The world is your playground. Why aren't you playing? -Ellie Katz
“As astronauts and space travelers children puzzle over the future; as dinosaurs and princesses they unearth the past. As weather reporters and restaurant workers they make sense of reality; as monsters and gremlins they make sense of the unreal.” ~ Gretchen Owocki (childhood educator)
Stuffed animals in general were always a must
Barbie dolls went everywhere with me!
I loved to color and draw
I will never forget this toy
Great pass time for my brother and I
The original Little People
While growing up, play was something that my parents supported whole-heartedly. Our basement was full of toys that used our imaginations and our backyard was always filled with friends. We built sandcastles in our turtle sandbox and pretended to fly to space on our swing set. My mother would even take time out of her day and come downstairs and play games with my brother and me. She would be the student when I wanted to be the teacher and she would build pirate ships with my brother and me when we were dreaming of the ocean.
Play today is so much different than it was when I was a child. Now children are sitting at computers or in front of the television with video games. When I was young, that time was limited and then we were told to go outside and play. Now it seems that there are barely any kids playing outside. You have children talking about playing Halo and Call of Duty when the games I played were Sesame Street and a Barbie game on the computer. Walking around a store, you can see the toy section getting smaller and smaller and the video game section getting bigger and bigger.
Play made me realize who I wanted to be when I grew up. I was always playing school and as I was teaching my younger cousins, my parents would tell me how great of a teacher I would be. Even at a young age, I would come up with fun ways to teach the concepts that I already knew. I would get such enjoyment from teaching that for birthdays I would ask for chalk and workbooks so that I could be a more realistic teacher. Play also gave me a chance to get away from the world. We didn’t always live in the best of areas and playing was the chance to get away from it all. As I grew older, play started to change. It turned into sporting events and playing games on the computer (still in limited amounts). As an adult play time is limited, but I still take the time to go swimming, play with my little cousins, and play computer games. Play for me now, is the time I take to relax. I don’t think about anything else and just enjoy what I am doing.
I believe that a strong relationship with someone is the reason you get out of bed in the morning. The strong relationships we have when we are young are the reasons that we grow up to be who we are. It is those people that help nurture us and teach us right from wrong. As we grow older more people come into our lives that help us strive to be the best we can be. It’s those people that put smiles on our faces and make us feel better when we are sad. I was raised by my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. My extended family has always been so close that I believe I have a strong relationship with most of them. Below is my family and friends that I have a great relationship with. Further down are the three people I believe I have the strongest relationship with.
My Family and Friends
My husband is my life. We have a positive relationship because we care for each other and support each other 100%. I believe the main factor for this is because our relationship goes beyond love. He is my best friend, my partner, who has helped me get through some of the roughest years of my life. I believe that we maintain such a strong relationship due to our honesty and trust in one another. We do everything together and decide on everything together.
My mother is my first strong relationship in my life. I was her shadow growing up, always following her and idolizing everything that she did. I believe that she is the reason I grew up to be who I am today. Growing up, I could tell her anything and she never judged me. She supported me and guided me in the right direction. We maintain such a strong relationship due to talking at least once a week. She’s still that ear when I need to talk and that voice when I need advice.
My best friend, Sara, is another person to whom I have a strong relationship with. I have known her for fourteen years now and I can’t even imagine who I would be today if I had never met her. She’s the person who can turn a bad situation into a good one, and can put that smile on your face when you think you’ll never smile again. I believe that we have a strong relationship because no matter how long we go without talking or seeing each other we always feel like we picked up where we left off. She is like a sister to me and I know that is a bond that will never be forgotten.
I believe that the relationships that I have in my life is a key contributor to being an effective early childhood professional. I can take the knowledge that I have gained and build a trusting relationship with each of my students and their families. I believe that the guidance I received from my family and friends will help me guide my students. The relationships that I have had through the years have taught me to love, communicate, and respect people for who they are.
This was given to me a few years back in an email chain, and I always think about it when I think of a child's mind. Children see things completely differently then what many adults do. We need to remember that and open our minds as we teach. We can learn so much from our students and they in return will learn from us.
I want to say thanks to all my colleagues. I have learned so much from each and every one of you. You all have opened my eyes to new ideas and encouraged me to think outside the box. Special thanks to Dr. Darragh for the continuing support that you have given me throughout this course. I will take the knowledge that I have gained from everyone and put it to great use where ever I go.
I wish everyone the best of luck in their adventure in finishing this program and I hope to see many of you in the next set of classes!
I have mixed opinions on whether children should be assessed and what skills should be measured. To assess a child I believe that it should be something besides a test on paper with a time limit. There are so many variables that can lower a test score that is not the child’s fault. Scores can be low and children can be left behind due to a simple times test that might not even assess information that they have been taught. I believe that children should be assessed in math and writing, so that we are able to help them learn what needs to be learned. To do this, I believe that children should be assessed on an individual basis with no pressure of being done during a specific amount of time. I was a horrible test taker and would have anxiety attacks when I knew that I was going to be assessed. The teachers were stressed, trying to cram everything in and that would rub off on me, and I would get stressed out. When test time came, I would freak, and would have a hard time concentrating. In fourth grade, we were told that if we didn’t pass the test, we would not move on to the next grade. That kind of pressure should not be put on a child. Not only do they get pressure like that, but they also get the pressure to do well on their ACT and SAT scores so that they can go to a good college. I don’t understand why these scores would determine my ability to take classes at a university.
