Blog 5

Writing a research paper was no joke. It took a lot of time, energy and searching to get information needed to complete it.  Although I have written papers before, I have not written one as intense as this one. I want to make sure that I remember how the process was done so that I can use it in the future. I thank each and every one of my class for sharing your information and making the class more interesting. I hope that all of you keep your heads up and soar ahead to reach your goals.  I have also learned that it is important to work together as a team when it comes to working in the child care industry. The children are our main concerns and we as educators need to be the first line of defense to them while they are in our care. Keep working with the parents and things will go smoother in case there are issues going on with the children and parents , as they may need our  assistance .

Final Blog 5

I have had some issues in the beginning of the class trying to set up my blog and to make sure that the information was being sent correctly. With the help of the class, these things had gotten easier for me and I appreciate the way that all of the classmates have stuck together. I have learned that writing large papers requires lots of research and time. We had to make sure that the information was correct and it started to get interesting. After we did the outline, it appeared to get a little easier to put the paper together. I hope that I will remember how to do this in the future because it was well worth it to go through.

Blog 3

Blog 3

Observing and Interacting With Program Director(s) and Other Administrative Staff in Your Setting

       I have completed my observation in a Head Start setting. All of the children were ages 3-5 years old.

During my observations I worked with the program director  Janice R. and the family support staff Shonda  .  We discussed how we all can be advocates when it comes to dealing with children who have been exposed to some sort of violence.   The family support worker told me that she had close contact with the children  and their families.   She showed me some pamphlets that she had in the office for the parents such as , Helping Children Learn Self Control, which shows children how to deal with problems they may be experiencing in the classroom and working with other children without conflict. Another pamphlet was called  , Love and Learn by Dr. Alice Honig- a brochure by NAEYC. This one is about helping children to cope with their feelings and express themselves  and being able to ensure positive interactions between children and adults.  This flyer  give the parents ideas on how to work with their children at home on developing coping skills.  Parents are always asking staff  what kinds of things they can do to help with behavior, emotional, and developmental issues.  Shonda stated that she sees  and hears lots of information from the parent upon enrollment. With the different questionnaires and information needed when they enroll a child, a staff member can truly assess situations that may be a concern about  children.

     The director explained that she have witnessed some problems with a few children and she had to intervene. She asked me about if I had seen any signs, in the years that I have been teaching that may have been  indicators of any type of abuse or neglect in a child.  I told her that there were times when I actually had to report things that I saw and heard by the child.  “The staff at schools are the children’s first line of defense when it comes to the safety and welfare of the children”, says the director.  She also said that , this is the reason why we conduct trainings and seminars about abuse so that the staff is fully informed and they know when to take action about any certain situation. Janice tells me that she has equipped the teachers with different types of tasks to add into their curriculum to help decrease violence in young children such as, conflict resolution, parallel play, expressing their feelings and learning how to deal with their feelings. These things help decrease outbursts and inappropriate behavior in the classroom.

     While talking with these two individuals, I have learned how to share positive information with the parents and to show parents as well as the children how to problem solve.  There is a very large amount of information about abuse and neglect that is available to anyone who is in need. Also, there are community resources that help parents deal with day to day stresses and help keep them on the right track before any kind of abuse can happen  to out children.

Blog 4

Interacting with Families of the children in our setting

From the time of arrival to school , I heard parents getting a little hostile and aggressive with their children. Because this was a head start half day classroom,  there were 2 mothers at the center for the day to help out named  Diana and Joann.  When the children were brought in, parents yelled at  their children and it was done in front of  the other children. Some of the other children looked afraid while this was going on.  The children came in with aggressive behavior , crying and having tantrums.  The 2 parents made comments about what they heard from the other parents. Diana stated that she would have done things a little better by talking to the child and making sure that the child felt safe while being left at school. Joann said that she wondered if they get yelled at like that at home and what else is being done in the home.

     As we talked, I told the parents that there are things that can be done in the classroom that would help children to deal with certain behaviors .  Because children are not born with violent tendencies they learn it from others.  We can show the children effective ways of how to manage anger. Our entire curriculum revolves around teaching children how to deal with anger issues and increase their chances to be productive individuals. Diana asked me what can the teacher do to help children deal with violence. There are many things that teachers can do such as, promote positive interactions with the children and adults. This helps to build relationships between individuals and reduces problem situations.

