Communication Skills

Assignment 2: Communication Skills

            Many people interested in seeing a change think that simply having the opinion, and voicing it loudly, is all that is necessary to see the change take place.  This is why real change does not happen as often as it could.  I have always worked under the philosophy that if I go to my principal with a problem, I go to him/her equipped with a clear description of the issue, the reason it is an issue, and a possible solution to the problem, ready to present.  This applies here. A solid catalyst of change is someone who can sell the need, someone who can convince stakeholders, policy makers, influential community members, and a wide variety of audiences about the need for a specific change and their ideas of how this change could happen.   

            “Selling the need” requires an array of communication and networking skills.  First, they have to be able to build rapport by being open-minded about socio-economic, professional, and cultural diversity.  Before someone can see the need with equal enthusiasm, the initiator needs to find a middle-ground to reach their audiences at, an understanding of where they are coming from.  Second, they need to have within them an understanding of where their support is coming from exactly, and how they intend to support the cause.  If I wanted to reestablish uniforms at my workplace, for example, I would need skills networking with business where the uniforms may be coming from.  Once those partnerships are developed and the capability to build rapport is there, “having the opinion and voicing it” may actually make a difference.

            Personally, I feel fortunate to have had plenty of exposure to many different types of people as a result of being in a military family, and moving throughout and in and out of the country my whole life.  I already have an open mind about people from the start, because that is how I was raised.  Unfortunately, and ironically, I was also raised to find solutions and solve problems myself.  Since my time as a teacher began, I have been working on building my networking skills, and have come to the realization that education simply does not happen like it should without networking skills.  Through my school, my church, my exposures in groups in the community, I have become extremely comfortable with it, and often wind up being a sort of “go-to” person if someone wants to find support for their initiatives.  Nonetheless, as I tell my own children every day, we learn something new every day.

            

Using Social Media

Assignment 1: Using Social Media

The kindergarten teachers at Kilpatrick Elementary in the Texarkana Arkansas School District (TASD) have been in the midst of trying times.  Most of the students fit under the poverty label, and need extra help throughout the day, but all of the classes tend to be maxed out with their student enrollment.  I have worked there for thirteen years, and have had the benefit of needing an aide/interpreter for certain students for four out of those thirteen years.  Those four years were the best of my experience, and I think it’s because of having that extra adult in the classroom.  I want to make this happen for every K teacher, every year, through a policy change.  To do this, I first want to sign up volunteers. Texarkana is populated with families that have a long history with its traditions.  Any time something new and different comes around, everyone hears about it somehow, and it can be a welcome chance to many. 

I am organizing a “sign up” event to take place at a local, widely used park in Texarkana.  This will be a fun-filled festival type of event, complete with food, games, and music.  At the center of this event will be opportunities for people to sign up to volunteer some time with the kindergarten classrooms.  Parents, local university students, grandparents, retired fellow employees, and others will have opportunity to be recognized as volunteers of the week and the year. 
            This will take some advertising, and the year-long process will need some opportunities for viewing by the public.  I will use a Facebook page for discussion about today’s demands on kindergarten classrooms, and to reach users between the ages of 20 and up, thereby targeting fellow educators and parents with an invested interest in the topic.  Youtube and/or Teachertube provide a chance to show video presentations or clips of k classroom dynamics, and small group lessons, which can then be uploaded and saved for future reflection by other educators and policy makers.  Another way is through the district class website made apparent to parents, which can include links to registration and sign-up event information, as well as videos/photo clips and on-line educational tools for and resources in support of one-on-one and small group learning.  To provide continued discussion about current K standards and the need for increased small group instruction, therefore an additional adult in kindergarten classrooms, I will publish a blog specifically for the kindergarten group at Kilpatrick, dedicated to this effort.  It seems that now, with social media on our side, a change for the kindergarten teachers in TASD is possible!

           

            

Three Goals, One Waiting

Public policies for early childhood systems reflect the knowledge, experiences, and perspectives of professionals of many different calibers.  Some actually have direct experience with early childhood education and development, while others may only have a viewpoint from outside the spectrum, but have a passion for it.  Either way, efforts for early systems come from a variety of sources, and need links or commonalities in their intent. 

