Relationship Reflection

          I believe that relationships are important to me simply because they allow you to appropriately socialize, interact, and get to know people with similar and different backgrounds as myself. I love that I have the ability to create and get rid of healthy and harmful relationships. The difference between a relationship and a partnership is when you are in a relationship, you genuinely care about the individual and are interested in their well-being. When you are involved in a partnership, you don’t necessarily have to like the person or even get along well with the person. The idea of a partnership is to work toward a common goal with a person or group of people. The most important people in my life would have to be my husband, my daughter, my parents, my siblings, and my immediate family. They genuinely love me and support me no matter what. They also are very supportive of my relationships with my spouse, colleagues, etc., and want nothing but the best for all of my family members. I don’t know where I would be or what I would do without these important people in my life.

          Each relationship I have with the family members listed above are all positive. The relationship I have with my husband is beyond extraordinary. We talk about everything and allow each other to be our true and genuine self. We laugh and cry together and the best part of it all is we can never stay mad at one another for too long. I knew he would be the man I would spend the rest of my life with 7 years ago. The relationship I have with my daughter is a loving and caring relationship. I encourage her to express her feelings and to be open with me and her father no matter what. I love my daughter to pieces and I am truly blessed to have had such a precious jewel five years ago. The relationship with my parents is also a very loving and supportive relationship. I know that I can depend on them no matter what happens and they will lend a helping hand without passing judgment or rubbing it in my face. They want happiness and success for all their children and grandchildren. I absolutely love the relationship I have with my siblings, especially my sister. We have so many sibling secrets that no one outside our circle will know about and we never pass judgment on any of our situations. They are all very supportive and are willing to bend over backwards whenever need be. We can be mad at one another one minute and fighting somebody who got smart with one of us the next minute.

          Factors that contributed to developing and maintain these relationships are being able to trust one another, being supportive of one another, being genuine and true with one another, and being loyal to one another. If any of these factors are questioned at any time, there is sure to be a discussion to ensure everyone is on the same page. Some challenges I have encountered while establishing relationships was thinking everyone was genuine and had my best interest at heart. I dealt with a lot of heart ache and a lot of lost friendships because people would slowly show their true colors when I needed them the most. I am a firm believer that God put these people in my life, some for a reason and some just for a season. I hold on to those who were placed there for a reason and continue to be there for me. One characteristic I see in some of my relationships that could also be viewed as a partnership is all of us working toward the common goal of getting the youth in our family the best education possible so that they can become successful individuals. All of my relationships have that common goal and will continue to until the youth are adults and have chosen their careers.

          My experience with relationships and partnerships, including my ability to be an active and reflective contributor, impact my work in the early childhood field in a positive manner. Because I am both active and reflective in almost all of my relationships/partnerships, I have found that I build rapport with more families and children more frequently. They become comfortable with me and share many personal stories about themselves. We are normally always able to come to a common goal and they are very receptive and provide excellent feedback. I use my gift of gab and my ability to build strong rapports to my advantage whenever children and families are a part of the equation.

When I Think of Child Development…

One quote that stood out for me was by Emma Goldman, author:”No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.”

A second quote that I truly have a connection with was by Martin Luther King Jr.: I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

 

Intelligence Testing

            I believe a child’s abilities and emotional intelligence should first be measured in order to determine what a child is able to do and learn, and how their emotions could affect their learning style. Once these are determined, the information they learn can be further assessed using other intelligence tests. Sternberg has taken a more direct approach to changing the practice of testing. His Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test (STAT) is a battery of multiple-choice questions that tap into the three independent aspects of intelligence–analytic, practical and creative–proposed in his triarchic theory. Sternberg and his collaborators found that triarchic measures predicted a significant portion of the variance in college grade point average (GPA), even after SAT scores and high school GPA had been accounted for. The test also produced smaller differences between ethnic groups than did the SAT. In the next phase of the project, the researchers will fine-tune the test and administer it to a much larger sample of students, with the ultimate goal of producing a test that could serve as a supplement to the SAT.

