Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

Unfortunately, there is much bias and prejudice that I am being faced with.  Currently, I face alot of racism.  I am a Puerto Rican living in North Carolina.  I have lived in NYC all of my life and for the first time am living down South.  People have made racist remarks to me thinking I am Mexican.  I have been so disgusted with people's ignorance especially because PR is a commonwealth of the USA.  All Puerto Ricans are American citizens.   Yet, I have been treated like an illegal in my own country.  Also, I am experiencing classism.  My husband is a doctor and we have struggled to come to this point in our lives.  My hubby grew up in the projects of Bklyn, NY and has worked his way to his current success.  But somehow the media and current thinking makes it seem that because we are successful either we don't deserve it or we should pay more money because we made good choices.  I think your life is a product of the choices that you make.  Even though my husband was raised by a single mom in the projects, he stayed focus and studied.  Why people think they deserve a handout I don't know?  But it is more complicated than just that because the dominant culture doesn't know what to make of us because we are educated and Latino.  In their eyes, I think they see us as the exception to the rule.   And our Latino people think we owe them something.  It gets very frustrating. 

I find that I have become more aware and sensitive to others' perceptions of me.  In my professional practice, I don't want to be hired because I will be the token Latino and a quota needs to be met.      

Observing Communication

I was able to observe my daughter, Arianna with her daddy.  Daddy was pulling weeds and Ari was with him in the garden.  Daddy was bent over showing Arianna which items were weeds and which ones were plants.  He explained he wanted the weeds pulled but not the plants which would later become flowers.  He asked if Ari wanted to help him.  With an enthusiastic YES, Daddy put gardening gloves on Ari and and weeding began.  Ari would ask, "Is this a weed?" Daddy would go over, say yes and help her pull it out.  He would show her where the mint leaves were beginning to grow on the root.  They continued like that and when weeds were pulled Ari would clap and say, "YES!" 

There were ways that communication could have been more effective.  For example, Daddy could have asked more questions of Arianna so she could have shown what she was learning.   Arianna learned a lot with Daddy and self-worth was increased by celebrating a goal getting accomplished. 

I learned a lot about watching Daddy with Arianna.  I, in my impatience would probably have rushed the weeding to hurry it along.  Daddy was very patient and took his time.  I could learn to be more patient especially when children are learning something they haven't done before. 

Creating Affirming Environments

At Joyful Rainbow, we will celebrate families.  I would like to adopt some of Adrianna Castillo's ideas.  Some of the ideas I would incorporate include a communication binder where parents can sign in and talk about how the child slept the night before and how their morning was.  This would be incorporated into our Welcome Center where parents can find additional information such as daily schedules, monthly calendars, photo binder of activities completed, and general resources.  The Welcome Center will also have a calendar where parents can sign up to come participate in our day to volunteer or just observe.  We will have photos of our families to foster community.  I think having a nap room is wonderful.  It will be  a place where children can cry or sleep when they come in.  I think Adrianna's belief that she lets the children cry and lets them deal with their emotions is a wonderful idea.  Helping children make their own transition is a positive aspect of the day.

The classroom environment will be rich in color and diversity.  Children will see themselves in their classroom.  The people in their community will also be visible along with people from various groups, and ability groupings ( Derman-Sparks, & Edward, 2011, p. 43).  Our classroom will be filled with puzzles in our puzzle corner.  These puzzles will be hand-made to reflect our families by taking enlarged photos, matting them on manila folders and cutting them into age-appropriate sizes and number of pieces.  Our classroom will be filled with toys, specifically dolls that represent the students in the class.  There  will be a doll place where children can play with our realistic dolls in imaginative and creative ways.  We will have an art center incorporating colored pencils, crayons, paint, stamps, ink pads, paper and other art supplies.  Children will be encouraged to draw and paint about their world.  Our literacy center will be filled with books that are multicultural, multilingual, and kid-created.  We will have a reader of the month that will be a respected person or parent in the community.  Our school will be a place where our students and their families are celebrated.  We will have mostly kid-created items in our classroom.  Parents will be an integral part of our school community.  To incorporate a home-school connection, there will be a Bookbag of the Month.  In this bookbag there will be a multicultural book, maybe Hairs by Sandra Cisneros. Families will be asked to read the book with their child, and write or respond in a creative way to this book.  Those responses could include a photo of them reading with their child, an illustration of their favorite part or any other creative way to respond.  Our school will be a place where everyone is welcome and celebrated.  

