TLS 411 SIGNITURE

ASSIGNMENT
Emily Winslow

DECEMBER 4, 2017
 Home Engagement and Home Engagement Field Notes

On October 12, 2017 I had the experience to have my home engagement with ELand his

mother ML. I learned how the household is run and what their daily life is like. I was able to

understand how ML believed in raising a family and what the experience has been like so far for

her and her husband Stephen. I also learned about how ML and her husband were raised and the

beliefs that they have.

ML shared with me her husband and her background. ML moved to Tucson, Arizona

when she was twelve years old. Stephen grew up in Dublin, Ireland and lived there until they

moved to together to Tucson, Arizona about fourteen years ago. However, Stephen’s entire

family still lives in Ireland so they are not able to see them often. The main reasons that they

moved back to Tucson, Arizona was because ML’s entire family lives here and that she loved the

church here where she went growing up. ML’s mother grew up in Tucson, Arizona and her

father grew up in Porto Rico. They met while they were in the Army and currently live in

Tucson. ML is the oldest and her younger brother and sister both live in Tucson currently and

they see each other often.

EL is the oldest and has a five-month old brother named Aaron. Their mother, ML, is a

stay’s at home with the two boys. Before she had AL she worked as a middle school teacher in

the flowing wells district. She started off teaching for early childhood and then special education.

Her last job she worked with high school students who had learning disabilities as a teacher and

a counselor. As of now she is very happy staying home with her two boys. Their father, SL use

to work in Ireland but when his business was not doing well and they moved back to Tucson he

is now doing Networking.

 They are raising their children very religious and go to church on Wednesdays and two

services on Sunday’s. In their home there are many crosses and religious sculptures. They also

shared with me that they spank their oldest child EL because it says to do so in the bible and they

follow those practices. Their home was very clean and nice. They did not have many electronics

except for a big computer that they have as a television. They monitor what EL watches is doing.

They also only let EL play with friends from church or family members. They want EL to be

around families that have the same beliefs as they do.

ML shaded with me that having children was much harder than she expected it would be.

She said she is nervous at points because she is an older mom but loves having them and they

make her very happy. She then told me how EL is now being tested for ADHD and she is doing

her best to help EL in school. He loves have books read to him and is very entertained by this.

However, he is struggling to want to do math or science activities.

This experience has impacted me because I am now understanding what EL does at home

and how it impacts the way that he is in class. I found the Mother to be very nice and welcoming

to me and seemed to be happy that I was there. I got the impression that their family was well off

and that they had a nice home. I found some of the information hard to connect with because I

personally did not grow up religious. My family does not believe in some of the same culture

values that EL’s family has. For example, I found it hard to not have a reaction when she told me

that they spank their child because my family did not and I personally do not as well. Overall, I

got the sense that EL comes from a very loving family that is striving to see him grow into a

successful student.

On October 26, 2017 I had the opportunity to go back to the L’s house hold to learn more

about their traditions. The mother, ML, shared with me that they only celebrate the religious
aspects of the holiday’s and do not engage with the commercial side of how society is becoming

to view these holidays’. The family does not celebrate Halloween because she does not believe

that it has a religious purpose that they support and that they would rather celebrate the day of

the dead instead. The family does celebrate Thanksgiving but they only gather with family and

church members. They like to have a small dinner and focus more on all of the things that they

are thankful for and to be with family. For Christmas they are very forward with their four-year-

old EL and they told him that Santa is not real. The mother told me they told him Santa is not

real because they do not want one day for him to realizes that Santa is not real and then to

question whether or not Jesus is real. For Christmas they have a dinner with their family and all

receive one small gift. They believe that it is more about the religion than anything else. They

also have told EL that there is no Easter Bunny for the same reasoning of not wanting him to

questioning Jesus later in life.

While I was on my second visit the mother also shared with me how she got a job as a

high school special education teacher in the flowing wells district. She seemed to be very happy

with having the opportunity to start working again. She was a little sad that she would not be

staying home with the baby anymore but found a nanny from church that was able to watch the

two boy while she is at work. ML has expressed to me during this visit how she is becoming

more overwhelmed on the weekends now that she is working. She told me she has had to skip

out on community events that her family use to attended but now she feels that she needs the

weekends to get the house back in order. However, she told me that she was very happy she got

back into teaching and once she adjusts to her schedule she will feel less overwhelmed by it all.

The last thing that we talked about while I was visiting was the types of activities that EL

enjoys to do. The mother told me that EL was very into trucks and that they attend truck shows
once and a while. This is a funds of knowledge that EL now has to use as a tool in the classroom.

Since EL is familiar with trucks he is more familiar with transportation and the idea that things

can be worth more than others. Another fund of knowledge that EL has is watching YouTube

videos. He enjoys shows that involve guns and fighting, but finds monsters to be to scary. This

will be helpful to EL in the future because he is aware of how to operate YouTube and

electronics.

