Observing Communication

For this week's blog assignment, we were to observe an adult and child communicating out in public. Though the choices are plentiful for observing adult and child communication, I chose to observe the interaction while out to eat for my 2nd to youngest daughter’s birthday. While regretfully visiting Shoney’s, I was able to observe a mother and father who were eating dinner with their young two children who looked about 5 and 6 years old. The children were constantly picking at each other and calling each other names, and the parent initially attempted to give them non-verbal communication by giving them a warning glare, but when the warning glare did not work, the mother began to slightly raise her voice and threaten for them to leave the restaurant without the children getting to eat their food. After several reminders of the possibility of leaving the restaurant, the father finally said something to the two children that made them stop in their tracks and finish their meal without another word. From this interaction, I learned that though the children seemed to devalue the effectiveness and communication that the mother had with them when asking them to stop playing at the table, and threatening for them to leave the restaurant—it was the father’s ultimate authority and say-so that lead to them obeying the original task and keeping quiet at the table.

In this week readings, a point was made that when teachers are effectively communicating with the children within their classrooms, they do not command the children to do a task. Instead, they use encouraging language and descriptive language that is relevant to the children’s lives (Rainer & Durden, 2010). In this case, the mother’s language and words leaned more towards the understanding side but did not necessarily reflect language that the children could logically reason with in order to make the right decision. The father’s language may have been language that they related to (as far as punishment options were concerned) but did not necessarily reflect encouraging or positive language.

I know that within this scenario that if I were the one dishing out the “encouraging” words towards the same children, because of their age I might present their behavior as a logical thought-process towards, asking them if it makes sense to present yourself in a certain manner, but that is because that is the method I often INITIALLY use, lol to help guide children. In my experience, it often will work, because they will then cause them to respond out loud and thoroughly think about their behavior!

Reference:

Rainer Dangei, J., & Durden, T.R. (2010). The nature of teacher talk during small group activities. YC: Young Children, 65(1), 74-81. 

Creating Affirming Environments

In this week’s lesson we explored the importance to having a creative home care environment, that is not only supportive to the family unit, in relation to the learning environment, but also that is designed to assist the flourishing of a child’s mind. According to the text, the toys, materials, furniture, and books that are arranged within the classroom and home care environment, also has an influence on what the children are learning (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).  In this regard, I believe that the entryway is very important to present a comforting and relaxing feeling for the families and their children that are enrolled within the home care program. This would mean that a calming color pattern should be used with creative glimpses of the types of things that will be explored within the classroom should be a part of the décor, so to pique the interest of the child’s curiosity. The media this week had an excellent example of a home care facility in which Mrs. Castillo made sure to include an entryway to her home that had a place for parents and children to sit down and take in the décor of the room, but also to spend a little time getting comfortable before separating for the day; this ensures that there is a smooth transition to the child entering into the classroom setting (Laureate Education, 2011). 

The second room would then contain the exploratory room that contains pictures, books and cultural/family implementations. My hope is that this room will further pique the interest of the child and their family so that they will be able to enter the room and interact with different activities and images of positivity and cultural experiences. The text again stresses the importance of the rooms reflecting the daily lives and physical environment of the children and their families, so to build positive imagery (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).

The next and last two rooms will be devoted to intense learning (which will contain a little section for a learning lab) and a room for eating and presentations. The learning space will be set up in a circular design so that the flow of energy and mutual meeting ground circulates and flows from child-to-child, and every child feels included within the activity. Appropriate books, posters, and small glimpses of media sources will be within this learning space and will give the children an opportunity to expand their minds. I think that with a level of comfort and inclusion mixed with a little family value, children will be able to function and flourish within a culturally-inclusive and respective environment.

References:

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). Strategies for working with diverse children: Welcome to an anti-bias learning community. Baltimore, MD: Author

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

If I could think of any true hope that I have for working with families and children of diverse backgrounds, it would be to step gain a deeper understanding of the cultures and ethnicities that reside here in the United States. This class has called for us to search deeper to learn our true identities, and within that, I learned that maybe I do not know the cultures and ethnicities within the United States as much as I thought I did when I first started this program. I want to understand those cultures and ethnicities, and then incorporate other creative and fulfilling ways for children within the classroom setting to also learn about these same cultures and ethnicities as well... basically a giant celebration!

I think that my goal for Early Childhood Education will be to enhance my curriculum that I am designing to include those cultures and ethnicities that I have learned about from the motivation of this course. I think that this will be a great early childhood educational goal as it embodies all that we are attempting to accomplish within this program!

I really and genuinely want to thank all of my fellow sisters (colleagues) within this course! I loved having a smaller class size because I felt that I was able to really connect through our blogs and postings! Each and every one of you (Ms. Quay, Ms. Lilyann, Ms. Jill, Ms. Shakira, and Dr. Kien) I feel like you all have revealed your strengths and points of improvement, and through that, we have all grown as educators and associates- I hope to see you all the next class and Wish you positive energy into your next endeavors! In the Spirit of the nature of our course, I decided to leave you all with another of my favorite clips on kids trying cultural foods! Good Luck to all!--Iesha