Reflection

Through the last 16 weeks, the resources were eye-opener! There is no specific resources to proclaim as one eye-opening information.  I crossed multiple resources on various topics that are equally important in promoting high quality early childhood education. What motivate me was discovering the co-enrollment model.

Co-enrollment model has a lot of potential in changing how we include or exclude the children with hearing losses within the early childhood education programs. Although this concept is relatively new, it provokes many thoughts such as will parents accept this idea, will early childhood education professionals be willing to take professional development courses or training to provide the resources in co-enrollment model classroom or program, and many more. Co-enrollment model, to me, is like an utopia that becomes a reality. My vision is to encourage social acceptance for all children and for high quality education being available for children with hearing losses, CODAs, and others who benefit from American Sign Language (ASL).  

I inserted two images of my family and son, because we represent all of the parents across the communities in the United States and even across the world. We are parents who care and want the best for our son, who happens to be CODA (child of deaf adults). We make the educational choices for our children and that is always a challenging, especially ensuring that the programs offer high quality educators, high quality program, and many other available resources to support our child in developing skills, and master different tasks throughout the school years. 

It has been a pleasure to be here and to share all exciting and dumbfounding information! 

Mind-blowing Co-enrollment classrooms in regular education setting

Co-enrollment classrooms in regular education setting is new and begins to become contagious across the country. This is an innovative approach to partner the young children from different cultures and languages.

Co-enrollment program offers:

• co teachers
• opportunity to build friendship with peers who grow up in Deaf culture and speak in American Sign Language (ASL). 
• promote deaf children to improve their academic achievement
• English & ASL
• Social skills development

The challenges that co-enrollment program encounters:

• Teachers have different instruction philosophy/approach
• Positive role model for both
• assess children's academic achievement with appropriate strategy that accommodates the child's disability.
• limited Supporting staff (ie: behavior specialist, SLP, counselor, teacher aide)

           Kreimeyer & et.al (2000) discussed the true gain in social benefits between deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing children in the co-enrollment class. Therefore, this would apply to and support CODAs, as well. Lasser & Fite (2011) named one of the methods that universal preschool programs use to benefit the children—“instruction in both their native language and in English” (p. 170). It is clear that these articles conform to the co-enrollment concept for all children.

A number articles support the idea of providing instruction to young children in American Sign Language and in English. American Sign Language is an unimaginably rich language that can be taught to and learned by very young children, enhancing communication with all children from birth to age eight. 

To this day, looking at the many early childhood education programs, such as Head Start centers, child development centers, and many other centers that provide early education for children from the age of six weeks to five years, we see that nearly all of the centers do not offer fluent staff signers for children who are deaf, hard of hearing, non-verbal, autistic, or who are CODAs, preventing these children from accessing communication through ASL. Also, we must recognize that many early childhood education programs do not have the resources to provide the appropriate support for the children with disabilities in regular classrooms.  This may lead the parents to feel uneasy about placing their children with disabilities into early childhood education programs. At the same time the lack of resources to support the children with disabilities prevents the parents, whose children need ASL as a communication mode, from having the flexibility and security they need in placing their children in early childhood education programs near their homes. 

Co-enrollment program is absolutely the future academic setting across the world. This approach is inspiring and effective in early learning. Our children begin their life being preverbal and ASL gives them a way to communicate and develop language in preparation for the day when they begin to speak vocally. ASL and co-enrollment also invest on positive social change by place all children together in a regular classroom with staffing supports. Children will develop social skills that give them the flexibility as in how to socialize with others who have limited abilities. In turn, this will help children to develop a better understanding of what "being different" is about and how to overcome that stereotype as they become older. 

