It Takes a Village

  By Hillary Rodham Clinton

A friend has recommended me  Hilary Clinton’s book, It Takes a Village awhile ago and I just never had the time to sit down and read it, but I was reminded about it when in one of our week’s discussions or assignments we were asked about that what that phrase means, “It takes a village”. I am not a very political person so this has nothing to do with her views on politics but rather, just education. I’ve only had a chance to read a little past the introduction, but I’m very interested in learning more about her insight and work in the early childhood field in connection to her family. I especially how love part of the title says “other lessons children teach us”. How true is it, that while we are technically the educators, we are also learning SO MUCH from the children we teach.

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The Project Approach

Dr. Sylvia Chard

From last weeks research, I also found Dr. Sylvia Chard’s development on The Project Approach incrediably interesting, and I believe I was the only one who chose to learn more about her in our discussion boards (although I know some chose Lilian Katz who Chard frequently works with so some of you may be familiar with her). The Project Approach refers to a set of teaching strategies that help teachers develop topics. Her webiste about The Project Approach is very informative and resourceful, giving examples and special topics on what she teaches about to teachers. Below is a link to The Project Approach website, I feel that it would be beneficial to many.

I have stated it a lot in our discussion boards and our intros to each other that I am a very hands-on learning teacher and while my curriculum doesn’t allow the full on-project approach style of learning, I try to kind of take a minimal version of this in my small group introductions of learning materials or new themes, especially in our science center. It was also interesting to me that I found I was sort of doing this approach without realizing it, since I had honestly never heard of Sylvia Chard or the Project Approach during my studies in college on early childhood education.

http://www.projectapproach.org/

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Teaching In Today’s Inclusive Classroom:  A Universal Design for Learning Approach

Richard M. Gargiulo, Debbie Metcalf

This book is also a great resource for a classroom. I had used an earlier version of this in college and it was a great tool getting used to inclusive classroom enviroments. Inclusion is awesome for students, but it can be a struggle sometimes for the teachers; either getting used to it or juggling the different needs of their students or anything else. This book had a lot of great examples of “what do do if” or “how to…” scenerios and is a great help for people who may not have a special education background and don’t always know how to deal with actions or problems but want to be prepared. My college degree was only early childhood/elementary education so I am one of those people who don’t have a full knowledge of special education (we were only required to take one Intro to Special Ed course) but have an inclusive classroom, so this is great help for me. There is ALWAYS more to learn about but I personally feel the best way to learn is to be thrown into the situation and figure out how to react. Experience is the best practice you’ll get, but having a book like this for tips & scenerios will definitely help out!

Motivation: “We as Early Childhood Educators have the ability to shape a child’s life for the better. And that’s what stems my passion.” -Sandy Escobido

Passion/Wisdom: “When I think of passion, what comes to mind is I think of, ‘what are my beliefs?’ ‘What are the ideas that lead me to action?’ ‘What do I do so naturally that perhaps seems natural to me, but seems unatural to others?’ What’s in my heart?'” – Leticia Lara

Passion: “The passion [I have is] to make sure that all children are taught in environments and ways that truely nurture their ability to grow and develop to their fullest ability” -Louise Derman-Sparks

 

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (2010). The passion for early childhood. Baltimore: Author.

Dr. Sylvia Chard

“Conversely, with increasing age children become more able to profit from reactive, passive and receptive instructional processes. This developmental principle suggests that, in practice, young children best construct knowledge from their own first-hand,  direct experiences and from interaction with primary sources of knowledge.” (Chard & Katz, 1992).

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Young children are inquisitive. They ask questions, wonder about things, and like to investigate interesting phenomena in their world. Sometimes they  explore for and test their own hypothesises or predictions without even knowing. I love how the Project Based approach gives children that chance to explore hands on things that are interesting to them with guidance by teachers in the classroom. I agree that children learn more from those direct and hands-on experiences and will remember them moreso than having just sat in a classroom and asked to recall facts that were lectured to them. I try as hard as I can to get my students actively involved in hands on learning and “fun” play activities that they will remember and learn from, as opposed to just reciting facts that they were told at circle time.

