Flag of Mexico (Bing, n.d.).
I will actually have the opportunity to have a family from Mexico in my preschool classroom this year. I have already had two opportunities to meet the child and her family at our Peek at Preschool which occurred last Spring and just last week at our school's Open House. The little girl is bilingual; speaking English and Spanish in her home. The mother speaks mostly Spanish and understands a little bit of English and the father speaks and understands Spanish and English. This is not the first time I have had a child and family from Mexico but I feel I have gained so much more insight from my classes about ways that I can connect, respect and value all families and their cultures.
Five things that I would do to help celebrate and value this child and her family is:
1. I am required to do home visits for my preschool program and I like to go on home visits early in the year to get to know the child and family better. I have noticed in the past when I go on home visits that people's homes reflect their culture somewhat. I would like to be able to ask the family in their home about their culture, language and customs that they hold dear from their home country. I would also take that time to ask what their main concerns for their child would be.
2. I would really like to be able to translate my parent newsletters into Spanish at the very least. Last year I talked with teachers from Head Start because I know that is a requirement for the Head Start program and they told me that they get federal assistance to make sure that is in place. I am going to make it my priority to talk to my administrators about getting a program that we can use on our computers to translate newsletters from English to Spanish and also look into other languages we are able to translate into.
3. I would like to find out some favorite customs, food and activities that the child and her family enjoy doing that are connected to her culture. I have a snack center in my classroom and every Friday is our Lil' Chefs day and we could incorporate some of the child's favorite foods into our snack center for the children to make and try. The recipes could also be sent home for other families to try at home (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).
4. I would like to reteach and refresh myself in the Spanish language. I took Spanish in junior high and have used bits and pieces here and there but not enough to feel comfortable carrying on a conversation. Spanish is one of the easier languages to learn so I think I could do this and do it well enough to have conversations and even pursue becoming bilingual in Spanish and English. This skill would assist me with talking to Spanish speaking parents but also being able to talk to children whose primary language is Spanish. It also allows me to teach the other children in the class Spanish.
5. I would like to provide more Spanish vocabulary, literature in Spanish and have more dolls, costumes and puppets that represent Spanish culture in my classroom. This not only becomes representational of children and families of my classroom but also teaches other children about cultures and diversity (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).
I would hope that the steps I am taking to better understand this child and her family would help to make them feel "at home" in our classroom, create a strong relationship with the child and family, educate other children and families about a different culture, and improve my communication skills with the child and family.
Mexico City- Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe (new one on left), (old one on right) (National, 2013).
References
Bing. (n.d.). Pictures of Mexico. Retrieved from http://www.bing.com/images/search?
q=Pictures+of+Mexico&qpvt=Pictures+of+Mexico&FORM=IGRE
Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and
ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children
(NAEYC).
National Geographic. (2013). Your Mexico Photos. Retrieved from
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/your-mexico-photos/#/mexico-travel-
pictures-09-21-0927762_29597_600x450.jpg
That is so great that you have a bilingual student this year! I love that you get to do home visits. Is that something you do by yourself or does someone go with you? I would love to do that with my students, but am a little fearful to go by myself because a lot of them live in unsafe neighborhoods. (I rode the bus with some students a few years ago and saw where a lot of them live.) Your idea about sending home newsletters translated in spanish is a great idea! We have an ELL teacher at our school who will do that for teachers because we have so many bilingual/spanish speaking families in the program. I don't teach the ELL class in kindergarten, but I do have a memory game that provides the english word (with a picture) and spanish word (with the same picture) that kids match. I think something like that might be good for oyur student as well. =)
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
Jessica