My family culture

This week’s assignment was to imagine that there was a major catastrophe which resulted in my immediate family and I needing to evacuate to another country.  In this scenario, I was allowed to take one chance of clothes and 3 small items that I hold dear and that represent my family culture. 

The first item I would take with me would be my photo albums containing pictures of my children, our extended family, and friends.  This would be important to me because I would be able to look back on the pictures and remember the people in the pictures and the places the pictures were taken.  I would also take my grandmother’s Bible.  She had this Bible as long as I can remember.  She spent several hours every night in her bathroom reading from this Bible and praying to God.  She also recorded births, weddings, and deaths of our family members in it.  When she passed away 2 years ago, it was given to me by my aunt and uncle.  Her Bible was a part of her and I would not only want it to read and continue to grow in my walk with God but also because it makes me feel like I still have a piece of her with me.  The last thing I would take would be an American flag because it is a symbol of who I am and the freedom I grew up with.  The American flag is like my comfort blanket.  Although I would have to leave my country, I will still have a piece of my country with me.

If something happened and I was only able to bring one of the three things I brought with me, I would have to bring my grandmother’s Bible.  As much as I like the sentimental aspect of the pictures and the patriotic symbol of the flag, I do not think I could do without my grandmother’s Bible.  Her Bible is my heritage and I would do everything I could to keep that and even pass it down to my children and my children’s children.

As a result of this exercise, I realized that my family culture is made up of a combination of a love of God and others.  While family and closeness is important to my family, we also understand that God is the center of it all and without Him, we are nothing.  I am thankful for my grandmother and the strong role she still has in my family even though she is no longer here with us.

The most influential people in my life: my Nana and my Paw-Paw

When I think of research...

    At the beginning of this course, I was nervous and rather intimidated just by the thought of research.  Thankfully, the entire research process was broken down step by step which made me relax so I could actually enjoy this course.  

                Over the last 8 weeks, I have learned about the different methods of research including quantitative, qualitative, and the mixed method.  I also learned about special considerations that need to be made when research involves children as well as ethical concerns that come up during the research process. 

                Through this class, I have realized that my initial idea of research being a time consuming and lengthy procedure has not really changed but I have realized the reasons behind why research is not a fast process.  It takes time to develop an idea into an actual research project.  Different angles need to be considered and all of the bases need to be covered before anything can actually be done.

                For my research simulation, I decided to research play therapy.  I realized that I needed to narrow this subject down so I decided to look at how gender relates to the effectiveness of play therapy on children with ADHD.  I was able to take my research simulation step by step and did not come across any major problems.  I believe it would have been one disaster after another if I were just thrown into the research project.  Thankfully, each week I was guided step by step in my research simulation.

                Because of this experience, I have a greater respect for researchers and those in the early childhood field who are involved in research projects.  It is time consuming and exhausting but in the end, the early childhood community is better as a whole because people are dedicated to enhance the lives of children.  For this I am truly grateful. 

                The last 8 weeks have challenged me to become a better student and advocate for children.  I want to thank my fellow classmates for their support throughout this course.  I have enjoyed reading their posts and blogs as both of these areas have helped me expand my knowledge by opening my eyes to other opinions.  It has been a great experience and I look forward to sharing more classes with everyone again soon!

Week 5: Research Around the World

This week I had the opportunity to study Early Childhood Australia’s website (http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/).  Their mission is to “advocate to ensure quality, social justice and equity in all issues relating to the education and care of children from birth to eight years”.   Their website is very organized and easy to navigate.  Their ideas and the information they share is similar to what you would find on the NAEYC website, except the information is geared toward Australia, rather than the US. 

From the home page, you can choose from a variety of topics such as their code of ethics, membership, early childhood news, research themes, and my personal favorite, the catalogue.  By clicking on the catalogue tab, you can be redirected to a long list of categories that offer a wide variety of information.  I decided to choose the category of Preschoolers, as I am a Pre-K teacher at the moment.  I ended up finding 61 different resources that were available to be purchased.  This is a great way to get literature out to parents and teachers.