            If more professionals focus on an individual’s abilities, they will be better able to assist them during aptitude or other intelligence tests. They will also be able to determine if the individual would be able to take the test or if it would need to be modified to meet their needs (Kellaghan & Greaney, 2003). In Africa, the use of assessments is to improve the quality of education in African education systems. National assessment activity spread through the whole of Africa during the 1990s. Although information derived from national assessments is obtained from individual students, data are aggregated to provide an assessment of the education system. The primary purpose of such an assessment is to describe how well students are learning. International assessments, which share many procedural features with national assessments, provide comparative data on achievement in more than one country (Kellaghan & Greaney, 2003). Few African countries have participated in them. However, some of the national assessments that have been carried out allow international comparisons. Although classroom assessment has attracted the least attention in proposals to use assessment to improve the quality of education, it is likely to have a greater impact on student learning than any other form of assessment. Advantages and disadvantages of school-based assessment in contributing to grades in public examinations are considered.

Reference:

Kellaghan, T. & Greaney, V. (2003). Monitoring Performance: Assessment and Examinations in Africa. Association for the Development of Education in Africa, 7-9.

Natural Disasters

            I met a friend in college who had experienced a natural disaster. She was from New Orleans and had been uprooted from her home during the time of Hurricane Katrina. She was devastated that she may not be able to return home, and even more saddened that she would be separated from her family. She attended Louisiana State University, and was transferred to North Carolina A&T State University, which is where I attended undergrad.  She did a lot of counseling to deal with the pain she endured of being uprooted, and she also had a lot of support from classmates and professors. She was able to cope by getting involved in sports on campus. She was naturally tall and so when she tried out for the volleyball team, she was a shoe-in. She was very talented in volleyball and ended up being the star player two years in a row. I believe she went on a full sports scholarship by the end of her first year for playing volleyball so well. Her involvement on the campus and in sports programs is what she said kept her going day-to-day. I appreciate the fact that she was willing to get help and the drive to want to stay involved so she wouldn’t become depressed.

            The country I wanted to look more into that was interesting to me was Haiti. I wanted to focus on another region that experienced a natural disaster similar to New Orleans. The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 M earthquake. An estimated three million people were affected by the quake; the Haitian government reported that an estimated 316,000 people had died, 300,000 had been injured and 1,000,000 made homeless. The government of Haiti also estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings had collapsed or were severely damaged. Many countries responded to appeals for humanitarian aid, pledging funds and dispatching rescue and medical teams, engineers and support personnel. In the nights following the earthquake, many people in Haiti slept in the streets, on pavements, in their cars, or in makeshift shanty towns either because their houses had been destroyed, or they feared standing structures would not withstand aftershocks. Six months after the quake as much as 98 percent of the rubble remained uncleared. An estimated 26 million cubic yards remained, making most of the capital impassable, and thousands of bodies remained in the rubble. The number of people in relief camps of tents and tarps since the quake was 1.6 million, and almost no transitional housing had been built. Most of the camps had no electricity, running water, or sewage disposal, and the tents were beginning to fall apart. Crime in the camps was widespread, especially against women and girls. Between 23 major charities, US$1.1 billion had been collected for Haiti for relief efforts, but only two percent of the money had been released.

Breastfeeding

          The publuc health topic I chose for this week’s blog assignment is what I have listed above…Breastfeeding. This topic is so meaningful to me because I have a 4 year old daughter whom I breastfed for four months after givig birth to her. After taking nursing, childbirthing, and parenting classes, I received so much information on the benefits of breastfeeding both for mother and child. I was hesitant at first because I thought it would hurt or that she possibly would not latch, as some babies don’t, but it was a wonderful experience and I look forward to breastfeeding again if I my husband and I decide to have another child.  “Human  milk provides the specific nutrients that babies need to grow, both in size and maturity… ” (THE WOMANLY ART OF           BREASTFEEDING, 7th Revised Edition, page 340).

           According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, research shows that breast feeding provides advantages with regard to general health, growth, and development. Not breastfeeding significantly increases risk for a large number of acute and chronic diseases including lower respiratory infection, ear infections, urinary tract infection, and necrotizing enterocolitis. They state that there are a number of studies that show a possible protective effect of breast milk feeding against sudden infant death syndrome, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, allergic diseases, digestive diseases, and a possible enhancement of cognitive development.

