4 peer responses - due in 20 hours

 there are a total of 4 responses needed.. each set of 2 has their own instructions 

Respond to at least two of your classmates’ initial posts throughout the week. When responding to your peers, share an experience or resource to expand upon their thoughts on the future of diversity. Each of your responses should be at least 100 words long. Both your initial post and your responses should refer both to your own experience and to content from readings, media, or websites.

TAMMY’S POST:

Diversity in a profession, it is personal and public

Diversity comes in many shapes and sizes, just like the people, the topic, and actions represent. In public and our professional or personal lives, it is especially vital to accept the cultural differences to best work and succeed together. We gravitate toward who we are or hope to become. Tritch (2015) talks about is our mental image of the company we keep or desire at the hosted party. We find our biases and exclusive nature, yet fail to grow in our inclusion. Why? Bias. In the workplace, there is no difference as we tend to mesh with certain people, whom we break or grab lunch. It is a clique per se of comfort. We scowl or grimace as we judge the customer and the coworker.

In the case of my position, for instance, as a Social Services worker, I come across endless dynamics and household compositions. My mind must be open, no matter my personal biases. Since I determine eligibility in Medicaid, there is high controversy in the diversity of immigrants, teen pregnancy, single parents, or those at or below the poverty level. The federal and state agencies define the parameters and policies, but attitudes do affect how each application should respectfully approach the medical necessity in each home.

Nevertheless, what if there was no given label? "Would our value change? No words to describe us," as Tritch explained (2015), may or may not allow us to be accepted, rejected, or provoked. Acceptance and inclusion are critical in our mood, demeanor, and overall psyche. Does a gay man need his health less than a straight woman, or a white family more than a Mexican single mother? Diversity has a lot to do with humanitarianism at the end of the day. We all have the same necessities, no matter our preferences, orientation, lover, or parenthood.

Allowing for diversity in each application as the law allows and income applies is beneficial to the health and prosperity to each family and moreover their children. By being healthy the community and economy thrives from productive workers also. A lack of health affects coworkers, daycare, leads to sick children out of school, and possible termination only worsening financial duress. 

References

Tritch, C. (2015, July). Let's talk diversity and inclusion [Video file].

CARMEN’S POST:

Diversity in the Workplace

As we continue to learn about diversity, I feel that it is important to be able to understand the different types of diversity. Some examples are cultural, race, age, sex, sexual orientation, weight, religion, and the list goes on and on; this is why there is such a debate when we try to understand diversity. However, I feel that we also need to understand inclusion when we try to have a diverse workplace. Inclusion according to Kahn (2015) is what we do with diversity once we value and appreciate diversity. Learning to differentiate and understand diversity and inclusion as we attempt to integrate individuals into groups, society, and/or organizations will not only have a diversified workplace but a workplace that shows respect and has empathy for one another.

Strength in group or organization

I feel that a workplace that is mindful, open-minded, and sees pass biases would be a powerful group and/or organization. In addition, I believe that if a group or organization incorporates race, gender and age it would be beneficial to the organization. Studies have shown that workplace that has greater gender diversity and racial diversity have greater sale revenue, unlike those organization that has a team with little gender mix did not score highly (Nelson, 2014). I feel that an organization with a mix of race and gender can bring more to a table than the opposite. According to Nelson (2014) social scientists shown that heterogeneous which meaning different in character have a higher potential in being creative than only homogeneous individuals with the same sex, gender, and race.   

Advantage / Disadvantages

There are several advantages of having a diverse organization. Individuals would be able to learn from one another, appreciate the different perspectives, value work experiences, increase in work revenue, become more creative, reduce turnover rates, the company would have good reviews, and much more. On the other hand, some disadvantages are having a group of individuals with many different backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives coming together would be a problem, due to different perspectives. Individuals can let the unconscious biases and stereotypes take over and we can exclude individuals because as Ross (2012) mentioned we detect humans’ differences immediately without letting them come through the door. We form associations that contradict our values and beliefs and make a judgement without thinking rationally. A common disadvantage would be prejudice. When we attempt to use our visual stereotypes, which are the ones mention in the strength such as sex, race, gender, and age, at this point we either decide if the individual is in our inner group or outgroup because prejudice affects our judgment. Bloom (2014) mentions that at this time we can have a choice to continue with our judgment or extend empathy, become rational, and utilize our reasoning to create a better world.  

Resource

Kahn, A. (2015). The ecology of diversity. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education.

Bloom, P. (2014, January). Can prejudice ever be a good thing? [Video file]. 

Nelson, B. (2014). The data on diversity. Communications of the ACM, 57(11), 86-95. 

Ross, H. (2012, January 9). Diversity, inclusion, and the concealed mind (Part 1) [Web log comment]. 

Guided Response: Respond to at least two of your peers’ posts. In each response, explain how your peers’ suggested activity specifically upholds any of the six NAEYC standards for early childhood professional preparation, which are summarized in the Where We Stand on Professional Preparation Standards (Links to an external site.) resource. Describe all standards your peer upheld and how, and include suggestions on how they might incorporate any that are missing.

ABIGAIL’S POST:

· The name and age of the child, as indicated in the case study you chose.

The child I chose for my case study is Bradley.   He is a two-year-old boy.

· A description of the setting the instruction will take place in (e.g., childcare center, classroom).

Bradley will be attending a full-day daycare. The daycare is set up to help children learn to transition from one place to another.  The daycare will have different centers prepared so the children will have choices and learn how to play together.

· The goal of the activity, including which domain it is geared towards.

