"You can't move forward-you can't have people love you, you can't look at other people and accept them for who they are-UNLESS YOU COMPLETELY LOVE YOURSELF." – Samira Wiley
At last! Here is part 3 of 3; a set of interviews with Matt Bradley, Special Education Life Skills Teacher with Crispus Attucks High School, and Mee Hee Smith, Career Academy Coordinator also with Crispus Attucks High School. These two professionals have been instrumental in the success of my ECE program at the high school.
Enjoy the last two podcasts and please, as always, provide feedback. It’s greatly appreciated. 🙂
Mrs. Angielenaece
Welcome to part 2 of 3 of my third and final artifact for my M.S. in ECS capstone. Here you will find 2 of 4 professional interviews, one with Diane Pike, Director of Outreach and Professional Development with St. Mary’s Child Center in Indianapolis, IN and the second with Diane Smith, Program Chair for ECE Programs with Ivy Tech Community College of Central Indiana. I have had the pleasure of working with both representatives personally and professionally and I believe that in listening to our interviews, you as an early childhood professional, will understand the need to communicate and collaborate with community organizations and partners. Enjoy!
As always, feedback is important to me so please share your comments after listening to the podcasts. 🙂
Mrs. Angielenaece
Good afternoon and welcome to part 1 of 3 of my final artifact for my M.S. in ECS capstone project. This first part is a PowerPoint presentation that discussed effective communication and collaboration techniques in the early childhood setting using Skilled Dialogue. Enjoy!
Mrs. AngielenaeceEffective Communication and Collaboration Techniques
Good afternoon new and future early childhood professionals! I have created a PowerPoint, a lesson, and a classroom set-up guide to help new and veteran teachers implement best practices involving inclusion and cultural awareness in their classrooms, starting at the beginning of the school year. This is my artifact #2 for my M.S. in ECS!!! One more to go!!!
Please, please, as always, feedback is welcomed. 🙂
Mrs. AngielenaeceBeing Culturally and Diversity AwareMy Favorite Lesson Plan and Much MoreCultural and Liguistic Diversity
Good afternoon fellow and future ECE professionals! I am at the end of my M.S. in ECS program and wanted to share one of my artifacts with you. It is a PowerPoint presentation of my personal ECE journey entitled, “Wake Up ECE and Be Inspired!”
Enjoy and please, please, provide feedback! 🙂
Mrs. AngielenaecePersonal ECE Journey
After viewing the website for The Center for the Developing Child, Working Globally, I wanted to point out their guide for their international work:
-Coordinated strategies to support child development can multiply the effects of investments in child survival, health, education, and economic development.
-We need to protect children from significant adversity, in addition to providing them with enriched learning opportunities.
-The early childhood years are critical building blocks for lifelong health, not just school readiness.
I chose to highlight their guide for international work because in reading the information specific to the areas (Brazil, Canada, and Mexico) in which they have helped to establish pilot projects, reducing poverty, encouraging health initiatives and education, I feel even more empowered. Empowered to share what Walden taught me in my B.S. in Child Development, encouraging other adults in the field to know the ages and stages of development and use that knowledge abroad to make a difference in the life of a child, any child, from any country. It goes back to the basic rights of a child and that all this center promotes, are those rights.
Reference:
Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2010). Global children’s initiative. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/about/what-we-do/global-work/
The site that I previously chose was the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI). Even though this is a good site for general information and information relevant to the struggles of Black children, I have found that they only keep certain information on their site current and relevant; it does not change with the news, current policy, or have the global implications that would hold my interest.
I have decided to focus on the “early” of early childhood education and research information relevant to our birth to age 3 year old population. This age population has had so much press in recent years due to the growth of technological advances in brain research, that we are finding out more about the young brain, effects of toxic stress on the brain and how the young brain is wired and the influences that produce positive healthy brain development. The site that I have been studying is Zero to Three http://www.zerotothree.org. Below is a copy of their Mission and Value statements:
“Our mission is to ensure that all babies and toddlers have a strong start in life. At ZERO TO THREE, we envision a society that has the knowledge and will to support all infants and toddlers in reaching their full potential. We value…
This site is so inspiring and encouraging. I used this site when I was a home visitor for Healthy Families It has so many awesome resources for parents, caregivers and service-delivery providers, and policy makers alike. ALL stakeholders have something that they can take away from this site. Developmental ages and stages charts, the latest scientific research as it relates to this age group, resources for mental health and early intervention detection and services and a section specifically for military families.
