Thank You Note

I have enjoy a lot this quarter for two reasons the first one is because I have the opportunity to interact with different professionals as well as with parents. The second is because I really learn a lot from each one of my classmate’s discussions and blogs. During this quarter I also had learned on how to advocate for children and their families. I belief that as educators is our responsibility to teach and stand up for children. I want to say thank you to all my colleges for their support through insightful ideas that help me better understand my topic and the ideas they give to improve my advocacy plan, it was very helpful and the presentation was better than what I expected. I'm a firm believer about providing quality not quantity, especially because teachers are always busy running around and teaching children academic skills they need to learn prior to moving up to the next level. Finding the time to teach each individual child is a challenge but not impossible. Many of us chose this field because we love teaching young children but to me the most important thing is to find that special time to help each child's individual needs. If I can do this I know I'm doing my job, which is to help children succeeded in their education.

Enlisting and Providing Support

The resources and information I am seeking are questions related about childhood obesity. Are you implementing ways to reduce childhood obesity in the classroom or in the weekly lesson plan? Do you have accurate websites that I can review? What strategies would you use to help families understand that childhood obesity is a health problem? Do you know any city or countries that are implementing a plan about childhood obesity in school? The resources I have fond helpful and insightful about my advocacy plan are the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The reason I believe these two resources are helpful for my advocacy plan is because these organizations believe in making a difference in early childhood education. The Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC) is an organization that is a nationally recognized childhood obesity prevention program. The mission of this program is to confront the childhood obesity epidemic by promoting healthy and active lifestyles for children throughout the Chicago metropolitan area. Since 2002 the consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children has built a vital, broad-based of thousands of participants and organizations. They have over 3,000 participants and they are representing over 1,200 organizations. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is a part of the Smart School Snack a Comprehensive Preschool Education program. The Smart School Snack was design to inform early childhood teachers, children, and families about the foundation of healthy eating. The Smart School Snack learning environment includes establishing healthy independent eating habits, hand washing, appropriate food portion, social eating skills, self-monitoring and self-skill. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) also follows the NAEYC Chicago -Nutritional Lesson Plan which is the menu for the early childhood education. The menu includes breakfast, lunch, and snack. Each meal is measure according to the child age.

Personal Advocacy Journey

The quote that I find inspirational reading the role that advocacy can be in the lives of young children and their family is “Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth.” By Williams Faulkner, I find this inspirational in regards to family members. that inspires an excites me most about my advocacy plan and being an advocate is that the families from Onward House will learn new knowledge and learn new information about childhood obesity. Knowing the struggle of childhood obesity I felt that it was a great reason to choose this topic because I think this is an important topic for families, staff, and the community to learn about. What excites me about being an advocate is that I know I can make a difference in family's lives and with my effort we can work together and try to love a healthier life. Sometimes families just need encouragement and information from someone else that cares about their well-being in order to make changes. The challenges and anxieties I feel related to engaging in the advocacy effort I have targeted is that I am aware that my topic might be strong for many families. I feel I need to be sensitive on how I persuaded my audience because I don't want them to feel I am attacking them or feel they are doing something wrong. I would work hard to convince the audience to give though and to consider my advocacy effort. I would provide evidence about my topic and I will also have all my research available and explain why my advocacy plan is important to live a healthier life. I believe that most effective part in helping me overcome any challenged emotions I may be feeling with regard to presenting and implementing my advocacy action plan is by being able to communicate and have the ability to express myself clearly in both oral and writing form. These two skills are vital to convince my audience that my topic is important and it is important to learn about the effects of childhood obesity. I think I can encourage others in their advocacy effort, by reminding them to keep in mind that it is important to provide updated research and evidence about the topic. I also think it is important to ask questions about the topic to the audience because it is important for families to provide feedback. I think it is vital to know that the audience has and understanding about the topic. I can also encourage others in their advocacy to gather information and assemble it into a format that will inform the reader with evidence based materials established through numerous studies. Others can encourage me by providing constructive criticism because I think this would help me prepare myself for the real world.