Another way is to make sure that activities are somewhat challenging for children as this gives them the incentive to try to master them . Make sure that the activities are balanced with quiet, loud, busy, calm, and hands on.  Diana said, “ I have children at home and I try to do things with them but I get tired easily and I let them play by themselves. I tell them to go watch television but they put it on scary pictures and violent things. Then at night , they have nightmares and need to be comforted to sleep. She said, I think that it is up to the parents first to make sure that our children are safe but after what I saw with those parents this morning, I see why a lot of our children act up.”  Joann told me that she has grandchildren that actually see their parents fight each other and they go to school  and act out what they saw. How can we expect our children to behave in a certain way if the parents have these kinds of issues. Diana tells that she shows respect for her grandchildren and they treat her like a queen and are very respectable.  

Diana saw a little girl painting a picture on the easel and she was describing to the teacher assistant what she had painted. Another child came over and painted all over the child’s artwork and ripped the bottom of it. Diana walked over to the aggressive child and asked, “Why did you paint on her picture?” The child stated , “because I want to”. Diana asked her, “ Would you like it if she had done that to you?” The child ran to the other side of the room and took a toy from another child and pushed the toys on the floor. Diana followed her to the other side and she asked what happened. The boy told Diana what she had done and Diana went to the girl and brought her over to the boy. She encouraged the boy tell her how he feels. He said,” I don’t like that”. The girl helped him pick up the toys but she was hitting them hard on the table. Joann came over to talk to the girl and the girl got a lot more calm. Joann asked her to apologize to the child and she did.

I explained to the parents that there are things that can be done at home to help keep violence down to a minimum. One way is to do what they(the parents) were doing. Get involved with the child at school. There are also community resources to use if there is a suspicion of violence. We as adults need to make sure that we keep a cap on our own anger. When we yell at children it could escalate into something that spirals out of control. We need to also limit the amount of television that our children watch an what programs they watch. It takes every adult in the child’s life to help support , train, and allow the children to and feel safe at all times.

Blog 2

      The setting that I worked in was a head start program .   I currently work in a head start program and I am familiar with the way things are done or supposed to be. I spoke with a mental health consultant and a teacher. My research paper is going to be on Violence in the life of our children.  There are so many issues that are an influence to our children being abused or neglected.  When I spoke to the head start teacher, she was well aware of the issues that  the children face in the home with family members, friends, and even strangers.

     The main issue that we discussed were having the child imitate some of the behaviors in the home that sometime turn out to be violent and disturbing. Being a mental health person, Ms.  M. told me that lots of behaviors that the children display, stem from what they see at home.  She showed me some samples of behaviors that the children can experience while going through some kind of abuse or neglect.  These can be from bullying, sexual behaviors, abusive language, hostility towards others, and even using  objects as weapons  such as knives, guns, bats etc.

     Ms. M. explained to me that there are many resources out there that are being affected to help people to decrease and overcome abuse and neglect.  Some of the challenges that she spoke about were having the parents to come in for assistance from the school, speaking to a counselor, or just getting some kind of help with any problems. She stated that some people don’t want others to know what is going on in their home and they appear to be fine.  Another problem she told me about was the fact that some parents feel overwhelm because they don’t know what the outcome may be and that their children may be taken away from them.

     The teacher told me that the lesson plans are set up to work on social emotional skills throughout the day in the classroom. They work on conflict resolution, sharing, and being able to tell how they feel.  Children are eager to tell things that that are happening to them or others. We know that confidentiality is a big key but it is hard to get the parents to believe this sometimes.  Outside resources are sometimes good because the parents don’t know them and they may say more to someone that  are not close to because of them “ knowing their business”.

Discussion Week 2

    When I was interviewing the 2 individuals, I found out that we all have the same thing in common. I listened to what they were saying about how our young children are at risk for some type of violence in their young lives. The children have many issues that are going on right in their homes and these behaviors are being displayed in the classrooms in one form or another.  I have learned how to look and listen for signs of abuse, neglect, and harm that is being done to our students.
      These interviews have influenced me about my decision  for my paper because we need to focus on what kinds of things are happening to our children and to find a solution to the problems. We are the voices of our children and we as educators are the front line of what happens to them and how we can dissolve this problem.
     I chose to write my paper on " Violence in the lives of our young children". This hits home with me because it makes me sad to know that a child is being neglected. I have been a foster parent for over 12 years for children with special needs and it would be tragic if no one wanted to do something to help these children that can't help themselves. I enjoy every minute of caring for these children and some of them have so much of a  violent background that some people don't even want to care them.  What are they to do? Who is going to care for them? How can we help them? These are some of the questions that need to be answered and I want to be a part of the solution.
Three related topics include, How does parents deal with behavior problems?, What can we do to assist the parent with violence in the home? and Why do the parents have fear when the child gets the necessary services provided for them?

Just checking to see if everything works