Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have when working with diverse families is that I can assist every family in having an enjoyable and productive learning experience in my school. 

One goal that I have for diverse families is to become a strong advocate for families. This goal will help me improve the quality of the early childhood learning experience.  I also want to ensure that there is equity and fairness for all families in early childhood education.

I would like thank all of my colleagues for their support and comments on this blog. I have enjoyed working with all of you.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

I have just received a new child from Slovakia.
In order to prepare to work with the child, I will first research the country and learn about its government, traditions, and customs.  I will also research the language of the country and ways to communicate with the child and the family.  Developing cultural comptency about the family is important in order to estabish relationships with the family.  I will further work with the family to learn ways to include the child's culture in the classroom.  The flag to the right is the flag for Slovakia.  As a result, I can have the child write a report about her country and to provide me with her life experiences.  This is very important for me to establish a relationship with the child and to further understand the child's cultural traditions. This will also help other students in the class become more culturally aware of diversity and the child's home country.  Lastly, I want to learn about Slovakian holidays and the family's religion.  This will help me understand how the child interacts with others and what days the child may observe special holidays.

Using the information that I gather from research, I will develop a communication strategy for the family.  This will also help me to understand the needs of the child in the classroom.  Overall, I hope that this experience will help build a strong parent-teacher relationship with the family and make the class room more productive and engaging for the child.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

As an African American woman, I have experienced oppression and bias growing up in Mississippi.  As a result, I understand how the lack of equity in society has a negative effect on groups and individuals.  When I was only ten years old, I walked into a restaurant with my mother, and we were told that the restaurant was full so we had to leave.  We had been traveling to Tupelo and only stopped in the restaurant to grab a snack for the trip.  We did not know that the town we stopped in was predominately White and racist.  However, we soon learned that blacks were not welcomed in the restaurant.  This was during the 60s and these practices were common in some parts of Mississippi. 

When I saw five Caucasion people sitting in the restaurant with over ten tables empty, I knew right then that we should leave.  My mother politely thanked the owner and we left.  As we walked out of the restaurant, the owner came out and told us that we could find a meal around the corner.  He even explained that he did not want us to feel bad because this was how things worked around here.  This incident stuck in mind because it was the first time that I felt less than equal to others.  This was the first day that I realized that being black would be a challenge for me. 

Times have changed, and people are less open about oppression.  I knew then that people would have to change in order for the situations to change.  Thankfully, times are much better and I can eat whereever I please.