My Appreciation to Peers & Professor

     I would like to take this time to thank all of my peers and professor for allowing me to have such a great experience in this class. There has been a collaboration of thoughts as we have learned together what it takes to be a team working toward similar goals. We all have different experiences, yet we all care and have a passion to help support children and their families as best we can. We are all working toward that big goal of completing our masters in varying specialties. I have received support from peers and professor throughout our discussion boards and feedback from the professor on graded work. All of which has been helpful. This class marks the time in my degree where I will be splitting off from the big group and will be finishing my classes in adult teaching. I look forward to seeing familiar names as I move forward. For those of you that I will not see again I wish you well in all of your goals. I have decided to continue with my blog even after I have completed classes at Walden as a means of continued communication, anyone that I have had any classes along the way has my address. Go forth and do wondrous things my friends!

Toodles, Jenn Pore`

Adjourning is Such Sweet Sorrow

           Saying good-bye can be so very sad. This week I am to reflect on my experiences of when a group that I have belonged to has disbanded. I will admit that I have belonged to some groups that I was relieved when they ended. The most emotional group and I think a great example of a successful and fruitful group was the group of peers that I went through my student teaching class with. The professor was awesome! She new her stuff and was excited and passionate about sharing what she new. The college had a preschool on campus for students and staff. Our classroom was just across the hall from the preschool. It’s been over 7 years since we all went our separate ways but I still think of them often. We shared information, experiences, fears, tears and laughter together. There were about a dozen of us that earned money through out the class and we traveled together to a CAEYC conference in Anaheim and a trip to Disneyland all in the same week. We traveled together in a small bus from the college, told stories and sang the entire 11-hour drive. What a magnificent time we had! The day before we were to drive back home I received a call that my daughter had gone into labor 3 months early and that the baby was going to be delivered. I was recently divorced and living without electricity in order to survive and be able to have gas money to get to classes. Every single one of those women put their money together bought me an airline ticket, drove me to the airport, gave me what they had left for food money and a big group hug. Never have I experienced such humanity. To this day I tear up when I think of what wonderful people they are. Had I not moved away I am certain that I would still be in touch with some of them.

            I have no doubt that the reason the class/group was so successful is because we were all very much of the same mind. Yes, we were a very diverse class but we had the best interest of children in common and it proved to be a great group of people that learned together, supported each other, and we cared what happened to one and other. I anticipate that to some degree I will experience a similar experience when I graduate from Walden. Even though this is a different type of communication and not in person, I have many peers that have been in almost all of my classes over the last year. That is a long time to interact and not feel a loss when it is over. I expect that it will be bitter sweet. I am excited to be nearing the end of this long journey and to finally have earned my masters. I believe that to be successful that we must keep moving forward. In moving forward our classes together will end and I will genuinely wish each of my peers good will. It is an honor working with such dedicated people for such a wonderful reason. I will let my positive memories give me strength when I may have a tough day.

Jenn Pore`

Choose Your Battles in Order to Win the War

            This week we are asked to share a couple of strategies that I have learned to use in order manage or control conflicts. Our text (O’Hair, 2012) states that there are 3 strategies to solve conflict management and those would be: “escapist strategies, challenging strategies and cooperative strategies. This week my boss had accidentally left my credentials off my name when presenting an employee tree to the State during our site review. It really hurt my feelings because it made me look like a nothing on paper. I knew it was an over site and I chose not to say anything. By the end of the next day the review panel had brought it to my bosses attention and it had been corrected. I am so glad that I had not whined or pouted, it would have made me look pretty small.
             I have come to learn this week that one of my standards, choose your battles, would fall under the escapist column. I’m okay with that because when I use this choice it is generally because I have evaluated the situation and environment and have decided that it is not the time or that a bigger picture needs to be considered and I chose to save my energy for the bigger conflict. Sometimes it is more important to loose or forgive on a few small battle hills in order to win the war.

            Another of my all time strategies falls under what I now know to be a cooperative strategy and that is compromising. I think of compromising as a very respectful and useful form of dealing with conflict. Early Childhood professionals have been using it for years. When we offer children two choices to accomplish a task that we want them to do. We are compromising on the fact that we may not get our first choice but we are modeling cooperation and teaching decision-making skills simultaneously. Another aspect that I like about compromise is that everyone gets something that they want. Everyone likes to feel that they have been heard and that there wants and needs have been heard and validated, compromising is a good way to accomplish that goal.

Jenn Pore`

O’Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real Communication: An Introduction. Bedford/

     St. Martin’s, Boston, New York.

Communication Perceptions

            This week we had a fun and enlightening assignment, which was to take a test on how we perceived ourselves as listeners and communicators. Even more interesting was that we had to have two other people that know us, take the same test answering as how they perceive us. What I found surprising was that the scores were very similar. I had expected that maybe the others would score me tougher than I had scored myself. As it turns out our scores, as I mentioned were very similar with their scores seeing me as a better communicator and listener than I had rated myself.

