Hi Everyone!

I have known some of you longer than others. What I have appreciated most is the experiences you all have shared from you various places of work in early childhood. Thank you so much for sharing. As the week goes on, I hope to share my contact information with you all.
I am going into teaching adults. I am hoping to take a longer break before I start that.

Good Luck!

Liz Thomas

This week I was asked to consider the stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning and consider the adjourning phase for several of the groups in whichI have been involved. 

It is hardest to leave groups with which I have worked well. Since I have been married, I have moved many times. The last time I moved, I really didn't want to move. I had become familiar with many of the staff, parents, and children at the YMCA where I worked. Many people were happy I was there. Two of my own children worked there part time and my three youngest children had grown up there as swim demonstration babies.  The other lifeguards were like more older siblings for my three youngest children,  For my adjournment from this team, there was a cake to celebrate and a YMCA gift hoodie as a remembrance.

I think that it is hardest to leave a group if you are not sure who from the group you will see again. In my master's clsses, I have seen several familiar names throughout my time, but I took many breaks, and that makes teh adjournment easier. Lately, I have been wondering who will be going on to teaching adults in the early childhood field with me. I think it is important that we do share contact information, so that we can support each other in the early childhood field.  I plan to leave contact info in week eight. Adjourning is important to prevent a feeling of disconnectedness from the world in general.  It highlights the importance of relationships we have formed along the way. 

A Conflict - What to do?

I had a disagreement with the Spanish bilingual teacher about how to read to children She was ok the first year with the way I dialogued with children when I read stories, but after about a month my second year, she said I should just read the books straight through. I was not ok with this at all. It was hard to keep there attention to books I read in English because they didn't understand that much English. I talked with them to help them understand the story. If they weren't listening to the story, I would draw them in by asking questions about the story or pictures. I was already very stressed at the time so I didn't deal with it at all. There were other problems like my children were at daycare and school for 11 hours when I had bus duty, but the final reason I gave my two week notice was that the teacher was asking me to do something that I didn't really know how to do and I had always felt my way of reading books was very beneficial. Our text said that the answer is not to ignore the issue. The first strategy I should have used would have been to bring up the issue. The second strategy would have been to tell her what I needed in that situation like I needed her to trust my judgment in how I taught English. The third strategy would have been to compromise. For example, I could have only read books that repeat simple sentences or I could have had one toddler type book and then had singing time because the children really seemed to learn English better by singing.




I would love to hear some more suggestions.

Communication Skills Inventory

         I asked one of my adult daughters and my friend to take the communication anxiety test, the verbal aggression test, and the listening styles test. Everybody agreed that I had a people-oriented listening style. I did, however, have a couple of insights based on the explanations in the test results. The description of the people-oriented listening style explained that people-oriented listeners should be careful about being too trusting of others. I also noticed the description of the content-oriented listener. This would be my second favorite style. The description explained that this style is helpful in school environments but not as helpful in fast-paced situations. I have noticed my own deficit this way in fast-paced situations.  From these insights, I have decided that although I am happy with my listening styles, it wouldn't hurt for me to at least learn the action-oriented listening style.

     It surprised me that both my daughter and I saw me as being significantly verbally aggressive, and my friends saw me as being moderately verbally aggressive. I intend to look at the items in the verbal aggression test and be more conscious of my attitude in both my personal and professional life. In both my personal and professional life at this time, I tend to avoid conflict altogether. I probably need to learn some skills for positively resolving conflict.

     As far as communication anxiety, I saw myself as having moderate communication anxiety. This is because I know how scared I feel when imagining public speaking. My daughter and friend thought I had low communication anxiety. My friend knows I used to be on the speech team, but what I would do on the speech team is different than speaking about something important to me to a large or small group. 

Speaking with People from other Cultures

     I have noticed that when I am with people of different groups and cultures, I sometimes take on the accent or speech patterns of those people. Sometimes this happens in the classroom. I have seen another teacher catching herself when using low speech with the students and switching to higher language. I believe I should do the same if I find myself speaking similar to the low language of another teacher because sometimes I am in a class or even home to teach the type of English that I usually speak.

                I also find it harder to discuss conflict with a person from another culture, so I am less likely to bring up the conflict. Parents and caregiver seem to each have their own unique parenting culture, so this is one of the hardest types of conflict to bring up. Unfortunately, since early childhood is the field I have chosen, I need to develop strategies to discuss difference of opinion with caregivers and parents. Beebe, Beebe, and Redmond discussed some strategies for communicating with people of different cultures. These could be applied to discussing conflict. They mentioned that a professional should develop knowledge of the other culture.

                The three strategies I am suggesting involve developing knowledge of a parent or caregiver’s culture.

1.            The first strategy involves exploring the difference of opinion about caregiving in depth. Rather than just knowing that a parent uses a different bedtime routine for his or her infant, for example. The alternate caregiver should ask the parent why the parent considers this way of doing things important. The parent could then explain more about the parent’s own culture and the reasoning behind a particular way of doing things. If we are to do things in a way we are less comfortable with, it really helps if we understand why we are doing things that way.

