Making parents and
children feel comfortable and welcomed to the classroom environment is the key
of developing the sense of belonging to the classroom environment. As we work
in Early Childhood Education file, we are there to create a welcoming
environment that each child as well as his/her family can become accustom to.
At the same time, we need to be mindful about their culture, belief and
background. In the story, there was a good reminder for me that respecting
children and families culture and beliefs is one of the important aspects in
improvement and growth of the children. As we all know that parents and
immediate families are the first teachers and the first group of important
people in the children’s life. It is very important to do things that benefit
and honor the children and their families. Listening and understanding their
parents would lead to open discussion and establish relation between teachers
and families. At the same time teachers will have more opportunity to find the
values out off each family's culture, background and belief which will help us
to be able to adapt some of that culture beliefs or any suggestions to the
classroom environment or activities because this is another way trust is
established between teachers and parents.
I agree this is a great way to establish trust between teachers and families! & the more that families trust and respect you the more willing they are to help out in anyway they can because they feel respected and are more able to feel comfortable in your classroom! If families feel that you are taking the time to genuinely get to know them and their culture, they will feel not only respected and excepted but also more willing to share about their culture if they were ever asked to do so in class. What a great curriculum you could do with your class....involving all the families in teaching the children about different cultures and ways of life and what is important to different people! This would be such an awesome way to demonstrate how everyone is different and yet how we are all still so much alike! This will also help the children to know and understand and respect differences in different people of different cultures! Wow I just feel like there are so many possibilities when you welcome families in and not just recognize differences but respect and embrace them!!
ReplyDeleteHi Som,
ReplyDeleteIn the center that you are in, is there a way that you might get to know a family before they walk through your classroom door? Here in Hawaii, there are a lot of different cultures and belifes, do we embrace all of it at the same time in our classroom? Do we showcase a few at a time? How do you get families to speak up and tell others about their culture?