First off, I would like to belatedly wish everyone a Happy New Year & Chinese New Year!
I am enjoying it so far and trying to keep warm now that it is finally getting very cold during this winter season. Of course I cannot enjoy it without my habitual coffee! Surprisingly so, I was craving iced coffee on an icy day :)
I am taking a stroll down memory lane while I am taking a sip from my delicious iced coffee.....
Nostalgia!!!! I am feeling nostalgic!!! Thanks to my computer saving all my old work from graduate school I have recovered a lot of my old research papers I have written while studying education. I couldn't believe that my new desktop was able to save all of these "masterpieces" that I worked so hard on while I was studying to be a teacher. I wanted to save it and keep it in my portfolio so I could also use it to showcase my writing and what I learned and wrote about.
After scrolling through a bunch of papers/work I had written over the course of 3 years while graduating with my M.S. in education I felt like it was an out of body experience. After reading through them it did not feel like it was me that had written them. I do not know why and I am having a hard time explaining why. To be honest, I was pretty impressed with my writing style and very proud of myself and thoroughly enjoyed reading these after nearly 7 years almost as if I am on the outside looking in.
I am going to copy and paste on here some of my favorite research papers I have written. This first one is my Personal History paper. This is also very apropos to bring up because what I wrote is the main topic of news in today's current events more than ever before:
Dara Danziger
Professor Miller
EDUC504
Personal History Paper
October 12, 2008
My life has not
been diverse at all. I grew up in a
school district ten minutes from where I live where the community is
predominately Jewish and Italian. Whites
are the predominant race, and within the white race are an overwhelming
majority of Jews and Italians. All other
races are a minority: I only remember seeing three black people, and two of
them were brother and sister and the other girl ended up leaving by the time I
got to the high school. I spent
Kindergarten through 12th grade at Byram Hills school district and
when I first moved there when I was around six years old, someone told my dad
that there were not a lot of Jews. Well,
boy did that change. I look back on that
and laugh because I can not believe the overwhelming amount of Jews and
Italians that went to my school. I
really do not remember seeing more than a handful of oriental and Spanish
students either. My school is very
small, but expanding at an alarming rate as we speak. There were 175 students in my graduating
class. I remember one issue that
happened in my high school that really struck a cord: one day there was this huge
fight in the cafeteria. There happened
to be a black girl who transferred to my high school and some wise guy who is
Italian American made a racist remark in front of her face. Well, it turns out she went chasing him down
the hall in a rage. That scenario on
race always stuck in my head. It was not
until I got to college that I saw a lot more types of race and ethnicity. At my college, there were a lot of
blacks. I was friends with a black girl
for a while and she told me that there were not a lot of “black” people,
meaning people that were black Americans.
Most of the blacks in my college came from the islands or Africa. After she told me that I never realized it,
but she was right. I looked around me at
the people in my classes and I do not remember meeting anyone else that was not
from the islands or Africa. My friend who
told me this was always from New York and her family grew up in New York too. Come to think of it, I do not remember seeing
any oriental people at my college either.
I am a white Jew, but I never considered myself religious. Whenever anyone would ask me what nationality
I am I would just always think of myself as “white.” I asked my parents what nationality I really
am, because I really do not know much except that my great grandfather was
polish, and my grandfather on my mother’s side has some German. I do know for sure that I am 25% Irish
because my grandmother on my mother’s side of the family was 100% Irish. My mother is half Jewish and half Irish. I asked my father specifically on my
nationality and he did not really know either, he just said, “why don’t you do
some research on it?”
My
identity as a learner is pretty limited.
All throughout school I have never been exposed to cultural, ethnic and
racial issues, or around diversity. I
feel like after high school ended I was not prepared to face the reality of
various other people that followed different traditions and were not
white. I identify as a learner with an
open mind, I know there are lots of stereotypes for every culture and race but
I try to not let that affect my learning.
My identity as a learner is expanding everyday; I have been in school
for so long and keep accumulating so many classes that I begin to understand
all sides of one cultural/racial/ethnic issue.