            After this weeks reading I have come to realize (thankfully) that I very rarely engage in self-denigration. Most of the time I would have to say that my assessment of myself is more around the level of self-adequacy. I have made a conscious decision to be gentler and kinder to myself. This assignment has given me some important feedback. I chose my husband and a peer from work that has attended many meetings with me. The feedback I received tells me that even though I may feel a little nervous when I speak at meetings or trainings (I just taught a class last night on suicide prevention with a group of 24 in the class) that I do not appear nervous. That in itself has boosted my self confidence. I have not read the evaluations yet (fear of negative comments) but I would like to think that I will be able to read them and accept the criticism. I actually now believe that some of the evaluations may even be positive. The other way this weeks lesson has helped me is of course the reminder that as an EC professional my behavior and how I see myself can affect the children. If I appear hesitant or unsure of myself how is that going to inspire the children to speak their voices?

Jenn Pore`

Different ways of communicating?

           The question of the week is: Do I find myself communicating differently with different people and groups? I most certainly do. The first three categories of people that I thought of are family, peers, and clients. After putting some thought to the question I realize that I even communicate differently with the same people based on the circumstance. The first example that comes to mind is my grandchildren. I adore the ground they walk on and I believe that my manner, voice, body language, actions, and the fact that I tell them how much they mean to me ensures that they are aware. There are times when I am able to be with them in person, which is awesome! There are many times that I cannot see them in person so we Skype, text, send photos, face book, and talk on the phone. With each one of these methods there are inherent problems and advantages. To be even more specific as far as strategies I know that I choose subjects carefully with particular members of my family. Such as with my dad. I stick with comfortable natural topics that are not going to get him started down an ugly conversation. I love to listen intently to make sure I hear and understand that my grand’s want to tell me about their lives.

            With peers the subject and setting are pretty much set for us. Occasionally we have a personal conversation but for the most part the topics surround the weekly topic for class or a particular client. The communication (I hope) is always respectful and generally is focused on fact-finding, problem solving or validation of our understanding of a concept or situation.

            When communicating with clients these too can look very different. I have many different strategies or approaches that I use with children, which rely on the feedback that I receive from the child. Depending on the situation and how the child responds to me, determines whether I speak, sit and listen, put on music, introduce my dog or offer a means of drawing for example. In the excerpt from her book (Gonzalez-Mena, 2010) lists some things that teachers can do and one of them is “Recognize your own patterns of nonverbal behavior. Most of us are unconscious of these until we meet someone who doesn’t fir our patterns. Consider that even though your own way may feel right, normal. Or good doesn’t mean that they are in any way superior to another person’s nonverbal behavior patterns.” For me this equates into the reminder that it isn’t just about me miss-reading someone else’s non-verbal cues but that I need to be aware that I may be giving out non-verbal cues that are being miss-read.

Jenn Pore`

Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2010). 50 strategies for communicating and working with diverse

     Families. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

            

Body Language is only part of a Conversation

            I found this weeks assignment to be a lot of fun and very enlightening. I must cconfess that I cheated just a tiny bit. I asked around for some suggestions of half hour sitcoms that were not aggressive, rude or violent. I was very little television and I specifically do not watch the news. I did not want to be caught off guard by watching something that was violent or negative. So, having said that I watched an old episode of Frasier. There appeared to be three main male roles and two women who were involved more than other characters. One man clearly appeared to have a job at a radio station with one of the women. The rest of the show had the characters in a home and at a coffee shop. Maybe the other women is one of the two middle age men’s wife, because she is always at the house with the older man (dad, uncle?). There is a lot of body language happening in this show, along with lots of facial expressions. I was told it was a comedy but to watch it without words it appeared to me that these people were angry a lot.

     So, after watching again I realized that there is a lot of sarcasm in this show. I was right the one guy (Frasier) was a radio host and one of the women (Roz) was his producer. The older man in the house was his dad and the second women was a lice in physical therapist/house keeper. The second middle age man was Frasier’s brother. The show really was cute and I have watched other old episodes and have really enjoyed it. Turns out all of the arm flailing and expressions were to add to the humor of the show. I miss guessed on the physical therapist/house keeper completely. Which makes me feel better because I felt sad that she seemed to always seem to be on the outskirts of what was going on. It really brought attention to the fact that just paying attention is not enough. If we don’t really listen and hear what is being said we stand to really misinterpret and misunderstand what the other person is attempting to tell us. 

Communication Styles

     Hello to my new and long standing classmates. The very first person that came to mind as someone that demonstrates competent communication is my husband. He is a true wordsmith. He has the ability to bring out any emotion from his readers that he wants to. As much as I appreciate his ability to make anything sound professional I can not say that I have the desire to be like him. Yes, he can write a book and publish wonderful meaningful poems. However, he has the need to correct others when they speak, he appears to have the need to hear speech as correct as he writes. I get that when I am writing a paper or report for example that it needs to be professional. For my own comfort I prefer to have some down, relaxed time and that includes not being perfect and on task. I feel it just goes to show that there are probably as many kinds of communication as there are people.

Jenn Pore`

Hope-Goals & Thanks

            This week we are asked to give one hope that we have for ourselves in relation to working with children and their families that come from diverse backgrounds. My hope and expectation is that I will always be mindful of their needs and respectful of whom they are. As many classmates mentioned in discussion board this week: diversity is on ongoing part of life. It will not do to come up with a plan and not altar from it. I need to embrace each child and family individually.

            The one goal I would set is I feel a very realistic one and that is: That everyone working in the Early Childhood field continue to educate parents and communities along with supporting other EC professionals and themselves with self care and continued education. If we all do this the word will spread I have no doubt.