I work in a Title 1 school, and one concept I personally find confusing is the coexistence of increase in learning expectations for students and the decrease of extra support for early childhood educators, particularly those in Title 1 schools.  Novice early childhood teachers are overwhelmed, often to the point of either discontinuing their employment or transferring to teaching different age groups.  One example is the decrease in the use of teachers’ aids in kindergarten and first grade.  Research exists that confirms there is a correlation between class size and student academic achievement and social development (Allhusen et. al., 2004).  The rate at which student population is increasing is not being paralleled by new teacher employment in the early grades, which makes for an average high student/teacher ratio in each class.  With this in mind, administrators and policy-maker should consider the need for increased support for said teachers.

Another concept that concerns me is the decrease in parent involvement.  With monetary struggles in the economy, parents are finding themselves increasingly busy, thus less available for volunteering at schools during and outside of business hours.  As mentioned above, teachers need help with their class sizes increasing.  Help is not as available as it once was through Title 1 funding.

One professional goal I am establishing for myself in this course is to find an avenue or create a system to increase parental support for teachers in early childhood classrooms.  Perhaps awareness of increasing standards and class size may help encourage this support, which may require a parent-training program or standards-awareness session, or something of the like.

Another goal I see developing is one regarding novice teacher professional development on parent involvement.  Many new teachers have access to a plethora of trainings about standards, teaching methods, disciplining practices, classroom management techniques, and assessment practices, but may not see as many opportunities for training about effective ways to increase parental involvement in early childhood.  As someone with over twelve years of teaching experience in early childhood and also someone who has seen a dramatic increase of parent involvement over the years in my own class, I feel I may be able to extend my research into current parent involvement training programs for new teachers.

My last goal is to keep my focus narrow.  “Parent involvement” is a very broad, general topic which could take a lifetime to see great change in.  For the purposes of this course, I will spend much time deliberating on which facet of parental involvement to zero in on.  At this time, as my overall project focus for my program relates to teacher support, I am inclined to lean towards policies that allow parents easier access to ways to be involved.  I am still unsure exactly about how to decide.

Reference

Allhusen, V., Belsky, J., Booth-LaForce, C. L., Bradley, R., Brownwell, C. A., Burchina, M., & Weinraub,

M. (2004). Does class size in first grade relate to children’s academic and social performance or observed classroom processes? Developmental Psychology, 40(5), 651-664

What Was Learned

Wow, what a course.  This “Influences of Families, Cultures, and Society on Early Childhood” course certainly lived up to its name.  The narrative of the trials and triumphs of those involved with the Hmong family (Fadiman, 2012) certainly was an excellent way to jumpstart the goal of the course, which I took to be more in-depth inquiry into how our own assumptions and biases can affect how we do our jobs.  The texts were also very informative, and enlightening, regarding things that have already been researched, proven, disproven, researched again, and disproven or proven about stereotypes, micro and macro-aggressions, assumptions, identity development, and many, many other facets of early childhood education (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010) (Hanson & Lynch, 2013).  Ultimately, however, the resources that I enjoyed the most and was the media presentation interviews with Marsha Hawley and Shon-Adrien Hofla.  Each interviewee had such different life experiences to learn from, and were able to offer firsthand insight into the aftereffects of traumatic situations, and the necessity for resilience that followed.

As someone aspiring to become a more devout scholar-practitioner, however, I realize that on-the-job applicability from this course mostly comes from the texts.  They provide explanations, methods, strategies, data, and ready-to-use references for future research, which could only cause forward motion.  In fact, after reading the texts, I found myself inadvertently applying my understandings when interacting with parents and students, and seeing only benefit.  Knowing that every child has a progression for identity development, and that each one is similar but oh, so different, and that there is literature available to help me gives me the confidence that, no matter what questions come up, there is an answer somewhere.  If there seems to not be one, there is a path to one.   