Governor Baxter School for the Deaf offers preschool class that accept deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing children. This program established in recent years in the light of budget cutting and smaller population of deaf children attending the school. I have met three early childhood education professionals who shared the successes of this program. One of the teachers elaborated the structure of the program. She explained that there are two classrooms. One classroom is for hearing children and deaf children who wear cochlear implants. Another classroom is for deaf, and hard of hearing children who strongly prefer to use ASL. The lesson is being taught separately for a short period of time. Then the lesson is applied in the following activity combined with both classes. Sometimes, the lessons are being taught to both classes in one room. This teacher also mentioned that hearing children learn ASL while attending this program. This program has became popular and received more enrollment.  Unfortunately, the website does not explain this information. Apparently, it has not been up to date. If you are interested in contacting one of the professionals, please let me know and I will provide.  If you want to contact the program directly, I recommend that you contact Mrs. Kim Matthews, the coordinator, of the program. 

This experience excites me in ways I never thought it would. I believe this occur because I was raised in a hearing family while residing and attending Maryland School for the Deaf. As a child, I had never felt challenged in classroom. I always wanted a better education. By the time I was a freshman in high school, I decided to attend public school and I did not have any support. I am glad I did attend public school for numerous of reasons: live at home, learn how to socialize with the majority population, and develop a better sense of self.  Every child should have an opportunity to live at home full time, to have and to develop skills that allow them to socialize with the majority population with full of confidence, to have a high quality education and support to success academically, and to create a better world where people can be comfortable with individuals with disabilities without judgments. 

Kreimeyer, K.H., Crooke, P., Drye, C., Egbert, V., Klein, B., & Miles Exploratory Learning

Center. Academic and social benefits of a co-enrollment model of inclusive education for deaf and hard of hearing children. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, Spring 2000; 5:2.

Lasser, J. & Fite, K. (2011). Universal preschool’s promise: success in early childhood and

           beyond. Early Childhood Education Journal, 39:169-173. 

http://www.mecdhh.org/governor-baxter-school-for-the-deaf/preschool/

Children with Disabilities and Children without Disabilities..

   

Co-enrollment..

In the past few weeks, I read many of my colleagues' blogs, articles, and discussions about inclusion, technology, assessment, and the classroom environment. Each component contributes to each individual child's strengths and weakness. Each component offers advantages and disadvantages. Because I am a strong advocate of promoting American Sign Language (ASL) as a language pathway for all children to learn and use until they learn how to speak/or continue to use ASL if they do not have verbal ability, I want to present a discussion and new insight on Co-enrollment. 

Before I get into the purpose of co-enrollment, I would like to discuss what we know about children with disabilities and children without disabilities. We often see children at child development centers and there is almost no children with disabilities there. Why is that? Children with disabilities are often at home with a caregiver or at a residential school/day school that provides services for children with disabilities and that usually mean the young children are far away from home and their families. 

What is co-enrollment? Is it same as inclusion?  Co-enrollment is a bigger picture of inclusion conception. Co-enrollment classroom has two teachers (co-teachers). Both or one of them are fluent in ASL and one of them teaches in spoken English.  The students in the classroom are hearing, deaf, and hard of hearing. This concept is relatively new and gradually increasing across the global. There is not sufficient research to support the results of this program, not enough to determine if it is beneficial program. The social between deaf/hard of hearing and hearing peers seem to increase in positive ways, which means that children show acceptance toward one another regardless of his or her abilities. 

Since co-enrollment is relative new in education system, I am intrigued to learn more and possibly support this model.  What are your thoughts? This kind of education will require parental involvement, assessment, technology, inclusion, and classroom environment to meet this new idea. 

http://jdsde.oxfordjournals.org/content/5/2/174.full.pdf+html

http://jdsde.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/08/01/deafed.enu017.full.pdf+html

http://acedhh.org/files/K_Metz_ACE-DHH_Presentation_2011.pdf

http://books.google.com/books?id=qCt8AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA462&lpg=PA462&dq=co-enrollment+deaf&source=bl&ots=y-xySLPrhy&sig=K051cmsCPT0wN4dajnzXuVd7t9M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6PD3U5PALMefyATz-IDQBA&ved=0CHEQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=co-enrollment%20deaf&f=false

Child Development Milestones..... How Do We Do It the Right Way?