            Well it is the end of yet another class here at Walden. I would sincerely like to thank all of my peers and professor for such an interesting and involved adventure. My interactions with everyone have always been respectful, supportive and sometimes quite comical! I wish health and safety to all.

Jenn Pore`

Welcoming Families from Around the World

     Our scenario this week is to choose a country that we know little to nothing about and come up with a plan on how to make a child (and the family) coming from that country feel welcomed into my agency. I have chosen Sweden as the country that my new family hails from.

1. The first thing that I would do is make certain that I have as much information as possible about the family: names, parents, where their from specifically, etcetera.
2. Next I would look up Sweden on line a find their township specifically if I had it. I will want to know things like health care, popular music bands, how their schools are structured etcetera.
3. If we have a photo of the child I would post it in the classroom with welcome in both English and Swedish written on it.
4. I would find how to spell and pronounce some key words and phrases in Swedish. I would add the Swedish word to everything that was already labeled for a print rich room.
5. Hopefully the family would have left e-mail. That would give the opportunity to make contact ahead of time and try to find some information out about the child, such as favorite color, food, and also any fears that we would need to know about.

My intention of course would be to try and make sure that the child and family felt welcome and that our classroom would be comfortable and inviting. If the family spoke no English at all I would see that could be done about having an interpreter. Caution would have to be taken to not use stereotypical foods, toys, and etcetera but to be sure that anything set up to welcome the child was specific to him or her and their family. I would do my best to have at least a few words learned in the child’s native language and make certain that when the family arrives that I make certain that I pronouncing their names correctly. I also think it would be fun to involve the whole class by teaching the children words like: hello, welcome, bathroom, eat, happy and sad.

Jenn Pore`

Bias,Prejudice, and Oppression Oh My!

              Many of my classmates have heard me talk about a proposal that I have been working really hard at. The proposal is to add two doublewide manufactured homes to our work property. Our building sits on a big corner lot that would not only accommodate both additions but a large fenced play yard for the children. My plan is to have one wing house our A&D clients and services and the second would be a children’s wing. Sounds great doesn’t it? My proposal is quarter the cost of a quote the Commissioners received 4 years ago to build a new building and yet they still won’t approve my proposal. My Director is 100% behind me, as well as every county supervisor and director of every agency that we work with to include our advisory board. The bias, prejudice and oppression are coming from our three commissioners that of course are who makes the decision.  They cannot conceive that a woman could have come up with such a flawless plan. Every concern and question that they can think of to throw at me, I have been able to answer and show how it was already addressed in the proposal. Their “good old boy” prejudice against women is maddening! I am so angry with these ridiculous men that I can hardly see straight. We are so cramped for space in our current building that we can’t provide all the services that we need to. So my boss and I discussed it and of course the project is far more important than my ego so he has been having meetings with each of the commissioners, getting their questions and concerns and then coming back and working with me for his answers. He has managed to sway two of the three commissioners so far with my information and plans. I was the one that had to change my tactics for this project to have a chance and I think it is a darn shame.

Jenn Pore`

Microaggressions are very harmful !

            This week I was observing a parent child visit. The child was attempting to build a house from Duplos. As the child continued working and struggling with the project the parent (I believe they thought they were being supportive) continued a cheering section with comments such as:

This should be easy.

Just set them on top of each other.

Come on, even you can build a simple house.

Build it like your brother.

I know even you can do this sweetie.

            I had to intervene and ask her to simply watch for the rest of the visit. When I had the chance later to speak with her about her comments (without her child present) I was able to explain how hurtful her comments were. At first she didn’t seem to get it. After I was able to give a couple of examples that she could relate to she felt really bad. We talked about the fact that she now realized that certain words really could hurt; she would instantly be able to make a change for the better. Three days later the same mom and child had another supervised visit. As much as it was heartbreaking watching and listening to the first observation, it was heartwarming to see the mom really paying attention to her words and to see the reaction of the child. At first the child looked at the mom hesitant, but after a few true compliments were given with a genuinely caring voice the child responded to the parent with a smile and engaged her in play.

            This particular story reminded me that so many of us naturally repeat vocabulary and actions that were our culture growing up.  It is important as teachers to not judge parents. It is our job to help provide healthier more appropriate ways of communicating. Instead of telling this mother that I thought she was an awful parent, I acknowledged that her parents might have talked like that to her and they loved her, that there still might be a gentler more appropriate way of talking with her child. We also talked about as adults we need to decide which thoughts, beliefs and behaviors that we are going to keep from our family upbringing and which we choose to discard.

Jenn Pore`

Three Interviews

     This week I spoke with three of my friends and colleagues to get their definitions of culture and diversity. I was given an array of answers from listings of their genealogy to their language. All three people that I interviewed spoke English and identified themselves as American partly because of that fact.  I found it interesting that the women (2 of the 3) used descriptors of gender such as mom and daughter while the male did not, designate or identify his gender. A personal thought causes me to wonder if this has to do with most men or should I say that the dominate culture’s influence on males being so self assured that it doesn’t need to be stated?

     One of my colleagues described his self as American-Mexican. He explained that both of his parents are Mexican but all three boys were born in the US and were raised American. He says that they do enjoy traditional Mexican recipes but that is about the extent of their old heritage that they bring forward. He knows very little Spanish and does say that he regrets not having more of the language, but his parents came here for the opportunity to have a career, make money and they needed the family to speak English in order to fit in.