EDU 455

Hello every one my name is Guadalupe I am part of the Internship II EDU 455. I had done my research paper in Childhood Obesity, I think that this has become a big issue and families need to be very informed about to prevented and how to work with their children so they can fight obesity in a healthy way. I look forward for your comments and thoughts.

Blog #5

I have enjoy a lot this quarter for two reasons the first one is because I have the opportunity to interact with different professionals as well as with parents. The second is because I really learn a lot from each one of my classmate’s discussions and blogs. During this quarter I also had learned on how to advocate for children and their families. I belief that as educators is our responsibility to teach and stand up for children. I would like to say thank you to Teresa for the great information she provided within these 10 weeks. I've learned so much from journals blogs and I gained new knowledge about Autism. I think you chose a great topic because this is so important in the field of education. Teresa I wish you the best in your career and keep up the great job you do with children. During these 10 weeks I have read all your blog postings. It is amazing to me, to hear how you express yourself when speaking with professionals, colleagues, and other people within the field. I believe this is one of the qualities teachers need to have. I strongly believe people need to be passionate about what they do in order to be successful with their career. I had the opportunity to read your blogs and I can honestly say you seem to enjoy what you do. I wish you accomplish all your dreams and don't let anything stop you from continuing your professional path. GOOD LUCK I also would like to say thank you to Barbara for all the information she provided during these 10 weeks. I've learned and gained new knowledge about Early Intervention and I wish you the best in your education. This topic is an important topic for families, professionals, and teachers, within the field. Knowing facts about Early Intervention is always great to know. It is to people advantage to gain knowledge because they can understand facts better. I had the pleasure to read and follow your blog journals. Ms. Barbara, I wish you the best in your professional path and in the future. Thank you for all your contributions and dedication. GOOD LUCK I'm a firm believer about providing quality not quantity, especially because teachers are always busy running around and teaching children academic skills they need to learn prior to moving up to the next level. Finding the time to teach each individual child is a challenge but not impossible. Many of us chose this field because we love teaching young children but to me the most important thing is to find that special time to help each child's individual needs. If I can do this I know I'm doing my job, which is to help children succeeded in their education.

Observing and Interacting With Families of the Children in Your Setting

During this module I had the opportunity to interact with different colleagues and professionals within the field. I spoke with a teacher who has her Master's in Education. Ms. B.S. currently she teaches 3 to 5 years old few months ago she was teaching two’s year old. I had the opportunity to ask her questions in regards to childhood obesity. Ms. B.S. believes that children that are overweight or obese are that way because families don't realize that being overweight or obese is dangerous for children health. Ms. B.S. believes that professionals can support families to learn about childhood obesity by encouraging parents to volunteer in the classroom. She believes parents should participate and interact in the classroom preparing nutritious meals with their children. Ms. B S. believes teachers can do activities relating to the food pyramid and read or ask parent to read books relating to healthy eating. Ms. B.S. strongly believes that professionals need to know how to approach and talk to parents about their childhood obesity. Parents might think they are being attacked and they might feel they are bad parents. She said that "the key is to be cautious" because some professionals are not sensitive as they talk to parents or children about their weight or eating habits. Ms. B.S. said it is important to allow children to participate in activities that interest them, even though children that are obese find it difficult to run and climb. If they would just do some sort of activity for one hour 3 to 4 days a week they would have less chances to become obese. It is important to let children be themselves don't push them to do physical activities that might hurt them, but continue to encourage them to run and play some kind of sports so it can be fun as they exercise. After talking to colleagues and other professionals within the field I learned that it is important to involve parent in the education of their children. I learned different strategies to get parents involved in the classroom such as sending a letter home inviting parents to participate in our weekly Food Experience and sending home a letter about the activities children do during the week. I also learned that classroom participation is critical for parent. The insights I gained from observing, and interacting with professionals, teachers, and families is that by building relationships teachers and parents can work together as team tour the same goal