Internship 2 Module 4 Blog Assignment

My project seems to be coming together, but I decided to put together a Power Point
presentation with my important information to share with my key audience.  Did anyone else
change their game plan at this point?  I am second guessing my plan because it is alot of
work to put this information into Power Point.  I have never used Power Point before and I
just don’t want to get anything wrong!

Has anyone in the class found Powerpoint to be useful when giving presentations?  I have
been to workshops where there was a slide presentation and the presenters also gave hard
copies of the slides to the group to use a future reference.  

My advocacy project is about childhood obesity and I have discovered a few very helpful
sites that give specific information about food consumption, portion sizes, and even
healthful recipes.  http://www.choosemyplate.gov has been most helpful in guiding my project with
great ideas that I can share with my focus group!  I hope you all get a chance to visit
this site!

Best of luck!
Laura

Internship 2:Module 3 Assignment

The quote that I find inspirational about becoming an advocate is “We must become the change we wish to create” (Gandhi)
I love this quote because I really believe that if we are going to change the world, we have to change within ourselves first!

•What inspires and excites you most about your advocacy plan and being an advocate?

My advocacy plan revolves around introducing my childcare center team (administration, teachers, parents and children) to the dangers of childhood obesity and positive health effects of a healthy lifestyle.  I am excited to bring a change to our community and the opening the eyes of the people to really make a difference in the lives of the young children we care for each day. My goal is to implement an exercise program along with a healthy food menu to the program and I look forward to the positive changes for our future. 

•What challenges and/or anxieties do you feel related to engaging in the advocacy efforts you have targeted?

My biggest challenge is changing the menu because our school is affiliated with a hospital and there are many levels to the bugeting system.  I also know that changing the menu will cause some distress among the teachers, because it is easy to get used to the same items.  I think the children will also have some complaints about the food choices at first, but I believe that we need to be introducing new foods to young children at an early age.  Also, public speaking is not my favorite part of this plan! 

•What do you believe will be most effective in helping you overcome any challenging emotions you may be feeling with regard to presenting and implementing your Advocacy Action Plan?

I think that my research will be most effective in helping overcome the challenges.  I think that as long as I don’t cry…I will beable to get my point across to the key audience.  Afterall, we have the same goals for our children, a happy and healthy lifestyle for years to come.

•How can you encourage others in their advocacy efforts, and how can others encourage you?

My words of advice for others is to stay strong in your convictions about whatever your advocacy project is.  Don’t let othersdiscourage you from making a difference.  It only takes one person to make a difference in the life of a child.

 

 

Thank You Blog 5

Thank you for everyone in the class who supported my topic of childhood obesity as an advocate effort.  I appreciate your words of acknowledgment of the severity of this epidemic on our nations youth.  With everyone’s efforts to help make our children happy healthy people, we are headed down the right road!  I wish everyone luck with their advocacy projects in EDU-412 and look forward to “seeing” many of my fellow students next quarter!  Good Job everyone!!

Laura Orabi

Blog Assignment 4 Observing and Interacting with Families

For this weeks assignment, I spent time with Ms. Sandra and her daughter “Amy.”  Sandra has been a teacher at this early childhood setting for almost five years and her daughter just turned three years old.  I chose to talk with Sandra because we have had several discussions over the years about childhood obesity and about the food options that childcare centers offers.  Sandra’s daughter was born at 10 pounds and has remained a larger size child.  Sandra claims that she tries to take precautions about her child’s food intake, but admits that she spoils her with cookies and treats almost everyday.  Sandra said that “I feel like I’m a good parent when give Amy a special treat because she spends so much time in daycare (even though I work across the hall) that I think she is missing something from her childhood.  My mother never worked outside the home, so I feel guilty that I can’t spend the same amount of time with her that my mother spent with me.”  This is a problem that most working parents have to face, parental guilt. The question is, “How does a cookie represent your love for your child?”  Sandra said “It’s not the cookie exactly, its the look of joy and the excited smile and giggles that I get when I hand over a surprise that makes me feel good.”  Sandra added, “I know that I am not giving her the right idea for eating healthy, I know that I should not just hand over the “Yummies” all of the time, but…I don’t know how to stop the cycle that I have already started.”   Sandra is like most of the parents of young children, they know what the children should be eating, but they have a sense of guilt about spending time away from them that they throw good judgement out the window.  In this case, Sandra’s child is the one who will have to pay the ultimate price for the treats, a childhood of being obese! 

