Interviewees and Course Project
Please allow me to introduce to you the two interviewees. First, Dr. Florence Williams is the principle
at Clay Elementary School, in Mableton Georgia.
After working over 40 years as an educator, she has decided to retire at
the end of this year.
Next, Dr. Elbonie Metcalfe, a Special Education Teacher, is
also a valued educator at Clay Elementary School. I have always been so impressed by Dr.
Metcalfe. When I met her, she was perusing
her goal of obtaining a Ph.D. Her main
focus is on the children! She is not
distracted by gossiping teachers, troubled parents, or circumstances that are
beyond her control. In fact, I have
never known her to complain or give up on a child. But rather, she is more concerned with providing
equal opportunities for success for each child that she come into contact with.
I am so grateful that Dr. Williams and Dr. Metcalfe carved
out time from their busy schedules to help me with this interview assignment. Dr. Williams has always supported my needs in
my quest for Professional Development in Early Childhood Education. In return, I have always strived to give the
students at Clay Elementary School my personal best. On the other hand, Dr. Metcalfe is much
younger than I, and she helps me to stay in tune and up to date with technology
and all of the 21 Century devices used to benefit our students. I consider the opportunity to bond with these
two busy practitioners a success.
I am happy to report that my interviews are completed. I selected the suggested list of questions
from our assignment. The only challenge
that I faced was selecting five of those superb questions to ask my
interviewees. For example, my original plan
was to ask each interviewee a different set of questions. Finally, I decided to allow the interviewees
select which ones they felt more comfortable with. Ironically, both interviewees selected the
first five:
1. What
have you learned about yourself and your own influences (cultural, social, or
environmental) in working with these families?
2. Could
you share case in which you saw positive change in a child’s life as a result
of your work (or your community’s work)?
3. What
challenges and triumphs have your experienced in your position?
4. What
does an average day consist of for you?
5. How
have you seen children influenced by their families, culture, and society?
One thing that I connected with most was Dr. Metcalfe’s
response to the last part of question number 5.
She stated that she have seen students pressured by their peers,
television, and their home environment, which is in turn connected with the
society in which they live. I can relate
to this as a teacher, but more so as a mother.
For instance, I have seen positive influences of our church home and a relationship
with God work in my children’s lives.
However, it saddens me when I see how my children are heavily influenced
by social media. For instance, I
purchased a laptop for my daughter to help her learn how to type and to use as
needed for her education. I was alarmed
and shocked to learn how she and her friends used laptops post videos that I
may consider shameful, to bring them popularity and fame via media. As an educator, I have seen my second and
fourth graders attempt to bring negative influences from their older siblings
into our classroom. Whenever my student
have access to the internet, without a doubt, I have to monitor their
activities closely. I am taking any
suggestions from my colleagues at Clay Elementary School and Walden, of ways to
provide closely monitored internet access to my students.
The topic of my Course Project (Major Assessment) is Mental
Illness: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD). With the help of the
Walden Library, I have been successful in locating the articles that are
specifically related to stress, trauma, and risk for example. Moreover, Kim et al. (2014) a Korean
researcher, links attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder with obesity in
children. The authors demonstrate how
the economic status and the dietary behaviors of a child could promote issues with
ADHD.
Also, I have found the Walden Writing Center to be helpful
with reviewing my annotative bibliography papers for correct response to
instructions, format, and APA Style. In
addition, the articles that I have selected have provide interesting and in
depth information. Some of the
strategies that I gleaned from these articles are useful in my classroom. For example, if a child should bring an
unhealthy snack into my classroom for lunch or snack, I make sure that both the
child and the parents understand positive benefits of consuming fruit for
snacks. I feel quite confident that my
Course Project (Major Assessment) will be on target as I strive to increase my
knowledge on the issues surrounding ADHD.
I can certainly benefit from additional successful testimonies and
strategies from which teachers, students, parents/families have benefited from
recently.
Reference:
Kim, E. J., Kwon, H. J., Ha, M., Lim, M. H., Oh, S.
Y., Kim, J. H., & Paik, K. C. (2014). Relationship among attention-deficit
hyperactivity disorder, dietary behaviors and obesity. Child: Care, Health
& Development(40), 698-705. doi:10.1111/cch.12129
Tina,
ReplyDeleteYour topic is quite fascinating! I never knew there was a connection between diet/obesity and ADHD. I knew about the link between poverty, toxic stress, and brain function (executive function) as noted by a Harvard University study, children "...experiencing chronic stress have been shown to perform poorly on tasks related to prefrontal cortex functioning (such as working memory or shifting attention), and their ability to control their emotions is typically impaired" (Shonkoff et al., 2011, p.5). I am very interested in what you find out in your research going forward. You mentioned that Dr. Metcalfe spoke to the negative influences of social media, have you found a connection between internet use and ADHD as well, and do you plan to touch on that aspect in your project?
I think it was a great idea to let your interviewees choose their own questions too! Since they chose their own questions, they probably felt very comfortable in their ability to answer them thoroughly.
Great idea!
Shonkoff, J., Levitt, P., Boyce, W. T., Cameron, J., Duncan, G., Fox, N. A., & Gunnar, M. (2011). Persistent fear and anxiety can affect young children’s learning and development.
G. Bryant,
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking! I am excited to share the helpful information and strategies that I have learned during the annotative bibliography process. I have learned several pros and cons for allowing children to use technology during my research on ADHD. For instance, the Bruhn’s et al. (2016) study focuses on providing teachers with options on how to use technology as an intervention strategy for helping students with ADHD. Teachers may use the iPad apps to collect data on student’s progress, specifically in reading. There are several interesting sight word poetry, word family, and fact fluency apps that are appealing to children. For interventions, technology may be used for self-monitoring process, whereby students may record his/her on-task behaviors. Technology has a lot to offer is used properly in class.
Bruhn, A. L.; Waller, L.; & Hasselbring, T. S. Intervention in school & clinic. 2016, 51(3), 157-162, 6p; DOI: 10.1177/1053451215585803
Ahh! So technology and the internet can be used as an intervention for students with ADHD, rather than a cause of ADHD. Thank you for the clarification! I am looking forward to what your research reveals, good luck!
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