Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

In searching for communities of practice within my area, I found the following organizations to be of interest to me.

http://www.taeyc.org

The Tennessee Association of Education of Young Children seems to offer many professional development opportunities with membership availabilities. This community of partners is made up of a board of members and I believe that this could open up an avenue for relationships with a community of learners that share the same interests and concerns. On a more local level, the AAEYC, located in Anderson County, works directly with Roane County and offers that same type of assistance. While you can become a member of these organizations, at times there are opportunities for working as a board member. There are opportunities to work as an advocate for early childhood education with other members of this organization to help become a voice for our children and their families with a variety of issues.

TAEYC Mission Statement

TAEYC exists to provide members with professional development opportunities and to advocate for best practice in the care, development, and education of all Tennessee’s young children.

TAEYC Vision Statement

Reaching potential together.
Value Statement

TAEYC values...

Collaboration with all members of the community
High performing organizational strategies
Inclusive environments for all children and adults
Leadership in child advocacy and public policy
Diversity in the early childhood community
Relationships with children and their families
Early care and education professionals who use best practices
National, regional and local alliances

http://unitedwayroane.org

United Way – United Way is an organization the helps children and their families in a variety of ways. This organization works toward bringing the communities together while focusing on what is most needed. Every day, United Way supported programs help provide a nurturing environment for children, health care for seniors who might otherwise go without, food and shelter for those facing tough times, safe havens from physical and psychological abuse, therapy for those coping with special challenges and so much more.

I have served as the representative for United Way at my school and have had the opportunity to be a part of meetings where we discussed needs for our children and their families. United Way of Roane County brings people together to focus on the most important needs in our community. Through our allocation process, trained volunteers determine the most efficient use of the community’s resources to meet local needs. The money that we as a county give, when designated, stays in our county and helps our children and their families. This program has been able to provide monetary supplements for a number of programs that are used for our very own children and their families. I think that it is great to be able to serve as a volunteer with United Way and even more wonderful to be able to see the money that we have given help those right here in our community. As far as skills needed for this opportunity, as a volunteer working with United Way, I was responsible for bringing a list of needs to the meeting so that we could discuss them and make decisions based on what was brought to the table.

https://www.secondharvestetn.org/

Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee - Food for Kids - “Food for Kids is a collaborative effort between Second Harvest and area schools, with the goal of fighting hunger among young children in our 18 County East Tennessee community. Food for Kids provides backpacks filled with kid-friendly food for elementary aged children to take home after school or on the weekends.”

Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee - Kids Cafe - “Kids Cafe is a collaborative effort between Second Harvest and various youth service providers.” In Rockwood, the Kids Café is held on Mondays at 5 PM at the Rockwood Housing Authority with the collaboration of the Rockwood Ministerial Association and the First Christian Church. “On Mondays at 5PM you can find a group [of volunteers] serving a free meal, and offering homework help, games, and friendship to children and youth.”

As the wife of a minister in the area, I am able to work directly with the ministerial association that takes care of the Second Harvest Backpack Program for our children. This is all volunteer and my job for this program is to help identify what children would benefit from receiving assistance through the Second Harvest Food for Kids Program.

Reflecting on Learning

As an early childhood professional, my most passionate hope for my future is to be able to model and teach my children and their families how important it is to not only understand, but respect each other for who they are and where they come from. I want my children and their families to know that we are here to protect their child from bias behaviors. Valuing and supporting families no matter what is important to building relationships and partnerships as we work together to provide the best education for them that we can.

I would like to thank each of my colleagues for your encouragement as we come to the close of another course here at Walden. You truly have blessed me with some very valuable information and your support has been wonderful. I have enjoyed hearing of your personal and professional experiences which will help us as we continue working in the early childhood field. I wish each of you the best as you continue in your next class, and for most of us, our last one!

Impacts of Early Emotional Development

•Share with your colleagues the area of the world you chose and why.

I chose to focus on the region of Latin America and the Caribeban and more specifically, Guatemala. I chose to investigate Guatemala because we have formed a partnership with some missionaries in Guatemala and I am very interested in learning about the children and families in this area.