The second family that I had the opportunity to talk with was Ms. Kelly and her son, “Evan.”  Evan is a very active three year old little boy with a hearty appetite.  Kelly travels for work a few times each month but makes every effort to attend school activities and parties.  “Evan” is small and slender for his age but he is an “over-eater” according to his teachers.  He joins in for every snack and clears his plate at lunch each day.  He asks for food all day and never seems to get enough.  His mother said, “I have tried feeding him heartier meals like oatmeal and fiber bars for breakfast to help him stay full for a longer periodof time, but it just doesn’t seem to be working.  My fear for Evan is that his appetite won’t slow down but that his activity level will as he discoverd computers and he will get fat.  I don’t want to teach him that eating such large amounts of food are okay, but what can I do…he is just hungry.” 

Parents today have many different points of view on the activity level and the food choices that they make for their children.  I have learned that parents really do need their children’s teacher’s to be advocates to help guide them to make better choices. When teacher’s can lead by example, offer parents information about health and nutrition, and even help get the little ones moving, we are making a difference.  Teachers need to go the extra mile to help educate families about the importance of playing together to benefit their child’s current and future health.  I think that if Sandra knew about the lifetime struggles that she was handing to her daughter with every cookie, she might start handing her apples instead.  I think that Kelly needs to monitor “Evan’s” use of technology and try to balance out sitting time with physical activities such as riding bikes together to playing at the local park.

Module 3 Blog–Observing/Interacting with Professionals

For the past two weeks, I have observing/interacting with my center Director, Cherron.  She has been the director of my center for the past twenty-one years and has seen her fair share of children with a wide range of skills and abilties.  I discussed at length with Cherron about the topic of childhood obesity and wanted her opinion on how we (the teachers) can help educate the families and the children about eating healthy.  Much to my surprise, Cherron’s daughter is a dietian and she came to our monthly inservice meeting with a discussion and training about living a healthy lifestyle.  Within this training, we were provided with visual props of what actual food amounts or dietary regulations should be for the average adult and for the average child.  Every teacher at my school was SHOCKED at the portion sizes and we discovered that we all have been overeating and over-feeding the children for years!!!!  It’s know wonder that so many young children are FAT because we (the adults) are feeding them portions that grown men should be eating.  A child’s stomach is only the size of their fist and we have to remember that our brains are wired to tell our stomaches when we are full.  Children will not learn to read their brain signals if we are constantly overridding them 2nd servings at lunch and snack.  At my center, Cherron has recently started walking around to the classrooms (we have 9) and observing the teachers as they serve snacks and meals.  Although some teachers are trying to follow the guidelines, there are still others who will continue to give extra large portions of goldfish crackers, extra slices of bread, second servings of french fries and they don’t encourage the children to eat fruits or veggies either!  Needless to say, I have my work cut out for me at my school if I am going to help educate the teachers and the parents on the dangers of childhood obesity.

The second professional that I spent time with is our Educational Coordinator, Peggy.  Peggy has been a director at other centers over the years and has been in this profession for about 25 years.  While talking with Peggy about how she handles the snack and lunch time routine in her classroom, I think she has a good idea of how to teach young children to portion their food.  The food is divided into seperate bowls and the children are allowed to serve themselves, with the exeption that each child at the table must take at least one spoonful of the food item.  This helps to control the portion that each child is taking because if “Johnny” takes two scoops of food then “Jill” doesn’t get any food.  Peggy also does not offer second servings to the children unless they have eaten all of the food on their plate.  Peggy said, “If they are hungry enough to eat everything including the veggies (not their favorite) and they are still asking for food, then they can have a small second portion of the main dish or vegetable” (Personal conversation, May 11, 2012).

Each teacher or educator has to take responsibility for the needs of the students in their classroom which does include their health and safety also.  I believe that some people try to show their love for the children by giving them the items that they ask for, while others show their affection by giving out stickers or “high-fives.”  The bottom line is that as an educator of young children, we have to give them information that will build a foundation for the rest of their lives.  Everything we do and say with our children is remembered by these little people, so make everything that you do count as a positive memory.  We have to talk to the children about their health and their bodies and even include teaching them about how their bodies process food and use food an energy.  Talk to them about the foods that should be eaten everyday and the foods that we should only eat on a “sometimes” basis.  Children do understand what we are talking about and are going to carry that message back home to their families. 

BLOG #2

For this assignment, I chose to observe and talk to Bonnie, a Kindergarten teacher and a health food fanatic along with a fellow preschool teacher and parent, Nada.  Both of these ladies work at my school but have different approaches to child health issues.  Bonnie is in her late 40’s and does not have any children and Nada is in her mid 30’s and has three boys to raise as a single parent for the past two years. Bonnie gave me a great deal of insight in her take on the childhood obesity epidemic that is plaguing our country.  She has seen a great deal of young children with what she calls, “CS” (Computer syndrome) and they are extremely difficult little people to get motivated to do anything but play or work at the classroom computer. Bonnie works very hard to keep her students moving during day with such activities as dance or movement during circle time, exercises to keep them fresh in the large motor area, and even pulling out the giant parachute to incorporate movement during language or spelling activities.  Our school offers a once a week exercise class called “Stretch-N-Grow” where the teacher does a mini aerobic lesson with the children. 

