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Hey Elizabeth, in your comic assignment you mention you know you will have multilingual students, which you will. what are some things you think you can do make your students and parents feel comfortable. I like your post by way Coutney Hibbert

Hi Courtney! I would I support their home language by trying to find ways to translate. Theres developed technology where I can speak to a recorder and it will translate to the spoken language would be very useful to use when speaking to parents/family members. In the classroom I can show the child visual examples of something and pronounce it to them as well as provide them with hands on experience to help with their language development.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but in seeing with new eyes.” - Marcel Proust.

Marcel Proust beautifully worded precisely how each of these assignments challenged me to see things through different lenses. Other than looking at things from my perspective, I had to consider other systems’ points of view. Here are my five most impactful assignments this semester that changed and informed me.

1. Assumption reflection:

With this assignment I had to identify two assumptions that are in my system that has impacted the ways that I interact with other family systems. My two assumptions were, you are who you hang out with, and not everyone is equipped to be a parent. Other than explaining why I had those assumptions, this challenged me to think of how my assumptions surfaced in my system thoughts and system language. According to Bronfenbrenner (1976), he states, “Children, parents and teachers have a place with macro system by determining how such person are treated” (p. 5).

This made me analyze how I treat other people through my interactions and the outcomes I get from those interactions due to my guarded/culturally biased assumptions. This made me think about my family system influencing and embedding this belief, how this system shows up in my relationship with my community/friends. As an aspiring teacher, this assumption could get in the way of building genuine connections with families, so I need to check my assumptions and be aware if I am biased.

2. Re-Storying Family Comic:

Allen (2007) states, “Dialogue, according to Freire, is very different from conversation. In genuine dialogue, people come to understand another person’s perspective” (p. 68). I created a story that situates my family through the lenses that others have shared in ways I do not value. My parents are immigrants who made many sacrifices for my siblings and me, and in that sacrifice, they spent most of their days working. I touched on the concept of my immigrant parents overworking and being tired. Outsiders judged my parents for not knowing how to speak English and overworked them with mandated overtime, which didn’t give them the luxury of having a work and life balance. I reframed my story by acknowledging and respecting my parents ’ hard work and sacrifice. They came to the United States to give us the opportunities we wouldn’t have gotten in the Dominican Republic. This assignment made me look at my family and school systems because I’m confident I will have multilingual/bilingual students in my classroom who could relate to what I experienced.

3. Family and community treasure set:

This very interesting activity challenged me to think about something meaningful to my family and me. It felt good sharing what my treasure was and hearing other classmates share theirs too. I learned more about my family and friends’ systems and how they move through them. In the future, I hope this helps me know more about my student’s culture and backgrounds when I also use the treasure set activity in the classroom. This activity also challenged me to reach out to other people and to pick a meaningful treasure. Everyone had a different treasure which helped me learn that we all have different values, whether it is physical or nonphysical. Overall, this assignment made me consider Keyes (2002) mentioning the importance of the parents and teacher relationship and emphasizes that teachers are the glue that holds home and school partnerships. (p. 3). This activity would be perfect for connecting a home treasure in the school system in hopes of others learning about each other’s cultural differences.

4. A day in the life of:

With this activity, it was interesting seeing the response I got from asking people to describe to me two different days of the week and list some of the activities they do on those days. Some people were more detailed, and others were not very descriptive. This made me look at other ways I could have revised this assignment by asking other systems to be very detailed, explaining what they cook for dinner, and telling me what type of music they listen to on their way to work? Stefaniak (2019) emphasizes that “Maintaining two interconnected sets and relationships, internal relationships, and external relationships are necessary for survival” (p. 2). The parent who participated in this assignment made me think about how other parents might relate to her situation, working full time for survival and being a single mother. In the future, when I plan a family activity, I’ll have to make sure that it is culturally responsive while considering the factors the child’s family system is facing.

5. Breaking down barriers:

This assignment was very out of my comfort zone but challenged me to advocate a barrier in my system. The barrier I chose to share was anxiety. What I enjoyed most about this assignment was setting action goals for myself to prepare me in the future for any unfortunate event that might lead me to feel anxious. I thought about ways children might feel anxiety, such as test-taking and the first days of school. Or parents are feeling anxious about teachers not being culturally responsive to how they discipline their children or the tone we use when communicating with other family members. Allen (2007) mentions that “Spoken words, body language, written communication-- our words speak volumes about who we are and who we see others as being” (p. 96). This assignment challenged my way of thinking by analyzing my communication skills and improving them.

