Words of Inspiration and Motivation

Marcy Whitebrook-Quote

"We know that teachers are the key to good child care and as long as teachers are undervalued, American children, too, will keep getting less than they deserve"  (Whitebrook, 1992)

Article from Marcy Whitebrook

Whitebrook, M. (1992, May 19).  Child Care Workers Deserve a Raise Well-Trained Employees Are Leaving the Field in Droves:  [5th Edition].  St. Louis Post-Dispatch (pre-1997 Fulltext). p. 3B.  Retrieved May 24, 2012, from ProQuest Central.

In addition to Marcy's quote I chose to select a quote from Louise Derma-Sparks because I think it speaks to what we know about about teachers being the key to good child care.  Louise talks with such passion in the video segment. 

Passion Quotes from the Foundations of Early Childhood Studies:  Louise Derma-Sparks (Professor Emertius, Pacific Oaks College, CA)

The quote that I think connects these two together is the following:  "I wanted to continue to be a teacher because I had a built in passion to make a contribution to the world" 

The reason I think these are connected is that even when a teacher has the passion to make a difference to the world if he/she is continually undervalued then eventually there is a possibility that the passion will go away and our children are to valuable for that to happen so we have to figure out a way to ensure that teachers are valued so that our children get the education that they deserve.  That is where America's Inspiration and Motivation for our future should come from.

Personal Childhood Web

The 5 most significant people in my life are my mom, my dad, my Grandma Altha, my Grandma Ava and my Grandpa Morris.

My mother Jane is the most loyal and trusting person I know she taught me what to look for when selecting a spouse and my husband Jairo is so much like her it is scary at times.

My dad Glen is the most even tempered person I know and he is a master at dealing with stress and never letting any one see him sweat.  Because of my dad I have learned to be very even tempered and never show my emotion in situations.  At work I am often referred to as the best poker face ever because they can't tell if I am upset with the situation or not because my expression never changes.

My grandma Altha was the most fair person I have ever met in my life.  If she gave one of us grand kids a piece of gum she would put a piece of gum in the mail to the others so that they would not feel left out.  Actually, she was not quite that bad, but she was always very fair.  Because of what that meant to me growing up my husband and I chose to do institute the same philosophy for our children.  What we do one child we do for all or we don't do at all.

My grandma Ava was an intelligent, dedicated teacher and administrator.  She taught me to always work hard and never stop learning because knowledge is power.  She is the reason that I am working in early childhood and working to be a strong advocate for children.  Because children can't vote so they are powerless with out us.

My grandpa Morris was the funniest man and the best storyteller I have ever known.  I loved to listen to his stories as a child.  I learned that I to have the gift of storytelling and enjoy it on an almost daily basis.  Storytelling is an outlet for life for me.  It is a way of letting go and getting grounded.

One of my favorite memories as a child has been brought to the for front of my thinking this week.  My husband, my mother, and our two daughters have been on a road trip from OK to Washington, DC to drop my daughter off for her summer internship.  We stopped in Memphis, TN to visit Graceland and I kept thinking about the night that Elvis died and me and my dad stayed up all night to watch all of his movies that were being played on television.  As a child staying up all night to watch television was quite a treat, but now the part that is most special is the time I had with my dad just the two of us.

I love that these five people were and are in my life and what a difference they have each made on the women I am today.  Thank you God for them!!

My Favorite Children's Book

The "Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle is my favorite children's book.  What I love about it is as a teacher you can truly integrate this book into every learning center in your classroom.  You can meet a variety of Early Learning Guidelines (ELG)with this book and right now in our state ELG is on the forefront of everyones mind.  I have this book is so many different versions, a board book, a big book, hard cover book, paperback book, 40th Anniversay edition, DVD of the book, flannel board story of the book, I have a large stuffed caterpillar and small stuffed caterpillar.  If you walk into my office it is very obviouse that I am obsessed with Eric Carle, but especially "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".  There is new version out that is "My First Hungry Caterpillar" for infants and toddlers.  I could plan an entire months worth of activities around this book so that is why it is my favorite book.

My Family!!!!

This is a picture of my family.  My husband Jairo, our son Hunter (18), our daughter Lauren (20), our daughter Jordan (22), me (Jill Soto), my mother Jane, and my dad Glen.  This is my support system and they mean the world to me.  I love, love, love them!

Mother's Day--Do we have policies that value families??

Mother's Day is approaching and it gives pause to think about the true value of a mother.  Research tells us that parents are the child's first teacher and as an early childhood professional I fully believe this to be a true statement.  I also found it interesting that Huffington Post posted a story in the political section about whether or not our nations policies are truly valuing families.  With this time of poltical advertising about who has the "best" family values it should be that we have policies that are showing we value families, but in fact our policies do not give mothers and fathers that work outside the home the support that they need. 

This article provides some insight on the policies about family medical leave  and child care.  Both of these policies directly impact our work as early childhood professionals.  Either because we have parents taht are wanting to enroll children in our programs before 6 weeks of age or we know far to well how difficult it is for many families to pay the extremely high cost of child care especially the cost of infant care.  Additionally, many programs also know the reality of even finding an opening for an infant because of the extremely long waiting lists.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hannah-matthews/paid-family-leave_b_1510525.html

Tribute to Maurice Sendak

My Catharsis--Painting

According to Exchange Everyday the Fast Company made this observation about Sendak.  "Though he was routinely criticized by conservative groups for portraying what they saw as 'adult' themes, he stood his ground, maintaining that parents (and authors) need to be honest with children.  In his acceptance speech for the Caldecott Medal in 1964, he had this to say about how adults misrepresent childhood:

"'From their earliest years children live on familiar terms with disrupting emotions — fear and anxiety are an intrinsic part of their everyday lives, they continually cope with frustrations as best they can.  And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis.  It is the best means they hav e for taming wild things.'"


I loved that he said that "it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis" because I think we all need a process of releasing our emotions.  I think it is so important for adults to learn to release our emotions as well.  Many of us are on this journey of life long learning so i think it is important for us to figure out our way of achieving catharsis for ourselves.  One of the things that I started back in January was going to a painting class.  They call it "Wine and Palette" and it is the best way to release because you get to drink wine and you have the opportunity to express yourself with the painting.  I am not a creative person at all in that way, but went with friends the first time just for a girls night out and I fell in love with it.  I am attaching one of my creations to this Blog posting.

Getting Started

Wow, I am starting a new journey.  The journey of blogging in conjunction with my Master's program with Walden University.  Should be interesting.  I have never read a blog and for sure have never created a blog so I am hopeful that I can be successful with this new platform.