My Connections to Play

“It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.” Leo F. Buscagli

“Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold.” Joseph Chilton Pearce

As a young child my parents supported my play in many ways. They encouraged me to be creative and to think outside the box. I wasn't able to sit inside and watch tv or play video games. I had to use my imagination and be outside. I remember playing a lot outside and using the things around me as props. As a child, some of my favorite toys were books. I would sit and pretend that I was reading. I would ask my mom and dad to read to me. And I had books memorized and would know if they weren't reading them correctly or skipped a page. Musical instruments and toys were also really important to me as a child. I started playing the piano at a young age and practicing made my heart happy.  Not only did I play music but I listened to music as well. Some of my favorites were New Kids on the Block and Beach Boys! :-)

I feel play has changed throughout the years. I know that when I was a child I had toys and used my imagination. Today, I feel like kids have a lot of access to video games, electronics and television. I know the times have changed but I also feel the electronics have taken away some of the value that toys can bring.

Relationship Reflection

Throughout the week I have reflected on my past and how many of my relationships have changed and evolved over time. I have changed and grown over the past few years and with that I have grown away from people I thought I would be friends with forever and stayed connected with others'.  I have met new friends and said goodbye to old friends. The most important relationships in my life at the moment are with people I know will be a part of my life forever, they are a balance between the old and new. 

My husband:

Donnie and I met in October 2011. We went on a great first date but I wasn't sure about it.  Donnie on the other hand had other thoughts! He says he knew I was "the one" from the moment he saw me and was persistent on seeing me in again.  I took two months of us growing a friendship before I would agree to go on another date. Once I did, I saw what he saw and we were inseperable.  We got engaged just a short 2 months later and our wedding was in August of 2012.  Our relationship is strong because he is my best friend! We do almost everything together! And he supports me with everything. I have learned to believe in my self and trust that he will always have my back.  Our ability to communicate and talk about everything is what I appreciate the most! 

My puppies:

Yes, you counted correctly there are FOUR! These four dogs have been a big part of our family.  I had two when I met Donnie.  He had one and then we got one together! You could say we are a Brady Bunch sort of family! Bentley and Jagger my original two have seen me through some dark days. I had a really tough year in 2011 and without them I don't know if I would have made it through! They brought me sunshine when my days were dark! I learned what the saying "dogs are a man's best friend" really means! 

My granny:

This woman is the most strong and inspirational woman I have ever met. She is genuinely my favorite person in the world! Our relationship is more than just a granny and granddaughter! She is a piece of my heart.  She has loved and supported me when no one else would.. She has taught me what it means to love and be loved! She has shown me what unconditional love and acceptance is.  Without our relationship I wouldn't be who I am today. Without her I wouldn't be striving to be half the woman she is!

Nick:

Nick and I have been best friends since our sophomore year in high school! He is someone who I have grown up with. He is a part of my past I am lucky to still have in the present! Our friendship has given me a sense of security.  He is the friend I know I can call in the middle of the night. He is the person that will be there for me in the event that my husband can't be. He has taught me how to be a friend and what true friendship is. Our friendship hasn't changed even as our lives I have.

Each of these relationships has taught me different things. I am the person I am today because of the people I  just shared with you.  There have been challenges along the way with each relationship.  However, it is a reflection of how strong our relationship is that we were able to work through those challenges and come out victorious. The challenges we have faced has only made our relationship stronger! I am thankful each day these people are in my life!

Thanks to all...

Children are one third of our population and all of our future.  ~Select Panel for the Promotion of Child Health, 1981

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.  ~Stacia Tauscher

Dear Colleagues,

I am always reflective at the end of a class.  I think back to the beginning and how I was nervous; would I remember the days assignments are due?, Would anyone comment on my blog or discussion board? Will I be able to do the course work and work full time?.  Now that we are at the end of the class, I am thankful for all of you who made it easy and comfortable.  I am thankful that I was able to communicate with a group of professionals who bring a diversity and love to a field I am passionate about.  I have learned and grown from each one of you.  Thank you for all of the comments, tips and personal stories.  I have applied many of the strategies and ideas that we have discussed throughout the 8 weeks to my own classroom and seen some wonderful results.  I wish you all the best in your future classes and hope to have a class with you again.

Thank you,

Amber

Testing for Intelligence

I have thought a lot about this topic throughout the week.  While I believe that children should be assessed and progress should be monitored I don't agree with the idea of standardized tests.  As a special education teacher, I measure progress differently than my general education co-workers.  What their students may learn in a week may take my students months.  Because I teach special education many of my students are not required to take standardized tests.  With that said, I don't believe general education students should be required either. 

