Insights gained from your interviews
regarding current advocacy efforts and needs in your area of interest within
the field of early childhood.
Answer: I learned
that there are many educators along with parents that feel the same as me and
want to speak up and help advocate for children and where we stand on school
readiness, along with literacy, health and well-being, and obesity.
The issue that kept floating in the
room was the number of Latino children in our community that are not being
prepared for school and are lacking the basic literacy, and writing skills necessary
to begin kindergarten. The issue regarding poor health care, along with asthma,
and obesity as being a big killer in the community is creating alarm, and a
need for advocacy is important.
How these interviews may have
influenced your decision about which area of interest and topics to choose for
your research paper.
Answer: These
interviews opened my eyes to see that these issues are more than just involving
my children or the childcare center that they attend. These issues need to be
dealt with and who better but the community to get involved. The issues brought
up in the interview directly affect my children and my extended families
because we all reside in the high risk communities that suffer from the issues
of not being ready for school and poor read skills, along with issues of asthma,
and obesity.
These issues hit home and with my assistance
I believe I can help create some change. I will be attending an early childhood
action partnership meeting through the Logan Square Neighborhood Association on
Oct 29th to help get a better understanding of what is needed and
what I can help do to get these issues resolved.
Which area of interest you are
thinking of focusing on for your paper as well as the related three specific
topics
Answer: The areas
of interest I want to focus on, where we stand on school readiness, as a community
what are we doing to prepare our children for school. Literacy, what are we
doing as educators and as a community to help get our children ready for
reading and at their level of reading.
Health/well being, what we can do to educate the community and our
children on the Asthma and Obesity related issues and how we can cut the number
of children that suffer from these issues to half the number by the next 10yrs.
Questions you have for your
colleagues related to your area of interest and/or three topics
1. For my friends and colleagues
does anyone know how we as a group can modify some of our learning programs so
the issues of health, literacy and readiness can be addressed throughout the school year without having to make more
time in the school day?
2.
Does anyone know of any links or other organizations in Chicago that are
helping with advocating for the children in regards to health and wellness?
Katherine,
ReplyDeleteYou have some great ideas for your advocacy topic. You are correct that many of our underprivileged children are not receiving reading, writing and even math readiness skills prior to coming to preschool ore even school. As a result, they are behind academically and have a very difficult time catching up. Also, obesity is a real concern for our young children. I do know that the dietitians that work in the city of Chicago as well as for Head Start follow very stringent guidelines in regards to food services when feeding the CPS schools. If you can speak with a dietitian s/he can give you some resources.
Literacy is a very important issue and I think literacy activities should be spread throughout the day. I often hear teachers talk about how little time they have in their day. Including issues like healthy food choices and making choices to exercise can be sprinkled through the day. Math lessons can include healthy foods as visuals for example. The possiblilites are endless. I think school readiness is a huge issue. Children enter kindergarten on so many different levels of readiness it must be difficult for the educator. Early programs offered to all students and ESL programs would be beneficial to the child, the family, and the school.
ReplyDeleteJodi you seem to be pondering alot of ideas on how to make changes to school curriculums so literacy, math and health and fitness can be spread out throughout the day of learning, and thanks for agreeing that school readiness is a huge issue. Do you think children entering school for the first time should be assessed for readiness?
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DeleteThanks I will definetly look into speaking with a dietitian or even a CPS nurse to help with resources.
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