My Supports

I never thought about the types of supports that I relay on daily.  For emotional support my first avenue is  God.  I start and end each day in prayer.  If by chance I am running late and forget to leave the house before prayer I will cut the music off while I am driving and pray before I reach my destination.  When I do reach out to others for help I know that my Grandmother and the majority of my  family and my few selective friends will have my back.  I think of my job as support.  Yes, I teach because I love working with the children but I relay on my paycheck for support.  I have been an employee with the board of education for 21 years.  I can not picture me doing any other job.  Even when I have attempted to do part time jobs for extra money, I still end up tutoring a child. No matter what I do I end up teaching.  If for whatever reason I was not able to teach anymore I can not imagine what else I would do for a career.

Practical support- everything that I use daily, hook for my keys, my pocket books, car, cell phone, computer, etc.  I am very absent minded and when I put my keys down I never know where I left them.  That is why I have hooks in my kitchen and living room for my keys.  When I forget to place my keys on the hook I panic.  As a teacher I carry a lot of stuff to work everyday so I need purses!  I love purses especially large purses and I enjoy buying purses.  So every chance I can get I buy a purse and I change purses daily to coordinate with what I am wearing. My car is needed because I do not like taking the bus, plus I leave a lot of my school stuff in my car.  We all know that we need technology.

I can not imagine loosing a limb or going totally blind.  If I were to experience these situations then I would need a seeing eye dog and/or a  prosthetic limb. I will have to get a home that is on one floor with little to no stairs and a ramp. My job is wheel chair accessible so I will not have to leave however, if I was blind I assume I would not be able to work with little kids again. I would have to learn braille. In the beginning I would think my life is over with because the things that I like to do I might not be able to do them anymore.  Plus, so many people depend on me that I would find it hard to be dependent on others for help. Nevertheless, once I come to grips with the situation then I will find away to survive.  I know that with the support of family and friends I would make the adjustment.

My Connection to Play

Here are a few quotes about play that represents my life as a child.


Stay a child while you can be a child. STEPHEN SONDHEIM, Into the Woods

"Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning." Fred Rogers

"Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn."
O. Fred Donaldson, American Martial Arts Master




Here are a few of the toys that I played with as a child.  The one that meant the most to me was the Family Tree House.  The toys that I picked represents the childhood that I had before my mother passed away.  Seeing the Family Tree House was very emotional for me because I remember sitting on the floor playing with my tree house while my mother was sewing at the table.  I would play with this toy for hours. Beyond the toys represented below I used to love completing puzzles, paint by the numbers and  making articles with the hook latch kits. 
I was the only child so my play at home was supported by my mother. She would join me and play with me for hours.  That was our bonding time.  We would talk and enjoy each other company.  She never stopped me from expressing myself and she encourage my creativity. I would copy her doing craft activities. She would hang my projects on the wall and show everybody that came by my work.



                                                                                           


Play today is different than my play was when I was a child.  I believe that many children today do not know how to play.  Their play is based on their life experiences and unfortunately they play games that imitate a negative view of life.  I have had children pretend they were shot and died. I find that some children view police as negative people. Another game that I witnessed my students playing is getting "locked up".  They think it is common for people to be locked up.   I find that to be disturbing. I have to admit it is hard explaining to the children that cops are suppose to be the good people and that going to jail is not fun.  The video games are too violent and realistic.  When I was younger our video games were Donkey Kong and Ms. PacMan, games that involved skills and concentration and was not violent. Some children mistake video games as real life activities. When I was a child our play was innocent and for pure enjoyment.  I would love for the children today to enjoy being a carefree child, enjoying life to its fullest and playing wholeheartedly in an environment that protected them.  

Relationship Reflection

I have several people that are special to me that I hold dear in my heart.  These are people that I can lean on in any time of need and I value their impact in my life. I respect them as friends and as family.  Our  differences make us special and I believe that makes our bond tighter. Relationships are important because they help us develop.  Everyone needs somebody that helps them grow mentally and emotionally. 

One group of people that are special to me are my cousins.  There are only five of us girls. We depend on each other in different ways and I admire us for the young ladies we have grown up to be.  Below you see 2 teachers, a police officer, an officer in the army and a soon to be nurse. 

I have to admit I have several acquaintances but few that I call true blue friends.  One of my most fondest friends is, Earl Kights.  Our friendship grew out of him helping me to cope with the death of my mother.  I have the up most respect for him.  He has been involved with every stage of my life.  He lets me make my mistakes but then he offers his wisdom to help me get back on track. Earl is a father figure, mentor,and a best friend.   At this time he is guiding me through the process of buying my first house. 

