Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Personal Birth Experience

The birth experience that I want to describe is my own when I was pregnant with my daughter, Madelynn, who is now 3 years old. Wow, time flies by! I had been having contractions all week, but they usually stopped by the middle of the day. On Friday, my husband and I decided that we were going to go to the state fair. I had been having contractions in the morning, but didn't think anything of it, giving the experience throughout the week. Well, after walking around the fair ground, I realized that the contractions were not going away and were getting stronger. We went home and after trying to sleep through them, I told my husband that we better get to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital around 1:00 am Saturday morning and my doctor agreed that I was in active labor. We had originally planned on inducing labor on Monday (3 days later), but my body had something else in mind. I received some medicine to allow me to get about 2 hours of sleep, but I woke up again around 7:00 am with the contractions getting stronger. I requested an epidural for pain, but being the kind person that I was, I allowed the anesthesiologist to tend to a patient in surgery before treating me (HUGE MISTAKE). My doctor came in around 8:30 am, broke my water and started me on pitocin. The contractions rapidly got stronger and I quickly regretted being so kind to the person in surgery. I received my epidural around 11:00 am, which allowed me to relax enough for my daughter to drop the rest of the way down. At 12:44 pm, after a lot of pushing and tearing, my daughter came into this world at 9 lbs 2 oz and 20.25 inches long. I was completely exhausted, but overjoyed by the birth of our new baby girl. I was very impressed by the service that I received at the hospital. The staff was very professional, but compassionate. My doctor did an excellent job talking me through the birthing experience and recovery.

My birthing experience could be considered rather calm and organized compared to the birthing experiences described in the paper written by Kathryn Geurts. She spent some time living in Ghana, studying the birthing practices and wrote detailed accounts of two birthng experiences. Ghana is a rural area in Africa where the mortality rate of infants and mothers is considered high. Due to the mortality rates, there is a push for institutionalized births where the process can be monitored by trained professionals. Unfortunately, most women who live in Ghana cannot afford professional care and prefer to have the birth of their children at home where they can use their own traditional medicines and practices.

http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Workshop/geurts.html

Tiffany

Reference:

Geurts, K. (1998). Well-being and birth in rural ghana: local realities and global mandates. University of Pennsylvania-African Studies Center. Retrieved on October 31, 2012, from http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Workshop/geurts.html.
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Saturday, October 20, 2012

Early Childhood Ethical Codes

Early childhood professionals have a responsibility to follow ethical codes of conduct both in the classroom and in the community. Listed below are some of the codes of ethics from NAEYC and DEC that I find particularly important and the relevance they have in my professional career as an early childhood educator.

  • To recognize and respect unique qualities, abilities, and potential of each child. (NAEYC)
    • Every child is truly unique in their learning abilities. Some children are visual learners, where they learn best with seeing pictures and other visual representations. Other children learn best through hands-on activities, where they are able to learn through exploration or play. There are many different learning styles and each child learns at their own pace. That is why one-on-one interactions with each child in the classroom is so important. Group teaching can be beneficial for social experiences, but working with children individually will help make sure that students are receiving the attention and instruction that they need to support their growth in learning.
  • To work through education, research, and advocacy toward a society in which all young children have access to high-quality early care and education programs. (NAEYC)
    • Our children are the future of the world that we live in. Unfortunately, the child care centers in the United States are mediocre at best. There are programs, such as Head Start, that offer high-quality early educational services to select children, but that leaves the majority of the children in the United States with low-quality care. We as early childhood professionals need to push for more government and private funding to provide high-quality education to ALL children across the United States. If we want our children to be successful in life, we need to provide our children with a strong education-based foundation that fosters the natural development of children.
  • We shall respect, value, promote, and encourage the active participation of ALL families by engaging families in meaningful ways in the assessment and intervention processes. (DEC)
    • Early childhood educators serve as mentors of children for the families that we serve. Educators need to partner with family members to ensure that each child receives the best possible education based off of the child's individual abilities and needs. Assessments and curriculum used in the classroom need to reflect each child's needs and abilities and should be discussed regularly with the families to ensure that proper instruction is taking place. Families place their trust in educators to educate their children, but often do so without the knowledge of exactly what is taking place in the classroom. Educators need to encourage regular family participation so that families can continue the learning process in their own homes.
Tiffany Booze

References:

NAEYC. (2005, April). Code of ethical conduct and statement of commitment. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSETH05.pdf

The Division of Early Childhood. (2000, August). Code of ethics. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.dec-sped.org/
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Tuesday, October 2, 2012

EDUC 6005 Course Resources

This page contains a variety of resources for all early childhood educators. This list is by no means comprehensive and will be revised as see fit. I hope that you will find these resources useful and if you have any recommendations to be added to list, please let me know.


Position Statements and Influencial Practices:


 






Global Support for Children's Rights and Well-Being:
 

  • Association for Childhood Education International
    http://acei.org/
    Click on "Mission/Vision" and "Guiding Principles and Beliefs" and read these statements.

Selected Early Childhood Organizations:

Selected Professional Journals:
Please note that this list is not comprehensive. Please see your local or university library for their complete listing.

  • YC Young Children
  • Childhood
  • Journal of Child & Family Studies
  • Child Study Journal
  • Multicultural Education
  • Early Childhood Education Journal
  • Journal of Early Childhood Research
  • International Journal of Early Childhood
  • Early Childhood Research Quarterly
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Social Studies
  • Maternal & Child Health Journal
  • International Journal of Early Years Education

News Articles about Early Childhood Education:







Tiffany Booze



 
     

 

 

 
 
 
 
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