WK3: Observing Communication

I observed an interaction between a preschool teacher and a preschooler in the classroom. The teacher heard that the child’s grandmother had passed away. At snack time, she talked with him, saying “I heard your granma has passed away.” He nodded. She asked, “Are you sad?” with empathetic tone. He nodded again and his eyes looked a little wet with tears. She said, “You know, it is OK because she is going to watch you all the time now and you even have a great granpa.” He nodded and smiled a little bit and went back to eating his snack.

 

What I learned is that adults should not avoid conversations about the loss of an intimate person or something sad that happens to a child because I’ve noticed that the child understood a sad event that happened to him and that he looked happy about having caring adults around when he was having a hard time and so he could share his feelings.

 

Lisa Kolbeck talked about how she encourages children to talk and listen to each other and spread their play by her talking about scientific factors (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011). I think the teacher could have included his classmates with permission from his parents. I think he was able to learn that he could be sad and tell it to an adult from the interaction with the teacher. If his peers tried to support him with this, he would notice that his friends are with him when he has a hard time and he could do the same for his friends when they have hard times. Also his peers will be able to learn how they should act when somebody is sad.

 

I think that the teacher’s showing her concern for him helped him to notice that he is supported and cared. I also think he felt that he is seen as an important person instead of a helpless child with the fact that the teacher talked about the event which is hard for a child to understand and deal with.

 

I try to talk about topics that are difficult for children by making them simple. I think this part is similar to the teacher. However, if I was in her place, I might have been nervous about talking about it and that could have made an awkward atmosphere. But the teacher brought this conversation up very naturally. I think this example will improve my communication with children because I think I may sometimes sound unnatural because I think too much or try to be too careful about how I say things. I believe that children will not open their hearts if I sound like I have agenda hidden behind my words.

Reference

Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). Strategies for working with diverse children. Baltimore, MD: Author.

WK: Creating Affirming Environments

I would make my setting reflect diverse cultures visually and with sound because I want all the children to feel the classroom is theirs. I would decorate the walls with posters and pictures of people from different countries and scenery from daily life in different types of places all around the world such as markets, buildings and festivals. I also put up words in different languages and play music from different cultures. 

The thing I would want to put my biggest effort into would be toys. It is because toys appeal visually and are things that children use the most and naturally have interest in the most. I also think that using toys from different cultures is a good way for children to learn about cultures and make children barrierless towards new cultures and people from different cultures. Starting from having dolls that reflect races and cultures, I would like to get toy food that reflect different cultural norms, blocks from buildings from different countries, traditional toys, and stuffed toys based on characters that are popular in other countries.

Above is an example of toys that reflect Japanese culture. I would collect these kinds of toys from different countries.

Adriana shows the decorations of cultural things that families brings. I think this is a good idea. I also would ask children and families to draw what they do outside of the school or what is important to them.  I would have time for them to talk about and teach me and other children things from their cultures such as dances, songs, foods, methods making animals with origami and so on.

Strategies for Working with Diverse Children