Service Learning Blog 1/30/2012

My Service Learning for NR485R was completed at the Community Action Agency for the Early Head Start Program. They have two programs in one, birth to three and three to five. The original director I talked with felt I would get the better experience and learning participating in the three to five year old room. I arrived at 7:45 am. I was introduced to Ginger the site director for this age group. Ginger had been the prior daycare director at my children's daycare. I also knew the teacher assistant for the class Valarie.
The day starts with preparation before the children arrive. Most of the children are picked up by the Community Action bus and brought to the site. The children come from all areas of the county which is thirty minutes in any direction. Mason County is a small, agricultural rural county in central Illinois. To give a perspective comparison, Mason County according to the quickfacts.census.gov website had a population of 14,660 people, an 8.3% decrease in 2010. 98.1% of the population is white, 27.2% are under the age of 18, and 50.9% are female. Only 83.3% have high school diplomas compared to 86% across Illinois. 16.5% of the population have a Bachelor's degree compared to 30.03% for Illinois. The average travel time to work is 30 minutes and the average annual salary is $42,461 compared to $55,735 for Illinois. 15% of the population in this county lives below poverty, compared to 12% for the state of Illinois.
The day starts with preparation of a morning meal upon arrival. The director stated that most of these children are lucky to get any fresh foods or even regular meals at home. They have to follow an established food guide to cover the food groups. They prepped breakfast which included sliced apples, bananas, a muffin and yogurt and peanut butter mixed as a dip. Both the site director and teacher assistant have their food handlers license. The children started arriving off of the bus and placed their coats on the hooks assigned.  They are required to go to the carpet (a big rug on the floor with their names on tape) and sit in their spots. Each day the children get to pick a job responsibility and place it on the job list. They then get to go eat their breakfast. One of the jobs is setting the table with plastic silverware and napkins. Another assigned job is collecting the name tags off of the table after breakfast is completed. Each of the children are encouraged to serve themselves to promote some independence in the home setting. Table manners are also taught. Following breakfast they go back to the carpet to complete jobs. One child stays behind to wipe the tables as their picked job. Once everyone is on the carpet, they get to spend 10 minutes reading or looking at a book they have chosen off of the shelf. Then the teacher assistant reads a story after one of the children collects all of the books and returns them to the shelf.
Once story time is complete, the assigned child will do the count on the calendar for the day of the week, then the weather will be discussed. A head count is completed by one of the children. The next project completed at the table is tooth brushing. Each child has an assigned toothbrush, is given a pea size amount of toothpaste and a cup. They are required to brush their teeth for two minutes. This is another way to encourage good personal hygiene, independence, and promotion of daily brushing in the case they do not do this at home. They then participate in physical activity. Depending upon the weather, they either go outside to the playground or dance to music inside. They were indoors this day and danced to the Hokey Pokey, a Hop and Spin song, and one called Sticky Bubble Gum. They also did the Chicken Dance. It kept them moving, hopping, and jumping for at least 20-30 minutes. They also finished it up with a game of jumping over a fake candlestick and repeating the Jack jumped over the candlestick rhyme. They followed this up with lunch which was a hamburger ponyshoe with a side of cinnamon apples. The local grade school prepares the meals and the community action bus driver picks it up.
Following lunch, the children went to assigned tables for state mandated required learning. One table discussed Healthy Foods and discussed breads and the different types of breads. The volunteer teacher who the staff and children call "Grandma" had a basket of fake breads in different forms and asked the children in her group if they knew what kind of bread it was. The second group discussed the letter "M" with the site director. She read a story about the letter M ,discussed things that started with M  and had the children practice writing their "M's." The teachers assistant had her group discuss feelings. She showed the kids pictures of activities other children were doing and asked them what they think the child was feeling in that picture. On a personal perspective, it was quite amazing how these young kids could easily identify feelings of happiness, sadness, anger, etc just by looking at a picture. She discussed the need to be kind to others and not to make them angry or sad.
Following the small group session the kids returned to the carpet and verbally spelled out their names one by one. After this they were dismissed to have free play time. Free play time has many activities. They have large flat building blocks, a water table, two computers available for games, a house area, a dress up area, a painting area, a sand box, a music area, a magnet table, cars and trucks, and a telephone booth. The kids were fun to play with at this point and boy do they have imaginations! I assisted one little boy with building a pirate ship with the large building blocks.Another little girl cooked a meal for me in the kitchen and took care of her baby doll. The kids based upon their sex gravitated to sex appropriate toys.The boys mostly played with the cars and trucks, the water table and the sand table. All played with the large building blocks and the girls either played house, dress up, or the painting table. Two of the kids played their whole free time on the computers. One boy in particular did not seem to socialize or interact with the other kids as much and seemed like a nice child. I asked the director about him after they were gone for the day and she explained he had been moved from the afternoon class to the morning class and was still getting to know the other kids. She stated he was an only child and his father was somewhat mentally handicapped. Due to this he did not always socialize well and that is why he is in head start.
The kids had clean up time once the assigned bell ringer rang the bell. They put their coats on to get ready to leave on the bus. One mother brings her daughter in each day and I got the opportunity to ask her what she perceived the benefit to be at Head Start. She stated she was a single mother and could not afford to put her daughter in daycare or private pay for a preschool. She thought this way a good way to get her daughter to keep up with the requirements of school. It also freed up her morning so she could work part of the day at the local McDonalds. Some of the children even came up to me and hugged me even though they had just met me that morning, they were happy to have someone else to play with.
