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?