Professional Hopes and Goals

                                             


There is so much information learned from this course and being able to practice it, is a must. Each of us have the potential and influences to make a better environment and experiences for our children and families, is just a matter of getting into action.
One of my goal working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is to keep working on showing respect and appreciation for who they are and what they can bring into the classroom. Make sure that children feel a sense of belonging in their learning environment as well as representing the families culture within the class and learn from their surface culture as well. Another important goal is also to keep building partnerships with the families and learn from each other.
One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field is for us who either work directly or indirectly with parents and children to take at look at ourselves and reflect on who we really are, what we really want for the children and families and what we want our outcomes to look like. Another goal would be is to learn from our experiences and serve as each others resource outlet.
I want to take the chance to thank everyone that took the time to read my blog and answer with your feed backs, it is very much taken into consideration and appreciated. I hope I see some of you in other future courses.
                                                        

Welcoming Families Around the world

For this assignment, I decided to choose the country of the Philippines.
                                               

As teachers, we have to be mindful that our first meeting or conference with our families is necessary and important because we will find out not only where they are from and all about the surface culture from their place of origin but also build a start of partnership so it will help us explore and learn about their deep culture as well. If I had to come up with five things on how to get ready well I would start by

• Getting to know the family and child 
• As they meet me for the first time, I want to make them feel comfortable being able to talk to me and assure them how all this benefits their child.
• Get to know about their family itself, in order words their surface culture.
• As for the child with very English language, is very important to have pictures and labels in the classroom. Picture cues and classroom schedule is helpful for them to tell you what they need and just gave a sense about their class.
• It is also helpful to learn couple of familiar words which can be helpful when communicating
• Place a world map and talk about the different places children from your class come from, including the teachers 
• Invite the parents to share something they practice in their family.
• Have children bring pictures of their family and make an activity of it. 

There are many ways to make a child and family feel comfortable and welcomed in our centers. The most important one is to show respect and acceptance for who they are. Having a trustworthy conversation with them is valuable. Is all about our personality, is all about our approach, is all about how we come across others, therefore we have to be mindful and revisit who we are and what we want as teachers.
                                                 

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice and Oppression

          There are many personal stories I can relate to but I chose to tell one I have witnessed. Couple weeks ago my friend got hurt at work therefore had to fill some LNI paperwork. My friend's primary language is Spanish but is becoming more fluent in English. When she called to talk to the HR office about her case, the lady told her she had a very strong accent and she could not understand her therefore she had to call back later because she had to find an interpreter. My friend felt offended by her words. When she tried to call back to talk to the lady, her calls were being ignored, she did not get any calls back neither. Last week, I offered to help her so we went over to the HR office, the lady was talking to us like we did not understand English, her tone was slow. She told my friend, to write what had happened to see if they consider to pay for her injuries. I don;t quite understand what and how it works when you get hurt at work nor what are your rights, but I know I will informed myself so my friend gets the help she deserves.

This experience is making me feel very marginalized in some way and my friend felt discriminated because of her accent. It raised many questions of why would this people treat us like that, instead of helping us understand the process of what happens when an employee gets hurt at the job?I also asked my self does this happen to everybody or is there some type of discrimination going on towards my friend? There can be many assumptions but deep inside of me, I felt the drive to help my friend until she gets what she deserves.

It is unfortunate cases like these happen day in and day out, when will it stop? We don't know. I know something which I believe is true: One person at a time.