The Voice, found under the menu tab on the homepage, is a newsletter intended to update its members on what is going on in the early childhood field, as well as inform its members of the organizations current advocacy efforts.  The issue I read (Vol 14, No. 2, 2012), shared an interesting article about how the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) is taking the National Quality Standard one step further by offering and Excellent rating for services that have achieved a rating of “Exceeding National Quality Standard” and maintained this rating for at least two consecutive assessments.  What an awesome way to acknowledge the hard work and dedication that has to go into a program that not only exceeds the National Quality Standard but also maintains it on a day to day basis.

In Early Childhood News this month, was an article urging the support for quality early education and care.  Early Childhood Australia’s chief executive Samantha Page was quoted saying “every child deserves access to quality early education and care services” (http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/early_childhood_news/july_2012_media_release_children_deserve_bipartisan_support_for_quality_early_education_and_care.html).  It looks like the United States isn’t the only one pushing for quality care.

Quality care is a reoccurring theme in the news archive, which dates all the way back to May of 2002.  Politics and government officials were called on to act on behalf of the children and their best interests.  Budgets and funding were also an important topic in the news.  

In addition to the Early Childhood News section, there is also a section entitled Research in Practice Series.  By clicking on the RIPS index tab, a list of current topics will appear.  These topics include partnerships,  diversity, portfolios, engaging families, and storytelling.  Once a selection is made, the resource is shown along with a description of the selection, the published price, and the option to view a portion of the publication through a pdf file.  Another great resource for parents, teachers, or anyone who is a part of the early childhood community!

Research that benefits children and families

If you have been following my blog for a while now, you already know that both of my girls have been diagnosed with ADHD.  I am not fond of medicating children, as I have seen through my profession that there are times when children become over medicated and end up “zoning out” most of the day.  I did not want this for my children so I tried several alternatives before finally having to put my children on medication so they could focus during school hours.

           Since their diagnosis, I have always kept an eye out for articles that deal with ADHD in hopes of some new findings as to new things to try in place of medication.  Anyway, as I was looking this week, I came across an article entitled “Timing of ADHD Medication Affect Academic Progress”.  I was immediately curious about this article because maybe I have been looking at my children’s medication issue the wrong way.

           After reading this article, I realized that maybe taking my children off their medicine or replacing it with something else might not be the best idea.  This article definitely helped me realize that having my children on some medication to help them get through their school day doesn’t have to be a negative thing. 

           I wanted to share this article with you in hopes that maybe it could help you or other families you know understand the importance medication can make on children’s academic progress.  Just something to think about!

Resource

The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine (2012, June 25). Timing of ADHD medication affect academic progress.  Retrieved from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120625065338.htm.

My personal research journey

                Moving along my educational goals with Walden University, the next 7 weeks will cover my research journey.  Although I am a little apprehensive in the beginning, I feel sure that I will be fine, as I have been all along.  I have excellent support through my peers, professor, and other Walden staff so here goes.

                Jumping into the text, we were given an assignment to complete a research chart, which we will be adding to every week as we work through the text book.  Through the research chart, I was able to narrow “the research process” down into ways in which I could understand it better and make it more personal.  The first section was for key terms.  The terms I defined dealt with collecting and analyzing data.  Sampling, validity, and reliability are all key terms in ensuring that the research data collected is accurate and will provide sustainable data for the research being done.  The next section involved highlighting a topic from the text.  The topic I chose was design research.  Through this, I learned that research can follow a plan that you map out from the beginning but it can also deviate depending on the approach you use.  The final section of the chart was for reflection.  I chose to talk about the step of the research process that I thought would be the most difficult for me.  I get overwhelmed when I am faced with a large task, especially when there is a lot of information to read and look through.  Because of this, I felt like formulating a research issue or question would be my hardest task.

                So far in this class, I have chosen a broad research topic then I broke that down into three subtopics.  This week, I was asked to decide which of the three subtopics I wanted to focus my simulations over the next 7 weeks.  For the remainder of this course, I am going to research the topic of play therapy.  I chose this topic because I have been hearing a lot about it from parents of children I teach as well as my daughters’ doctor who suggested play therapy for their ADHD.  I look forward to learning more about this topic and would love for you to share your experiences with play therapy if you have any!