Scenario:

You are a first-year  teacher in a preschool in a low-income community that prides itself on  high-quality staff professional development. Your director asks you to  give a presentation at an upcoming staff development event. The topic is  understanding today’s families, with special attention paid to families  in poverty. You decide you also want to raise staff awareness of the  sources of stress that families are coping with (e.g., moving to a new  job). To end on a hopeful note, you want to provide links to national  agencies that provide helpful information (e.g., the Children’s Defense  Fund and the Vanier Institute of the Family in Canada). Above all, you  want to provide an objective and respectful summary of some of the  challenges faced by many American families today.

Focus Assignment

1.  Create nine PowerPoint slides, three of which shed light on children  living in poverty, and three of which focus more specifically on the  various sources of stress for today’s families. The final three slides  should focus on links to agencies that provide helpful resources. Take  advantage of the “notes” capabilities of PowerPoint to write important  notes (e.g., statistical information) to refer to during your  presentation.

2. Be sure to read the SELF-EVALUATION section  below to guide your thinking. Write your self-evaluation after you have  completed your presentation.

Self-Evaluation

1. For each slide in your presentation:
     a. Explain how this slide addresses the issues in the scenario.
  

2. Describe and justify how your presentation would improve teaching and learning in the scenario.