Quote from Cathy Nutbrown

"Pausing to listen to an airplane in the sky, stooping to watch a ladybug on a plant, sitting on a rock to watch the waves crash over the quayside - children have their own agendas and timescales. As they find out more about their world and their place in it, they work hard not to let adults hurry them. We need to hear their voices." ~Cathy Nutbrown I feel like this quote tells a lot about how children stop and recognize the little things in life. As adults we are always in a hurry and forget to realize and see the little things in life. This quote lets us know as teachers that we need to hear the children’s voices and listen to them. We can reach more children by listening to them.

Assessment of Children

When assessing young children we need to be aware of all the areas of development which is what “the whole child” is pertaining too. We need to understand how they socially engage and how they connect with their peers. We need to understand how each child learns and their strengths and weaknesses so we can focus our individualization on those points. Children grow and develop at different levels. We then assess based on each developmental domain; we understand them as a whole child. This should continue as the children become older and maybe even more so. I know that social and emotional development is a key component that children need to develop skills in to fully be prepared for elementary school. As children do become older it is very important to assess them in all areas not just academically. In the United States we seem to focus on assessing children based on academics (cognitive development). “In the United States, a series of federally sponsored tests called the National Assessment of Educational Progress measure achievement in reading, mathematics, and other subjects.” (Berger, 2009, p. 358) States can select their own assessment tests to use also. We want to know how much they know based on a test that is given to them. We do not as a society try to understand what a child knows we just want to focus on what they learned. “One problem with national standards, which is evident on every achievement test, is that states disagree about what they ‘feel children should know” and how they should learn it.” (Berger, 2009, p. 358) When we test with written exams then we can only understand the child based on their written or given answers. Some children do not test well on written exams, but if the test was orally given then the child might have done better. The way we test is truly based on how well the children are able to perform on the tests. If we focused on the whole child and how that particular child learns and how they take tests then we could accommodate the child and their ability to take tests. This would show a better understanding of who that child is and what areas of interest they have. What information they have understood and knowledge they have been able to build upon throughout the school years. Children in Africa have just started focusing on the education of their children and figuring out what the children know at what age. “Over the past decade, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda have adopted free primary education policies, invested substantial amounts of primary education, and as a result, enrollment rates have increased in all three countries.”(Worldbank, 2012) These countries have been sponsored by The World Bank in efforts to reform the education of these countries in East Africa. This reform is called Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and it focuses on the children who attend school and if they are actually learning. Uwezo is an initiative that aims to improve competencies in literacy and numeracy among children aged 5-16 years in Kenya. Tanzania and Uganda “use an innovative approach to social change that is citizen-driven and accountable to the public.” (Worldbank, 2012) Uwezo “adapted the successful Assessment, Survey, Evaluation, Research (ASER) methodology from India and is implementing large scale, citizen-led, household-based assessments of actual levels of children’s literacy and numeracy.”(Worldbank, 2012) These tests are Standard 2 level designed with national curricula. The MDG goals and test results are widely publicized to create broad public awareness and debate to create social and political momentum and stimulate policy change. (Worldbank, 2012) Children in East Africa can benefit a great deal from these tests and assessments. The awareness and publicity is good for the public and for the political leaders. The more the parents collaborate and partner up with education stake holders led by civil society the more they can have policy changes. One of the goals of the program is to increase by 10 percentage points in literacy and numeracy in the three countries. I am not going to talk about what the test scores showed. I want to let you all know that the results were not good but the assessment and tests brought a great awareness to the families, communities, and political policy makers. The assessments were not just about academics either. They went into the community (villages), the household and in to the families. The observers learned that if the mothers of these children were educated then the children were more likely to do better in school and even to go to school. The public awareness for education reform was a big deal for the villages and for the policy makers for East Africa. This Millennium Development Goals brought awareness on how the education for children in this part of the world was. It showed how a village can help educate the children and ensure they all grow and develop in a manner that is sufficient for them to succeed. This assessment was based off of the whole child. They looked at what the village was like, their home life, their family, and if they were able to attend school. The assessment proved that environmental factors play a big part in the education of children in East Africa. References Worldbank, 2012. Creating a National Conversation through Large-Scale Learning Assessments. Retrieved from http://go.worldbank.org/9VWT5W44E0 Berger, K. S. (2009). The developing person through childhood (5th ed.). New York, NY:Worth Publishers

