1. “The playing adult steps sideward into another reality; the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery.” -Erik H. Erikson

This video is by Tom Hunter, he passed away a few years ago and a dear friend of mine knew him well and shared this touching video that helps me to remember when working with young children our goal is to form that relationship and "know them full well"

I want to thank all of my classmates for enriching my learning and letting me get to know them better and hoping to continue on with them in other classes.  Thanks for being my 'teacher'.

Assessment Perspectives

I think testing needs to be conducted from a variety of sources and all the sources should be considered when evaluating the child’s performance and demonstration of the needed skills.  We know that people learn best in different ways so I think that consideration should be given to allow a variety of test measurements that allow those strengths to shine.  My son Brandon, for instance who has a college level vocabulary but a 3^rd grade reading comprehension level could have done better if he could have used his preferred hands on style of learning to demonstrate his knowledge in this way.  By having a variety of methods of assessments you should be giving the findings more validity if they are measured in a variety of ways.

I chose to explore the way children are assessed in Australia, because I have always wanted to visit there and know very little about the culture or educational philosophies there.  I found that Australia has struggled with how to measure outcomes and how to ensure that all children are receiving the same content delivered in the same sequence if not the same year.  Australia has a national curriculum unlike in the United States where most states now have their own State Learning Standards.  Australia, however, seems to be taking a more balanced approach to assessment.  They have a National Assessment Plan-Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), which is conducted in years 3, 5, 7 and 9.  In addition to these standardized tests, Australia has portfolio items for each of the standards at each level that is collected along with formative assessments gained from observing children in the classroom.  Teachers are allowed to individualize instruction across learning bands (years) if needed to meet the needs of their students.  Prior to this national plan the different territories and states each had their own test.  (National Assessment Plant)

            Disciplinary knowledge is found in the eight learning areas of the Australian Curriculum: English, Mathematics, Science, Health and Physical Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, The Arts, Technologies and Languages.  These appear to be similar to the areas Iowa’s State Early Learning Standards, except they have another area of Social/Emotional. Australia might be showing signs of a more balanced philosophy regarding the need for a holistic approach to education. “Becoming literate is not simply about knowledge and skills. Certain behaviors and dispositions assist students to become effective learners who are confident and motivated to use their literacy skills broadly. Many of these behaviors and dispositions are also identified and supported in other general capabilities. They include students managing their own learning to be self-sufficient; working harmoniously with others; being open to ideas, opinions and texts from and about diverse cultures; returning to tasks to improve and enhance their work; and being prepared to question the meanings and assumptions in texts. (Australian Curriculum, 2015)” They have woven social/emotional skills into their literacy curricula, rather being a separate skill area.

            As with any system it might sound like a better approach to assessment by only conducting standardized tests every other year and none until 3^rd grade when these tests are more appropriate, but the actual user of such a system might have a different opinion of their standardized curriculum.

            I think children are put under a lot of pressure to perform for tests rather than implementing what they’ve learned in meaningful way so they truly understand concepts and have thought through the process of learning.  This is the down fall of mass producing good test takers.

References:

Australian Curriculum, 2015, Retrieved December 3, 2015,

http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/overview/implications-for-teaching-assessing-and-reporting

National Assessment Plan, 2015, retrieved December 15, 2015

http://www.nap.edu.au/about/why-nap.html

Effects of physical abuse and neglect

I am choosing to write about my mother in law’s experiences as a child.  She was the oldest of 11 children born into a low SES, with an alcoholic, abusive father.  All of the children and her mother were abused.  Betty, as the oldest tried to protect the younger ones by taking the brunt of the abuse especially if her mother was already incapacitated.  The abuse got so bad that eventually some of the younger kids were sent to live with relatives periodically to avoid having the state getting involved and removing the children.  Even the family doctor didn’t report the abuse (this was in the 1930-1950).  Betty married at age 18 to my father in law partially to escape the abuse, and to hopefully have a normal life.  Betty and all of her siblings suffer from depression, one of which committed suicide, one was institutionalized at age 45, and 3 of her sisters went on to be sexually abused later in life as teenagers and young adults.  All of her siblings were able to complete high school, marry, and have children of their own, but some married abusive spouses and all of them have had difficulty holding down a steady job.  Betty was never able to work outside the home because she had panic attacks, had OCD, and suffered from life long depression.  She wrapped herself in a protective blanket of solitude to the point of missing out on family outings, not being able to have large family gatherings, her sole focus of life was her husband and 4 children.  Her children are all grown, her husband of over 50 years passed away suddenly from pancreatic cancer and now she is lost in a never-ending sea of sadness, loss, emptiness, and depression.  She refuses to associate with extended family beyond her sons and 2 of her youngest grandchildren.  The abuse she and her siblings suffered has affected them all in different ways but the negative effects were life long.  This has also impacted her four sons in that now they see women as being helpless depressive creatures and have developed an apathy when faced with spouses suffering from depression. 

