Saturday, February 22, 2014

Examining Codes of Ethics


 DEC CODE OF ETHICS:    Responsive Family Centered Practices  
·         We shall demonstrate our respect and appreciation for all families’ beliefs, values, customs, languages, and culture relative to their nurturance and support of their children toward achieving meaningful and relevant priorities and outcomes families’ desire for themselves and their children.
It is important as a teacher that I appreciate and accept what children and their families have to bring to my classroom. I believe children and their family feels good when they come into the classroom and see part of their culture being recognized and added to the classroom. Therefore I make sure to add multi-cultural materials, toys, books and music to my classroom in support of the families in my room. For example: adding multi-cultural dolls and dress up clothes in the dramatic play area, playing different cultural music on the radio, displaying books about people from all over the world and being willing to talk to parents and their children in their home language. Taking time to recognize and display different artifacts about families’ holidays they celebrate such as: Cinco de Mayo is a way to tell families I want to know more about your culture as well.

DEC CODE OF ETHICS:   Enhancement of Children’s and Families’ Quality of Lives
·         We shall be responsible for protecting the confidentiality of the children and families we serve by protecting all forms of verbal, written, and electronic communication.
As a teacher in the classroom it is my duties to protect our families and their children important information with confidentiality as much as possible. Information about families or the child should not be left out everywhere, so that people can just come by and pick it up to read it.  Families and children I serve must know I have their best interest in mind. Within my classroom   important data about the children and their family is kept in a safe place behind a locked cabinet.  The important information I keep in the locked cabinet may consist of: the child educational files, personal information about the child/families’ history and the child’s assessment and result sheet in which display that child score.  
NAEYC CODE OF ETHICS:

·         To listen to families, acknowledge and build upon their strengths and competencies, and learn from families as we support them in their task of nurturing children.


As a teacher I like to listen to what my parent have to say without cutting them off. Having good eye contact with parent when they are talking to me, allows me to show them I value what they have to say. Collaborating with parents about their child well-being helps me to make the connection from the child’s home experience to the classroom, which will help me to meet the child’s need, strength or interest. Supporting parent decision-making, their knowledge as being the child’s first teacher is a wonderful way to building a trusting relationship between me and the parent. I enjoy collaborating with parent in order to help them understand the important of play and how their child is learning and enhancing their developmental skills. 

3 comments:

  1. The one ideal you posted that is very important to me as well would be the responsibility of keeping families confidential information in locked cabinets and unavailable to anyone but you and the staff at the school. One of the things I plan to do at my center is make sure each classroom has a file cabinet to keep student information locked away. I will also have important family information and employee confidential forms locked away in our file room that will only be utilized by administrative staff.

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  2. Hi LaTonya,

    It is definitely necessary for children to see a reflection of themselves in their classroom. We not only have pictures, people and dramatic play items that are reflective of the cultures represented at our center, but we have pictures of the children, so that they see themselves reflected in their environment. And now that I am thinking about it we should ask their parents for pictures of their families to add to our classroom. Have you had the discussion with your children about why skin tones are different?

    Confidentiality. Yes. I have a practice of spelling out words when talking to teachers concerning their families because children recognize their name and their parents' names, but most of them have not mastered spelling. : ) Have you or one of your colleagues ever dealt with an issue of confidentiality breach. If so, how was it handled?

    Collaborating with parents is a necessity. Training children is a group effort. Parents are the experts at home and we are their child's academic expert. Each of our perspectives concerning the child is important and should be discussed on a regular basis. This keeps the lines of communication open and the relationship on good terms.

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    Replies
    1. Hello LaTonya,

      I agree that each child's records should be confidential and placed in a locked cabinet, only allowing the staff on site to have access to that particular file. It is a requirement by licensing to have the child's file in an area where it is confidential. You outlined some very important points in your blog.

      Nicole Stephens

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