In Ireland children take standardized test, but it seems that the information taken is just for the teachers. They use that information to make individual plans for their students and can have some students opt out of the test if they are not capable of taking the test. During primary school they only have to take a standardized test twice. The test seems to show achievements and pick out students with higher learning then children with lower learning.
My husband grew up in poverty where they moved around a lot and had very little to eat. His mom was a single parent just trying to get by. His dad was an alcoholic, who lived on unemployment and paid the lowest of lows of child support. He said that his coping measure was to be a child who could help out as much as possible. He learned how to fix cars and how to make that car last way longer than anyone would think of doing. Another coping measure he used quietness. He went from being the boy who wanted to make everyone laugh to a boy who became very quiet and didn’t make any new friends. He knew that he probably wouldn’t see the people again after school was over, and his thoughts were that it wasn’t worth it to get attached to something just to have it taken away. The support system that he had was his family. His grandparents would watch him and his sister during the summer and they would go to their other grandparent’s house to be watched in the early mornings so that their mom could go to work.
The county that I wanted to know more about in this area was Ireland. I am part Irish and have always been curious about my heritage. Some of the stressors that children face are; political violence, illness, isolation, and poverty. The political violence that is going on in Northern Ireland is due to the fighting of the Protestants and the Roman Catholics.
Ireland came up with the Convention on the Rights of the Child which is the most popular human rights treaty. It involves civil rights, family environment, health and welfare, education, and much more. Ireland also has Children Protective Services to help and provide support for the children in need.
I chose this topic for one specific reason. While growing up, I received all of my immunizations and my parents made sure that everything was kept up to date. When I was a teenager, I met a family who got to see the side effects of those immunizations. Their first son received all his immunizations at birth and when it came time to receive the few shots for starting school, things went wrong. At five years old he became paralyzed from the waste down and lost most function in his hands and arms. Daily tasks could no longer be performed on his own. His speech was impaired and most times it was hard for me to understand what he was saying. His mother spoke passionately about how she no longer believed that the vaccines, that the government was requiring, were safe and her youngest son never received a single vaccine. I know that immunizations are important to make sure that we do not have any more outbreaks of certain diseases and illnesses, but do we really know the long term affects of these shots? There are always side effects to every drug and shot, but could these side effects be stopped if more testing was done, and more time was spent on making these drugs and vaccines safer?
While thinking about immunization in the US I decided to look into a few other countries to see if they had the same immunizations or if they thought differently about it. First country that I looked into was China. I found that China basically immunized their babies just the same as the US does. I decided to try to find a country that was different from my own. India was actually the country that caught my attention. Starting in 1975 India started the Expanded Programme on Immunization which provided immunization against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, poliomyelitis, typhoid and childhood tuberculosis. In 1985 they renamed their program to the Universal Immunization Programme where the measles vaccine was added and the typhoid vaccine was taken out. “India’s Immunization Program is one of the largest in the world in terms of quantities of vaccines used, numbers of beneficiaries, and the numbers of immunization sessions organized, the geographical spread and diversity of areas covered” (http://www.whoindia.org/en/Section6/Section284/Section286_506.htm).
Ways this information will impact my future work is quite simple. I now will understand when a child is not immunized and just as always will respect the choices that a parent makes. It takes reading and thinking about certain areas that bring back memories of something you would not think about. I really liked this assignment because it reminded me of the importance of knowing the facts and considering all of your options even when it comes to basic things as “required” immunizations.
It all started with a phone call that said, “We are going to be induced at tomorrow and you should bring clothes to stay the night.”
This was my cousin calling to let me know that his wife would be heading to the hospital and that my godson will be born soon. I had promised to be there for everything so that I could take any pictures that they wanted.
I went to the hospital and they induced my cousin and we waited and waited. It took 3 inducements and 2 nights later my cousin was starting to get harder contractions. By the next morning, my cousin was ready to have the baby, but the baby was still not ready to come out! Since I knew that the baby loved hearing his dad’s voice, I talked my cousin into going to the foot of the bed and reading to the baby. The baby starting kicking and moving and it was about an hour later that we were in the process of delivering a baby.
I chose this example because the lead up and the process it took for my godson to come out was amazing. He was and is a determined little boy and the long hours of sitting at the hospital, was well worth it all.
My thoughts on birth are very simple; it’s a natural part of life. My godson came into a warm, inviting hospital room with his mother, father, and godmother there to support him. I believe that because of the process of talking to the baby in the womb and playing with him, my godson will grow up to have a connection with his parents that some may not have.
In America there are doctors and nurses that are there to take care of a mother and baby. In Africa, there are not only doctors and nurses but there are midwives and doulas. The midwife goes into their homes or the hospital and is there to deliver the baby. Doulas are coaches for the mothers and there to relax the mother by reducing stress. It seemed that many women only went to the hospital if things started to turn for the worse. In America birth outside a hospital is mainly unheard of. Both countries are the same though in the thought of having a stress free birth so that the baby comes into the world without the extra stresses that will come later in life.