These issues come into play now that I am enrolled in the graduate
education program. One class I am taking
focuses on early education and it mentions the issue of race. My professor said that all children do not
know what race is and there is no issue between each child. What creates a racial issue is from their upbringing:
their family influences them to have prejudices and racial and cultural views
against a certain type culture. This
eventually leads children growing up stereotyping others and vice versa. My professor also said that throughout his
teaching career he has seen a high school cafeteria all being segregated by
each cultural group. Every group has a
stereotype against each other and refuses to talk to other groups; and this in
turn creates a dispute and segregation of each culture and race. I think of all these things as I learn them
in my classes so I understand that unfortunately this is what the world is
about. One class I remember taking in
college was speech, but a lot of issues on feminism were brought up. I remember in that class how we spoke about
different issues such as women going to college, the glass ceiling and what was
expected of women a while ago. I will
never forget that class because I loved it and we spoke about major issues that
are about feminism. We also saw videos
on women in different countries and what life is like for them living in that
country. It shed new light on what it is
like to be a woman in other parts of the world.
So that experience contributed to my identity as a learner. To conclude what stands out the most of that
speech class is that I learned that more women then men are now in enrolled in
college. That is a huge milestone.
This
affects my potential as a teacher because when I start teaching I will put all
these experiences I have gained into the back of my mind. To be honest, as previously stated; I do not
have much experience with culturally diverse people compared to most
people. I grew up in the suburbs in a
very small school and even though it is located in New York I was far away from
the city area. I think there is much
more diversity in the city area, so other people that were raised there
experienced a lot of diversity. While
beginning my teaching career I will keep an open mind to everyone and
especially since I am taking this course.
This cultural perspectives course is providing insight on how to teach
children that come from other countries.
I will also gain experience while doing my teacher observations and
student teaching. I do not think that
lack of cultural diversity has anything to do with my potential as a
teacher. Teachers need to be caring and
nurturing and open to differences; those are the ingredients of good teaching
skills. Teachers also have to know how
to affectively teach ELL’s in the mainstream classroom.
My
identity as a member of my cultural group Judaism does not offer much of a
bearing on my potential and knowledge as a learner and teacher. I do not feel I am a “member” of any
cultural/racial/ethnic group. First of
all, I am not religious and barely attend services. Although I did get bat-mitzvahed, I did not
continue to read the bible or go to services that often. Joining a temple is very expensive but I did
used to attend services for Yom Kippur when I was young. Whenever anyone asks me about my culture I
always say that I am not religious and to be honest, it feels strange going
into detail of my religion since I am not religious at all.
I
have stated examples that I have seen first hand from my own personal
experiences. Even though they are
limited, it is enough to provide insight on how I feel schools and education
make assumptions on the topic of race, culture and ethnicity. I have learned that if a teacher does not
feel the student can learn since they do not understand English fluently, then
the student will in fact fail. This
called the self-fulfilling prophecy. For
example, it is controversial as to how to incorporate ESL in schools. It has its pros and cons. It has a lot of pros because ELL’s can have a
time in the day where they learn English then be in mainstream the rest of the
day. It has its cons because then
children are missing out on important information when they are in the ESL
class. It is too expensive to have an
ESL specialist come into every classroom in one school, so unfortunately that
cannot be done. There are stereotypes
for every culture and race, so I feel like it will be hard for teachers and
other students to not judge others. I feel like it is part of human nature to
judge others; especially with people that come from foreign places and who are
very different from other students.
This barrier need to be broken down and a lot of people need to be open
minded for the issue of race, culture and ethnicity not to be a problem.
I
have discussed all parts relating to the subject of my culture, race and
ethnicity. I have also provided examples
from what I have seen in my life and have learned in school about other cultures,
races and ethnicities. I hope I have
provided insight in my own personal experiences growing up.
