Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have when thinking about working with families and children of diverse backgrounds is that I make them comfortable.  I want to be able to comfort them in different ways than I knew before.  I want to learn about their culture and have some of that in my classroom.  I hope that these families can open up to me and allow me to help their child and themselves feel successful in their new world.

 

One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field related to the issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is a requirement that teachers and other staff are educated and trained on these subjects.  I would hope that this would be a requirement to learn about diversity and teach that in the classroom.

 

Thank you so much to every one of my colleagues.  I have learned so much with all of you on this journey.  Your insights and comments have made me a more educated teacher with a greater passion for diversity and culture in the classroom.  Good luck in your careers and future courses for you Masters degree.

Welcoming Families from around the World-Week 7

Country:  Chile

 

To prepare myself to be culturally responsive to this family I would:

• Do extensive online research on the country
• Research the countries education system
• Learn the basic of their language so that I was able to communicate better
• Ask my professional colleagues for advice and help and any support they may have about this area
• Find some symbol of their country to incorporate into the setting to welcome them and make them feel safe and secure in this new world.

 

I would hope that these preparations would benefit me by allowing my to get to know their culture and home country before meeting them. This would give me the background knowledge I needed to begin the transition with them while also showing them the effort I put into it.  This would hopefully make them feel more comfortable with me.  I think it would benefit them by making them feel more welcome and not so out of place.  I would want the transition to be as easy as possible and with a knowledge of their country, they will feel more likely to work closely with me and allow me to help them.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression-Week 6

A time in my life that I remember where I feel that I was in a situation where prejudice was evident was directly after my mother died.  My grandma had died with her and she was the one that was going to get custody of me if my mother did die.  So since they both died, I went to live with my uncle (my mother’s brother) and aunt.  My aunt did not like my mom before any of this occurred and that was well known.  I walked into a home where I was judged based on her not liking my mother.  She treated me awful while treating her real children greatly.  Never allowed me to do anything outside of the house but allowed her other children too.  Didn’t let me do drivers training but let her same aged daughter do it.  Many more things to list but completely an awful person to me.

 

This diminished equity because I had no rights and no equality compared to the other children in the home. She did not allow me to do anything and never treated me fairly.  She treated me like garbage and it was evident everywhere.  Just thinking about this issue makes me sick and angry.  I can not believe that someone could treat a child like that, especially one who is family and lost their everything in a split second.  The only person that would need to change to make equity even possible is my aunt, who by no means even cared how she treated me.

 

My life goes on and I am a much happier person now.  I was able to get out of that house after my uncle died of cancer and I turned 16.  That was a life changing day and I do not regret any of it.