War and how it Affects Children

I wanted to choose something that has affected my own children and our lives which is war. The way war has affected us is not the same as it has affected children in the city of Gaza which is in the country of Palestine. Children in those cities are seeing and fighting a war right in their own backyards. For my family they see war by experiencing their father leaving for deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf, and to Japan. My husband has been on 11 deployments which last from 6 to 12 months. We have moved every 3 years and my children have experienced their dad being gone for over half of their childhood. Anxiety and stress for military children is very high. They become angry, frustrated, emotionally withdrawn and behavior problems seem to be on the rise in military daycares and preschools. I have 3 children and my husband has been in for over 16 years. At the age of 5 my oldest son was so angry and mad all the time that it became a real issue at school. I sought out counseling for him and for our family. My husband was gone most of the time and this took a big toll on my oldest son. My son was and is very close to my husband and he felt abandoned, alone, and withdrawn from my husband. The moving was also a big adjustment for our family. We literally moved every three years and this became more of an adjustment as our children entered school. By the time my oldest son was in 6th grade we thought he had ulcers. This was not the case, the stress and anxiety that he was experiencing was giving him stomach aches and affecting his sleep. He was attending Focus counseling groups at his school. Focus is counseling organization that goes to schools where there are at least 75% of the children enrolled are from military families. The doctor now put my oldest son on a small dose of medication to help him deal with the anxiety and stress of our recent move and the new school. My son still takes this medication at the age of 16, but he is able to sleep now and he no longer suffers from stomach aches or anxiety attacks. The effects of war does not stop with the active duty military the families serve too and the children take it sometimes the hardest. My children are resilient and they do not complain about moving or about having to say good-bye to their dad. My children do not know any different, but the effects of moving, their dad leaving, and knowing he is in a war zone is difficult for children to handle. Children in Gaza experience war in a different way. These children flee their homes and see their friends or family die. The stress and anxiety that children in Gaza face on a daily basis is overwhelming. These children see death daily and live in fear. The psychological damage on children resulted from personally witnessing traumatic events that could seriously impair their mental health. (Lendman, 2012) “For example: 1. 98% of children said they didn't feel safe. 1. 96% didn't think they could protect themselves. 1. 97% thought their families couldn't protect them. 1. 90% heard bombing. 1. 89% saw homes destroyed from it. 1. 65% were forced to evacuate their homes. 1. 61% saw their neighbors' homes bombed. 1. 54% were either physically detained in their homes by soldiers or were trapped inside them during bombings and/or shellings. 1. 55% said they were told that one or more of their family members or relatives were killed.” (Lendman, 2012) Psychologist Hassan Ziyada feels that “These children reported high levels of trauma and insecurity that will impact on the psychological and intellectual development…(They’re) suffering continual long-term trauma due to the psychological, social and economic effects of the war.” (Lendman, 2012) The war effect on children in Gaza is continuing to exhibit “long-term symptoms of hyperactivity, deterioration of their cognitive abilities, intrusive memories and hyper arousal and anxiety.” (Lendman, 2012) Psychologist Hassan Ziyada believes “Children will develop long-term depression from the loss of loved ones and friends that contribute to a feeling of abandonment. He also said, “They’re experiencing physical body pain, headaches, stomach aches, insomnia and aggressive behavior.” (Lendman, 2012) The effects of war are hard to endure. The children of these wars will be leading our countries, how will these wars affect their decisions. Reference Lendman, S. (2012). Zionist War Crimes against Gaza Children. Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Bridgades-Palestine. Retrieved from: http://www.qassam.ps/specialfile-329-Zionist_War_Crimes_against_Gaza_Children.html

