Amanda's Reflective Blog #3

Throughout my time volunteering at Head Start I have learned immense amounts about this facility, as well as factors affecting the individuals who use the services provided by Head Start.

First of all, throughout the process of making our service learning (SL) video, I was able to learn a lot about the Head Start organization and the way it operates. When we interview Andrea, she answered the questions we asked her with immense knowledge and information. The largest pieces of information I took away from that was that Head Start’s goal is to transform the whole family from all angles. This includes informing parents about what their child is doing in class, but by also encouraging them to be active in their child’s education. Parents come visit the classroom on a regular basis. Many come and eat lunch with the children- which again enforces the entire family transformation. Head Start also has a plethora of resources available for parents who may need assistance to provide proper healthcare and nutrition, resources to provide the things children need for kindergarten, resources for transportation, resources for parental education, and as they stated, “almost anything you can think of?”

From interacting with the teachers I have learned how to talk to the children in a way that they can really understand. This is hard to describe, so I will use an example. When we were outside one of the children ran and hid behind the shed- somewhere they weren’t supposed to- because the teacher could not see them. Instead of going over there and telling them to “get out” or “you’re not supposed to be behind there” she said “It makes me really scared when I can’t see where you are.” In another example two children were pushing and shoving. Instead of telling them to “stop” or “don’t do that” she said “that doesn’t make me feel safe when you do that.” In this way the children can understand why they shouldn’t do what they are doing instead of just being told they are not supposed to do a certain action.

My prior beliefs about Head Start were that it was just like any other daycare. I felt that it was just another place parents could leave their children to be watched. However, the children only attend Head Start for four hours a day, and so it isn’t like a normal childcare center. During this time Head Start really focuses on educating the children in all aspects- not just the typical academic ones like letters and numbers. This takes a holistic approach to learning compared to a single playing field. So my initial ideas have been challenged by showing me a deeper educational side presented to children who attend Head Start.

From working with the community I have discovered that Head Start provides fun activities/ events/ experiences to children who would not be able to normally experience such things. Some activities these children are able to participate in include: planting class gardens, growing their own plants, watching their own classroom caterpillars transform to butterflies, creating artwork that is displayed in a community art viewing, learning how to make food- such a hummus- in the classroom, visiting botanical gardens, visiting zoos, and visiting the discovery center. I have discovered that Head Start is not the typical daycare I expected it to be.

My project experience relates to my personal life because it has made me think about how one organization can create such a large impact on the community. In my research a few sources had reached a conclusion that in order to increase the literacy rate in America, decrease the poverty rate, and also decrease the number of criminals we need to approach educating children from a 360 degree approach. Academic education in the classroom, internal factors, is not the only subject that needs to be addressed. External factors such as the health of a child, parental support, home life, community life, and resources available to help educate children all need to be addressed to reach these goals. So personally it makes me think about how I can help make these things a reality. My experience makes me want to help the efforts of this cause of providing education to children by creating a transformation of their lives via the community. It has definitely shown me there are ways to make this vision a reality.

My project experience relates to my academic life by affecting the way I think about communication. This experience has broadened my understanding of how one type of individual expresses themselves to another individual. Age plays a very large role in how we talk to each other. Children need to be addressed differently at each age- whether they are 2, 5, 8, 13, or 17. They are developing all throughout these ages and henceforth are developing their communication skills. This is therefore applicable to my future plans because I plan to become a physician’s assistant. I will work with a variety of ages and need to be sensitive to how I should communicate with them. Children are concerned with being informed, and not deceived, about the medical procedures; they like to feel like they are making their own decision. Teens and young adults are concerned with their image of appearing sick, and are concerned about maintaining their privacy. Adults are most concerned with how receiving medical care will affect their career and families. Senior citizens are most concerned with maintaining their health without taking un-necessary medical action. So as a current and future medical provider I need to be aware of these aspects, and my time at Head Start has helped to better shape my views and ways I think and address this issue.

Amanda's Reflective Blog #2

In volunteering at head start today, I met a great number of different children. It was easy to see that a variety of cultures were present, and the ones I could identify were Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, African American, Caucasian, and Native American. This is an amazing setting for cultural diversity! By interacting with them I realized how differently it is to communicate with them because of the altered meaning they take from what is being said. Although there are various cultural backgrounds, the children all posses the innocent/childlike mindset which is what creates a variance in communication with them. In the following are three different ways in which communication with children is approached differently than adults.

First of all, by interacting with the children I was reminded how energetic, enthusiastic, and creative they are at all times. This is quite different than adults, who generally aren’t “go-go-go” all the time, and don’t get as excited about simple things as children do. Because of this enthusiasm, it is very important to give children options they can decide upon instead of being told what to do all the time. Allowing this “choice time” lets children learn how to make their own decisions and allows them to work on expressing communication effectively.

