Reality Check!

My Supports

Factors in my daily environment that are supportive to me are my family, friends, Impact, and my job. My family provides support by helping me with my children by giving much-needed time off. They also provide ears for me to vent. My friends are awesome because some are old, some are new, but they are all there for me when I need them. Most of the time just to listen, but lately they come over to hang out when things have been rough. They offer to help out with my kids too. My children have an Impact worker who is a Godsend. She goes above and beyond her job to ensure we have community resources and supports to stay together. She often offers advice and guidance that goes a long way. My job provides financial support to take care of my family and a much required reality check to keep me grounded. I need to be grateful and thank God everyday that I have a job to go to.

The benefits of these supports are that they represent strength for me and my family and cut down and stress and tension in my life. All of these things and people come together to balance out an otherwise crazy existence. Without one or all of these supports, it would be scary for us. I have seen it play out. We may be separated, sick, or gone all together without them.

The challenge I choose would be life without my two aunts. It would be a sad situation. We have our ups and downs, but through it all they never let me down. They can hear my cry for help when I don't even hear myself making it. If they were not here, I would probably suffer in silence, blow up after a while, and be totally useless to my kids. If they were gone I would need more money to pay sitters, a better job, and antidepressants to make it through an hour.

I can't say enough how special these supports are to me and my family and hope to never know what it would really be like without them!

My Connection to Play

“Children's games are hardly games. Children are never more serious than when they play.”

MONTAIGNE, Essays

                            

“Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.”

Kay Redfield Jamison

Contemporary American professor of psychiatry

  From the age of at least three years old I can remember playing and having fun. I can remember my teacher in Headstart giving me toys to play with when I was upset that my mother was leaving me there.

The adults in my life encouraged play most of the time. Looking back now, it may have been more of a way for them to keep us busy while they did grown-up things, but nevertheless we still had fun and learned so much from so much play.

In my opinion, play is so much different today than it was when I was a child. Children today seem to only be concerned with video games, social media, and sports. Sports used to be a really good way for children to experience structured play but are now fierce competitions used to satisfy parental desires. The children aren’t being allowed to have fun when playing and have tremendous pressure on them to play hard to be future athletic celebrities.

When I was young there were video games out but we played them when we came in from a long day of playing outside. I know many of my students know nothing about playing cards. Me and my friends could take a deck of cards and play twenty different games with them.

I noticed that Target now has a section in their toy aisle of Retro toys that were out when I was growing up. I was as excited as I was at 5. I think this is awesome and bought some toys for my baby there. I hope that more parents will do so and introduce their children to some of the classic toys that allow children to build their intelligence and character through play.

I can definitely attest to how important play has been in my life. I played games that allowed me to use my imagination and intelligence. We played solitaire, speed, and 21 with cards and all of these games required logic, concentration, dexterity, and math skills. We played the Game of Life and never even realized how realistic it was. You had to spin the wheel to see how many kids you would have, what your occupation would be, and figure out if you made enough to support your family. How real is that? I always had a car full of kids in the game and swore I wouldn’t have any in real life. Irony at its best proved me wrong. I did however remember the lesson learned in the game by securing a career to support me and my family!

Relationship Reflection

Relationships are important to me because they are the part of life that keeps you on touch with your emotions. They are never easy, but require constant give and take. As I get older, I am more aware of how past relationships have shaped my life both good and bad.

I currently have positive relationships with my female friends that I have known for a long time. We have our moments here and there, but we have never done anything to each other that has done harm to our relationships. Our relationships are based on mutual respect, caring, support, and interactions with each other. We share our ups and downs and try to find ways to lift each other up whenevr we can.

 I also have positive relationships with my children. They are complex and take alot out of me, but they are mine. I wouldn't trade any of them for the world. Just watching them grow and change is the biggest reward of this partnership. I can see something everyday that verifies the positive effects of our interactions.

My students and I have very positive relationships. I love the fact that I don't have to play "good or bad" teacher with them. I am always myself, let them know that every decision I make is based on my caring for them, and do not carry ill feelings towards them when they make mistakes.

Challenges I have found in developing and maintaining relationships are trusting and depending on people. I was raised to be very independent due to parents who were substance abusers. I learned to do for myself and not to depend on others because they may not do what they said they would regardless of how they feel about you. I took this into most of my relationships. The first time someone failed to meet my expectations, I bailed without looking back. As a result, I don't give people chances to recover from mistakes, I shut people out when I am angry at them, and I tend to avoid confrontation to keep from hurting the feelings of those I love. I developed many communication issues as I grew up.

I think my experience with relationships will make me a great early childhood provider. I can relate directly to children who may be living through some of the same horrors I did as a child. I can also relate and sympathize with parents who are unable to understand or help their child through troubled times.

Greetings All!

I just wanted to say hello to my new class mates. I am a middle school ECE teacher in Kentucky and a mother of 5. I am working on a second degree in early childhood in hopes of starting my own business in the childcare/tutoring field. I also want to implement programs to help parents with job searches, computer skills, and educational improvement. I am looking forward to interacting with you all and learning from you. If there is anything that I can help with, please let me know.

Reflection...

Quote:

"Level with your child by being honest. Nobody spots a phony quicker than a child." Mary MacCracken
 

I used this quote in another class but it is so powerful. I think that as their cognitive skills sharpen, they are like little scientists. I am amazed at how perceptive my 8 year old is. He listens and observes people and often questions their honesty and/or intention. Even my baby is able to spot people who may not really be into babies and just play with him because he's there (grandmother). I notice that he is not very receptive to this kind of person and is reluctant to smile and play as he does with us when he/she is around.

Assessment at Home and Abroad...

Assessment is really a tricky subject with me. I am at odds as far as to how much and what kinds should be used with kids. I was and still am the person who didn't have to study for a test and if I did, it threw me off. I have almost never done poorly on a test and am fortunate to be this way. But what I see as a parent is that three of four of my children almost always bomb on tests. I don't like when my children score really low on a reading exam and are looked at as unsuccessful when they can read to someone and show that they read two to three years above their reading level. Even in my job I see really bright students who clam up during a test and bomb it. Or really smart kids who play around on tests and end up in lower level classes because they didn't give their full effort. I would rather see formative and summative assessments done during class in non-threatening manners or unsuspecting manners to gauge what students have learned. The state assessments are a joke to me and do not benefit the students. The teachers are frustrated because they are ordered to teach to the tests and miss important areas of learning due to this. I know that much of it is tied into money and how much schools receive for better scores. That still does nothing for students in the long haul. They look at the tests as useless and often mark anything due to their frustration of having to sit and take them for 1-2 weeks.

Interstate differences within a homogeneous culture, and a willingness to innovate

and think independently, have led to the development and implementation of

responsive assessment practices that reflect student performance across many dimensions

and in a positive manner. A range of assessment practices that are believed

to enhance student educational development and pathways are firmly in place in

Australia. The rhetoric, of course, as in all education, still exceeds the practice. The

quality of assessment practice is uneven, most notably in the compulsory years of

schooling where collaborative moderation and professional development to explore

common understandings of standards and expectations are still developing. Quality

still tends to be related to teacher experience (both too limited and too entrenched),

familiarity with assessment issues, and resources. The new frameworks, with clearly

specified outcomes and guidance for appropriate assessment practices, should guide

teachers in constructive ways.
In Australia many components are taken into consideration when giving assessments. The article I read mentioned money as well so I guess that is probably something that is consistent wherever you go.


Assessment in Education, Vol. 11, No. 1, March 2004
http://wpmu.innovation.cfl.mq.edu.au/summer/files/2010/05/assessment_australianschools.pdf