Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

When I was in third grade my teacher asked my mother if she could use me along with two of my neighborhood friends for an assignment that she was working on. At that time I was young and naive and did not know what was going on. As I got older my third grade teacher who is now my god mother advised me that she was conducting a research on children who come from low income families. She was trying to determine if the environment a child lives in, have an affect on their behavior.  She told me that she picked me and my friends for the study because we always came to school looking sad and never got along with other children in the class. I came from a house hold that was filled with sadness, drama, and negativity which later lead to a lot of emotional distress when I was in the fifth grade. I would have anxiety attacks and my nurse would let me stay in her office so that I could rest. She would always tell me to just let whatever it is go because it’s not healthy to be stressed out all the time.

One afternoon my third grade teacher decided to take me home. When she took me home she saw that it was way too many people living in my household. It was a very chaotic environment. My sisters and I had to share everything with my little cousins. At that point my teacher took me under her wings and started picking me up every weekend. Her taking me to kid friendly places and just spending time with me showed me that she cared. My mom could not afford to do that for me because she did not work. My teacher eventually helped my mom find a job and later we were able to get our own house. I became a very positive person and made a lot of new friends in my new neighborhood. I no longer let my environment consume me and went to school in better spirits. She advised me that the study allowed her to be considerate of other people and the importance of getting to know the children outside the classroom. When I become an educator I hope to have the same impact on my children so if it means that I need to go into the home environment to see what is going on, I will do just that.  I do not want anything hindering children from learning. In my adult life I thank my teacher/god mother for what she did for me and my family. We are inseparable now and she is my motivator, inspirational support and my friend.

Your Personal Research Journey

At the beginning of this course I must admit that I was a bit overwhelmed. I have never been good at research so I hope that this course help broaden my horizons. I am eager to get a better understanding of the course material and I look forward to the discussions and blog post from each of you. The topic that I have chosen to focus on during this course is play. I feel that allowing a child to play can have a positive effect on their development. As educators it is important that we allow children to enjoy themselves as they learn. We can gather a lot of information and learn so much from a child just by observing the type of play the engage in. The three subtopics I chose to focus on are:

• ·         How play can impact a child’s development?
• ·         What can we learn from a child based on the type of play they engage in?
• ·         How can educators address the needs of children based on their self expressions discovered through play?

Overall I hope to focus more on the subtopic, how can educators address the needs of children based on their self expressions discovered through play?

At the current time I am not an educator but I observed classrooms for my previous classes which further helped me conclude my reasoning for researching “play”. As I did my classroom observation many of the children were not reluctant to express themselves as they interacted with other students during classroom discussions. Many of the children were not attentive as the educator taught which clearly reflects that they were not interested or did not understand the lesson being studied. If we incorporate more hands on activities that allows the child to express themselves  we as educators can see how much the child know about the lesson that it being studied. At that point we can then focus on the areas that the child need further assistance with and come up with rationales to help the child excel in their learning.