In the last 8 months and in related to recent blogs I read, Child Development and Milestones are the hot issues among the educators and parents.  Is there right and wrong way in ensuring that children reach the milestones?

As a first-time mother, I believed that every stage must be met on schedule in according to the child's age. From first hand experience, I realized that every child differs in when he or she is ready to achieve a new skill.

I met some educators and/or parents who believe that children should or should not reach a goal until he/she is at this precise age. I find this unreasoning, because individual child has his or her own motivation and interest.

Now I would like to encourage you to promote achievements by observing what interests the child/ren. If the child shows that he/she is interested in walking, praise is the next important task that you can do for your children in either home or classroom. Praise is an encouraging reinforcement. Talk to your child in a praising manner--good job, way to go, you can do it, "yay" in addition to applause, hugs, and kisses.

If a child struggles with a particular skill, do not force. Try to nudge the child to try by showing how he or she can achieve the skill. Or, demonstrate the movement.  Sometimes children need to see the adults mastering the task.  If that fails, do not worry excessive about not meeting the certain skill. Sometimes children return to the skill when he/she is ready and achieves it.

Last thing, it is important to encourage children to develop milestones independently as much as possible. We want children to self-direct their readiness to success at a task. We do not want them to become dependent on us. They need to have confidence in themselves.

Below are many resources available to educate yourselves about how to ensure that child/ren are achieving their milestones.

http://www.babycenter.com/0_what-every-baby-needs-to-thrive_6600.bc?page=1

http://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/development/growth/developmental-milestones-age-two/

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002011.htm

For age 3 to 5
http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/NR/rdonlyres/676DD433-449C-4A26-B364-0936353CBE4E/24408/IPSC_eng_35.pdf

Developmental Screen Tools:
http://www.medicalhomeinfo.org/downloads/pdfs/DPIPscreeningtoolgrid.pdf
http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/pdf/checklists/all_checklists.pdf

Introduction...

Hello Everyone,

My name is Christina but people call me Chrissy.  Welcome to my blog! This will be the main lounge for Early Childhood Education discussion.  My goal is to reach across the world and bring the attention to the concept of implementing American Sign Language (ASL) as a part of the language acquisition for all children.  Also, to promote restoring play into early childhood programs, especially preschool, prekindergarten and kindergarten.

As a child, I always played outside. I loved every moment of it. It did help me develop relationship with other children and my siblings. Although I am deaf and had been since 2 month old, I experienced some communication barriers and play removed the barriers. How?  Play is all about imagination, fun, and involves a lot of body language/acting. It worked out very well.

Relationships/attachment were something that I always had difficult with establishing as a child. I did not have positive relationship with my mother. My father encouraged for independence. So, I grew up being very independent. I did many things on my own. Naturally, I scared my parents quite frequent with wandering off into who knows where. Independence gave me confidence to success.

As an adult, I move quite frequent unlike my sisters. All of my sisters remain in the same city or state. I lived in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Florida, West Virginia, Maryland, Washington, DC, and so on.  I believe this came from being independence. My parents live in West Virginia and Maryland where my sisters also reside. My childhood had a lot to do with the person I became as I entered adulthood.

Early childhood developments and relationships/attachments are very important. One major issue I have to admit and share--is being left out in a family of hearing on regular basis. This began the moment my sister was born. I needed attention and time from parents and others in my life as a child.  The older I became, the more I resented them. I think this issue is imperative to be addressed because it affected how I relate to others and think of others. It took a long time for my relationships with family to heal. I am always left out regardless how old I am. I learned to not let it bother me as much as when I was a child. As an adult, I consider deaf friends my family more than my own biological family based on the fact I could communicate at dinner without asking "what are you talking about? what is so funny?" only to  be told "nothing. you don't understand anything."  Language is a large part of the childhood.

Here are several photographs...
Below: Taken at the end of June 2014.. My husband and our 7 month old son, Jacob.

