Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have for families and children that I work with, that come from diverse backgrounds is that they feel valued, and welcomed. I want them to know that they matter to me, and that I value who they are and where they came from. I want them to feel welcomed in the classroom and comfortable to be there. That is my first hope when dealing with families and children. 

One goal that I have would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is to set up diversity classes for my parents, co-workers and community. Classes so that everyone is kept up to date on the issues and so that they can have knowledge on those topics and be aware of those topics. After all knowledge is power and with power comes a voice. A voice so that the people who attend these classes can stand up for themselves or someone else. 

Finally I want to thank all of you for the great comments and the different outlook on the topics that we discussed through out the 8 weeks in this course. You all have been wonderful to work with and I wish all of you the best of luck in the future. 

Welcoming Families Around the World

The country I picked was Somalia, because a teacher at my school had a student in her class from there. We are becoming more and more diverse at my school and if I knew I was going to have a student in my classroom from a country that I knew nothing about, I would need ways to research it. 

The first thing I would do is a lot of research on the internet. I know that will give me mostly surface culture information but it is a start. It will help me get the basics of where this student is coming from. The next thing I would do is to reach out another teacher from that country. Whether it is through a blog or via phone or through the NAEYCE website. This professional will be able to give me first hand information about what education is like in their country and how I might proceed to help this student. A third thing I would do would be to look up some vocabulary that I would be able to write on index cards to label things so that I can help build a connection in the classroom with words that he/she will recognize. A fourth thing I would do since I have warning that I am getting this student is to maybe set up an appointment with the student and his/her family. This way I can hopefully build a connection with the family and ask what they are wanting for their child in school. The final thing I would do is to visit with our school ELL teacher to help me get ready for our new arrival. Things like if we have a translator or something set up so that his/her transition into my classroom will be as smooth as possible. 

When I get these things accomplished before my new students comes it will make the transition easier for both the child and his/her family. I will have trust and respect built up that will make them all feel comfortable coming into a new environment. I will be able to help this child to the best of my ability.