Professional Hopes and Goals

When it comes to working with children and families that come from diverse backgrounds the question that comes to my mind is what is my hope? Well my hope is that I can make a difference when it comes to working with children and their families from diverse backgrounds. I want to be able to make a difference for them so that they can also learn how to accept classmates of theirs that may not necessarily be the same as them. Also included in this hope is that in the process of wanting to make a difference, I also can grow more so that I can be anti-bias.

A goal that I have is that I can become more open about how I treat people that are from backgrounds that are not the same as me. I know that to be able to meet this goal I will have to continue to do self-reflections so that I know what areas I need to work on. This is probably the biggest goal that I have but it is one that I going to have to be consistent on. It is only by doing self-reflection that I can continue to grow as a person.

I would like to thank my classmates for their encouragement and input on my blog assignments as well as the comments made on the discussions. You give such valuable insight and I have really learned much from you. I wish you continued success in the rest of your classes. I also would like to wish you God’s blessings on your professional plans. I look forward to working with you on the next class.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

I am working in a child care setting, and I get word that a child and her family are coming. The country they are coming from is Cameroon in Africa. I have no real ideas about what the country or what the culture is like. Rather than not making this little girl and her family feel unwelcome I set about to try and find out anything and everything that I can about the language and the culture so that I can show the parents that their child is just as important to me as the other children are that are in my care.

-The first thing that I would do is to look up information about the country and its culture from both the internet as well as reference books. This is so that I can understand the culture enough so that I can post a few cultural things in the classroom in order to make that child feel welcome.
-Secondly, if my mom were alive, I would ask her questions and see if there was anything that she could remember from growing up there. Asking questions from people who have actually been to the country is a good way to get more of a personal experience. It is also helpful if my mom could share some of her stories with the other children so that the are not completely unprepared for the arrival of a new child. This also gives them a chance to learn about another country of origin that may be different from their own.
-Thirdly, I would have try to make an effort to try and learn some important phrases in the families language (French). This will help me to communicate a little bit with the family so that they can try to understand me and me to try and understand them.
-Fourth, once the family actually arrives, I would have them tell the class about where they come from so that the other children can get better acquainted with the new child and family. I would also have the other children tell a little bit about their original country of origin so that the new student can get to know the class as well.
-Finally, I would talk to the parents and find out if there is any way that I need to know about the child so that I can make sure that I am developing curriculum that will benefit not just that child but so that I can also be benefiting the other children in the room as well.

I hope that by taking these five steps that I can benefit the family as well as myself. By striving to do all of these things I will be not only able to make sure that the child feels like they belong in the center but that I am also being culturally sensitive to the needs of the child and her family so that the family feels like they too can be apart of their child’s education.

Woman takes to Twitter to shame alleged groper, police reaction | Local News | The Seattle Times

Woman takes to Twitter to shame alleged groper, police reaction | Local News | The Seattle Times.

This is an article that should be read by everyone and is a good example of a microaggression towards a woman.  This is something that should be taught to children as a good example of what harassment looks like and that it should be taken seriously.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

As I have been looking at my life, I can think of many times when I have experienced bias, oppression and/or prejudice. There is one time in my life where it seemed like an all too frequent occurrence for me and that was when I was 12 years old during school breaks at the Boys and Girls club in Carson City. There would be times when a group of guys would go outside and play flag football and I would go out there and join them. I was always picked as one of the last people picked because I was a “girl”. I felt like they really didn’t want me to play with them even though I had just as much right to play as they did. Lucky for me one of the adults let me play on his team and made sure that I got to catch the ball. The guys were biased against me.

This experience diminished equity because I felt like they would rather throw the ball to their teammates and leave me out. I felt like I wasn’t wanted but I was not going to let the boys dictate to me what I could or could not do. I stayed and played football and was even on a flag football league at the same place as the only girl in the league. By standing up for myself and showing them that I had just as much of a right to be there as they did, I in a way showed them up because there was a class that we had to attend in order to play during the league. I got perfect attendance while some of them missed a class or two. I know there was one boy that always tried to make me feel intimidated but it did not work.