Below: This was taken when I was about 6 year old. I am the one with toe-headed blond in blue sleeve shirt. I am the oldest child of the four. Theresa, in pink jacket, is the 2nd oldest. Jennifer, in light blue jacket standing behind our mother, is the third child and Deborah is the youngest in mother's arms. All have normal hearing but me. 

Below: This photo was taken in the summer 1978. I was a year old. I played with my oldest cousins, Vicki and Jimmy. Pay a close attention to my body language.. I was and am deaf. I looked at Vicki to communicate using sign language. 

Below: a newspaper photograph of me at age 4. I was enrolled in a pilot preschool program for deaf children in New Jersey. The teacher communicated in American Sign Language (ASL). 

Welcome to my old-new blog!

I used this blog for my graduate studies at Walden University. I am now using this for my doctorate studies at Walden University. Welcome Back! Please feel free to browse the blog and make comments. In meantime, I sincerely hope you will learn new things here through the year.

Chrissy

Time Well Spent!

After reviewing the resources for this blog, there are three significant keys that I learned throughout the program. (Resources: Merging Vision, Passion, and Practice

http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/EDUC/6990/01/mm/ec_pres/index.html, Interconnections, Part III--http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/EDUC/6990/08/mm/interconnections/index.html)

1. Passion.
     As Louise Derman-Sparks stated---when it comes to passion, we are always uncovering and discovering surprises about ourselves, especially about our own passion toward Early Childhood and the life in general. Through the program, I was enforced to analyze and reanalyze my burdened passion. I learned a quite few things about myself. For example, I realized that I loathe the information in relation to how deaf children must be "fixed" to belong in a hearing culture/community.  I was never "fixed," because I accepted my disability with gratitude. I also successfully accomplished many things in my life. Second, I also learned that I enjoy writing stories.

2. Value the person
     Throughout the resources, valuing the person is mentioned repetitively.  Value the person is like the oxygen that we cannot live without. We must value the people, because they are part of our lives.

3. A quote drew the determination out of me.
      "We must remember that one determined person can make a significant difference, and that a small group of determined people can change the course of history"  Sonia Johnson, American Feminist Activist and Writer.  Basically, this quote rings true.  We cannot do everything by ourselves.
"For with God, nothing is impossible." Luke 1:37  God gives us the strengths, the determination, and mind to achieve a goal that we set our eyes onward.  Through the program, we all have developed new friendships via cyberspace by sharing our common visions, goals, dreams and obstacles.

I have two main goals to hold onto and pursue.  First, I am currently working as a full time nanny for a hearing family and their hearing children. My goal is to educate the two children American Sign Language and to ensure that their language development is reaching beyond standardized age-language development. With this job, I hope to reach out to the hearing parents with deaf children throughout the state.  Second, I desire to see a book published and written by me.  Even though the book may not be related to early childhood, it is related to disability and that's a starting point. Everything else will unfold in time.

Never despite a meager beginning.

Every child who is deaf or hard of hearing does not have to be perfect in order to discover his or her purpose on Earth.

Here is a video (and caption).

"Hello everybody.. Thank you for taking the time to listen to what I have to say in sign language. I want to thank all of you for your support, encouragement, and the friendships that we developed through the courses.  I want to thank the instructor (s) for tremendous support in my writing skill. My writing skill has improved greatly through the program. I truly enjoyed learning more about different subjects, especially about culture, diversity, ethics, and how we can impact others with much of determination and passion.  I really enjoyed working with all of you. I hope to see all of you in "out there in the world"  with whatever dreams you have. I hope you all will success in everything you do. Thank you. Nice to meet you. Best of Luck! "

You may contact me through facebook or email at chrissievordavis@gmail.com

Job/Role in the ECE community: Internationally

The opportunities to advocate, and advocate children, parents, and others through international organizations.