•Describe in detail some of the challenges that children in this region of the world are confronting.

Upon reviewing of this region, I found that the quality of education is not meeting expectations. The ever increasing poverty and unemployment, natural disasters, violence and civil conflict continue to threaten the progress made. Even though the countries of Latin American and Caribbean have advanced significantly in both the recognition of human rights of children, and effectively improving their living conditions, we still have millions of children living in situations of violence, malnutrition, exploitation and discrimination which is seriously putting their growth and development at risk. It is estimated that in Latin America and the Caribbean more than 2 million children, mostly girls, are working in private households as domestic servants (Unicef, 2011).

•Explain how these experiences might have an effect on children’s emotional wellbeing and development.

Guatemala has the highest rate of chronic malnutrition in children under five in all of Latin America. Some areas experience 49% up to 78% and can be linked to stunted physical and mental development. These challenges can also affect their self-esteem, how successful they are in school (If they even attend school), their social skills and how they communicate as well as their behaviors. In rural Guatemala, many children (particularly girls) do not complete their basic education, speak only their native Mayan language, and grow up functionally illiterate. Adolescent females marry as young as 12 years of age and have an average of seven children. All of these factors serve to reinforce the vicious cycle of poverty unless investments are made in children at a very early age (Save the Children, 2014).

•Include a personal and professional reflection. Explain the insights you gained and the influences they may have on you as a person and as an early childhood professional.

Unicef’s website offered great insight into the various regions and information about each of them. I have learned that children in the Latin American and Caribbean region suffer from poverty related issues, which includes health care. They also suffer greatly with education because of the poor quality of education in this region. Personally, although we do have families and children that experience poverty related issues, here in the United States, we have many resources available to us for health and education. Professionally, reviewing websites like this encourages me to become a better, and more informed teacher. I think we never should become comfortable with what we do. Although it can be challenging at times, we must utilize the resources that are available and always strive to learn more so that we can make a difference in the lives of our families and children.

References

Save the Children. (2014). Guatemala. Retrieved from http://www.savethechildren.org

UNICEF (2011). Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

It is shocking to hear children of these ages say such things. I teach in a fifth grade class, and I have been shocked by some of the things that they say and do. These children have no filters on their mouths, they are allowed to watch and play movies and games that are way more mature than they are, and the way these children are dressing is very inappropriate. Children growing up today are bombarded from a very early age with graphic messages about sex and sexiness in the media and popular cultures (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009).

Three examples that I feel illustrate the exposure of young children to a highly sexualized environment are marketing provocative clothing geared for young girls, lyrics of music, and television shows. Fueled by influential media and an overly provocative clothing market, today's young females are rocketing into adult behaviors at young ages, and multiple risks are along for the ride (Hawkes, n.d.). I have seen girls that have developed anorexia because they want to maintain that “thin, skinny” look and be able to fit in those clothes that girls find as “popular” yet are very inappropriate and do not leave a whole lot for the imagination. I heard about a parent that went to Pac Sun and purchased all the T-shirts that were being sold that were inappropriate so that other children would not buy them. I would like to see parents stand up and make a statement to their children that we are not going to have that “provocative clothing”, “explicit music” and we are going to preview what is being watched in our homes, then maybe these marketing companies might get the hint. As parents and educators, I feel that it is our job to educate our children to show respect to themselves as well as demanding respect from others. We as a society have sexualized our children and have taken away their childhood. We are essentially forcing them to act and dress as small adults when they are just children. I will definitely be more aware of what is going on and being discussed among the children in my classroom. I will also throw my “two cents” in on what these children see and play at home. I think that hearing concerns from someone other than the parent can be a good thing.

References

Hawkes, K. (n.d.). Media and clothing market influence on adolescent girls: Warnings for parents.

