Relationship Reflection

 

Hello everyone. I am going to discuss my relationship with the three most important people in my life. First off I would like to discuss my relationship with my wife. We have been together for more than 6 years (3 of them married). She has always been there for me even though I am six years older than her. I like to think of her as my soulmate, God's personal gift to me. She is wise beyond her years and I don't ever want to be without her. Next is my daughter Zamiya, she is my first born child and my only girl. Zamiya and I were very close before the birth of her baby brother. I couldn't move without her following me or holding on to my pant leg. She has branched off since she's gotten older and tends to gravitate to her mother. Zamiya is very smart little girl. She picks up on things very quickly and is really into technology. She is only three and stays on my laptop more than anyone else and she knows how to use it very well. And last but not least my son Kamrin. Kamrin is two years old. He is also very bright. Our relationshio is very close. He cries when I leave to go work. He wants to follow me every where that I go. We also share a deep passion for the sport of basketball. He actually sits there and watches the whole game with me whether in person or on the television. He sleeps with the basketball, baths with it, and takes it everywhere he goes and I do mean every where. My family is my inspiration and gives me the drive to succeed. They motivate me also. My family means everything to me. I couldn't survive without them.

 

Some of my favorite children quotes

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.  ~Stacia Tauscher


You can learn many things from children.  How much patience you have, for instance.  ~Franklin P. Jones


In a dark moment I ask, "How can anyone bring a child into this world?"  And the answer rings clear, "Because there is no other world, and because the child has no other way into it."  ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com


I brought children into this dark world because it needed the light that only a child can bring.  ~Liz Armbruster, on robertbrault.com

To my colleagues

Unfortunately some of our time together has come to an end. I have really enjoyed working with you all and I hope that we will cross paths again.  All of you have touched and inspired me in some way.  Words can't truly express how I feel about you.  I have really your company and I wish you all success in your future endeavours.

Testing for intelligence

Children learn and process information in different ways. Therefore, I believe that they should be assessed in different ways. In my school we use the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. We administer the Mississippi Curriculmn Achievement Test 2 (MCT2), which is desgined to determine whether state standards are being met and measure school achievement. However this is just one way of testing (pencil and paper). In the educational field, we always talk about how to promote learining has to be implemented using different learning styles.  If learning has to be implemented using different learning styles, why can't students be assessed using more than one test? Formative assessment is not considered a common concept in the German literature. They have more general descriptors which result in more data. There is also usage of several German journals that publish emperical studies in the educational field.

search was conducted by several means. 

Counsequences of Stress on Children's Development

The stressor in which I chose to talk about is violence. I chose this topic because I have had to live with violence.  A lot of my older cousins were gang members and sold drugs.  My mother worked two jobs and so did my Aunts so we stayed at our grandparents house majority of the time.  I was exposed to a lot. I saw gang fights and drugs being cooked up and sold.  My father was absent and my brother's father soon passed.  My mother ended up re-marrying and that presented us with an abusive stepfather.  He never touched me or my brother but the physical and emotional abuse my mother endured really took a toll on me and my brother.  He was three years older than me so he moved out at the age of 18.  It took me longer, I didn’t move out until the age of 24.  I was working and making money but I refused to leave my mom until I just couldn’t deal with it anymore. I took refuge in sports but I couldn't play to my full potential because of the restless nights and the constant worry about the health and safety of my mom.  I wasn't very social in high school and didn't have many friends although people treated me as if I was popular.  I was very smart, dressed nicely, and was a gifted athlete. Many people said that I had pro potential in the sports that I played which were football and basketball.  Those things made me who I am today both good and bad.  I am still not very social but I love my wife and kids and cherish them like they are gold. 

I read this article which discussed violent men in Germany.  I don’t know why I chose it but I did.  Those men are forcibly removed from their homes if they are abusive to their partners. I wish that were the case when I was coming up, but since our home was in both my mother’s and stepmother’s name, he could not be removed. I also learned that 2 women a week are killed because of domestic violence in Germany.  That is so sad, I feel that if you have to abuse a woman than you don’t need her and should let her go.

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Breastfeeding

The public health topic that I chose is breastfeeding.  I chose this topic because I am fascinated by the beauty of it.  Honestly, I was against breastfeeding in the first birth of my child.  I didn’t really understand it nor did I try to listen to people talk about it, but coming up to the birth of my second child, my wife and I discussed it with our doctor and decided to try it. That didn’t go so well. My son never really latched on to the breast. We then turned to the breast pump. After a month, her breast seemed to stop producing milk, so we then had no choice other than to turn to formula.

Breastfeeding is a wonderful thing for the baby if the mother is healthy. The benefits of breastfeeding include; a strong bond between the baby and the mother, antibodies from breast milk which increases immunity, fewer allergies, more effective brain development, and fewer diarrhoeal diseases (Wainright, 2002).  According to Oddy (2004), breast-feeding also decreases the risks of many diseases that appear in childhood and adulthood, such as asthma, obesity, and heart disease.

Most American women are told that they should breastfeed up to six months. After researching about breast feeding in Mexico, I read that the length of breastfeeding is determined by the income and education of the mother. Mothers with low income and education often breastfeed for more than two years of age because they can’t afford the formula. Moms with a high education and income tend to breastfeed for only six months because they believe that the breast milk begins to lose its benefits because infants beginning to eat solid foods. 

Oddy, W. H. (2004). A review of the effects of breastfeeding on respiratory infections, atopy, and childhood asthma. Journal of Asthma, 41, 605-621.

U.S. Breast Feeding versus Other Countries. Retrieved November  12, 2011 from http://www.circleofmoms.com/welcome-to-circle-of-moms/us-breastfeeding-versus-other-countries-546424

Wainright, P. (2002). Dietary essential fatty acids and brain function: a developmental prospective on mechanisms, Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 61(1):61-9.

Child Births

Kamrin’s birth

It was October 14^th, 2009.  We were at the Northwest Regional Medical Center in Clarksdale, MS.  This was also the birth place of my daughter and me.  It was around 12:00 noon.  My wife had just pushed out Kamrin, I was so excited.  Finally I had the son that I longed for, but something was wrong.  He was lifeless it seemed.  No crying, no motion, no breathing, this was momentarily but it seemed like forever.  The nurses rushed him to the incubator to clear out his airway, finally we heard that all too familiar sound.  He cried, his eyes, opened and he looked for the first time.  It was such a relief.  The birth of his sister wasn’t this complicated a year earlier.  She came out, I cut the cord, they gave her to her mom and her mom swiftly gave her to me. I held her with pure love and excitement, so when this happened with Kamrin, I was thrown completely off balance, but thanks to God everything was fine.

Australia

Birth in Australia is given in different ways as opposed to the traditional way here in the U.S., which is mostly given in a hospital. The country of Australia offers Birth Centre and home birth. In the Birth Centre a small team of midwives are involved in all phases of prenatal care, during pregnancy, and postnatal care. The midwives are mostly responsible for delivery, but obstetricians are available if needed.  The Birth Centre is setup like a home to give the birth a more natural feel.  They try to keep the intervention as minimal as possible.  They have bean bags, large double beds, and large baths.  There are about 2.5 percent of Australian births occurring in the Birth Centre.  Australia also does home births, even though only a small percent of births are done in the homes. A professional midwife is in the attendance.  It is usually the same one who will deliver the baby.  She also monitors the mother throughout the pregnancy.

http://www.huggies.com.au/childbirth/giving-birth/choice