Breastfeeding in Uganda

I choose to discuss breastfeeding and the importance of it. I wanted to discuss this topic because I did breastfeed my three children, but it came with a great deal of compromising on my part. I breastfed my oldest son for 6 months, but he had chronic ear infections and was always sick. We lived in Washington State and this climate is hazardous for asthma. My oldest son had difficulty sucking because his nose was always clogged and his ears hurt when he did suck. I stopped nursing and had to use bottles and formula, the struggle of this made me worry and stress. In turn my milk supply started to run short. My next two children were very sensitive to what I ate and had very upset stomachs. A lot of crying, I nursed them for about 4 months. I felt that the bonding and nursing was best for my children, and buying formula was very expensive for my family. I did have wic for my children and I was very thankful for that. I feel that every mother should try to nurse and provide the proper nourishment for their infants. Sometimes it just doesn’t workout, but sometimes it does. I found out that the women in Uganda are highly recommended to nurse for at least 6 months. The UNICEF foundation and WHO recommend this because so many “germs and therefore infection, decreases the frequency with which the baby suckles and therefore decreases the production of breast milk and the supplementary foods are usually nutritionally inferior to breast milk.” (Namubiru, 2009) The mothers in Uganda are supplementing other foods with their breast milk and this in turn hinders the growth and weight gain for the children. Some mothers supplement with cow’s milk, sugar water, juices, and water. This is not a nutritional substitute for breast milk. After six months nutritionists recommend that babies be give two or three meals a day in addition to breast milk. (Namubiru, 2009)) Mothers cannot afford to supplement nutritional food and revert to porage and water. Mothers “lack of knowledge, poverty and social cultural beliefs” affect the nutritional outcome of infants too.(Namubiru, 2009) Uganda mothers feed their husbands first and the infants are given very little and are expected to eat what they are given; without the mother actually feeding it to them or making sure they ate it on their own. “Indicators of poor feeding habits in Ugandan children rise steadily from the age of six months, peaked at about 9-11 months and remain high afterwards. Between 10 -20% of babies in the weaning ages 6-23 months are either too short for their age, too light for their age or height.” (Namubiru, 2009) Large efforts are being done to teach good feeding habits to Uganda mothers and with the continued progress and resources enough households can be reached. I think this article has a true reflection of how the home environment and culture of the home affects the overall development of the children. Without the proper nutrition children are not able to thrive and grow in ways that increases their overall development. This is also true in the United States as well. Some parents do not know or understand what it means to provide nutritional food to their children. Parents sometimes do not understand that the right foods are necessary for their children to grow and develop. Breastfeeding is one way to feed an infant that does not cost the mother any money. However, it does take time and dedication to do; this is where mothers sometimes find it unaccommodating. We have to help those parents that don’t understand the importance of proper nutrition and breastfeeding. We want all children to have the proper nutrition, this is why we have the USDA in the United States and why federally and state funded daycares and preschools adhere to USDA guidelines and regulations. I feel this can be used in my future teaching my discussing healthy foods during meal times and discussing where our food comes from and why it is healthy. We need to start educating our children on proper nutrition and good eating habits, then maybe the children can teach their parents. Reference Namubiru,L.(2009)Breastfeeding is a grey area for Ugandan mothers.Retrieved from: http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/689814

Prenatal care video

Hello everyone, if you happen to click on my blog to read this weeks post on prenatal care please click on the page titled that when you get to my blog. I have a video that was very interesting and it isn't showing up on my blog post but it does show up on the blog page I set up. It is just really interesting to listen too. Thanks Melissa

