Professional Hopes and Goals

I hope that all early childhood teachers provide a classroom environment and experiences in which children's diversity can be celebrated. Children and families culture and identities should be welcomed, honored, and celebrated.

My goal is to instill a passion for discovering culture and identity in the professionals that I teach. Because culture has become one of my strong passions over the last few years, I include aspects of culture within every workshop I design. It is vital that teachers see how culture and identity affects how children communicate and learn.

I want to send out a note of thanks to all my peers on this journey. You have played an important role in my learning and discovery over the past eight weeks. I wish you the best of luck and continued discovery on your academic and professional journey.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

For this discussion I chose England.

First, I would contact my cousin who is an early childhood professional in England. She could provide me with some first hand experience about a day in the life in England. She could help me get a good grasp of what expectations families in England have on the early childhood teacher.

Secondly, I would re-connect with a website I have visited in the past, Early Education. Through this website I could learn the resources that are made available to early childhood teachers in England. I would check out the electronic resources that I would be able to access.

Third, if I had an address of the family I would send them a hand-written note, reflective of their language and print. Some of the numbers and letters are written in a slightly different form than in the U.S. 

Fourth, I would examine our daily schedule to see what ways we should made additions or adjustments to include traditions from England, such as tea and crumpets at 4pm.

Lastly, I would search out learning materials and props that are reflective of those in England (puppets, food, art and science materials). Including such materials would hopefully help the child and family feel welcome and give them a sense that we care for them and respect their culture.  

With this plan in place, the teaching staff and I would feel more at ease and have the background needed to help this child and family feel welcome and important to our classroom. Furthermore, typically, when families immigrate to a new place they have much transition and uncertainty to encounter. Once this family saw what we had in place to accommodate and help their child learn, it would ease/alleviate this one transition for them.

The Personal Side of Bias

A bias or prejudice of sorts that I have witnessed over several years in the classroom is the removal of children from an educational program. I continue to be distraught at how frequent young children are dismissed or kicked out of early childhood programs because they cannot act “appropriately.” I also know of several children who have been judged because they take prescription medicine to help them regulate their body rhythms.  

These instances diminish equity because all children deserve quality care and education. This includes the respect of being who they are and protecting their social and emotional development. When children are treated differently because of prescriptions or are allowed to gain a reputation from others perceptions that practically pushes them out of the program, their self-esteem and education begins to fail. 

In every case of children being dismissed I believe the teachers, and especially the program director, need to take time and learn the needs of the child so that every effort can be made to keep them in the program. One particularly challenging year as a Head Start teacher I was working day in and day out to figure out how to help calm a child down. He did not stay focused on any one task or activity for longer than about 3 minutes and he was almost in constant action. My assistant teacher and teachers in a nearby classroom said, “He has ADD they just need to get him on some medicine.” I did not believe this and got upset every time I heard this. I continued to observe and went to my director to obtain some additional materials for the classroom. When I added a few, more challenging materials to the classroom, I saw a difference in this child. It appeared he was not challenged enough. This was his second year in Head Start and he appeared bored with the same materials. Had this child been kicked out of the program, he would have missed out on advancing his skills to be ready for Kindergarten, and we would have missed seeing the growth in this child.

It is crucial to advocate for children in every avenue possible!