Child Protection Specialist-Case Management at UNICEF

This position requires the ability to take responsibility in monitoring children’s development and progress in different areas as well as the surrounding. This  position is similar to what I have experienced---being intensive case manager for mental and behavioral health in addition to deaf consumers.

http://www.unicef.org/index2.php

Volunteer-Child Protection or Education at Save The Children

This position is non-pay and can be performed in homeland or oversea. However, volunteering oversea depends on whether or not I travel to a country for a long-term visit.  The position operates similar to UNICEF’s positions.

http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6115947/k.8D6E/Official_Site.htm

Deaf Child Worldwide does not offer volunteer or career opportunities. It only asks for donations. This organization focuses on supplying educational support to the deaf communities in third world countries. I am disappointed that this does not advertise the actual life-experience opportunity for individuals like me to contribute through hand-on activities instead of monetary.

www.deafchildworldwide.info/

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: National/Federal Level

National Association of the Deaf

Advocacy opportunity to expose the dominant society that “curing” the deafness is not the ultimate answer. Acceptance is.

The skills I possess that allow me to be an advocate come from years of employment experience in mental health field where I constantly advocated for clients’ right to have full access to communication, especially within the medical field.

www.nad.org

Federal Support for Developing Language and Literacy: Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children

There is no job position available through this website that interests me; however, there is a potential position I would think GAO would benefit from---a specialist (policy maker or some sort) that focuses on advocating language and literacy developments for deaf and hard of hearing children by promote recognition of Deaf mentor program and early intervention

www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-357

Department of Human, Health Resource—WV

West Virginia Birth to Three

No job opportunity at this time. This program does not provide Deaf Mentor Program to provide the support to the parents and their children who are deaf or hard of hearing. I would think Deaf Mentor Program greatly benefits all the people who are involved in West Virginia Department of Human Health Resource.  There is lack of information on hearing loss in its website.

I have the knowledge and skills that allow me to work with all kinds of people and being a deaf role model for the deaf or hard of hearing children.

www.wvdhhr.org

Blog Assignment: Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

Three local, or state/communities of practice organizations that appeal to me are primarily serving the deaf and hard of hearing population.

First, Beginnings for Parents of Children who are deaf or hard of hearing, Inc. offers excellent position opportunities where I could be involve in early intrevention. This is a state organization (North Carolina)  Here is the website address: http://www.ncbegin.org/early_intervention/professionals.shtml.

The positions that this organization offers that interest me: Service Coordinator and Teacher for deaf or hard of hearing.  Service coordinator is responsible for providing the resources to the parents; to assist the parents with identifying the resources that best fit their needs, and to work with the parents, organization(s), and other resources. The skills that are needed for this: college degree in education, American Sign Language, knowledge of Deaf culture, great interpersonal skill, communication skill, organizing skill, and multitasking skill.

Teacher for deaf or hard of hearing requires college degree in teaching and in Deaf Education, fluent in American Sign Language, skills in communication, interpersonal, instructional management and design, and resourcesfulness.

Second, West Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind, Romney, WV offers job positions from time to time. This school is a state school that serves the deaf population as well as blind population.  This is an educational setting. Currently, the school is advertising a position that may interest me and that is parent educational counselor.  This position requires masters degree in counseling (preferably), must be knowlegeable about deafness, deaf culture, and be able to demonstrate fluency in American Sign Language. This position focus on working with parents and their deaf children on different aspects of their lives that deafness has an impact on to work out the differences, to help them gain knowledge and skills, and to advocate the families. Website: http://wvsdb2.state.k12.wv.us

Third, West Virginia Birth to Three Early Intrevention that serves all children between birth to three across the state. Website: http://www.wvdhhr.org/birth23/Default.asp  This program assists families in finding resources that best fit families' needs. The program has affliation with other networks such as children's doctor, hospital, education settings, and so forth to promote positive learning experience for parents and their child. Its current job opportunity:  Service Coordinator--which is the same as what Beginnings provides (mentioned earlier). 

Those three programs focus on working with deaf or hard of hearing children between birth to 3 and that completely relates to my passion. I would like to work with parents, othe professionals, and children to ensure that children are not falling behind in language devleopment as well as the parents not being drowned in new environment.

