My Supports

In my daily life I am grateful for the many and varied supports I have available to me. Every day I have the benefit of electricity which enables me to have access to things like heat, light and electric appliances. I wake up in my warm home , flip on light switches, take a shower in hot water, and dry my hair. I rely on that electrical support for all of that. Then I use the microwave or toaster and the coffee maker for breakfast. This kind of support is helpful to me because my shower wakes me up, and I feel better when I am clean and my hair is styled. I use the food and coffee I have for breakfast to fuel my body for a day's work. It puts me in a good mood to start the day.

When I arrrive at work, I still rely on electricity, but then I expand my reliance to include other people who support me and my work.I have an office administrator who keeeps me up to date with messages and the happenings of the day. She helps me to deal with teachers, parents, children, finances and many crises each day. She is also my friend and supports me personally as well. The teachers can be a supportive network when they work together with me to make wonderful things happen for the children. My supervisor can also be a support to me when he helps me make our center a premier place for children and families, and then thanks me publicly for working hard to make it happen every day. My family supports me in a very positive way also. They boost me up when I need it, and make me feel proud of what I do every day.

Without these supports and many others, I would not be functioning as well as I am now. I would be less confident in myself and less comfortable overall. Without the people who support of all those people I mentioned and others, I would not get all the work done. I would be overworked, overwhelmed, unsuccessful and lonely.

I chose to imagine myself having the challenge of having limited vision. I recently visited  an elderly relative who has macular degeneration. She is gradually losing her eyesight. It becomes more and more limited as time passes. I can definitely say I would not want to have this affliction. I would require so much support to get through the day! First, I would need for everything in my house to be in the same place all the time because my vision would be limited in such a way that I can see some things, but finding anything small would be impoossible. I would require implements that magnify everything I can look at, like glasses and magnifying lenses, especially for reading. My phone would have to have really large numbers so I could see to push the buttons. It would be helpful to have clocks that say the time out loud on the hour, so I wouldn't have to struggle to see the time of day. I would also need the support of people to help me. I would potentially need someone to help me shop for everything I need, and take me everywhere I would go. Someone would have to help me keep the house clean, because I wouldn't really be able to see well enough to know if I was getting things clean or not. The people would probably keep my spirits up just by providing companionship, but I think I would feel like I was too needy. And I would need so much more time to accomplish a task. Eventually I wouldn't be able to live alone very easily, although I suppose with enough training it could be done.

Without the supports I have mentioned, along with much more help from medical professionals and others, I would be devastated in this situation. It would be depressing and difficult to be in such a situation without any support. I would feel useless and helpless. This has really directed my thinking to the importance of inclusion. I can only imagine how a child would feel if they were not given the opportunity to be a part of the group just because they had some different needs that weren't being met by the teacher or others who could make a difference. For the sake of inclusion,we need to realize how important it is to recognize what a person is able to do, not what they are unable to do, and move forward with positive thinking. 

My Connections to Play

“Play builds the kind of free-and-easy, try-it-out, do-it-yourself character that our future needs.” ~ James L. Hymes Jr. (child development specialist, author)

This quote says it all for me. I think that play really does allow us the freedom to just test the world around us. It is how we test relationships with other people, how we see what happens if we don't follow the rules, and if we do follow the rules, and allows us to test our own potential in terms of finding our limits, whether it be in playing a game, or playing creatively alone or with others.

 

As a child I often played with  Barbie dolls. My favorite was the new "Twist N Turn" Barbie-so lifelike (pictured here)!   My sister and I had 4 Barbies to share. So we pretended to be sophisticated young women, going to work or on dates with our imaginary Ken doll, or sometimes with our brother's G. I. Joe. We imagined all kids of scenarios, only guessing what it would be like to be in those situations, using different accents when we spoke and pretending to be worldly like people we saw on TV.

My brothers and sisters were the people I played with most often when I was very young. They were all older than me, and usually I had to play what they wanted to. So as soon as I could ride a bike, that is what we did the most. We lived on an old farm, so there was a long dirt lane that led from the road to the house. We rode our bikes up and down that lane constantly. We would play games like "Cops and Robbers" on the bikes, chasing each other back and forth that lane for what seemed like hours. I also used to pretend my bike (very much like the one pictured here, except mine had a plastic "wicker" basket with flowers at the front) was a car and pretend to run errands like banking and grocery shopping, too. I could carry pretend groceries or stuffed animal "children" in the basket, too. 