So to catch myself up to this weeks blog activity, I chose to explore one of four of the tabs located under the heading, “Explore our Resources”. Th four subcategories are Early Development and Well Being, Early Learning, Parenting, and Policy and Advocacy. I chose Advocacy until the “Policy and Advocacy” tab. What I discovered was a wealth of networks, groups and access to state, local and federal advocacy tools if I wanted to become more involved and be a voice for young children. There is even a policy video library!!!
Though in my current field as a preschool teacher, the Zero to Three site may not seem as useful, but it actually is. I have several parents in my classroom who have younger children and could greatly benefit from me just passing along the website or even taking it a step further and printing out information specific to their need. The Zero to Three site also refers you to various other websites that provide resources for children of all ages. They also have their resources in a variety of different languages.
Reference:
I had a renewed interest in the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI), which can be found at http://www.nbcdi.org. Below, you will find a copy of their Mission and Vision statements:
“For more than 40 years, the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI) has been at the forefront of engaging leaders, policymakers, professionals, and parents around critical and timely issues that directly impact Black children and their families. We are a trusted partner in delivering culturally relevant resources that respond to the unique strengths and needs of Black children around issues including early childhood education, health, child welfare, literacy, and family engagement. With the support of our Affiliate network in communities across the country, we are committed to our mission ‘to improve and advance the quality of life for Black children and their families through education and advocacy.’ ”
“NBCDI envisions a society that ensures a successful future for all children.”
As I researched the website, I found that they are very passionate about policy, early care and education, health and wellness, family engagement, literacy and child welfare, not only for Black children, but children as a whole. I enjoyed their resources tab that offers free downloads, family toolkits, access to their prior newsletters (published semi-annually) and their most current policy brief.
What I recently found on the website that was of interest to me was their latest publication, “Being Black Is Not a Risk Factor: A Strengths-Based Look at the State of the Black Child”. This is very important to me because so many teachers and administrators blame the current state of education on a change in demographics instead of realizing that they should focus their efforts more on hiring educators that can relate and provide a source of identification to their students and to retrain those educators that have been on board to appreciate the diversity that has come in various forms.
My chosen topic for this week is gender diversity, specifically in the early childhood field. I did however, notice that some of the information within the individual tabs was old information, and that where there was once access or links to other helpful cites or resources, are no more. The new publication did provide some information that I could reference in my application assignment, but not much.
Reference:
It was so funny and interesting to see the faces of my teammates as I asked them if I could take a picture of them, explaining why I needed to and if they were okay with it. They were all so very helpful, as always. I have worked in various settings, from licensed family child care, child care ministry, child care centers, home visitor and now public school. I really love the public school setting for the reasons that deal with supports. In the other settings mentioned, I nor my colleagues had access to the supports that could aid us in the identification of a student with special needs, one in need of a behavioral plan, language impairment or support for dual language learners. When I reflect back on some of the tougher times when a child and their families could have benefited from their services, it makes me sad. Sad not only because the children and their families could have been had an opportunity to have access to services that could have made a positive change for them and their child, but because of the greed that was seen from the administration and leadership to not hire supports for the facilities to better retain and encourage families in need of these types of services.
My daily interactions with this preschool in Warren Township began in July 2015. That first year, I had one student that I helped to identify had special needs, and another that was considered socially inept. I had three students that were ELL and two that received speech services. Though I had been in the field for 18 years at that time, I was a little overwhelmed with so many varying “needs” in my room, until I realized the supports I was going to have access to. I do remember from having my own family child care go through the national accreditation process through the NAFCC, that ensuring ALL children were successful was a top goal. I knew in my room that I needed to have the children’s work at their eye level, and that if I had children in my care with another language to encourage the use of their native language as much as I could. I also needed to use a visual schedule, make adaptations for lessons and have a clutter free environment. I had begun posting phrases in Spanish around the room so that I could easily know what to say and asked for assistance if I didn’t know how. I was sure that if I was retained for another year, I would want to make some changes.
