Relationship Reflection

Relationship Reflection

 The first relationship is my super important to me is the one I have with my grandmother. This lady will walk through fire for me. My grandmother has been such a great supporter in everything I do that is positive and constantly encourages me to never give up on my dreams. She is also the one who helped form my spiritual foundation by taking me to church and teaching me how to pray. I love her so much and will always be grateful to have her in my life.  One thing that keeps my grandmothers' and relationship strong is the fact that we respect each other. 

 Not everyone is completely on board when you start making changes in your life spiritually. This guy in this picture has been my friend since 2008. He's seen me through the good and bad times. We are just off the cusp of the biggest challenge in our friendship and I believe it made our friendship stronger. He supports my growth spiritually in a way a lot of my past friends don't and that means a lot to me. We help each other by praying for one another and keep each other motivated. We are both people with positive energies and we try to maintain that. I love him to the moon and back.  Honest communication has been the one thing that has kept our friendship and the fact that we love each other no matter what.

 My sisters!!!!! To left you have my middle sister, middle is the baby and the right is me! Just this past New Year we were able to hang out together with our mom for the very first time in years! I love these girls so much. They push me to be better role model for them. I want them to look up to me. My baby sister watches my every move so I have to make sure they're good ones. My middle sister marches to her own beat, always have. I admire her fearlessness! She says screw the world, I am me and nothing is going to change that! And she is basically a genius, seriously one of the smartest people I know! 

 Mommy and me! My mom is not just my mom she is my best friend in a lot of ways! I share like everything with her! Our relationship has grown so much over the years. She allows me to really find my own way in life. Not necessarily pushing me and not necessarily pushing me. Honestly, I wish she had pushed me a lot harder in school. As an adult now, I have to push myself and be my own motivation and sometimes that is just how life is. One I thing that me and my share is our kind hearts. My mom is like the sweetest person on the planet. Oh, and she can really cook!! 

Developing and maintaining relationships have been tough for me over the years. I am finally at a point in my life where I realized each relationship/friendship played its part for that particular time in my life. I am not one who has had a friend since childhood, however, I have a few friends that are still hanging with me strong since college. Those friendships have been tried and tested and we are all still hanging in there. Communication is the key. While some friends I have, I talk to almost everyday, I have a few that I only speak with every now and then and that's life. I have a friend who is like a brother however, he has a wife and two children. I couldn't talk to him everyday if I wanted to, but I respect his family and love them very much. I know that our friendship is not falling apart, he is just seriously busy. We connect every few months or so.

What do you see as special characteristics of these relationships that make some, if any, partnerships?

Fun! No matter what, we laugh and enjoy life! Laughter is the best medicine and it makes any relationship strong and fun! We don't take things too seriously unless seriously needed.

How might your experiences with relationships/partnerships, including your ability to be an active, reflective contributor, impact your work as an effective early childhood professional?

As an early childhood professional I make it a point to allow my students and parents feel comfortable. I am somewhat silly and really enjoy what I do and that reflects my relationships with my students and parents. At any given time you can me my students and I laughing and enjoying class and you will see myself and parents laughing as well. My great sense of humor has been a building block for me in the early childhood profession.

When I Think Of Child Development

Testing For Intelligence?

Testing For Intelligence?

As having experience as teacher assessing children in a center-based, play-based programs the assessments measured more so milestones in the child's learning process. There were two types of assessments which were naturalistic including observation which should be ongoing and intentional, documentation including teacher's notes, children's work and portfolios which shows what children are able to do and documentation of their development over a period of time. When doing these assessments, I thought they were pretty good. They were not as academically focused as I have heard some others to be. These assessments actually allowed us to see how children grow socially, how they think critically and how and how much they have learned. My thoughts on what should be measured or assessed when it comes to the whole child is I think we should take a better look at the environment that they may be living in. Take into consideration the community and family that are all involved in their lives. This in turns affect the child's social skills, ability to learn, behavior and more. 

I decided to research Africa to see how they're school aged children were assessed, what I came upon was quite interesting. In doing my research I found that they actually do a more holistic assessment in a way. Whey they do their assessments of school aged children, they assess issues such as anxiety, stress related problems, social problems, conduct problems, just more of a behavioral assessment.  They also have a Multicultural Family Assessment Module which, "If users deem it appropriate, they can show parents the bar graphs to help them understand variations among reports by different informants regarding their child's functioning and their own functioning." These assessments will not help teachers at school but will also help the parents at home to see what the root of the issue could be. I also believe they have assessments like this based on the environment in which the children are being taught and raised in. 

