no fear of them coming to your class. You build a positive relationship with your coworkers and they will help you anytime you need it! I feel I have it made with my relationships!