I grew up in what I like to call a utopian society. A small, lily white overly wealthy community where parents spoiled their children giving them the luxury of driving fancy cars, endless limits to credit cards, growing up in houses large & opulent enough that look like Buckingham Palace, vacations and so on. No child knew the meaning of a dollar, for all they knew money grew on trees. Humble & grateful they were not. They were more like obnoxious, snooty pigs that made most of my 12 years of being in that school district miserable & a form of capital punishment. They formed their cliques in elementary school and it was ironclad since that day forward, so if you didn't fit in then your fate was sealed and you were destined to be indelibly ostracized and made a pariah.
They all lived in a bubble, let alone all being "white" and not growing up with any diversity at all, whatsoever. I even recall one day during gym class in high school the main group of pretentious, repugnant schmucks in my grade that to this day make me want to puke my brains out just thinking about them, having a actual debate over whose father made more money. Need I say more? It was a very small town and as I mentioned in my paper just as small a school. In retrospect, I pity them more than feel any animosity for them because I think they were just very ignorant and lived in never, never land. I would like to touch on and reiterate what I wrote in my Personal History paper regarding my ethnic background: I do not identify with any type of religion. I do come from mixed backgrounds like I had stated, both my parents and their family's were not at all religious whatsoever. Today as an adult I do not belong to any organized religion; I never felt like I had one anyway growing up. I have my own set of beliefs and ideals and that is good enough for me and how I am living my life.
I am very proud of myself that I have acted upon what I said I would be like when becoming a teacher and being just as empathetic, loving and supportive of students from all different races, ethnicities & economic backgrounds.
Dara Danziger
EDUC 514
July 24, 2009
A
lot of discoveries have been made in the world of early childhood
education. It is a known fact that
children need to feel loved and supported.
The most important growth of the human growth of the brain is the first
two years of their life. Children that
are loved and not loved have a great impact on their brain development. A study was conducted that had to do with
convicts in prison. These inmates were
unable to form attachments because they were abused as children. The baby responds to their mother’s voice
within the first few months of their life.
It is very important for the mother to make eye contact with their
child. The mother, or who ever the
primary care giver is, should read and sing to their baby. The baby gets used to their parents speech and
makes eye contact. It is fine if the
baby is in day care, but the parents should also bond with their child at night
so they can spend some quality time with them.
It
is also proven that children do much better in school when their parents get
involved. Teachers who are very positive
toward the parent and the child and who are responsive to parent and child
needs form a respectful relationship with the parent. Parents of special needs want to feel valued,
and receive feedback on how things are going with their child. The parent view is more community centered-
which means seeking more than just parental involvement in the classroom or
school activities. There was a study by
Swick that showed what parents look for in their relationship with early
childhood professionals. Here are a
few: Parents want some who cares about
them and their children, parents want respect and to be seen as an effective
member of their child’s education team and to be a part of a relationship that
is collaborative and communicative.
If I had a young child that was
going to day care, there would be a few implications I would look out for when
placing him or her there. First of all,
I would make sure that I would have a rapport with the teacher. I would want to make sure me and that teacher
are on the same page. I would make sure
that I would agree with the way the teacher ran the class and what activities
the children were involved in. Secondly,
I would want to look at the day care center first to make sure that there is a
lot of activity going on and lots of games and toys. I would want to see the teacher and the
teacher aide’s all interacting with the children.
Those are the main points I would
look for when placing my child in childcare.
Also, I would find out if they ever go outside and play, and how much
recess time they get. I think this is
important because children need to be able to play and have fun with the other
children. I would also make sure that
the teacher rewards the children and also disciplines them if they do something
bad. If I saw that she could not control
her class then I would not place a child there.
I
would make sure that the class room was clean and everything is neatly put
away. I would also ask my child if he or
she is having a good time there. If the
child said no then I would figure out why, and if it has something to do with
the way the program is ran, then I would pull the child out of it. Most importantly, I would want to see a lot
of play going on in the day care center.
It is so important for these children to play and learn basic things
too.
After reading this, I must say I really hit the nail on the head. It is very imperative if not necessary to apply these ideologies with young children whether you are the parent and/or the teacher. After teaching in early childhood education, what I wrote as a graduate student & novice fits like a missing piece to a puzzle.
