When I think of communication I think of my dad.  He was a communications engineer for the government.  He loved communications and since he was born in 1919 he was around for some of the first innovations in communications.  He joined the army right out of high school and fought in WWII in the 10 Mountain Division 110th signal core.  There he developed skills in building communications systems.  He developed the transmitter/receiver system for the Atomic Energy Commission and then the Federal Aviation Agency.  You see my dad is the reason you do not fly into a mountain when in an airplane.  While he was a genius at developing systems he also had good verbal communication skills as well. He didn't say much but when he did he was able to get his point across in a few words.  I think his personal style of communication was interactive but the system he built was linear because you just had to assume the message went from the transmitter to the repeater and then one to another transmitter/repeater.  My dad communicated in other ways.  He loved classical music and I could tell by his music what his mood was.  While I didn't think about it when he was alive so much now that he has passed I miss the music and the communication.  


Happy Samhain

Thanks for dropping by

Blog week 8

 ED 6164

        The hope I have going forward is that when I work with people who come from a different background that me is that I will be able to get to know them on a personal level.  I also want to be aware that any hidden bias I may have does not creep in to my thinking about the child or his family. For instance if I have a young child who seems to be treated as a little prince by his parents I don't want to assume they are spoiling him but be able to understand that in their culture this behavior is perfectly acceptable.  I want to be able to look deeper into another culture and gain an appreciation for what is there.  Learning not to judge a situation is the most important thing I can do for my children and the families I serve.  

            In the early childhood education field I want to bring about understanding of differences in learning style and teaching methods.  I am a Montessori teacher.  In the Montessori world at times we can get so set in our ways of teaching and thinking we forget that being static because we believe so fundamentally in the Montessori Method we put other educators off.  I would like to create a space where in we as Montessorians and other ECE professionals can have true and honest conversations about what matters to the children not our agenda.  

      

   Dr Kiem and fellow scholars, this has been a fun part of the journey and I hope we get to continue together in our next class,  Collaboration and Communication.  I've enjoyed hearing your stories as we have gone through the social identity process and may you all continue to grow and contribute in a meaningful way to the children and families you serve. 

    

      Peace and all good 

      Thanks for dropping by  

This week we were asked to think about how we would respond when we found there was a new student enrolling in our class from a country that we are largely unfamiliar with.   The family that I will welcome in to my classroom is from Myanmar.  I am to think of five ways I would can be culturally responsive to their needs as a new family. As someone who is not familiar with the country and customs of Myanmar so I looked up the following: 

Education (ECE)

Family structure and culture

Employment

Political structure

Culture (religion, food, dress, music, dance & customs.)

Myanmar has the Footprints Project for early childhood education in place. This is concerned with supporting the entire community for the benefit of the child and the family. Gender equality is built into the schema of the project.   The objectives are:

Providing early child care and education by improving the quality of care and quality of the building and providing proper latrines for the children.  Medical care and health education also are components.  Forming parent care groups for further education. The outcomes are as follows 

·         early childhood education centers (including child-friendly latrines and playgrounds);

·         facilitating community awareness-raising sessions on child health and nutrition issues, including implementing feeding centers;

·         collaborating with the Department of Health staff on child immunization campaigns; 

·         implementing teacher training on gender-inclusive education practices and child nutrition; and 

·         providing teacher aids to support primary school teachers. 

All of this is done in 44 rural villages.  School in urban areas runs in a more regular fashion.  Basic public education consists of five years of elementary, four years of middle, and two years of secondary school.  Elementary school is free and compulsory. Students passing an examination may enter secondary school. At the end of eighth grade, students must pass another examination before progressing to secondary school (grades 9–11). Following high-school, students may attend vocational training or university.

Family structure is very traditional in that it is multi-generational. When the couple lives apart from the extended family in their own home they live nearby or in a family compound.  Their elderly are very much respected.  The head of the household us usually male and remains rather distant from the daily goings on, the wife has the say so about finances and she is in charge of the household expenditures.  The average family has five children.   Most of the population lives in rural areas.

              Myanmar is one of the most economically depressed countries in the world.  The main occupation is farming or general labor.  Economically the push to industrialize is on; in an article by The Economist it is noted that even with industrialization in swing it will take years of education to bring the population up to standard in order to function in an industrialized society. 