     None of the people that I interviewed brought up environment, values, health, community or education (directly). However, all three stated their career choice as part of their culture. I would say over all most of what was discussed was what we have learned as surface culture.

     One interviewee was honest about some biases (relating to personality types) that she struggles with when we were discussing diversity. The other two considered themselves to be pretty diverse thinkers and knowing them I would have to agree. They live the motto of working from on open mind. All three agreed that coming from a family of money or from a family that was poor was seen as being diverse. The example that I was given as two different cultures was a ranching family and a blue-collar family.

     Had we talked for a longer period of time we may have gotten deeper into the description and meaning of culture and diversity but as a fact gathering, what’s your first thoughts questioning, most of the answers as I have already mentioned were surface and not really deep. I feel that this exercise gave me a good insight into what the majority of parents might be coming from. As an early childhood educator it is important to remember the family when working with the children. We want to give the children opportunities to learn and practice open thinking and be diverse thinkers but we must be respectful and knowledgeable in the presentation of information.

Jenn Pore`

If I Had To Leave My Country

            This week we are being asked to assume that the infrastructure of our country has been completely devastated and that my immediate family and myself are being relocated to another country very different from my own. Each person is being allowed to take one change of clothing and three small personal items.

            I would already have the first item with me, as it is a long necklace with a pewter heart that I wear every day. Sealed within the heart are ashes of my Mom. The second item would be a photo that again, I always have with me. This photo was taken at a reunion a year before my Mom passed and is of my whole immediate family (I have photo shopped in a photo of my Grand Daughter that was born a year later). The third item would be my phone. As silly as that may sound my phone holds 4,000 photos of family and friends along with information and it gives me the ability to contact family. For this scenario I am assuming that I will be able to have service available to me in the new country that we are being sent to.

            I think my description of the items gives the reader a fairly good idea what these items means to me. If there is any doubt I can tell you that my Children, and Grand Children, Siblings (all immediate family) are the air that I breathe. I recently read a quote that goes something like “If I were asked to chose between breathing and my children, I would use my last breath to say I love you.” (Unknown).

            If I were told upon arrival that I could only keep one item it would be my Mom. I would be grateful that my family was with me and we could take more pictures. I am also taking the liberty to pretend that this new country would allow me the time to transfer information to one of my children’s phones, as I am certain that their phone would be the one item that they would keep. All of my old family photos would still be preserved. We would work together so that each of us had our most treasured item. That’s just how we roll.

             Many have described me, as an old soul and that I must have gypsy blood running through me. I am flattered by what I consider to be a compliment and I concur. I am a self-sufficient person with a touch of MacGyver in my old soul. As long as I have my family I am able to make a home. I have lived through some pretty tough circumstances, but everywhere I have lived has been a loving home. I have no doubt that my family would not only survive but we would find a way to flourish because we would be together and taking care of each other is what we do. My family culture is one of honor, trusting your intuition and doing the right thing. 

Jenn Pore`

Hello to all my new Peers and Professor

            Just a quick hello to everyone in EDUC 6164: Perspectives on Diversity & Equity! I look forward to conversing with you and sharing thoughts over the next eight weeks.

Toodles, Jenn Pore`

When I Think of Research

           Wow! Week eight this has been one of my toughest classes. I had always assumed that research was a very intense thing to do. I have learned from this class that it is even more complicated than I could have imagined. The direction of my thoughts have not changed, just the depth of how much I have realized that it is not for me. There is much more to collecting information and documenting that information in ways that meet approved models for the field in order to make sure that your research holds its validity. I am not meaning to be disrespectful when I say that this class has confirmed for me that I will be sticking to observations and assessments with young children and I will not be branching out to do research projects. I will stick to what I do best. This class certainly raised my respect for those who do research.

            I can see some similarities between research and running a classroom. Such as planning, knowing what direction you want to take, knowing child development and what is appropriate, and things like knowing when you need to get permissions. My favorite thing about research and would be my choice if I did a research project is the mixed-methods. I feel the combination of quantitative and qualitative designs in most cases will give the fullest amount of information.

            The most challenging piece was coming up with a simulation question. I would change mine almost each week and in the end reverted back to my original question. Of course the other huge challenge for me was that the specifics of research was so very new to me and I found that research has its own definitions which are opposite of the mental health field, such as the word triangulation. Triangulation in my world is a very bad thing where in the world of research it is a good thing. The way I dealt with these challenges was I repeated my reading each week to really try and solidify the new information.

            In the end this class was very beneficial to my overall learning about early childhood. I would like to extend my thanks and good wishes to all of my peers and Dr. Ferrari for all of the support and guidance. I look forward to seeing you in future classes along with meeting new peers. To any of you graduating I wish you all the best.

Jennifer Pore`

            

Research Around the World

     This week I have spent some time looking at websites around the world to see what interests are in other parts of the world. It was not a big surprise to find that most countries have many of the same issues that we have here in America. I spent most of my time at Early Childhood Australia (http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au). This site has a multitude of interesting links. I signed up for their ECE Webwatch newsletter. One of the interesting articles was on the new transitions to help address the issue of there being a shortage of providers in rural areas.  Another great article was from the Parliament of Australia (www.acecqa.gov.au) was on raising the bar on quality.
     The National News portion was promoting a Long Day Care Professional Development Programme (LDCPDP) where there is $200 million to be used for registered centers for professional development, particular trainings and resources to bring up the quality level of ECE. What intrigued me the most is that there was link to a blob that parallels my job. KidsMatter Australian Early Childhood Mental Health Initiative has a Shared Thinking Blog at www.kidsmatter.edu.au/earlychildhood. Most of the articles and information that I read was dated May 2014 and was very current. As I have already mentioned there are a lot of links to multiple interests within the EC field. I found this site to be of quality and interest. If you have the time I would suggest checking it out.

