Sharing Web Resources

The organization that I selected was: Harlem Children's Zone (http://hcz.org)
When making my selection, I looked at a few different organizations and Harlem Children's Zone stuck out to me the most. What caught my eye when looking at this website was the slideshow of pictures, the fact that this orgnaization deals with children from birth to post college level, and that this organization sought a need and decided to do something positve about it.

"Harlem Children's Zone began in 1970, to work with young children and their families as the city's first trauncy-prevention program. This program works on a "Whatever it takes" attitude, when working with children to ensure they become successful" (2009, The Harlem Children's Zone)

One trend that really stuck out to me was the programs "Baby College". Baby College is a 9 week extensive program for individuals that are pregnant or raising a child ages 3 and under. Why I find this program interesting is both sides of the family receives the support; the parent(s) are in classes to learn about discipline, how to read, how to nurture, the long term effects of taking care of them both physically and mentally; with the same token the children are also attending and being cared for by high-quality professionals. The children are provided with activities and equipment that is age appropriate, the opportunity to explore hands on, interact with peers, and independence. At the end of this 9week program, the parents go through a graduation ceremony and receive a certificate. Because I am an advocate for assisting children and their families I do believe that individuals who commit and complete the nine weeks, will encourage them to proivde a better lifestyle than the ones in which they grew up in.

I also learned that this organization has many subdivisions underneath of them, and each one plays a vital role to child, families, and the community. Without this vision being acted upon, the city and surrounding cities of Harlem may still have been faced with the low economical poverty level.

Resources
2010, Harlem Children's Zone

Getting Ready-Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

For this assignment, I have selected two individuals who have had and currently still does have a major impact in the early childhood field. Although I have not received a response back from them as of yet, I do look forward to communicating with them and forming a positive dialogue with each person.

The first person is: Delfena Mitchell
She is the Director of the Liberty Children's Home on the outskirts of Belize City. This program houses children from birth to give years old.
The link to her  program is http://www.libertyfoundation.org.uk/and this is where I will continue trying to reach out to Ms. Mitchell, in addition to learning more information about her program. I went about locating Ms. Mitchell on facebook, and found Liberty's group page.

The second person is: Deevia Bhana
She is a Professor of Education at the University of KwaZula- Natal in South Africa.She deals with children and their genders, sexualities, violence, and HIV + AIDS. I had to locate Ms. Bhana from searching for her on the web, for she couldn't be found via facebook.

The two websites that I have chosen to follow are:
National Black Child Development Institue: http://nbcdi.org/
Harlem Children's Zone: http://www.hcz.org/

MY Supports

Personal Definition of "Support": To receive assistance from a person (family/friends/loved ones), place(church/rehabs/medical places/educational university), or thing(Bible/spoken word/music/books)


My daily envrionment:
Work- Other Classroom teacherers/supervisors/director/resource books
- I am provided support from the other teachers within my class, to collaborate ideas and stories from personal experiences.
-My Supervisor and Director provide me support from a leadership perspective, whereas if there's something that I don't understand and or need with a particular child; they will provide some alternative methods to try.
-I often look for and read resource books, because they provide so many different things to incorporate in self and within your classroom. For instance, there's always something new to learn, whether young or old.
* If my work environment supports were to disminish, I think I would be at a disadvantage temporairly; however I would be able to still remain successfully despite the newly arisen challenge. I would just have to work ten times harder, trying to meet deadlines by locating and completing paperwork.


Home- Family and friends:
- What more can I say besides, there's nobody like Family. They shall and will have your back through thick and thin.
* If my Personal supports were to disappear, I think I would be totally lost. Even though I don't necessairly depend on them 100percent, the help and assistance that they do provide me is greatly appreciated and always accepted.

Church- My Pastor/Bible/Mentor:
-These three have been selected as supports because I can go to either of the three with questions and find an answer. I also selected these three because of my deep religious background, and having grown up in the church; this is one place I have not strayed from, even with going away to college where I had nobody to force or command I get up and go to church, it was a self desire.
*If these supports were to disappear, I would be fine becasue i still have a personal relationship with my God, whom lives within me; in addition to knowing the WORD and having it to read daily.