            When you asked us to think about a different part of the world that might be suffering stress, my thoughts immediately went to the Syrian refugees fleeing their homeland, without food, shelter, transportation, no money, no resources except for each other.  Many have lost contact with their families or have seen their families killed.  How will this war impact this generation of Syrians and the rest of the world as it responds to this disaster and violence?  Will these children become immune to the violence, will they suffer further neglect and abuse?  There are relief efforts but the magnitude of the problem is so far reaching, there is going to be a huge human toll in this.  Refugees are fleeing in boats, many being capsized in the sea, a few surviving and maybe making it to a country that will accept them.  Some countries have tried to accept the thousands of people fleeing, but soon these countries had to start limiting how many could come into their countries because of the stress it was putting on their own country.  So even though, some steps have been taken to reduce the stressors by providing food, clothing, and some semblance of shelter, this kind of toxic stress that has no end in sight will hugely impact the survivors and the people who they impact.

SIDS Reduction Strategies

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is meaningful to me because it is preventable in many cases by implementing safe sleep practices and because I know four families who have been affected by this tragedy. 

According to the Iowa SIDS Foundation, “Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is the sudden and unexplained death of an apparently healthy infant younger than one year of age.  SIDS is the unexpected death of an infant, which remains unexplained after a thorough case investigation, including the performance of a complete autopsy, death scene investigation, and review of the medical history.  SIDS is known as a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning all other medical causes that may have contributed to baby's death have been examined and excluded. (Iowa SIDS Foundation, 2015)  According  to the CDC  approximately 3,500 infants die suddenly each year and approximately 24 % are due to improper sleep practices. (CDC, 2013)

The safe sleep practices are easy to implement, yet when parents are not getting sleep or caregivers are not successful in getting young children to sleep, many times they will revert back to practices that might have short term benefits of getting a child to sleep but they can in some cases kill a child.  Many people think that it is only a concern for babies under 6 or 12 months of age, but there are increasing numbers of sleep related deaths in older toddlers as well.  It is imperative that we spread the word about safe sleep.  It is especially for infants being placed in childcare, as a high percentage of SIDS deaths happen in the first day or week of child care.   Many times extended family will not understand the importance of following the safe sleep policies and will recall how, “their child slept just fine on their stomach”, this can intimidate new parents or caregivers.

            Safe sleep practices include: 1) Always placing children under 12 months  of age on their back to sleep on an approved sleep surface, not on a couch or in an adult bed; 2) Make sure there is a tight fitting sheet and no loose bedding; 3) Dress the child in only 1 additional layer than an lightly clothed adult might wear; 4) Keep the room temperature at 68-70 degrees so you don’t overheat the baby; 5) Do not let infants or toddlers sleep in car seats when they are not being transported; 6) Do not let infants or toddlers sleep in swings, bouncy seats, or other containment devices; 7) Share a room, not a bed with infants; 8) Once breastfeeding is established encourage the use of a pacifier when sleeping; 9) Decorate the room, not the bed (no bumper pads), toys or other loose materials; 10) No smoking around baby or in the environment they live in.

            This impacts my work as 3 of the 4 families I know personally, the babies died in child care and the providers I work with were the ones who had to make those calls to mom and dad and tell them that their baby was dead.  None of these childcare workers were purposefully doing something dangerous to harm the child, but yet they were.  One of my providers is now facing being charged with a felony and may be sent to prison because she let a child (17 months old) sleep in the car seat at the request of mom and that’s where they found him dead.  She is no longer allowed to operate her childcare business, may lose her home and almost lost custody of her own newborn because of this incident, it is a tragedy for both families.  I have been trained on safe sleep practices and am going to start training this in each of my three counties very soon.  Our state is making it a mandatory class for all childcare providers to take annually, because of the high number of SIDS deaths in childcare.

References:

CDC, 2013 http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/Vitalstatsonline.htm, retrieved

November 1, 2015.