In our school setting, these types of activities are encouraged by the teachers, not necessarily by the administration.  Bonnie added that most public schools don’t have this much physical fitness activity during the week because of the constant push to prepare children for the standardized tests.  Physical activity just is not as important as it should be.  The fact that some children continue to gain weight and that the teachers see what and how much the children are eating during the school day is causing a great deal of stress in Bonnie’s classroom.  Getting information to the families is one of her biggest challenges because most people don’t think their children are too big. 

Ms. Nada had a few different points of view to take into consideration.  As a single parent, she is often too busy and too tired to really think about the nutrition that her children are consuming.  She knows that they often eat at fast food resturants during the week to save time, but she is not concerned with their health as of yet.  Nada does not hold a limit on the amount of food the boys want to eat, in her mind if they are hungry…feed them!  She thinks that when they are full, they will just stop eating.  This includes all foods in the home setting, the grandparents house, and even at McDonald’s. Althought she did tell me jokingly that this has not yet happened in her house.She knows that the older two boys get some physical fitness routines in school and she does have them both enrolled in afterschool sports.  Her youngest (4) is enrolled in private hockey lessons and gets some physical exercise during the week.  She has been struggling with her weight for some time, but doesn’t understand why her families eating choices should be on the schools list of issues. 

Blog #1 edu-411

•Insights gained from your interviews regarding current advocacy efforts and needs in your area of interestwithin the field of early childhood
For this assignment, I interviewed two Educational Coordinators for Bright Horizon childcare centers innorthern Illinois.  My topic for the interview was based on childhood obesity and I really wanted theseprofessionals to give their honest opinions about how this well known education based chain was handlingthe crisis at hand.  Both coordinators agreed that this is an increasingly growing problem for young childrenand that we (as a society) should be working harder than ever to get our children moving and learning howto eat better.  The concept of childhood obesity sounds almost unbelievable to most people.  Childrentypically get their food sources from the adults in their lives, so how is it that they could be considered obeseat such young ages?  The facts is, the American population is steadily growing to out of control weight sizesthan ever before. We have to make the initial effort to get our kids to make better choices than we do duringthe day.  In the early childhood classroom, there are many ways that the teachers can influence thechildren’s habits too. 

•How these interviews may have influenced your decision about which area of interest and topics to choosefor your research paper

There are many ways in which a public school district or a private education based facility can improve themenu choices that they are offering to the students.  The question for most schools is how can they increasethe amount of fresh/healthy options to the students and stay within the designated school budget?  In earlychildhood settings, such as daycare centers, the menus are designed by a catering company and  they aretrying to offer a healthful menu that the children will actually eat.  Another area of concern that was broughtto my attention is the ways in which the foods are presented to the children.  Unfortunatley, in massproduced quantities, fruits are served out of cans, and the vegetables that are cooked, are cooked beyondrecognition.  How can we expect children to eat veggies that look like mush?  They are never going to likethe taste or the texture of that mess and we are setting them up to hate them all!

•Which area of interest you are thinking of focusing on for your paper as well as the related three specific topics

I think that the are of interest for my paper is to discuss the healthy options for young children as alternatives to chips and pretzels.  Teaching the teachers how to incorporate healthy cooking activities into the daily curriculum to get the children involved in making better choices about their food consumptions.  Ialso want to research new ways to get children to move and be active during the day. 

•Questions you have for your colleagues related to your area of interest and/or three topics

How can we incorporate more physical exercise with young children and get them off the couch or away from hand-held electronic toys?  The truth is that most adults are in the morbidly obese range for poor health and they are also sitting infront of the television with their laptops within arms length.  Gettingchildren to be more active is key is teaching them how to burn the calories of the food they are eating.  Aprogram such as “Stretch-N-Grow” While childhood obesity has been getting lots of attention in recent years,Stretch-n-Grow has been aware of the issue and providing a solution since 1992.  We are the world’s largest network of children’s fitness professionals and have taught millions of children world-wide the importance ofhealthy habits. “The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared obesity ‘a global epidemic’ and experts agree that childhood obesity must be curtailed.  The Stretch-n-Grow program teaches preschool andelementary aged children to make healthy food choices and love exercise, starting at an early age,” statesPresident and Founder, Jill Manly. (www.stretch-n-grow.com).

 

 

 

 

My BLOG!

Hi everyone! This is my new blog!  I don’t really know what I’m doing here…but here we go!! 🙂

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