In addition to my thoughts and what I have learned I believe we do have to begin to look at the big picture now. We cannot just assess what we see at school on a day to day basis. Culture, communities and families all play a big part in how a child builds a relationship with the education process. 

Resources:

Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment http://www.aseba.org/preschool.html

Goddard School Approach to Assessment https://blogs.goddardschool.com/Hanover-MD/tag/pre-k/

Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

When you think of your own life experiences or the lives of children and adults you know well what are the stressors of which you are aware?

Sexual Abuse

This question struck quite the nerve, but in a good way. As a child in middle school, my greastest stressor was being sexually abused. Between the ages of 12-14 years of age, I was being molested by a person living in my household at the time. When all this began I didn't know what to do, I was fearful, confused and scared. I played a lot of sports because for one, it kept me out the house a little longer, but my grades were horrible. I passed 7th and 8th by the grace of God. It was scary time in my life and no one knew the stress I was under. I don't believed I showed any signs, because even through all of that I kept a smile on my face. I specifically remember one time I came to school very upset and crying. I told my friends what happened and nobody really said anything, just hugged me. That was my first and last cry for help. Could you imagine the stress of wanting help, just not knowing how to get it without actually asking?

As a teacher now, I do know how important it is understand child behavior and to constantly be aware of even the smallest changes. It's funny, because although I was doing horribly in school I don't remember a teacher calling my mom to discuss my grades. It wasn't until I relocated to another city and school is when I was basically rescued. I used to write a lot during that time in my life and kept that notebook with me at all time. My grandmother found it and immediately reported to my principal. I moved in my grandmother right away.

Sexual abuse is something hard to pinpoint. And teachers aren't usually quick to say that could be the reason why a child is behaving the way they are, partly because that is a very serious accusation. But would you rather be right or wrong in that kind of situation? That judgement call could save someone's life. If my grandmother had never been nosey then I would still been in that situation. And I am so grateful for that. So, below I am just going to share a few signs of a child that is possibly being sexually abused in the early childhood years.

Signs of Sexual Abuse:
-Gradual or sudden change in behavior
-Agressive/Disruptive behavior
-Regression to more infantile behavior (bed wetting, thumb sucking, excessive crying)
-Vaginal or rectal bleeding, pain, itching, swollen genitals, vaginal discharge, or an STD
-Expressing affection in ways that are inappropriate for a child of that age
-Excessive masturbation
-Difficulty learning in school / Inability to Concentrate / Short Attention Span / May appear to have a learning disorder / Appears to be hyperactive (may even be diagnosed as ADD / ADHD)


Resources:
 http://www.speakingout-csa.com/signssymptoms.html

Prevention Against Childhood Obesity

Prevention Against Childhood Obesity (a topic I chose to add to the list)

What is Childhood Obesity?

Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic in the United States. It affects more than 30 percent of children, making it the most common chronic disease of childhood. This number has more than tripled since 1980. Childhood obesity is a health issue. Today, more and more children are being diagnosed with diabetes, hypertension and other co-morbid conditions associated with obesity and morbid obesity. A child is defined as “affected by obesity” if their body mass index-for-age (or BMI-for-age) percentile is greater than 95 percent. A child is defined as “overweight” if their BMI-for-age percentile is greater than 85 percent and less than 95 percent. (OAC, 2016)


Last year I was living in the beautiful state of California, where I experienced childcare in a different way from the south. What I did notice was that the children were not as heavy and didn’t seem to be experiencing weight issues as far as being overweight. However, coming from the south I was one of the more heavier teachers and noticed I was not as active.  It made me take a look at my lifestyle and what I could possibly be portraying to the children I teach. Children not only pay attention to what we teach, but they watch what we say, what we eat and they see firsthand how active we are. So, I began the journey to taking on a healthier lifestyle. In doing this, the cause for prevention against childhood obesity became dear to my heart. And honestly, that didn’t happen until I relocated back down south. Relocating opened my eyes to a lot. Not only are the children overweight, but so are the staff. We, as teachers should want to be a better example, be more active and live a healthier lifestyle. Children are with us 40 hours a week. That’s a lot of time to make a difference, to teach children about the importance a healthy lifestyle and the importance of good nutrition. As I began my healthy journey, I realized that it is not just about me and my results, but it is also about the children’s lives I will touch in the future and also teachers lives as well.