Jenn Pore`

My Choice of Research

Hello again!
 
            Today I have chosen to write briefly about a personal experience with research and my dream research. My first child was born 2 months early and we were a military family. The day after he was born I was approached by a member of a research team and she asked my permission to have my son be part of their study. She explained that the purpose was to see how long it took infants to have their developmental abilities match their chronological age. I agreed and once a month for a year I took Elijah to the base where his developmental abilities were observed and recorded. They would test him by having different toys and soft structures for him to manipulate and climb. Elijah had a wonderful time and at no time was there even a hint of risk. I have no idea how the study itself turned out but I do know that my son had overcome his 2 months of prematurity and was on task with his developmental abilities before his first birthday. This whole experience was very beneficial to me as a first time mom. I had a specialist at hand to explain and comfort me that my son was doing well on a monthly basis, along with the knowledge that he was doing great this was a very educational experience.
            If wishes came true I would wish for the ability to research resiliency in children without causing any distress or harm. Wouldn't it be amazing to know how we could build resiliency in all children? Actually I have an even better topic of research. I would want the ability to research adults before they had children and know which would be abusers so that they could be helped and educated before they were able to cause harm.

Jenn Pore`

My Personal Research Journey

            I have chosen Neurobiology as my simulation topic. As many of you are already aware, I work at a County Mental Health agency. The majority of my clients have suffered abuse, trauma and/or neglect therefore the science of neurobiology is very pertinent to my work. I feel that the more I learn and understand I will be able to apply it to my clients. Even the basics that I have learned have been very helpful when talking to parents in an educational and preventative arena.
             My personal experience thus far has not been without it's trials. I think it is because it is out of my usual interest and subject matter that I am finding difficulty. I will say that I have found the resources and check lists very helpful. I have printed out many of them, sleeved them in page protectors and added them to my class binder. I always have to print our reading material. I know that in order for me to be able to absorb what I read I do much better when I have it in hand and can write notes and highlight important areas to refer back to.
             Considering my lack of knowledge and practice in research I would welcome any advice and resources from my peers. As I find any helpful new resources other than those provided by Walden I will certainly post them to my blog so that others my take advantage of the knowledge.

Jenn Pore`

Hello to my Peers in EDUC: 6163-Building Research Compatancies

I just wanted to put a quick hello out to everyone! I am a little concerned about my abilities in this class but will be trying my best to keep an open mind! See you soon.

Jenn Pore`

Wrapping Up International Thoughts

            The first consequence I had concerning trying to learn about issues and trends of Early Childhood around the world is that finding the information on the web was fairly easy to find, being able to have actual conversation and specific give and take communication was not as easy. Matter of fact t did not happen at all for me.
            In all of the gloom and doom surrounding young children around the world I was happily surprised that there is a lot more help and support out there than I had believed. I love the NAEYC and Zero to Three websites and I'm ashamed to say that I had not strayed to far from these two sites. Now that I have enlightened I intend to keep a broader look-out.
            Another big consequence that came out of this class project was that it caused me to look at myself from another angle (or lens). What I mean is, when I first sent out the emails attempting to get another Early Childhood Professional to engage in a conversation with me, I found that I was a little nervous. What if I'm asked a question I don't know the answer to? What if I sound like a fool and this person from another county thinks that all American ECP are idiots? It also caused me to look at my commitment to children, am I doing all I can?
            To sum up my thoughts on the subject, I have truly enjoyed discovering that there truly are many in the world that are taking action to help children. I appreciated reading what my peers were able to find out as well, what a wonderful collaboration of information. I have a personal goal to stay in touch with the history happening around me all over the world in the world of Early Childhood. For those peers moving on I wish you well and for those peers that will be joining me in our next Walden class, I look forward to more adventures. To our instructor Terry Davis, I thank you for your guidance and patience.

Jenn Pore`

http://www.naeyc.org

http://www.zerotothree.org

         

Child Advocates Around The World

            I'm not terribly surprised that I have not yet received any communication from any of the e-mails that I sent out the first week of class. So, I am using the alternative blog assignment. I visited UNESCO's "Early Childhood Care and Education site and found a multitude of short articles.
            One that I found interesting was "Big Push workshop to accelerate Early childhood care and education in Africa" (UNESCO, 2013). This article spoke mostly about how current efforts in child education have neglected the cultural context. Of course we know how important it is to have that cultural meaning piece. Children learn more when they are interested in the subject and it holds meaning for them.
            Another article "Education of Roma children among the subjects of World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education" (UNISCO, 2010), wow, despite current efforts close to 50% of Roma children do not finish their primary education. The biggest ethnic minority in Europe are the Roma, yet most are undereducated, poor, and out of work. UNESCO is involved is writing guidelines to address these issues for the goal of educating all children.
            The last article I'll visit about is "The role of education in a world of 7 billion people" (UNESCO, ND). This is a brief article citing how important it is especially to women and girls to be literate and receive an education. The benefits of an education are many and this organization spends their time and resources making education a possibility for many around the world.
             Again, as with every week I find more agencies and programs that spend their efforts and intelligence to make the world a better place for the young children and their families. I find it quite humbling to read about these world wide changes that these agencies are making. I find it awesome and amazing.

