Maria's+Page

__INTRODUCTION: __ Hello everybody, I am Maria Esperanza Gil. I was born in Bogota, the capital of Colombia. I got my bachelor degree in education in 1997 in Colombia and I worked as an administrator and teacher for a Catholic school in Colombia for 3 years. I came to the USA in February 2000, in order to continue my educational career I completed the credits required to get my Spanish teacher certification K-8 at Kean University in the fall of 2004. I also attended Rutgers University’s ESL Pal Program in 2005. In 2007 and 2008, I went to University of Salamanca where I completed my masters in Spanish language and culture. I currently work for the Elizabeth Board of Education as a pre-school assistant. My immediate goal is to complete my P3 certification that I can become a pre-school teacher. The tv show that I would love to be part of is” Extreme Home Make Over.” I love the way that a very enthusiastic and talented team use their skills and energy to transform peoples lives by given them hope and comfort as they built them new home. It is remarkable the way the team involves the whole community to complete their mission. An interesting fact is that after my high school graduation I worked as a fly attendant for the international airline of my country named AVIANCA .This part of my life was awesome, I learned a lot of things specially to value the enrichment of the culture diversity. My most recent interesting fact is that my youngest daughter got a scholarship to attend Harvard University this fall.


 * Congrats to you Maria. It is only the beginning!!! **
 * (Henry Ong) **

**//*Page: #3//** //“Help us understand how a community, school, and parents handle the 20th century social environment in students education”//
 * Journal Entry for: September 9, 2011 **

__**//Reflection://**__ I think that in today’s time, families and educators are facing a lot of new issues that affect children. Society today is very different than what it was 20 years back. Things like: The quick development of technology, new compositions of families, the immigration phenomenon, and even globalization has changed the traditional way that educators perceive the development and learning of children. For those reasons I believe that chapter 1’s main idea of helping educators understand that issue is crucial. School, family, and community are encouraged to work together to make a highly effective “triangle” where the students are the center.

**//*Page: #5//** //“Being raised by parents who are separated or divorced may receive different messages about issues such as violence.”//

//__**Reflection:**__ // From my perspective, very often aggressive behavior and violence are only handled with punishment by adults. Even when most schools try to council the children, the efforts are not enough because parents, school and community are not working together to validate the children feelings. Many times grown-ups put more emphasis on the behavior of the children instead of identifying the reason why the child is acting a certain way. The result of that might be a traumatic childhood caused by divorces or parent separation. Children want adults to understand and validate their feeling instead of just receiving a punishment or criticism.

**//*Page: #5 (4th edition)://** //“Even very young children respond positively to books when significant adults engage them in literacy interaction.”//

//<span style="color: #1daedd; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">__**Reflection:**__ // <span style="color: #1daedd; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">I strongly agree with this statement, not only because I have seen it in some of my students in the short frame of time of a school year in pre-K and Kindergarten, but also because I experienced it on my own life. When I was a child, my father and I had a tradition on Sunday mornings where I would go pick up the newspaper jump in his bed and he would read it to me. He would read the news out loud very fast, he would change the words to see if I was truly following the reading and paying attention. Sooner than I thought I was challenged to read along with him so that I could prove to him that he could not fool me. Through him I developed a love and enjoyment for reading. Those days strongly helped me to improve my reading fluency and skills (in my native language).


 * <span style="color: #1daedd; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">Journal Entry for: September 16, 2011 **

<span style="color: #1daedd; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">**//*Page:#73//** <span style="color: #1daedd; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">//‘We have considerable evidence that in the past, Americans moved from one socioeconomic or social class group to another via education and successful personal improvement effort”.//

//<span style="color: #1daedd; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">__**Reflection:**__ // <span style="color: #1daedd; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Even though I was not born in North America and I lived my childhood in South America, the reality mentioned in this statement is totally applicable in my case. My family’s history was framed in a picture of being a couple from two complete opposite social classes they were labeled a “wrong marriage”. The concept was hold by my mother’s family based in the argument that my father was not a well educated man and his family was farm-workers with non-important last names, while my mother came from a family with many brilliant and professional members.

