week 6 class 7

I think the hardest groups to leave are the ones were you accomplished the most.  These are usually the groups that work together the best and probably have similar goals.  The one group that I wished I could have continued with was on the focus group for our school.  I felt the board should have continued some sort of parent group that could have helped disseminate information into the community. 

My colleagues in this program have been great because they have had very insightful comments.  I feel we have had great discussions on the discussion board.  I wish everyone the best of luck with the rest of their classes and everything they do in the future!

class 7 week 5

At work there has been a disagreement between my program and another program.  It has caused problems because there are many times we both visit homes and disagree on what should be allowed when it comes to health and safety.  I think I could use strategies in the win-win approach as well as the 3R’s.  I need to make sure to look at it from their end.  They have a checklist they go by but I am looking at it from an early childhood point of view.  I have an early childhood background and they do not.

Week 4- communicator

This weeks application assignment was interesting.  It showed that my listening style is people oriented.  It also showed that I have mild communication anxiety and have low verbal aggression.

I feel these tests were very accurate.  I am a people person and am always willing to help and listen.  Both people I had take the test on me came up with the same scores.  So I see myself as others do when it comes to communicating.

class 7 week 3

I work with child care providers and legally exempt child care providers.  I have and am currently working with refugee families.  One family is from Somalia.  Her oldest son translates for us.  When I work with someone who translates for me I never know if I should look at the translator or the person. 

Another family I worked with was from Bosnia.  I created and got paperwork translated for this family.  I also bought an English/Bosnian dictionary.

Three strategies I will use:

1.  Learn about the culture and traditions of the family
2.  Active listening
3.  Pay attention to non verbal cues

Communication - Class 7 - week 1

I have a friend and former co-worker who I feel has excellent communication skills.  She is able to get her point across effectively and without upsetting anyone.  I have seen her talk with parents and she has a wonderful way of putting "bad news".  She makes people feel comfortable.  She is a good listener. 
This person is also excellent at written communication.  She has a way with words that I wish I was able to do.  I wish I could write as well as she can.

Class 6 - week 8

My area has a large refugee population so there are times that I work with a number of families from a very diverse background.  This class has taught me that I need to look beyond surface culture and look deeper into who people are.    I hope to be able to learn from the people I work with and I hope to find ways to include the families and the children. 

My goal is to teach child care providers the importance of diversity.  Also I want to develop training on the anti-bias curriculum.  I believe that child care providers tend to ignore where children's backgrounds.  They do not integrate it their program.

I want to thank everyone who has visited my page and left me great comments!!  It has been a wonderful class and I have learned so much.

Week 6 - class 6

I have a friend, who is also a co-worker, who last year came out as a lesbian.  She started out tell a few people because she was worried how people would react.  As more people found out, there were some who treated her differently.  She is out stationed in another office and works around people who are not part of our office.  She had a very hard time because she was treated horribly.  People made insulting and very discriminating remarks.  It made her very uncomfortable.

She went to her supervisor had was told to “deal with it”.  She was needed in the other office and to ignore them.  She hates going to that other office because she feels so uncomfortable.  They made her feel like she wasn’t normal and they treated her like she was not an equal.

I felt so bad for her because she was so hurt.  I was also upset because everyone deserves to work in a safe environment and she was in an unsafe place.  She was trying to deal with these new feelings she had plus dealing with the hateful remarks.

I believe that the Human Resources departments in both buildings should have been involved in order to make this a safe work environment.  I also believe that all people involved she have been made to participate in a class on diversity.