“My Supports”

My personal definition of support means someone who is always there when you need them, whether it is for financial help, emotional advice, or just a shoulder to cry on.

Mother

I rely on my mother as my staunchest supporter and I am very fortunate to have a close relationship with her.  We have a bond that is unusually close; when you see her, you see me and vice versa.  Out love is immeasurable and so her support is one that I do not even try to measure.  While attending college at night, I could count on my mother being there to help me take care of my son.  I talk to my mother about anything and everything in my life and she is always there to offer me wisdom.  I love my mother and I am so grateful for her support, because it gave me a foundation that has kept me grounded. 

Friend

I also have very supportive friends in my life that offer me advice, are there when I need someone to talk to sharing experiences with.  We enjoy sitting down to reminisce about the past and what we use to do for fun.  They give me constructive criticism and also positive reinforcements. My friends and I encourage each other mentally and spiritually and I’m glad I can lean on them.  Of course I sometimes take them for granted, but whenever I call, they are there to offer their support.  Without them I would truly miss their presence in my life. 

Co-Workers

I also have a wonderful support system with my co-workers; they help me to maintain focus and motivate me to do my best.  If I require assistance, they are there as my mentors and I know I can call on them without hesitation.  Once I found out my son had forgotten to take his USB drive to school.  This came at a bad time before I had to attend an important meeting, but one of my coworker’s volunteered to take it to him.  I appreciated it and would do the same for them. 

God

Above all others, I consider God to be my strongest pillar of support in my life.  Without God I would be nothing and just knowing that I can ‘talk’ to God anytime, anywhere just gives me a spiritual lift.  I consider prayer to be my direct communication link with God and know that I am only as successful as God allows me to be.  I pray throughout the day for God’s support and guidance and at night I thank God for keeping me safe and bringing positive and considerate people into my life. 

“My Connections to Play”

“Play keeps us vital and alive. It gives us an enthusiasm for life that is irreplaceable. Without it, life just doesn’t taste good” Lucia Capocchione

At the age of 4 or 5 years old, my favorite toy was a 3 foot tall baby doll.  My mother bought me extra clothes and shoes for my doll and I really enjoyed taking care of her.  I can remember naming her Sally Sue; I think I still remember her name because in my young mind she was my baby.   Whenever we would go to town, I would always take Sally Sue along with me and even make sure her seat belt was attached.  Sally Sue had long, shiny, black hair, which I would brush into a pony tail.  This is the only doll I can remember having, because she lasted a couple of years.  Along with the doll, I would also receive puzzles from my mother.  I would sit there working until the right pieces fit and I can remember the puzzles being in the form of a Disney character.   Sometimes she would sit next to me and motivate me by saying, “you can do it” “that’s my girl.”

                                                        

Whenever I would go outside to play, my favorite game would be pretending to be an adult and having my own home.  I can remember my friends and I building a 'house' using cardboard boxes.  We would pretend cooking, sewing, and going to work; there were many memories in that house.  To this day, whenever my friends and I are together, we talk about the times we shared and the fun we had in our cardboard house. As I matured and became wiser, I would go places with my best friend and her mother and sometimes spend the weekend with her on their farm.  We would feed the animals: corn hulls to the cows and grain to the chickens.  My favorite past time was riding with the other kids in a wagon being pulled by a tractor.  I once visited when it had just snowed and after making a snowman and making snow angles, we kids all had a snow ball fight.  It was a cold, beautiful day.   

Children need the freedom and time to play.  Play is not a luxury.  Play is a necessity.  ~Kay Redfield Jamison  

                                                           

I believe that if children today could experience just a little of what I did as a child, such as playing outside, experiencing new things, and most importantly having adults in my life who motivated me to do better, they would be affected in a positive way.  Today, children want expensive things, like Iphones, x-boxes, expensive sneakers and clothes.  Of course I wanted nicer things as a young child, but I didn't get them and life went on.  It seems as though it is hard for children to find pleasure in simple things and I don't think it's because parents have full time job, which causes them to sacrifice time raising their children. Both my parents worked full time, but they set rules for us to follow and there were consequences if we disobeyed them.  We played games, talked, and had chores to do; my parents made sure we connected.  It is ironic and sad that while parents work long hours to provide the best for their families, they are losing that vital connection with their children.  In school, you will find children going out to play/exercise, as well as having the time set aside to study.  Children need to spend more time developing social skills in face-to-face interactions, instead of spending all-nighters playing games or putting their personal information on the computer.  But, until the adult in the household set consistent guidelines, the child will do what he or she wants to and that is usually not in their best interest.