  

“Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning.” -Mr. Rogers

When I was young, we played outside almost all the time. So, again we had to be creative in terms of thinking of things to do. I grew up in the 60's, when Star Trek was on TV weekly. Again my 2 brothers were a great influence on me, and so I usually wanted to do what they were doing. Along the lane we rode our bikes on, there was a row of apple trees. Apple trees are great for climbing, with branches that go sideways sometimes, so you can climb easily and then sit on a branch. We used to climb one particular tree, which was, in our imaginations, the starship Enterprise from Star Trek. We each had a special branch to sit on, we took on a character, and we would re-enact the different episodes we had watched on TV! It wa so cool! Now I can say how much we learned while sitting in that tree, although I certainly never realized it at the time. We used our creative thinking processes to create a magical space, we used our memory to act out the TV shows, we socially chose roles and tried to emulate the characters from the show, and we also developed physically from having to climb the tree in the first place ! Who knew?

I think that play today is very different than it was all those years ago. Better in some ways, but not all good. I think children still play and learn in many of the same ways. Kids play on organized sports teams at earlier ages now, and I am not sure it is really necessary to start so young. Children don't seem to get any time for all that fun, creative play any more. We know that children spend many, many more sedentary hours inside their homes in front of a screen of some sort, playing games. Again, these may not all be bad, but many children just don't get enough physical activity now.

Play has had a very imortant role in my life. From those early days I have mentioned, I went on to play on organized teams-softball, volleyball and track and field. Being on those teams as a teenager gave me skills on which to focus, teammates as friends and goals to strive for. As captain of my high school volleyball team, I gained leadership skills and confidence in myself as a young person. All that playing, all along, helped me to learn so much as I have gone through my life, I can hardly express it here. And I still play as much as I am able, and I am as playful as ever in my everyday life. My hope is that today's children are able to be allowed to experience the  play they need to help them them grow and mature into sensible, productive adults. 

RELATIONSHIP REFLECTION

Although I have many different relationships with many people, they all have a few things in common. The most important relationships I have are with my husband and children. I have known my husband for 33 years, and will  have been married to him for 25 years in June. needless to say we have experienced countless activities and emotions over the years, some difficult, some not! The most important factor in maintaining this relationship has been the process of learning to be open and honest. No matter what. You need to say what you need the other person to know. Positive or negative. Just say it. This applies to our children also. Just communicate. Listen. Respond. It is not always easy, but it works.
 I have a working relationship with the office administrator at my school. We are also friends. We have had to learn to be honest with each other, or things get convoluted. We have different "working styles", but we have been able to discuss this and respect each other's methods. Sometimes we just have to honestly sort things out. I really feel that this can be applied to any successful relationship, and that is how I work  and live. It works with staff, also. I think if we just give each other the opportunity to be heard, we can move forward.
I am sure this is a great way to develop a relationship with families, too. When I have a parent who is upset and needs to talk, I invite them to do just that. I listen to their views, and then we talk about what needs to happen next to make them feel better about leaving their child with us every day. Usually we come to terms, we keep in touch regarding whatever the situation is, and we move on, taking any action needed.
Obviously, I am more deeply committed to some people than others, so I suppose I put forth more effort in some relationships than others, but generally speaking I reap what I sow. There are relationships into which I put a great amount of effort, and from those relationships I gain great satisfaction.

Inspirational Quote

"If we don't stand up for children, then we don't stand for much."

Marian Wright Edelman

We have been learning so much about the growth and development of children, and also about how it can be interrupted, changed, slowed, or otherwise affected by negative influences. This quote, in my mind, reminds us that it is we who have this knowledge, who need to ensure that childern in our world are given the care and education they need to thrive. It is we who need to advocate for all children, everywhere. 

This has been a great class and I have enjoyed reading everyone's opinions and thoughts. Best of luck in your next experience at Walden! 

