Week 8 Blog Assignment

I would like to thank everyone for their blog posts. Many of your blogs have made me think about how I can change my communication style to have more positive outcomes. I hope each of you accomplish the goals you have set for yourself with your higher education, and good luck in the future.

Week 6 Blog Assignment

Adjourning is a completion stage of a project, and it allows the individuals involved in the project to step back and see their accomplishments and say their goodbyes. High performing groups may be harder to leave because the group works together well and they all have their jobs to do to make the group a success. When a group is dealing with children it seems that group efforts are never complete.  The group I am part of now is a strong, confident group. We work together well in search of the same goals. This would be a very tough closure to leave this group. I have formed close knit relationships with all of the individuals in this group. I would definitely stay in touch with most of the group. I have seen many people come and go from this group. They do have a ritual for when most people leave the group. We like to have a luncheon and buy the person leaving a gift. I like this ritual and would like to see it continue. When I adjourn from the group of colleagues I have formed while working on my master’s degree in this program, it will be a great feeling and yet sad. I have responded to many posts of the same people since I began my degree and it has been a true pleasure to read my colleagues posts. I believe adjourning is very important because it is closure of one endeavor of my life and another door will open to form another group elsewhere. 

Week 5

I recently was having a huge disagreement with my boyfriend. Instead of listening to him and his side of the disagreement, I walk out of the room because I am upset. I leave the room so I will not say something I would regret. I should have stayed to resolve the issue, but instead I left. This just added fuel to the fire. The one thing I should have done differently is listen to his side of the disagreement. I should have been open minded to hear him instead of trying to flee from the situation. We later discussed the issue a couple days later and the situation became resolved after both of us had calmed down and listened to each other. Listening is a huge part of communication and I really need to practice this when communicating with him.

The way I view myself is somewhat different than what others view me. I thought I was clear on my communication and delivered my point clearly, but sometimes my communication style is not so apparent. I should be a better listener and understand the verbal and nonverbal styles others have.

Week 3 Blog

Three strategies I could use to help me communicate more effectively with people or groups of other cultures are learning more about other cultures, increase my listening skills, and respect other cultures. If I can learn about other cultures and what their different views are with religion, political affiliations, cultural beliefs and values, it could help increase communication and understanding of one another. Increasing my listening skills could help me with understanding other's situations. It could give me the opportunity to help others with problems they may have by listening to their situations and problem solving with them. Everyone needs to show respect for others and their cultures. We need to show respect for all differences and others views on situations.

Week 2 Blog

The show I watched was "The Big Bang." The scene opens with four guys sitting down to eat lunch. Three men seem like they are happy to be there and one guy sits with no emotion on his face. The three men begin to talk and laugh. The fourth gentleman sits eating his food and adds to the conversation briefly. He seems very uninterested in the conversation. As they are talking, another guy walks up to their table and begins telling them something. He seems like he is being condescending to the four men sitting at the table. He seems like he has information to tell them and he is proud to be letting them in on it.
When I watched the scene with sound, the three men were talking about science and the other gentleman was not too interested in the conversation. The gentleman that walked up to their table did have information to share with them. He wanted the gentlemen to know that a professor had died and there would be a tenure position available.
My assumptions were very accurate. Sheldon was not interested in the other's conversation and he made no attempt to be part of it. The guy that told them about the position available did have an all-knowing attitude because he had the information about the professor dying.

WK 1 Blog Assignment

The person I think of when who demonstrates competent communication is my boss, Sally. She is a very up-beat and kind person. She is truthful and she is very positive when she talks to you. She also listens to others and takes their feelings into consideration. She communicates well with everyone and tries to problem solve whenever others may have a problem. She gives honest answers to questions. I would like to be able to listen more to others as she, and help others work out situations.

Week 8 Assignment 2

As a professional, I would like to think that I am a prepared professional ready to make a difference in every child's life. I want my classroom to be built around every child and their culture. I want to make every child and their family feel as though their child's education is built around their cultures and beliefs. Family is the most important aspect of a child's life and what a family has for a child to learn is the most important thing in a child's developmental path.
One goal I would like to have for myself is to learn about other cultures and to incorporate this into my curriculum. I want families to understand that they are important to the educational program and what they are teaching their children at home is followed up by a classroom full of their cultural background and new experiences to build a life time of learning.
I would like to thank all of my colleagues for everything you have contributed to this course. I have learned so much from each of you and I wish you good luck in your future endeavors.