Next, would be my friendship with Sister Lewis.  She calls me her little sister.  Our friendship developed from us working together in 1998. I think what makes us close is that we are the total opposite.  She practices the Apostolic religion.  Even though her religion is strict she is still down to earth.  She let's me be me. We talk daily about anything and everything.  We respect our differences.  There is a lot that I do not understand or agree with her religion but we are able to talk about a wide range of subjects and respect each other opinions.

I have had several people that at one time I had  considered them to be close friends but because of certain circumstances I realized that their friendship was not true.  Someone once told me, "Do not make people a priority that think of you as an option".  Unfortunately, I have had that happen to me several times where I been in these people life for years and had supported them in their journey but when I need them to be their for me they were nonexistence or nonchalant about my situation and/or feelings.  These are people that I categorized as acquaintances.  The challenges that I have faced in current and past relationships are people expectations.  Usually it is people's expectations of what I should be doing for them.  


I believe what helps me have a good relationship with my parents is that I respect them.  Majority of my parents are young under 25 years old.  Many have little or no education.  No matter what their circumstances are I treat them with respect.  I understand the situations that they maybe experiencing because I have been in their shoes and could have been like them.  The only difference is that I made different choices.  

When I think of Child Development

All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
~by Robert Fulgham~

Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.

These are the things I learned: Share everything.  Play fair.  Don't hit people.  Put things back where you found them.  Clean up your own mess.  Don't take things that aren't yours.  Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.  Wash your hands before you eat.  Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.  Live a balanced life.  Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work some every day.

Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.  Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup.  The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup ~ they all die.  So do we.

And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all:  LOOK.  Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.  The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation, ecology and politics and sane living.

Think of what a better world it would be if we all ~the whole world  had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap.  Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and clean up our own messes.  And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.


I chose to post this quote because it describes my day as a Pre-K teacher. 


I would like to take this opportunity to say "Thank You" to all of my classmates for participating in great discussions and for the positive comments on my blog. It has truly been a positive experience and I look forward to the next class.   


Sheila,
When I started this class I was looking for familiar people and then I ran across your name. This is our second class together.  Thank You for sharing your insights and points of views. I wish you well with your educational journey. Hopefully I will see you in future classes. 




Sara Lynn and Maryam,


Thank you both for your positive words of encouragement.  Thank you for taking the time to read my posts.   Thank you for sharing your information in your discussions and blogs.  Thank you for being a part of this class.  I wish you both well in your future classes.  I hope to see you in the next class!

Testing for Intelligence?

My school district has an assessment test for preschool that is given in the beginning of the year.  The results are based on the child's age. If the child falls below a certain score the child is retested or referred. I have to admit there are questions that I do not expect the children to know the correct answer to.  I have a hard time marking the children answer wrong when in my opinion they don't know the answer because they were not exposed to it yet.

I understand if there are obvious signs of a disability such as Downs Syndrome or Cerebral Palsy but on a whole I am not sure if an assessment is needed.  Unless that assessment is going to be used by the teacher to guide his or her lessons. Which most are not unless the child fails.

In completing this assignment I looked up assessment in Africa and I came across an assessment used in the country of Malawi.  This portion of the assessment is used to determine cognitive growth.  I found this interesting because the article states that they developed an assessment tool based on their own culture.




In developing countries, poverty, poor health, and malnutrition are responsible for millions of children failing to reach their developmental potential. But because developmental assessment tools have mainly been designed and validated in western, developed countries, they contain many items that are alien to children in non-western cultures (for example, the use of knives and forks for eating and the use of specific gestures). They cannot, therefore, accurately assess whether a child living in, for example, a rural area of Africa, is developing normally. In this study, the researchers describe the creation and testing of a culturally appropriate developmental assessment tool for use in rural Africa—the Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool (MDAT)—from a 162-item draft tool (MDAT Draft I) that they previously developed from Denver II, an assessment tool widely used in developed countries. 

The Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool (MDAT): The Creation, Validation, and Reliability of a Tool to Assess Child Development in Rural African Settings http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000273

Example of assessment.



Everything seems to be now based on an assessment of some sorts.  However, we as educators know that sometimes children are labeled disabled and classified in school and it has an adverse effect on the child.  So I have to honest I am not sure if all assessments are appropriated.