Final Communication Blog

Classmates,

For the last eight weeks, I admit that I have finally found a common ground with all of you---Communication, which seems to be an on-going challenge for each one of us. Regardless how many of us are deaf or not, communication continues to be main vehicle for a clear information. I greatly appreciated each one of you and your willingness to share your experiences and opinions.

One thing I learned that communication comes in different form, sensation, and meaning for each one of us. This makes our lives more interesting and challenging in positive ways. To encourage the up keeping with communication skill, I encourage you to connect me through facebook.

I enjoyed working with you and am looking forward to continue.

Chrissy

Team Building Part 1-Blog

To be frankly honest with you, I have not yet experience a stage where it was hard to say good bye to the team. I am a job hopper, so I leave before I experience the final stage of team development. Perhaps, this is because I am used to leave a place or people frequently. Perhaps, this is because all of my good friends live far away and that is part of Deaf culture. The only experience that I found to be the most difficult to say good bye, which was saying good bye to one of my former students who I worked very hard with.. someone I greatly invested... In the end, this student was still angry with me and I had to leave without a closure.

Communication-Week 5

There are two persons in my life who I have disagreements with the most frequent. My mom and my husband are the most sensitive people I have ever met and this becomes an intruding subject in the disagreements. Sensitivity does not allow any of us to be remain objective.  Admittedly, I usually am a strong opinionated person who will say what I needed to say right out loud and right at the spot. 

Growing up, my father told me to learn to "bite your tongue."  I never understood what it meant until I was much older and had disagreements with my mother and husband frequently.  Two strategies I learned to use when I attempt to soften the disagreements. First, I had to learn to allow mom or my husband to express their opinions and thoughts even though I knew they were misinformed at times.  Second, I learned that sometimes it is better to not continue the debate until we all have clear minds to continue. I would like to add a third strategy, which is easier to say than to do. The third strategy is to apologize and accept the blame, especially when it is not even your fault or when you did not have anything to do with it. This is the challenging task.  I learned that people relieve their anger quickly when I apologize for someone else's mistake without stating or pointing whose fault. In some disagreements, it is better to let it go.  In others, it is worth fighting for. 

I believe I could gain my skill using NVC and 3R's by applying them more in disagreements with my mother and my husband.  I would like to see the results of using these strategies.  

Communication-week 4: Who am I as a Communicator?

After doing all kinds of assessments, I perceived myself according to my own standard of what a effective communicator  appeared to me.  Then I reviewed two persons' assessments on me. I found that I felt somewhat insulted for being placed in "significant" on Verbal Aggression Scale. It made me feel like I've worked so hard in improving how I argue the cases with others in appropriate way seem trivial.

However, I realized that this person may not change his/her perception of me, because he/she may already "set up" a certain perception of me based on the first impression. What does it take to change one's perception of me is an important question. This had gotten me to reconsider how I communicate with others. I am becoming much more aware of how others react to my communication approaches.

I am hoping to improve my communication styles in different areas so that I could continue being an effective communicator for everyone including myself.

Communication--Week 3

I acknowledge that I communicate with people differently according to their ability to understand the expressions I use to explain my ideas or thoughts. Also, I become aware that I am communicating with others who come from different backgrounds differently, because I put addition efforts in avoiding appear insensitive toward others.

As a case manager, I communicate with over 30 clients who have a wide range of mental health, mental disorders, and emotional disorders. Their abilities to receive and express vary at a greater scale. On my job, I always try to communicate at clients' comprehensive level.

If I am communicating with my colleagues or supervisors, I communicate differently. I communicate at much more professional level than I would with my circle of friends. What is even more--I communicate differently with deaf peers than I would with hearing peers based on culture tendencies.

There are three strategies that I learned this week, which would help me become effective communicator. First, one strategy is to remember to treat others the way I want to be treated. Second, gain my perception of self and of others by learning and relearning about culture, diversity, and my being. Third, use active listening skill to gain my competency as effective communicator. These strategies are on-going and reusable.