<span style="color: #1daedd; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Despite that, my father’s intelligence, hard work and pride motivated him to stand up for himself and his entirely family. After being a dad he finished his high school and became a lawyer. Throughout education my father improved, not only the home income, but the new social view of a professional man with a new kind of life.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Maria,
===<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">I too have been told by my grandmother that she first felt that my mother and father would be a wrong marriage. My father is from Italy and could barely speak English. My mom was getting ready to attend college in the Fall and begin her career. Well, seven children later, she was a stay at home mommy. They were a product from two complete opposite social classes. My dad's family worked on a farm and my mom's family is from N.J. ===

Carol Bono
<span style="color: #1daedd; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">**//*Page: #79//** <span style="color: #1daedd; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">//“Religion helps many persons find purpose and meaning in their lives. Socioeconomic success does not seemed to be linked with any particular faith, but some researches indicate a correlation between religious commitment and moral behavior” (Hoge 1996)//

//<span style="color: #1daedd; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">__**Reflection:**__ // <span style="color: #1daedd; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">I believe that teaching moral codes according to religious beliefs is a very important way that families provide nurturance to their children. All those principles learned in the young years are determinant in behavior and life concept over the years in a human being. <span style="color: #1daedd; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">The religious background of my brothers and I was founded in a moral instruction given to us by our parents, especially our mother. One remarkable point is related to the way people make “easy money”, which usually comes from an illegal issue. It is very easy to say ‘I would never do that’ when you see a certain situation such as being tempted to transport drugs or dirty money from one place to another. Nobody wants to get in trouble with justice. But it is not easy to keep your integrity when you are young and not afraid to take risks and you dream of a better life and you know the money is there right next to you, when all you are missing is for your mouth to open and say “I’ll do it”. You can think after all, many others do it and this is a business of great demand who are always looking for accessible offer, so why not? <span style="color: #1daedd; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">I confronted that situation when I worked as a crew member of an airline. I could remain apart because I strongly believed that you cannot expect to harvest good thing as a result of a bad action. To break the law is not the major issue in this case, but getting money while feeding people’s drug addiction is not only a tragedy but immoral. Some of my young and intelligent coworkers, people with enormous potential, lost their job, their freedom, and in more than one case destroy their families, just because they didn’t have the moral value or strength to say NO.

<span style="color: #1daedd; font-family: Georgia,serif;"><span style="color: #404040; font-family: Georgia,serif;">All religions have a moral code that their members must try to follow. In the Christian religions, it is Jesus, and those who follow the <span style="color: #404040; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: small;">Christian <span style="color: #1daedd; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> faith understand that there are ways you can act, and ways that you can not, all determined upon the situation. It is then up to the person to choose the correct way to act based on every situation they may face in their life time. Using Jesus as the standard that people are held to match when determining their course of action. In many countries in South America it is a struggle to survive from day to day. I know personally people from Columbia who have lost family members due to the crime in the country. The appeal of easy money is always alluring to young people. The challenge is when the money comes easy there is always something wrong. However, with the idea of easy money many young men and women put their faith in the <span style="color: #404040; font-family: Georgia,serif;">wrong hands and do something that in any normal situation they would not normally agree with. But, it is a hard situation to be in and I think it was admirable that you were able to have such strong morals in order to not allow yourself to be sucked into the world of drugs or drug dealing.

<span style="color: #404040; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Stephen Zurawiecki

I agree with you. The moral values that you learn when you're young, from your parents or someone close to you like a relative, a friend or even a teacher, can determine some of the most important decisions that you will be making later in life as an adult. Sonnia Estremera

You bring up an excellent point in that so many different factors influence the development of a child. Teachers must be aware of not only the cultural, but also the religious practices of their students. This is also an excellent topic for research. --Prof. Kunz

= Parent Interview =

The parents I chose are the parents of a ten year old- fifth grader named Daniela, and her brother Chris who is a 25 and married. Chris and his wife have been living in Daniela’s’ house since last year.

They are a medium class family living in Elizabeth. Their daughter attends the public school in their neighborhood. The mother has a small business of nails, she does manicures and pedicures from her home. The father works as a professional hair stylist in a beauty salon in Cranford. Both of them have a high school education level plus the vocational classes and training they needed to successfully do their jobs. The primary language that all the family speaks at home is Spanish; Daniela is the only one that speaks English, mostly with her friends. The parents describe their relationship with the young girl as close and very rich in sharing physical activities (biking, hiking and swimming.) They also enjoy spending quality time with her while watching movies at home.

They also talked about how they as parents try to having a close relationship with Daniela’s teacher, but they feel like it is a one way street and she is not giving them the professional feedback that they want. The parent’s perception of their daughter‘s school is framed by a lack of discipline management, a very low amount of qualified teachers and not enough emphasis on reading development skills. They are concerned about it because they think Daniela does not have the knowledge and skills she should have for her age. They get frustrated because most of the time they are not sure how to help her. The family’s priorities are safety, good health and the potential that their daughter holds. They are reinforcing the artistic skills that they see in their young girl and encouraging her with the dream of having a great future in the field of art.

