Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

This week we have solely been focusing on identity development, cultural influence and how family bias may have illustrated as the correct way to be in childhood.  We have also spent time on discussing sexual orientation and how we feel about this subject.  We were asked choose topics to discuss related to our resources this week and I chose to discuss my response to a parent or family member who stated that they would not want a homosexual or transgender to care for their child or interacting with their child.  I really had to do some thinking on this matter because it is my job to respect the wishes of parents and make them as comfortable as possible in the environment, but it is also my job to not be bias toward any other staff or colleagues that I partner with.  In this situation, having a productive one on one conversation to discuss reasons why he or she feels that way is my first step.  I would then discuss the goal of the learning community and express that sexual orientation has nothing to do with how well you teach, care for, and interact with children.  I would respect everything that is discussed but could not make promises as to who the child’s teacher would be.  The ultimate goal for our children is to provide a productive, progressive and healthy development for advancement in education and life.                                                     

I have not witnessed terms such as “fag”, “lesbo”, “sissy”, etc in my childhood years, but I heard them greatly in my high school days.  Where I am from and during that time, homosexuality was rising to the charts in the schools and other peers would definitely reveal biases toward these individuals.  I had friends who were homosexuals and I did not feel uncomfortable around them because I never publicly saw them do anything disrespectful to others.  They just dressed different from others or walked different from others.  I have even heard teachers in the classrooms make comments such as these.  These comments can definitely make children think that homosexuals can be harmful and it could make them curious to what it is being a “fag” “lesbo” “sissy”, etc. It hurts their view on people in general and teaches them that it is fine using that type of terminology. 

IT DOES NOT STOP HERE!!

Well, to my fellow classmates, this is a farewell of love and appreciation from the depths of my heart for the feedback, support, comments, suggestions, and much more that we all have shared together.  I remember feeling so scared to speak much during classroom discussions because I was too afraid that I would sound silly.  This was difficult for me to get use to because I felt like I did not fit in with everyone else.  During introduction,  I was merely the only one in class with NNNOOOOO childhood experience ever.  Biology major, tutored students here and there in undergrad, but not lengthy enough for credit.  i could not relate to what everyone else could and I almost threw in the towel!!  I am so thankful that I found my backbone and decided to keep moving forward with this program!  I have learned so much from all of you that will never depreciate in value.  Thanks for everything and I hope that all of you remain faithful in your studies!  Hope to share another course with you all!  Be blessed.

The five stages of development definitely are constructive for team effort of an ultimate goal.  We as people sometimes do not realize the importance of teamwork and how much easier it is to reach the ultimate goal.  In Abudi’s article, she states that in order to identify whether a team is effective, characteristics included are:

 •Clear communication among all members.  (Abudi, 2010)

 •Regular brainstorming session with all members participating.  (Abudi, 2010)

 •Consensus among team members.  (Abudi, 2010)

 •Problem solving done by the group.  (Abudi, 2010)

 •Commitment to the project and the other team members.  (Abudi, 2010)

 •Regular team meetings are effective and inclusive.  (Abudi, 2010)

 •Timely hand off from team members to others to ensure the project keeps moving in the right direction.  (Abudi, 2010)

 •Positive, supportive working relationships among all team members. (Abudi, 2010)

To elaborate a little on the adjourning stage, I can say that there are not many groups or teams that I have been a part of that made it difficult for me to say good-bye.  I guess because majority times that I was a part of a team, it was not enough team effort put forth for effectiveness.  It usually would be team members who would try to put their tasks on others or not support each other.  In my senior year of college, I would have to say that it was hard for me to say good-bye to my cheer sisters.  We definitely experienced the five stages of team development.  We built very strong friendships and trusted each other to get things done, no matter what we had to do to get it done.  We took responsibility (as a team) for everything that was done wrong as well as right and never criticized or pointed fingers about mistakes.  We supported each without a doubt and was respectful when expressed opinions and concerns.  Being a part of this team was one of the truest experiences ever and I will never forget the hard work and commitment that we put into whatever task at hand.  We definitely were a high performance group and it was very hard to say goodbye.  We agreed to keep in touch and network with each other past our college career.  This experience that I have played such a huge part as being a student of this master’s program has been overwhelming at times but great as well because I have met such great people along the way.  From the instructors to my colleagues, I cannot express the gratitude for all the important information exchanged and ideas and thoughts that has been shared with me.  We all work together with the same focus and it makes our relationships special.  For a person who has little experience in the field of early childhood, I appreciate the understanding and respect that we have for each other. It would be hard for me to adjourn because we notice what we have in common with each other and have built this great relationship and have to move on with our lives.  Adjourning is an essential stage of development because it is the moment to celebrate all accomplishments and commend everyone on a job well done and to express personal conclusion.  I have enjoyed my colleagues thus far and am now readily prepared for our separation in the near future.         