Communication--Week 2

For this blog activity, I decided to watch a movie called Jane Eyre and analyze the communication style. There are two main characters: Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester.

Jane Eyre, a young and twenties-something woman, had gone through tragic ordeals through entire of her childhood and adolescence. She protected herself from others by remaining plain in clothing, speaking, nonverbal communication, and everything. She always stayed on guard. She set herself apart from others by wearing dull clothes (plain) and kept things to herself.

Mr. Rochester, forties-something man, was a father to a young girl. He was hungry for connection with a person. He was on emotional roller coaster, because his first wife had severe mental illness. He reached out through verbal constantly.

When Jane met Mr. Rochester, her body language reflected fear in Mr. Rochester's eyes. He attempted to converse with her, but she would not go pursue in-depth conversation. He read her eyes, body language, and clothing and was able to identify that Jane did not want to share her past with him.

To keep the story short and to the point, Jane and Mr. Rochester realized they were comfortable with each other based on the fact that she listened actively to him and he was able to read her. Naturally, they developed romantic feelings for one another.

As I watched the movie, I could "feel" their emotions and read their nonverbal communication before next event. I immediately knew these characters would bonded.  It was clear throughout the movie. It was easy to observe the eye contacts, the body language, and a few dropped hints such as how Jane rub her hands when she's around Mr. Rochester, and how Mr. Rochester became upset when Jane did not attend his parties on a few occasions.

The more I paid attention to the communication cues, the more I recalled the moments of my life that I probably did not realize when others needed me or did not want me. Now I need to pay much more attention on what messages I am sending out to others and watch for a response from others. Perhaps, I will find a proper way to interact with others.

What is Communication?

There is a good friend of mine who holds a position as a program director at Salisbury Behavioral Health, Inc.'s Deaf Services Center for Residential division.  She is a very competent communicator. These are the behaviors that exhibit an effective communicator:

1. She always remain neutral.
2. She maintains the tone (body language and verbal).
3. She listens actively.
4. She expresses clearly and carefully. She would rephrase her statements to ensure that others understood what she meant to say.
5. She gives people the feeling of security by showing that she cares for others.
6. She shows empathy toward others regardless what circumstances she is in at the moment.
7. Regardless how stressful the situation is, she always come out with a smile on her face.
8. She stays abreast on what is happening at her workplace.
9. She follows up with others to ensure that everything has worked out.

I think these behaviors are excellent qualities of an effective communicator. There are so much more qualities that can lead a person to be a effective communicator. I certainly would use nearly all of these behaviors, because these seem to draw others to a person.  We want people to feel secure around us so that we could help them.

Professional Hopes and Goals

As we are heading to the finish line of this course, I feel that I need to share with you of my hope and goal.

My hope is pretty much linked with promoting positive educational experiences for young deaf children, so that they can effectively work with others of different cultures. I hope also that young children of all races will mesh together fairly well, so that some day our world will turns a new face with much more harmony.

My goal is to expose the significant of diversity, equity, and justice to my undergraduate students who also are our future early childhood educators. These students are the next generation to carry the torch into the next generation.

Colleagues, I enjoyed studying and experiencing this riveting course along with you. I hope all of you continue to enjoy your journey--whether it may be in classroom or somewhere else.

Welcoming Families from Around the World

For this project, I would select a family from Burma. In order to be culturally responsive to the family from Burma, here is a list of what I would do to become culturally responsive.

1. I would research on Burma and its nation. This website is one of many useful sources: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35910.htm

2. I would perform a home visit with the burmese family to initiate the contact. For this visit, I would request for an interpreter if needed. This would give me an opportunity to interact with the family to gain my knowledge of Burma and its tradition.

