Final post

I am so excited to be finishing up the semester! I have one more class and I will be a masters graduate! This semester has been a little rough for me! I finally became a full lead teacher! My dad has been in and out of hospital with cancer treatments! I know I was not really able to put my all into this class which really makes me sad because I love these classes! My hope coming into this class was to learn more strategies for working with children with diversity. I work with at risk children and it seems that every year we get a tougher group of children. This year I have 13 ESL children and 5 English! I have 3 African American and 2 Caucasian. Five of my children have IEP's and 6 see a behavior specialist! I have never seen a regular preschool class get hit as hard as I have this year with behavior issues! My hopes are to get as much as I can from these classes as I can to become a better teacher!

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

This week I chose to explore the country of Brazil. Brazil faces many different challenges every day. Many of the main reasons for mortality in Brazil are issues of living in poverty, malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, and lack of quality education. Food insecurity creates cognitive and psychological challenges that impact development for a lifetime and is not just limited to childhood. I would have to say that I feel that children are not able to thrive due to not having the basic needs met. Many children are hungry and are dehydrated.   I couldn’t imagine being dehydrated due to malnutrition.

References

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/brazil_39672.html

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

I have worked in the early childhood setting for about 10 years. I have seen a lot of things. Every year I am surprised by the circumstances that I see. I have had children that joke all the time that they have boy friends or girl friends. My take on that is you are too young to be thinking about that. Then some children talk about how mommy and daddy where kissing in the bedroom. You would think at four that these are issues that wouldn’t be found in preschool. It never fails that children try to play the game if you show me yours I’ll show you mine. Keeping a very close eye on children in all areas is very important. I have also had children kiss their friends. When I explained to them that we don’t kiss our friends. They say well my parent kiss their friends. I know in some homes that might be true but in school we don’t do that.

I also never thought I would see children wearing make up in preschool. I was shocked when a little girl came in her first day of school covered in make-up and wears really tight provocative clothing. I was a little thrown back. I have to say that there were a lot of other parents that were as well.  I understood better when the mom came in wearing clothes twice as tight and had about the same amount of make up on. “Children growing up today are bombarded from a very early age with graphic messages about sex and sexiness in the media and popular culture” (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009, p.2).

Children seem to see things on TV and think that this is how things are social accepted. For instance my daughter dresses like her favorite Disney show girls. I catch her mix matching her clothes and then saying oh but it’s in style now. Mom catch up the girls on Disney do it. I feel lost because I see children all the time and don’t see some of the styles she tries to pull off. Over all I feel that there are so many things that children see either on television, in their environments, and through media that they seem to feel are socially acceptable.

Resources

Katch, H., & Katch, J. (2010). Voices inside schools: When boys won't be boys: Discussing gender with young children. Harvard Educational Review, 80(3), 379-390. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database: http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/pqdweb?did=2155578791&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=70192&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. (2009). [Introduction]. So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids (pp. 1-8). New York: Ballantine Books. Retrieved from: http://dianeelevin.com/sosexysosoon/introduction.pdf

Wardle, F. (2011). Responding to racial and ethnic diversity in early childhood programs. Exchange (01648527), 198, 68-71. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database: http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=59177263&site=ehost-live&scope=site