blog spot 5

I wish the best for my colleagues that have followed me and supported my adventure.  I look back on all the information that they have posted and passed on.  It was all worthwhile reading and meant from the heart.  I liked the idea of learning to do the blog all together.  Any information that you take from these post are good, everybody always has a different point of view and that is important when you are sharing information.

Module 4

Whom you observed and interacted with in your setting during this module?

I interacted with the principal and the superintendant of our school. I talked with them about our program and the problems of the funding for our program. The superintendent has a daughter in our class and he talked about what he saw in the classroom and how his daughter responded to all of the activities that we did.

Any special learning experiences you may have had or an experience that provided you with insight about children and families including advocacy efforts?

I learned that not all parents are appreciative of the program. Some of the parents feel that it is expected of the state and not a gift from the state. I do not think they understand that the state can pull the program next year and that the families will have to pay for the program. I tried to explain to the parents that I had to pay for Pre-K for my children and they were shocked. It is amazing to think of the people that expect things and not want to pay for them.

At least two insights gained from your observations of, and interactions and experiences with, children’s families regarding advocacy efforts and needs related to your area of interest within the field of early childhood?

One of the insights I learned is that the school likes our program but is not sure what will happen to the Pre-K program next year because of the funding. The parents wanted to know what they could do to help us so that we would have a program next year, we told them there is not much we can do except keep our fingers crossed. It is nice to know that they do appreciate the program and feel that it is helping the children.

Module 3

I have interacted with our speech and language pathologists Beth.  She works with 2 of our pre-schoolers twice a week.  I ask her how she felt poverty and health affected our children.  She had an article for me that would help me with my research paper.  We also talked about a boy (Fred) that she was working with that was at poverty level.  He never came to school clean and was always having accidents in his pants.  She felt that this was affecting his chances of learning or paying attention when she was working with him. 

Some of the challenges that are noticeable are that the children are dirty and do have a hard time concentrating on the task at hand.  The children that I observed had a hard time sitting still, the teacher and pathologists thinks that this could be an affect of their home life and what they are missing.  A challenge of making things better for the child is that the parents do not seem to care.  They are happy with their family lifestyle just the way it is.  There is a cycle that is hard to break, when children are raised in povery level homes, they usually end of with the same lifestyle that their parents have.

Blog 2

I work at a Pre-K program at the grade school in Oblong.  When I started my job the supervisor talked with me about how important it is to make the children and parents feel welcome in your classroom.  So to start the day off, I talk with each child as they enter the door and also say hello to the parents.  Some of our parents stay and visit each morning, this gives us a chance to discuss information  about the child.  If there is a problem, the parents can let us know what is going on and how we can help them at school. 

How do we get parents become more involved with what is going on with their children?  Why is parental involvement so hard for some people?  These questions could be used as focus questions, they are so very important to keep us on task and lead us in the right direction.

Assignment 1

I talked with 2 professionals from the school that I work and here is some of the information that they gave me.  Poverty affects so many aspects of education with oral language development being one of the major predictors of reading ability in the upper grades.  Good language models and experiences are necessary before children enter school.  Research shows (Hart & Risley) that children in low socio-economic homes are exposed to fewer words.  They may also have less exposure to books and experiences (such as the zoo, museums, etc.).  Poverty is always a subgroup that needs help and support.