Assessing Our Children

            As I looked for journal articles as a reference for talking about assessment of school age children, I came across hundreds of  studies about the many ways to assess and measure a child’s learning of  math, science, and literacy. I learned about summative assessment, which tells us if a child has learned the particular information from a unit of study. And I learned about formative assessment which tells us if a student is able to use the information learned to figure out what comes next. Summative assessment results are used to assign a grade, and formative results are used to make adjustments to continue with further learning(Colburn, 2009).And so on… While all this is important in terms of having basic skills to potentially become employed in a particular field, or to enable further higher levels of education, I wonder about the excess of it all. It seems that since the enactment of No Child Left Behind, schools are increasingly put under pressure to have their students perform well, hence the new phrase “teaching to the test”. Teachers and students are sacrificing the overall creativity and enjoyment of learning in order to memorize the information needed to score well on the standardized tests. Is this the education we want for our children? I read a few articles about assessment of children in China. It seems their learning is measured in much the same way as the children here in America, with standardized tests. There was plenty of information comparing American and Chinese children’s performance in testing. I think we need to be careful not to squelch learning in order to score well. I also am concerned that there seems to be little else measured. What about the “whole” child? Are we keeping track of socio-emotional development in the way we should be? Are we measuring how well children get along with each other (Stratton, 1997)? Or are we gradually diminishing “recess” or down-time so we can spend more time in preparation for the testing period? Maybe that is a topic for further research.

Colburn, A. (2009, April/May). An assessment primer. The Science Teacher , 10.

Stratton, B., (1997). Is there an ultimate measurement? Quality Progress 30(7), 5.

Poverty: At Home and In Rwanda

Poverty: At Home and In Rwanda

As a child living in a rural farm community, I didn’t realize how “low-income” most of us were. There were several families who were noticeably poorer than the average family I knew. One in particular comes to mind when thinking about poverty and its effect on development of young children. This was a family of twelve children, living in a small house with a kitchen, a living room, one bathroom and three bedrooms. The father did have a job at a lumber mill and the mother stayed at home. The atmosphere there was not conducive to learning and development. Children were left in the care of their older siblings often (the mother just didn’t have the skills to keep an eye on all of them at the same time). They did rely on government assistance for help with buying food. At least half of the children dropped out of school when they got to high school and eight of the twelve became parents in their teens, some of them continuing to live at the same house with their children. This atmosphere was not conducive to building a good sense of self, and I am sure that the socio-emotional development of these children suffered greatly.

I am interested in poverty-stricken Rwanda. I am learning about what is being done there to help the people who are poor and suffering from malnutrition and AIDS. Surely the children of poverty there lack education, and are not given the opportunities necessary for optimal cognitive, physical, or socio-emotional development. There is some good news, though. As a result of programs like the World Bank Poverty Reduction Support Grant, which continues to give money ($115.6 million in 2010 and $104.4 million in 2011) in support of Rwanda, over one million people there have risen from poverty in the last five years(MENA report, 2011). This money is used to focus on development of agriculture productivity, improvement of rural roadways, jobs, exports and governance. Also, one project in the United States, Goats for Life, has been supporting these people with funds for purchasing goats for villages, schools, orphanages and families. Goats, at about $30-45 each, are a source of milk for families, can be bred easily, are inexpensive to feed, and can eventually be used for meat (Rodgers, 2011).   

Anonymous, (2011 March 17). Rwanda: Poverty rate reduced by 11.8 pc in Rwanda. MENA Report.

Rodgers, A. (2011, December 24). Stocking lives with livestock former Pittsburgh pair fighting poverty in Rwanda with goats. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, p. A1.

Breastfeeding Perspectives

I looked briefly at breastfeeding in the United States and in Africa in general. In Africa, the most evident issue is the danger of passing the HIV virus from mother to breastfed infant as opposed to increasing the likelihood of survival of the child in general. There was a multitude of information available on this topic. Some people believe that the risk of passing on the HIV virus is too high, so HIV infected mothers should not breastfeed at all. Some believe they should breastfeed for a short time, and others believe that with the use of antiretroviral drugs, the risk of HIV is reduced enough to allow for breastfeeding. The research seems to be continuing, and the debate will continue as well. The information about breastfeeding in the United States varied. There is research about the length of time mothers breastfeed and the health benefits of breastfeeding. The most prevalent information about American mothers seems to be about how willing they are to breastfeed in public, based on others' perceptions of that, and how difficult it is to comfortably breastfeed while remaining in the workforce (whether you make arrangements to feed your baby throughout the day, or pump breast milk for later use). The one common thread between the two is that breast milk has health benefits for the child, and we should recognize and address the needs of both the mother and child in this regard.