Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Welcoming Families Around the world

Welcoming Families Around the world

For this assignment, I decided to choose the country of the Philippines.
                                               Flag of Philippines

As teachers, we have to be mindful that our first meeting or conference with our families is necessary and important because we will find out not only where they are from and all about the surface culture from their place of origin but also build a start of partnership so it will help us explore and learn about their deep culture as well. If I had to come up with five things on how to get ready well I would start by

  • Getting to know the family and child 
  • As they meet me for the first time, I want to make them feel comfortable being able to talk to me and assure them how all this benefits their child.
  • Get to know about their family itself, in order words their surface culture.
  • As for the child with very English language, is very important to have pictures and labels in the classroom. Picture cues and classroom schedule is helpful for them to tell you what they need and just gave a sense about their class.
  • It is also helpful to learn couple of familiar words which can be helpful when communicating
  • Place a world map and talk about the different places children from your class come from, including the teachers 
  • Invite the parents to share something they practice in their family.
  • Have children bring pictures of their family and make an activity of it. 
There are many ways to make a child and family feel comfortable and welcomed in our centers. The most important one is to show respect and acceptance for who they are. Having a trustworthy conversation with them is valuable. Is all about our personality, is all about our approach, is all about how we come across others, therefore we have to be mindful and revisit who we are and what we want as teachers.
                                                 

1 comment:

  1. I agree that it is important to get to know the child and family. I also think it is important to use picture cues and labels to assist the child with communicating in the classroom. I also think it is great to have families share practices that are done at home. I agree that using these supports assist families with feeling acceptance, transitioning and feeling welcomed into the program.

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