References:

Chard, Sylvia and Katz, Lilian G. (1992) The Project Approach. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. 340 518)  Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED340518.pdf

 

Dr. Aisha Ray

“The effects of a father’s participation or change of behavior on a child or family; or the ways in which these effects on fathers, children, families are threaded together to enable men to become positively involved with their children, mothers of their children and families in general”.  – Aisha Ray Ph.D. (Gadsden & Ray, 2003).

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Working in a Head Start program, I have seen how different children can be coming from different family backgrounds; some of my students come from 2-parent families, single moms, single dads, no known fathers, or no real contact with one of their parents (in most (of my own) cases, it was the father who is not present. While I know it is not always possible to having both parents involved, it is definetly important to have at least one of them present. We have a special “Donuts with Dads” breakfast and a “Pizza with Pops” lunch at our school at different times in order to try to get dads more actively involved in the classroom. Even if they are not able to help out during any other part of the school year, it allows dads who may not feel welcome in a classroom or not as actively involved feel like they can be special too. I try to encourage particpation from both parents in my classroom if I am able, and praise them any time I see them interact with their kids at our breakfast table or morning centers before they leave. Sometimes I feel that too much emphasis goes on the mothers that the dads can soemtimes feel like they are important either. I also agree with the fact that some kids will definitely feel the absence of a parent, especially in that male-model role. Having that male role model can positively influence a child from their young years all the way into adulthood.

References:

Gadsden, Vivian and Ray Aisha. (2003). Fathers’ Role in Children’s Academic Achievement and Early Literacy. ERIC Clearinghouse on Early Education and Parenting. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 482051)

 

My Mom – My mom was involved with EVERY SINGLE THING my sisters and I ever wanted to do. She’d drive us all over creation, come to every soccer game, be at my every dance and baton performance, and always, always, always made me feel loved and important. At school I remember my friends would be jealous because she would use a cookie cutter to cut out sandwiches for me and leave special notes in my lunchbox. She also was considered the “cool mom” by literally EVERYONE in our small elementary school because she was a room mom, my Brownie troop leader, part of the PTA, soccer mom, ect. Everything we were involved in, she was there. And every night she would make time to read a bedtime story to my sisters first, then one to me. This was my favorite time because it was my “me” time where I didn’t have to share her. Not with my sisters, or my friends. We’d read together and just snuggle under the covers. My mom still is one of my biggest supporters even today. We talk on the phone constantly, she asks how I’m doing and she is the first person I always go to for advice.

My Dad– Since my older sisters were also very involved in sports and activities, my parents often had to split their time between us to make sure that they both got to see our events or take us to practices. One of the things that I was most involved in was baton twirling, for over 10 years. Tuesdays nights were my Thunderbolt practices (year round) and there was a period when my dad took over taking me down to Reading, PA for practices. It became our thing to listen to KatCountry’s 96‘s “Kat-fight” (where they put two new artists and songs against each other and then people called in to determine which would be better) on our way to practice. Then, for an hour and half while I practiced, he waiting with the other parents (mostly moms) and cheer me on as I practiced routines and caught new tricks I had been working on.  He showed that he cared for me by taking an interest in this “girly” activity of mine and never once said anything to show his dislike for doing it. He knew it was important for me (it was the one thing I did “different” and special from my sisters) and therefore, showed it was important to him. He also taught my sisters and I the importance of work ethic and making sure that we always did our best in whatever we were doing.

 

My sisters – While both of my sisters are obviously different entities, growing up they were kind of one. Becky and Jen are only 18 months apart so they were only a school year apart, but often had the same friends, participated in the same sports (field hockey, indoor guard) and had the same interests. Most kids with older siblings just saw themselves as a tag-a-long annoying little sister, and really, if I’m being honest, I probably was most of the time. But one thing I do remember growing up with my sisters is that we didn’t really ever fight. And if we did, it was nothing long-term. Usually we’d get upset, go to our rooms (they shared one) and 5 minutes later we’d meet back up and be like, “soooo… wanna watch a movie?” We lived in the country and most of our friends lived in town 15 minutes away so often times the three of us had to come up with our own fun and living in the country DEFINELTY allowed us to do that. We were down in our creek, up in our woods, hiding out or playing mad scientists in one of our old farm barns. The point that I’m making is that I remember my mom telling the three of us early on that having a sister is having a built in best friend, and that we should always count on each other. Even when I was just the “little sister”, Beck and Jen always made the time and looked out for me. We truly are all best friends even now and I can’t imagine not having them in my life. We were shaped by what we were taught, and both of our parents were fully involved in all of our lives.