Overall, these home engagements have been very helpful to learn how a student’s home

life can affect their academics. I have watched how EL has used his home life’s funds of

knowledge into the classroom. At home EL spends a large portion of his time reading and

looking at books with his family. This shows in the classroom because EL tends to be more quiet

and well behaved when we are talking about books. The mother, ML, shared with me that they

do not spend enough time on other subjects such as science and math. This also shows in the

classroom because on days we focus on math EL tends to not be as well behaved and less

focused on these days. This has helped me realize that this means as a teacher he should not be

sent to time out on these days for misbehaving but should have extra attention because he needs

to learn more in this subject matter. I hope that in the future I am able to have home engagements

with all of my students so that I can help them focus on their weakness so that they will be more

successful in the future years.

 Final Critical Reflection and Analysis

a. Why do we read about the educational cultural and linguistic funds of knowledge of diverse

groups in this country as a part of ECE teacher education?

As part of the Early Childhood Education Program it is very important to learn about the

cultural and linguistic funds of knowledge of different diverse groups in the country. In

classrooms around the world and especially in America children are from all different

backgrounds and have different cultures. Children need to know that they are valued and that

even though they have different beliefs and traditions from other students that it is okay. It is also

important for future educators to know what a child of a certain religion or belief has so that they

do not say or do an activity against the child’s beliefs.

Children need to be treated with respect and their culture outside of the class needs to be

brought into the classroom so that they know they are equal to their peers. From the text,

Aprendiendo de Sus Cominidades/Learning from Their Communities Bilngual Teachers

Reasearching Urban Latio Neighborhoods by Lucila D, Ek, Magarita Machodo-Casos, Patricia

Sánchez, and Howard L. Smith, the authors talk about how there is an achievement gap from

other cultures. The authors write, “As the United States enters the second decade of the 21st

century, the achievement gap for Latinos/as, the nation’s fastest growing minority population,

continues to increase” (page 15). Future educators need to realize that this gap is unacceptable

and teachers need to come up with a new way so that there is no achievement gap. Teachers need

to learn about other countries than their own so that their students grow up knowing of other

countries and traditions as well. Having a child know about every holiday even the ones they

don’t celebrate can only help that child learn more about what is in the world.
B. What does the literature tell us about why it is critical for ECE educators understand and be

informed about how sociopolitical issues related to race, culture, ethnicity and language diversity

impact education?

The literature that early childhood education educators read is critical because it is

teaching us ways to be informed about the worlds major issues around us such as race, culture,

ethnicity and language diversity. These topics have been huge issues in the past and need to be

talked about in order to not repeat the tragic events that have occurred in the worlds past.

Although these events can be hard to talk about with children they have a right to know what has

happened before them. When children hear about these events they see how terrible it was and

hopefully will learn to have the mind set that everyone no matter their race, culture, or religion is

equal.

In Ed for Change’s article on Eleven Things YOU Can Do to Bring Class Equity to

School by Paul C. Groski there are different reasons on why these topic needs to be discussed in

early childhood classes. Groski writes, “Teach, as well, about the important anti-poverty work

and ideas of people whose activism in this area has been erased from mainstream history: Martin

Luther King, Jr., Helen Keller, Mark Twain, the Black Panthers, and so on. Also teach about

why their anti-poverty work has been erased from mainstream history” (Gorski, Paul C.). Martin

Luther King, Jr., Helen Keller, Mark Twain, the Black Panthers are just a few of the people who

stood up for what they believed was right. Children need to hear about these types of people so

they know that if they see something is not right they speak up.
C. What have you, as a future educator, learned about the significance of #1 and #2 in your own

preparation to become an ECE educator?

The significates that the home engagements have brought me in becoming a future

educator have been that I know feel more confident working with families to help give their child

the best education possible. Having the opportunity to work with a family outside of the

classroom as well as working with the child in the classroom has shown me how much of a role

and influence that a family has on their child’s education and their actions. If a child is being

read to at home and is learning literary skills than that child will most likely be interested and

focused when learning about this. They may also be able to help other children learn about these

subjects. Children will also have funds of knowledge by what their parents do for work or the

activities they do outside of school. As a future educator learning about what a family does

outside of school can help make their classroom more diverse and have the children be open to

accepting new ideas. Knowing that a family practices a certain religion or has a cultural tradition

can be the first step in teaching a class of students about a new place or idea in the world. Once

getting to know a family a teacher may be able to invite them into the classroom to do an activity

with the students. This is a fun way to get the kids excited about learning and to show them a

new culture.

The funds of knowledge that the family has is the foundation that their child has in the

classroom. While making my digital story presentation it helped me realize how my childhood

growing up was very different than my home engagement childhood now. My family is based on

experiences and time spent together. This varied from going on ski trips with our cousins to

having family dinners with my grandparents every Sunday night and having sleepovers with my

other grandparents every Friday night. I grew up with having my entire family living no more
than ten minutes away making it very easy to be close with everyone. Growing up on Cape Cod,

Massachusetts the beach and the ocean have been a huge part of my life. These different factors

have contributed to my own funds of knowledge because I became very comfortable and

knowledgeable about the beach, snow, and my own family traditions. My home engagement

child however is growing up with the knowledge of cactus, trucks, and church.
 Work Cited

Ek, Lucila D., et al. Aprendiendo De Sus Cominidades/Learning from Their Communities

Bilngual Teachers Reasearching Urban Latio Neighborhoods.

Gorski, Paul C. “Eleven Things YOU Can Do to Help Bring Class Equity to School” Ed Change.