Best practices show that differentation within teaching and learning is a key to success for students'.  Why then are we requiring students to take the same test without any regard for differentiation? Unique learning styles is another concept that is important to consider when assessing.  I don't believe standardized tests measure how much students know rather how well they can memorize information and convert it to bubbled answer sheets.  Application of concepts is just as important as memorization.  How do we know that students can take the concept of addition/subtraction skills on a test and convert them to balancing a checkbook or making change at the grocery store? 

Many teachers are now pressured to "teach to the test" which limits the creativity of teachers and stiffles engagement of students.  Would it not be better to teach addition/subtraction or money skills to students through real life application? Isn't that the ultimate goal?

Personally, I am not a good test taker. I would study hard but it never reflected on my test scores. When I got my MEAP scores (Michigan tests) or ACT scores back my heart sank at the score.  What that score told me was that I was "stupid" and wouldn't be successful in college or in life.  It brought my self-esteem down which probably caused me to do worse the second time around. And followed me through to college and the teacher prep tests that had to be taken. But the the truth is it didn't measure my ability to be successful or how smart I was, it measured how well I could take a test. I am living proof that standardized tests don't accurately reflect how much a child knows but how well it can be transferred.  I believe teachers' should be given back the creativity to teach students' content and students' should be tested on how well they can apply concepts they have learned to everyday situations.

I chose to research education in China. I did this because I often hear how China has the strongest education system, how some believe it is surpassing the United States in education and I wanted to learn more about it. Here are some facts:

- There are four levels of education in China: primary, junior middle, senior middle and higher education.

- All students have 9 years of education. Students are required to complete primary and junior middle education but may go on to senior middle and higher education by passing exams.

- The exam focuses on core subjects but also physical and sports education, moral and political education. How well the students do on this exam determines the quality of their senior and vocational schools.

- In order to be accepted into a University students' must take the National College Entrance Exam. Admission is determined mainly on the results of the exam but investigation into the students' moral and social character may also be considered.


References:

Living in china: The education system in chinga. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.liuzhou.co.uk/china/educationinfo.htm

Stressors and Development

The story I am sharing is two-fold. It highlights the issue of poverty and also disaster. The school district I worked for in Michigan was the biggest and poorest in the Western Michigan area. Most of the kids at the school I worked for were living in poverty. They didn't have adequate coats, shoes or food. It was nearly impossible to reach parents' because phones had been shut off or they didn't own one. The children were constantly moving to different apartments because they got evicted and couldn't pay.  Many families lived with relatives to save money because of this many of the children slept on the floor, shared a bed with siblings or cousins or didn't have a bed at all. Over 90% of our school recieved free lunch because of their families income.  My classroom was no exception. All of my 6 students recieved a free lunch.

Antwaine came into my classroom half way through my first year teaching. He was a big, bright eyed child who had a love for music and drawing. He instantly made a place in my heart and we became close. I remember the first time I met him.  He came with him mom and baby sister to sign up for school. I showed him the classroom and where he would be sitting. They were in a hurry though because they had to catch the bus back home. See, Antwaine's family didn't have a car and it was an hour bus ride to get to school. His mom had taken two young kids on the bus to get there. I was in shock! A few months later, Antwaine had missed a couple days of school. I called to see if everything was okay and couldn't get through. The secretary had been trying as well. She finally got a hold of someone in his family and had learned that there had been a fire at Antwaine's apartment. Everyone was okay but they had lost everything. They were staying with some friends out of the distirct but because they didn't have a car Antwaine couldn't get to school.  As a school, we donated and pooled resources to help his family as much as we could. He was able to come back to school a couple weeks later but he was more reserved, quiet and didn't want to talk about what had happened. I respected his choice but encouraged him to talk to me if he didn't it. I did the only thing I knew to do: give him something familiar, establish normalcy.

He moved the following year but I have never forgotten him or his story.  Poverty is an issue that is global and we all know someone who has been effected by poverty... It was hard for me to choose one region that is being effected by poverty because EVERY region is effected. So, I gathered some facts about poverty in America and throughout the world.

Poverty in America:

Poverty is defined as the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions (wikipedia.org, 2012). The american poverty rate is increasing. In 2010 the nations poverty rate was 15.1% or 46.2 million people. This is the highest it has been since 1993. The poverty level for 2011 is 22,350 for a family of four. And nearly 60% of American's will spend at least one year in poverty between the ages of 25-75 (Poverty in the united states, 2012).

Poverty throughout the world: (Shah, 2010).

UNICEF reports that over 22,000 die each day due to poverty. Most of these children die quietly in remote villages.