Iowa SIDS Foundation, 2015, http://www.iowasids.org/, retrieved November 1, 2015

Pregnancy and Childbirth in Sweden

I chose to explore the childbirth practices in Sweden.  What I found out was that in Sweden midwives do all of the prenatal care and also most of the delivery care unless there is a high risk factor or something goes wrong during the delivery.  Almost all of the births are still in a hospital setting.  Midwives have a strong history in Sweden and were able to hold on to their role in the midst of other countries pushing midwives out. “According to the organization Save the Children, Sweden is the second-best country in the world to become a mother, behind Finland.  Neonatal mortality is low, at 1.5 deaths per 1,000 — the second lowest in Europe behind Iceland — as is maternal death in childbirth, at 3.1 per 100,000 births, according to the European Perinatal Health Report from 2010. (NY Daily News,  2013)”  In Sweden the government pays for their health care and so pays for the cost of delivery and it is speculated that using midwives lowers the cost of deliveries, gives better care to the expectant mother, and puts the mother more in charge of the different aspects of  their pregnancy and delivery.

I almost lost my first baby due to secondhand smoke in my workplace environment, I had to quit my job because it was my baby or my job, they would not give me another assignment or make accommodations for me.  When I finally went one day past my due date I went in to the hospital and was finishing up a non-stress test when my water broke so I just stayed in the hospital and delivered my 1^st of 3 sons in about 10 hours.  My husband was with me the entire time doing his best to comfort me and give me ice chips.  There were times when I made him leave because I felt like I could not maintain my composure when he was in the room.  The nurse had to come in and get me breathing through the contractions.  I remember my husband cutting the umbilical cord and trying to bribe the doctor to sell him the scissors he used. (Weird, I know) My prenatal care was with a doctor, monthly until the last 2 months then every 2 weeks until the last month which was every week.  I had one ultrasound after the first trimester.

References:

n.a., Midwives, not medicine, rule pregnancy in Sweden, with enduring success, October 7, 2013, www.nydailynews.com/.../midwives-not-medicine-rule-pregnancy, retrieved October 25, 2015

Thank you to my classmates

In concluding my first course,  I want to thank each of my classmates for giving me insights to your sector of the EC field.  It allowed me to become more aware of each of the different sectors and how they all work together.  It was great getting to know each of you, you enhanced my learning of the content.  Without your feedback the content would not have been as rich.

Ethics Meets Real World Practice

“I-3C.3—To strive to secure adequate and equitable compensation (salary and benefits) for those who work with or on behalf of young children.  (NAEYC, 2005, p. 5)”

I serve on the Iowa AEYC’s Executive Board as Vice President.  We recently received the state contract for the WAGE$ program.  This program pays early childhood professionals a bonus based on their level of formal education and their commitment to be a consistent presence in their program. This is just one step towards ensuring the childcare workforce has enough income to support their families.  Currently, this is only a pilot program in very limited areas of the state.

The other event that I work on is Worthy Wage Day.  It is a day to raise awareness in the public to understand how important and impactful early childhood practitioners role is in the community.  They put out public service announcements, send e-mails, and would like to organize a walk out strike by all childcare workers.  The impact of such a strike would send a clear message to employers, policy makers, and parents that you need to invest in early care and education and you need to this because its good for children and it is an economic development issue. 

“I-3C.4—To encourage and support continual development of employees in becoming more skilled and knowledgeable practitioners. (NAEYC, 2005, p. 5)”

I work within my current work place to bring new opportunities to my colleagues when I find new pockets of information.  I was lucky enough to hear in person from the Institute of Medicine as they released their new research report in April, 2015. 

This impacts the work we do when we encourage the child care workers we consult with to further their education by reading journal articles, going back to school for a formal  education, or attend a training on something they don’t already have knowledge of.

“I-4.7—To support policies and laws that promote the well-being of children and families, and to work to change those that impair their well-being. To participate in developing policies and laws that are needed, and to cooperate with other individuals and groups in these efforts. (NAEYC, 2005, p.7)”

I worked to convince my community that early care and education is critical to them even if they do not have children in care at the present moment.  I talked with them about how in Iowa, we have stricter requirements for in-home doggie daycares vs. the requirements for in-home child care providers.

“P-4.11—When policies are enacted for purposes that do not benefit children, we have a collective responsibility to work to change these practices. (NAEYC, 2005, p. 7)”

I have become very vocal in our state on the issue of ensuring developmentally appropriate practices are kept as the top priority across all settings of care and education.  With the advent of Universal Pre-K in our state, we are now finding more and more push down from the K-12 Education system requiring inappropriate assessment practices that are causing Early Childhood Teachers to protest because policy makers and data analyzers are adding more and more assessments to their work load and some are not developmentally appropriate for these young children.  Teachers are finding they spend so much time assessing the children that they are losing their ability to interact within the moment.   Many feel this in impacting their effectiveness as teachers.

References:

NAEYC. (2005, April). Code of ethical conduct and statement of commitment.

Retrieved May 26, 2010, from
http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSETH05.pdf