Retrieved from http://foreverfamilies.byu.edu

Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. (2009). [Introduction]. So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and

what parents can do to protect their kids (pp. 1-8). New York: Ballantine Books. Retrieved

from: http://dianelevin.com/sosexysosoon/introduction.pdf

Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

After reviewing the many different -isms, I chose to focus on gender roles and sexism. The reason that I chose this is because in the past, I received comments about some of the work I do being a man’s work, not a woman’s. Some have questioned my intelligence in certain areas while others have made comments about some of the work that I do and how it should be done by a male. Some people automatically label women that have children as a “stay at home mom” who should be cooking and cleaning rather than working outside the home. I have never been one to want to stay home and raise my own children twenty-four seven. I love my children and my time with them, but feel that I was given the opportunity to go to school and become an educator and offer my time and talents with other children in my community. It truly bothers me to hear families talk about the girls in their families doing “women’s” work. I feel that because of the stereotypical comments that were made to me, I try even harder to prove them wrong. I have a hard time with parents who communicate these stereotypical ideas to their children separating “men’s” work and “women’s” work. This could cause me some conflict as I try to teach children to respect others when it comes to gender roles and sexism. This post reminds me of a media segment that was shown in one my classes at Walden. This mother worked hard to make sure that her son did dishes and laundry just like her daughter. I grew up mowing the lawn, taking out the trash, doing dishes, doing laundry and helping clean the house. I now have three boys of my own and they do each of these chores as well. Some women were meant to be stay at home moms and some were not. I want children to know that chores, no matter what they are, are meant to be shared and not to be categorized as women’s vs. men’s work. 

Observing Communication

The communication that I observed was our guidance counselor sharing in a conversation with a small child whose father had just died. She had a book that she shared that talks about a leaf and how that leaf passes through the seasons and eventually falls from the tree and dies. She talked this child through the story making connections to the different seasons that we see each year and how that can be seen in the story of this leaf. She had the child draw a picture showing the trees in the different seasons and how the leaves looked on the trees during those times. She then connected it back to her father who had passed away. She had this child share something that she and her father had done together during each of the seasons. I felt like this book was an interesting way to discuss the death of her father. I have always struggled with death and young children and how to explain it. Because we have had so many of our children in our schools parents/grandparents (who are the primary caregivers) pass away I think that she might benefit from using a persona doll and create a story line that would address this issue. Persona dolls are not the same as puppets, but they offer some of the same benefits. Children are extremely willing to talk with them, and group discussions that include the dolls are opportunities to reflect on important social issues in a safe and relaxed environment (Pierce & Johnson, 2010).

I have realized that I need to be more effective and creative when addressing issues that my children are dealing with. I think that learning how to use a persona doll would be a great way to address these issues while making conversation more comfortable.

References

Pierce, J., & Johnson, C. (2010). Problem solving with young children using persona dolls. YC: Young
Children, 65(6), 106-108.

Creating Affirming Environments

If I were to open my own Family Child Care Home, I would like to provide materials that show diversity and anti-bias. I love the idea that Adriana had with the first place that parents come into being an area where parents can sign their children in and allow them a moment to acclimate their children to the idea of mom or dad leaving. I also like the calm down room where you have the rocking chair and some books for those that may need a little extra attention for whatever reason.

As far as centers around the child care home, I believe that children need to see a home that is warm and family oriented. Pictures that show families that are diverse, centers that display differences as well as similarities; whether it is books, dolls, music, puzzles, role play clothing or toys, or drawing or coloring materials. Children need to develop a strong and positive self-concept and empathy for others through healthy intellectual, physical, social, emotional, and moral development.

Some of the strategies that I feel would be beneficial to the children when considering anti-bias education would be in discussing differences in language, gender, race, disabilities, and ethnicity. Children need to learn how to respond to differences in a way that is appropriate. By encouraging children to ask questions about differences that they see, we can model the right way to respect those differences. I would also incorporate children family traditions in my child care home. Children can learn a lot about cultural differences through activities such as this.

By involving parents in our classroom activities, we can create a partnership that will benefit both teachers and families.

References

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and
ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children
(NAEYC).
Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). Strategies for working with diverse children: Welcome to an
anti-bias learning community. Baltimore, MD: Author