          In Africa, more than 95% of infants are currently breastfed, but feeding practices are often inadequate: feeding water, and other liquids, to breastfed infants is a widespread practice. Consequently, the rate of exclusive breast-feeding is low, particularly in West Africa. The importance of breastmilk as a food resource of African countries is generally not recognized.  The AIDS epidemic could threaten breastfeeding because the virus can be transmitted through breastmilk, as demonstrated by numerous studies. A study suggests that feeding breastmilk and other liquids to infants could be the feeding mode associated with the highest rate of transmission.  A strong determination of African governments to promote exclusive breastfeeding among all mothers and to protect prolonged breastfeeding among non-infected mothers will limit the mother-to-child transmission of HIV while preserving the benefits of breastfeeding.

          This information I have learned about breastfeeding was all what I had learned prior to giving birth to my child. I promote breastfeeding in my work now, and at my childcare center we have set up a nursing station so that mother’s can feel comfortable breasfeeding their child. We also allow women to pump and bring their breast milk into the daycare center and we handle the milk properly so that it mainitains the nutrients necessary for the baby. I will continue to promote breast feeding and will hopefully encourage more mother’s to breast feed for their child’s first few months of life.

Childbirth in China

          According to Chinese custom, a husband should carry his bride over a pan of burning coals when entering his home for the first time to ensure she will pass through labor successfully. Once pregnant, a woman guards her thoughts. It is believed everything she does and sees will influence her unborn child. According to old Chinese tradition, what affects a woman’s mind will also affect her heart and connect with the baby en-utero. A pregnant woman reads good poetry, she doesn’t gossip, laugh loudly, sit on a crooked mat, look at clashing colors, or lose her temper. Many Chinese women will read beautiful stories before drifting off to sleep. And, sex is absolutely forbidden during pregnancy.

          Chinese women will often drink a strong herbal potion to ease the strain of labor. Custom dictates that women not fear the laboring process, since birth is considered a women’s career to the ancient Chinese. Chinese women traditionally labor in an armchair or futon. Once the baby is born they will often pray to the goddess who helped them conceive with an offering of sweet meats and incense. When a child is born is also important to Chinese custom. The hour, day, month and year the baby is born dictate which of the Eight Characters he is born under. The Eight Characters are considered so important they will rule the child’s life. They foretell if a child will be successful, wealthy, or blessed with good fortune. Parents may also hire fortune tellers or soothsayers to read their baby’s fortune. The Chinese believe that each person is made up of some of the five elements – metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. If a fortune teller finds a child is lacking an important element, the missing element is incorporated in her name, unless the missing element is fire or water. If water or fire is absent, that is considered a good omen. It is believed that a child with too much fire could be injured by fire in his life; a child with too much water needs to be watched, for she might drown.

          After delivery, Chinese women “sit the month.” The first month is considered an intense healing time for new mother. She is freed from household duties and sits in her bed alone to look after her new infant. In strict households, even the husband stays away. Chinese mothers may fill a baby’s pillow with rice or beans to give the baby’s head a proper shape. And to encourage a strong step, Chinese mothers once bound their child’s ankles loosely with a wide ribbon to keep the feet in an upright positions. Ancient Chinese once believed demons used small children to reinforce the foundations of bridges. As an antidote, mothers and fathers made arrows from the wood of a peach tree to place near the cradle. Parents also tied golden bells tied on the child’s wrists and ankles to keep away the bad spirits. In Southern China, a charm is pinned onto a pair of the father’s trousers and place near the child’s bed in hopes that the spirits will be attracted by the charm and miss the child. It was also believed that nervous children could see the evil spirits unseen by everyone else. To protect these children, Chinese mothers placed small amounts of vermilion in red pouches and pinned them to the child’s clothing. For a rich, healthy life, the Chinese will also tie coins together with a red strings for their children to wear. When a baby is born frail, the parents may ask friends for bits of cloth to sew into a patchwork coat to disguise the child as a poor beggar and trick the spirits. During times of epidemic or contagious illness, mothers protected their children by stitching red cloth in their clothing. And since tigers are consider the protector against demons, many Chinese boys will have embroidered tigers on their shoes.

