Observing Communication

This week I observed a preschool classroom at a local day care center. The children in this class are a mixture of children who just turned three, have been three for a few months, and recently turned four. So as you can imagine their was a variety of abilities and personalities that filled this room. There was one lead teacher and about 17 students. Occasionally, during my time there, another teacher came into assist the teacher. As I sat and observed it was hard to notice the routine of the class. It seemed in the morning the children were allowed to pretty much run wild in the classroom. During center time, the teacher was busing putting pictures on the wall, while children ran from center to center, fought with one another, and screamed blood murder. At times while the children were playing, the teacher would stop and yell at them to stop whatever it is they were doing. After center time they did a small group activity. By this time the second teacher had returned to the room. He took a group while the lead took another. The male teacher had his kids on the carpet as he begin to go through the letters of the alphabet by pointing to the letters on the wall. The lead teacher had two groups at the tables doing an activity using shapes. For this activity she had the children glue different shapes onto a piece of construction paper. During the activity I remember thinking to myself, what is the teachers purpose. She provided the students with no additional information as to why they were gluing the shapes onto the paper. She hardly engaged with them while the completed the activity.  The day pretty much when on in the same manner. I hardly remember the teacher having a conversation with any of the students throughout the day.

The teacher did not effectively communicate with the students and it missed out on several teachable moments throughout the day due to her not paying attention or communicating with the children. Its hard to say she knows anything about her students because she hardly interacted with them. During my time their I did spend some time with a 3 year old named Olivia. As the children played during center time, I sat down and talked with Olivia who was drawing at the table. Olivia is very well spoken and loves flowers. She drew several flower and each was a different color. Olivia also like to play on the swings and write her name. It was amazing what I was able to learn about Olivia through watching her play and communicating with her.

It seemed as if the teacher never really communicates with the children in a way that they are able to direct or initiate the conversation. Sometimes the body language and words of the teacher can seem harsh and unfair. One student had an accident and the teacher responded by scolding instead of speaking calmly to the child. I could tell the child was embarrassed and upset because he went and set in the corner with his head down. I don't think this teacher is aware of how her lack of interaction and harsh tone effects how the children feel about themselves and even school. I feel that this teacher needs to spend more time working one on one with the students. She needs to hold conversations with them and adjust how she responds to them and the things they do.

Creating Affirming Environments

Imagine that you want to open your own Family Child Care Home. Reflect on what your setting would look like, what elements you think you might want to include and for what reasons, and the various ways that you will strive to ensure that every child and family feels welcome and respected.

In creating my own Family Child Care home, I would want to be sure that my center makes my families feel comfortable and welcomed. The setting would be inviting and reflect the different cultures and backgrounds of the families and children in our community. I want to ensure that I create a learning environment that is secure and supportive for all families. In order to do so I will make sure that I provide my parents with a school/family handbook that will explain the inclusive approach of my program. In our text, they mentioned the idea of creating an equitable enrollment form. Using these forms would remove and "replace the usual labels Mother and Father with more open-ended and inclusive ones (Derman-Sparks &Edwards, 2010)"
The text also suggest finding out how the various families in your program refer to their immediate and extended members. Taking the time to get to know your families individual helps make them feel appreciated and welcomed. I would provide my families with resources and referral materials and also make sure that the classrooms are accessible.

In thinking of how it would look, my entrance would have a photos of the different children and their families. I would also have children's art work displayed all throughout the center. The classes could be filled with multicultural materials that will help provide an anti-bias learning experience. I would use family photos to create materials for students to use in housekeeping and block area. I would provided photos of children and families of different cultures that can be found throughout the world.

Derman-Sparks, L. & Edwards, J. (2010) Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves. Washington, DC. NAEYC

What I Have Learned

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

I hope that through my working with children and families from diverse backgrounds, I can help change how society views people from different cultures and backgrounds. I hope to build lasting relationships with my family by continuing to learn more about them and their culture. Through my interactions with these families and children I can increase my knowledge while bridging the gaps between different cultures. 

One goal you would like to set for early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice. 

I would like for the early childhood field to continue its efforts in making every classroom embrace the cultural diversity of today's society. I would like for educators in this field to continue educating ourselves on these issues that effect the development of children. My goal personally would be working in areas were children struggle with equity and social justice. The areas were children need the most guidance and support.

A brief note of thanks to your colleagues

I would like to thank all of my colleagues for your support and comments throughout this process. I have learned so much from each one of you and I wish you the best.