Fieldwork paper Guidelines

Fieldwork paper Guidelines

Michlin Durazo
HD489
October 5, 2014
Karen Opstad

Fieldwork Paper Guidelines

While growing up I had always been the neighborhood babysitter. Families on
my block could always count on me to cover them for a date night to care for their
children and help with homework. These jobs were always for parent s whom I was
familiar with and their children that I knew well, but they taught me responsibility.
In my teens, I was applied and was selected to be a child care assistant (CCA) for a
church-based summer camp for families. Each CCA was assigned to a specific
family for the week. Our duties, during the day, were to provide care to the children
in a center-based setting while the parents attended their own bible study groups.
This was my first experience working with a large group of children at one time. We
entertained them with arts and crafts, games, and songs. In the evenings, each CCA
would watch the children of the individual family that they were assigned in the
families own cabins. The ages and the number of the children varied from family to

Fieldwork paper Guidelines

family. I was young and had not had any classes or training in child development or
raising children. I went with what came natural to me and I absolutely loved it.
Through this experience I learned not only responsibility, but also how to work with
children and communicate with parents that were unfamiliar to me. I built such a
wonderful rapport with the parents and strong bond with the children that several
kept in contact with me when the camp sessions would end. For the next two
summers, they would make sure I was attending the camp on their specific sessions
and would request me as their CCA. This experience was so rewarding to me
personally. It was the moments like these that began to pave the direction in which
I wanted to focus my future career goals.
During those same teenage years, I was also given another opportunity to work
with children in a different capacity. I say children, although, I myself was still a
young teen child as well. The backside of the school I was attending was located
next door to a school for special needs children. As a sixth period elective, I was
assigned to the special needs school as a student aide. I was put into a classroom
with approximately 10-12 students ranging from ages 10-20 years old. Most were
wheelchair bound with the exception of two with braces and walkers. There were
students in that class with cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, a tracheostomy,
feeding tubes, seizures, and complete paralysis. I had never been exposed to this
severe of forms of disabilities before. I walked through the doors, into the
classroom and never looked back. I loved every moment of every day that I was
there. I assisted the class in any way they needed me, from loading and unloading
buses, helping to feed lunches, classwork, reading, etc. The bonds that I formed
with the students were so amazing. I enjoyed the students and staff so much that I
found myself spending every free moment I could there. During summer break, the

Fieldwork paper Guidelines

special needs school was still open, so I continued to volunteer every day, from
open to close, during my entire summer for 3 consecutive years.
After high school, I started taking general education classes at the local junior
college and along the way started working for a finance company. Although I was
taking sign language classes in college, finance was a far cry from working with
special needs children as I had hoped. I was now receiving a regular paycheck and
would remain in the finance field for the next 12 years. During that time, I got
married and had children of my own. My daughter had been to two different home
child cares by the time she turned 3. One was decent and one was great. When my
job relocated to another city, I had no choice but to move her to a different location.
I looked at centers and home child cares, but could not find anything I was happy
with. It was a very stressful situation for me. After several weeks of searching, I
was referred to a large family child care that was run in a very similar structure to
the one we had recently been attending. It was a perfect fit. This entire situation
got me thinking.I could do this job, and do it well!
I am the type of person that once I set my mind to something, I am determined
to follow through. Seven months later, I resigned from my position at the finance
company and opened my own home child care. By this time I had three young
children of my own and a bit more experience under my belt. I put into practice
what I had learned and experienced through my own children, along with everything
I liked and disliked from childcares I had utilized or visited in the past. For the next
12 years, I ran a very successful large family childcare. I was constantly
researching and trying different methods and strategies, always looking for new
ways to better my business. I learned that two of the most important aspects of my
business were communication and structure. Communication with a childs parents
is absolutely necessary when working with young children. Parents need to build a