          This birthing experience is completely different from mine and I could not imagine having my husband by my side nor in a chair. I think it is wonderful that these women are strong enough to do it without their husband’s I just enjoyed having some extra support by my side. After reading this, I have gained much insight on how in tune Chinese women are with their pregnancy and how well they care for their unborn child. Child birth is a wonderful experience, although endured differently. I get the urge to have another little one running around the house. Who knows what God has in store for me in the next few years.

My Personal Birthing Experience

          I was blessed almost 5 years ago with a beautiful bundle of joy and I would love to share  my own personal birthing experience…

          After a long 8 1/2 months and frequent check ups with the doctor, on February 29th I went to what would be my last prenatal visit at my obgyn. My grandmother brought me to this visit, which was unusual for her to be with me. On the way to the doctor’s, we talked about her savings jar that she had for each one of her grand children. She told me that this very morning she had pulled the jar out from the closet and set it on the table. I laughed it off and thought I still have two more weeks or more until this baby comes out, or so I thought. Upon arriving at the doctor’s office, I was greeted by my doctor who was very worried about my last few blood pressure readings. He wanted to make sure I wasn’t having preeclamsia, so two weeks prior they had run all of their testing. I received the results that I was not preeclamsic, but my blood pressure still would not go down. I sat on the table and they took my blood pressure as usual. This reading was extremely high…180/95…they immediately checked my cervix and then told me they were calling the hospital to get my room ready…I was heading to the hospital to have my baby girl.

     On the way to the hospital, I called my husband at work and told him to meet me at the hospital with the bags. He was in shock, but did as I asked. I then called my dad and my aunt and my siblings to let them all know where I was heading. Everyone was in a panic because nobody expected me to go in so early, also the fact that my mom was having surgery on the floor right above me raised everybody’s stress level. I checked into a joint room and patiently awaited for the call to see if I would be getting transferred to labor and delivery. They kept monitoring my blood pressure every hour for about 3 hours. Just as my dad arrived, the doctor gave the go ahead for me to be transferred to my labor and delivery room. I cried my eyes out and anxiously awaited the arrival of my precious little girl. 

      When I got into L&D (labor and delivery), they gave me a cervix gel and pill to see of they could soften my cervix in order for my water to break or contractions to start. Needless to say, neither medicine worked. I spent hours pacing the halls trying to walk her down, soaked in the tub, sat in the rocking chair, basically anything I could do to get my baby into this world. Finally, after about 6 hours of madness, they administered pitocin, which would help jump start my contractions. Let’s just say I will never get that again. My contractions went from mild to severe in about 8 hours. I was in so much pain from them checking my cervix that Iopted to get an epidural, which was even more painful. My husband said the anestesiologists hands were a bloody mess after administering my shot. I still suffer from back pain in that area to this day. They came in to break my water and help move along my labor more. My husband was so sweet and supportive. He massaged my back, rubbed my feet, he even cleaned up the mess left on the floor from when they broke my water. They kept checking my cervix about every 2 hours and I seemed to have stopped dialating after 4 1/2 centimeters and I was 40% effaced. The doctors let me labor for about 2 hours more before calling in an emergency c-section. My little girls was being stubborn and did not want to come out. I cried and cried and cried and so did my husband because this was not apart of our birthing plan. They gave me a salt shot to keep down all the foods I had eaten over the past several days during my stay in the hospital. They sent my husband to get in his scrubs on and we headed over to the room where they would pull my baby girl into this world. The spinal block they gave me did not take and I could still feel them prepping me. They decided to put me to sleep so they could get my baby out with as little pain and complications as possible. My husband sat down the hall waiting for the nurses to come get him, but they never came. He stated that all he heard was a loud blood curdling cry and he knew that was his baby. 

          At 4:15pm on March 2, 2008 weighing in at 7 lbs. 9 oz 19 in. long, our beautiful baby girl, who we named Amira, was born into the world. When I came to from the anesthesia, all I remember hearing was her crying and my first words she ever heard her mother say was “Rock her baby”. I was trying to tell my husband to rock our daughter so she could stop crying. This was a day I will never forget, and she is a constant reminder of how truly blessed I am.

NAEYC and DEC Code of Ethical Conduct

Two ideals that are meaningful to me from the NAEYC code of Ethical Conduct are:

I-1.1—To be familiar with the knowledge base of early
childhood care and education and to stay informed
through continuing education and training.