Prenatal Care in the US and Nigeria

I have a niece that was born 3 months premature. She spent those three months in an incubator and my sister had to stay in the Ronald McDonald house for that time frame. My sister lived 3 hours away and she needed to be close to her daughter and the Ronald McDonald house was a true blessing for her. If you ever go into McDonalds please donate to the box, this service helps a lot of families in time of hardship and need. My niece had to have quite a few blood transfusions and I believe she is not able to have anymore. She had to receive the RSV shots every year and they wanted to give her steroid shots to help her grow, but my sister refused. My niece had been given so much medication and steroids before and my sister wanted my niece to be free from medication. Without the fast acting doctors that delivered her, the helicopter that transported her to the children’s hospital, and the children’s hospital my niece would not be alive today. She weighed 1lb and 6 ozs. The research that has been done and the studies with regards to what premature infants need are remarkable. Those nurses and doctors are skilled and masterful when it comes to taking care of those little babies. It is also amazing to see the types of machines and tools that are used to ensure the premature babies can breathe and function outside the womb. My niece could lie in my dad’s hand, she was that little. My niece is still very little and has some reading comprehension difficulties, but she is 12 and a little spit fire. I decided to learn about the prenatal care and birth rates for Nigeria, Africa. It seems that the lack of medical care, access to medical facilities, lack of access to and or money for medication, and money for treatment are all a large problem for women in Nigeria. “Nigeria, in the past few years has experienced some worsening of child mortality.” (The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health) Anti-malaria medication is a big need for the people of Nigeria, especially expecting mothers, but it seem that accessing this medication and having money to pay for it is a rising problem. So many expectant mothers do not receive prenatal care. Over two third of expectant mothers still deliver at home because they do not have the money or a way to access a medical facility. Mid-wives, nurses, and doctors only attend one third of the births in Nigeria. This explains the “persisting low numbers of births occurring in health facilities and the low number of births attended by trained healthcare service providers.” (The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health) The infant mortality rate is at 100 per 1000 in 2003 and it was 87 in 1990. It seems to be a rising epidemic in Nigeria. The high mortality rates and the lack of access to or use of quality delivery services is an issue of immense importance in Nigeria. Mid-wives and nurses are the closest prenatal care that most women in Nigeria area able to afford and have access too. “Only six in ten mothers receive antenatal care from a trained medical professional.” (The Partnership for Maternal Newborn & Child Health) If expectant mothers received prenatal care then the major causes of neonatal mortality in “Nigeria—neonatal tetanus, malaria, and maternal anemia,” (The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health) can be prevented. Nigeria is a poor country with severe consequences for the lack of prenatal care. Once women have their children it is rare that they live past the age of 5. “The under-five mortality ratio in Nigeria is 201 per 1000 live births meaning that one in five Nigerian children never reach the age of 5.” (The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health) Infant deaths account for half of child mortality. Nigeria suffers from a lack of prenatal care for pregnant women and for regular health care for infants and children. Only 13% of immunizations occur for children between 12-22 months. Nigeria has the lowest vaccination rate. Children also suffer and die from acute respiratory infections and diarrhea. It is clear to me that the health care and facilities readily available for families in the United States is a great account of how wonderful our country is. It is very hard to realize how incredibly difficult it is for expecting mothers to receive prenatal care and even have care for their newborn. Having a child in Nigeria is very different from having a child in the United States. It is getting better with the help and cooperation from the Partnership Grant. “The Nigerian Ministry of Health has been tasked with coordinating actions and partners in accelerating the reduction in maternal, newborn and child mortality.” (The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health) In 2007 the Nigerian Ministry of Health held a conference and collaborated with the MNCH to launch the national Nigeria Partnership for Maternal Newborn and Child Health. This will help expectant mothers and the children of Nigeria receive the health services and care that they so desperately need. I see some similarities in the health care for families in Nigeria and in the United States. Not all families can afford prenatal care or health services for their children, but each state in the United States does offer medical assistance for low income families so they can receive the care needed. In Nigeria there is no health care established for low income families and in turn the mortality rate for children is very high. That is a big difference from the United States. If my sister had her daughter in Nigeria, she probably would of died along with her daughter. The overal development for children as you can see in the US is very high for them to survive after birth. The extension of their overal development as they grow older highly depends on their SES, culture, and home environment. In Nigeria the overall development for children to survive after birth is very low and their survival rate past the age of 5 is extremely low too. Hopefully the Partnership Grant and the other chartities seen in the video will increase Nigerian children's development from birth and above the age of 5. References Retrieved from The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health website: http://www.who.int/pmnch/activities/countries/nigeria/en/index1.html Retrieved from You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=LEPfECoMj8k

NAEYC and Dec Code of Ethics

Respecting children for their indiviualization is part of being a teacher. 
NAEYC Ethical Responsibilities to Children, Ideals, 1-1.3---To recognize and respct the unique qualities, abilities, and potential of each child.  I posted to week 7's blog assignment and felt this picture was a true example of how we must respect the children we teach.  Check out my NAEYC and DEC posting!!!

Course Resources

Hello to everyone.  I have added a new page to my blog that has valuable resources for students, parents, and teachers.  I added 3 resources of my own and I hope you find them to be resourcesful.  I am posting just my resources, but you can find the resources from week 5 also on my blog.  Have a great week everyone. 

Reading and finding the resources to build your knowledge in Early Childhood is vital to keeping up with new research and fundamental ideas to help you better understand children. The following are three books that I read while attending the University of Cincinnati. I found them all very easy to read and full of information that has helped me in the classroom and with trainings that I hold.