Dara Danziger
EDUC513
Professor Ashley
October 22, 2008
There are many different types of
play. First of all, a baby is always
playing even when he or she is born.
Babies love when adults are around them and they are given things to
play with; they love the repetition.
Contrasting types of play can begin with solitary and parallel
play. Solitary play is when the child is
playing with the toys by themselves and do not want to bothered to play with
other children. This type of play is
typically for beginners. A contrasting
style is parallel play. This is when the
child sits side by side with the other child but they are not directly playing
with each other. Both children share
their toys and do not coordinate their play or connect to their play with each
other. This usually leads into group
play. After this comes associative group
play. This is the first type of play
when children are involved with playing with each other and are involved with
similar activities with each other. The
children share their same materials but do not create a play of joint
focus. A contrasting style of this is
cooperative play. This is a type of play
where children are now making a great effort to come up with a theme and roles
of their peers. There is a lot of communication
with this type of play; the child tells his or her friends what exactly the
play will be about. There is a lot of
communication to establish the main idea of what this type of play is about.
The children really create a whole story line to act out.
All of this play can be connected
to the three domains: psychomotor, affective and cognitive. All of these domains start from objects the
children play with and their surroundings and interactions and cognitive
growth. Children organize and categorize
while they are playing with each other and this allows the children to use
their three domains while engaging in different types of play. This allows children to use their cognitive
skills while thinking and using objects in new ways and increasing their
ability to think in new ways and to solve problems.
This article can be used on an
interview in various ways. First of all,
a person on the interview can discuss the types of stages of play a child goes
through; this shows that the person is aware of the cognitive development a
baby goes through as he or she continues to grow up. Another thing a person on an interview can
discuss is how a child begins to develop their own feelings and is able to take
on the perspective of others. Play
allows the child to express and cope with their feelings in a world that is not
a real world. A person can discuss how
play is beneficial to a child’s self esteem.
Play feeds into the child’s emotional development. Play allows the child to feel protected, the
need for power and the need to attack and destroy. Play allows children to feel free to use
their imagination and their feelings and impulses. This also allows the child to cope with the
good and bad that the real world unfortunately consists of.
A person can talk about how play
allows for social development. Children
are tested to see what is socially acceptable and unacceptable. Play also has a lot to do with children’s
physical development. Play allows the
child to run, climb and skip. This helps
their gross and fine motor skills to be practiced. Children even start doing cartwheels and
jump. Their hand-eye coordination
develops as well.
A person on an interview can
discuss how important it is for children to engage in play. After the interviewee goes into the dynamics
of the types of play and how that enables the child to develop in all three
domains, I think this will show the interviewer that the person has the
knowledge of what the child develops as the child continuously plays.
Currently working in a preschool setting, I must say that this is also paramount and a blue print for how children should be and how to engage and interact with other peers while going to school as a toddler up to Pre-K. Children need to run around with physical activity along with being able to use their active imagination while playing and forming early social interactions.
This article posted below goes into more detail regarding what I had wrote about the important of play, classroom techniques & early childhood social interactions. This article also touches up on the role of what psychology plays into the world & study of education/teaching:
513 Midterm
Dara Danziger
Professor Ashley
November 22, 2008
- The three domains go as follows: psychomotor,
cognitive and affective. The
psychomotor domain is based on the physical development of the child. When a baby is first born, the child has
limited visual acuity. However, the
child is still very sensitive to the environment around him or her. The child is in need of a great sensory
experience: such as tough, interactive toys, mobiles and so forth. This is also the part of the domain that
has to do with gross motor development, fine motor development, sensory
and perceptual-motor abilities.
Gross motor development is based on the child’s physical movements
such as sitting, standing, walking and running. Fine motor development is based on
self-help skills that have to do with eating and dressing. The baby has a lot of reflexes such as
sucking and grasping.