Secondly, because children bear their emotions on their sleeve, feelings of anger and sadness can easily come to surface over a simple action- i.e. not getting to play with the puzzle, or having someone cut them in line. As an adult, it almost makes me laugh in compassion at the simplistic thinking of children, and how they take statements such to heart! One little girl was in tears because another little girl said she did not want to be her friend. Because children say what they feel, you need to teach them to “use your words” when they get mad or sad. If not children can get physical instead of effectively communicating how they are feeling. This allows children the ability to develop their communication skills.

Thirdly, children have to be directed to carry out specific tasks, and may need to be retold (and retold) what they need to do. However, saying “no” does not help the children understand what is going on, so we need to explain what we would like them to do. Some of the children took direction from me, a new “teacher”, very well. Some question my authority. Through this, however, children start to develop an understanding for the communication process, especially in our culture here in America.

It is intriguing that some children attach themselves to new people so strongly, while others completely shy away. It is also very interesting how one little girl doesn’t talk to anyone, is extremely shy, but will come up to me to have me read her a book- when all she really wants is for me to sit and watch her flip through it.

Because of these aspects children possess, communicating with them is quite different. However, I always enjoyed it because it was kind of like a puzzle, trying to identify how to address the child and effectively communicate to them what I needed of them. I talked about this today because in order to run any childcare facility, learning how to communicate with children is very important because of the reasons I listed above. As an adult caring for these children, if you do not know how to address the children in a way they will understand and listen to, then you will have a bunch of children running around like crazy little monkeys. The first childcare facility I worked at did use the word “no” many times, and those children followed direction the least out of the three facilities I have worked at. It was the most chaotic facility I worked at, and it had a greater number of confrontations amongst the children than the other two. Therefore, the communication efforts employed by Head Start faculty and volunteers are a very important, noteworthy cause.

Amanda's Reflective Blog #1

As a vital portion of my English 102 class we participated in a volunteer project through an agency- Service Learning. They have a collection of organizations that need volunteers, and I chose to invest my time at Head Start: Friends of Children and Families, Inc. I did not know much about their agency because I had never heard of them before. The only thing I knew was that they provided childcare services, and that I would be working with the children as well.

Orientation really explained what Head Start was all about, and more importantly, their values. When we arrived at orientation the Director told us to put all of our stuff on the back table. They later discussed the importance of not bringing bags/purses, cell phones, or even water bottles into the classroom. This is because all of the children who attend Head Start are from low-income families. Many of them are not able to have the simple things we take for granted. Like the water bottle, for example. She also mentioned that children have the tendency to want what others have. So if I bring in a water bottle, the children may want a water bottle like that. This topic ties into keeping equality in the classroom.

The biggest topic discussed, however, was ensuring our attention was focused on the children. As one of the orientation leaders said, coming to Head Start for the children is like going to prom, or out to dinner for us. It is their “big event” they look forward to. Therefore, they want all volunteers and teachers to really focus on the children and not become distracted with other things, like cell phones.

Turning everything into a learning experience is also a main goal. Teaching manners, social skills, and education can be done with every activity the children do. So they want us to always talk about what we are doing and transform something like just eating into learning the names and tastes of food, as well as how to act at meal time.

At this point I wonder how the teacher-child interactions are really played out, and how teachers handle children when they misbehave. I would love to see how they manage these confrontations. Due to the fact they are funded by the government, I also wonder about the curriculum the teachers teach and how they can integrate so much learning into just 4 hours a day.

There are not areas of concern for me right now. I have worked at previous child care facilities before, so I feel I will be able to fall right into the flow of the classroom very easily. I also feel I will be able to communicate with the children very well. I am really excited to be able to work with children again, and I love how this environment to so strongly focused on the children and helping them improve themselves in many different aspects.

Josh's reflective Blog #2

As I have been going through this class, I have been asking myself how working with the Head Start program was relevant. I had often thought that children of that age were to be babysat and nothing else. I had wondered why we were to spend so much time with them and even center the class around this service learning partner. It has been over the past couple of weeks that I have realized how significant this program is to these children as well as me. I might be preaching to the choir or even sound bias, but Head Start really does make a difference in a child's life. I have come to appreciate the dedication and hard work of the teachers that work there. They deal with these kids everyday and are determined to help these children learn the necessary tools they need to prepare them for the next step. I have also seen how children in this school act a little more behaved than most. there are a few exceptions, but the same can be said about society as a whole.
As I have watched and interacted with these kids, I have found myself looking forward to those Tuesday afternoons when I can meet with them and work on projects such as arts, reading, writing, memorizing. I sometimes feel like it's more for me than them. It seems to be a nice break in my very busy day. This has not only been a service opportunity for me, but an eye opener for how I will want to raise my own family. I see many new ideas and techniques on how to teach my own kids life lessons.
This may have sounded a little bias or even naive, but I guess it's true that we can learn some of life's greatest lessons from children.