Jones, E., & Reynolds, G. (1992). The Play's the thing... Teachers' roles in children's play. New York, NY:Teachers College Press.

This book shows how children learn through play and how the learning environment we create for them is key to helping them learn. The book also shows us how we are as teachers. If we are players, mediators, stagemanager or if we interrup the play. It is a good representation of how all teachers teach, but it also shows us how to improve our learning environment for all the children.

Gopnik, A., Meltzoff, N., & Kuhl, P. The scientist in the crib: What early learning tells us about the mind.New York, NY:HarperCollins Publishers. Inc.

This book is so amazing to read. I never thought about how infants develop their minds by first using their hands, eyes, legs, and their environment. We know that is how they learn, but really understanding how this happens and how we can help them is important.

Paley, V., (1990). The boy who would be a helicoper: the uses of storyteling in the classroom. Cambridge, Massachusetts:Harvard University Press.

This is a wonderful book that helps you to understand how not all children relay information to others in the same way. When we truly watch and listen to children we see that they all tell their stories differently. This book demonstrates how one particular boy tells his story and it is a bit difficult to understand, but once you get started it becomes easier and you can't put it down.  
 
 

Professionals with Passion

I have found that every professional that I quoted has a unique approach and passion for children that can be link to their childhood. 

 

People who have Passion and Motivation for children, families, and communities.  Check it out on my blog.  Melissa Weaver

                                                     

"It’s okay for children to become bicultural.  It’s not okay to take their home culture away from them.  (Gonzalez-Mena, 2008)

“I have a built-in empathy for poor children, as well as a deep belief, based on my own life, that just because you're poor that doesn't mean you're inadequate.” (Zigler, 2007)

 “What do I do so naturally that perhaps might seem to be natural to me might be a challenge to others.”

Leticia Lara LCSW                                                                                                                                               Regional Manager                                                                                                                                    Outreach & Professional Development                                                                                                                                                     Zero to Three                                                                                                                                              

 Louise Derman-Sparks, Professor Emeritus, Pacific Oak College, CA

“A built in passion that is important to make a real contribution to the world to fix all the injustices within the world.”             

Personal Childhood Web

Hello All,
I posted my Personal Childhood Web yesterday, but figured out a better way for it to appear on my blog.  Sorry, I don't live by any family and I don't have any pictures from my childhood in my home.  We move so often and I don't want to lose any; so I left them with my parents when I moved away form home 17 years ago.  Melissa

Favorite quote

                         

We are all alike we are all different we are all children.

 

I came across this quote when I had my CDH home and fell in love with it. I have it posted in my room on my parent board. 

 

This is a picture of my daughter and me after we attended our first Mardi Gras parade 2010 down here on the Gulf Coast.  My daughter is now 9, but I don't like my picture taken and I don't have one of when I was younger.  She is pretty much the spitting image of me so I guess it is one of me younger and one of her older.  LOL  Melissa 

Looking at it makes me sad though, she is now 11 and is almost as tall as me. 

Picture and quote

 When I was in school at the University of Cincinnati we learned about literacy charts and how it helps to develop langauge, literacy, and social skills.  This chart is easily done and can be used to extend the book or song.  I have one in my room that is about whose here today, and we go around the room changing out the names and pictures as we sing the song.  Not sure if any of you have seen this done or have used it, but it is a great way to extend the learning into other areas of the classroom.  I thought I would extend on the Brown Bear book and how we can use it in many differen ways.
The top picture shows the sentence strips that get added and taken away next to I see a_______. This got laminated and I added velcro to the back of the sentence strips and to the other sentence strip on the board.  I then used the larger pieces, like you see the duck and bear as felt board pieces for the children to use to retell the story.  I then placed additional sentence strips as seen above with books, and writing utensils in the writing center for them to write their own story.  Great way to extend Jay's book into the other areas.  

Week 2

Hello all,
Well I see that I am able to add but not see the feed for all of you.  Not sure why I cannot get the feed for everyone.  If anyone knows what I did wrong, please let me know. Jay and Paula I cannot get a feed for yours.  Melissa

Hello

Hello all, still trying to figure this out.  Melissa