 

Aunt Dani– As I mentioned earlier, both sides of my family are very close. Most of my dad’s side of the family actually live on our family property, my Aunt Dani was always the closest to a mom to me. She never was able to have children herself, and even though she loved all of us, I bonded with her the most. Her and my Uncle Andy treated me as a daughter, and often took me to special places; my favorite being the Philadelphia Zoo to see the White Siberian Tiger. People often mistook her as my mom when we were out, as we did indeed look alike, and we never corrected them if they did. She always was there for my games or performances as well and loved hearing my stories from school. We are still close today and she enjoys seeing my pictures about school and asks questions about my class. I love having a close relationship with her and a “surrogate’ mother. She and my Uncle Andy still affectionately call me their kid and still like hanging out with me.

 

So before I start writing about my childhood web, I feel like I have to explain how my family went from what I thought was a total norm to feeling like we are completely abnormal.

My family is super close. My sisters are my absolute best friends and my parents are my closest confidents. Most of my dad’s side of the family lives on our property so we always had family parties together or hidays. My cousins, AJ and Joey were other built in playmates when my sisters weren’t avaliable to play. We were always together and always hanging out. My mom’s side of the family didn’t live on the property, but we were also very close with them as well. We’d also have family get togethers and holiday family parties and see each other regularly. I have very fond memories playing around on our 3-wheelers, being mad scientists, acting out skits we wrote together, and playing in our pool. To me, this was the normal. Not just my immediate, not just one side of the family, but BOTH sides of our families were big, loving families. 

I never thought this was odd until I grew up and met differerent friends in college who most definitely didn’t have the same family dynamics or childhood memories. I’m not saying everyone had awful childhoods or didnt have both parents or anything like that, but I met very very few who were close to ALL of their family members like we were. My oldest sister was overseas for 5 years and her collegues were astounded when she said she actually wanted to go home and be with family for Christmas (or any other times she came home).

Family means everything to me and it breaks my heart when I talk to people who don’t feel the same way. Moving to Philadelphia and meeting so many broken families was also a culture shock for me. I couldn’t believe how “odd” I seemed to people. My norm became the abnormal! 

 

 

 

 

Working in a low-income and multicultural school makes this point really hit home. There have been many times where students have handed myself or co-teacher various odd trinkets they found or papers with indecipherable marks on it to us with such great pride and joy. A child’s love is unique and amazing, and when they choose to give YOU something…. be proud. Be grateful. Love upon them and show them how much it means to you. Because THAT is EVERYTHING to them. ❤

Choosing a favorite childrens book to talk about is no easier than choosing a favorite star in the sky. I absolutely LOVE reading, and have a blast reading to my class kiddos with various tones, inflictions, and silly faces. Part of this has stemmed from how my mom used to read to me when I was little.

This “Little Golden Book” has been my favorite since I was a little kid. My mom used to insert my sisters names instead of “Poky’s” siblings names. Because I am the baby of the family and my sisters are 4 and 5 years older than me, I often was the tag a long, slow-moving sibling so it became a running joke in the family to be called The Poky Little Puppy when I wasn’t listening or goofing off instead of following directions. I also had a short attention span and would get distracted literally ALL. THE. TIME. Everyone in my family liked to read it too me, including my sisters, but it was the loving way that my mom read it to me that has made it one of my favorites still today ❤

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my teaching blog 🙂 I just started my Masters of Education in Early Childhood and we are required to start a blog and continue to work on it throughout the course. I have never created a blog before and although I often read other teacher blogs to get class ideas for room arrangment or activities, I have absolutely NO IDEA how this works yet, so it will definitely be a learning experience for myself. However, I love challenges, and I love to talk so I think once I get the hang of it, I’ll be just fine!

Hopefully.