Children and Racism-War and Poverty

When I started this assignment I decided to ask a few of my elderly family member about racism when they were a child.  Majority of my family is from the South and I always heard them tell stories about the way their lives were as kids.   My grandmother told me that the things there were not allowed to do because of their color became a normal for them. She said, "Yes it wasn't fair but that is all they knew." She stated that the town she lived in was majority Black but the stores in town were owned by White people.  She told me about a water spring that was in town that they were not allowed to go get water from.  She informed me about not being allowed to sit in certain places in stores and the buses. She also shared that at the movie theater they had to sit at the top they were not allowed to sit downstairs and their were two bathrooms separating the races.  As a child she had to always show respect by answering yes mam, yes sir and no mam and no sir to white people.  My godfather describe picking cotton in Georgia.  He said he would get soars on his hands from the bulbs.  He showed me how he would hold his hand so he could pick faster. One time  my grandparents told me about the Confederate Flag.  That if they saw the flag on cars in town they knew to stay away. They shared that as they got older they wanted to move up North to get away from the South to get better jobs.  They did move up North and received better paying factory jobs but the lives that they lived followed them.  I noticed that a lot of my elders mannerisms are still like the way they were as a child.  For instance, my grandfather did not want to be referred to as an Afro-American.  He would state that he is Colored.




I also read an article about the lasting effects of war towards children.

The article talks about the children from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.  That the war has destroyed thousands of families forcing them into poverty.   The children live on the streets as beggars, thugs and drug addicts.  In one case a 34 year old mother of five has been struggling to make a living since her husband was killed in military crossfire ten years ago.  She sleeps with her children on a straw mat on the mud floor of her shack.  She makes money by washing clothes but the income is not enough to feed her children or pay for them to go to school. Two of her older children ran away from home and became thieves on the street of Goma.  "Those street children have become a danger to the whole society," is how one woman explains the plight of this nation.  Goma is a region that has been severely affected by the years of fighting.  According to the 2009 United Nations Human Development Index, nearly 80% of households in this Central African nation now live on less than two dollars a day.  The streets of Goma is filled with thousands of street children and reintegrating them into society is not an easy task. The children are violent and steel from the others.  At this time efforts are made to try and help the children but aid from different nations is to far in between.

Public Health

Public Health-Access to Healthy Water

I have to admit that I was one person that took the earth’s most natural resource for granted.  I was very wasteful of water.  I had no problem leaving the water running while washing my dishes and brushing my teeth.  I used to wash my clothes with the highest water level for a small load.  I didn’t care anything about water until one day my water was so rusty that it was the color of my skin and black grit was left in the bottom of my tub.  This happened one morning as I was preparing to go to work.  There was nothing I could do, the longer I ran the water the darker it turned.   There was no way I was going to bath or cook using that water.  I was fortunate enough that I was able to go to someone else’s house to prepare for work.   It was that day that I realized that some people have no other choice but to use water that I refused to use.

While researching this topic I remembered an episode of the Potter’s House that talked about missionary work that was done in Africa.  It stated that they went to Kenya, Africa to drill water wells to help the people in that nation receive clean drinking water.  The people in West Pokot were walking 17 kilometers one way in order to obtain contaminated water for their families. http://www.megacaremissions.org/humanitarian/fieldstory

In impoverished areas of the world such as Kenya, Africa they are facing a severe drought.  The drought has caused the animals and people to search for the water.  People have walked as far away as 20 kilometers a day just to get water for cooking. In their quest for water they are sharing the water as a source of drinking, bathing and cooking with animals.  Furthermore, the water they have is polluted from chemicals from miners, farmers and others that have their buildings to close to the rivers and steams.  

The missionaries were able to strike a mega well and they were able to dig a 12 kilometer pipeline to reach the tribes. To service the pipelines, they hired and trained 100 men from two local tribes.  The pipeline supplies water to thousands of people, goats, sheep, cattle, wild life and crops.

Due to clean water the people are healthier, the women can stay home with their young and the children can get an education because they do not have to spend their day carrying water for 20 kilometers one way. http://www.megacaremissions.org

Ever since I realized that I took having water for granted, and watching the episode on the Potter’s House about their missionary work in Africa, I have been more aware of my wastefulness. I try not to be too careless. I have donated money to the Potter’s House to help them continue their missionary work.  

In my school I have talked to my students about ways they can help people that are less fortunate than them.  We have had numerous penny drives so we could donate money to different organizations.