Children make you want to start life over.  ~Muhammad Ali 

Relationship Reflection:

“The quality of life is the quality of your relationships”

Anthony Robbins

In the human race, relationships are considered to be important and all aspects of the individuals’ lives are intertwined.  Relationship means when two or more concepts, objects, or people are connected by blood or marriage.   I believe a positive relationship is vital in order to have a successful personal/professional relationship. 

            In my life I have one important relationship that I consider to be particularly important to me and that the one with my family.  I am the youngest in the family, my family is always looking out for me and making sure I am making the right decisions in life.  Advice is freely given even when I don’t ask for it.  Looking forward to spending time with my family is some of my most pleasurable moments.  I have a relationship with my family where I am a mother, daughter, sister, niece, and friend.

My mother, my best friend, is my supporter, motivator, provides me with a moral compass and without her, I would not be the person I am today.  Every moment I spend with my mother is enjoyable and always a learning experience.  My son is my pride and joy and the love of my life.  When I told him that I was going back to college, he gave me the thumbs up and said way to go mom! My only brother is someone I can trust and he is always there to help when I need him the most.  My sisters are older than I am, but they are always there with a shoulder to lean on and guide me through the tough times.  These people are my family and represent the type of positive relationships one should strive for. Family will always be there, even when your friends are nowhere to be found.        

            In thinking how relationships impact my work as an effective Early Childhood educator is through respect.  Respect is an important way of being kind and good to others and this is also needed in having a positive relationship. As an Early Childhood Educator, showing children respect will have a long-lasting influence on the way the children respect others and develop good relationships. By showing and treating children with respect will have a long-lasting influence on the way the children respect others. Such as saying “thank you” “saying please” or “yes mam or no mam”; this will truly let the children know that you as an educator are paying attention.

I can truly say training kindergarteners to use good manners can be very difficult, but this is when we should be very strict in encouraging them, because it lays the foundation in preparing relationships.     

                                         THANK YOU !

Learning and teaching should not stand on opposite banks and just watch the river flow by; instead, they should embark together on a journey down the water. Through an active, reciprocal exchange, teaching can strengthen learning how to learn.

Loris Malaguzzi (1920-1994)

Standardized testing

I was taught that standardized tests fail to reflect adequately what children learn.  Indeed children know so much more than they are taught and what is tested may not be the important learning that the children have done.  I always believed that children do not function well in common test situations, nor do the test results necessarily reflect children’s true knowledge or skills.  The implications of such testing further erode the curriculum when teachers, wanting their classes to do well on the test, alter activities to conform to what will be tested.   We should begin teaching children to learn “right” answers rather than to engage in active, critical thinking.  Also, rather than making teachers more accountable, the misuse of standardized testing has led to the adoption of inappropriate teaching practices as well as admission and retention policies that are not in the best interest of individual children or the nation as a whole (Gordon & Browne, 2008).

As leaders work in China to move the country away from its notoriously rigorous focus on standardized testing, Americans seem to be heading in the opposite direction. In China, all students must prepare for the country's massive, multi-day test known as the "gaokao".  The student's score on the test determines whether or not they will go on to college. Unlike the American college application process, where each applicant's SAT score is considered amidst several other factors, the "gaokao" is the only factor that determines a young person's future.  Chinese students spend their entire young lives preparing for the tests. Yet, as China continues to develop at an astounding pace, many wonder if the inflexible education system is able to produce the sort of innovators the country will need to succeed in the future. Question was asked, at a time when many are pushing the United States toward an education system focused on test scores, what lessons can be learned from China's system, its shortcomings and the changes that are being made (China v. America, 2000)?

Reference

Education In China v. America: The Question Of Standardized Tests. (2000). Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/17/education-in-china-testing-diane-sawyer_n_785016.html

Gordon, A.M. & Browne, K.W. (2008). Beginnings and Beyond: Foundations in Early Childhood Education. (7^th ed.). Thomson: Delmar Learning.

                    Consequences of Stress on Children’s Development

Poverty is the single greatest threat to the well being of children and families.  It can affect every area of a child’s development-social, educational, and personal.  The children who are at risk for academic failure are likely those who live in poverty.  An American child is born into poverty every 43 seconds, one in five children is poor during the first three years of life, the time of greatest brain development (Gordon & Brown, 2008).

When I was a young child, my best friend, Rita and her four siblings was raised by their grandmother.  She was a homemaker and had to rely on her Social Security to make ends meet. I could remember her grandmother going to the Welfare office applying and receiving food stamps. Although they were living in low-income housing, they still had to search out for clothes for school and other items.  The good part about it, me and Rita wore the same size, I would sometimes let her wear my clothes and sometimes my shoes. There was still guidance and love in this household, but I could tell some of the things other children had, they couldn’t afford them. 