Overall, we habitually make assumptions about other people and need to be conscious of how we communicate with others in various ways. As an aspiring teacher, I need to consider building bonds with family members. By doing so, I need to make sure I am being culturally responsive, open-minded, and less biased with my assumptions.

Reference:

Allen, J. B. (2007). Creating welcoming schools: A practical guide to home-school partnerships with diverse families. Teachers College Press

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1976). The experimental ecology of Education. Educational Researcher, 5(9), 5. https://doi.org/10.2307/1174755

Keyes, C. R. (2002). A way of thinking about parent/teacher partnerships for Teachers Le Partenariat parent/enseignant: Un autre point de vue una forma de reflexionar sobre la asociacio ́n padre/maestro para maestros. International Journal of EarlyYears Education, 10(3), 177–191.https://doi.org/10.1080/0966976022000044726

Stefaniak, J. (2019). The utility of design thinking to promote systemic instructional design practices in the Workplace. TechTrends, 64(2), 202–210. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-019-00453-8

And my second question would be if you are in a situation where your feel anxiety & the other party/individual is experiencing anxiety as well due to circumstances, how would you overcome that barrier with that individual as a whole/group? Thank you for sharing insight into your barrier!

Hi Leslie, I noticed that while experiencing anxiety, I am able to improvise on the spot even if my body is reacting to it. If I notice that an individual is experiencing anxiety I would check my tone, see if the environment was a contribution to the individual experiencing the anxiety and give the person room to breathe. I would also ask them if they want to pause and take a break and piggyback on the conversation/activity afterward.

I ENJOYED YOUR POST ON Family Assessment Portfolio, you mention that some families are in shelters and don't have access to computers or ways in general to make videos, I agree with you, but lets dig into that thought, for the families that are in shelters do you think they want anybody to know about their life circumstances? if you was in a shelter would you show people? As future educator what are something we can do to make families comfortable making a FAP video?

As a future educator I believe the family and children can record their FAP in their favorite community, a park, or I can even give them the opportunity to record in my classroom if necessary. The recording don't have to be done in their homes, theres many options.

Hey Elizabeth! I love the way you incorporated the vlog genre into your vlog! From the introduction with your art piece and the clarity in your tone and video had me captured from the beginning. Great on time as well! I also liked how you defined anxiety and how it was your barrier & the examples. What stood out to me the most was when you related it to communication (tone of voice & our response to it), as I can relate to that. My questions to you would be how can children relate to anxiety?

Hi Leslie! Thank you very much! Tone of voice is very important, that is why us aspiring teachers need to be mindful of how we communicate things. I believe children can relate to anxiety from taking test, attending the first day of school, participating in class (Teacher calling on them), presenting a project etc.

missveganmommy

letshaveachat

Hi Shayna! What are some ways you plan on breaking down the barrier with being the only caregiver due to coverage and being understaffed? I know it can be very overwhelming and can take away some significant moments with children/families due to trying to juggle many things at once.

I enjoyed your topic, you mention parents and yourself, face anxiety but what about the student, I find a lot of students have Anxiety when they have to take state wide test, as a result children tend to preform poorly. As an educator how would you go about easing your student Anxiety when they have to take test examine? Courtney Hibbert

Hi Courtney, I would definitely do mindfulness meditation before starting an exam. Or a quick stretch routine with inhale and exhale activity could help alleviate the anxiety. Theres also push pops I can provide in the classroom to help out with anxiety.

Having trouble with anxiety? Here’s my input on it.

Genre study:

*Watched video: “Blogging tips and tricks” by Think Media

*Have a personable approach, people are seeing me and getting to know me.

* Video blogs- Press record and upload or Edited video blog

*Tips- Make sure video is short and efficient, have fast edits, have action (Double your energy), it can be funny, educational, or informative, have an intro or outro, avoid clutter in shots (Clean background), be as steady as possible and title the video, tag it up and describe it well.

How I will use the genre rules:

1. Make video educational and informative

2. Be personable

3. Make the video short and sweet

4. Title it well

5. Have an intro and outro

Sharing:

System 1: Mentioned she also has anxiety and could relate to some of the things I mentioned. She also liked that I mentioned the family system and teachers’ system, especially gravitating more towards teachers having a habit of making assumptions and looking at things from a teacher’s point of view. (Teacher)

System 2: The group leader found this very informative. She felt that not many people talk about how parents might feel anxious. In her after school some family members might pick up the child late due to getting out of work late or delays on the subway. We just never know what people are going through and the sacrifices they are making to support their families. (After school group leader)

Reflection:

This helped me think about how effective it is advocating about something that we feel is important. I felt weird sharing anxiety as my barrier, but relating it to my community systems, family systems, and teachers’ systems, helped me view things from a whole other perspective. I was able to find many connections in the reading and one story that stood out to me was from Fontes (2008). She mentioned a story about the Jamaican student in her classroom with dreads who always wore flip flops and no jacket in the middle of fall, she assumed the family was neglecting the child. The teacher did the right thing, had a conversation with the family and was kind enough to support them with a jacket and other important necessities. One can only imagine what could have happened to the family if they were reported to ACS by the teacher.

