Wendy Newby - Have I asked the right question?: March 2012

Friday, March 30, 2012

I have chosen to list 3 of my favorite books as additional resources. Brain Rules gives scientific evidence for improving our practice and supporting best practice for children and ourselves. I have had the opportunity to hear John Medina speak and he is engaging. I encourage you to visit his website and enjoy the video clips. He makes brain science fun!

When I read Mind in the Making it was the information with the research to back it up that I feel can elevate the work of early childhood professionals. In my opinion it is a must read for explaining to parents why we do what we do.

The third book I am listing is one of the reasons I am pursuing my Masters in Early Childhood Studies. Now, Discover Your Strengths helps you recognize your strengths to reach your greatest potential. One of the activities in the book encouraged me to think about what I am most passionate about in my job. And the next step was: How can I become even better? So here I am----working on my strengths (much more fun than working on weaknesses).

Books:
Buckingham, M. & Clifton, D. O. (2001). Now, Discover Your Strengths. The Free Press: New York, NY.

Galinsky, E. (2010). Mind in the Making: the seven essential life skills every child needs. HarperCollins: New York, NY. http://www.familiesandwork.org/

Medina, J. (2008). Brain Rules: 12 principles for surviving and thriving at work, home, and school. . Pear Press: Seattle, WA. http://www.brainrules.net

Thursday, March 29, 2012

engage in play

Play for young children is not recreation activity,... It is not leisure-time activity nor escape activity.... Play is thinking time for young children. It is language time. Problem-solving time. It is memory time, planning time, investigating time. It is organization-of-ideas time, when the young child uses his mind and body and his social skills and all his powers in response to the stimuli he has met.

Hymes, James L. Jr. (1968) U.S. child development specialist, author. Teaching the Child Under Six, ch. 4. Merrill. Columbus, OH.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Words of Inspiration and Motivation

Its not all about you, you've got to take your ego out of it, and think about what's best for this child.

Ranatta M. Cooper

.....to make a real contribution, to fix all the injustices that existed in the world, and I wanted to do that through teaching.....

Louise Derman-Sparks

Reference
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). The passion for early childhood.[Video webcast]Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=6488741&Survey=1&47=12244548&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Words of Inspiration

Marcy Whitebook

The question before us is no longer whether most American children will attend a childcare program at sometime during their earliest years, but how nurturing, sound and enriching we want this child care to be. America depends on child care teachers and providers and our future depends on valuing them.

Whitebook, M., Howes, C., Phillips, D. (1998). Worthy work, unlivable wages, the national child care staffing study, 1988-1997. Center for the Child Care Work Force. Washington, DC

Words of Motivation

Samuel Meisels

In response to the President's goal that all children be ready to learn when they enter school. "We told them that all children are ready to learn when they're born and that this is really not where we ought to be putting our attention." (p. 27)

Meisels, S.J. (2002). A look at continuity issues from preschool to early primary grades: assessment and evaluation. In Little Prints, v2 n 1-2 34pp. Publications, Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development. San Francisco, CA. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdeliery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno+ED342499

The Forgotten Mission Statement

from Mission-Based Management

How do you motivate four-year-olds to keep their minds on the game?....I wondered: What does the coach say before the game? Will she say "Win one for the Gipper?" or get technical and say "Remember play 17! Trevor go left, Andrea go right, pass to Sarah and she shoots!"? Not a chance, What she did, and what all soccer coaches of very young players say is: "Look at me, now WHICH WAY ARE WE GOING???" And most (sometimes all) of the children think and point to the goal and say "THAT WAY!!!" And then the parents line up along the side of the field and remind the kids which way to kick the ball. Why? Because kids get easily distracted..... The point of the story is that we, in our organizations, often also get distracted from the goal, from our mission, ....we need to ....constantly be reminding each other that the mission is the point. (p. 38)

Brinckerhoff, P.C. (2000). Mission-based management, leading your not-for-profit in the 21st century.
2nd ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York, NY

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Personal Childhood Web

While looking for pictures of the special people in life, I found a journal I had written when I was a freshman in college, 900 miles from home. I have been so fortunate to have a wonderful relationship with my mom. Here is what I wrote 30+ years ago, and I still feel the same.

Of course we have all changed, and I still miss not living near them. But we talk every week.

January 9, 1977. Mom and Dad called and they miss me. I love them so much and I really miss them, too. I don’t know what they said, but it warmed my heart, hearing them I could feel the love and care they feel for me…..I think they might be changing without me. I want to be a living part of my family, not a detached, former unit.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

An Ethereal View

Our mission is to plant ourselves at the gates of hope-not the prudent gates of Optimism, which are somewhat narrower; nor the stalwart, boring gates of Common Sense; nor the strident gates of self-righteousness, which creak on shrill and angry hinges (people cannot hear us there; they cannot pass through); nor the cheerful, flimsy garden gate of "Everything is gonna be all right." But a different, sometimes lonely place, the place of truth telling, about your own soul first of all and its condition, the place of resistance and defiance, the piece of ground from which you see the world both as it is and as it could be, as it will be; the place from which you glimpse not only struggle, but joy in the struggle. And we stand there, beckoning and calling, telling people what we're seeing, asking people what they see. (Safford, 2005)

Reverend Victoria Safford's words resonate with my experience. The charge to stand at the gates of hope speaks to my passion to protect young children's right to learn through play. The encouragement and satisfaction I feel when I observe teachers that provide well planned environments is supported in the words you glimpse struggle, but joy in the struggle. I can read this quote over and over and not tire of the view created and the truth stated.

