My family culture

• A description of the three items you would choose

If I were in a major catastrophe and only could bring three items the first item I would bring is my family album. This way I can keep those memories alive and be able to reminisce on old traditions and that will make me feel my connection to home and help in hard emotional times I may have. I'd also bring my journal, so I can keep track of daily life and help me to get my emotions out on paper.  Something to keep me busy and uplifted by writing and expressing myself.  The last thing I would bring is traditional home recipes so that I can keep the food traditions alive and have a taste of home with the food, your cultural food always makes you feel better.

• How you would explain to others what each of these items means to you

I would tell each person that these things describe me in a way and are close to me. They help me to be uplifted and to never forget where I came from.  It is important to have things that are dear to you near because it's hard being in a whole new place and not to have anything memorable around. 

• Your feelings if, upon arrival, you were told that you could only keep one personal item and have to give up the other two items you brought with you

I feel like I would be really sad and I wouldn't be settle with it, it would also be hard to choose which one to keep and which one I would have to give up.  All of them mean so much to me so is have a very hard time giving them up because I'm already sacrificing leaving my home and being in a completely new and foreign environment.

• Any insights you gained about yourself, your family culture, diversity, and/or cultural differences in general, as a result of this exercise,

I found it hard to choose what o would take with me. There are so any important things in my life I would want to take, and I realized that while doing the exercise. 

When I think of research.....

• What insights have you gained about research from taking this course?

I have gained a lot of knowledge and insight about research from taking this course.  I got to learn the insides of research and what elements are included in research such as the dependent and independent variables and what each part of the research represents.  I now know how to actually look for research and how to start my own research in an effective way, that I did not know before.

• In what ways have your ideas about the nature of doing research changed?

My ideas about doing research have changed in that now I know how to properly do research if that makes sense.  Effective research, before I didn't know where to begin because I had never really been good at research or taken any course on doing research.  I know how important research is by seeing a breakdown of everything that is included in it and what I can and cannot do to make research work for me and whatever I may be researching. 

• What lessons about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood did you learn?

The lessons I have learned about conducting research is that you must have great communication and consent from the parties involved in the research and if with children you must have their parents or guardians consent.  planning takes many steps and outlining before you can actually conduct the research, you have to make sure you have all of you elements together.  As far as the design of the research this was very new to me.  The quantitative and qualitative approach was something that i had never knew before and something I learned in the class. You just needed to find out what design worked best for your particular study if either of them worked.  

• What were some of the challenges you encountered—and in what ways did you meet them?

Some challenges for me were the technical aspects of research and that it contains so many steps that I was pretty unfamiliar with because a lot of the terms that I did not know so in order for me to really understand I had to first learn the terms used for the research and that allowed me to understand more of how to go step by step while using my own research example.  Actually reading and learning was the only thing that helped me and going through the assignments each week got me to learning more and more.

• What are some of the ways your perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of this course?

Some ways that my perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified is that I now understand and see how important the job is and how much work is included in it. Research is an important part of the profession because it helps to advance in the field and with the growth and development of the children as a priority it makes my job that much more important.  It really makes me want to continue to push forward in this field and learn as much as I can because someday I will be a very important factor in a child's life and their growth.  

Reference:

MacNaughton, G., Rolfe, S.A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood research: International perspectives on theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Research around the world

The website that I chose to explore is http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/.

"EECERA is an independent, self-governing, international association which promotes and disseminates multi-disciplinary research on early childhood and its applications to policy and practice" 

They support cross national collaborations and themed publications through special interest groups. They provide a great forum for policy makers, scholars, researchers etc.

One surprising thing I learned about the site is that they largely support researchers in Europe. They have a lot of support groups and behemoths to the researchers and policy makers. 

One noteworthy thing about the site is the EECERA is one of the most prestigious Journals in the world. It is only one of 4 early years journals indexed by the institute for scientific information.

I definitely did learn great things from the site as far as research and their journal and how much support and effort is put into the Europeans research. It is great to read in it and compare and see similarities and differences from the ones in the United States.

