The
challenge I am going to study for my course project is helping early childhood
teachers understand how to best meet the needs of children from homeless
families. In the Child Care Development Fund requirements for the states
there are specific questions states will be required to address in the state
plan for child care. One of those questions is how are you as a state
preparing early childhood teachers with understanding the homeless community
and recruiting them for child care services. Most early childhood
classroom teachers are ill prepared supporting children growing up in homeless
families.
Nearly
1 million preschoolers and school-age children were homeless in 2009-2009 (Hanson & Lynch, 2013, p. 35). This is a crisis in our nation and the
federal government with these new
reporting requirements are attempting to
engage states with supporting these families with both enrollment into high
quality early childhood programs, but also ensuring they are benefiting from
child care subsidy to help pay the costs of the child care. Poverty and homelessness are examples of risk
indicators (Hanson & Lynch,
2013, p. 61).
The
questions I have initially are as follows:
Have you had any children from a homeless family in your classroom? How will you support the children and
families that are homeless?
I
think more research will need to be reviewed to ensure that the questions asked
of teachers are supporting and do not cause greater stigma to the homeless
population.
References
Your topic is will be so helpful to many educators. It is very frustrated to have a new students that lived in many places, and attending different schools in different school districts. They are exposed to many different teaching methods and different type of curriculums; it makes it hard for them to focus. I tis difficult for the teacher to help them. It is also frustrated because the teacher knows that these children will so move to a new school. However as educators we have to learn to put all the negatives behind us and try to do our best for the child. We have to be sensitivity to the child’s situation and give the child strategies to help him cope with his or her situation. Teachers need to help these children take an active role in their life. They need to feel welcome and safe. Most teachers are not equipped to help these students. It will be wonderful when you find the strategies you share them with different school districts. Your findings will be helpful to many teachers and provide useful academics outcomes for homeless children.
ReplyDeleteJill,
ReplyDeleteI am very interested in your topic choice for this course! I have never had the opportunity to work with any homeless children myself, but have heard many stories from veteran educators who have. This is an area that does require more study, in my opinion, due to the lack of experience that teachers may have with this type of situation. Your topic reminds of a quote that I have read a few times, I do not remember the author, but it states, "Smile because your smile may be the only one a child sees that day." We are so often the best part of a child's day and spreading love and positivity in a nurturing environment is the key to success! Good luck!