WELCOMING FAMILIES FROM ANOTHER WORLD:

This week’s blog assignment is a creative one and interesting one. The country that I Chose to pretend that my family’s origin is from is Africa. I am very interested in learning about Africa because of all of the negative information presented on the news. I feel that everything is not negative but there is a good side to every situation.


The first way that I will prepare is to learn about my family’s language. Learning to communicate in a person native language helps lessen the barriers of communication issues. The second thing I would do to prepare myself is learning about the various food my family likes. The third thing I would do is learn about cultural backgrounds the do’s and the don’ts. The fourth thing I would do is learn about my family’s religion so that I may not offend them in anyway. Finally the fifth thing I would like to know is what is important to my family. Knowing the above listed information would help me and my family form a relationship so that they may feel comfortable in a safe and secure learning environment. This information will also benefit me as an educator because it will help me to be able to implement this information in my lesson plan.

THE PERSONAL SIDE OF BIAS, PREJUDICE , AND OPPRESSION

The prejudice and bias that I recall was in a movie “ A Time to Kill”. In this movie this black family’s little girl was raped, and left to die by two white males. To make a long story short, the father shot and killed the two white males for what they did to his daughter because the judge only gave the two white men a slap on the wrist for their action. The black man (Samuel Jackson) hired a white attorney and his reason for this action was because he (Samuel Jackson) told the white attorney that he was one of them (meaning he was white) so if anyone could get him off for murder it would be someone who thought like or hated black people like the white jury did. Well to sum it all up the lawyer in his closing argument stated that this man was in the position that he was in because he was black. If the jury would search their heart and think that if someone would hurt their daughter a white one like that then they would have acted like Samuel Jackson.
The prejudice or bias in this situation dimension equity because in the South when their was a separate line blacks where treated different because of who they where. The same incident could have happened to a white child and the outcome would have been very different. There first would have not been a trial for murder.
This brought up the feeling that prejudice exited even though the type of incident that occurred no one should have saw color but a crime was committed and it destroyed the life of a child.
People would have to change because prejudice was shown on both side the African Americans and the Caucasian..

Perspective on Diversity and Culture

As I  spoke with a friend of mine, They told me that they define diversity as being different and they said that thier definition of culture is believing in the same thing, having the same value.  As I study the material thus far for this course, I realize that diveristy is different in the form of gender, race, culture, socioeconomic status, or ability verses disability.  All of this things are a form of diversity. 


Culture having the same value. People could have the same culture background but have different values or beleifs about different situations.

Examining others definition on culture and diveristy, helped me to realize that without being educated that our definition is on the right track but is broad and being educated helps you to narrow the definition down to a more concrete definition.

WHEN I THINK OF RESEARCH

This class has taught me a lot about research.  I was informed of the importance of validity.  Through this course, I learned that research can be done through several methods.  Most time mixed methods is used for several reason.  Through this course, I learned that research is important when researching information that will benefit the success of children in Early Childhood Education.  In this class, there was some challenges.  Learning about the different types of methods and it terminology.  My perception of an Early Childhood professional has been enhanced through this course.  I learned that the way educators teach are based on research and learning what works best. 

I have enjoyed this course and sharing information with my classmates.  Thanks to everyone who have given me advice or a nice comment.  Thanks and hope to discuss issues that matters in future courses.

Erica Hines

RESEARCH AROUND THE WORLD

This week I was given the opportunity to explore different international research topics.  I chose to explore this website www.ecdvu.org/ssa/index.php.  One of the question What are some the current international research topics?  Some of the topics that I saw was "Exploring and promoting the value of indigenous knowledge in early childhood development in Africa", Social responsibilty as dimension of intelligence, and as an edicational goal, and insgits from programmatic research in an African Society." 

The next question is what surprising facts/insights/new ideas about early childhood did you gain from exploring this interational early childhood website?   I learned that this program is devoted to developing Middle East North Africa children family and communities.

What other noteworthy information did you find on this website?  I learned that ECDVU is not only a community of learners but a community of leaders and capacity builders, which is aimed at addressing leadership needs in African ECD.

Erica Hines

MY PERSONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL

Hello everyone!!  My topic that I am interested in is “At what age should you teach phonological awareness?”  I know that we as parents introduce phonics to our babies without being aware of this, because as we talk the child is listening and it becomes a part of repeating what they hear.  But the question that I am asking is when is it necessary to purposely start teaching it.  The reason this is a topic I have interest in is because at my present job, I am constantly in debate with the Education Coordinator at our center about what we should be introducing to our students.  I know that some of my students are on different levels than others and she states that I am pushing them to hard and focusing on things that are not age appropriate when it comes to phonological awareness.  I explain that my theory for my action is because children mature at different levels and I believe that we should encourage growth and help each individual child on his or her level to be successful. 

So with this in mind I feel that if I can show her the research then maybe I can prove my point and then she will understand why I feel the way that I feel.

Erica Hines

FINAL BLOG ASSIGNMENT

Sadly, I was not able to get in contact with my International Educator, but I was able to read the blogs of my classmates who was fortunate enough to have someone respond to them.  Through this course, I gained valuable information and I also learned a lot from my classmates international friends.  The sad thing that I learned from this course is that it does not matter where you are from some children still suffer and do not receive the quality Early Childhood education that they deserve.  One reason for this is because poverty strikes all Countries and therefore causing some to suffer and be without.  The lack of knowledge or understanding of the available resources is another factor that children around the world are without.

This course has been an eye opener for me and I have enjoyed participating and learning valuable information that I believe will help me to grow into a great educator.