Competent Comunicator

The competent communicator I want to talk about is the person that inspired me to return to school to complete my M.S. degree in early childhood.  He is also a graduate student from Walden University.  I met him when he came to provide my program with training and technical assistance.  From the moment,  we sat on his training he was able to capture everyone’s attention.  It was not only his words that made everyone tuned into him, but his smile, his tone of voice, his whole demeanor.  In addition to that,  he was very well prepared; he was knowledgeable of the topic in discussion and very organized.  While he was doing the training occasionally, he was able to make people laugh.  I remember that some of the training attendees had limited English skills. When the training ended  some came to me and expressed that they were able to understand everything that he was teaching because he was calm and clear.  During the training session,  he allowed the teachers ask questions, and he was very concise and clear with his answers.  He was able to identify when people had a hard time understanding a concept that he was trying to explain.  What  he would do is rephrase his explanation or use other examples to ensure that the information the teachers were obtaining was accurate.  Also, that they understood the answer and/or the concept.  At the end of the training,  many people congratulated him on the training.  Teachers were very happy and pleased with his presentation.  I personally now been in other training events conducted by him, and I can testify that he always obtains the same results in his trainings.  Usually when he presents in conferences his room is always packed, and you have to rush from one room to his room to ensure that you make it on time to get a seat.

As an early childhood professional, I am interested in the area of training and professional development.  I am inspired by his work, and I plan to incorporate many of the communication techniques that I have observed on him, as well as, developing my own skills and tech

Professional Hopes and Goals

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

Working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is one of my passions.  My hope is that in, the future teachers, at all levels and administrators are better prepared to serve a diverse population.  Also, I hope that all families and children are respected and accepted as unique and that services are individualized to all families.  I hope to see the diversity topic included in all teachers’ degree programs around the United States, and also many opportunities for professional development in this area.

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

If I were going to set a goal related to issues of diversity; I would like to say that all early childhood teachers are trained and educated in this topic before they start working with children and families.  In many states such as Florida early childhood teachers regardless of their degree have to comply with certain training hours such as health and safety, developmentally appropriate practices, child abuse and state mandates.  I think that diversity can be included in this mandates.

A  Thank you note  to all my colleagues for taking the time to read my blogs and reply thoughtful messages.  I appreciated all your inspirational and motivational messages and replies.  I wish you all success in your up coming courses. 

Welcoming Families from Around the World

The family I chose for this assignment is from Burma.  I chose this country because in the city where I live we have noticed an increase in people from this country. 

Five ways in which I will prepare to be culturally responsive towards this family:

1.       Learn the country’s geographic location and climate

2.      Learn about the country’s situation (why are people fleeing this country?)

3.      Learn about their traditions, culture, customs, religion and language

4.      Find someone in the community that can speak the family’s language so that I can welcome the family in my classroom and have an effective communication.

5.      Include materials, pictures, books, music in the classroom environment that reflects the family culture.

Families from different parts of the world immigrate to United States from different reasons I believe that one of the most important things is to know those reasons.  When a teacher understands the family culture she is able to build positive relationships with the family.  Identifying someone in the community that can help us to communicate with the family is beneficial for the family, child and teacher.  It is through communication that we build relationships and engaged the families into their child’s education.  Lastly, when children and families are reflected in the classroom environment they feel welcome and develop a sense of belonging within the group.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

I have a memory of an incident that happened to one of my co-workers few years ago.  My co-worker was African-American, and we were working in a white predominant neighborhood.  I remember she used to tell me that she was scared to go out of the office alone.  She felt people around the area did not like to see black people around.  She never wanted to be in the office by herself, and when she was by herself; she would lock the doors.  I always thought she was exaggerating a little bit.  One day they opened a hair/nail salon in the same plaza that our office was located.  She enjoyed getting her nails done, so she went to the salon to give it a try.  Surprisingly 5 minutes passed, and she returned to the office. We asked her what happened. She told us that they did not want to do her nails and told her that the spa chairs were not working. We thought that it was  weird that all chairs were broken so me, and another white co-worker decided to visit the place and asked to get nails done.  To our surprise they did not tell us that the chairs were broken and welcome us into their salon.  My white co-worker told them that she would never use their services because they just refused to offer services to her black co-worker.  They got into a big argument, and rude words were exchanged.  From that moment,  we apologized to our African-American co-worker and started validating her concerns around the neighborhood we were working.

This incident diminished equity because this salon was not willing to offer their services equally to all people.

I remember that I felt angry, embarrassed and powerless because there was nothing I could do to fix that situation.

Unfortunately, for an opportunity of greater equity in this case the salon owners needed to change and stop believing that they are superior to other ethnic groups.

Microagressions

In the early childhood field there are many examples of microaggression, but when I was thinking about one example this week the one that stood out to me was a case in which a male teacher was complimented.  I remember the compliment being said as “Oh Mr.____________is such a wonderful teacher to be a man.  So this means that man cannot be as good teachers as woman.  I think this is a case of gender microaggression.  We all know we need more male teachers in the field, but if we think that they cannot be as good as female teachers we will always have problems recruiting man in the early childhood field.

After learning this week about microagression, I think there  are more unconsciously racism and prejudices that people are aware of.  Now that I am aware of this I will be more careful in the way I communicate to other people.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

For this assignment, I interviewed 3 people with different cultural and educational background.  Two  people have a different culture than me.  Some of the similarities in their responses about culture are that culture refers to a group of people that shares customs and traditions including food, music, folklore and language.  Also, when they spoke about diversity, they all coincide that diversity is variety and options.  They all found that the question about diversity was more difficult to answer than the question about culture.  I noticed that when they spoke about culture they described what I learned is the “surface culture” and omitted the part of the culture that is known as “deep culture” which is what, people cannot easily tell unless they take the time to investigate and learn a culture. For diversity, no one mentioned that diversity made someone unique and was not associated with a group of choices ascribed or assumed by someone that makes his/her personal identity.

The way they define culture make me think of culture as a group of characteristics that identifies a certain group people, but also that they are there being  other options in the society that they can choose from, for example,  sports, religions, political parties, career, etc.

My Family Culture

A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of your country. The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees. You and your immediate family are among the survivors of this catastrophic event. However, you have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. You are told that your host country’s culture is completely different from your own, and that you might have to stay there permanently. You are further told that, in addition to one change of clothes, you can only take 3 small items with you. You decide to take three items that you hold dear and that represent your family culture.

   

1.  I would take a family picture where my mom, dad, son, siblings and nieces and nephew are present because I would like to remember always how they look.

2.  I will take my grandmother’s Virgin Mary image because represents the values and beliefs of the religion that was instilled to me.

3.  Also, I will take a silver plate with my mother’s image that my husband gave me when he proposed to me.  When I met my husband my mother had already died.  My husband knew how much she meant to me, and he always wished he met her.  In that important date, to make my mother present he gave me a silver plate with my mother’s image for my silver chain.

If I were told to give up two items, I would have feel devastated because the three items have the same sentimental value to me.  They represent the 3 most important things of my life my family, my values and beliefs and my marriage.

As I was reflecting doing this exercise, I realized how strong I feel about my family and my values.  In the everyday life sometimes we do not stop to think about what makes us happy and what is important to us.  It is not until we are presented with situations such a catastrophe that we think who we are and what we want.