My Supports

Every person needs support to get through life. Support to me is the help you get from the people who understand you. In my daily life I receive support from almost everyone around me.


My sister






My sister and I have grown together so much since getting older. She helps my with son when my husband has to work and just lets me talk. We laugh and have fun and she is just there for me. She supports me in anyway she can.










My bestfriend



I have known my bestfriend since the 6th grade.  

She keeps my grounded. She advises me and helps me. When I need someone to talk some since into me she is the one I go to. She gives emotional support.




 

 My husband is my ulitmate best friend. He makes me laugh. I stepout of my confort zone with him. He supports me with sharing housework and taking care of our son. He helps me emotionally talking with me and bringing me to earth.

 My son gives me physical support. He hugs me and kisses on me and makes me feel like a wonderful mommy. He also mentally supports me with all the wonderful questions he ask. I like to tell the real reason things happen and answer his questions truthfully so I am always doing research.


My brother-in-law



My brother-in-law gives me support with my son. He is 15 and is usually with us on the weekend. He helps entertain my son so that I can get things done.









My calendar is my monteray support. They keep me together. I have three one in my purse. One in my kitchen and the other on my desk at work. They keep me together and organized.

LOSSING MY SUPPORT



 If I lost some or all of my supports I would lose it. I think I would have quit my job by now if I didn't have emotional support. I love my job but some days I just get so frustrated. If I no longer had my son I don't think all the other things would matter anymore. He is my heart and a body can't function without a heart. Losing the physical support of shared housework would be devastating. My house would look a mess until the weekend. I leave home early and get home in time to make dinner. Don't think my house could take it. Oh my gosh! I lost my day planner in my purse once and I almost lost it. i was not able to set up a new appointment because I didn't know if I had something already there. I did not have my password to my account. I tore my house apart until I found it. I would not have made it very long. (I have three calendars. One in my purse. One on the wall of my kitchen and one on my desk at work) If I did not have my brother-in-law my house would fall apart. I know this from last weekend when I was washing dishes and my son walked in covered in baby powder. He covered his room in baby powder. SO I had to stop what I was doing, clean it up, and make him take a nap. Then I was able to clean.



My son covered in baby powder.



 

MIGHT NEED SUPPORT

My husband and I are trying to have a second child. I know that when that child gets here I will need some new support. I will need my husband to help me with the middle of the night feedings.(He is a sound sleeper and hears nothing.) I will need the support of my mom to guide me on the right things to do. In a perfect world I would have a nanny to help me with my children. I would also have a personal trainer come to my house to get me back to pre-baby weight. I am going to need emotional support for the sleep deprivation.

Thank You to those people who show my support eveyday!





My Connections to Play

"A three year old child is a being who gets almost as much fun out of a fifty-six dollar set of swings as it does out of finding a small green worm."  ~Bill Vaughan

"You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing.  What!  Is it nothing to be happy?  Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long?  Never in his life will he be so busy again."  ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762

Play is an essential part of childhood. Growing up I was pushed to go outside and interact with other children. You would see children every where. A child could turn anything into a toy. You never had to have the newest or most expensive anything, you were just happy to be outside playing. One toy that I loved as a child was a teddy bear my daddy gave me. My father brought him home in Army fatigues like the ones he wore. The bear went everywhere with me. It was a prized possession. My other prized position is a sock doll my grandmother made me. I still have her and my grandmother made me a new one as I got older. She hand made the dolls, the dresses, the socks, and shoes. I didn't know it then, but I know now how much love went into the doll.

  (These are my sock dolls)

The children of today don't do outside anymore. You always see children inside playing video games. Parents don't push there children to go outside and play. The reason I believe all children are inside is the safety of the neighborhoods. So often you hear of children being innocent bystanders when adults are doing wrong. To help the children learn about when I was younger, I try to teach the children hand games and other games that I played when I was young. I love the idea of play. I thank my family for forcing me out to play. I make sure my child has the opportunities I had. I let him go out and play as much as I can. He doesn't go outside without me, but I still want him to play. I hope parents realize children need to run and have fun. Parents need to realize "play contribites to cognitive growth, aids social and emotional development, and is essential to physical development. Many of the abilities required to succed in school settings are gained through play experiences." (Brewer, 2004)

Refernces
Brewer, J.A. (2004) Introduction to Early Childhood Education: Preschool through Primary Grades. Person: New York, New York.

Child Development and Public Health

According to www.mumsweb.com Breast milk is perfectly suited to the baby it's made for. If a baby is born prematurely, that mother's milk will be higher in iron than it would have been had the baby gone to full term. As each baby grows, mother's breasts produce milk which changes in volume and composition to meet the baby's changing needs.
Breastfeeding is meaningful me because I breastfeed my son for the first 4 months. I felt that it was a bonding experience. I feel closer to my son because of it. I have also noticed that he does not get sick as much as other children. I found that people in the United States do not breastfeed as much as people in the other countries. In India breastfeeding is a necessity for the poor people who live in the slums, but in the middle and upper class breastfeeding is becoming less common because the women are being consumed by being working mothers. I find that more women need to breastfeed. I will use this knowledge to tell more women about breastfeeding. I will do my part by breastfeeding any future children I have. I want more women to protect their children like I did against illness.