This school year, I was told that a young lady who worked for the school before, who was from Mexico, fluent in English and Spanish, was going to be working for the school again. I begged and pleaded to have her as my Instructional Assistant because I wanted a diverse team for the students, especially once I found out that I had nine ELL students, six of which would need extra language supports. I was granted my request and it has been a Godsend! Karina helps me to reach out even more to my dual language families than I ever was able to last year. This year I also have three students with speech/language delays and one student with special needs, who I had last year. Below are the pictures of my daily supports, the people and the instruments used to help me and the children and families in my care.
I will go in order from left to right, then top to bottom. Cathy and Erika are our School Psychologist and our Speech and Language Pathologist. Cathy has the energy and the loving spirit of 300 children and Erika prides herself on the knowledge of her field. Dawn and Dulce are our Front Office Administrative Assistants. Dawn ensures our scholars are safe conducting our drills, managing the students that are on vouchers, and our wrap around child care services for before and after school care. Dulce manages the registration process for new students, translates for our Spanish speaking families, and steps into the classrooms for us whenever needed. She was a true resource for me my first year there. Melanie is our Occupational/Physical Therapist and not only assists with my student with special needs, but provides me social stories for any of the students I need and visuals to make individualized schedules for other children that may need the support. Nurse Roz and Erin have both been with our facility for a very long time and take care of me mentally and my scholars physically. Erin is the assigned Special Education Teacher for my student, but also the team lead for the other two Special Education Teachers, our resource program and our PBIS teams. The only male on our team is our Principal, Chris. He hired me as the only teacher without a teaching license and only an A.A.S. in Early Childhood Education. I am also the first Black teacher that the school had hired. Since, he has become my mentor through my B.S. in Child Development and now my M.S. in Early Childhood Studies, allowing me to mentor the new teachers and the Extended Learning Staff. He has pushed me to continue to be myself and learn to grow using previous trials and tribulations. The last four pictures are just some of the supports that I have put in place in my classroom to support ALL learners. Walden and its courses have allowed me to grow and share what I learn in so many ways, not just in my classroom, but with my colleagues as well. I am blessed to have all of them. 🙂
The two quotes that I feel represent what play was like for me as a child are-“At the end of the day, your feet should be dirty, your hair messy and your eyes sparkling”, by Shanta, and “Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning, but for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood”, by Fred Rogers. The first quote was so me and my brothers when I was growing up. I am the oldest of three and the only girl. After we would get our work done in the house, my mom would allow for us to go outside and just play. We had certain boundaries like not to go off the block, not to go into someone’s house without asking my mom or dad first, and not to run in and out of the doors. Of course those changed as we got older, but we would, as my mom would say, “smell like billy-goats” when we came back in from playing so hard and long. Talk about sleeping good! After a bath or a shower and a snack, it was over!
What Dr. Rogers said about play is true for this day and age, not when I was young. I never remember being stressed in preschool, kindergarten and on; I loved to go to school and learning was fun. I don’t remember us sitting around at our desks trying to fill out a sheet of paper to prove I can write, spell, add and subtract. The teachers were able to make their classrooms their own and you could tell those that really loved what they did, and those that did not. Our recess was at least 30 minutes and we always had time to play before and after school. So play wasn’t a relief from serious work, it was always prevalent in our day to day.
The adults on our block supported play by being a “community”, keeping an eye on all of the children on the block as they played; coming outside to check on us, bring us water, opening up their fenced backyards so that we cold play in groups. It was really nice. The fear that someone was going to snatch you up wasn’t there because we knew, and feared sometimes that we were being constantly monitored. We played in tress, hanging upside down, made mud pies (sometimes ate them), rode on big wheels and skateboards, and just explored our very surroundings.
Some of the toys that I use to play with were pogo sticks, bikes, dolls, big wheels, all types of balls played with friends or just family, boom boxes, my moms clothes and my daddy’s shoes…nature in all aspects. We played with bugs and dared friends to eat them and sometimes, we even made houses for them. Albert Einstein said, “Play is the highest form of research.”
Today doesn’t even come close to the way that children played in the past. Children are being forced to participate in activities that they are not interested in so that the parents, or another adult, has control over what and how the children respond and interact, versus children asking friends to come outside to the middle of the street to play kick ball or tag football. Children do not just come upon things and wonder about what it is and why as much. TV and video games already have fantasy worlds made up for children so imagination fades. Children are now bystanders in their learning instead of being an active participant in it.
Mrs. AngielenaECE 