Transcription
♪♪♪ [speaking in a foreign language]
When a family comes to enroll, we have a New Parent Orientation where we're talking to them about what our program is and how our program works. We want families to know what we do here, and how our program operates, so we talk about our indoor program. We talk about our outdoor program. We talk about the fact that learning is done through play, and play is a child's work. So today, Benji, he was playing in the slide, and he was using a lot more language.
Have you noticed he's been using more language in the home? Oh, yeah, at home he's a little chatterbox. (Kimberly Nall)
Oftentimes, the only times we get to have communication with them is during drop-off and pick-up, and then there's a whole lot of unknown in the middle, unless you have real strong communication. And for some families, that might be e-mail. For some families that might be a mid-day phone call. For some, it might be a one-on-one conference. I think that we have to be flexible. I really do, and you know, sometimes that means that our hours have to be flexible. If their best time is 6:30 at night, and our program closes at 5:30, 6:00, we might need to find a way to meet with them at 6:30 at night, or at, you know, 7 o'clock in the morning, and asking and finding what works best for you. There's no one way or quote-unquote right way of doing this.
And how important it is for respectful, culturally responsive communication, how important it is for that to take place, and the best way for that to take place is to be authentic, to be real, to be present, and to listen. And to remember that communication happens a lot of different ways. It's verbal. It's nonverbal. It's through the power of storytelling. It's through a nod, a gesture, a smile. It's all of those things.
Thinking about the whole business of cultural context and how we bring that into the classroom so that both the children and the families, when they walk into that room, feel like it's a place where they belong. There are different communication styles, and that's not just always wrapped up in a particular culture or ethnic response. It could be individual temperaments, dynamics, personalities that create that. And sometimes that may mean I might have to think a little bit differently about how I communicate. Some families might have to tell a story before they get to a point, and I may not be that type of communicator, but how do I develop some level of flexibility, some level of engagement, and to understand that this is what this family needs in order to get to where they're looking to go, and maybe this is what they need to share with me for me to be able to honor where it is that we're going.
[speaking in a foreign language] (Louise Piper)
Staff needs to be open to the fact that in that invitation to families to join us on this journey that we're undertaking during the preschool years, it also means permission, encouragement, the invitation to ask any question, to raise any concern. And for us to be open and willing to look at ourselves and our own assumptions, really reflect on what we bring to the table, know our own identity, our own communication and interaction style, and understand that sometimes we need to modify what comes naturally to us, and welcome our families in a way that creates environments that are familiar to them.
When Nicholas comes in in the morning, one of the things that their family values is to go to every single person and say, "Good morning." And the same thing when he leaves. They value it so much. So any time that we can go and make sure that we connect with him, go out of your way.
When conflict occurs or when there's a difference in values, beliefs, and practices, that if we can begin to think about communication from the perspective of, "I really want to get to know this family," and believing that the Jackson family is not the same as the Rodriguez family. It's not the same as the Shahinian family. The way that you create your environment is really essential to the relationship you build with families. When you have newsletters and information that goes home to families, that it's written in their home language. If you have somebody in the program that can speak to the family in their home language, to having books and resources available that are also in all of the languages, if possible, of the families and children that are in your center.
One of the things that teachers want to do is they want to help the family feel like their background, their culture beliefs, are really valued by the community, by the preschool community. And so one of the things that they want to do is welcome a child's beliefs, the family's beliefs, in the classroom to celebrate those. And so knowing about the beliefs, knowing about the background, knowing about the cultural traditions can help start up a conversation, can help have the family feel welcomed into the community. The welcoming climate is created daily, and it's with that first point of contact. Something as simple as did we greet you with a smile? Did we say hello in more than one language? Culturally, there's so many different ways of letting people know that it is a welcoming community. Making sure that over the course of the year, we do have multiple points of inquiry where we ask, "How well do we serve you?" It's really important when we're creating our environments to consider all of the families and the children and their culture and their language in all aspects, and the very first aspect of that is developing an environment where the family feels that when they walk in, they're welcome. And their children are going to be safe and cared for, and cared for in a way that is relevant to that child and family.
(Cheryl Williams-Jackson) When we enroll children in our programs, we actually are enrolling families, which means we really must work on building the relationships with the parents or the grandparents, whoever it is that has some meaning in the child's life.
(Louise Piper) We really believe children and their extended family members are the most significant people in the lives of the children that we serve.
A kiss on the feet? Where's your feet? (Louise Piper)
Our families are the experts on their children. They are their child's first and most important teachers, and their input is invaluable to us. So it's building relationship with the family, listening to the family, finding out what the family's goals and expectations are for the child. And then figuring out with the family what's the best way to address that, and how can we work together for the benefit of that child's development?
How about his drawing? Is he getting stronger with his pen-holding? You know, he is starting to correct it a lot more quickly. He'll start off fisting it, but then with working with other manipulatives, I'm seeing him correct it in a shorter period of time. (Minie Lopez)
In order to really build strong relationships with families, we have to do that when they start, because that's the moment you can assure them that you're the person they can come to if they need support. And then we have a lot of different events and things. We have a monthly family event, and we have themes and celebrations together so that parents can network together, and it gives us an opportunity to be with parents doing fun activities. We have parent evenings and curriculum nights where we're informing them about what their children are doing, and we do two parent/teacher conferences a year. Two a year really gives us the opportunity to talk to them about what their children's goals are and how we can follow up with them, and that really builds trust, because they know that we have their children's best interests at heart.
Should we try to make another layer on the house? That's yours. We can do it together, 'cause you put two of them on and I put two of them on. It was a team effort. Are you building with your mom? (female)
Every time I have a co-op, I learn something from the teachers. I usually go home and say to my husband, "You would never believe what they did with this conflict," where they actually had the children resolve it themselves, instead of telling the children what to do. So every time I'm here, I feel like I become a better parent.