              Political unrest has plagued Myanmar for many years.  The main religion is Buddhist with some Muslim and Christian’s active as well.  The government over sees the activities of the Buddhist monks and many are prohibited from being involved in social activism.  Many from the 2007 uprising are still in prison.  At present time the country has a president and a parliament governing. There are several ethnicities in Myanmar and they regionally Buddhism is promoted as the unofficial state school of thought.  This has created tension among the Muslims, Christians and Buddhist in the country.  Women are considered equal in matters of marriage, divorce and employment but the Buddhist religion says a woman cannot become a priest unless she reincarnates as a man. Aung San Suu Kyi is the most relevant woman in Myanmar politically.  Having won elections and then having the government be over thrown by the military and imprisoned.  She now travels and speaks about the plight of Myanmar and the need for reforms.

                Now that I have some general background I can plan how I can greet the new student and her family. 

               The first thing I would do is to meet with the family to find out what ethnic background they are.  What brought them to the U.S.? What is it they are doing for a living and where they live? I also would do an assessment of where the child is so I know where she is in terms of development and learning.  What I would do is to arrange an open house at our school welcoming all the new families and children.  In my classroom I would have many things that would be familiar to the family.  Food and music, pictures of the region they came from.  Then if things go well I would give them and any other family’s demonstrations of the work.  I hope I could find or make work involving Myanmar’s culture.  After a few weeks of settling in I would invite the parents to come to class and share about their home country.  I could also have some of the language cards and the moveable alphabet made up in the language of Myanmar. I can also make matching cards of land marks of the country.  I would put clothing, money and other things out on the cultural shelf for the children to explore.  On the science shelf I can have things for matching using the animals from Myanmar and I can play soft music from that country in the classroom.  Greeting the children every morning with the greeting from that country will also incorporate that into our classroom learning about the new country.  Most importantly remembering children are interested in children and they are pretty much the same all over the world.  I can make sure the new child is welcomed by the other children and she can integrate into the community. 

Myanmar is a beautiful country with a rich history and is working to move into the twenty first century.  Here are a few pictures of the grandeur of the Buddhist tradition and some other places I found off the internet.  Enjoy.

This week we were asked to think about how we would respond when we found there was a new student enrolling in our class from a country that we are largely unfamiliar with.   The family that I will welcome in to my classroom is from Myanmar.  I am to think of five ways I would can be culturally responsive to their needs as a new family. As someone who is not familiar with the country and customs of Myanmar so I looked up the following: 

Education (ECE)

Family structure and culture

Employment

Political structure

Culture (religion, food, dress, music, dance & customs.)

Myanmar has the Footprints Project for early childhood education in place. This is concerned with supporting the entire community for the benefit of the child and the family. Gender equality is built into the schema of the project.   The objectives are:

Providing early child care and education by improving the quality of care and quality of the building and providing proper latrines for the children.  Medical care and health education also are components.  Forming parent care groups for further education. The outcomes are as follows 

·         early childhood education centers (including child-friendly latrines and playgrounds);

·         facilitating community awareness-raising sessions on child health and nutrition issues, including implementing feeding centers;

·         collaborating with the Department of Health staff on child immunization campaigns; 

·         implementing teacher training on gender-inclusive education practices and child nutrition; and 

·         providing teacher aids to support primary school teachers. 

All of this is done in 44 rural villages.  School in urban areas runs in a more regular fashion.  Basic public education consists of five years of elementary, four years of middle, and two years of secondary school.  Elementary school is free and compulsory. Students passing an examination may enter secondary school. At the end of eighth grade, students must pass another examination before progressing to secondary school (grades 9–11). Following high-school, students may attend vocational training or university.

Family structure is very traditional in that it is multi-generational. When the couple lives apart from the extended family in their own home they live nearby or in a family compound.  Their elderly are very much respected.  The head of the household us usually male and remains rather distant from the daily goings on, the wife has the say so about finances and she is in charge of the household expenditures.  The average family has five children.   Most of the population lives in rural areas.

              Myanmar is one of the most economically depressed countries in the world.  The main occupation is farming or general labor.  Economically the push to industrialize is on; in an article by The Economist it is noted that even with industrialization in swing it will take years of education to bring the population up to standard in order to function in an industrialized society. 

              Political unrest has plagued Myanmar for many years.  The main religion is Buddhist with some Muslim and Christian’s active as well.  The government over sees the activities of the Buddhist monks and many are prohibited from being involved in social activism.  Many from the 2007 uprising are still in prison.  At present time the country has a president and a parliament governing. There are several ethnicities in Myanmar and they regionally Buddhism is promoted as the unofficial state school of thought.  This has created tension among the Muslims, Christians and Buddhist in the country.  Women are considered equal in matters of marriage, divorce and employment but the Buddhist religion says a woman cannot become a priest unless she reincarnates as a man. Aung San Suu Kyi is the most relevant woman in Myanmar politically.  Having won elections and then having the government be over thrown by the military and imprisoned.  She now travels and speaks about the plight of Myanmar and the need for reforms.