Perceptual-motor development is based on eye-hand and eye-foot coordination. The baby’s sensory experience is based
on what adults have: hear, taste, smell and touch. Cognitive development is all about early
brain development and language development. The child’s brain is very plastic when
he or she is first born; it takes years for the brain to fully
development. Language development
is a very critical period for children.
It is very important for parents to always help their children with
language because when they are young their brains can soak up information
like a sponge. The affective domain
focuses on their social and emotional development. When babies are born they come into the
world as John Locke’s Tabula Rosa (a blank slate). Children will not grow if they do not
feel good about themselves. What
makes a child’s temperament “easy” is that he or she can accept change and
what makes a child’s temperament “difficult” is that these types of
children do not have clear expectations.
- Two ideas for enrichment for the affective domain are
play and emotional support. It is
very important for parents and teachers to make sure that the child is
always playing with themselves and with others. This cannot be stressed enough because
play is what sets the child’s foundation for healthy social
development. There are so many
sub-categories of play; play can be anything that has the child’s mind
running over time with imagination.
This can range from a child being a parent, dressing up as a super
hero and so forth. Emotional
support is a very key enrichment tool, especially for the parent. Parents have to make sure that they
build and maintain a consistent, healthy emotional relationship with their
child. They must set clear rules
and keep their discipline and encouragement persistent. When a child knows they are loved, the
child will most likely be very healthy emotionally. Two ideas for the enrichment for the
psychomotor domain are games and outdoor activities. It is important for children to always
be using their brains. Parents and
teachers should buy any kinds of games so children can use this sensory
input into their brains. This can
be anywhere from drawing, Light Bright and even video games. Physical activity is also important
because a child needs to run around to attain their physical and emotional
well being. A child should be able
to go outside and play various supports, and even run around. This is vital because this the domain
where their hand-eye coordination are being developed. Two enrichment ideas for the cognitive
domain are using objects, symbols and speaking to the child. Objects and symbols are important for
the child because when he or she is first born they are aware of their
environment; and it is the responsibility of the parent to make sure the
baby uses his or her sensory input.
Language needs to be used to foster the baby’s cognitive
development as well, because if the child does not hear articulate speech,
then the child will not be able to speak correctly and will have speech
problems later on.
- Developmentally Appropriate Practice is
developed by the National Association for the Education of Young Children
(NAEYC). Developmentally
Appropriate Practice (DAP) deals with the children’s needs, teaching
methods, classroom arrangement and so on.
The teacher must be able to use his or lesson plans for the correct
age group. The age of the children
must flow with the material and the way the teacher teaches his or her
class. Children need outside
experience, activity and play equipment must be age appropriate. DAP builds a meaningful curriculum for
the care of children. DAP is
connected with the professional standards of FAPE and to the children and
families. Teachers must understand
that children do not learn the same way and teachers establish the
foundation of the classroom.
- The classroom can be described as being “rich in the
area of literacy” by the way the classroom is structured. The classroom must have tons of books of
all subjects that interest the students, the walls must be covered with
different information and mnemonic devices to help the children learn the
material more easily so they can become literate in all subjects that the
teacher teaches. The teacher should
have book clubs and reading books, and make the subject of reading
exciting and entertaining for the students, so that way the students will
be looking forward to reading and learning various subjects.
- Five major Characteristics of good teaching go as
follows: 1. Setting clear and consistent rules 2. Having children develop pro
social skills 3. Treating each student with the same amount of respect 4.
Never embarrassing a child 5. Always revitalizing your knowledge as a
teacher to be more effective. The
teacher must have rules in the beginning of the school year so the
student’s know what to expect from the teacher. The teacher must always be consistent
with them and never out of order with the rewards, punishment and
discipline. One of the
responsibilities of a teacher is to make sure his or her students develop
pro social skills. This can be
created by encouraging play, setting an area of the room for play, placing
students in groups according to similar interests so students can develop
a rapport with each other. A
teacher must be sensitive to each child and be aware that a child is
easily embarrassed. This is
critical because if a teacher embarrasses a child once, you will more than
likely lose the child forever. It
is very important for teachers to research online and elsewhere different
and new teaching methods and attending workshops to be aware of the new
ways of teaching methods and technology.