Our goal with Bradley is to help him with his affective and language development. We will help Bradley learn how to follow simple directions, how to point to familiar objects of pictures when prompted, and repeat words. We will also help him with his active development and the separation issues that he has with his parents or guardians. To help Bradley with his problems,  we planned an activity that is very popular called the color-coded game. This game would help Bradley with his colors, teach him to follow directions, his verbal skills, and with his anxiety.

· The materials are necessary to support student learning for the activity.

The materials that we will need for this activity would be colorful Skittles candy, five plastic cups, and one hour-glass, or a timer.

· The procedure for how the activity will be implemented. This section of your response must be at least one full paragraph and provide a substantial description of the procedure.

When Bradley arrives in the morning, his separation anxiety kicks in and it is difficult for Bradley to separate himself from his parent or guardian.  Since we already know how Bradley reacts, we make sure to have this activity which is his favorite set up for him and another student, since it is a two people activity.  This is done so he can get his mind off the separation.  The procedure will go as follows:

· line up the five cups in a row

· pile up the skittles candy with five different colors on the side in a pile making sure I have 10 of each color.

· Put one hand on his back making sure they only use one hand.

· set the timer for one minute or the hour-glass

· Bradley will need to put all the colors in the right cup by color code , to win he must have sorted out the 50 pieces of skittles candy into the proper cup in less than one minute.

· The child that makes it in less time wins. Keeping in mind to tell them both that they are winners no matter what happens.  Helping them with thei self-esteem is important.

This activity game will help Bradley with his listening skills, his following directions skills, his repeating the colors skills which helps him with his repeating words skills, and with his anxiety.   As an Early Childhood Educator, I implemented this scaffolding technique to help Bradley enhanced learning skills.   Scaffolding is a critical element in the teaching of instructional strategies (IRIS).

· A description of specifically how your activity aligns with NAEYC’s  and the importance of play in the early childhood learning environment.

The activity that I have chosen aligns with the NAEYC because it shows us how to encourage children to learn through play and it promotes being socially interactive and the children are learning in joyful and conceptual ways.  According to Butler, 2008 “when children have this kind of support, the benefits include gaining confidence as well as self- esteem, building relationships, problem solving, conflict resolution, expanding language, sparking creativity, inspiring thinking, defining personality, and sorting out likes and dislikes.  Healthy valuable play touches on every area of a child's development”.(Butler.S, 2018)

References

Butler, S. (2008) Title:  Learning Through Play retrieved from

          https:/www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?

“IRIS.” IRIS Center,    

         Iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/.

The Early Childhood Direction Center.  (2006).  Developmental

           Checklists birth to five.  Retrieved from:

https://www.preschoollearningcenter.org/images/uploa (Links to an external site.)

            d/developmental_checklist.pdf

Where We Stand-NAEYC.

www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally- (Links to an external site.)

         shared /downloads/PDFs/resources/pos

          ition-statements/StandCurrAss.pdf.

WANDA’S POST:

Planning and the Domains of Development

Child: Abby, 11 months old

Setting: Early Childhood Center (Infant Room). This activity will be completed on the carpet. Only Abby will do this activity. It is her individual lesson plan.

Goal: Physical Development

· Pulling herself to a standing position

· Walking while holding on to furniture

· Standing momentarily without support

Affective Development

· Separating from her caregiver without crying

· Repeating sounds or gestures for attention

This activity will help Abby in her physical development.

Materials: Physical Development-foam roller, rocking horse or child size rocking chair, toy doll or stuffed animal. Affective Development-Teaching Strategies Hellos and Good-byes

Procedure: Invite Abby to explore the foam roller or rocking object. The teacher assist and talk with Abby as she climbs and investigate. Invite Abby to sit on the roller or rocking object as you gently speak or sing to her. Move the roller back and forth as you hold her on the roller. Encourage Abby to reach for a lightweight toy or doll that you hold out to them while she is on the roller or rocking object. Encourage Abby to climb on and off with minimal assistance or in and out of the rocking chair. Start and stop singing or talking at different times. Encourage Abby to stop rocking when you stop singing or talking. When you stop the rocker and ask Abby to get down. Ask her to stand and hold the toy. The roller or rocker can be used to experiment with stepping, jumping, and leaning.( Teaching Strategies).

Affective Development I would use the Hellos and Good-byes activity. It’s important that children have a predictable routine, so talking with Abby upon arrival and departure would be in place. I would do a reading routine of Abby’s favorite book before she leaves for the day. This book could have colors, shapes, or favorite foods. This would help Abby to get into a routine daily so that when she knows she is leaving she could go and grab the Hello and Goodbye book. Once Abby feels good about her departure she can leave the classroom smiling and giving the book to her mom or dad. I would be careful to observe Abby in the routine to see if she is getting better with transitions to leaving the classroom.(Teaching Strategies)

Description: These activities align with NAEYC in that these are guided play that uses gentle adult guidance toward the learning goal. It helps Abby to have knowledge through immediate meaningful adult feedback. (Hassinger, Hirsh, & Golinkoff, 2017). These types of activities help to support social, emotional, physical, language and cognitive development. In both of the activities they are both guided by the teacher but it’s still learning by playing. Abby is learning by her interest in her ability to move more so the activity is used to help her achieve her goal in being more mobile. The affective development in Abby activity helps Abby to get a routine in which when she sees its time to leave or when she arrives she can get her special book and have a routine that keeps her calm and have a little predictability in her day. This will help her to feel comfortable with leaving school and or arriving to the point where eventually she will no longer need the book to add to her routine.

Reference

Hassinger-Das, B., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R. M. (2017). The case of brain science and guided play: A developing story (Links to an external site.)

(Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)

. Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/may2017/case-brain-science-guided-play

Teaching Strategies (2020). Integrated solutions for early childhood educators. Retrieved by https://my.teachingstrategies.com/planning/week/?/