2.            The second strategy is to generally learn more about another caregiver’s culture. A person could search the internet or talk to colleagues who also are from a particular culture. This knowledge may also help a professional understand another caregiver’s way of doing things, but it is important to keep in mind that each caregiver has his or her own culture and each caregiver has his or her own reasons for doing things a different way.

3.            Spending more time with people of a different culture gives a person a better sense for why things are done than research alone can do. It is important to actively try to spend more time with people of that culture.

Beebe, Beebe, and Redmond also mentioned that speaking even a few words in the other person’s language can help make discussion with that person more comfortable. As a Head Start teacher in a Spanish/English classroom, I found that despite my inability to speak Spanish well, my attempts were appreciated by parents at parent conferences. Usually parents could speak better English than I could speak Spanish. But by my attempting to speak Spanish, they could see that they were superior to me in their ability to speak another language. Once this was established along with the fact that I didn’t feel superior because I could speak English, we were able to muddle through by the parent speaking more English, my being able to understand more Spanish than I could speak, and my speaking mostly English but a little Spanish. I also found that the more I listened to and comprehended Spanish, the more I was able to eventually speak phrases my ears had become familiar with. Frequently, both parents would come, and one parent spoke English better than the other. Often I could understand the mother’s concern about something the child was doing at home, for example, but if I didn't, the father would interpret. 

Making Assumptions Based on Body Language

     I watched an episode of CSI because I have heard a lot about this show but never seen it. I had many questions after I watched without sound. In this episode, a person, who I think is a boy, comes into the police station? and shoots two guys and takes two hostage. One of the hostages is a guy who was shot. The other hostage, played by Ted Danson seems to be one of the people in charge of the police station. Both Ted Danson and another older somewhat chubby guy seem not only to have leadership roles but also to have a fatherly relationship with the employees in general. It seems that Ted Danson convinced the shooter not to hurt him and to help him do first aid on the hostage who was shot by telling him that he, the shooter, still had a chance of not going to jail for murder.   One guy who was shot went to the hospital. At the beginning of the show, he seems very friendly with a lady who might be his partner. Another lady comes to visit him at the hospital. The partner? and the other lady talk to each other. The other lady seems to care about the partner but also seems angry. There is an older lady that comes into the police station and sees the hostages and the shooter on a closed circuit camera. She could be the mother of the shooter or Ted Danson's wife. She possibly says something to the shooter through a microphone. The shooter gets very angry because there is a camera and because they brought his mom? He shoots the camera and there is no longer video access to the room where the hostages are.

  Now I know that the lady and the man who got shot and sent to the hospital are not partners. They are married. I also know that one of the hostages was actually shot by a policeman who was trying for the shooter. Danson explained to the shooter that if Danson didn't answer the phone the police would think Danson was dead and they would then shoot more. The shooter doesn't actually care if he dies, but Danson appeals to the shooters compassion to not let the innocent bystander hostage suffer any more than he already has. The lady who was talking to the wife at the hospital now seems more like a social worker. In one part of the show Danson has the shooter hold a water bottle with finger blood on it. This gets a clear imprint of the shooter's finger print. Danson looks up at the camera to get the others to understand they need to focus on the bottle. They then understand he is telling them to identify the prints. This part was just as understandable with sound as without sound because Danson could not communicate verbally because if he did the shooter would know. The lady who came in was the shooter's mom, and the way Danson tries to talk sense into the shooter is by telling the shooter that he probably would have killed himself by now if he didn't have someone like his mom that the shooter wouldn't want to hurt.

If this had been a show I have watched and I watched without sound, I believe I would have been much better at knowing the relationships. I would probably still had a lot of trouble figuring out the plot. In this case, I didn't do too badly with the overall plot, but I misunderstood many details.

A Model Communicator

A Model Communicator

     When asked about a person I admire for communication skills, I thought of my son.  As I read the materials this week, I thought about how genuine care and concern for others and the belief that others are caring are two things that are important to ethical communication. It is obvious that my son cares about the people he communicates with. Once he was put in a situation in which he was asked to chose sides between two men.  He was kind to both men, but refused to take sides. I have also noticed that, like some other men I know, my son refuses to gossip. I sometimes find excuses to talk about what is bothering me about other people, but my son only talks kindly. Having thought about these things, I have now decided to work toward always talking kindly and to always remember when working with parents that although we might disagree, the parents care about their children more than I do. Right now, I am blessed to agree most of the time with the two families I work with.

Hopes, Goals, and Thank Yous

Thank you to everyone for sharing your stories with me throughout this course!

My hope is that each early childhood professional would be conscious of the far reaching effect of his or her words and actions.

My goal for the early childhood field as that we will all become more and more aware of the wide variety of the ways people live and the wide variety of ways children learn and learn to value the unique knowledge that each child comes to school with, so that we can move closer to giving equal education to all children.