3.  I would study Burmese language using different sources to become familiar with. Perhaps, I would learn a few basic words in Burmese to show courtesy. Here is one of sources that provide information on Brumese language:  http://www.omniglot.com/writing/burmese.htm

4. I would research about local events related to Burmese. Then attend several events to study and learn how people interact, taste their food, and meet new people whose origin is from Burma.  This website provides a list of events related to Burma in United States: http://burmese-community.blogspot.com/2011/04/2011-usbma-burmese-new-year-festival.html

5. One important part in studying Burma is to understand traditional behaviors such as male and female roles, so I can demonstrate respect toward their culture through behaving accordingly.

These venues in becoming culturally responsive should prepare me for initiate and first several encounters with the family. Hopefully, I would be able to extend the study into Early Childhood program by inviting the family to share their culture and developing a solid relationship with the family.  I believe that I would need to observe, interact, and use my five senses to learn about Burma in order to have a better idea of how to respond to the Burmese family in appropriate ways.

One last thing, the reason I selected Burma based on the fact that I grew up with a gentleman whose origin is Burma. He and I became close friend. I've always questioned him about his background, but he was too young to remember anything about Burma. The only thing he talked about was the Burmese food. In the picture above is a  picture of my friend and I when we were in eighth grade. I sat on the ground--front row first from the left.  My friend, JT who was born and raised in Burma for a short time before coming to America, knelt in second row--the first from the right.

Burma Flag:

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

My personal experience with bias, prejudice, and oppression has been an on-going journey. Experiencing it personally and witnessing oppression toward someone else are part of my life. I have also witnessed prejudice and oppression through many fiction books, television shows, and other medias.

Personal:

Oftentimes, I've been told I would not accomplish anything in life. Deafness is seen as a barrier in accessing to the language. Therefore, if I could not learn languages, I would not be able to learn anything. Obtaining a job is always a struggle. I have been rejected by employers because of my hearing ability. I've been questioned about my skills based on my hearing ability.

Witnessed someone else:

This young man is deaf and has several behavior disorders along with mental illness. Yet, he was bright and active.  I worked primarily with this young man. He asked me if he could take driver's education class. He wants to get driver's license. He really wanted to be like every other teenager. I encouraged him to try the class out. He was uncertain about how he is going to pass the class. My head-supervisor said he cannot take driver's education, because he's not bright and capable. I stood up to her and asked to give him the same treatment as every other teenager. He has to try and learn.  This is a sign of oppression between highly educated person and a person with mental illness.

Media---Switched at Birth:

This show is about two female teenagers (Daphne--deaf and Bay--hearing) who were switched at birth and discovered the switch as teenagers. One of the teenagers is deaf. This deaf person meets her biological parents. The biological parents automatically accused the mother for not preventing the child from becoming deaf. Then biological parents encouraged this teenager to get cochlear implant and be normal like them. They did not bother to recognize the wonderful person she is as a deaf person.

There is another character, Emmett, who is profoundly deaf since birth. He has deaf parents.Unexpectedly, he fell in love with Bay. Emmett's mother did not support Emmett's relationship with Bay because Bay is hearing and does not belong in Deaf community. The mother assumed that every hearing-deaf relationship is doom for failure. Emmett pointed out that his parents are deaf and getting divorced.

How one treats another removes the equality by lowering one's status in the society.  This is basically what we all experience at some point in our lives. When someone says that a deaf person needs to be fixed, the inequity comes through the identity.  This creates the feeling of being abnormal and possibly a identity crisis. 

From my experience, oppression and prejudice had always anger me. I used to "talk back" to others who degraded my identity, my being, my ability, and so on in different ways. I used to sign to someone who mocked me. Sometimes, I'd say, "watch me" and I'd accomplish.  

There were not many people who allied for me except for my parents, grandparents, and interpreters. Most of the time, I believe that my trait of being stubborn is what helped me getting through the obstacles. I knew what I was capable of, so I just endured everything to reach the goal. It seemed to be much more difficult as a teenager, and young adult than in my 30's. I am much more laid back now. Once in a while, I'll fiercely fight for equal rights. 

I would not change anything. I wouldn't be who I am if I had not gone through the obstacles, the struggles, and emotions. This had given me the opportunity to gain compassion for others even if oppression exhausts me.