User:Dlave004

About Deanna

Introducción



Some fun facts… My name is Deanna and I am taking this class for my work. I have been working with a program called Rural Infant Services Program for two and a half years that serves all of the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula area of Virginia. That's approximately the size of Delaware! My position is Bilingual Infant Educator and I work with children with special needs-birth to age three-and their families in a home visit setting. A super part of my job is that I get to work with Spanish speaking families! I speak and write fluent Spanish and I work with a mostly Mexican population, though some of my families are from other areas in Central and South America.

In other news… I live in Tappahannock, VA with my kitten Ernest. Originally, I am from the Northern Neck, but before I moved back home I received my BA in Sociology from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA. After graduation, I did a year of AmeriCorps in central Florida where I taught English to a mostly Spanish speaking population and I worked as a community organizer for the Farmworker's Association of Central Florida.

Other good and highly important stuff:

•	I have a super great boyfriend, Chad.

•	My favorite holiday is Halloween!



•	Because Halloween only happens once a year, I live for theme/dress up parties. My favorite is our annual "Christmas with the Griswalds" party where everyone wears a tacky sweater!



•	I'm applying to a Master of Social Work program at VCU where I will study policy and organization.

•      I just came back from a week in Honduras where I visited my friends at www.studentshelphonduras.org in orphanages, nutrition centers, and building houses in Villa Soleada!



•	Yes we can!

Filosofía de Educación

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." -Confucious (thinkexist.com)

As cliché as it may or may not sound, a good teacher is one that learns from her students. If a teacher comes from the place of "teaching a lesson" they will lose themselves in their agenda and forget about the unique origin of each student and their individual needs, which brings the discussion to diversity.

As an infant educator of bilingual, at-risk, and special needs children, I feel that my experience can offer a fair amount of insight to the topic of diversity. Though I meet the family in their home, when the children must go to school I am a strong proponent of a truly bilingual classroom that is inclusive of children of every level of learning. Of course, I do not plan to be a classroom teacher in the foreseeable future, but I regularly take on the task of working with several children at a time. Whether they are siblings of different ages and abilities or family friends that speak both English and Spanish, Spanish only, and/or English only the teacher must remain flexible and in tune with the needs of the students. Truly, at this moment I do not have much of an opinion on classroom assessment, technology use, or classroom assignments; I believe my philosophy of flexibility would serve each of these areas.

Finally, I believe that the approach of flexibility should be supported by a family centered approach instead of simply a child centered approach. What one sees in the classroom only is but a mere fraction of the life of the child. I don't believe that we will truly continue to advance if we do not keep this in mind. In conclusion, my philosophy, though somewhat limited to my personal experience, is one of bilingual education as an asset, inclusion, flexibility, and a family centered approach to education.