Week 7 Blog Assignment

I have recently accepted a teaching position in an early childhood development center in India. I am not familiar with beliefs and customs in this country. I am going to talk to the parents about what their desire is for their child's education. I would research about religious beliefs and holidays. I would get the parents input on how to build a curriculum that best suits the needs of every child. I would also talk to other teachers in the center. I would like to observe a classroom and note how other classrooms are built for every child. I want the advice from colleagues and how they may be able to help me understand the culture. Bringing the families into the classroom will help me get information about every child and this gives me the help to build a curriculum that would help every child succeed in my classroom.

Week 6 Assignment 2

I am a white woman married to a black man. We have two biracial children. My eight year old son came home from school one day and was very upset. He told me a child had made fun of his skin color. He was very sad and wanted to know why he had to have dark skin. This made me very sad and I explained to my son that some children are taught to think a certain way because of ignorance. Their parents have taught them to judge others and be critical on other's differences. I want to educate my children to learn about other cultures and to not be critical over things they know nothing about. Skin color makes up a minimal percent of an individuals DNA, and skin color should not determine how important we are in society. Parents should educate themselves of other cultures and pass this knowledge onto their children rather than passing prejudices and bias opinions.

Week 4 Assignment 3
I heard a conversation about two men going to Pier One for office furniture. They were friends and wanted to pick the furniture out together. The first thing one of the gentlemen said was we are not "together" we are just friends picking out office furniture. It was an innocent joke, but it seemed that the assumption would be that Pier One would be a place that only gay couples buy their furniture. This conversation made me think of how uncomfortable it may have been for everyone involved. It was not a mean intention, but it could have offended someone. This conversation made me think of the words I say and how they may affect others.

Week 3 Assignment 3

Definition of culture and diversity
The people I asked to define culture and diversity defined them as such:
Culture is the way a person lives, their heritage. Their values and customs make up ones culture. Culture is a person's belief system and their way of life.
Diversity was defined as differences among individuals.
Some aspects of culture and diversity I have studied in this course were defined as a person's language, beliefs and values. My definition of culture and diversity has become more in depth. I understand how culture defines our lives. We are the people we are because of culture and diversity.

Week 8 When I think of Research.......

I have learned there are many methods to research and research is necessary for learning about changing issues. I feel less intimidated by research. Research was not a strong point for me, but I believe I could help in a research topic. Many strategies used in early childhood development has come from research and it keeps improving on how children learn and develop. I would like to thank all of my colleagues for their postings and discussion responses. I appreciate all the input and different insights everyone has about research.

WK 5 Assgn 2

Early Childhood Australia a voice for young children is an organization that tries to focus on hands-on research on child development to help early childhood teachers. Some topics of research are Learning and Teaching through play, Children's resilience, Diversity and differences, and Managing change with infants and toddlers. 

I was surprised that some of the research done was how children learn through play. The research was very similar to what we are doing in early childhood development.  

WK3Assgn2

Positive Outcomes of Research on Child Development

Head Start has had positive outcomes and the program continues to grow. Evaluations have proven that the program has provided young children a foundation in education that promotes early reading and writing skills, better access to medical and dental care, social skills and less behavior problems. Head Start program has reduced the gap in early reading and writing. Continuing research on the Head Start program can give us a better understanding of young children and how they learn. This research will give us information that may continue to give us understanding of early childhood education.  

WK1Assgn2

Teresa Harris

Here is my blog hyperlink : http://tcannchisler.blogspot.com/

Here is the link of the first group member I responded to: ????????

Here is the link of the second group member I responded to: ?????

WK2Assgn2

Hello Everyone,
Since this course has begun, I have thought about what I would like to research and narrow it down. My first decision was "building individualized curriculum." This topic is too broad and I wanted to research "Learning through Play." Play is so important for children to experience and I wanted to research this topic because schools have reduced the amount of play children participate in. I think this is such an interesting topic and I am excited to learn as much as I can.

Consequences and Benefits

One consequence of learning about early childhood education in other countries is poverty. I have come to realize how much poverty and natural disasters affects children's health and education. The second consequence is I would like to help with education in other countries, but I am not sure how I could be helpful. The last consequence I would like to state is a positive consequence. I would like to continue learning about other countries and how they are advancing in early childhood education.
My goal is to keep receiving newsletters and learning about the boat schools. They have achieved so much by offering families the opportunity to educate themselves even through monsoons. We can learn from each other and build our knowledge in the early childhood education programs. I have learned so much from this course and I appreciate the knowledge shared throughout this course.

