Week 2 Watching and Observing

This week we were assigned to watch a television show that you have never seen before twice. The first time without any sound to see what cues you could pick up on. The second time was with the sound on, and we were supposed to compare the assumptions that we had to what really happened.
 

This was quite interesting for me. I chose to watch the latest episode of Community and was confused from the very beginning. There was a mismatch group of people and I could tell that they were friends because they were around a table with food. Other than that, there wasn’t much I could read into. The facial expressions showed me emotions, but I could not really grasp how the people knew each other or what was going on.

 

What I realized from this experience is that it is easier to judge nonverbal cues from people that you know! I put this to the test by watching a show that I am familiar with and found that I could pick up on more cues than I did in the show I was unfamiliar with. I also found this to be true when interacting with people. During my observations this week, I noticed it was easier to tell what people were expressing if I knew them personally.

 
I think that the main thing we all need to consider when communicating with others is that our instincts about something may not always be right. We really need to pay attention to what is being said and to the nonverbal cues that goes along with it. I think that if we really pay attention to both, we can pick up on what is going on or what is trying to be conveyed to us.

 References:

Harmon, D. (Producer). (2012, May 10). Curriculum unavailable [Television series episode]. [With Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Donald Glover, Jim Rash, Ken Jeong, & Chevy Chase]. In Community. United States: National Broadcasting Company.

Competent Communication – Week 1

When thinking of the people that I know and the people I see on television or hear on the radio, there are a few that demonstrate being a competent communicator. The person that stands out the most is my cousin, Jimmy. He is someone who can talk about anything with anyone and connects with that person and that topic. Some behaviors that I have noticed were constant eye contact, facial expressions, and a feeling of that he cares about what you are saying. He also can talk in ways that help people understand what he is saying. There were many times he would be trying to help me fix my car, and the way he explained things made complete sense! I know that he is a great communicator because he is a great salesman with a good rapport with all of his clients. He is also someone who can listen to what someone is saying, and completely understand and relate to that person.

I would definitely want to model some of my own communication models after him. There are times when I talk that I know I am not making sense to others, and I wish I had his way of talking. I also am someone who has a problem keeping eye contact with people, even though I am listening, and would love for it to come naturally like it does for my cousin.

This is a picture of Jimmy and I at his sister's wedding.











Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that you have when you think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds:

The one hope that I have when working with children and families from a diverse background is that they all feel welcome and comfortable in my classroom. Once I am teaching again, I hope to take all the information that I have learned from this course to make sure that I am culturally aware of all of my students. I know that in the past, I had a classroom of diverse students and didn’t do much about it. We made sure that their culture was displayed around the room, but i never took the time to get to know the families. Whether it be they never stayed in the classroom long enough to talk or something would happen with the children to where I didn’t have time to talk. I now know that I must find time to get to know my families and really pay attention to what the children are doing and saying.

One goal you would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice:

One goal that I have for the early childhood field is that it becomes a place for children to feel safe and encouraged to try new things. Children should not be judged by the color of their skin, their gender, or their economic status. Every child should have the same opportunities to learn and grow in the early childhood field.I think that Derman-Sparks (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011) picked a good quote from Raffi that stated:

We find these joys to be self evident that all children are created whole, endowed with innate intelligence, with dignity and wonder and worthy of respect, the embodiment of life, liberty and happiness. Every girl and boy is entitled to love, to dream and belong to a loving village and to pursue a life of purpose.

This is exactly what I want for all children!

I would like to thank my colleagues for helping me down this journey, called diversity. I learned a lot from each and every one of you, and value the experiences that you shared. Hopefully now, we all have the knowledge about diversity and equity that we can start standing up for our students. I wish you all the best of luck as you continue your journey to your master’s degree!

References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Diversity and equity work: Lessons learned. [Video webcast]. Retrieved from the Walden University website: http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=6488767&Survey=1&47=9303639&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Welcoming Families From Around the World

The country that I chose my family coming from is Finland.

Five ways in which you will prepare yourself to be culturally responsive towards this family

• Look up information on Finland on the internet
• Talk to the family
• Try to connect with people from Finland
• Check out books that have information on Finland
• Figure out the language and learn key words

I think that by working through these five steps, I will be able to set up a classroom that is inviting to the new family. My goal would to also make sure that the child feels at ease and can relate to materials in the classroom. By looking up information, I can learn about the country and find posters and books to put in the classroom. By talking to the family, I can learn what they expect for their children and what they expect out of the school. Before the family comes, I would plan to see if there were people in the area from Finland. That way I can use them as a resource and hopefully connect the family with them so that they have someone to relate to. I also think that learning key phrases will help the child transition from their home language to English. This should also help build a connection with the child.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

Just recently I had an experience with oppression while watching a television show. My husband and I have been getting on Netflix and watching some of the shows that we used to watch while growing up. Recently we have been watching Futurama and on its last season there was an episode that had my jaw on the ground! The whole episode was all about how women needed to be in their place, which meant making food and cleaning. There was even a part that insinuated that women knew more about television shows and “little” stuff while the guys knew how to lie. The guys in the show saw themselves as better than the women and were superior in many ways.

