Professional Hopes and Goals

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       Working with diverse families can be challenging because not knowing the unknown without hurting the other person's feeling or the family. A goal to be set as an early childhood professional would be have a family from a different culture bring one of their favorite dish to share with the other families. Another one is have a big paper tree be placed in each classroom have the families add one thing about their culture that no one does not know. Each family would do that so something new is added to the tree. This will let the children know, everyone is different, but we all are the same. It starts from the family with diversity and continues with the providers.  All good teaching begins with a respect for children, their innate curiosity and capacity to learn.  Curriculum should be rooted in children’s needs and experiences.

Another 8 weeks with supportive colleagues and a professor. I wish you all the best in your endeavors. I hope to see some of you in the next following classes.  Thank you for all the comments, criticisms, and support. 

  Dr. Horton,

  Thank you for another 8 weeks. I appreciate the support, comments and criticisms to help me grow as a writer and individual. I hope to have you again as a professor in my future classes. 

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Families From Around the World...

In every day life you hear the different ethnicity around the world, but never knew much about their cultures and living status. I have always been interested in the Filipino culture and the people. 

I am a director of a small social service agency and I had a family of six coming from the Philippines.  I was unaware of their status and especially their culture. I always heard the Filipino was similar to Hispanic families, but if they were from their homeland, they would be more traditional. I started on my research about the Filipino culture and their people and this is what I have learned.

1. The family is the center of the social structure including, the immediate family, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, godparents, sponsors and close family friends.

2. They must live up to the standards and if they fail, they will shame not only themselves, but the family too.

3. The family will not eat until the hostess invites them to eat. When eating they are often served family-style. 

4. Their official language spoken is Tagalog.

5.  A handshake with a welcoming smile is a standard greet. 

6. English is generally used for education, governmental, and commercial purposes. 

Five ways to be culturally responsive:

1. Being committed to knowing the family and their culture.

2. Being more sensitive to how they deal with conflicts.

3. Be alert of my own biases.

4. Ask questions.

5. Work with the family to develop a sense of trust.

Being prepared to meeting a new culture and family is much more than just research. Hoping that the information I did gathered and research would help me part way with the family. Setting all my biases aside is the first major step to going forward with anything. Gaining the family trust is another major step, knowing everyone and having an understanding of how I would benefit the family. Every family is different and I could not base my information on books, internet or any resources because knowing the family at a personal level and business level means much more.

Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression...

     I don't recall having any negative situations or incidents I had to step in. I do remember having a positive prejudice when I use to work as a director in the biggest facility.  I had a mom who was Caucasian and adopted a Japanese girl from Japan. She was two years old when she started the daycare. When I was short a teacher, I stepped in the class and during circle time, we talked about different race and color of the skin. Her exact words was, Ms. M. I am white like my mommy huh?? Followed with a big smile on her face. I agreed with her and smiled. Then the whole class went on talking about it is okay to be the color you are and it is mean to call each other names. 

     It is a great feeling when you are a teacher and you are teaching children about being positive. Children are a sponge, they pick up the negatives to the positives of comments and reaction of adults. 

     The more I was more in the classroom full of preschoolers I made sure multicultural was more in the curriculum and letting the children learning more about each other. For example, I had an activity for homework for the child and parent to do together. The activity was to make a family quilt, pictures of their family members and words to describe their family. When they got to school, the child would share with the class. 

https://www.google.com/search?q=prejudice+quotes&safe=active&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=657&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiB9Nek9_jKAhVFxGMKHebwD90QsAQIIg&dpr=1#safe=active&tbm=isch&q=prejudice+with+children+quotes&imgrc=aOwkET0AZkoWtM%3A