Week 8 Reflecting on Learning

The last five classes that I have taken have taught me a lot about diversity and how to use these strategies to make me a better teacher. In my future I am very passionate about working to create positive relationships with families where we are partners in their child’s education. I hope that I am able to make every child feel comfortable while they are in my classroom and also allow them to learn about other cultures and be open minded. For the families, I hope that I can learn about their culture and make sure any interactions I have with them make them feel the most comfortable and allows me to make sure that I am considering their culture into my classroom.

Thank you to all my colleagues that have contributed and commented and made me question some thoughts I have had throughout this journey. Being able to have knowledgeable people give me feedback and help me better understand topics that we have covered has been a great asset to my learning.

Week 8 Reflecting on Learning

The last five classes that I have taken have taught me a lot about diversity and how to use these strategies to make me a better teacher. In my future I am very passionate about working to create positive relationships with families where we are partners in their child’s education. I hope that I am able to make every child feel comfortable while they are in my classroom and also allow them to learn about other cultures and be open minded. For the families, I hope that I can learn about their culture and make sure any interactions I have with them make them feel the most comfortable and allows me to make sure that I am considering their culture into my classroom.

Thank you to all my colleagues that have contributed and commented and made me question some thoughts I have had throughout this journey. Being able to have knowledgeable people give me feedback and help me better understand topics that we have covered has been a great asset to my learning.

Week 7 Blog Zina Tillman Impacts of Emotional Development

The area I chose for this assignment was Latin America and the Caribean. The more specific country that I then chose was Haiti. This area really interests me because the majority of my children at our school come from Haiti. Most of them have had a rough life before they were able to come to the United States so what UNICEF does to help them within their country helps. 

Children in this area of the world face hunger and issues with shelter. Specifically in Haiti since the earthquakes many children have been left to be homeless and are fighting hunger and sickness. In this country they do not a have a good source of drinking water so many children over there acquire many diseases from the water and food they eat. 

In my personal experiences that I have had with the students that we get at our school they usually have emotional scars from living in an environment such as this. Many of them can remember being there for the earthquake and all the damages and effects it had on them. Emotionally not having a home to live in and not knowing where you will get food and water from has a detrimental effect on children. This makes children worry about problems that that are not there’s to worry about. Many children that we get are just happy to be given the opportunity to be in the United States and feel safe.

Week 6 Blog Zina Tillman Sexualization

After reading the article I was a little surprised as to all of the sexualization that children are exposed to. I realized with the media being the way it is today that they would be exposed to a lot but I didn’t realize it was to that extreme. This saddens me that children can’t just be children anymore without being exposed to such grown up topics.

The first example that I think of is Miley Cirus. Many young children liked her because she started as Hannah Montana, but she has spiraled out of control. In many of her music videos she is very sexual and children should not be exposed to that.  Another example would be the numerous commercials that we see on TV. All of the commercials today are look for that get you factor and there are many where girls are dressed very scandalously.

I feel that sexualization is hurting children and not allowing them to be children when they are exposed to the things that they are. I believe that it makes children must more apt to ask questions about sexuality and also to be exposed much later in life. As an early childhood educator we need to make sure that we are doing the best make parents realize what the implications of this exposer to their children would be. I also think we need to make sure that in the things we do we are not exposing them, such as boys need to be tough. We need to make sure that we are setting the best possible example for our children as possible and help to monitor how much sexualization they are exposed to.

Week 5 Blog Assignment Zina Tillman

When you are experiencing isms in your life you often react to others in ways that are not always positive. I think for me since I have faced lots of racism in my life it could potentially be difficult for me to deal with certain families that I know have made racists remarks. I think I would be professional and try to help the family but I think for me I would still be judging them and being very cautious of my interactions with them.

Another issues that I have dealt with is ableism. I have seen this very often with children with disabilities and me thinking their child could do one thing and the family believing another. I think as a teacher I tend to sometimes push the children farther than the parents think I should which can cause disagreements and I have seen parents be very reluctant to work with me since I wanted them to treat their child as “normal” as possible. I think isms lead to uncomfortable relationships and can cause problems for building positive working relationships.

Week 3 Blog Assignment Zina Tillman

I was able to take some time observing children at the play area inside our local mall. There was about three children playing and they were aged range approximately 3 to 5. The children seemed to each play on the jump on equipment in their own way and there was not much interaction between each of the children. The youngest child kept interacting with the mother since the mother was standing there being protective and making sure she was following around her child. The other parents seemed to be more relaxed and just sat on the edge and watched the children play. The one mom appeared to be talking on the phone part of the time during the observation.

The interacting as far as communication appeared to be effective. The mom that was talking to the child seemed to be communicating with her child and there was constant interaction. The parent kept making sure the child was being careful and was very firm in reminding the child of what not to do. The other communication I saw was when the one parent was ready to leave. The mom called the child’s name and was like we really should be going now, mommy has to get home. This was said two or three times before the child even went over to the mom. Her communication was not very effective and she should have just stated it is time to go in order for the child to understand exactly what was being expected of them.

The first parent and child interaction I think did not help the child’s self worth at all since the parent kept reminding the child of what not to do. It was almost as if the parent didn’t want the child to do things because she was scared. This could make the child very timid to try things in the future.  I think the best thing I can take from this observation is the fact that I need to be very conscious of what I am saying when the children are trying new things in order to not deter them of this in the future.