One challenge is how to protect my fortune, after I get rich.
I would want and need a fianancial planner, tax advisor, and a life coach.
I would also use the power of Prayer, because I would donate some to my church as well.
I wouldn't use my work as a support nor friends, because everybody wants to be friendly when you come into money. Family would definetly be a support because I would spread some to each immediate member and nieces and nephews and godchildren and if I have my own children by then.

My Connections to Play

 

Select two quotes that you feel summarize what play represented for you in childhood.

*" A person's a person, no matter how small." - Dr.Seuss
  " Nothing you do for a child, is ever wasted." - Garrison Keillor

Include two to three pictures of essential play items for your younger self.

Describe how people supported play when you were younger and/or the role of play in your childhood.

* Play was supported in a few different areas throughout my childhood. The first and foremos was at school, I can vaguely remember after doing our circle time activities; such as abs, calendar, weather, and helpers chart, we were giving time to play in the classroom. I can also recall recess as the time of the day that all children looked forwad to, because we had 45minutes outside to run around with our friends from other classrooms.

Next, play was allowed at home at the early age. I can remember after beginning kindergarten and first grade, etc. nothing was even considered until the homework was done and checked. My mom never really had a problem with getting my brother and I to go outside and play; because it was something that all th neighborhood kids did once homework was done, and school clothes were changed. We would all meet up on the block; play kickball, tag, footbll (with the boys), racing up and down the block, or if it was a gorgeous day, we would bring our bikes out. Then came dinner time, the streets were; clear, calm, and quiet. We were always told don't rush and eat your food just to go back outside, we have alwayssat down and ate as a family and we will continue to eat s a family. Luckily when the last bite was taken from my parents plate, my brother and I zoomed to clean our spaces and run back outside; which at this point we only had about two hours left before the street lights came on. Those were a sign that if they came on and your still outside; you're in trouble, we had to be physically on our porch with our last foot dragging in the house by time it clicked on to be safe.

One more aspect of play during my childhood, was being involved in sports. From the early age of four or five, I started playing soccer, onto t-ball, which I stayed with for a few years moving up to minors. I left the baseball scene for a few years and joined cheerleading for our local basketball association. I then joined the band in middle school, and later the marching band in highschool; where we traveled to all the games and even participated in competitions on the weekends near and far. I then went back to the bat and ball game during highschool; although now I was in softball, and continued playing softball for our local recreation association as well.

Write a brief entry on how you feel play today is similar or different from the play in which you engaged as a child and what your hope for young is now with regard to play.

* Play today is so very much different now than when I was growing up. Years ago, we wanted to basically live outside; climb trees, play in the mud, get dirty, play with the boys, etc. Now adays, it's almost as if you have to force children to go outside and play, because they have so many other things preoccupying their minds; such as, tv, electronics (video games, ipods, ipads, computers etc.) , cell phones. Another difference from when I was growning up and now, is that the children are lazy and the parents allow the children to sit around. The United States has this problem of Childhood Obesity and one of the reasons is becaue the children are not given and or bing made to go outside, exercise and to do things that children their ages should be doing like running up and down the block, riding bikes, playin tag, throwiong a football, etc.

 

My hope is for the parents and children to see how important being active, and having the opportunity to play is. We are in the time where everything is about technology, which is fine; but we have to know that those things have a time and place, and should not be used as babysitters or to replace active outside time. I would really like to see a turn for the better with children going outside and getting that real-life experience.

Reflecting on Building Relationships

Building and maintaing a relationship is very special. Having people who; love you, are in your corner, there to push you a little farther, and never let you down, are characteristic traits that can not be found in every person in which you meet. It takes a special bond between two, sometimes more individuals in order for a relationship to become productive.