Safford, V. (2005, January 5) The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear. Common Dreams. Retrieved from http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0105-23.htm

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Photo at One year

I chose this photo of me as a child because, as the oldest of three children in my family, my proud parents must have printed more that enough of this picture. Growing up I saw it everywhere.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

How do we inspire our children to continue their education? I was discussing parenting with a colleague that is a mother of young children. I was explaining how all through my children's early years in school, I would remind them that when they got to college they were going to need the information, or the skill they were learning. We talked about a parent's ability to set the expectation early that it is important to go to college. The colleague said she was going to remember that idea, as she wasn't raised hearing that message. A few months later, she told me a story.

On my way home today after picking my kindergartener up from school, I glanced in the rear view mirror. I saw his hand making detailed shapes in the air. Son, what are you doing? He replied, "When I go to college, I am going to invent lower case numbers. There are upper case letters and lower case letters. We need lower case numbers. I know how they should look and I am practicing them. (Baker 2010)

He could be right. Maybe we do need lower case numbers. I am glad he has a mom that has given him the message he can go to college and create new ideas.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Derek Sivers: How to start a movement

Personal Childhood Web

Joanie Peterson, my mother, was very engaged in my life from birth. I was the oldest and the only child until I was five. I was loved,my mother spent time with me by including me in whatever activities needed to be done. I remember the old tile floor in the kitchen that had to be waxed regularly. When the wax dried, my mother would give me an old towel to stand on and she would put on music and we would dance the twist until the tiles were buffed. My mother was finishing her bachelor degree in psychology and English during my first three years. I had the opportunity to meet lots of people in a community of shared values. I had time to play uninterrupted and my play was very creative and complex, with hours outside. I was read to and the value of learning was instilled in me early, but not in a competitive way, to be recognized as the best, but in a very personal way. Was I giving the task or the skill my best effort? Her approach to parenting developed intrinsic motivation in me. I am a great team player, motivated and satisfied to make sure the team does well. The measure of achievement is the level to which I tried my best. I can take a risk to take on a new challenge, because I know my mother will always love me. I value personal responsibility.

Rev. Merton Peterson, my father, was finishing seminary and pastoring his first church when I was born. I remember sitting on his lap, watching him type, helping fold bulletins, turning the handle on the old mimeograph machine, and going on home visits with him, when he needed to visit families from the church. We did not have material wealth, but I never felt poor We had enough that we could share. My did believed in me, when there was something I needed to do or learn he always spoke as though I had already mastered the task. I believe he spoke with confidence, because he has prayed for me every day of my life. Being a pastor's child means you learn manners, expectations and hospitality very early. We had lots of company. I loved giving up my bedroom and sleeping in a sleeping bag so the missionaries could have my room when they visited. I would listen to stories of their experiences in different countries and how they would help build homes and schools and grow crops wile they shared that Jesus loved them. I share my family's faith in God and the value that people are more important than things.

My extended family did not live close to me as I was growing up. But my grandmothers and aunt were prolific letter writers. We visited family every holiday, making holidays feel very special. I would listen to the adults share stories about family and friends. I knew that family were there for each other. My great-great grandparents were homesteaders. There was a strong sense of work ethic practiced. There were ranchers and there were farmers. It takes commitment and self determination to make it work. The entire family has to help to get the cattle in or harvest the crops. I remember the first time I was allowed to go on a cattle drive. I was probably seven. The strong connection to aunts, uncles and cousins as we spent the day on horseback gathering the cattle that were scattered among the trees and meadows in the foothills was exhilarating—I belonged, I was given worthwhile work. The farming family was an even stronger influence on my work ethic. When we visited the farm there was always tasks I could participate in: picking fruits and vegetables to can or freeze for my families use and when I got older picking melons or driving a tractor. It was part of being a member of my family. My family values hard work and integrity.

The church community provided a foundation of belonging and strength in conviction. Looking back I can appreciate that those families made sacrifices to make I had what I needed. The children were my friends, we could discuss the roles we were in and decisions we faced from a shared set of values. I never felt alone. As a community we looked out for each other. The community demonstrated living the values they held.

School Environment, Most people cannot imagine going to a school that houses children from kindergarten through senior high in the same building. Still the school community had enough diversity of values that it was a great place to have my values challenged and for me to exercise the decisions to stand true to my values. With only thirteen in my graduate class, but still the roles and functions of any school, there was so much opportunity to try out many different tasks. There were sports, student council officers, music, drama and clubs. I tried it all, because in a school that small everyone needs to get involved to have enough participants. My work ethic and integrity rewarded me with responsibility and opportunities. The most unusual was a flight class to learn to be a pilot, which included flight hours in a small plane. In the state I was raised, schools were the hub of activity for rural communities. Everyone came to all the events. People valued being together.