Jenn Pore`

UNESCO, (2013). Big Push workshop to accelerate early childhood care and
     education in Africa. Retrieved from www.unesco.org/new/en/dakar/about-this-office/single-view/news/big-push-workshop_to_accelerate_early_childhood_care_
     and_education_in_africa/#.U1MJlXAhWSo

UNESCO, (2010). Education of Roma children among the subjects of World
     Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education. Retrieved from
     www.unesco.org/new/en/media-servies/single-view/news/education_of_roma_
     children_among_the_subjects_of_the_world_conference_on_early_childhood
     _care_and_education/#.U1MH2nAhWSo

UNESCO, (nd). The role of education in a world of 7 billion people.
     Retrieved from www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/
     strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/single-view/education_in_a_
     world_of_7_billion_people/

Still More interesting Information from The Global Fund For Children

     To begin with I have received an e-mail from  The Global Fund, it was a request to verify my e-mail address not a newsletter. However, I take that as a positive sign that I may just receive some correspondence before this class is completed. This week I ventured into the Get Involved tab on The Global Fund For Children site (The Global Fund For Children, 2014). I expected to see an address where I could send money and what I found was a list of jobs & internships. It just so happens that The Global Fund currently has an opening for a Program Officer in East and Southeast Asia and a Foundation and Corporate Development Officer. What an amazing opportunity for just the right person!
     I am certain that I have mentioned The Global Fund's blog before but, I just really need to mention it again. If you haven't already please visit and I recommend adding it to your blog. I enjoy it because they post stories of things that are happening currently And what is being done to help address the issues. Every time I go to this site I am reminded of great we have things here in America compared to many other countries. I feel that the word inequity only scratches the surface on beginning to describe the hardship and tragedy that goes on. One of the articles was actually a photo story. It was short and to the point, but very meaningful and affective. Healing Through Dance At Kolkata Sanved (The Global Fund for Children, 2014), describes the positive outcome of women learning to become dance trainers. Women are trained to teach dance as a therapy for women and girls that have suffered abuse and used in sex traffic ring. The comments that go along with the photos are the actual comments of young women that have attended the Dance School of Kolkata Sanved.

Jennifer Pore`

The Global Fund For Children, (2014). Retreived from 
     www.globalfundforchildren.org

The Global Fund For Children, (2014). Healing Through Dance at Kolkatia 
     Sanved: A Photo Story. Reteived from
     www.globalfundforchildren.org/healing-through-dance-at-kolkatia-sanved-
     a-photo-story

Podcast's & The Developing Child

            Just when I think I have explored everything that's out there on Early Childhood I become reminded that I have only begun to touch the surface. This week I visited the Center On The Developing Child (Harvard, 2014) and I found a new location of pod casts. I have been a member of NAEYC for just over nine years, how have I missed that they have pod casts? This week I discovered that both of my top favorite sites have pod casts! Both NAEYC & Zero To Three have pod casts, I am so excited, not only for myself but for my clients. What a fabulous resource on such a wide range of topics dealing with Early Childhood AND it's FREE!
            Developing Child from Harvard has a variety of types of resources such as multi-media, reports, briefs, and articles. As an example of just one of the links on how the brain works, there were more articles and multi-media than I could get through. Each link has tons of information on it's particular area of Child Development. It also felt to me that there were different levels of information, such as some papers might have been directed more for the general public to read and be able to comprehend. While other material was clearly written for practitioner's, there was something for everybody.
            I very much enjoyed going through a variety of pod casts from NAEYC Radio (NAEYC, 2014). There was such a variety of topics. One of the pod casts that I listened to was on creating emotionally safe environments for children. It talked specifically about bullying and one of the suggestions was to teach assertiveness not aggressiveness and of course that the child that is doing the bullying is most likely learned this behavior from their environment and is using it as a defense mechanism. I would encourage anyone involved and interested in ECE or anyone that is a parent to check out these resources.

Jennifer Pore`

Harvard University, (2014). Center On The Developing Child. Retrieved from
     http:/developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative
NAEYC Radio. (2014). Retrieved from
     www.naeyc.org/newsroom/NAEYCradio