                Now that I have some general background I can plan how I can greet the new student and her family. 

               The first thing I would do is to meet with the family to find out what ethnic background they are.  What brought them to the U.S.? What is it they are doing for a living and where they live? I also would do an assessment of where the child is so I know where she is in terms of development and learning.  What I would do is to arrange an open house at our school welcoming all the new families and children.  In my classroom I would have many things that would be familiar to the family.  Food and music, pictures of the region they came from.  Then if things go well I would give them and any other family’s demonstrations of the work.  I hope I could find or make work involving Myanmar’s culture.  After a few weeks of settling in I would invite the parents to come to class and share about their home country.  I could also have some of the language cards and the moveable alphabet made up in the language of Myanmar. I can also make matching cards of land marks of the country.  I would put clothing, money and other things out on the cultural shelf for the children to explore.  On the science shelf I can have things for matching using the animals from Myanmar and I can play soft music from that country in the classroom.  Greeting the children every morning with the greeting from that country will also incorporate that into our classroom learning about the new country.  Most importantly remembering children are interested in children and they are pretty much the same all over the world.  I can make sure the new child is welcomed by the other children and she can integrate into the community. 

Myanmar is a beautiful country with a rich history and is working to move into the twenty first century.  Here are a few pictures of the grandeur of the Buddhist tradition and some other places I found off the internet.  Enjoy.

This week we were asked to think about how we would respond when we found there was a new student enrolling in our class from a country that we are largely unfamiliar with.   The family that I will welcome in to my classroom is from Myanmar.  I am to think of five ways I would can be culturally responsive to their needs as a new family. As someone who is not familiar with the country and customs of Myanmar so I looked up the following: 

Education (ECE)

Family structure and culture

Employment

Political structure

Culture (religion, food, dress, music, dance & customs.)

Myanmar has the Footprints Project for early childhood education in place. This is concerned with supporting the entire community for the benefit of the child and the family. Gender equality is built into the schema of the project.   The objectives are:

Providing early child care and education by improving the quality of care and quality of the building and providing proper latrines for the children.  Medical care and health education also are components.  Forming parent care groups for further education. The outcomes are as follows 

·         early childhood education centers (including child-friendly latrines and playgrounds);

·         facilitating community awareness-raising sessions on child health and nutrition issues, including implementing feeding centers;

·         collaborating with the Department of Health staff on child immunization campaigns; 

·         implementing teacher training on gender-inclusive education practices and child nutrition; and 

·         providing teacher aids to support primary school teachers. 

All of this is done in 44 rural villages.  School in urban areas runs in a more regular fashion.  Basic public education consists of five years of elementary, four years of middle, and two years of secondary school.  Elementary school is free and compulsory. Students passing an examination may enter secondary school. At the end of eighth grade, students must pass another examination before progressing to secondary school (grades 9–11). Following high-school, students may attend vocational training or university.

Family structure is very traditional in that it is multi-generational. When the couple lives apart from the extended family in their own home they live nearby or in a family compound.  Their elderly are very much respected.  The head of the household us usually male and remains rather distant from the daily goings on, the wife has the say so about finances and she is in charge of the household expenditures.  The average family has five children.   Most of the population lives in rural areas.

              Myanmar is one of the most economically depressed countries in the world.  The main occupation is farming or general labor.  Economically the push to industrialize is on; in an article by The Economist it is noted that even with industrialization in swing it will take years of education to bring the population up to standard in order to function in an industrialized society. 

              Political unrest has plagued Myanmar for many years.  The main religion is Buddhist with some Muslim and Christian’s active as well.  The government over sees the activities of the Buddhist monks and many are prohibited from being involved in social activism.  Many from the 2007 uprising are still in prison.  At present time the country has a president and a parliament governing. There are several ethnicities in Myanmar and they regionally Buddhism is promoted as the unofficial state school of thought.  This has created tension among the Muslims, Christians and Buddhist in the country.  Women are considered equal in matters of marriage, divorce and employment but the Buddhist religion says a woman cannot become a priest unless she reincarnates as a man. Aung San Suu Kyi is the most relevant woman in Myanmar politically.  Having won elections and then having the government be over thrown by the military and imprisoned.  She now travels and speaks about the plight of Myanmar and the need for reforms.

                Now that I have some general background I can plan how I can greet the new student and her family. 