__**Personal Opinion:**__

What I see in this family is a double role of parenting for Daniela. The first one is represented by her parents who even though are doing a very good job nurturing Daniela’s childhood basic needs of affection, healthy nutrition, warm, they don’t have a consistent routine for the girl. She has no chores assigned at home, or consequences for misbehavior. The way that the parents used to apply discipline is through conversation, they try talking to her, they threaten her, but they don’t punish her. I could see that parents agree about the routine times as bed time, the mother ask for an early time, by the father ignores the mother requirement because he wants to enjoy watching TV with the girl.

For me that is a hint of Permissive Parenting Style, sometimes it seems like the parents spoil the girl. She has a good number of technology items. For me, it is kind of a compensation for the times that they cannot pay attention to her as a result of their busy work schedules.

Fortunately for Daniela her brother and his wife represent a second role of parenting as guardians. The young couple have a fresh view of Daniela’s’ needs and work covering the natural parents deficiencies. They handle an Authoritative Parents Model that is fully accepted by Daniela’s’ parents. His brother designed a cool after school routine for homework, out of school activities (play piano, share sports with them) and also they talk a lot with the girl about her safety, about how to identify dangerous people, and how to react towards bullying. They encourage Daniela to strive enough to fulfill her dreams and specially to identify her strengths, appreciate to enjoy the world of art. They see her as a winner.

Hi Maria: I think that this girl is fortunate to have a good balance on parenting styles in her life. In one hand are her parents who seem to love her a lot, but who also do not have established rules and discipline for her to follow, which can be detrimental for her in her future, but on the other hand she has her brother and his wife providing the discipline, and boundaries that she lacks from her parents. So, I think that this combination of both parenting styles will provide Daniella with a solid structure background in her life. I think that the parents need to take this issue with Daniella's teacher not providing them with their daughter's perfomance feedback very seriously, and raise their concerns to the school principal. Nidieska Tobar

September 28, 2011

TEACHER’S INTERVIEW TEACHER’S NAME INITIALS: YH DISTRICT: Elizabeth

1. Describe the community where you teach? <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I work in school that houses grades 2-8 and 8 pre-k classes. I

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">teach pre-K. The majority of the students are Hispanic. There are 15

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">students per class. They are mixed of three and four year olds. They

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">are inclusion classrooms.

2. How do you increase cultural awareness at your school? (Your class) <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">During multicultural week we emphasize every child’s individual

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">cultures/nationality. We also do a class project about a country.

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Classes in this school visit other countries/classrooms to learn about

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">them. In the classroom we have multicultural toys such as food,

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">clothes, dolls, books, posters, songs, etc.

3. How do you collaborate with the parents? Give examples. <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">We hold workshops for parents monthly. They are invited to the

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">classroom to read books and for breakfast. Notices are sent home about

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">what is happening in the school/class. We have a Lending Library

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">program where parents are encouraged to read to their children in both

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">English and Spanish.

4. What are some challenges that you face?

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Working with a mixed class of 3’s and 4’s can be challenging

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">because they are at a different developmental stages. Language barrier

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">is also a challenge. Many children come only speaking Spanish. The

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">language barrier between parent and teacher/ teacher and child is a

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">challenge.

5. List your top 5 classroom priorities.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Safety/Rules
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Respect
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Children are engaged/interested to learn
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">FUN…..make learning a “good time”
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Challenging the children.

<span style="color: #1d9bdd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">October 5, 2011

<span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">ARE OTHERS KIDS LIKE ME?Children with a Parent in Prisonby: Kerri L. Clopton & Katheryn K. East

<span style="color: #1d9bdd; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">The every day, more frequent issue of children with parents in prison in the United States is another problem to be revised by the relationship between the schools, families and communities. It is not easy because even the educators need to be respectful of the caretaker’s preferences regarding the issue, they also should be aware of the stigma and the needs associated with parental incarceration to support the students’ crisis and changes that occurred in their lives as a result of that situation.

