Evaluations

What surprised me the most on my evaluations is that both of my evaluators noticed me weakness just as I did. I guess I did not realize it was so obvious that I am too trusting. I am a people oriented listener and I tend to create and build relationships, and sometimes it does interfere with my judgement. I tend to be just a tad too trusting of people I have built or am building a relationship with. I do tend to think the best of people and I do think that has a lot to do with it. Both of my evaluators pointed that out to me, so one of my communication goals is to become more discerning when listening to people!

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.

Week 2 Communication blog

I dvr'd a show called Last Man Standing, starring Tim Allen. I like him and assumed it would be a funny show. The episode I watched had a woman all dressed in black and appearing to attend a funeral. Tim Allen was dressed in a black suit and looked like he was leaving the house with her. However, he did not leave his house with her. He stayed behind and sat on the couch. So far, not funny! When I watched it with sound, he and his wife were having a funny conversation about going to a funeral for one of her co-workers and her concern about why she got a promotion. It may have helped if I was a follower of the show. The wife went to the funeral without Tim Allen, who really did not want to go. She tried to bond at the funeral with another woman who worked there but did not get the promotion. That did not work out very well and when she talked to her boss, she found out she got the promotion based on her accomplishments. There were lighter moments in the show, but I did not find it funny overall.

Wk 1 Competent Communication

The person I have chosen to talk about is my executive director. She demonstrates competent communication and is well versed in many things concerning young children. She is effective because she is knowledgeable, calm and authoritative when she speaks. She consumes vast amounts of information constantly and interprets it easily. I would love to model some of my own communication behaviors after this woman because her leadership and communication skills seem to be inbred. It is a natural position for her to take and she excels at her ability to confer information appropriately and thoroughly through making eye contact, gesturing, and with a can do attitude. She uses the right words, is a well-paced speaker and adapts her communication to the current situation. I have great respect for her.

Thanks!
Deb

Professional Hopes and Goals

A hope that I have when I think about working with children and their families who come from diverse backgrounds is that we can all be accepting of each other, our cultures and values.
A goal I would like to set would be for all the Early Childhood field to embrace the project of designing global citizens. We have to start somewhere and I believe starting with our youngest citizens is the best place to start.
I wish all my fellow students a successful journey, many rewards and much happiness. I has been my sincere pleasure working and learning with you all.
Thanks!
Deb

Welcoming Families From Around the World

I am working as a Child Life Specialist in a hospital where we are receiving victims from a major catastrophe in Guam. There was an earthquake in the Philippines, and that caused a tsunami in Guam. The island is so small, many people were swept away. It was a 12 foot wave. This particular family lost the mom and their little boy. They were walking to their car and the little girl fell down. The rushing water pulled her under a truck and she held onto the truck. The little boy was in a stroller with his mom pushing him. The water swept them both away. The girl was found hours later when the truck driver returned to his truck. The dad had already been looking for his family since the tsunami ended. This girl suffered abrasions to her hands and legs from holding onto the truck and the debri  that scraped her legs while she was holding onto the truck. Her major difficulty was emotional. She saw her mom and little brother get carried away in the water and is having nightmares about the screaming she heard.
They transferred this family to another Micronesian island, Palau. I am a CLS at the local hospital. the ED doctor wants to keep her for observation. I will ask dad to tell me about their extended family, their customs about family members passing away, their food choices, and any suggestions he has for comforting his daughter. I hope that by gathering this information, I can enable them to accept what has happened and to begin healing. I will do my best to offer hope and comfort to this family and encourage them to get to a place where healing can begin.

Life Lessons Learned

I have a memory of a movie I watched, called Nell. She experienced bias, prejudice and oppression. Nell was twin who grew up in the woods with her grandma who had a stroke. She and her sister had their own twin language and their language model was her grandmother whose speech was impaired from a stroke. The grandmother and sister passed away, so Nell was left alone. She was found sometime later and her "rescuer" was very nice to her, but obviously the people who evaluated her were biased because of her situation and she experienced prejudice from people who look at her outward characteristics. Nell was oppressed because of her situation. She had no control over things surrounding her growing up. Being poor, illiterate and alone were not choices Nell made.

This made me feel empathetic with Nell. She was wounded and alone with a long road to her recovery. I am not really sure she felt the need to "recover" as much as her rescuers did.

I believe that her rescuers would have to be more accepting of her cultural differences and get to know her as a person to help her determine the direction in which she wants to go. Equity would be greater because Nell would become an active participant in her own life.