Start Seeing Diversity: What I have Learned

• One hope that I have is to be able to work with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds in a healthy way.  I hope to empower them and be inclusive. I hope to learn from them and for them.  I hope to make them a health part of our school community.
• One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is to make some permanent changes to our literacy centers.  My goal is to develop a library that is truly reflective of our school community.  I would expect the library to show all types of cultural and linguistic groups.
• To all my colleagues - Thank you for coming and taking time to visit my blog and comment.  I have learned a lot from you.  Let's continue on this journey of progress and change so we can be the positive change for our children. Happy holidays. 

Start Seeing Diversity: My Poem

Uncomfortable journey
through bias and prejudice
Facing inner pain and hurt
Caused  by US and others

Delving deep into our feelings
of people, culture, and religions far and near
opening our hearts and mind
in order to elicit change

Powerful journey
with our colleagues, now friends
uncovering our true selves
without fear or shame

Others are on this journey
through education courses we go
So we can impact future generations
and those near us as well

The journey has uncovered bias
we didn't know was there
but from one level to another
continuing we must go. 

Start Seeing Diversity: We Don't Say Those Words

This week we are required to write about a time when you witnessed an adult or yourself reprimand or silence a child after he or she pointed out someone they saw as different.  

I remember when I was a child I lived in an apartment building.  There were 20 families in our building alone and there were 3 other buildings on our  block.  I remember clearly one fourth of July where everyone was outside lighting fireworks and sitting outside.  I saw a neighbor from an adjoining building outside which we rarely saw.  She was an extremely obese women and when she sat her legs would double over.  I was shocked and kept staring at her.  My mother noticed my reaction and pulled and pinched my ear.  She gave me the "look" and I knew I better stop.    Later my mother told me that we don't stare at people.  My mom told me she is like that because she is sick so don't stare.

I think the message I got is that 1) It is rude to stare.  2) Sometimes there is a reason for people to have something wrong with them.  3) We don't do things to hurt others.   

I think an anti-bias educator would have various examples of not only people but different sized people in the classroom.  I think an anti-bias educator would have valuable literature that shows all sorts of people.  I think an anti-bias educator would make it a cornerstone of their philosophy of teaching that all sorts of people either by race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and size should be respected.  Obesity is a growing epidemic and through the media and children's literature they are viewed negatively.  This can change through the sensitive teaching of an anti-bias educator.  

Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation

I have heard homophobic terms used as an insult by a child toward another child.  When I taught second grade there was a young boy that I believe had homophobic tendencies.  He was very feminine and would write about boys that he thought was cute.  He would write in his journal certain things and there were certain incidences that occurred.  One day while in the schoolyard, he had chased a boy around in order to kiss him.  The other young  boy, who was also in my class was horrified, embarrassed, and afraid.  He didn't want student A to keep bothering him.  Student B knew Student A liked him but he didn't like him back.  Student B was afraid that he would be teased about the kiss.  This was SECOND  grade.  I stressed to the class that we respect people's personal space and we are not to touch anyone. Also, I met with Student A's father and told him what had occurred and about the other boy feeling uncomfortable because his son was "bothering" him.  This was a single dad going through a terrible divorce and was at a loss.  I also brought it to administration's attention because I didn't want an incident to occur in the bathrooms while at lunch or if I was absent.  The class did tease Student A and called him a "fag".  I talked about words that hurt and that we treat everyone with respect.  That behavior would not be tolerated at all.  I dealt with urban kids who were very street smart and I talked to them about the consequences of their behavior.  I also touched upon gender issues with that class.  I love to teach using William's Doll by Charlotte Zolotow.

I have to admit that this topic about homophobia and dealing with it in the classroom with very young children makes me very uncomfortable.  I have a 2 1/2 year old who attends nursery school.  I have to admit I don't want  her exposed to these things so young.  I don't think how people choose to have sex should be anyone's business.  I would feel very uncomfortable not knowing how the classroom teacher would approach this topic.  I wouldn't want my daughter exposed to these things so early.  Does that make me a homophobe?  I don't think so.  Maybe I am wrong.