Assignemnt #2 Risk Taker or Visionary

After taking time to assess myself, I realized that I am both a risk taker and a visionary. I often feel that I have a plan or envision an activity or idea going a certain way. But at the same time I often take risks , veer off my lesson plan and try something I have never done before. I truly believe that you need to try everything once in your classroom to determine what works and what may or may not be a good fit for you and the children. The program I currently work at definitely supports my own teaching philosophy and goals I set for my classroom. Although I am satisfied with the program, I do have some changes I would like to see. The statement "I have a list of changes that need to be made if our program is going to meet our professions definitions of quality" best describes how I feel currently. I wont go into the details of what needs to be changed, however I think its important for every program to continuously reflect and see what can be done better. There is no program that can be labeled as "perfect", there is always room for improvement. If the program philosophy says that they provide "quality childcare/education" than it is our job as teachers to make sure it is reflected through what we do everyday.

The members of our profession....

This paragraph took me back to my ECE classes at Honolulu Community College. In my ECE classes, it would be filled with female classmates and maybe one male. This made me realize that ECE is dominantly still thought of as a "woman's profession". I often think that more men would work in the ECE field if there weren't so many negative stereotypes. I have a few male acquaintances that say working with kids is something they have thought of doing but are afraid of being seeing as "creepy". A question that immediately comes tome mind is, "How can we make ECE seen as a career for both men and women?" And another question that emerges is "How can those (teaching staff, administration, etc.) already in the field help others to see the importance of a diversity in ECE. Maybe by thinking out of the box, doing the unexpected, and raising the expectations, women will still be able to receive recognition and support needed.