               The first thing I would do is to meet with the family to find out what ethnic background they are.  What brought them to the U.S.? What is it they are doing for a living and where they live? I also would do an assessment of where the child is so I know where she is in terms of development and learning.  What I would do is to arrange an open house at our school welcoming all the new families and children.  In my classroom I would have many things that would be familiar to the family.  Food and music, pictures of the region they came from.  Then if things go well I would give them and any other family’s demonstrations of the work.  I hope I could find or make work involving Myanmar’s culture.  After a few weeks of settling in I would invite the parents to come to class and share about their home country.  I could also have some of the language cards and the moveable alphabet made up in the language of Myanmar. I can also make matching cards of land marks of the country.  I would put clothing, money and other things out on the cultural shelf for the children to explore.  On the science shelf I can have things for matching using the animals from Myanmar and I can play soft music from that country in the classroom.  Greeting the children every morning with the greeting from that country will also incorporate that into our classroom learning about the new country.  Most importantly remembering children are interested in children and they are pretty much the same all over the world.  I can make sure the new child is welcomed by the other children and she can integrate into the community. 

Myanmar is a beautiful country with a rich history and is working to move into the twenty first century.  Here are a few pictures of the grandeur of the Buddhist tradition and some other places I found off the internet.  Enjoy.

Resources

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21625884-myanmar-becomes-thailand-it-will-have-become-bangladesh-let-million

http://footprints.worldnomads.com/project/119.aspx?s=open

http://famdliflc.lingnet.org/products/burmese/by_co/burmese.pdf  

    

Here are some of the pictures of the Montessori works our children use in the classroom.

Extensions with the pick tower and the brown prisms.

Sand paper letters

Hand Transfer

Large extension with Brown Prisms, Pick Tower, Numerals and the Bead Stair.

Extension with Brown Prism and Pink Tower. 

I have really enjoyed the assignments in the class.  Things I have learned about privilege and about myself.  I have not faced the barriers that many have faced and I am thankful.  I also have a great appreciation for the barrieres my own parents over came to give me this life.

Here are the questions for this weeks thought.

• What memory do you have of an incident when you experienced bias, prejudice, and/or oppression, or witnessed someone else as the target of bias, prejudice, and/or oppression? Keep in mind that one can encounter such incidents in real contexts, including online environments, as well as in fictional ones, such as movies, books, television shows, and the like.

         I seem to be more aware of inequity in all walks of life these days.  When I watch an old(er) TV show I see how marginalized women were back in the days when I grew up.  (1950 & 60) It just makes me so mad because at the same time women were really making headway in the public field but the TV moguls just didn't get it and the actresses took the roles they were offered.  One have to make a living, I understand that but I am appalled now at what we put up with.  Sadly things haven't changed much. A classic example is The Big Bang Theory which I love.  But the paradigm is the same.  Penny is still the "dumb blond" Amy is smart but not so attractive. Amy is just so cute you want to pinch her cheeks. Geeezzzzz ! 

        Well I have my own story to tell about being marginalized as well.  

When I went to the dealership to get my mother's car an oil change (free promotional offer)  and I asked about fixing the car doors. several of which had stopped working from the inside the manager leaned over the counter and said, "Well little lady we charge 70,00 and hour so I don't think it is worth it to you to do that."   I thought to myself "Really? This guy just called me Little Lady?"  I politely thanked him and never went back.  I want ed to slap the guy I was so mad.  but that would have proved me an hysterical woman. 

        On a positive note I now drive a Toyota and the service manager is a young woman who really knows her stuff. So far we have had no "Little Lady" incidents.  Although I am 30 plus years older than she I don't feel like I am treated any differently than a younger client. 

In what way(s) did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity?

The treatment I got from the man at the first service garage was disrespectful of my humanity and my gender.  Assuming that because I was a woman in a man's world I could be treated anyway they chose.  I have told every woman I know with a GM car not to take theirs there for service. 

• What feelings did this incident bring up for you?

I was pretty angry and in the above account I think you will read my feelings.  I didn't feel victimized I was just angry.  I chose to not ever go back to that shop again for any reason. 

 

• What and/or who would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity?

An understanding on the part of the service manager that women are capable of taking care of things and they should be treated with all the respect they can muster.  I feel sorry for the guys wife and or daughters.  

Ok nuff said.  Now to go out and change the world . 

Thanks for dropping by 

Peace and all good 

 There was no blog assignment this week.

I am listening to On Being with Krista Tippett.  (NPR)

Here is the link.  Please give a listen.

http://www.onbeing.org

Peace and all good for your week

Thanks for dropping by