Sharing Web Sources

Sharing Web Sources

The website I've been subscribed to for quite some time is Education week! I get weekly emails with different articles each week. This website is basically everything education for leaders and policy experts in the pre-k field! This website is source for data, news, tools and more to help those in their research from a policy standpoint and teachers that are in the classrooms.  It has blogs, "opinions", discussion boards and so much! I haven't read as much as I should but its a good resource to have in your back pocket! They even have a tab for teachers that's like a teacher's corner that deals with everything teachers. One article title that grabbed my attention quickly was, "Catholic School Allows Transgender Teacher to Keep His Job". So there are a variety of topics. I sure will get back to looking at this site more often. It's really jammed pack with great things. Its a must have!

References

Education Week http://www.edweek.org/ew/index.html

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

Establishing Professional Contacts 

and Expanding Resources

I sought information from the UNICEF Ireland and New Zealand. Both of these countries are fighting two different things. I chose these two countries because they both fighting for very important causes to help our children now and in the future.

In New Zealand their focus is basically on all areas that affect the human being from birth well into adulthood. Their focuses are child poverty, child protection, child labour, HIV and AIDS, environment and climate change, child survival and development and sustainable and developmental goals. All these factors could make and/or break a person. And they are willing to shine a light on these issues in this country so that children can have a fighting chance.

In Ireland they are for similar issues Those include health, innovation, education, nutrition, water and child protection.

I decided to sign up for the Harlem Children's Zone newsletter and explore their website in the coming weeks! They are doing great things the families in their communities and are making huge impacts in the lives they come across. The numbers alone are mind blowing to me. For instance, 1,450,000 healthy nutritious student meals prepared by HCZ  food services, 7,000 youth across HCZ are participating in Healthy Harlem fitness and nutritious programs. Which means they are decreasing the possibility of childhood obesity and helping children build healthy relationships with food and exercise.

Resources

Ireland https://www.unicef.ie/mission/saving-lives/health/

Harlem Children's Zone http://hcz.org/

New Zealand https://www.unicef.org.nz/

My Supports

 (I'm here on the right)

The other two in this picture are my co-workers. We are in the same classroom Monday- Friday from 8am -3:15pm. We just started working together in January. I became a permanent substitute teacher in their class after their teacher passed away from lung cancer. We all work together in the special education department working with children with emotional and behavioral problems. I had no idea what I had gotten into or the task that was before me. Entering into the classroom I quickly realized that I was out of my element. These children are from broken homes and neighborhoods that breathes negative energy. The three of us together have formed a team and a bond that I never would have imagined coming from this school. Each of has something that the other doesn't and together we're a perfect match. We love on the children the same. We want them to feel special and loved even when the world around them tells that they shouldn't feel that way. These people hold me accountable in my day to day walk with Christ. They understand that I am growing and I can even confide in them when I have fallen. The other young lady in the picture says that I have helped her calm down so much, because I am pretty calm. The guy in the picture is constantly making us laugh, but is also a great instructor. The kids get to see this positive bond lived out in the classroom everyday. I pray that we have planted some time of positive seed. These are my daily supports and without them in this part of my life I couldn't imagine. I believe God puts people in your life for a reason and I am glad his placed them at this moment in my life.

My Connection To Play

My Connection to Play

“Play is…more than just fun. Plenty of play in childhood makes for happy, smart adults – and keeping it up can make us smarter at any age.” Stuart Brown

“When you asked me what I did in school today

and I say, 'I just played.' Please don’t misunderstand

me. For you see, I am learning as I play. I am

learning to enjoy and be successful in my work.

Today I am a child and my work is play.”

Anita Wadley, 1974.

The following three toys are the toys I remember the most as a kid. Connect Four is just an all time classic! It teaches strategy techniques! I even play this now with my middle school kids! So much fun! Chutes and Ladders is so memorable because my grandmother used to sit and play this with me all the time! We always played board games and I believe us spending quality time like this together made us really close. Last but no least is the "vintage" Barbie Doll Skates! Not only did i have the skates I had the knee and elbow pads and helmet to match! My mom was all about safety when I began to literally, "hi the ground rolling"! 

 (I cannot believe these are considered vintage now! )

When I was younger play was just apart of life. Not video games, cell phones and/or tv. While all of that was available to us, nothing was better than getting with my friends in the neighborhood to laugh, talk, play, race and what ever else we wanted to do. My mom encourages my sister and I to play all the time, more like forced us out of the house for the day. During play I learned how to get along with others, communication and even conflict resolution. When you are outside all day with pretty much the same group of people everyday, there is bound to be some disagreement. Well, we had to learn to solve that on our own or go in the house. No one wanted to go in the house so we figured things out. I wish my parents were more involved with some of my outside play. I think that would have done wonders for our relationship. However, my grandfather did play with me outside. He taught me how to ride a bike. He would even sit outside and watch me play. That was enough to show me that he really cared and that he appreciated outside play.


In 2016 play has changed drastically. Children are more inclined to lean towards technology. Such as iPads, computers and phones. I have to put some blame on the parents though. As a child my mom made sure I had limited screen time whether it was intentional or not I am grateful for it. Play for me was simply getting my sister and friends going outside and creating fun. I love technology and some of the games are cool. But even as an adult I don't have games on my phone nor am I interested in video games. Going into the future I would like to see more parents actually physically play outside with their children. Not only will help the bond, but it also helps the family stay healthy. Thus preventing possible childhood obesity which is spreading due to lack of physical activities.


It wasn't until this assignment where I was able to really see how play was and still is a big part of my life. I enjoyed life as a child. And I am carrying that into my adulthood. Play is how we interact, how we learn about each other and how we learn to communicate. We need those same things as an adult. When we go out to eat or have drinks with new people that is a form of play. We laugh, we learn and grow.

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/