Rileys Reflective Blog Entry #3

The last few months I have spent working with Head Start have truly opened my eyes. I know this sounds cheesy and insincere, but I don’t know how else to put it. At the beginning of this course I had no idea what Head Start even was. After learning a little more about it I developed a deep respect for the wide variety of issues this program strives to eliminate. I was also surprised to find that several of my own family members were actually Head Start kids themselves. This caused a lot of confusion for me throughout the entirety of this course. I didn’t want to get anything wrong, it was too important to me. Every topic Head Start addressed seemed huge and hard to manage. I wanted to conquer it all, but knew I couldn’t. I felt like I was taking the easy way out by picking nutrition, but soon found it too was an immense topic, and that I was extremely passionate about it as well. I think that is what has made this service learning experience so valuable for me though. The passion complicates your writing and understanding of certain topics, but it also deepens the meaning behind your words. I have continued to volunteer with this agency because I feel like I still have a lot to learn from them. Every minute I spend with those kids is worth the time spent. I feel sometimes like they are the ones helping me. I’ll admit it. They have taught ME a lesson or two about what life is all about. I can’t thank them enough for that. In the last few weeks been given more responsibility and am finding still more depth with in this program. A couple of weeks ago the teacher I work with had me doing anecdotals. These are little observations of each child’s progress. Based on a wide variety of criteria these can be extremely complicated to write and understand. I found myself overwhelmed with the amount of vocabulary, rules, and stages involved in this process. At the same time however it was fascinating to observe the children from this alternate view point. Watching them learn and understand through simple fun playtime activities. One of the students was counting to 17 thanks to none other than a number puzzle. I am also finding that the kids are beginning to confide in me. They seem almost like little adults as they tell me about their lives, their families, and their goals in life. I become more and more convinced everyday that Head Start has a positive impact on these children, and I hope it continues to do so for years to come.

Alberto's Website/Reflective Letter

http://headstart102.weebly.com/

In the Beginning, my typical rhetorical choice was typically in the form traditional essay format.  I thought of Rhetoric as simply Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. In what way can I show credibility, how can I connect on a emotional level with my audience, and do I have the data to back up my claim. When we finished up Unit one and  started on Unit two I was in the mindset that I have to follow the format put forth by the extended Bib’s we did in unit one. Summarize the source, analyze what the author’s intent is, reflect how your thought differs from the author, and finally asked questions framed by my source.

When Unit 2 came around it started to get more deeper/more complex adding to what we have learned then. One of the first things we read was Bolter, “Writing in the Late Age of Print”. When I first read this, I was a little confused at first on why we were reading this. Because I understand that with different types of mediums of writing such as books or a laptop have pro’s and con’s associated with each medium. In today’s world, most people blog and everyday it seems less and less people are using books. It’s all going online it seems, so I though oh this is why are incorporating Blogger because of the potential wider audience we can reach.  

Adding Writing Analytically pg 73-96 to my thoughts, after reading the pages I kept thinking about my potential researching question. In the chapter , I read that things aren’t black or white. There are shades of grey and often you should find yourself usually not with an answer but another question to that answer. When I first started off I couldn’t see at first what potential disagreement that my agency deals with.  My draft research question was trying to show the importance of Head Start in that Head Start helps develop and maintain good mental social skills which in turn benefits society.  The comment’s that I got was maybe I should narrow my topic by focusing in how Head Start benefit the pupil in social skills. Looking back it now, and comparing to my final research topic on how much influence does Head Start really have, they kind of fall in similar categories.  The use of lateral researching definitely helped narrow my topic down. 

Once I had my topic down, I soon began thinking of different ways of presenting my view of the story. I research my topic and posted annotated Bib’s. One thing I have trouble with when I posted my entries, is that sometimes I post too much data/stuff. I am a sponge I use too much direct quotes/ paraphrase and it detracts from my claim. And people in group have commented on this, and suggest I use more of summaries. Although I feel I still have this issue with my writing and it’s I feel I’m improving but it definitely needs work.

When we started to focus on the Web site presentation by reading Wysocki & Writing for a Web Audience I felt a little overwhelmed. Presentation, color, text, sound, pictures can grasp your audience.  Digital rhetoric, in these forms can help reach a broader spectrum of people. It can help bring a greater awareness to the discourse community you are trying to represent. The way you present your Website/web Medium can help or hurt your argument. I understood what a good website looks like but I couldn’t create one visual out of my mind if that makes sense. That’s one of the biggest challenges I faced in Unit two which was format. Posting a blog entry is easier than building a whole website from scratch. For a blog you just post the text along with some imagery such pictures, video, etc. For a website you have to create the Form of the website whereas on a blog the form is already created for you.  I was worried I wouldn’t be able to create a good digital rhetoric form for my agency.  What makes a good argument? Am I presenting my side well? Am I using proper use of imagery such colors, text, bullets, and etc. Will a stranger who has never heard of Head Start be interested in my topic in the way I am presenting it? Am I using the right balance between summaries, and quotations? These are the things that pop in my head because I realize these things send a message this can be implicit or explicit when dealing with digital rhetoric.  

Communication