Relationship Reflection

My Husband and I have a wonderful relationship.  I am a very lucky woman!  He is caring, supportive, positive, patient, and always there for anything I need.  He is an amazing father, especially at 3 am.  :)  He is a teacher also so he understands what my job entails and how draining and stressful it can be at times.  We both share a passion and love for teaching.  I am honored that I get to spend the rest of my life with such an amazing man!

I have the best mom and dad in the world!  They made me into the confident, caring person I am today.  They showed me what true love and kindness means.  They were always a part of my education and gave me my love for learning.  We have a wonderful relationship, and they are always there for me.

My brother is the one who taught me to laugh at myself.  When we were little we fought occasionally as all siblings do, but overall we had a great relationship and still do to this day. 

My sister-in-law is such an amazing person!  She is my best friend and we have so much fun together.  She is a teacher also and we share stories and ideas about our classroom frequently.   If I have a bad day at school I know I can call her and she will understand exactly what I am going through.  I am blessed to have her in my life.

The relationships I have with the people in my life are very important to me.  They have helped to mold me into the person I am today.  They keep me grounded and make me feel loved.  Maintaining each relationship takes time and I try to let the special people in my life know just how much I care about them on a daily basis.  My parents and brother and sister-in-law live thousands of miles away, so at times communication can be difficult.  We are grateful for Skype, phone calls, and text messages.  :)  I am truly blessed to have such amazing, caring people surrounding me. 

My Favorite Quotes About Children

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.  ~Stacia Tauscher

"A person's a person, no matter how small."

     Dr. Seuss, author

If a child is given love, he becomes loving ... If he's helped when he needs help, he becomes helpful. And if he has been truly valued at home ... he grows up secure enough to look beyond himself to the welfare of others.

DR. JOYCE BROTHERS, Good Housekeeping, Aug. 2010

A child has only one childhood.
A time to be imprinted with life's lesson
to learn how to work and be successful,
to feel confident and worthwhile:
to make friends,
to love self and others.
These are developmental stages.
They cannot easily be given back.

We must work together so no child will miss them.

Assessing the Whole Child

I feel that a child’s growth over time should be measured rather than a snapshot assessment completed in one day to show what they have learned in that year.  Not only should we be concerned with academic growth, we also need to be aware of a child’s social and emotional growth.  When they become adults and enter the work force their social skills and how they regulate their emotions will be just as important as their knowledge base.  We need to ensure all students leave us with ALL of the skills necessary to become a successful adult.

I found a wonderful website about education in New Zealand below is how they describe assessment and its purpose: 

Assessment for learning should use a range of approaches. These may include:

• day-to-day activities (such as learning conversations)
• a simple mental note taken by the teacher during observation
• student self and peer assessments
• a detailed analysis of a student’s work
• assessment tools (which may be written items, structured interview questions or items teachers make up themselves).

What matters most is not so much the form of the assessment, but how the information gathered is used to improve teaching and learning.

Assessment should be valid, fair and suited to the purpose. It should measure progress, not just achievement.

Any assessment can only provide a snapshot of achievement on a particular day. Performance will vary from day to day depending on:

• the nature of the assessment task
• the conditions in which the assessment is undertaken
• the purpose of the assessment
• the student’s preparation
• the student’s engagement and motivation.

To make a valid and fair measure of progress over time, teachers need to analyse information from a range of sources. It’s important that teachers gather information both formally and informally, using a range of approaches to add to or modify their picture of each student’s learning over time.

http://assessment.tki.org.nz/Assessment-in-the-classroom/Assessment-for-learning

Consequences of Stress on Children’s Development

I work with many students who experience violence, hunger, and neglect in their everyday life.  It affects every aspect of their life.  They are not able to concentrate in school because they are hungry or worried about what is happening at home.  I have had a few students who have had cavities bleeding in their mouths because they have never been to a dentist.  These children have difficulty getting along with their peers and other adults in their life because social skills have not been modeled at home.  They have no interaction with books or anything educational at home and, in turn, they are behind in school.  Their parents do not attend any school functions from open house to conferences to performances or carnivals.  This leads children to believe that school is not important. 

It breaks my heart on a daily basis to see my students struggling this way.  I wish I could afford to take them all home and give them a proper upbringing.  Since I cannot, I make sure that the time they are in my classroom they know they are safe and well taken care of.  I try to make our daily schedule consistent and predictable, this may be the only consistency some of them have in their lives.  If there is a change, I make sure to inform the students of the change and let them know why.  I feed my students a snack in class everyday to make sure they are ready to learn.  I fill my treasure box with toothbrushes and toothpaste and make sure the students who need them get them.  At the end of everyday I tell the students I am going to miss them and I can't wait for them to come back tomorrow and see me.  I hope that I am making a difference in their lives and they know how important they are. 

Since many of my students come from Mexico, I decided to focus on life for children in Mexico.  Children from low income families in Mexico face many health problems. They are faced with malnutrition, avitaminosis, anemia, dysentery, and infectious diseases. This is evident in the high mortality rates among children in Mexico. For every thousand live births in the country, there are 28 infant deaths and 34 for children under 5 years of age. This translates into 79,000 deaths of children under 5 annually. Also, 14% of children are underweight, with 7% having low birth weights.