Africa includes some of the poorest countries in the world and in south of Sahara, harsh environmental conditions exacerbate the conditions of poverty.  The land is dry and barren and covers large expanses of this region.  While the poor try to eke out livings through farming and other subsistence practices, they exhaust the land, using up the soil nutrients needed to grow crops. 

There has been a recent major shift in African effort to address the continents problems.  The New Partnership for Africa’s development (NEPAD) aims to tackle HIV/AIDS, reduce poverty and sustain long-term economic growth.  A number of countries within Africa have made real progress, poverty has been reduced, free primary education and new schools built (Fight Poverty, 2006)

To overcome the issues of poverty in Africa, it was stated that governments should step in.  They should finance and provide primary education and basic health care; and subsidize water and electricity so poor people can afford these services. 

References

Fight Poverty. (2006). Retrieved on July 18, 2012 from  
http://www.fightpoverty.mmbrico.com/facts/africa/html.

Gordon, A.M. & Browne, K.W. (2008). Beginnings and Beyond: Foundations in Early

            Childhood Education. (7^th ed.). Thomson: Delmar Learning.

Sudden Death Syndrome (SIDS)

I never knew, until I had a baby, the fear one would get as a new mother whenever they laid their newborn down to sleep in their crib.  Of course we all learn about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), but it really doesn’t click until you find yourself getting up throughout the night to ensure your baby is still breathing.  Because of how important that one should know about SIDS, I chose to delve deeper into this deadly Syndrome.

I found out that not only is SIDS the leading cause of death in infants under one year of age, but our tendency to protect our baby by over-wrapping them leads to thermal stress.  Thermal stress is a risk factor for SIDS.  In the United States, we are unaware that over-wrapping when combined with infections and placing the child in unsafe sleep positions is a recipe for a tragedy.  For instance, the country of China has very cold and severe winter months, so over-wrapping infants when the flu and other infections are at their peak increases the risk of SIDS immensely. 

            Placing newborns on their backs to sleep is thought to be the safest position. Even though this technique is advertised and taught in newborn classes, an alarming amount of parents and caregivers still lay babies in facedown or in side-sleep positions.  New parents are advised to take these precautions to aid in the prevention of SIDS:

• Place babies face up in the crib.

• Put babies' feet closer to the foot of the bed to stop them from rolling down.

• Tuck in blankets at babies' feet, but never higher than the armpit.

• Never cover a baby's face or head, because this is where the majority of baby heat is released.

• Never fall asleep with a baby on the couch or in the bed besides you, since you could roll over on or drop the baby.

• Don't rely on baby apnea monitors, because they cannot pick up on drops in oxygen levels and other subtle changes leading up to SIDS.

• Keep in mind that premature babies are at higher risk for SIDS (McCoy, 2012).

Infants can appear healthy and while gaining weight, learning to shake a rattle, rolling over, and smiling to their parents they can still die unexpectedly in their sleep.  Whenever an autopsy cannot prove a reasonable cause of death, the diagnosis is SIDS.  In the United States during the 1990s, about 5,000 babies died of SIDS; this averages to about 1 infant in 800.  Individuals in lower socioeconomic conditions have an increase in the rate of SIDS, but poverty did not explain these important ethnic differences. 

Some doctors are beginning to recommend to parents that their newborns should be placed to sleep on their backs, not their stomachs, in the hopes that this reduces the likelihood of SIDS.  Doctors are also including the new techniques of breast feeding and giving the baby a pacifier, which may help by strengthening infants’ breathing reflexes (Berger, 2009).

To be honest, the cause of SIDS is still unknown, but there are many doctors and researchers who now believe that SIDS is caused by a couple of different factors, such as:

·         Problems with the baby’s ability to wake up (sleep arousal)
·        The baby’s body inability to detect a build-up of carbon dioxide in the blood

The emotional support of others is especially important when a child is loss to SIDS.  Some parents find it comforting to talk to other parents who have experience the same type of loss.  Since it is unexplainable to a parent on why they woke up, but their baby did not, many parents have guilty feelings.  The baby’s death must be resolved, which means the parents guilty feelings will be further aggravated by investigations of police or others.  

Understanding that others may not know how to approach you because you really are experiencing a devastating loss. You should try and maintain an open line of communication with friends and family about how you are feeling and understand that  healing from an unimaginative grief takes time (SIDS, 2011)

                                                                    Reference

Berger, K.S. (2009). The developing person through childhood. (5^th ed.). Worth  Publishers.  

McCoy, K. (2007). SIDS in China---Don’t overwrap your baby. Retrieved from
http://www.beijing-kids.com/forum/2007/03/06/SIDS-IN-CHINA-DONT-OVERWRAP-YOUR-BABY

Sudden infant death syndrome. (2011). Retrieved on July 2, 2012 from

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002533/