Relationship Reflection

First Picture is  my husband and me in a recent trip to Macchu Pichu, Peru.  We both enjoy traveling and that is one of the things we most love to do  together  in our relationship.  Every time we traveled we learned and growth tremendously.

Second Picture  and my son and me in his birthday.  I feel so proud of him.  I truly love everyone of his  birthdays.

Third Picture is my  little sister and me.  My relationship with her is very special.  My mom died when she was only 16 and she has stayed by my side since then.  I feel as  this is the treasure my mother inherit to me.

Relationships are vital in everyone’s life.  Relationships can make us strong or weak; can make us self-confident or low self-esteem.   People and the relationship you have with them make a significant influence in your life.  I have several people in my family that who I had a positive relationship and that influence my life in a positive way.  One of the most important relationships I ever had was the relation I had with my mother.  That relationship made me a strong, caring and willful woman.  Other key relationships were with my aunts I learned many things from them, and all my believes, moral and values come from them.  Unfortunately, my mom passed away 9 years ago, but I still feel that relationship and connection between us.

Currently I also have people in my life that support me and love me.  They are my husband, my son and my little sister.

Each one of them supports me in different ways.  They are always next to me when I am sad or troubled.  They listen to me when I have to make crucial decisions and help me understand things when I cannot see clear.

 Building relationships is not an easy task.  First of all you have to accept that we all are different and those we think differently.  We have to be respectful of the other ideas and believe, and you have to accept them and love them the way they are.

The special characteristics that I see in all the positive relationships that I ever had are that we truly care about each other.  Also, a sense of selfless we would do things to support or help each other without expecting anything back.

These relationships have impacted my whole life including as a professional.  I have become a caring and strong early childhood professional.  I am deeply involved in what I do and I always want to do better.  I do this job not because I need a paycheck I do this job because I care for the future of the children and our community.

Thanks

Thanks to all  my colleagues that took the time to read and comment to my posts.  I wish you all success in your future courses and career.

Marta Laos

Child Developmental Milestones

Child Developmental Milestones

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxe3-ijvZDs

Assessing Children

Assessing children:

The most popular way in USA to assess children is through standardized testing.  Nowadays standardized tests are used more to determine the effectiveness of the school staff than the children testing.  In several occasions, there is profit behind the results of a standardized test.  For example in Florida if a school is graded " A"  that school gets a very nice and substantial bonus that it is split between the school staff.  Also, the school gets more resources than other schools.  Usually the schools that are graded “A” are the schools in the middle and high class neighborhoods.  The children that attend those schools are children that have been exposed to many experiences in life.  Parents  can afford computers and technology and can pay for private tutoring sessions.  Many of the children in these neighborhoods have parents whose level of education is high. They typically have stay home mothers who can be more involve in the child’s education.  If you take the same staff and put it in a low income neighborhood… do you think that the results will be the same in the standardized test?    This is the reason why I do not agree with standardized tests.  Assessing children should be an individualized process.  Every child is unique and should be given the opportunity to show his strengths in a unique way and  not in a standardized test.  I also believe that every child has different ways of learning, but, unfortunately, because of these tests many teachers are left, with the only option, to teach to take the test.  I will suggest that we assess children by their strengths and not as they are all the same.

Standardized testing is also done in Puerto Rico.  The no child left behind act law of 2001 that attempts to close the gap between white, middle class children, and minority and low income children, is also enforced in the island.  Standardized tests in Puerto Rico are designed to meet the needs of USA continental children which are not necessary the needs of Puerto Rican children.  Puerto Rican children are the majority Spanish speakers and of Latin American culture.  These standardized tests are failing in Puerto Rico because the tests do not meet the needs of the children in the Puerto Rican schools. The majorities are from low income families, and they are not meeting the needs of children with disabilities.

Resources:

http://www.kon.org/urc/v9/medina-rodriguez.html

Child Poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean

In Latin America and the Caribbean, 45% of children are affected by at least one moderate to severe deprivation, which means that almost 81 million people under the age of 18 suffer from child poverty. For instance, in Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Peru, over two thirds of children suffer from poverty; in Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay, fewer than one in four children live in poverty. Some of the areas that children are being deprived in these countries are nutrition, access to drinking water, connection to sanitation services, quality of housing and the number of people per room, school attendance and access to information and communication media. I have been to Peru and one of the things that most saddened me the most was to see children on the streets selling candies, water bottles, scarfs, hats, etc. or offering you a tour of the area just for one sol (.30 American cents) also children panhandling, and all this happening during school hours.

Reference:
ECLA-UNICEF study. (2008-2009). Child Poverty Affects almost 81 Million Children in Latin America and the Caribbean. Retrieved from:http://www.eclac.org/cgi-bin/getProd.asp?xml=/prensa/noticias/comunicados/0/43460/P43460.xml&xsl=/prensa/tpl/p6f.xsl&base=/tpl/top-bottom.

Divorce

The stressor that affected my life when I was growing up was my parents’ divorce. My parents got a divorce when I was 12 years old. Before my parents divorced, I had been a responsible student, and I had excellent grades. When my mother filed for divorce she took me, and my siblings out of the school we were attending, move out of the house, and left the city we were living. I remember how dramatic that was for me. I was crying when my mother picked me up at school, and I cried all the way to my grandparents’ house. I left my school, my friends and my father, and I felt that I was leaving a part of me behind. In that new stage of my life, I took the role of my mother’s helper. I helped with house duties and to take care of my 3 siblings. My mother relied on me for many things and gave me many responsibilities. As a student, I never went back to be the responsible student that I was. I became rebellious, irresponsible, and my grades went down. I started skipping school and hanging out with the wrong people. I was very resentful at my father and the life I was forced to live. I made new friends in my new town, but I was never again able to create attachments with them. I lost trust in people, and I only believed and relied in what I can do myself. At the age of 16, I became a mother and everything change again. I turned to my mother for support, and she did not fail me. We bonded again and developed a wonderful mother-daughter relationship. I decided to do well in school again, I finished high school went on to college and graduated. When I look at my past, I can identify why I do things the way I do them now. I became an independent and self-sufficient woman at a very young age. I still do not trust a lot of people and I have a hard time opening up to friends. I was able to forgive my parents for everything that I went through with their divorce, but certainly there are things that I cannot change now.