The federal government has started a system for general health care for all Mexican citizens. One government program attempts to provide 100% financing of vaccinations for children. Because of this aid, more than 90% of children under 1 year old are now vaccinated for diseases such as measles and polio.


While I focused on children in Mexico, I am also very concerned with the welfare of children from low income families here in the U.S.  There needs to be a better system in place to help these young children and give them a solid foundation for a successful life. 

Source:
http://www.tulane.edu/~rouxbee/kids00/mexico4.html

Public Health Issue

The topic I chose this week is breastfeeding. It is meaningful to me because I have been breastfeeding my son for over a year. It was difficult in the beginning because he wasn’t latching correctly, but after the help from many wonderful nurses, he latched on and it has been amazing ever since. Breastfeeding was important to me for many reasons, it is healthier for him, helped me heal quicker, and is free. The most important reason for me to breastfeed was the health benefits for my son. My husband and I are both teachers and come into contact with many kids on a daily basis. I wanted to give my son the immunities from my breast milk to help fight any illnesses we may bring home with us.
A website that has been my breastfeeding bible is www.kellymom.com . There is a wealth of information about breastfeeding, pumping and storing milk, and many other topics pertaining to breastfeeding. There is a link within the site that has information about breastfeeding from around the world. I found all of this information interesting; so I copied and pasted it to my blog. I especially found the information from Poland and the United States interesting.

Parenting magazine had some information on breastfeeding rates around the world in their April 1997 issue. Their article (p. 34) was entitled "Breastfeeding by the Numbers." The information below is from this article.
The World Health Organization and UNICEF have recommended for a decade that mothers breastfeed for at least two years. But most US women who nurse stop before their baby is six months old - and many never start at all. How do other countries stack up?
Breastfeeding Rates Around the World

Country % of mothers who start                    % who continue 6 months or longer
________________________________________
Sweden 98                                                                              53
Norway 98                                                                              50
Poland 93                                                                                10
Canada 80                                                                               24
Netherlands 68                                                                         25
Britain 63                                                                                 21
United States 57                                                                       20
________________________________________
Sources: Baby Milk Action, Cambridge, England; Center for Breastfeeding Information, Schaumburg, IL
Chart from www.kellymom.com

Births in England

Pre-natal care, birth, and postpartum care, including home visits to help with breastfeeding, are covered by a tax-payer funded national health service. Midwives are very common and run prenatal clinics and labor wards. Home births in England are very common.

Thinking about my experience with the birth of my son, home births make me nervous. If I had tried a home birth, there could have been so many complications. His breathing problems after birth would also not have been dealt with in the same way. I am content with my hospital birth.

My Childbirthing Experience

It has been a little over a year since I had my son Liam and I still remember it like it was yesterday. Due to some complications, I had a scheduled c-section. I was OK with that, I wanted him to come out the safest way possible. The c-section was scheduled for a Friday at 12:30 in the afternoon. We were told to get to the hospital at 10:30 to check in and get prepped. By 8:00 on that Friday morning my husband and I were ready to go. We walked around the house, sat in the baby's room, tried to watch some t.v., anything to kill time. Finally it was time to leave. On the ride to the hospital we kept saying that the next time we were in the car together, Liam would be with us. We still couldn't believe it.

On the way I reminded my husband that the c-section may not happen at 12:30 like it was scheduled, if there was an emergency with another birth, we would be bumped. Good thing I told him, by 2:00 we were still sitting in the hospital room waiting to go to the operating room. Good thing there was March Madness basketball on t.v. to keep my husband occupied. :) I just laid there and listened to Liam's heartbeat on the monitors.

Finally it was time to go! They wheeled me down, gave me the spinal, and laid me down flat on the table. I remember the sensation of feeling like I couldn't breath and then a wave of nausea. After that, my body calmed down and my husband came in. Within 10 minutes, Liam had made his arrival. I was crying and shaking and kept waiting for him to cry. My husband had walked over to be with him and I just kept asking, "is he ok?" Finally, the sweetest sound I have ever heard, my baby boy cried for the first time. After that, everything was a blur. I was asking to hold him but they were saying they wanted to watch his breathing so they were taking him to the NICU. They assured me he was fine, they were just taking precautions. They brought Liam to me and all I got to do was touch his cheek. Before I knew it my husband, Liam, and the doctors were gone. There were 2 nurses with me to bring me back to the recovery room.

The next 4 hours were horrible!!! My husband was in the NICU with Liam (which is where I wanted him to be) and all the doctors and nurses were gone. We have no family that lives by us, so I was by myself. All I could think of was holding my sweet little boy. A lactation consultant came in to talk to me and I have no idea what she said, all I wanted was Liam in my arms. Finally, they brought Liam to me and placed him on my chest. There are no words to describe how amazing it felt to hold him.

Our hospital stay was great. We had wonderful nurses who helped me breastfeed and we there for anything I needed.


Overall, I was pleased with my birthing experience. I was happy there was medical technology to discover a few complications that led us to having a c-section. The 4 hours of not seeing Liam were rough but I knew it was necessary to make sure he was healthy.