Reference:

Allen, J. B. (2007). Creating welcoming schools: A practical guide to home-school partnerships with diverse families. Teachers College Press.

Fontes, L. A. (2008). Child abuse and culture: Working with diverse families. Guilford.

#anxiety #barriers #family #school #teacher #community #acs #abuse

2. How would you motivate or engage family members in the introductory videos? -Leslie

Hi Leslies, as mentioned I wanted to see family members share fun facts about themselves, as well as share more about their background and day to day routines.

Hey Elizabeth, I enjoyed reading your modification on Amelia. Through your perspective, I realized that Amelia's portfolio was not child-centered. My question to you would be based on the modification made on the DVD. I understand that watching multiple DVD portfolios can be overwhelming, 1. Do you feel like 5 mins is sufficient time for a teacher to get to know a child or what other ways could we incorporate more of the child within your selected time frame? -Leslie

Hello Leslie! I feel that watching a 20 min video is not sufficient enough to get to know the child, because theres more to learn about them in person. With the FAP, families are providing necessary information about the child for me to learn about. A 5 minute video of the child talking and interacting with families, as well as hearing them communicate can give my a gist of who they are during their development stages.

Hi Elizabeth, I like your post, the Mural Cease Fire was very meaningful, when I think about it now it makes me think of the history of Haiti and it's current state. You mention policy changes to support Immigrants which policy would you change, modify or create. Best Regards Courtney.

Hi Courtney, I would say supporting immigrant children in schools with their language development. We needs to implement more support with different native languages.

letshaveachat

I am not sure if my question just went through, if it did just ignore one of them. I can appreciate your post, I like how you connected going in and out of a door as a new beginning, I think that is a good connection for change, how do think you can get other people to think. about how we view things ,from work to school and personal in their life. Courtney Hibbert

Hello! I believe challenging teachers thought process could be one way to get the to see other perspectives. Sometimes we can get in the bad habit of thinking one way and having an assumption, but challenging those thought process could hopefully spark something.

letshaveachat

By: Elizabeth Aquino

Assignment: Family Assessment Portfolio

Directions: This assignment is designed to help you deepen your connection with the readings and to begin to develop your pedagogy around family school-community partnerships. Good teachers take ideas/resources and modify them to fit their systems. This is your opportunity to do so with the Family Assessment Portfolio.

I found this assignment very important because it helped me learn about the purpose of the Family assessment portfolio (FAP). It also challenged my way of thinking when I had to modify the family’s FAP in a way that I felt would work best. This assignment also relates to the class content by looking at different systems such as the child’s system, family system, and teachers system. As I was reading the family’s version of Amelia’s assessment portfolio, I couldn’t help but notice something was missing within their system. It was the voice of the daughter Amelia. One example is when the parents wrote, “My daughter Amelia: Is a beautiful 2-year-old blonde-haired, blue-eyed little girl. (See her picture below).” I modified it to “About me: I have blonde hair and blue eyes, and I am 2 years old! (Here’s a picture of me!).” I felt that changing it to the child’s voice could make Amelia feel involved in the activity.

In Keyes (2002), “The research described above tells us that effective parent-teacher relations are founded on: (1) the understanding of the unique elements of the parents’ and teachers’ roles and how they complement each other; and (2) subsequent modifications of their roles growing out of negotiations that reflect the unique needs of both parent and teacher. Ineffective partnerships, parents, and teachers educate each other during open two-way communication. Each point of view enlightens the other” (p. 184). Keyes, shows us how important it is for teachers and families to have good relationships with one another. Building effective relationships with families can help with the child’s learning experience and build trust and partnerships with families. Also, this allows teachers to understand the importance of looking at things from the family’s point of view instead of just looking at things from the school system’s point of view.

Before this assignment, I did not know that some schools provided families with the opportunity to introduce the child through FAP. I was amazed that it also offered videos (DVD’s) of the child for the teachers, social workers, and other educators to see. One thing I noticed that did not cross my mind was the length of the video. The videos were 12 minutes long; if I were to re-do my modification assignment, I would have included decreasing the video time to at least 5 minutes. My reason behind this is if I were in the teacher’s shoes and I had to watch all of the videos of my 15-20 students, and they were each 12 minutes long, it would be overwhelming.