More on The Global Fund

            Today I will tell you about more of the interesting information I found on the website of The Global Fund (Global Fund, 2014). I will begin with what I had the most fun in learning, and that definitely is directly relevant to my current professional development. As I have continued to dig deeper into this organization I have found that I genuinely admire the work that they do. One of my discoveries this week is that they have books that they sell, and of course an amount of the profits are turned back to the foundation. I found the majority of them interesting and have actually gone onto Amazon Books and have purchased five of them. The ones that I chose had to do with multi-cultural kids and their art along with one book that walks you through a curriculum that has the class make up their own culture! I can't wait to get these in the mail! If you are interested you can go to The Global Fund website which is http://globalfundforchildren.org or you can go to Amazon and type Global Fund Books into the search bar.
            I didn't find anything that I felt was controversial but there was a photo story about Haiti. It is always such a shocking reminder of how well we have it here. Despite all of the hardship they have had to endure the majority of the photos were of people smiling! What resilience they must have.
           This website is very open about the amount of money that goes to grants to help children, how they come about the money and how it is disbursed. Even though I would not consider the foundation in the economic realm as the reason for the foundation I would say that it certainly fits into the financial piece of using money wisely and to the best advantage of the children. It would not be helpful to be short sighted and not be able to keep the foundation financially healthy.
            There were  a couple of other articles on the site that I enjoyed reading and would like to pass on. One was about a program they have called Creative Frames, this is were they celebrate the children's perspective's through technology media. The other article was on the impact and benefits of sports. There was a town in Ecuador that implemented their program that targeted 14 gangs and was successful in involving them in street soccer and the level of violent crimes took a huge dive.
            I have been enjoying this journey of following interesting information from all of the different sites that we have all picked. I hope I have enticed you to look at the this site, if not anything else check out the books, they would be a great multi-cultural addition to any early learning library.

Jennifer Pore`

The Global Fund for Children. (2014). Retrieved from
     http://www.globalfundforchildren.org on 03.23.2014.

Global Fund For Children

     I need to begin with an explanation of how I ended up writing about The Global Fund For Children (www.globalfundforchildren.org). In our first week of class I sent out three e-mails attempting to make contact with other early childhood professionals around the world. As of this morning I have had no replies. Maybe I wasn't engaging enough, maybe they are just too busy, regardless I have to move forward and hope that maybe they will contact me in the future. I went back to our week one assignment and attempted to log on to both of the alternative sites, I was kind of excited about hearing the pod casts. It was not to be, both links gave me a message of "not found". Pressing on I went to the last choice (crossing my fingers) and wah la The Global Fund For Children popped open!
     I am a firm believer in that Everything happens for a reason, and this little bit of frustration really panned out for me. This organization is amazing. This foundation was created in 1997 to help children around the world and by the end of 2013 has awarded "4,601 grants valued at 31.2 million to 614 organizations in 79 countries" (Global Fund For Children, 2014). They have a goal of reaching 10 million children by 2015. This organization gives immediate supports when tragedies happen of water, blankets excetera but their main mission is to be there for the children "after the immediate supports and media are gone" (Global Fund For Children, 2014). They research the area, find a local source and grant them along with providing support and resources to build their own local supports thereby providing long term success, kinda of like teaching the community to fish not just giving them a meal.
     Currently this organization is active in the following regions of the world:
East and Southeast Asia
Europe and Eurasia
Latin America and the Caribbean
Middle East and North Africa
North America
South Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa
     You can sign up as I did to receive their monthly newsletter that is full of information and links to articles written from and about all over the world. I hope you find this site as interesting and worthwhile as I did.

Jennifer Pore`

The Global Fund For Children. Retrieved from
     http://www.globalfundforchildren.org on 03.22.2014.

Cultural Responsive Care & Diverstiy

     This week I would like to share the organization that I chose last week to research more and to learn more about. The organization is NAEYC, The National Association for the Education of Young Children. This organization is dedicated to informing and educating Early Childhood professionals on best practices and developmentally appropriate curriculum. They hold fabulous National Conferences along with many other trainings throughout the year that they offer. Becoming a member is very reasonable and receiving their copy of YC Young Children is worth the cost of membership alone. The magazine is always full of interesting articles directly related to our profession. The article that caught my eye in this months magazine was "I didn't know there were Black Cowboys" (McNair, 2014). When I read the title I knew then that the issue I would be choosing would be Culturally responsive care and education. It was a fun and interesting article about Literacy development specific to the impact on African American families when introduced to books on their culture. I was ashamed to realize that my classroom's book shelves do not hold the cultural diversity that I let myself believe. I have some more work to do. I am anxious to read other blogs from peers to see what other interesting websites are out there.


Jennifer Pore`

McNair, J. (2014). I Didn't Know There Were Black Cowboys: Introducing
     African American Families to African American Children's Literature. YC
     Young Children NAEYC, Retieved from
     http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/naeyc/youngchildren_201403/index.php

NAEYC, (2014) The National Association for the Education of Young Children.
     Retrieved from http:/naeyc.org


 
   

Establishing New Contacts

     I am pretty excited to be starting this next adventure with my peers at Walden University. For the first stage of the blog assignment I have sent e-mails to three people/agencies.

"Early Years" was the first organizataion in support of young children and is currently the largest organiation in Northern Ireland. They have quite an array of programs to include Sesame Tree which is their local vesion of our Sesame Street.

The Early Childhood Council in New Zealand at admin@ecc.org.nz

Mr. Eric Atmore from The National Early Childhood Development Alliance at cecd@iafrica.com

     I will start with my tip first: read the entire assignment before jumping into the assignment. After I had frustrated myself in not being able to get an e-mail I took a break, started a load of laundry and read a peers blog before returning to the instructions for this weeks blog. Once I read through all of the instructions life became better for me and I was able to pick out the above address. Not surprisingly I haven't heard back from any of the e-mails that I sent out, if I do not get any replies I will be looking into the alternative for part 1.
     Part 2 was much easier for me. I knew right away that this would be a perfect opportunity to study NAEYC's website. I refer to it alot but know that I have only touched the surface of what they have to offer.
     I am looking forward to all kinds of interesting views on Early Childhood from all over the world!