27-28% of children in developing countries are considered to be malnourished, underweight or stunted. The two areas that make of the bulk of this are South Asia and sub-Sahran Africa.

The number of children living in the world is 2.2 billon. The number of children living in poverty is 1 billion which means every other child is living in poverty.

References:

Poverty in the united states. (2012). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_poverty_guidelines

Shah, A. (2010). Poverty facts and stats. Retrieved from http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats

Child Development and Public Health

The public health topic that interested me the most was immunizations. This topic is very relevant to me in my teaching career because I teach children with autism. There have been many claims by parents that once their child received the MMR vaccination their child started showing signs of regression and autism.  I have worked with several parents who believe this and who have decided NOT to vaccinate their children.  There are conflicting reports some researchers say vaccinations do not cause autism while others believe they do. Recently, a study stating that autism was not caused by vaccinations has been called into question. 

The area of the world I researched was Africa. I choose this region because I know there is a lack of vaccinations and I wanted to learn more about what is being done to help this problem. For many years, vaccinations in Africa have been subpar.  Vaccination rates have dropped over the last 10 years in low income countries including Sub-Saharan Africa.  Vaccination rates peaked in 1990 with 55%, however, that rate has dropped to 33% in 2000.  This decline has left many children with a lack of immunizations and at an increased chance of catching a disease.  The lack of immunizations can be attributed to many different things including weak health service delivery systems, civil unrest and a lack of commitment by governments. There are now programs to help with vaccinations. The goal of these programs is to administer three doses of DPI to 80% of a determined population.  The programs also want to increase funding, strengthen government health systems and implement new technology and vaccinations Miller, Sentz, 2006).

References:

 Miller, M., & Sentz, J. (2006). Vaccine-preventable disease. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2284/

Birth!

When I originally read the blog assignment for this week I was very unsure what to write. You see, I have never given birth or experienced someone giving birth. All of my girlfriends are single or had children before I met them. I was too young to remember my siblings birth and I certainly don't remember my own.   I contimplated for a long time what story I would write for this blog. 

The only birthing experience I have any personal knowledge of is my own. This is not because I remember anything about my own birth, however, I was home in Michigan for the holiday's and my mom shared with me a journal she had written about being pregnant with me, the story of my birth and a few stories throughout my first year. She gave this journal to me because I am 11 weeks pregnant with my first child and she wanted me to be able to read her thoughts and feelings about being pregnant and encouraged me to share my own feelings about it.

So, let me share with you the story of how I was born. :-)

My birth didn't go according to plan.  My parents went into the hospital on a Wednesday at 8 pm. My mom had been feeling contractions all day on Tuesday but they were not regular or intense, however, all day Wednesday they became increasingly tense and more regular. They admitted my mom an hour after monitoring her.  They broke her water and hooked her up to an IV and attached a fetal monitor to my scalp (good thing I have no memory of this).  She had difficulty relaxing and concentrating because there was a problem with my heartbeat. My heart rate kept dropping and they doctors were watching it closely.  The doctors decided it was time to go into delivery. They discussed a C-section but then I stabilized and my mom began pushing.  When she started pushing I went into distress and they rushed her into an emergency C-section. My mom was put under anestisia and my dad couldn't be in the room. It turned out the cord was wrapped around my neck and was causing the falling heart rate.  I was fine once I had been delievered. My mom woke up later in recovery and saw me for the first time in my dad's arms.

I had been told this story before, however, reading it in my mom's words really impacted me.  I don't remember any of this and I am now a healthy 28 year old, married with my own child on the way.


Birth on other areas of the world:

When researching different birthing practices around the world I came across an interesting article on parents.com that talked about several different regions. One of the regions I found most interesting was Japan. I know nothing about Asian culture and figured this would be a good learning experience for me.

In Japan, a majority of women give birth without painkillers. Doing this relates to a Buddhist practice of suffering. The labor and pains of delivery act as a test for women in preparation for the role of motherhood.
Most women give birth in a hospital which is similiar to the US and my own story.  Father's can only be present if they have taken prenatal course and if a c-section is performed they may not be in the room. The hospital stay in Japan is longer than in the US. Women who give birth vaginally may stay up to 5 days and those who have a c-section may stay up to 10.  Another interesting custom is that the mother and child stay at the mother's parents house for a month after giving birth. It is also tradition that mother and baby stay in bed for 21 days and at that time friends can stop by to visit.


References:

Schalken, L. (2012). Birth customs around the world. Parents Magazine, Retrieved from http://www.parents.com/pregnancy/giving-birth/vaginal/birth-customs-around-the-world/?page=4