What I Have Learned

As I come to the close of yet another course, I can’t help but think about the many media presentations that I have listened to, the articles that I have read, the interviews that I have conducted and how these have all helped me as I think about children, their families and diversity.

I hope that I can be that teacher that helps families feel welcome and secure. I want them to know that I value their ideas, their culture and their backgrounds. I am already looking in to adding books to my book collection in my classroom that reflects differences in race, ethnicity and ability.

One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field related to diversity, equity, and social justice is more learning opportunities for teachers where you can seek knowledge in learning best practices for communicating with parents and children who live with parents that are LGBT, incarcerated, alcoholics, drug addicts, and disabled. My experiences thus far with the children that I have encountered have been difficult because they do not know how to share their “family” with others. I want them to feel comfortable with sharing and discussing their families and things that they get to do with not only me as the teacher but with their classmates as well.

I want to say thank you to all my colleagues who have helped me throughout this course. Your responses have been most helpful and encouraging. I wish you all the best and hope to see some of you in our next course!

Creating Art: Embracing Diversity

As I desire to become an anti-bias teacher, I believe that it is important to recognize how we can support and embrace diversity. Diversity is defined as differences among people with respect to age, class, ethnicity, gender, physical and mental ability, race, sexual orientation, spiritual practice, and other human differences (Green, Lopez, Wysocki, Kepner, 2013).

E is for Equity - we are all equal
M is for multicultural – we learn from each other
B is for Building – relationships and trust
R is for Respect – everyone is important
A is for Acceptance – no matter who are what we are
C is for Communication – an important factor
E is for Educate – learning to appreciate our differences

D is for Differences and Disabilities – we are all unique
I is for Identify – with the perspective of others
V is for Value – valuing diversity is important to who we are and who we want to be
E is for Ethnicity - relates to cultural factors such as nationality, culture, ancestry, language and beliefs
R is for Race – physical appearances should not matter
S is for Sexual Orientation and Stereotypes – be careful that you do not disregard any diverse groups
I is for Inclusion – all should feel welcome, respected and valued to participate
T is for trustworthy – You can be trusted with what you say and do!
Y is for You – You have the ability to make a difference!

"The concept of diversity encompasses acceptance and respect. It means understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences." – Embrace Diversity

References

Green, A., Lopez, M., Wysocki, A., and Kepner, K. (2013). Diversity in the workplace: Benefits, challenges, and the required managerial tools. Retrieved from http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu

"We Don't Say Those Words in Class!"

I can remember taking my son to Wal-Mart when he was about two years old. My husband is a pastor and has a friend that is an African American pastor. As we were walking in to Wal-Mart, we ran in to Mr. Rue. We all spoke, and my son looked at him and then back as us and said, “Why does he have that dirt all over his face?” Of course I was absolutely petrified. I could not believe that my son had said that. I apologized and Mr. Rue kept saying it was fine and not to worry. I never had thought about it, but my son had probably never really seen anyone that was African American before and certainly did not know any better. I grew up playing with African American children; therefore, I thought nothing about it. After we said our goodbyes with Mr. Rue, I turned to my son and proceeded to explain that God makes us all different colors. Some people are white, black, and brown, and we are all made in our own special way.
He initially thought he was in big trouble because of my verbal and my nonverbal cues. He knew right away that I was concerned about what he had said.
An anti-bias educator might have used books or pictures to show and talk about people of different colors to a child that made a comment like this. I love the idea of having dolls that are both white/African American as well as girl and boy dolls. These are great ways for children to learn about diversity. I knew there was a video on television called Little Bill, and I chose to show him that video, just to make a connection to Mr. Rue. He loved the show, and as he has grown up, he has learned to be more careful of what he says to and about people. Although race and racism are difficult topics, it is important to educate ourselves and discuss them with children in an age-appropriate way (Winkler, 2009).
References
Winkler, Erin. (2009). Children are not colorblind: How young children learn race. High Reach Learning.
Retrieved from http://www.4uwm.edu

Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

As a fifth grade teacher, the word "gay" and "homo" have come up on many different occasions. When I have questioned the children about it, they generally know a very basic definition about what the terms mean. A couple of boys called a couple of girls “lesbos” because they went to the bathroom together. I simply pointed out that girls go to the restroom with other girls on a regular basis and that they also went to the restroom with other boys as well. So did that mean the same thing? Of course, they said, “No!” I think that most children use these terms for a shock factor. Most don’t know the complete definition, but they know something. Therefore, they use it to be “cool.” When the girls were called this, it bothered them because they know that it is a term that is used to describe girls doing sexual things with other girls. Kids that bully other children by using these kind of terms can lead to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and can make children become afraid to come to school. We must step up and take this type of situation seriously. Because it is not something that we see a lot of in elementary school, we tend to brush it off and not really discuss it. GLBTQ students are also at risk for not getting the support they need when they are being bullied due to their perceptions that adults at school may have intolerant attitudes or may not provide confidential help in which to deal with their situation.10 Four out of five GLBTQ students say they know of no supportive adult at school (Riese, 2014).
As I thought about material that I have seen throughout our school, I would say that we do not do a good job of representing the different family structures in our classroom libraries. It is not just homosexual families but we do not do a good job of representing heterosexual families either. We are a small school, and I only know of two children that come from families with two moms and two dads. We do have several single parent homes and those where the grandparents or other family members are raising them. If we are going to represent one type of family structure, then I feel we should seek material that would depict as many family structures as we can.
References
Riese, J. (2014). Youth who are bullied based upon perceptions about their sexual orientation. Retrieved from http://www.violencepreventionworks.org.

Post of Appreciation

Just a note to say thank you for the support and wonderful posts that each of you has shared over the course of this class. I think that becoming a more effective communicator is a goal that I am going to work toward as a professional in the early childhood field. The examples that you all have shared and the responses that you have posted will be useful to me as I continue on my journey. I wish each of you success as you continue and maybe I will have the privilege of working with some you again in our next class. Thank you again!

Adjourning Phase - 5th of the Five Stages of Team Development

When considering the different groups that I have been involved in, I would say that the group that I had the hardest time saying goodbye to was the church building committee. Although I still saw the group of people that I served with on the committee, the fact that “we” did not complete the project that we had set before us left me with a feeling of failure. It was hard to have worked so diligently on this project with this great group of people and not get to see what we had worked so hard for happen under our watch.
Another group that I would like to share is the cohort that I was a part of at Tusculum. During our forming stage – where we met each other for the first time, we were able to get to know each other and figure out which group we fit more closely with. (Where and who we would sit with.) We were to get into groups of six and the group that I ended up with made for a great team. We communicated well with each other and each of the members had something that they could bring to the table. We were very fortunate to have a “tech savvy” man in our group that really brought things to life. He was usually the leader on our group. We all worked so well together and each took our part in the group very seriously. When it was time to say goodbye, it was truly a hard thing to do. I spent 20 months, and countless hours with this group and we had become so close. Most of us still keep in touch with each other today. The adjourning phase for us in this situation was a success. Over the course of those 20 months, we produced some great projects and each of us worked together to make it a great success.

I think that the adjourning phase is kind of like the icing on the cake. It is done and you feel that sense of accomplishment. The fact that we did not make it to this phase while on the church building committee left me feeling like we failed. I think that seeing your hard work completed leaves you with a feeling of accomplishment and we did not get that.

Adjourning from this online cohort will be different from the adjourning phase I experienced with the cohort where we attended class together, because although we are in groups, we don’t really get to know each other on a real personal level. I do feel that upon completion of this degree, even though we do not know each other on a personal level, we have provided each other with some great feedback and ideas that we can each take with us.

Communication Conflict

This year, I was involved in a conflict with a representative from a company that our school had invited to represent us for insurance purposes. I hate conflict and this whole incident was very difficult for me as I tried to be positive and open about what was going on. I am unable to share some of the details of this incident, but basically, this representative came in and took my personal information in order to present me with a quote of how he could help me. This information was promised to be back to me within a week. After three weeks, and no responses to my phone calls, I started inquiring about this representative. Come to find out, I was not the only one that was experiencing this same kind of treatment. As I said, I struggle with conflict, but am now growing more and more concerned with the fact that I have not heard from this representative and my personal information is out there somewhere. I am still considering checking into identity theft. The two times that I did speak with this person, all I could get was personal sob stories. Being the person that I am, I bit, hook- line- and sinker. When I saw this representative at my school, I made it a point to speak with my principal and she brought us both in to her office where we could discuss what was going on. I think that I was able to get my point across in a way that was non-threatening, but after I explained why I felt the way that I did about this situation, I turned the tables by asking how this would have made him feel. I also asked if he would not have had some of the same thoughts had it been his personal information floating around out there with no communication whatsoever? My papers were finally returned, but am still concerned about my information being stolen. I do think that the way that I handled my part of the situation was in a productive way, and it involved a lot of probing and playing of the devil’s advocate. I think that I did use the 3 R’s in order to help with this situation as I was not demanding, but respectful and responsive in my interactions with him.
If you were in my position, would you be concerned with identity theft? Just curious.