I-1.5—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 contributions.

          These are meaningful to me because they focus on the educator’s responsibilities to be informed appropriately so that the children are receiving an environment that foster’s learning.

One ideal from the DEC Code of Ethics that is meaningful to me is:

4. We shall advocate for equal access to high quality services and supports for all children and families to enhance their quality of lives.

          This one is meaningful to me because it focuses on our responsibility to provide resources of high quality services to the families and children we work with. Some parents aren’t aware of their resources and need advocates to help them find these available resources.

A Collection of Professional Course Resources

■NAEYC. (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/dap
■NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on child abuse prevention. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/ChildAbuseStand.pdf
■NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on school readiness. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/Readiness.pdf
■NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on responding to linguistic and cultural diversity. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/diversity.pdf
■NAEYC. (2003). Early childhood curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation: Building an effective, accountable system in programs for children birth through age 8. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/pscape.pdf
■NAEYC. (2009, April). Early childhood inclusion: A summary. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/DEC_NAEYC_ECSummary_A.pdf
■Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. (2010). Infant-toddler policy agenda. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://main.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_pub_infanttodller
■FPG Child Development Institute. (2006, September). Evidence-based practice empowers early childhood professionals and families. (FPG Snapshot, No. 33). Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~snapshots/snap33.pdf Note: The following article can be found in the Walden University Library databases.
■Turnbull, A., Zuna, N., Hong, J. Y., Hu, X., Kyzar, K., Obremski, S., et al. (2010). Knowledge-to-action guides. Teaching Exceptional Children, 42(3), 42-53. Use the Academic Search Complete database, and search using the article’s title.
■Article: UNICEF (n.d.). Fact sheet: A summary of the rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf
■World Forum Foundation http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/about-us This link connects you to the mission statement of this organization. Make sure to watch the media segment on this webpage
■World Organization for Early Childhood Education http://www.omep-usnc.org/ Read about OMEP’s mission.
■Association for Childhood Education International http://acei.org/ Click on “Mission/Vision” and “Guiding Principles and Beliefs” and read these statements.
■National Association for the Education of Young Children http://www.naeyc.org/
■The Division for Early Childhood http://www.dec-sped.org/
■Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families http://www.zerotothree.org/
■WESTED http://www.wested.org/cs/we/print/docs/we/home.htm
■Harvard Education Letter http://www.hepg.org/hel/topic/85
■FPG Child Development Institute http://www.fpg.unc.edu/
■Administration for Children and Families Headstart’s National Research Conference http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hsrc/
■HighScope http://www.highscope.org/
■Children’s Defense Fund http://www.childrensdefense.org/
■Center for Child Care Workforce http://www.ccw.org/
■Council for Exceptional Children http://www.cec.sped.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home
■Institute for Women’s Policy Research http://www.iwpr.org/
■National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education http://www.ncrece.org/wordpress/
■National Child Care Association http://www.nccanet.org/
■National Institute for Early Education Research http://nieer.org/
■Pre[K]Now http://www.pewstates.org/projects/pre-k-now-328067
■Voices for America’s Children http://www.voices.org/
■The Erikson Institute http://www.erikson.edu/

Additional Resources:

Reading is Fundamental http://www.rif.org/us/literacy-resources/articles/choosing-books-for-young-children.htm

Pennsylvania Early Learning Standards http://www.pakeys.org/pages/get.aspx?page=career_standards

Office of Child Development and Early Learning http://www.dpw.state.pa.us/dpworganization/officeofchilddevelopmentandearlylearning/index.htm

Motivational and Passion in Early Childhood…

“Some families have been frustrated to see their children denied even the most private forms of religious expression in public schools. Here is where I stand: I believe the First Amendment does not require students to leave their religion at the schoolhouse door. Just as we wouldn’t want students to leave at home the values they learn from religion, we should not require them to refrain from religious expression. Reinforcing those values is an important part of every school’s mission.” -President Bill Clinton, p.138 , Jan 1, 1996

“It is my passion to make sure that all children are taught in the environments and in ways that nurture them to grow to their fullest ability.” -Louise Derman-Sparks