Thank You!

I would like to say thank you to all my colleagues in EDCI 6160. You have all been great this semester with your comments and support. I wish you all the best of luck on your journeys through your degree programs. I also would like to say Happy Holidays and Have a great New Year!

Quote/Poem

WHY I TEACH  

Sometimes I lie awake at nightand wonder why I teach.Why I come to school each dayconcerned with who I reach.  

When I see a hurting childI always worry......why?Joe is sick and Tom is hurtJill's boyfriend made her cry.                                              

Why should I care at 4 o'clockwhat happens to these kids?I'm paid to teach-not get involved!Love them?  God Forbid!!!  

Sometimes I lie awake at nightand wonder why I teach.The answer lies so deep inside.There's always one I reach.  

by Sara Pralle 

“A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove...but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.” - Forest Witcraft

 

The quote by Witcraft is something I look at everyday. I was given this quote on a mug that I drink my coffee out of every morning. Looking at it reminds me of what I am at work for everyday. You never know how you touched a childs life, but I think it is important to try all you can. I choose the poem above because I think it also reminds me of why I do what I do.

Assessment

Every time you turn around adults are trying to assess children. Most of the time it is done with standardized test. I assess children monthly with Benchmark test. These test are given every 4 to 6 weeks after a unit of material has been taught. The children are asked to recall the things they learned over this 4 to 6 week period and sum it up it a 30 question test. If that is not enough we have to start collecting writing samples each month and assess them. I have learned that yes you may need figure out where a child is biosocially, cognitively, and psychosocial, but that does not have to happen through assessment. I have found that just letting a child be child and observing can help you understand many things. One of the children in my class does horrible when I am trying to get her to write. During a parent-teacher conference I brought this to her mother. Her mother happen to have the little girl's note to Santa. Her mother said she had written on her own and had brought it to her to mail. I was able to copy the note and put it in her file. This is a prime example of just letting a child be a child and being able to get what you need. I know that assessment is necessary, but I don't think we should force it. We need to know where a child is biosocially, cognitively, and psychosocial in order to determine what we need to do next for them.

I looked up how children are assessed in Australia. They start to test their students around 3rd grade with numbers and literacy. When students enter 6 grade, they will began being tested in science, civics, and citizenship.Unlike the United States, Australia does not test all their children. Children are randomly selected to be tested.They only compare the different territories against each other. I think that it is good that they wait until 3rd grade to test their children. I think it is hard to see what mind set young children are in. I do realize that testing children is essential to how we carry ourselves int he educational world. I just don't think everything needs to be assessed. If you leave children alone sometimes you will be amazed at what comes out.

Reference
Ministerial Council of Education (2009) Assessing Student Achievement in Australia 2009. Retrieved fromhttp://www.mceecdya.edu.au/verve/_resources/AssessingStudentAchievement2009Brochure.pdf

Violence and Natural Diasters

Working in the public school system I have come across a lot of different situations. The first situation I want to talk about gun violence and children. While doing my student teaching in a pre-k classroom I came across Gregory. He did not speak much and seemed very attached to the teacher. Everyday it was a fight to get Gregory on the bus to go home. I also noticed strange behaviors of pulling his shirt up and touching his chest. After several weeks of strange behavior from Gregory the teacher did not know what to do. One day his grandmother came to pick him up and we asked her about his behavior. She told us that while he was playing in the yard in front of his home there was a drive by shooting. Gregory was shoot several times in the chest. He could still feel the places in his chest where the bullets went in. The family still stayed in the home where this happened and that is why he did not want to go home everyday. When the grandmother told us this information we were finally able to understand why he acted the way he did. The teacher was able to get him help and help him cope better. The ICARE counselor at the school began talking to him and was able to talk to his mom to help him cope.

The stress of gun violence for Gregory is like the stress of a Tsunami that hit Sri Lanka in 2004.
According to the article in Child Development magazine. A study was done by researchers at California State University, Los Angeles, looked at more than 400 Sri Lanka youths ages 11 to 20 who survived the tsunami. Specifically, the study found that while war and disaster have had a direct effect on the youths' psychological health, poverty, family violence, and lack of safe housing also represent major sources of continuing stress.Eighty percent of the children interviewed after the tsunami had been directly affected by the tidal wave, with many telling tales of struggling in the water. Sixty to 90 percent of the children also reported war-related experiences, such as witnessing bombings or seeing dead bodies.The study found that all of the adverse experiences contributed significantly to the children's difficulties adapting. Particularly stressful were very severe exposure to trauma, loss of family members, and domestic violence. Many religious organizations and others such as the red cross have been offering counseling to the children and to all that were affected by what happened.

The tusami reminds me of what Louisiana went through when Hurricane Katrina hit. So many families were broken. Homes were destroyed and has to adapt so quickly. I was in college when it happened and it affected me with so many of my family coming from New Orleans. My mother had a house full of people for a few weeks until they were able to go out on their own. No one in my family had small children at the time. I love though that through this time people came together and it made communities stronger because of it.

References
Fernando, G.A. (2010) The impact of disaster related and daily stressors on the Psychological and Psychosocial Functioning of the Youth in Sri Lanka. Child development, Vol. 81, Issue 4.
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