I would use this assignment as an educator to involve family members with my version of the FAP. I would ask families to be a part of the child’s introduction videos. Mention their backgrounds and occupation to get a better understanding of who they are in their system. To make it more personable, I would ask family members to mention a fun fact about themselves and the child.

How are the family systems impacted by the larger environment? According to Keyes (2002), “While the value of the home/school partnership is universally accepted, it is not always easy to promote or maintain. As we have moved from small communities with intimate connections to a very diverse mobile culture, the increasing complexity of relationships, roles and functions has often complicated the collaborations” (p. 179). With the FAP, there can be some challenges with the family’s collaboration due to the family’s language system. Because there could be a language barrier, I will translate the language spoken at home to the assessment assignment to the best of my abilities.

What are the goals of the system? My goal is to involve families with the school system and learn more about the child and their family systems.

Original Assignment: file:///Users/elizabethaquino/Downloads/Elizabeth%20(FAP)%20(1).pdf

Reference: Keyes, C. R. (2002). A way of thinking about parent/teacher partnerships for Teachers Le Partenariat parent/enseignant: Un autre point de vue una forma de reflexionar sobre la asociacio´n padre/maestro para maestros. International Journal of Early Years Education, 10(3), 177–191. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966976022000044726

morethanwhatyousee

Family Assessment Portfolio

This assignment was deigned to help readers find a deeper connection in family school community partnership. Good teachers find ideas and ways to modify their resources to their own systems. The Family Assessment Portfolio is a text that describes many ways to learn about children and their families.

After reading the text I was able to see ways teachers can get to know their child through Family Assessment Portfolio. An idea that was described in the text was a guide to creating a child scrape book. The text provides an example of the scrape book which helps others see what it looks like. This is relating to our class today because it helps us teachers not only learn about the child but also about their families. This idea builds communication between teachers and families which is very key. When I think about this assignment is helps me see other ways that I can modify it to today’s generation. I think about how many families don’t have access to technology at home. This information allows me to think about what resources schools can provide for those children.

My thinking has changed in a way where I have thought of different kind of families. An example of this is families who live in a shelter or families that don’t have the resources to make videos about their child. In the Family Assessment Portfolio text, it provides an idea for families to create a movie that’s 10-12 minutes long. This is a great idea but a way to modify it is creating a comic book with children and their families. It would be a great activity for families and their children to do together.

In Systems theory a question to think about is What are the goals of the system? In the article “Family Assessment Portfolio: A New Way to Jumpstart Family/School Collaboration” written by James R. Thompson, Hedda Meadan, Kenneth W. Fansler, Sarah B. Alber, and Patricia A. Balogh (2007) state “FAPs empower parents to provide critical information that they want school planning team members to know. FAPs ensure that family voices are heard, and get family/school communication off to a good start” (pg. 22). In other words, the goal for the family system is to provide information to the school about their child. This allows families to be heard and have good communication between both families and schools. Another question is how are systems interacting with each other? In the article “A Way of Thinking about Parent/Teacher Partnership for Teachers” by Carol R. Keyes states “On the one hand, teachers and parents who have had successful interactions with each other, observed or heard about others’ successes, and/or felt that efforts were worthwhile are more likely to have that personal sense of efficacy” (pg. 183). Therefore, the interactions between the systems are important. In this case it’s between the families and teachers about the child. From this assignment I was able to see why it is important to have clear communication between families and teacher. In what area should communication be important for the systems? What are some ways to get to know the families and listen to what they have to say.

Original assignment: https://ccnymailcuny-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/jmontoy005_citymail_cuny_edu/EZvD1k6gAcBNieL1rxuzDRkBw-E3DwCENIn0TZ_CJuaHyQ?e=N9bBhz

Reference:

Keyes. Carol R. (2002). “A Way of Thinking about Parent/Teacher Partnership for Teachers.” International Journal of Early Years Education. Pg. 177-191.

James R. Thompson, Hedda Meadan, Kenneth W. Fansler, Sarah B. Alber, and Patricia A. Balogh. (2007). “Family Assessment Portfolio: A New Way to Jumpstart Family/School Collaboration.” Teaching Exceptional Children. Pg. 19-25.

letshaveachat

I love how you were able to modify the assignment through making it a comic activity as well as considering families living system. That is something that didn’t cross my mind through this assignment! What voice would you prefer your comic to have?