Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practices

Looking at some consequences I might expect for the children and families with whom I am working with while experiencing specific "-isms" in my own life would be possibly having a negative attitude towards the children and family. If I am experiencing personal "-isms" towards myself, I may become sad and upset with those people, and may take my frustration out on the children and families. Another consequence I anticipate to happened would be that I would stop teaching anti-bias education, because I feel offended by the "-isms" that are happening in my personal life. In order to have a successful anti-bias classroom, the teachers need to know themselves (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010). If I have experience personal "-isms" then I do not know myself fully, and would need to work on that. I feel these are just a few of examples of consequences I might expect for the children and families to have if I am experiencing "-isms" in my own life.

Reference:

     Derman-Spark, L. & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and
     ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children

Observing Communication

For the blog assignment this week, I chose to observe my friend with her 3-year old niece. I have known my friend's niece since she was an infant since my friend and I use to live together, and she would watch her a lot at our house. For this observation, I was at my friend's house who happened to be playing with her niece while I was there.

While watching the two interact with each other, I couldn't help to notice how good my friend was with her. She was very patient and pretended along with her niece and her niece continued to dress-up. Her niece was the princess. When my friend asked if she could be the princess, her niece told her no but she could wear some pretty jewelry instead. My friend proceeded to put on the jewelry and asked how she looked. Her niece told her she looked pretty. Her niece then pretended to make some food with the kitchen, and handed it to my friend to eat. She told her to eat it, and my friend did, and told her it was very yummy.

One connection I was able to make between what I observed and the effective communication strategies presented in our resources this week is that she took a step back and listened (Stephenson, 2009). She allowed her niece to express her likes and dislikes and focused discussions about their learning environment (Stephenson, 2009).  I felt my friend did a great job of keeping the conversation at her niece's level, and played along with what the niece was imagining. She wasn't quite to judge or argue what her niece was saying.

Looking at the communication interactions I observed, I did notice how when my friend asked if she could be the princess, her niece told her no. I thought by her not asking why not, it told the niece that she was better than her, and in reality that's not necessarily true. By not explaining to her that everyone could be a princess, it taught her niece that she is superior to others. She may then take that knowledge and use it in her play or interactions when she is at the daycare during the week. I just thought that if my friend explained to her that she's not the only princess, and that everyone can be a princess, then she would have had some anti-bias education there.

The adult-child communication I observed this week compares to ways I communicate with children in many ways. The first is that I often too go along with what the child is pretending and not question their thinking. I learned through our resources this week that we need to asked children questions on how they came about their reasoning (Stephenson, 2009). This will allow them to expand on their learning and show us what they know. Once I have an idea of what they know, I can then promote anti-bias education and correct any bias or prejudice behaviors. Another thing I learned about myself this week, is that I need to learn patience when dealing with young children, and encourage their imagination, but also help them learn from it as well.

Reference:

Stephenson, A. (2009). Conversations with a 2-year-old. YC: Young Children, 64(2), 90-95. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database. http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=37131016&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Creating Affirming Environments

Looking at my Family Child Care Home, there are many things I would like to do and have to create an anti-bias learning community. The first thing is do have plenty of anti-bias materials such and books, music, DVDs, wall hanging, puzzle, drawing materials etc. (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010). By having these items and stations, children will be able to learn about different cultures and see that everyone is different, but we should still treat them equally. In the dramatic play section, having clothes that both genders can wear is important as well. Since children love books, having books from different cultures will also help the children learn about different cultures. Also, within my Family Child Care Home, I want to teach the children about holiday traditions and celebrations to help the children learn about different celebrations that happen in their culture and in different cultures (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010).  In my Family Child Care Home, children will be required to try all activities, even if they don't think they will like it, and I'll play right with them. By doing this, I can help answer questions children may have and help support their discussion in an anti-bias way (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010). I hope all these steps will help my Family Child Care Home become an anti-bias learning community.


Reference:

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).