- There are a lot of major characteristics of a
classroom that needs to be used to have a positive culture and
climate. There needs to be a lot of
social interaction, children working in groups, model appropriate adult
behavior, model appropriate behavior for sharing then get the children to
do it. A good classroom needs to
provide materials for socio-dramatic play.
Children should be mentally and physically active. Other factors include but not limited to:
let children deal with opportunities, draw attention to other people’s feelings,
change ineffective social behavior by setting rules to change, state expectations,
change those rules into actions and give opportunities to do that. Teachers cannot just talk to their
students; they must let the children play games and act on it. The classroom needs to be a safe
environment, teachers need to teach children to develop self regulation, and
teachers must discuss anger, conflict resolution and involve the
family. The physical climate of the
room must not be too hot or too cold, a comfortable temperature is at
about 68 degrees. When I observe a
classroom I would be looking for the involvement of the teacher using
different teaching styles to make sure each child learns in various ways,
I would look for the teacher being kind and sweet to his or students but
at the same time making sure the kids behave. I would want the classroom to be
enriched with toys, games, not too much but just enough information on the
wall such as what they accomplished throughout the year, various jobs the child
has in class, such as doing the lunch count, collecting homework and so
forth. It would be nice to see a
chart on the board where a child did a “get to know me” sort of project
where the child has a picture of them and what he or she enjoys as a hobby. I would expect the climate of the room
to be comfortable enough where you do not need to wear a t-shirt and you
do not need a winter jacket in the class to feel comfortable.
- Cephalocaudal development is based on the physical
growth of the child. It is the idea
that physical development starts from head-to-tail in a top down
sequence. This goes back to the
beginning of man when humans were not evolved physically. Proximodistal is from the middle
out. This all follows a
developmental process. This has to
do with the physical developmental process of a child. This encompasses the abilities of a
child learning how to walk, coordination, balance, gross and fine motor
skills. It is a progression from
gross to fine motor skills. It is
also an increase in speed. There is
no exact age range when a child should be at the level of each stage of
physical development; so the parent should not be worried if a child is
slightly delayed with learning how to crawl and walk and other physical
abilities that the child learns growing up.
- Play sets the foundation for the emotional and social
development of the child. There are
various types of play, but the point of play is for a child to use their
imagination and creativity to develop in a healthy way to adulthood. Vygotsky thought of play as allowing
children to differentiate thinking. For him it means to develop self
regulation. He though of
socio-dramatic play where it is symbolic plays where kids can imagine
adult roles or fantasy roles. This
allows them to imagine and use their social skills. It is healthy for children to revert to
acting like a baby. Teachers can
encourage socio-dramatic play by modeling behaviors and acting out. Play does not have to have rewards and
it is vital for the teacher and parents to allow them to act out non
traditional things. The first thing
is for the teacher to observe the children. When play diminishes then a teacher
should elaborate or change the psychodynamics of the group. The next step is to model behaviors and
model something that the children can look at and use in their group. Then the teacher should plan by setting
up activities to get children involved.
The teacher must observe, model, elaborate and evaluate then come
up with the next activity. The
cognitive point of view is that play develops cognition. It starts with concrete objects then the
children explore their surroundings.
Play allows for maturation for gross and fine motor skills. The environment has to support the
children’s learning. Illicit play
is inappropriate play but it serves the purpose to make children aware of
what is not allowed. This type of
play needs to be discouraged for children.
Children do not know it’s illicit, they are just acting out what
they see and play is a learning strategy.
The instructivist view says play allows children to explore their
world, form concepts and interact with others. One of the most important types of play
is fantasy play. This is when the
child pretends they are a super hero and other action figures. A great example is Halloween. This allows a child to use their
imagination and to dress up as whatever they want to expand their creative
horizons.
These are the papers I have found that I feel are my masterpiece (s) and what I love the most.
