Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have when thinking about working with children and families that come from diverse backgrounds is that they will all be treated equally with not biases from people that are different. I especially hope that this is true for the children. Going into this upcoming school year I know that I have students will many different abilities and backgrounds. I will treat each of my students the same and will expect that other adults treat my students the same way.

One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field is to really take the information that I have learned in this class and teach it as an intro to education course. I have learned so much about myself and the way I think, but also about the way that others think and how people are treated. I think that if people were more aware then issues would be less likely to happen.

I would like to take a second to thank my colleagues for helping me learn throughout the last 8 week. Hearing some of your stories has really helped me think about the way that I treat people and how it effects them the rest of their lives. You truly have made a difference in my education and you will truly make a difference in the lives of the children you teach.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

I am working in a preschool facility and I have a brand new family that has relocated from Israel. They do not speak English and their first language is Arabic. The daughter is starting in my class and I am doing everything I can to make her and her family as comfortable as possible.

The ways that I will prepare to be culturally responsive towads this family is to:

1. I would research if there are any programs in my local area that can be present when the family arrives. This way they can translate to the family and to the daughter who might have a rough time in a new daycare with people that don't speak her native language. 
2. I would research to make sure I understand their basic culture and what might be rude and not practiced in their culture. 
3. I would research Israel school systems and see if there is a certain way that they teach or practice.  If they only learn sitting in desks I would understand that the child might be more comfortable sitting at a table and playing instead of running around outside. 
4. I would learn key phrases of things that the child might need or ask for during the day: bathroom, mom, dad, eat, nap, play. 
5. I would find books with pictures from her culture and where she use to live. We could read them together and with her family so maybe we could share stories and talk about similarities and differences. 

With these preparations I would hope that it would make the family and child more comfortable with myself and her new learning environment. I would like that this would help the family trust me with their child and know that I only want to do what is best for the child. Most importantly I would hope that my preparations would help the student feel comfortable and welcome in my classroom. 

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

I think the one memory that sticks out clear to me is a coworker blaming all her personal issues on her "single mom problems". I am also a single mom and even though her comments are not specifically about me they are able a groups of people that I am associated with. I work very hard as a single mom and do not complain about how hard life can be at times, or at least do not blast it on social media. I talk to my family and my closest friends about the issues that I might be having in my life.

The way that this microaggression diminishes equality is because  it makes me feel like all single moms have a rough life and have all these problems and need help. That they should have people feel sorry for them because they are incapable of creating a great life for a child.

When my coworker makes comments about "single mom problems" it makes me very angry. She is making an assumption that we all have it so hard and we complain, which isn't the case. I don't need people to feel sorry for me and my situation. I just wish she would talk about her problems are her own and not generalize her problems into everyone's problems.

I think that it order to turn this into a positive I would have to have a conversation with her personally and talk with her about the positive things that she does in her life and talk about her focusing on that. I also also mention not making comments about all single mom's when talking about her personal problems.