Once the morning group was gone it was preparation time for the afternoon class. A second lunch was prepared and the same activities were repeated the same as the morning class. I found this group to be a little more mature and inquisitive. Two children asked me within the first 15 minutes of being there what my name was and why I was there.
Community Action Head Start is separated into two class rooms: one for the birth to three screenings, and the three to five year old's which attend on site Monday-Thursday. To be considered for the Head Start Program a family needs to fill out an enrollment application which asks for basic family demographics, income, and housing verification. If the family is homeless they are qualified under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistant Act which allows for the Family Community Partnership Manager to assist with housing and entrance into the program. Eligibility follows the state performance standards 1305.4 (a) (b) (1) & (2) (c)& (d), 1304.40 (c). Another qualifying factor is a family receiving public assistance through TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, SSI or General Relief and General Assistance Programs. Foster children are automatically eligible and families who meet current poverty guidelines.
Family size 2= 14,570, 3=18,310, 4=22,050, 5=25,790 aspe.hhs.gov
Children who have diagnosed learning disabilities, and speech problems are automatically enrolled. The Head Start Program is funded to serve 338 children ages three to five, 80 pregnant mothers, infants and toddlers. The program once a child is enrolled tracks attendance and makes home visits to determine why a child is missing class if more than four absences are taken within 30 days.
Meals follow these guidelines: Milk is served at all meals. Water is also offered. Each meal is to have 1 1/2 oz of a meat/protein. 1/4 cup vegetable, 1/4 cup fruit, 1/2 slice of bread or 1/3 cup cereal.
Goals and Objective for Head Start cover these four areas of development: Social/Emotional, Physical, Cognitive, and Language.
To work in a program like Head Start the site director must have an Associate Degree in Childhood Education, the teacher must have a high school diploma and 6 hours of early childhood development, and the teachers assistant must have a high school diploma and three hours of early childhood development.
I have realized the valuable insight this service learning experience has given me. I knew the Community Action Office was in town but did not know the array of services available to people of all ages in the county. It definately makes me more of an advocate, less assuming or judgmental, more knowledgeable in the programs available in my home county and a desire to do more service volunteer hours in these very needy and important programs so they can be available for future generations who will need the assistance.
Academic Enhancement Lens:  I found out in relation to academic enhancement Head Start is a necessary government funded program for children who are developmentally behind other children of their age or are at a disadvantage financially or have limited family support. There is an established academic content that has to be taught and teaching plans have to be prepared and tracked for the funding to continue along with specific meal planning based upon the major food groups. My understanding has completely changed from the comments I have heard of it being just a "free baby sitter."
Conceptual Change: I have realized that with this service learning I am truly a kid at heart and at times probably too lenient upon my old children. It is because of this that I am a true autonomous person who believes people will find their own ways given a little bit of freedom. I have learned that I am a helping personality who likes to give and receive praise when due. I speak what I believe in, but do not coerce others into believing the same. Everyone has the right to their own belief systems. I will also speak for others when they are afraid to speak for themselves. I am self motivated and driven when not in "burn out mode." I like to follow processes and find ways to improve those processes. I think this SL and education toward my BSN has not molded me into who I am and how I approach nursing, but has helped me to "see" who I am and how I interact with those in need. 
Evaluation: The only thing i should have done differently as the result of this SL was to volunteer sooner! I could have given past  potential referrals to the "in need" if I had a better understanding of this important program during my career in the past.  I do think I left it a better place. The director made the comment that the day I assisted allowed for an extra 15-20 minutes at the end of the day for her to work on some careplan reporting she is required to do and report to parents. They have been short staffed a teacher aide position, so they welcome any volunteer assistance they can get. This has also gotten my "wheels spinning" about involving more High School students who need volunteer hours and have an interest in childcare or teaching. Since my SL, I have with my own children taken some of their old developmental toys and children's song tapes for the agency to have. My future plans for volunteer work will be shared between this program, the food program at the agency and the women's crisis center. So I believe I now live the Regis Jesuit vision statement of "How Ought We Live?" We should always live in service and give to others where the opportunity presents itself and teach our young these selfless acts of kindness and time as well.  
Toni Hutchison RN
   

Initial Post

Here is my first go at my own blog. I am reflecting on my past three years working hard at my BSN. I have given up most of my free time with my boys to pursue this degree. I sometimes cannot believe that I will have the BSN portion completed the end of April! Life really does move fast! I currently feel I am moving through a transitional or what I call my "lost" phase. I don't seem to have found the position that meets my need for flexibility, minimum salary requirements, but also something I love to go to everyday. I had that satisfaction when I was a field nurse in home health and hospice, but transitioned into management and have been there since 2007. I was ready to give up working the weekends and holidays and no more middle of the night call outs since I had a young family. So I am in my quest to complete the Masters portion and am hoping it is worth the financial investment, time investment and leads me to where I belong! 1/16/2012