"That's terribly kind of you, Fox," but no. I'm going to have lunch with a gruffalo. I travel a lot for work, so if I'm gone, I know that I can go and set him up like I did now, and read him a story and get him used to the environment, and then when I leave, that he's going to kind of seamlessly blend in and feel at home here. So it helps a lot. You want to paint with us? Did you finish your sign? (female)
My daughter's in a day care where I'm not involved at all, and I don't know those families. I don't know the parents or the kids, and here, when I come in, I kind of get excited to see the children and to hang out with them, and to just to make those relationships, too. And it's fun to see who she chooses to become closer friends with.
So setting the stage for making the connections we need to in order to ensure that families feel welcome, that families know there's an open-door policy, that if it's comfortable for them to come in and spend time with us and just observe, and just be together, enjoying informal interactions, that that invitation to come in isn't only when it benefits us or there's something we need. That living with our families is the way we make those connections. Because it is a partnership, so we want to make sure that they have the resources they need to always be their child's advocate, teacher, and nurturer.
So one of the things we do on a weekly basis is send home information that's going to help parents understand the different approaches to helping, with either language development or any other cognitive development. In addition to that, we invite them to partake in weekly parent orientation or parent workshop where they can learn additional strategies, strategies that perhaps you would not have learned unless you went into education per se or had that kind of training. We have many families who come and will spend the day with us if we're doing different activities. Our major family activities are in the evening, though, so that all families can come, because we are respectful of the fact that they do work and they may not take time off.
We have--it's called Connect Ed, so it's a phone system where it will call each family and give them a message for us. So we will call them and say, "We're trying to build up "our messy building material outside, and we're asking can you please bring us some twigs?" And they do. Parents participate in a myriad of ways. We want to make sure we have opportunities that allow busy parents to feel and to be involved.
Did you see these? They have really taken off with them. So okay, so they fit the cars nice? Perfect. Okay, well, let me know if you guys ever need any more. (Louise Piper)
Families don't need a reason to come in. They spend time with us throughout the day. They come in to do carpentry projects, to read aloud in home language. We've had families who really enjoy gardening, and so families have come in to share their expertise with gardening. We also want to be sure that parents have ways to engage with us and be involved in their child's learning at school in ways that are comfortable to them.
So what, you just need this-- See, because what you gave us was perfect, because-- It'll sit. So that they can kind of flatten it out. Just flatten a little so it sits. Okay, I'll ask him. We want to know if there's any special things going on in their family. Is grandma raising the child? Are mom and dad together? Do multiple families live in the same household? Who is the child interacting with? So we're looking at this information because that all impacts children, and many times, families will tell you right away, "This is what's happening," and sometimes it comes a little bit later as they get to know the staff a little bit better. You know, if they say, "I'm struggling with this, or I'm having this problem," then we provide them with some resources that we know that are within the community. We found out from families what resources they need during our intake process, during our family surveys that we do. I have a parent advisory club that meets monthly. And always assessing what they're needing. And because we create this environment where parents feel welcome and trusted, they're going to come to me all the time. "Christie, I'm having problems with housing. How can you help me?" Because I'm very engaged in our community, I'm able to bring resources in through our Head Start partnership, our partnerships with the school district, with the county Office of Education, with the non-profit agencies. So we're constantly getting e-mails, or I'm out in the community getting those resources. It's easy to say, "Here's the brochure. "Here's the number. You know, this is the agency that you call." Sometimes families have a really hard time mustering up the strength or even having the information to be able to engage in that call. Oftentimes I won't give the resources to a family cold, but I myself will call first, because I want to make sure it's still viable, but also that they're going to be treated well, because not everybody feels as though seeking assistance is a sign of strength. Sometimes it's a real difficult thing to do.
(Senta Greene) Helping them to think about the types of questions that that agency or that program might ask them, what types of documents do they need to have available and handy for themselves, so that when those questions are asked, they're readily available and they're accessible, and that they're successful in that process. It's looking at the needs of the population, and understanding what parents want for their children, and the vision that they bring, so it's asking them, "What are your needs?" And looking at it not just from the cognitive domain, but really from the whole child. So making sure that, one, their medical needs are being attended to, their dental needs. Doing a lot of wrap-around services so that if a parent approaches us and says, you know, "I'm looking for housing," that we can actually bring 'em into contact with someone who's gonna support them with that need. I constantly carry around a little notebook that has all the resources that are in the county. The idea is that when a family needs something, that someone there to give them a little information or to help them out, because at that moment, they're in such stress that they may not know how to go and research that information.
Also, there are professionals out there who are being underutilized by our programs. Can you shake 'em loud? Ready? [children singing] Like, for instance, librarians, bringing 'em in to read a story or to recommend certain books, because there are librarians out there who really have an understanding of what new books are being introduced, and having those conversations about, you know, "Here's how you can use this book in your classroom." That's one thing, and then nurses also. We have connections with doctor's offices as we're talking about childhood obesity, nutrition, looking at healthy families and having parents cook healthy. So we include all of that into our program with our children, as well as providing those resources for families. I intentionally build up those relationships, because I know what it can do for the children and their families. And so now I have this relationship where I'm able to bring them in, and they donate their time to come in and talk and be with the children for an hour or two. Inviting the people to come into their center, but also coming out of the center and going to those programs, I think is incredibly important. And also thinking about the types of resources that are identified for families. Are these resources the best match or a good match for the family? And are we thinking about multiple ways to provide families with resources? It is always print, or are there avenues and other mechanisms that we could use to help support the family's understanding about a resource or a community agency that will help that family achieve the goal that they're striving for? ♪♪♪