Welcoming Families from around the World: Zimbabwe

Welcoming Families from around the World: Zimbabwe

                To prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family, I will learn a few words especially family words, food words, and words about taking care of necessities in the language of the family. Before this, I will have to ask the family which language or languages of Zimbabwe the family speaks. I will also ask the family what type of schooling the child has received, and I will want to know any special skills the child has learned in helping out with family chores. I will also ask who I should call first when there are questions or conflicts, so as not to override the authority in the family. Finally, I will research some things about the culture of Zimbabwe. Below, I have shared some things I learned.

                These questions will benefit the family by helping them know that I don’t expect them to have my culture, but I also don’t expect that by reading about Zimbabwe, I will know about their particular family culture and system. I will benefit by knowing what knowledge the child might like to share and what knowledge might be helful to the child. I might also like to ask if they could share cultural items or skills with the class. This would also benefit both the family and the class.

Children are usually surrounded by relatives from the time they are born, and they are expected to earn to cooperate. Girls start helping in the family domestic work when they are about seven, and boys learn to herd livestock at about the same age in areas where herding is done. In every area, children are expected to help with one form of work or another. Children are not supervised while on their way to school or while playing with friends. In this way, children are expected to learn to take care of themselves.

There are two major languages spoken by the indigenous people of Zimbabwe. Most of the indigenous people speak Shona, but more than ten percent speak Ndebele. Sixty-two percent of people in Zimbabwe are Christian, but the people also mix in some of their more traditional beliefs with Christianity. Ancestral worship (Amadlozi) is also practiced widely in Zimbabwe. There is a very high literacy rate in Zimbabwe.

Shona is a tonal language with two tones: high and low. These are not indicated in writing.

Here is a link to someone speaking in Shona: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtXr7bckLyc&list=UUBgWgQyEb5eTzvh4lLcuipQ

The meat of one's clan totem was traditionally avoided; even today animals representing totems are rarely eaten. Read more:

http://www.everyculture.com/To-Z/Zimbabwe.html#ixzz35ENdq56y

Shona, Ndebele, Shangaan, and Venda are patrilineal societies in which descent is through the male line and after marriage a women moves into her husband's home. The Tonga people are matrilineal, and the husband moves to the home area of his wife. Customary marriages are rarely desolved by divorce, and it is possible in a customary marriage that a husband would take more than one wife. Households usually include extended family. Authority is vested in men, and wisdom is vested in age.

Traditional and modern medicines are used, and a distinction is made between minor ailments and serious illnesses. This is done partly because of the belief that illness may have been inflicted by angry spirits (justifiably or through witchcraft).

Driving while Black and my Invisible Privileges

Driving While Black and my Invisible Privileges

                I have experienced bias in my favor a couple times in the last five years. Twice in the last five years, I have been pulled over for having out dated registration tags. I have learned since then that the police officers were granting me my invisible privilege when they did not give me tickets. I have become aware in several classes at Walden University that many people who are Black have been pulled over simply for driving while black, and have had to endure degradation and financial hardship even when they had done nothing wrong. In contrast with this, I had done something wrong but did not receive a ticket. The story of one of my classmates follows:

I was driving on expressway I-240 on my way home. They were doing some construction on the road. I was on the telephone and made my regular routine turn onto an incoming street. Immediately, I was flagged down by the police officer. I came to a complete stop, shortly afterward. The officer jumped into his car, speeding with the lights on. The officer asked why I came onto the road. I explained that there was no road block sign stating that the road was closed. He yelled at me, stating that you could have killed someone.  Again, I stated to that officer, there should have been a road block sign up, indicating do not enter or road closed sign. The officer placed me in handcuffs, placed me in the back of his car, got into the car with me, and started to use very harsh words. He drove the car off into a very dark alley and continued yelling. I was so afraid; I did not know what to do. I had never been in a police car, ever. He held me in the car for about 3 (three hours).

Not only is this situation inequitable financially, but after so many similar situations throughout his life, my classmate probably has to remind himself daily that there is no reason that he should be treated inequitably. Last week, I heard many similar stories involving police officers and people who are Black. It is apparent that the law enforcement system in our country is a very biased institution. Police departments throughout the country need to reeducate police departments about diversity and about the damage they are causing to people through their prejudicial actions.

Now I feel guilty for not getting tickets. I am also relieved that I am not the one who was held for three hours. It is very random that Black people are the ones being tortured. Our places could easily have been reversed if history had taken a different course. Guilt without action is not worth much, so hopefully my guilt will motivate me to speak out more about the random inequity that occurs in “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

                I have to go and pay my registration for this year now. I am late again. I haven’t been stopped by a police officer yet.

Microaggressions on a Daily Basis

     When my children came from Arizona to a small mid-western town in Illinois, they experienced microassault or racial slurs for the first time. One day they came home from junior high and gave me one more reason they wanted to move back to Arizona. They told me they couldn't believe that the kids at school were using derogatory names for Hispanics and possibly Black people. They went on to name their friends in Arizona who were being called names. After this story, I was a little nervous about what would be passed on to my younger children. Now we live in Peoria, Illinois which is very different from the small town we used to live in. 

     At first I didn't think that I would have many incidents to reflect on this week, but as I read the assignments, I realized that there were many incidents involving microaggression that I could think of. I didn't have time to mention all of them in this week's reflection.