<span style="color: #1d9bdd; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">The children have conflict between their need to talk to somebody to understand what is going to happen with their parents. Very often they are advised not to share the information so that it does not turn into a social stigma. This becomes a very serious emotional condition that should not be ignored in the classroom. Especially if the children with parents in prison are the age reported by recent researches: under 5 years 22%, and under 10 years 58 % (2006)

<span style="color: #1d9bdd; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Many others circumstances such as moving homes many times, living with relatives, separating from siblings, and changing schools don’t let the children establish a normal stability that helps them develop a sense of belonging, safety and trust. On the other hand if the possible resource of helping the children is to visit their parents in jail, it is not really a positive experience for children as it is for their parents. According to researches, the issue becomes double complex if we count the possibility that the parent incarcerated could be the mother.

<span style="color: #1d9bdd; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Due to the fact that there are a number of barriers for parent visitation in jail such as schedules, distances, cost, rules, plus the negative impact on children’s feelings, this is not the best resource for supporting children with a parent in prison.

<span style="color: #1d9bdd; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">However “The Bill of Rights: San Francisco Children of Incarcerated Parents Partnership” (2005) opened a way to talk openly about parents and children facing this issue. Furthermore, books about parents who are incarcerated and others programs target literacy like “Fathers Read” by Companions Journeying Together; Family Stories “Worlds Travel” by Scholastic Press and Volunteers of American, and “Aunt Mary’s Storybook Project”(1993) which involved mothers recording themselves reading the book are definitely a great answer of the scholar community working to maintain (or build) a bond between a parent in prison and their children (2008)

<span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Hi Maria!, <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">As an educator, I did not even consider that one of my students may have a parent in prison. How would I know unless either the student or a family member revealed that info to me. However, who would want anybody to know? Personally, I would not want anyone to know. Especially anyone at school. I still would feel odd reading stories to students about incarcerated parents. I find it difficult to tie it into the curriculum. As I write my plans for the next week, I try to incorporate the weekly themes, upcoming holidays, and curricular assessments. It is not easy to fit in a lesson about parents who are incarcerated when there is so much to cover each day. However, if I knew there was a student in my class that has a family member in jail, I would make sure to incorporate literature in my classroom that focuses on family and this type of family. Carol Bono

Hi Maria: While I agree that children visitations to their incarcerated parents may not be a very positive experience for a child, specially younger ones who do not have a level of understanding yet to reason why their parent is not able to come home, I feel that a relationship between the child and their parent can only continue to strengthen through their personal contact. I do feel that in order for these visits to take place that a few guidelines need to be established such as: determining when it is appropriate based on the level of the criminal offense for parents to have contact with the children, the proper accommodations for family visits to take place in the context of the prison environment, as well as proper education at the individual level to be provided for the incarcerated parent, caregivers, and the children on how to handle these visitations with a positive outcome for all. Nidieska Tobar

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Maria E. G: <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">It is an enormous and helpful suggestion that there should be books about having parents in prison to be read in the classrooms or at home. That way everyone in general would know the different lives these kids have. In the future when they are asked any questions about their family they won’t back down and stay quiet but instead they will be able to talk about it with our help. <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sonnia

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hi Maria <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">You had stated in your reflection about possible resource is to visit parents in jail is not so positive, depending on the age.. As an educator, I really don't thing that is an good idea. Most of these children are already devastated about their parents being incarcerated and the frustration that they parents cannot come home with him. The child will usually bring this kind of frustration back to school and this is when you start to see the negative behavior in a child. ~Shonde;;~

<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Hi Maria,

<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I have to agree with you regarding your statement about books. Being an elementary teacher, I am able to see first hand the power literature and discussion has on students. My collegue recently pointed out a comparision between her class and other classes who teach Social Studies using "traditional" Social Studies Materials (i.e. textbooks, workbooks, hand-outs, etc.) By teaching it through "good" literature with accountable talk discussions to follow, her students have blossomed more than she could have ever hoped, especially with a topic such as Colonial Times. There is a power behind good literature and discussion. These discussions not only can open that door and not only make a child feel more comfortable about a certain topic, but possibly even more comfortable to share with the classroom community or even just you, as the teacher. Once you get that ball rolling and get those children to open up it is much easier to get an inside look as to how they are really feeling but also why they may be acting out and be able to approach those situations with more knowledge and understanding. <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Amy

<span style="color: #808000; font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">Hi Maria,

<span style="color: #808000; font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">I agree that classrooms can have story books about parents in prison.These books will help children to understand if any of their peer's parent is in prison. Also, I think the literacy program provides parents a great way to read to their children.The parents(s) are not around but, still they can bond with their children with some effort. <span style="color: #808000; font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">Kavya

Maria, Thank you for including a discussion about the ways in which some communities are connecting children at home with their family members in prison. Although controversial, it is important for any policy to consider ways in which children are affected. --Prof. Kunz