The idea of this show made it clear that the writers were trying to make a joke about the inequality that women face in society. The ideas that could be put in young male’s minds are the reason that comments like, “get back in the kitchen,” are still around. While watching the show, I felt out of place and so did my husband. He kept saying it was because the last season was taken over by Comedy Central they were being very bias, but I don’t think that is the case. I think the writers were given the opportunity to push boundaries that they were not allowed to do with the network they were with before.

While watching the show, I felt so out of place. The ideas they were saying, were outrageous and really got on my nerves. Growing up, I have heard those sayings from my uncle and to this day, I do not find any of it funny. Women had to work so hard to get to where we are now, and the fact that these thoughts are still being said, are ridiculous.

I think that a way they could have turned this incident into an opportunity to teach about equity would have been to have an ending that showed that these comments are outdated; that women can do just as much as men can do. Men can make sandwiches and clean up after themselves and women can think on their own and can problem solve.

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

In my previous place of employment, there were many examples of microaggression that happened if not daily, at least weekly. We all got along very well but there was definitely times were there was a divide between the races. One example of microaggression was when a coworker would say that it was okay for the other coworkers to be late because that is the time that “their” people run off of. This microinsult was out of frustration for this coworker, who was always on time, and had to wait for another coworker to show up so she could leave. She assumed that just because the person was black, that they would always be late because they have their own time. What this coworker didn’t take into account was the home life of the other person and never considered that something could be causing this to happen.

Another example of microaggression happened to me while I was working in the same place. The cook of our daycare came barging into the office, where I was at, and asked, “What is that thing called that you people put on your table as a centerpiece for Thanksgiving?” Do you know what it is? At the time, I had no clue what it was and confused that he thought that “my people” use it all the time as a center piece. The feelings that rushed through me were ones of frustration and confusion. I felt like I lost some of my self-esteem because I was being categorized by what he saw in a magazine.

While observing people this week and thinking back on my own experiences, I realize that stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination is all around me. It doesn’t happen with just race or religion, but with the way we dress or the size of clothes we wear. There are people out there that will look for something to discriminate against, and I believe that is because they are not happy with themselves. They need to put others down so that they can have the power that they may never have any other way.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

Today I asked three different people to define culture and diversity to me. I then asked a group of people to define the same terms. This is what they said:
My Cousin

Culture – A way of life, varies based on origin

            Diversity – Wide variety of differences of people or items

My Aunt

            Culture – traditions, values, folk lore, group of people

            Diversity – very long pause… differences of the same thing (gave an example of someone decorating the same type of cake in different ways)

My husband

            Culture – the people and environment in our lives that. How they influence us

Diversity – People from diverse backgrounds

Group of People

Culture – The people in different countries, traditions. Also, could include the arts and sciences (people who have culture). Another definition was well-rounded or having more class or experiences with appropriateness to different environmental factors, such as food, music, clothing

Diversity – Differences (not good or bad). Also, the things that make us different.

I think that one example of culture that I can relate to what we have been studying is when they talked about acting appropriately with new experiences like food, music, and clothing. We have learned that culture includes the music that a group listens to, the food that they eat, and the clothes that they wear, along with parenting styles, and so on.

I also think that the last definition of diversity goes along with what we are learning. My uncles made a point that diversity is the differences that all of us have that are neither bad nor good. When we have talked about diversity it is based off of gender, ethnicity, social-economic status, and sexual orientation. It doesn’t matter what the differences are because we should accept everyone for who they are.

Along with the answers that go along with our studies are certain insights that I think they forgot. Growing up in a big family, parenting styles vary greatly and this is culture as well.

While talking to the people that I interviewed, I learned that the words culture and diversity are not used enough. I think that this topic is one that needs to be known to all, so that we are more accepting of others and their differences. Even while asking my aunt (included in the group response), who is known to give very sophisticated answers, had problems coming up with a definition for both words. While talking to my family, I realized that these are words that we don’t really use and they all started questioning what my class was about. Before I never would have thought of my family as diverse, but looking at what we have learned so far, I realize that diversity is everywhere.