References

Abudi, G. (2010). The five stages of team development: A case study. Retrieved from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-five-stages-of-team-development-a-case-study.html

Conflict Resolution
 
I have definitely experienced conflict lately at work with my supervisor for the fact that she often abuses her position of authority.  The strategies that I am going to share are empathy and mediation.  I would definitely use the empathy skill because she does not actively listen.  She normally just hears what she wants to hear and says things that are hurtful.  I would use mediation because she does not realize her wrong until the middle person points the middle finger at her.  Mediation would definitely open her eyes to problems and hopefully will give her a reason to reevaluate what she does and how she treats people.  I could definitely use principles on nonviolent communication because it would remind me of the mutual respect we should have for each other.

Perception and Communication

During this week’s assignment, I have realized the importance of perception and how it affects communication.   Everybody perceives things differently and that does not mean that one person is right and the other is wrong.  It also does not mean that communication between individuals who have different perspectives require more understanding, negation, persuasion, and tolerance of those differences. 

In completion of the assessments, there were more similarities than differences when comparing all three.  It was similarity in the fact that I can become slightly more interested in communication and that I am empathetic when I listen to others.  I was surprised the most about being slightly aggressive with others, because I rarely get into altercations with others or become negative.   Sometimes I will make corrections when I know something is not done correctly by others, but I do not feel that I express them in a negative fashion. 

The insights that I gained about communication this week is that perception can come from how we grew up, and the likes and dislikes that we experience within our lives.  Once we decide upon our views of life, I understand that people are influenced by their life positions, in how they think, feel, act, perceive, communicate and relate to others.  I have learned to listen attentively and to repeat exactly what the other person is saying.  I have learned to be more aware of nonverbal body language as well.  All of these insights can definitely help me professionally because it helps with the development of interpersonal communication within the working environment, it helps to establish openness within a professional environment, and it helps to explore perceptions of one another as a way to have more goals and objectives for communication. 

Now that I think about, I definitely communicate differently with people of different groups.  The people that I interact with on almost a daily basis include co-workers, young children, slightly mentally challenged adults, Muslims, people who are in same-sex relationships and the male gender as well.  Of course we all know that communication is needed to advance in life and build effective social skills for survival.  The way that I communicate with others depends on where we are, the age range, and social status.  When around my co-workers, I communicate freely in any form or fashion because I work strictly around other women who relate to many things as I.  We talk relationships and love, and we also talk about our children and roles as mothers.  I feel the most comfortable communicating and interacting with them because we have plenty in common.  When I interact with young children, including my daughter, I have to communicate in words and ways that they should understand and be the authoritarian as well.  Communicating with children is definitely fun and eventful because I always try to do and say things that teach them fundamentals for school.  Age appropriate communication is how I communicate with them.  Every weekend I am around someone who is slightly mentally challenged and I communicate with her depending on how she is feeling.  She has mood swings constantly and I have to filter the things I say and be sure to give her the attention she thinks she deserves.  We have conversations about my child and how she wants to get her driver’s license.  I have to communicate with her on teenager’s level in order for her to relate and understand what is spoken.  When it comes to interacting with people of the Muslim religion, I do not converse much, because I feel uncomfortable talking.  From experience, whatever I speak about around them strikes insensible feelings because they seem to correct the lives of others.  I personally respect them, but I rarely hold conversations so that I stay optimistic and eager about life.  I interact with people with same-sex relationships often and I feel comfortable around them because they tend to be “down to earth” people and are the honest people I have met thus far.  They speak what is on their mind and are not afraid/ashamed of who they are.  I normally have relaxed communication with them because we joke around and use slang.  With the male gender, I usually communicate with them in uptight surroundings because they tend to be bias toward gender.  There are few things that I communicate with males because we lack similarity roles in everyday life.  If I communicate with males it is usually about work or business.  This assignment has opened my eyes to the multiplicity of communication skills that I partake daily.  I value the relationships that I am a part of and am more aware of the effective communication skills that I use on a daily basis.