     




These are the two main people that are important in my life. To the left is my mother and the left is my father. I have others, but didn't have a picture. My mother and father have always been supportive of whatever I decided to do. They both would share their opinions and encourage me to press toward the mark of the high calling if that is truly what I would like to do. I believe you can never have enough support, but you have to be careful and make sure that each person in your circle is in it for the right reasons; and my parents, I can say will always have their hearts in the best interest for me. My parents have seen me through my ups and downs during my schooling and switching schools, struggle to complete assignments and the tiredless nights of falling asleep at the computer, to moving forward in my job career, completing my BS degree (with Walden) and making Cum Laude, to starting my own business. I can truly say, I wouldn't trade these two individuals in for the world.

One challenge that I can remember, is having to learn somethings the hard way by trial and error. I came remember times when I had assignments due but my friends called to go out, my parents would remind me that I had work to be done eand of course I chose to go out saying "oh, I only have to write a paper when I come back no big deal" and by time I came back a few hours later, and sat down to do my homework there was only 2hrs remaining. I opened my books and prepared to do my assignment to only realize, I had no clue what I was supposed to do. After trying and trying to make sense of it, I had to wait until the next day to ask the instructor exactly how to do it.

Some of the special characteristics that come from these relationships are: love, nurture, listener, guidance, leadership, and encouragement.

My experiences in dealing with relationships work hand in hand, while working with children and their families. From my relationships, I have learned how to become a better listener which is something that all individuals need who deal with children besides patience. Over the years of growing and maturing, I have developed a trait of guidance and leadership that I can pass on to my children with a modified tool so they can use it at their level. Forming relationships, make communication easiser and more personable if and when it's needed; and when working with children, you're also working with their parents and or caregivers.

Inspirtational Quote / Thanks

"A person's a person, no matter how small."- Dr. Seuss

I chose this quote because I work with the younger age group. Often times, there are special events, activities, and treats for the older children and nothing ever geared for my infants and toddlers (before I moved to preschool). So I began to include my children in each event that was happening and modifying it so that my children were able to enjoy it as well. I was always told "by my boss" that my babies were too young, until they saw my ending appearance and exactly HOW I was able to modify.

"Never underestimate what you are too lazy to try"- Sherrell Widgeon

I would like to personally thank everybody in our class whom I've had the pleasure of; blogging, discussion boards, and working with, during these past 8 weeks. I have truly learned a lot from each of you, and will be taking bits and pieces from each of your wonderful insights and implementing them within my classroom, and or storage for personal knowledge. I look forward to continuing on my Master's program, hopefully with some of you in my furture classes.

I hope and pray that everyone has an uplifting and spirt-filled Christmas, New Years, or whatever holiday that you may celebrate. Stay safe and always safe traveling for those who may be driving for the holidays.

-Sherrell

Testing for Intelligence?

When we observe, assess, and evaluate; we are looking into so many different areas of the child. For instance; the various stages of develpmet, social interaction amongst peers and also their teacher, perception, performance, comprehension, etc. The next process would be if the child is being referred as showing signs of a delay. I do believe all of these areas should be measured; however, not measured based on "general standards", but according to the performance and abilty of each individual child. I feel this way, because each child operates and thinks differently; therefore every chld will not do as well as the next child if one shows signs of being delayed in math but brilliant in writing.

When researching Haiti, I wasn't able tofind much information about the educational aspect in the classroom; however I did find a lot of statistics about 400,000 six to eleven years old are out of school, 38% preschoolers are overaged and 72% being basic age group, as well as the illiteracy rate of thirteen years old and older are 57%. From digging a little deeper, I learned that Haiti does not assess their chldren because "the country suffers from a lack of qualified teachers and inadequate curricula" (2010, Office of The Special Envoy for Haiti)

I really believe that all schools should revisit their guidelines for assessment, because a teacher can not accurately prepare students for testing if they are not allowed to put their 100% inventiveness in it. What I mean, is that the teachers should NOT be mandated to teach per the curriculum, but from experience, sparked interests of the students, and passion. When you release so many controlling chains you tend to have a better outward response, which in this situation would be from the children and their performance levels.

Resources:
2010, Office of The Special Envoy for Haiti