The Comeback Kid Strikes Again

I was in an early childhood classroom at one particular school. It was circle time, and the children and teacher were on the carpet. Now I have been in this classroom before. One distinct thing I noticed was whenever a certain young child would get his turn to talk, the teacher would limit his conversation, by  telling him “we do not have time, please do not talk. I only want one word that begins with our letter of the week.” He just like to talk.  On this particular day the teacher was letting each child answer a question about the new letter for the week. She would go around the circle, and give each child a chance to speak. I noticed, and observed when it was this young boy’s turn, he responded again with more than one answer. Everyone in the circle looked baffled and all eyes were turn in his direction. For a brief moment the teacher was caught off guard, however, she quickly regained her composure before anyone except myself could noticed. The young boy kept giving her w...

Creating Affirming Environments Larry D. Jackson Walden University Strategies for Working with Diverse Children EDUC - 6358 - 6 Dr. Lisset Bird-Pickens March 15, 2014 Creating Affirming Environments First I would like to look at opening an authentic early childhood setting or a family child care home as a need for each individual child and family to develop and not for any other un-related reasons. I think it also really depends on the individual opening a family child care home. This individual would have to work towards accomplishing anti-bias goals, and to be an effective educator for children, and their families. This person would also have to have good strong ethics which includes ethical responsibilities to children, families, and colleagues. NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct (2005) states “To create and maintain safe and healthy settings that foster children’s social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development and that respect their dignity and their...

What I Have Learned The one hope I have about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is to be a part of their cultural context and help them not to be disenfranchised. I hope to work with children and their families in ways that honor their multiple cultural identities, and build upon their many skills and strengths. One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to social justice is that the elected officials start to take children and their families more seriously. When you think about the numbers, children do out-number the number of adults on this planet. They deserve the recognition and equity as anyone else. My goal is that children are heard and not seen, and more people will be advocates for children and be a voice for them in any language, culture, and identity. I would like to thank my colleagues for being a part of my internet community. I have learned a lot from your discussions, and blogs. I hope one day we will...