Jennifer Pore`

"My Supports"

     I compare support to the foundation of a house. It is the solid wide spread base and beginning from where all the support to the building starts. Support builds our character and allows us the knowledge and strength to be successful in our endeavors. Those who have followed any of my writings probably already could guess that I am going to say that my family is the most important to me in all the world! My Mom and my Children have been my biggest inspiration. motivation and support. Other supports for me are my Newfoundlands, Husband, dear friends, other family members, myself and work. Another peer mentioned technology and that is very true for me as well. I live in a tiny frontier town with no stoplights and one small grocery store. I would not have my B.S. nor would I be able to work on my Masters let alone be writing this blog. I suppose I could even go as far as saying that nutrition, exercise and medical advances are also a large support for me.
      Friends and family give me emotional support, work gives me not only financial support but self-worth as well. My Newfies afford me comfort, company and unconditional love. My Children and Grandchildren give me motivation to live and be a great person, I am so proud of who they are as people and I am beyond proud to be a part of their lives.
     As for what life would be without these supports unfortunately I don't have to guess....it is miserable. I recently lost my Mom and the same week was told I had cancer. Going through months of surgery and radiation was terrible without my Mom. I moved into my Son's home back where I am from and where my Mom had lived in order to access the medical treatment that I needed. Which meant that I was away from friends, work, pets and my husband. To be in the town where I grew up and my Mom had been for over fifty years and not have her there with me was the most miserable. The only reason I survived is because of my children who were true Champions that took Great care of me both physically and emotionally and my Grandchildren whom I treasure.

Jenn
   

My Connections To Pl

     If I were to chose just two quotes that summarize my childhood they would be:
"Keep Company With Those Who Make You Better" (Unknown) & my new
favorite: "The ability to play is one of the principal criteria of mental health"
(Almon, 2002). I can clearly look back on my younger years with a smile and
clearly be able to associate the importance play with a healthy self-esteem and
thirst to explore and learn as much as I can.
     When I was four and five years old I was the happiest I would ever be as a
child.r children every second. The neighborhood children would go to Bidwell
Park which was one block from my home and butted up against the Elementary
School. This park meandered through the whole town and the part that we lived closest to was the deer pen. We would take the stale bread and hand feed the deer, then have a picnic that was packed by our folks and sit in the clearing and watch the deer and squirrels play. This park was like living 5 minutes from Sherwood Forest! I spent practically all my free time in this park. Capton Bidwell had brought trees from all over his travels and planted in the park. There was also a stream running right through the middle of the park with camp areas and swimming holes. The older children where responsible for us little ones and as we grew older we became responsible for those younger than use.
     I miss those times but know that I am extremely lucky to have had the experience! In order for my children to have similar experiences I made time to go to places where they could run, explore and feel free, even though I was present. I feel we can do similar things by being purposeful in how we set up our class environments and in the resources and materials that we use. I am a firm believer in play, down time, art, and rejuvenating oneself. I feel this is partially due to all the freedom and great experiences that I had as a young child but also greatly due to a Mom who was kind and supportive. She was always supportive and encouraged us to use our imagination. I am very aware of the need to express myself and to "play". I can tell when I have neglected myself and the tense feelings become too much. That's when I take time for me and I can feel myself become productive and full of ideas again. Every child deserves to have their Sherwood Forest.
    I have included a couple of materials that I use in class to help encourage the children's imaginations.

Jennifer Pore`

Almon., K. (2002). The Vital Role of play in early childhood education.
     Gateways, 43, Retrieved from
     http://waldorfresearchinstitute.org/pdf/BAPlayAlmon.pdf
www.http://hazelnut.com
www.http://magiccabin.com
www.http://melissaanddoug.com

Relationship Reflection

     To start with I apologize for the late posting. My relationship with my blog is not a very good one at the moment. I took two hours to write all about my relationships, pushed publish and poof it was gone! So I will try again. It is possible that it is on my blog somewhere since I attempted to start a new page, I just can't find it! Moving on.

     My children and grandchildren are the air I breath and the food to my soul. I cherish the ground that they walk on. I have recently lost my mother and it has been devastating. my children and grands have been my only solace. I love that they are a part of me and my history and I love seeing them become fabulous adults. My mom was the single most positive influence in my life and I miss her terribly. I was lucky to have had experiences that made me realize how important children are and I have had a few experiences that made me realize just how fragile life is. I learned at an early age that I would appreciate life every day. I have always had the passion and drive to protect and advocate for children and have made it my life's work.
     Relationships are being part of a whole. Humans are social by nature and need the interaction and validation of others. Family, friends, co-workers, pets, they can at any given time bring a different componate to the relationship, validation, love, interest, self-worth, knowledge, companionship and many, many other emotions. I consider myself lucky in that I have many wonderful relationships, my children, grandchildren, husband, sister, brother, dad, pets, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and co-workers (all of my grandparents have passed). Relationships help to validate, support, strengthen, grow, and teach us about life.
     I feel that to build and support a good relationship there needs to be gentle honesty, genuine caring, the ability to truly listen, have the desire to grow and support each others goals and needs, and the ability to let others know how much you love and care for them. Relationships need to be nurtured and cultivated like they mean something to you and you want them to live. I enjoy and need my alone time to just be, to create, and to reflect. My relationships fill me with love, self worth, contentment, joy, laughter and tears, I know I am alive and that I matter.

Jennifer Pore`