Image: Maybe - Kobi Yamada

Objective

Reflecting on the public education experiences of volunteers in Namibia, our community partners BNC and Wadadee Cares embrace the philosophy on the universal right to quality education with emphasis on children's holistic development. By formulating curriculum plans that are comprehensive in context and strategy, Namibia educators and volunteers are guided to promote the following goals:

• Classroom Management - Intentional strategies for self-regulation

• Responsive, Child-centered care - Promoting children's curiosity and wonder by facilitating learning in a secure and motivating environment.

My Curriculum Plan for Health Education: Acceptance

(This curriculum is organized under the Inquiry Process Plan)

My Personal Experience and Self-Assessment

My Personal Experience and Self-Assessment

Reflecting on Project Namibia, I extend my gratitude in regards to this internship for guiding my practice as an early childhood educator and giving me the authentic experience of collaborating alongside an interdisciplinary team. The values and principles of BNC and Wadadee Cares intertwine with my personal pedagogy in pursuit of putting the child first when cultivating an inclusive and accepting environment for holistic development. Through this partnership, we shared the common goal of identifying and exchanging new knowledge of Namibian culture and history to develop health programs that in essence, include extensive research of each topic as well as refined pedagogical strategies that are innovative and engaging for the children of Namibia. As a pedagogical facilitator, I was challenged to embrace discourse from standardized practices facilitated in Ontario and thus, synthesize information from multiple individuals to create developmentally and culturally appropriate content which enabled me to reflect on my passion as an educator and provide quality content accessible for children as a right for continuous learning.

Focusing on my curriculum plan “Acceptance” I considered the environment and materials the children had while attending public education. During our initial consultation, it was saddening to hear the volunteers' stories on the children’s quality of life with regard to their families, overall environment as well as the educators who have minimal teaching experience but a desire to display ethics of care within their curriculum. Nevertheless, I was determined to utilize the inquiry cycle to organize the unit and prioritize prior knowledge as a guiding factor in unlocking direct and shared experiences children would have to extend learning related to their active participation in these reflective activities. To engage learners in the topic, I strived to make each child’s emotions recognized by starting off with an interactive chart during classroom greetings with the educator. This would transition into supporting the posing questions of “What is acceptance?” and “How do we accept ourselves and others?. To accompany different styles of learning, making the activity engaging can encourage communication and cooperation as a key contributor to sharing knowledge alongside peers. Additionally, I was determined to make these ideas long-term by giving it a place in the classroom for students to return and reflect on what they have learned. For example, after the live storytelling of Maybe by Kobi Yamada, I proposed a “Maybe” jar for students to anonymously write their accomplishments or worries for the classroom to affirm and validate their feelings in support of positive interaction and well-being. Overall, I yearned to convey the message that acceptance begins with accepting one's uniqueness and strengths they can appreciate and share while validating the occasional feeling of sadness or doubt. This experience assisted me in achieving my goal of creating an inclusive and responsive learning plan that's developmentally appropriate and accommodating to the students of Namibia.

In relation to the limitation of this experience, it was a challenge having this opportunity online in contrast to meeting and interacting with the members and students in Namibia. Despite doing independent research on the culture and history of Namibia, the power of interaction and direct experience to understand the materials, setting and reasons why BNC and Wadadee Cares wanted to put emphasis on these health topics would incline me to write a more responsive accommodating curriculum plan current to the situations public education is facilitating to teach children. Moreover, the wide range of time zones made it difficult to be in ongoing communication with one another and as a result, the majority of my plan was based upon my individual research from online resources and the content that was provided by Health students regarding what the student found most prominent. Thus, what I would do differently regards the opportunity to share these experiences in Namibia alongside the interdisciplinary team and children to embrace a responsive curriculum that avoids the categorization and bias of research found online. I believe that if these relationships were fostered to a greater extent, in collaboration we can compose an authentic learning plan that is relatable to current topics children face and the potential to facilitate child-centered activities that gives voice to each child's strengths and interests.

In conclusion, this internship has positively impacted my continuous journey of learning through the opportunity to communicate with aspiring RECE educators while providing me the opportunity to share and receive perspectives from many aspects of the interdisciplinary team. Moving forward, I will embrace the direct experiences I have to foster strong relationships in transition to accommodating an inclusive and accessible education for each child to rightfully experience. In carefully observing how to involve the provided resources, I will strategize a curriculum based on these varying aspects with an emphasis on culture and history.

The document may be accessed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IZu2IGUuwvCSfT_KM2cNAmn4dAo9ZxYKdWOh2mBEE7A/edit?usp=sharing

Thank you