Art and Healing

Save the Children newsletter talks about the "Art of healing." Artistic expression by drawing, painting, music, drama, and dance children are able to take their minds off of extreme poverty, and medical issues. HEART is a program that helps children to put their attention somewhere else other than every day problems they must face. HEART has helped many children in Haiti, Malawi, Mozambique and Nepal. This artistic program helps children's emotional well being and learning power.

More floating schools

Reswan continues to show the importance of education for children and adults. The floating schools provide families with classes for their children six days a week, and the parents can attend training sessions on how to  deal with their personal finances and how to farm during the monsoon season. Families are offered solar powered lamps for the attendance of their children for school. The children can stay on the boats after sunsets while their parents continue to work, which helps increase the families income.




Pictures taken from
https://www.google.com/search?q=floating+schools&hl=en&tbo=u&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=UR0gUcG_Neiq0AGg64D4Ag&ved=0CE0QsAQ&biw=1366&bih=667

 Photo: 
Jaspreet Kindra/IRINDue to the monsoon season, the people in Bangladesh have depended on many types of boats for things such as schools, health boats, and library boats. Mohammed Rezwan believes the people of these communities can survive the rapidly changing climate. One of the books they use teaches them about their local birds, fish and river erosion. River erosion could definitely be a subject they would want to learn about because it has been predicted by climate change forecast models that 1/5 of Bangladesh could be under water by the year 2050. 

Floating Schools

Bangladesh is 20% covered with floodwater's. With the land being covered by water, the schools close for some time throughout the year. Many schools are destroyed by flooding each year. A man name Mohammed Rezwan decided to take the schools to the children since the children could not go to school. He is engineering solar powered floating schools. The floating schools are mobile hubs with internet access for hundreds of communities. Rezwan is trying to help the people in this area adapt to their ever changing climate. This email I received from Exchange Every Day made me think about how I take advantage of the fact that education is so easy to come by in my community and in Bangladesh some children may not know when they will get to attend school.

References

ExchangeEveryDay

India and Childhood Poverty

Chip and Save the Children did research about childhood poverty in two districts in the state of Rajasthan. This research was done using household surveys, group discussions, research about social change, and history of one's life. The villages have pressures to make children work, and less importance of children's health and education. Generations are in debt because of drought related weather and social obligations. It is a repeated cycle for the families and the children work rather than receive an education. These cycles keep  families in debt and living in extreme poverty and their children remain in this situation also.
I became very sad when I read about poverty in India. I couldn't imagine my children at their young age, giving up their health and education to work in order to help relieve some family debt.

WK2Assgn2
The National Black Child Development Institute's President and CEO joined President Obama in Arlington,VA where the President expressed his support for education at a Federal level. The NBCDI will be working toward making it a priority to eliminate racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic achievement gaps by focusing on teaching and leadership, culturally linguistically responsive assessments, culturally relevant parent and family engagement, and supportive transitions for children and their families. 

One of the many programs Save the Children has to offer is "hunger and livelihoods." This program helps families to have a basic food supply during a natural disaster or emergency. The program offers parents ways to supply their children with the right varieties of food and preventing malnutrition. They train farmers to keep their live stock and crops free from diseases. The program offers the insight on how to save money and build businesses. Save the Children program also is backing President Obama in the assault rifle issues. Safety for children is the main goal for this program.

WK1Assgn2 Part 2

The organization I chose to enroll for a newsletter is the National Black Child Development Institute. This organization is to help black children and their families with education and advocacy to improve and advance their lives. I am very excited to receive my first news letter.

WK1Assgn2

Teresa Harris

8:13 PM  -  Public

WK1Assign2
I did try to contact a person who was affiliated with International Step by Step Association in Netherlands and Step by Step Centre of Education and Professional Development in Romania which to my dismay both were unsuccessful. The web site I chose to enroll for their newsletter is Save the Children. This organization is creating changes for the lives of many children inside the US and 120 countries around the world. Save the Children tries to respond to disasters when they happen and they help children and families with poverty, hunger, illiteracy and disease. Carolyn Miles is the President and Chief Executive Officer for this company.