Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

For the first part of the assignment I'm looking at doing the alternative assignment. I hard a really hard time trying to find someone, especially since my computer and internet have been acting up a lot lately. I didn't seem to find anyone to talk to so I feel that its best I do the alternative through the website. I also chose the save the children website because the other two didn't want to work for me. When it came to picking the organization I was drawn to the ZERO TO THREE one. I have a really sore spot when it comes to child abuse from dealing with it as a child so I feel as if I have a personal connection with this organization.

My Connections to Play

 

I chose this quote because I believe it to be true. For anything new to come there has to be an idea and it has to be play with to make sure the idea will work.

I chose this quote because play really is a serious learning tool. Children learn better when they are actively involved in the lesson or activity. Play by definition means to engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation.  So if the children are engaged in the lesson they are in a sense playing and will therefore retain the information easier.

All three pictures I picked are of me when I was younger. There is one with me on my bike because when I was younger I loved to ride my bike around my neighborhood with the other kids. While I was riding my bike I was also learning hand eye coordination. There is one of me on my pet horse. I had that horse for a few years before it broke and I loved that horse. I would ride up and down on that horse and pretend I was a princess. The last picture is me inside a box with my aunt. I had quite the imagination growing up and loved playing inside boxes because I enjoyed all the different scenarios. There was one time I made forts outside using a bunch of boxes I found.

When I was younger I was a single child until the age of 6. So I would often find myself in my room playing with either my stuffed animals or my Barbie’s by myself. I got support from my dad when he was around. I mainly got support from my step mom and my step sister who was the same age as me.  In my opinion play is not a part of today’s society because we to heavily rely on technology.  My youngest brother (13) never learned how to ride a bike because he didn’t want to and partly because he didn’t have to. He had other things to play with growing up such as video games. When I was his age that’s all I did was ride my bike and go swimming or play outside on my swing set.  Even in the classrooms there are too little hands on lessons. The focus has shifted to teaching and standards instead and teaching to make sure the children understand and truly learn. 

Relationship Reflection

Relationships are an important part of life. You need to have people in your life that you trust and can go to in time of need. It’s important to have a relationship especially with family or significant other that you can build upon over time and make that strong connection.  In my life I have my fiancé and my best friend that I can count on for anything. My parents are there to when I need them, but when I moved out that messed up part of our relationship. The key to any relationship is having communication. People aren’t mind readers and can’t always tell what’s going on inside your head so it’s always better to have that person or people to talk to and air out things that are going on. It’s always better to talk about feelings with someone you trust then it is to keep them bottled inside until they explode.  Over the years I have learned that it takes two people to make a relationship work. That is one big challenge I have had with friends is keeping in touch with ones I don’t see on a daily basis. It makes it even harder when they don’t keep in touch either. If I have learned one thing it is that communication is key in regards to any type of relationship. I can take that and apply that to my classroom and work on the relationship between my students and their parents.

When I Think of Child Development

Testing for intelligence

While I don’t agree with standardized testing seeing that growing I had a hard time with them. I do think that students need to be assessed. There are other ways to assess then standardized testing such as one on one or observation.  With all this technology in the classroom it seems that the teachers rely on it too much and when its goes down or something happens they don’t always seem to have a backup plan in mind.

With all the testing done on the computer it seems to hinder the students because they don’t have the hands on ability and that’s how a lot of students learn. 

As the teacher you know to get to know your class and figure out what kind of assessment works best for the whole class and not just for you. That way you will get the best results and truly know where the students are. When I was in school I was a very bright student but I couldn’t take a standardized test. I had severe test anxiety and would clam up during testing. I had to retake the FCAT reading twice so that I was able to graduate because I didn’t get a high enough score to pass in 10^th grade. Due to that I was never able to show I truly did know the work I just couldn’t focus on standardized tests. 

Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

Growing up as a child I experience violence in my life. According to my grandparents I was so malnourished as a child that my hair was falling out and I would always come to them and have new bruises on me due to that I was taken out of my mom custody. I don’t remember any of this only what my family tells me and what I have read in old court papers. My dad also tends to have a temper at times. I do remember one time when I was younger that my dad was fighting with his girlfriend at the time and I got out of bed because I heard the fighting and ended up with a dresser on top of me. My dad pushed his girlfriend into the dresser and because it wasn't properly attached to the wall the top part ended up falling on top of me.  As life went on a similar situation happen with my youngest brother except it was with the Christmas tree that wasn't properly tied to the wall. I have been through a lot of abuse and violence growing up and I ended up suppressing most of it. Until I got into my twenties that’s when I started to rebel against my parents and would sneak off to my boyfriend’s house. Eventually I got caught and it ended up a big huge fight. The biggest fight I had was the day I moved out because my mom didn't want me to but by that time my mind was made up and nothing she could say was going to stop me. I do miss living with them at times but I am happy living on my own with my fiance and I’m only 2 hours away from my family. So I do go and visit often.

Child Development and Public Health

For this topic I had to choose a public heath matter that impacted child development. The one I decided to choose was breast feeding. To me I feel like too many people think of breast feeding in a negative context when in fact it shouldn't be like that. Breast feeding is one of the most beautiful and special time that a mother shares with her baby.  Breast milk is so much better for the baby then formula is and there are so many more nutrients that the child gets. Sure that are times that it may be hard for the mother and baby but in the end it’s all worth it.  In Afghanistan breastfeeding is a common practice. There is an issue though because they are Muslims and have to cover all parts of body. They also have another problem the mother cannot feed her baby in front of male family members.