Prompt
You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.
Nicaragua
When welcoming a new student from Nicaragua into my classroom environment I will first prepare by looking up greetings and small conversational phrases in their mother language, Spanish (Nicaragua.com n.d). I will prepare my students for their new classmates by teaching them small words in the Spanish language, such as hola amigo, so they can practice greeting their new classmates with a familiar language. I will look up books about Nicaragua and introduce these stories to my students and make sure to keep these storybooks along with other Nicaragua toys and artifacts around for all the students to be familiar with and get accustomed to a new culture. It is important to make sure that all identities and cultures are being presented in the classroom so that no one feels alienated or left out of the group (Derman-Sparks and Edwards). The type of conversations I will have with my students and families to make sure our new family member feels welcomed and accepted into the classroom environment will be consisting of the importance of accepting and loving all of our differences. We all have a family culture that consists of various traditions, customs, and beliefs. These differences are what makes us unique and what makes life interesting and fascinating.
I am not expecting to have a fluent conversation with the family in the Spanish language however I will be open-minded and try my best to listen and ask questions about how they are feeling about their child embarking on this new journey under my care. I will ask co-teachers and leadership members for help if I feel disconnected from the language barrier or various cultural differences that we may encounter. In this course, I have learned that it is ok to ask questions and ask for help when needed especially if this help will strengthen a relationship between a family and the educator (Laureate Education 2011).
https://www.getepic.com/book/35821975/meet-our-new-student-from-nicaragua
https://www.amazon.com/Nicaragua-Children-world-Ronnie-Cummins/dp/0836802217
References
Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Family cultures: Dynamic interactions [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Nicauragua.com. n.d. Language in Nicaragua, Spanish, Espanol, Culture. nicaragua.com/culture/languages/
Hi Kirsten,
ReplyDeleteYou have some great ideas about ways to welcome a new family to your classroom. I love that you want to involve your current students and family members to make the new child feel extra comfortable. I also really really appreciate and agree with you that it is okay to ask for help whenever we need it. It is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of growth. Thanks for sharing!
Hello Kristen, I like all of your strategies for welcoming your new student. I especially like that you are involving your other students in ways to welcome them. Communication is always going to be challenging unless you are already fluent in Spanish. Thankfully there are many resources in Spanish that can help you with communication.
ReplyDeleteCynthia
Hello Kirsten,
ReplyDeleteYou have some great ideas for involving your class in welcoming a new student from another culture. It is important for the new child to feel at ease and see their own culture reflected in the materials, resources, and artifacts in the classroom because then the child can feel a sense of belonging. I agree with your strategies to include all families represented in class and you are setting a great expectation by emphasizing that everyone is unique. We all have differences as individuals and discussing this as a class is very supportive which allows students to express their own views in a safe and nurturing classroom environment. Also, finding support for communicating in another language is not so difficult with the use of technology today and all the online language translators and apps that the family can appreciate all you are doing to make them comfortable with you as their teacher.
- Juanita