Fieldwork paper Guidelines

trusting relationship, considering their child sometimes spent more time in childcare
on a daily basis than with themselves. As much as children love freedom, they
thrive with structure and consistency. My babies that enrolled at about 6 to 8 weeks
old stayed with me until they were old enough to go off to pre-k or kindergarten. It
was so wonderful and rewarding to see the progression of these children from
infants to young kids.
As my own children became teenagers, I decided it was time to let my family
reclaim our home. I would begin looking for work outside of the home and went
back to school to pursue my bachelors degree. I was hired on as the extended care
director and junior kindergarten aide for a small private Catholic school. I have to
admit that it was a bit empowering to get up, dressed and actually leave the house
in the morning, in my car, to go to work. I had always been a hard worker, and it
was quickly recognized with the principal of the school. I was soon assigned other
projects, along with my job, due to my efficiency. I enjoyed working at the school
and the staff and children were very easy to get along with. As the school year
progressed, it became very evident which classes and activities took priority over
others. I did not agree with some of the switches that would be made between
classes amongst teachers and aides. Junior kindergarten always seemed to get
short-handed and the teacher was left to maintain a full class on her own. It was
very difficult for her to control the students. In the afternoons, I was responsible for
running an effective afterschool care. Yet, there would be meetings or events
scheduled in the only room that afterschool care had access to. As a result, I would
have several dozen children on a hot or cold playground to be entertained at times
for hours on end. It was out of my control, yet I was responsible. It was frustrating
for me at times because I had total control to use my best judgment when I ran my
own childcare, and now I was under the direction of someone else, who always

Fieldwork paper Guidelines

knew better. My opinions didnt count. The communication that I considered so

important in my own childcare seemed to be non-existent in my current position, at
least between management and staff. I tried very hard to keep my communication
open with parents I had involvement with in the extended care and they
appreciated that. Over time though, the parents started to come to me instead of
the office or their teachers for questions or concerns. They would tell me that they
preferred to talk to me because I seemed to get things handled in a timelier
manner. This didnt seem to sit well with upper management though, which forced
me to cut off that line of communication and just refer them to the office or
someone else. It seemed to be a vicious never ending cycle.
The final position I held was in a corporate ran preschool. Communication was
not a problem and I was encouraged to keep that line open with the parents of my
students. That was such a welcome change for me. We had a very diverse group of
children at this center from several different areas around the world including
France, Israel, China, Canada, England and Mexico. It was exciting to the students
to be able to incorporate bits and pieces of their culture into lessons and
discussions. Many of these students were bilingual so it gave opportunities to allow
the children to teach the class their language as well. There was one issue that I
had a hard time accepting in this center though. Being that it was a corporate ran
center, it seemed that every aspect revolved around money and budgets. The
directors main goal on a daily basis was to control costs, which started with payroll.
Any opportunity to send a teacher home early, to save on hours, was taken. In
order for that to happen, children were constantly shuffled between classrooms as
ratios would change. This inconsistency on a daily basis was very difficult for many
of the children. Many would have melt downs if that had to be moved to a different
classroom with a different teacher. Others would act out and take advantage of the

Fieldwork paper Guidelines

unfamiliar teacher. Also I notice that the teachers in the classrooms they would be
sent to, since they were not the regular students in that class, found it easier to
send those children to a learning center or give them busy work rather than take
the extra time to catch them up and include them in the current lesson. I really felt
those children were getting short changed. It also wasnt fair to the teacher who
now had to interrupt their lesson to deal with an upset or misbehaving child, due to
the switch. Seeing how difficult of an adjustment this was for some children, it only
reinforced my belief in consistency.
My personal theory of development is based on communication, consistency and
structure. These are three key components necessary within a childs learning
environment to promote the best opportunity for growth and development. There
needs to be constant communication between staff, parents and the students. I
strongly believe that the key to a young childs success starts with basics in the
form of consistency and structure. Children need to have boundaries set forth for
them to develop within. Within these boundaries, there needs to be consistency
and structure. Children thrive when they know what to expect. Within this chaotic
world that we live, it is sometimes difficult, especially for parents to provide
consistency for their children. As educators or child care providers, we have the
opportunity and ability to provide children with some of the stability they need to
help them develop.