Childhood Obesity in Spain
Trends in the prevalence of childhood obesity and overweight in Spain have continuously increased in the last three decades. Obesity and overweight currently affect 15 and 20% of Spanish children, respectively, and these percentages are among the highest in Europe. (SESPAS, 2010)

Spain is the third largest level of childhood obesity in the world. (Williams, 2010)
Statistics reveal that a staggering 40 per cent of youths aged between 13 and 18 never practice sport. (Williams, 2010)

Modern Spanish families are moving away from the traditional Mediterranean diet and eating more fats and sugars than ever before. According to Roberto Sabrido from the Spanish Food Safety Agency, people have changed how they eat. He said: “People no longer eat as a family and the food and the time dedicated to eating is not the same.”Moreover, with so much exposure to the internet, television and video games the younger generation is getting lazy. (Williams, 2010)

Just they way the people of Spain have changed their diets over the years, are the same for the people of the U.S. We have to find the time to teach our children and/or even ourselves about the importance of nutrition and how great it is to have a home-cooked meal. We have lead by example, and become more active. We, the educators, parents, guardians, etc have to step away from the tv shows, video games, internet or anything else that is taking time away that could be used for something more useful like playing with your kids, exercising, or even just preparing dinner together. All these little things will have huge impact in the future and together we can fight this disease and keep our children and ourselves here a little bit longer.


*Fun Fact*

The U.S is not the leading country in Childhood Obesity, Greece is! According to an article in Takepart. United States in number 5 on the list!


Resources
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21074906
http://www.obesityaction.org/understanding-obesity-in-children/what-is-childhood-obesity
http://www.takepart.com/photos/these-10-countries-lead-world-childhood-obesity-nope-us-isnt-no-1/5-united-states
Wendy Williams http://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2010/10/16/obesity-public-enemy-number-one/

Childbirth in Spain

Anybody who even kind of knows me, know that I have a mild obsession with Spain. It is a place that is on my bucket list to visit! So, when asked about childbirths in other countries, this was a no brainer! However, the information I found was rather interesting. I came across a blog called Bibsey which is name of the author's baby. In this blog are all types of topics ranging from childbirth to parenting. The link below is to the topic "10 Things I Can Tell You About Giving Birth in Spain." This article will have you looking all types of puzzled and confused at some of the stories. Enjoy. :)

http://www.bibsey.co.uk/giving-birth-spain/

The one thing that stuck out to me was number 10. One A Positive Note, I hate that this mom had such a sad memory of her child's birth. I have never had children before and I hope to never have such a traumatic experience. My heart goes out to her because I hear such amazing stories about children being born. Spain has to do better with creating a better experience for moms and really understand what they are dealing with. I definitely want to visit but, maybe not have a baby there.

Examining Code of Ethics

NAEYC Code of Ethics

Ideals

1-1.12 To work with families to provide a safe and smooth transition as children and families move from one program to the next

As we all know transitions can be hard, especially for children. However, some children do cope well and are able to adapt to different programs without a problem. As professionals it is our job to ensure the transition is smooth for both families and children by being supportive, providing resources and answering all questions they may have. This is highly important especially since I want to open my own school. Parents may come in with a thousand questions and I will have to be able to answer majority if not all. Being knowledgeable, warm and supportive are a few ways to ease the transition.

1-1.10 To ensure that each child's culture, language, ethnicity and family structure are recognized and valued in the program

I so love this about NAEYC. It is very important in this day and age that all children feel included in the learning process. That is why pictures, languages, art activities should explore different cultures and diversities be represented so children won't feel isolated. This is very important for professionals to remember.

1-1.9 To advocate for and ensure that all children including those with special needs have access to the support services needed to be successful

I think it is very important for directors and owners to understand the serious of special needs. There should at least be 1 or 2 staff equipped with knowledge of special needs children. It is unfair to put a teacher in position where they cannot teach effectively because of lack of experience in the area of special education. With staff there ready and able to help those children that will help ensure children will be successful.


DEC Code of Ethics

Ideals

1-3C.4 To encourage and support continual development of employees in becoming more skilled and knowledgeable practitioners

This is highly important. As time goes on this field is constantly growing and staff should always continue in training and learning. Always be in the mind of a student.

1-4.1 To provide the community with high quality early childhood care and education programs and services

As I have traveled to different states and worked in a number of preschools, one thing that I hear a lot of is a lack of high quality childcare. As an aspiring childcare center owner I want to make sure I provide just that. Especially in our lower income neighborhood. Those children deserve quality care and education programs.

1-3A.2 To share resources with coworkers, collaborating to ensure that the best possible early childhood care and education

It is important that professionals play on the same team. It is vital that we share and collaborate to make sure we are providing new and innovative ways to teach children.



Article: NAEYC. (2005, April). Code of ethical conduct and statement of commitment. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from
http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSETH05.pdf
Article: The Division for Early Childhood. (2000, August). Code of ethics. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from
http://www.dec-sped.org/