Monday, January 21, 2013
Comunciating Differently
I do find myself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures. I feel from having been in this field for 30+ years has made me aware of how important it is to have a relationship with families in order to have a good "working" role in the lives of their children. I have been preaching treat children as individuals and get to know them and their families on an individual basis for quite some time now. It was probably decades ago I had my first international student. (90's) I embraced their culture and went on to develop a close, warm relationship with the family. The little girl really thrived in our classroom. We were in a public school setting,so she did receive ESL services because she spoke very little English. The family was from Japan and our class learned all sorts of things, had Japanese snacks, did Japanese arts and crafts, learned how to count to ten in Japanese, and even had mom read a "Japanese fairy tale" to us. That taught me early on in my career how important it is to learn all about each individual child and respect and respond to their cultures. I had a great time, it was only my third year of teaching and my children thoroughly enjoyed themselves, parents responded positively, and Uki thrived and went on to excel in school.
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Deb,
ReplyDeleteI think it is wonderful you embraced the culture and developed a close relationship with the family. I love learning about other cultures and adding it to the classroom community.
Alissa
I could not agree more about having good relationships outside of work to make me a better worker. As much as I love working with children it is nice to have adult relationships to go to. I have a long time fiend who teaches sixth grade and we have a monthly girls night. It is so nice to look forward to that and have that. I am thrilled to hear about how you have made the choice to embrace children from other cultures for as long as you have. This has not always been the practice in our field and I am thankful those children and families had you in their life.
ReplyDeleteDeb, that was a great post. It was inspiring to know that you made such an impact on the life of that Japanese student and her family. Having a genuine interest in the well-being of others goes a far way.
ReplyDeleteDeb- This is great that you were able to use your experience as a learning opportunity. I feel that too many times we don't really take these opportunities and benefit from them. I can only imagine that after 30 years in the field you must have had plenty of opportunities like this.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is important to embrace the cultures of the children you come into contact with. Sometimes families make it hard to get to know them and their children. I do not know if I can stay in this field for 30 + years as you have done but I will pray about it and go where God leads me.
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