Equitable Events

March 23^rd – March 27^th

The schedule last week was altered slightly, due to scheduling conflicts and work demands. On Monday, March 23^rd, I was able to assess the curriculum and determined there were no gender-stereotypes listed in the eight planned activities. I also planned an additional “Gender Equity” activity for Tuesday & Thursday, which I have outlined below:

Tuesday, March 24^th

Child / Teacher: The activity was a teacher-directed activity

Goal: One goal for the activity was to master graphing skills; the other objective was to take turns during group conversations

Group: The planned activity was intended as a whole-group, circle-time activity

Materials: Chart paper, markers, and the book, “Pink is Just a Color and So is Blue,” by Nika Bhatia

Activity Description: Teachers asked children, “What is your favorite color?” and charted children’s responses. Then, children were encouraged to listen to the story, “Pink is Just a Color and So is Blue,” by Niki Bhatia. Children were asked some of the following open-ended questions as teachers read the story:

1. Do men in your family wear pink?
2. Can boys wear tiaras or dresses? Why or why not?
3. Who cooks dinner in your home? Do you help?
4. How many friends like to play soccer? Hockey?
5. How are the children in the picture playing? Does it look like they are playing gently or roughly?
6. What do you do when you are sad? Is it okay for everyone to cry?

Teachers will talk about how girls and boys are able to do the same things and encourage the children to discuss their thoughts. 

Thursday, March 26^th

Child / Teacher: The activity was both a teacher-directed & child-directed activity

Goal: The goal for the activity was to recognize & appreciate similarities and differences

Group: The activity was to be implemented with small groups of children (3-4)

Materials: Writing utensils, paper, “buckets”

Activity Description: To meet our goal of recognizing and appreciating similarities and differences, the children were encouraged to write a note to their friends or teachers for their 'bucket!'* Teachers explained that writing notes is a form of interaction and how their friends might feel after receiving a friendly note in their bucket!

*The above activity was an extension of the teacher’s idea to incorporate “Compliment Buckets” in the classroom. Each child was asked to bring a bucket into the classroom. Then, teachers explained that friends would write friendly notes for one another and place them in the appropriate ‘bucket.’ Check out the news article that inspired this idea:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/03/us/feat-kansas-principal-prank/

[Tuesday’s observation lasted forty-five minutes. At this time, I have not successfully transcribed all details of the observation]

On Wednesday, March 25, I was only able to observe fifteen minutes of outdoor play, rather than the hour that the classroom was scheduled to be outside. Due to work demands, I needed to focus on daily tasks instead. What I did observe, however, was a transition activity, where the teacher initiated a Sign Language activity. As she called each child’s name, she requested that they show her a sign for a specific word. For example, the teacher would say, “bear,” “snake,” “octopus,” or other animals / phrases, and children would portray the ASL hand movements, which corresponded to the term. Then, the children were instructed to follow their other teacher to the grassy area to participate in a gross-motor activity. The activity’s goal was to “balance and hop on one foot.” Hula-hoops were set-up in the grass and children were encouraged to hop from one hula-hoop to the next on one foot. After each child hopped through the ‘obstacle course,’ they were able to play freely on the playground!

[Due to my Assistant Director’s scheduled time-off and other scheduling conflicts, I was unable to observe Thursday’s implementation of the activity, nor meet with the teachers to discuss the weekly happenings on Friday]