Course Goals

Goals: Become more knowledgeable of the policies that may restrict me from advocating freely for students who need it the most in early childhood.

Goal 2: Be able to determine how the policies that I am unaware of will be a benefit to the work that I want to do as an early childhood education professional.

Goal 3: Obtain knowledge about policies that may be beneficial to share with my colleagues to ignite some sort of social change.

My Overall Experience in this Course

This has been an extremely exciting course! I have thoroughly enjoyed learning so many new things! What was the most rewarding to me was the book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. I say this because I believed it shined a light on culture in a way that I had never seen before. I also believe that it is the most applicable to my work as a professional. This year I have a variety of cultural backgrounds in my classroom: Hispanic, American, African, German, Jamaican, Chinese and Indian. It is extremely exciting to have such a colorful variety and I believe that this course came at such a timely manner where I am able to apply what I know! I look forward to continuing to grow as I continue to work with various families from various backgrounds.  

Interview Progress

          I have found two amazing individuals to interview with regard to my topic focusing on Children exposed to risk, trauma and stress with the subtopic being violence/fear in families/neighborhoods. Both individuals I have found had a personal passion for this topic themselves in some aspect and are both very motivated in what they do. One success that I experienced is that after interviewing one of the participants, we have discussed ways to further discuss the concerns and actually find ways that I can volunteer and get involved in what they are doing to help these students at risk outside of my classroom. I also learned a valuable trait with regard to the motivation that I as well as others may possess in assisting children in being successful. My interviewee mentioned that sometimes what we want for a child, is not always what they want for themselves or what their families want for them; that does not mean that change is not possible, but rather that it may just be a bit more difficult to see it. I connected with that insight because it provided comfort when at times I have felt defeated in my endeavors of trying to help every child see themselves better than who they are. 
      So far, I have been able to find several articles that focus on the effects of children exposed to trauma, stress, and risks, as well as interventions to avoid these things from having such a major effect on children. Most recently the research that I have found focuses on resilience and how children are able to move forward from issues of their childhood once it has already occurred. 
     One question I have is: A lot of times children in poverty or African American children are normally seen with the most issues in regard to my topic. Do you believe that there are children who do not fall in that category that get overlooked simply because they do not fit the stereotypical expectations?

Course Project

As much as I have heard of students having to deal with it, I have never encountered someone that has been directly influenced by it. I have an interest in this topic simply because it is something that I am curious to know more about. I know that this is something that happens more often than I would like to admit in families, and even sometimes unknowingly. 

My topic is: Children exposed to Risk, stress, and trauma. with the

Concentration/subtopic being: Violence/fear in families and neighborhoods.

In speaking to people about this topic...how do I approach someone who has been a victim in this without overstepping my boundaries in questions? 

My Supports

My daily supports are : God, My Husband, my child, my finances, my car, my students....just to name a few.

God is my support in every aspect. With him, I know that everything in my day can be accomplished. I make sure that every morning before I leave my house I acknowledge the God and the support that He provides to me.
My husband, is my support, he is my best friend, I can talk to him about any and everything, when I go shopping or anything of that sort, most girls want to take a girl, well I like to take my husband. Who better than him to know what I should buy to wear. :-)
My daughter is my support. Just having her around me is enough for me. She is my motivation to succeed daily.
My Job supports me financially. It helps me to pay bills of course and make a living. I love to shop and without my finances that would not be possible.
My car serves as a support to allow me to get around to where I need to go.
My students, are support. They remind me daily whether they are good or not so good each day, they remind me of why I am a teacher. They remind me of why I work with children.

All of these things are very very important to my day to day life. Without ANY one of these things, I believe my day to day life would be rather difficult. My Husband provides emotional support, God provides all support, my daughter provides emotional support and motivation. Life would be difficult without any of the people or things mentioned.

The challenge that I thought about was not having my car because I did not even want to imagine not having any of the other things at all. Without my car, I would need support from family and friends in order to get around to places. That would definitely play on my emotions because I am so used to getting around on my own, and I hate having to even consider utilizing other peoples vehicles or asking for a ride. That would probably cause some stress until I am able to get a new vehicle.

My Connections to Play

                              
Both photos retrieved from google images


Two essential items I would need for play would be rather simple but mean absolutely everything:
 Hands and Feet

Back in my childhood, play was not with different items or different games, it was simply our imagination, running wild in the woods, and exploring new things. We would find new things, go places our parents told us not to go but yet we still did it because we were interested in the unknown, we were curious. Our parents would always tell us to go outside and play and we had so many things to do that we stayed outside all day doing what a grown up would maybe see as much of nothing but to us we were learning so much. I can recall going to a small river stream and seeing tadpoles for the first time. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. My dad told us not to go but we went anyways. Just exploring and finding anything that looked halfway interesting.
    Play now, compared to play back then is completely different. There is so many technological advances that causes kids to do all that exploring in doors now. It is a lot more scripted and you're practically held within a box because outside of the resources that the games that children play bring about the child is not able to explore things outside of that. My hope for younger kids is that even their parents will promote and encourage more exploratory type play inside as well as outside the home.
    I do believe that play had an impact on my life through childhood as well as adulthood. I feel as though play contributed to my ability to have hands on experience with some of the things that I learned about at school, I feel as though play is a contributing factor to me analyzing situation far beyond the surface.

Relationship Reflection

     When it comes to relationships/partnerships they are very important to me because in life you need a support system. Whether it is different people or one person, relationships are important to foster a successful life. There have even been studies that have shown that someone in a healthy marriage for instance is a lot more focused and successful in the work place as a result of that relationship.
     First and foremost the most important relationship I have is one with God. I believe that all of my other relationships are a direct result of my relationship with God first.If this relationship is not right, I believe ultimately no relationship will be right. After the relationship with God I believe the next relationship in MY life is the relationship I have with myself. Yes , I said myself. There is no way that I can establish a relationship with others if I do not first admire myself as the person that I am. Once I am at a place that I can be successful for myself, the third most important relationship surfaces and that is with my husband. My husband is my best friend and we talk about everything with each other. If I have a concern at work, at home, or anywhere else, I may talk to others, but most importantly (aside from God that is) I talk to my husband.
      The next relationship that I have is with my family, which in addition to my husband includes my daughter who aside from my husband is the most important person in my life and then the rest of my family which includes but not limited to: My sisters, my nieces and nephews, my mom and dad, grandparents, and every one else respectably. Lastly, my friends. Which this area, I tend to keep a bit limited due to the fact that I feel that it is always best that way to keep "Friends" limited to avoid too many conflicts.
      When it comes to maintaining these relationships, all of these relationships are maintained by one key word: Communication. Communicating with all these people some on a daily basis and some on a week to week basis are the way that these relationships are maintained. When my sister and I talk, we share laughs and "opinions" about different situations our family may be encountering. When it comes to my husband, as I stated, we are best friends so we go out to movies, bowling, out to eat, vacationing, or what have you. Those are the thing that keeps up positive.
     Just seeing how important these relationships in my life are and how if one of these relationships do not go so well in a day then it has a major impact on my cognitive ability to stay focused while at work. Seeing this, gives me an idea of how important the idea of relationships the children have could be.

 My Husband

Me

My Sister & I 

Great Friends

My Daughter

My Parents