References

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

Fadiman, A. (2012). The spirit catches you and you fall down: A Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Hanson, M. J., & Lynch, E. W. (2013). Understanding families: Approaches to diversity, disability, and risk. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

Poverty: A Challenge Teachers Face

Every day, I wake up to a beautiful home, a well-stocked fridge and pantry, clean clothes ready to go, and no fear of having to skip a meal.  Then I go to work and see children come in with broken shoes and no coats regardless of the cold, and pocketing breakfast leftovers because the things they serve at cafeteria breakfast are like a rare privilege to them, or because they know they may not have a dinner meal available to them later.   It may not be obvious to the world, but the children in poverty know.  They know they have different lives than I do.  For my project challenge topic, I chose to learn more about the feat of authentically educating children in families of extreme poverty.  Activating their background experiences to keep them engaged is a challenge at times, and I am curious as to what I may learn by choosing this topic.  Who am I to claim that I know exactly how these children feel?  What magnitude of learning can come from my decision to delve into this topic?

            The questions go further than just wondering what I can do as a teacher.  It absolutely must be an issue for administrative staff to build rapport with families of extreme poverty.  The ways that my life differs from lives of those in poverty must be even more apparent for the lives of administrative staff, simply due to their stature and salary.  How do they keep families in poverty motivated or even interested in communicating with them with confidence and continued interest in public school education?

            I may not be able to provide meals for all of my students each day, but I can at least provide them with a plethora of food for thought.  

What is learning for a lifelong learner

Daniel Boorstin said, “Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know.” (Boorstin, 2001). My global perspectives class assignments have given me so much to take with me throughout this time preparing for my doctorate.  I have read about interpretations of the quality of child care centers from countries around the globe (Van Laere, Peeters, & Vandenbroeck, 2012).  I have seen evidence that people are taking steps to address issues with teacher preparation programs (Nitecki, 2012) (Rose & Rogers, 2012).  I have watched many documentary type videos of early childhood settings and interviews with practitioners in the field (Laureate Education, 2013). 

Particular assignments that were particularly memorable to me were those that involved me having the pleasure of witnessing many childhood education settings outside of my own and conversing with the teachers at these settings.  Every educator has their own take on what children need.  Each child has a unique set of quirks and strengths.  Each year presents a new set of challenges.  In this field, there is never a dull moment!

References

Boorstin, D. (2001, January 1). Education. . Retrieved July 24, 2014, from             http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/danieljbo104920.html

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2013). Introduction to global perspectives on

development and learning. [Video]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Nitecki, E. (2012). The Culture of Family: How a Model Early Childhood Teacher Preparation

Program Navigates a Limited Context. Journal Of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 33(2), 127-143. doi:10.1080/10901027.2012.675835

Rose, J., & Rogers, S. (2012). Principles under Pressure: Student Teachers' Perspectives on Final

Teaching Practice in Early Childhood Classrooms. International Journal Of Early Years Education, 20(1)43-58

Van Laere, K., Peeters, J., & Vandenbroeck, M. (2012). The Education and Care Divide: The

Role of the Early Childhood Workforce in 15 European Countries. European Journal Of Education, 47(4), 527-541

What is normal, really?

What is normal really?  Is it usual?  Expected?  Considering morphology, is it "the norm"?  As a teacher of an age group that makes it extremely difficult to find "normal" anywhere within the confines of my classroom, I find that there is no "normal" when I make an effort to tap into the uniqueness provided by each of my students.

What is ironic about this word, normal, is that at any given time in conversation, most people have a different idea of what it means.  The word itself does not live up to its own name, in conversation.

Today's early years in schooling are being looked into with a much more dedicated eye.  Just about anyone can explore and discover research that is showing that without solid and promising experiences at the beginning, children drift into a collection of years that seem more like a trial, less like growth; more like a nightmare, less like a dream of learning coming true.  Is that normal?

So there we have it.  There are expectations explained, guides outlined, and standards spelled out, and then there are realities presented.  Children are different.  In order to be innovative, teachers and caretakers of all varieties must not only recognize this but also use it.  They must discard the word "normal" and adapt new ones that tickle the back of their mind throughout the entire day, words like "creative," "spirited," "enthusiastic," "intelligent," and "curious."  What's normal to one child might be completely past the line of normalcy to another.

The following link,

http://www.ted.com/talks/faith_jegede_what_i_ve_learned_from_my_autistic_brothers#t-304803




presents a real-life example of someone who has discovered what it means to embrace the uniqueness of others and use those qualities to learn and grow.  If today's teachers can make an effort to embrace this as well, the early years may not have to be years of struggle.  Instead, they can be years of exposure and celebration.