Re-read Questions and Blog on :
“Difficulties During Diaper Change” and “The Contested Doll”
As I re-read the questions and my blog I noticed that I felt comfortable in my answers, however, it was missing something. My blog was told from my perspective and how I thought the teacher and Laura felt. I went off of my knowledge and what I thought was right. I notice now that it would be important to include, yes, some “big” questions along with my answers.
“Difficulties During Diaper Change”
Since this would be Laura’s 4th day of school it would be important to know some information from Laura’s parents, such as: “How is Laura when she goes home? How does she react when she comes to school? Does Laura have a difficult time when you change her diapers at home? What are some things that you do with Laura during diaper changing? Who usually changes Laura’s diapers? What kind of baby is Laura? What are some of her likes and dislikes? How do you think that we could make Laura feel more comfortable during diaper changing at school? What are some things that we can do for Laura to make her feel more relaxed at school? How do you feel about us? Do you think we could change something that would benefit Laura, what?”
Besides only asking Laura’s parents questions we can also ask ourselves, the teachers, questions, like: “How can we make Laura feel more comfortable at school and during diaper changing? Would it have been better to change Laura’s diaper quickly or was it better to do it the way that it was done? Why? How important is it to have Laura feel comfortable in the school? What is Laura feeling during diaper changing? Is Laura feeling this way at other times during the day, when, why? How can we involve Laura’s parents in her adjusting to school? Should Laura bond with one teacher or all? How is Laura around the other children? Should we be concerned with Laura not be adjusted to school yet? Is it important that Laura always feel comfortable, why or why not? Is what Laura feeling during diaper changing normal?”
“The Contested Doll”
I feel that in this scenario I would also ask questions to get a better understanding of what happened, some of these questions I would ask my colleagues would be, “How important is it that this was Laura’s first time arguing over a toy? How do you thing she handled it? Do you think intervention was a good thing to do or not, why? How is Laura with other children? Does she play with them? How long? Is this type of play important for children her age? What can we do to increase Laura’s play? Would Laura have only reacted this way because of the doll or would another object get the same reaction?”
Also to get input from Laura’s family would be a good idea to get a more rounded understanding of Laura, questions that could be asked are, “Does Laura play with other children her own age, or a different age, what age? (does age even matter?) How is she with them? What kinds of toys does Laura like to play with at home?”
I wouldn’t be surprised if I could come up with even more questions but I think I made my point. I have learned through this course that communication between staff, parents, and child is very important. Not just the kind of communication that we already have and do but to have a deeper type of communication. One that isn’t swept under the rug or put into a file without ever to be looked at again unless a red flag comes up. To me it has become apparent that I need to step up my communication and ask questions.
Aloha,
ReplyDeleteHow exciting and fortunate that we both were able to take this journey together. Fortunate not only for ourselves, but for the children as well. I believe that we are both now more on the same page than we ever were before. I definitely know that we both have a lot of learning and growing to do. But we have taken the first steps together. How many others do you know that are as fortunate as we are to have done this at the same time and from the same space.
We will now continue to grow, learn, and support each other in our clasroom for the betterment of ourselves and for the grand journeys that our children can take because we are not where we were a mere 4 months ago. Let us continue to strive to be all that our children need and expect of us as we travel with them through their great adventures!!! We all deserve to go as far and as high as we can possible reach and even beyond that! Let us now "go for it" with all the gusto and the excitement as we possibly conjure up! The end is not near, the present and the future await us!!!!
Hey Susan,
ReplyDeleteThis was a wonderful journey. I believe that we both learned to look at it at different views. We learn to ask question. What is the big question and then discover smaller questions along the way. Doing a blog at the beginning, then looking back at the end of the semester to see how are perspective change I believe that each and every one of us now has a better understanding of wondering the different views.
Beside asking question from our point of view, we also ask ourselves point of view from the parent and the child. When we ask questions we come up with many different answers. Answers that have no right or wrong. Questions that go along with more question to discover. When this happens I believe we open up to a new level of understanding not only the child and family, but ourselves.
Hi Susan,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog, and you made a good point about asking deeper questions and having deeper communications with other staff members, parents, and children. By asking deeper and bigger questions, we learn to think 'outside the box'and broadan our knowledge. Throughout this semester, we were challenged to reflect what we read about, and posted critical questions. Now that we have learned to ask ourselves bigger questions, how do you continue from here?
Thanks,
Hannah
Hi Susan,
ReplyDeleteI am inspired by your reflection as you are really looking at your practice and wanting to expand and evolve. What do you think brought you to this place? Can you find the a-ha moment in your autobiography? How might you inspire the same kind of reflective actions in your colleagues? (especially as you are rethinking practice at your center.)
Jeanne