Communication Skills: Language, Nonverbal, Listening

I watched an episode of Sex and the City and the relationships I noticed were up close and personal relationships with couples in the show. I assume that these characters were either married or dating.   Holding hands, kissing, hugging, smiling, frowning, crying and looks of confusion are body gestures that I observed throughout the show.  I assumed that maybe the couples were having deep conversation about their relationship.  I observed facial expressions and body gestures that appeared to be results from an argument or altercation, or even receiving bad news of some sort.  When I watched the show with the sound on, I hear conversations of married couples involving fantasies to make the men happy.  As a result, some of the women agreed and a couple of the women were upset about it.  After listening, I clearly understood why I observed smiling and hugging from some and crying and frowning from others.  I would not have ever guessed that “fantasies” was the topic of discussion of the show based on nonverbal communication.  What I learned from this experience is that nonverbal communication can be deceiving.  As I witnessed in the show, you can receive a hug and a smile from someone, but speak words such as “I will kill you and that’s a promise”, which is very contradictive.

Blog Assignment Week  1

When dealing with communication, we all have our strengths and our weaknesses.  Communication is needed to help begin, maintain, and end relationships. (O'- Hair, D., & Wiemann, M., 2009) How would our world operate without lines of communication?  The person that I would say that displays competent communication skills would be one of my college professors, Jaque Slater.  She always spoke and taught with enthusiasm in ways that everyone would understand what is being said.  She never used the “umm” while presenting, she was great at giving eye contact and posture, and she always expected feedback from her students.  She taught majority of our English and literature classes and was absolutely great at what she does.  I can say I would definitely love to acquire behaviors like her to be effective to any audience I speak to.  She was just so free flowing and down to earth.  It is difficult for some people to give eye contact while speaking as well as babble over words.  I never saw her uncomfortable while communicating with others.

References

O'- Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2009). Real communication. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.

Professional Hopes and Goals

Final Blog Assignment

One hope that I have when it comes to working with children and families of diverse backgrounds, is that I forever attain the characteristic of equality. As a teacher, you must run the classroom with complete equality. Things are going to seem insignificant.   Students seem to notice mostly everything a teacher does – from who is favored more, who seems to be punished more, to who the teacher gives precedence to during class activities.   It is very possible to share more in common with or sense more commitment from certain students, but to be as equitable as possible; I know I must run the classroom with as little bias as possible to set an example of equality for students.

If there was a goal to implement for social justice, it would be that ALL teachers of early childhood promote positive social identities that will help children gain confidence and feel comfortable about diversity. This strengthens social, emotional, and cognitive development. As children develop a strong sense of both individual and group identity, they also develop more tools for success in school and in life.

At this present time, I would like to thank all of my colleagues for working so hard and diligently in this course to become one step close to OUR dream!!  It takes so much will power for those who have full time jobs and children and other duties to work so hard to earn a degree.  I, myself, always take a chance because I never know when my unit will call me for a deployment, go tdy, sleep in the fields, etc.  That’s what comes along with being in the military.  I love my job and the people I work with and I have greatly appreciated all the positive comments I have received from all of you.  O, did I ever tell you guys that you’re awesome?  If not……. Hi. Dr. Morgan and fellow classmates,   YOU ARE AWESOME!!  Have a wonderful day, be blessed.

Culture around The World

The country of origin that I choose is Hungary.  Hungarian culture and Hungarian people would be a fascinating topic and learning about their traditions will definitely enhance my life. It will definitely open my eyes to a whole new world and a culture that represents a life less ordinary - customs and beliefs unlike my own, but all the more intriguing for it.  I am sure there are a few features we can look at that are distinctive to Hungarian culture and the mannerisms of its people. It can take some time to get to know a Hungarian on an intimate level or to build strong, deep relationships.  I would say I work in child care facility.

Five ways to Prepare myself to be culturally responsive toward a Hungarian family.

1.       I would first and foremost take the time to educate myself on their culture and rituals including knowing their mannerisms, languages, religion and education system.

2.      I would establish relationships with the children and family and talk about events of their community and traditions as well as integrate ethnic activities in the classroom

3.      I would definitely be caring, committed, and have respectful belief in my students’ abilities and desire to learn.

4.      I will establish a caring environment and warm, personal, positive relationships with my students and prevent and respond to teasing, bullying and exclusion of students and teach conflict resolution skills to maintain friendships.

5.      As a culturally responsive educator, I will communicate effectively inter-culturally; and have the ability of thinking critically and engage effectively with materials from the Hungarian culture.

All of these strategies for cultural responsiveness support the goals for student achievement in a few ways. First, we build a democratic foundation for equal access to education. Secondly, we help students develop their own culturally sensitive skills to be successful in our diverse, multicultural, and global world, enriching not only in our classroom, but our nation as well.