Walker Reflections

October 22, 2018

Reflection 3

Within my placement, I often watch a child have difficulty separating from their parent in

the morning. Often, he comes in late and with scream and cry when either his mom or dad drop

him off. One particular morning his father seemed to be in a rush and did not have time for the

child’s screaming and leg pulling. The dad left hurriedly and the child threw himself to the

ground. I felt very uncomfortable because I did not know how to stop the child’s screaming and

he tends to have a very high-pitched scream so I was frustrated with the child for screaming

because he does it every morning. Another time the mother dropped of the child and when he

started to scream she would allow him to pull her back into the room and cling to her. In this

situation, I felt very uncomfortable because I did not know if it was appropriate to step in and

remove the child from his mother, I also felt a little annoyed that the mother was continuing the

game with the child and interrupting breakfast because the other children all started to focus on

the game of tug a war the mother and child were in. The teacher in this second situation with the

mother, choose to focus on the large group of children and gained back their focus and

encouraged them to finish their breakfast and to not worry about the crying child and mother. I

would assume that as a teacher in this situation I would need to fall back on the guidelines for

developmentally appropriate practice, most specifically, guideline 5, which says its critical to

establish reciprocal relationships with families. (DAP. P.13) Meaning that I would need to

overcome my uncomfortableness and establish a relationship with the family in order for them to

feel they can approach me with situations asking for help and that I can do the same.
Walker Reflections

Reflection 4

Within my placement classroom there are two children who are very close friends with

each other and have spent the past school year together in class before moving to the same

preschool class. One of the children is strong in both English and Mandarin (we can call him K),

however the other (we’ll call him A) mainly speaks in Mandarin. They typically will solely

communicate and play with each other. I wanted to try to communicate with the boys and I

decided that I was going to learn a few words in Mandarin just to see if they would respond. I

learned the word for milk as I knew that was what they would be drinking for lunch, and when

lunch time came I walked up behind the two boys and when K picked up his glass for me to fill I

said the Mandarin word for milk in a questioning tone, to indicate that I was asking if he wanted

the milk. He made eye contact with me and I could tell he was a little taken aback by the fact I

had said something in Mandarin, then he and A began to laugh and repeated the word back to me

with giggling. After this K’s demeanor towards me changed completely, he was much more open

to me and even began to speak more frequently to his classmates and myself in English. I was

most surprised by the fact that after lunch K came to me asking for help and he even knew my

name. I was surprised by this because he had never before spoken directly to me and I was

touched that a simple utterance of a word that he was familiar with in his own language could

change his demeanor so drastically. I really feel I was able to hit a target of the 12 principles of

child development. I would say that I hit on principle 8, which states development and learning

are influenced by multiple social and cultural contexts. (DAP, P.23) I was able to use part of K’s

culture and bring it into the classroom and give him a tangible connection between myself and

something he is comfortable with. I feel this created a window where K now feels comfortable

and accepted within the classroom and has begun to feel more confidence.