Specific Blog
Assignment #11
When reflecting on
Sarah’s values of the importance of having a connection and experiences in the
natural world, I immediately began thinking about my recent desires to begin a
native Hawaiian garden project with the keiki at my program. The reason I began
thinking about this was partially due to the fact that there was an over grown
area on the playground which was being un-used; and I really wanted to give the
children the experience to help cultivate raw land into a beautiful garden
filled with native Hawaiian plants. I wanted to give them the opportunity to
connect with the earth and be exposed to plants they may otherwise never know
about. I had a very raw and basic Idea of what I wanted for this garden, but I
went ahead and presented it to my supervisor anyway. She accepted and had me
make a list of the supplies I would need for the garden with the children. I
also had a meeting with a child’s grandpa (knowledgeable of gardening and
plants) and he educated me on the reality of some of the aspects to a garden I
did not know. So as of today, I still have a strong desire to fulfill this idea
of involving the children in creating their own native Hawaiian garden; but the
land is waiting to be tilled by a machine since it’s to hard for the keiki… and
as for after that, I would love to expand by doing more native Hawaiian things
like making use of different types of plants (e.g. Mamaki tree’s for tea, etc.)
Specific Blog
Assignment #12
It’s pretty cool that
Roberto felt such a strong desire to make his program more meaningful. I have
totally seen where teachers dread using assessment tools, as well as doing
accreditation with very little meaning, kind of just getting it done to have
the paper to hang on the wall (like stated in the text). I do find it inspiring
and very brave to involve parents in something like this. It is definitely more
work to plan for meetings, set dates, gather data, and put it to use; but I can
see how this type of involvement would strengthen the relationship with
families, give the program a good reputation for the sensitivity to parents
concerns, as well as improve the programs (keiki and kumu’s) overall potential
and performance. I would say that my “next steps” are to work on strengthening
my relationship with families in my program. I feel that if I wanted to do
something along the lines of what Roberto did, but more at a “chill” level;
having a good relationship with families could give the opportunity to receive a
lot of useful information simply from a casual conversation. I could then use
this information to suggest changes (at this point as a teaching assistant). As
a director, I also feel that this would work.
Hi Elena,
ReplyDelete#11:
I sense your passion to have your Hawaiian garden project become a reality and hope to soon hear/read of it. This seems to be a lot more work than you had expected. How are you planning on getting the ground tilled? Ae you bringing in a private company, do you know anyone who can do it for the school? What other expenses are you going to have to consider for this to happen? Where are you going to get the plants from? How will you organized the garden? What roles will the children have in the creation of this garden?
#12
I liked how said you would do what Roberto at a chill level by having casual conversations. How will you make this happen if you can't get a parent to stay to talk for a few minutes? What other ways will you be able to strengthen a relationship when the other party isn't making an effort?
Hi Elena,
ReplyDeleteHave you worked with the Farm to Keiki program? There are some interesting things happening in Hawaii in regard to the program. We even have some students in our program exploring the ideas of the program in their final projects. Check it out here -- http://www.kohalacenter.org/schoolgardenhui/kauaifarmtokeiki.html.
Do you think meaning within a program is connected with relationships between people and place? Can relationships help to define meaning and how a director might develop, implement, and evolve a vision? Can a director be disconnected from relationships and still develop meaning to activities like accreditation or assessments? Or can activities and accreditation or assessments only having meaning with relationships? Does a strong foundation in people and place help to define a director's role within the community, with teachers, with children, with families? How do you think that might look?
Jeanne
Hey there,
ReplyDeleteAs a teaching assistant how do feel about your programs current use of assessment? How do you think this view would change is your were the director? Does your program provide opportunities for staff and parents to spend time together? How does your program involve parents and in what ways are parents allowed to express opinions? What aspects of the curriculum or assessment measures would you feel comfortable taking responsibility for? What techniques would you use as a director to inspire staff members to change their view of assessment or accreditation? How would you reflect on the perspective you have now as a teaching assistant in your future work, possibly as a director? How would your vision support the investment towards improving relationships?