Research that benefits children and families

If I had the  means and knowledge to conduct research on any topic with no restrictions I would do research on the study of autistic children all over focusing on their behavior inside the classroom and developing techniques to improve their growth and learning. I feel like autistic children sometimes do not get treated or attended to specially for their needs. It takes a great deal of patience to work with and develop autistic children. I feel like there should be a specific person who targets and works for autistic children in all school and care facilities.  They require quite a bit more attention than a child who is not autistic.

I would fund for schools to have specially trained people focusing on the study and development of autistic children and work towards including them into society and feeling welcomed.  I recently saw a video on Facebook of this autistic child and his mother and grandma and she was upset that they were trying to not allow him to walk across the stage for his graduation. She was very vocal with the principal who tried to not let her child walk across the stage and she made a very valid statement that if you continue to treat children who are autistic as if they don't matter or are not included they will never grow or develop and advance to their fullest potential. You have to show care and love to them and not treat them as if they aren't as important because of their condition.

There are many different programs that can be invested in and developed to help autistic children and if I had the money with no limits I would definitely invest to make their lives better and help in their development. It saddens me to see people treat autistic children in such ways that only make them feel worse and I have seen it.

My personal research journey

The topic I chose to study is how to effectively teach diverse children in early childhood.  The reason why I chose this topic specifically is because it is the area that I am focusing in my study here at walden.  This is also something that I don't have as much experience in from my teaching at the daycare center. I would love to learn more about proven techniques that could spark my own interest in the specific area and be able to develop my own creative way of teaching.  I know that earth teacher is unique and different in their own way and I want to develop my own way from my learnings.

The simulation process was fairly easy for me to choose from different subtopics to focus on within my topic. Because I want to incorporate art and acting in relation to teaching diverse children and how it can effectively help those children to open up and feel welcome and be able to reach them to help their growth and development.  So far in the course I am learning how to effectively look for quality research and what would be beneficial for me in researching.  Before this I didn't know how or what to look for in the research I find to determine if it is of quality now that I have some idea it will help me in my journey a lot more.

If anyone has any insight or ideas to share regarding teaching diverse children and any personal experiences I could benefit from hearing please share them with me I'd love to hear and rage more fri
 For future reference. Or if you have any credible resources you'd like to share that would speak to my topic that would fe great as well!

Final Blog!

During the course I did not get to speak with or connect with any international contacts but I did much research on the international websites provided and read up on the issues and trends faced in different places like Africa and Europe as well.  I learned that they are facing a lot of the same issues as the U.S when it comes to starving for better educational programs and providing quality in the educational programs they do have.  They have specific groups that focus on providing and educating professionals on public policy and resources that can be used for educators and families with children.

My goals in the field are to become more educated and be able to apply what I have learned to help develop new programs for children and families as well as learning more about the education system for early childhood education and becoming familiar with public policy and the standards.  Continuing my research and keeping it for my future as an early childhood professional.  I want to Mage a difference in children and families lives for the better.

Getting to know your international contacts-3

There are many issues that I see and witness on the daily in my own community as far as the quality in early childhood education.  I have a few friends who do have children and they stress all the time how hard it is for them to find a good childcare center in their community that would be of quality and also affordable to them.  In my immediate community I don't see as much childcare but there are different kids gyms and summer camp opportunities in my community especially.  These are great creative alternatives aside from a daycare center for those that specifically want their child to be more active and doing the different activities, which is partly sparks my inspiration of opening a drama school for children.

The opportunities for professional development are all over.  There is of course observation and taking different courses.  There is a wide variety of different professional development methods and ways to learn more for your specific area of study.  There are also seminars and groups dedicated to educating professionals.

My own professional goals include teaching young children in drama and performing arts providing that creative outlet for children to express themselves.  I also want to open up my own school for this specifically.  I want to focus a lot on working with diverse children and children that face many challenges and allow them to open up more. The challenges that I may face is the working with different cultures of people and children.  Being able to adapt and learn will be my challenge as well as finding creative ways that speaks to each individual child in a unique way.


From the website given I definitely got to some more insight on how the international support early childhood education. In Africa the UNESCO and education is key to the regions development.  They work to keep education high on the agenda of government and development partners.  Their focus is to improve the quality of teacher education in the region.  They focus on a lot of the same things that are focused on in teacher development in the U.S.

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/worldwide/education-regions/africa/