Blog 4

                Early childhood professionals are so important in a child’s life while the parents are at work or school. Early childhood professionals see children probably about nine hours out the day. Early childhood professional scan support families’ efforts by being the best teacher their children have or have had. I think being a teacher is a wonderful job because we get to be the role model in our student’s lives. We get to teach them how to be obedient, how to learn, and how to act towards others. Also, we can just be the families’ backbone when they need somebody to lean on. For example, it has been plenty of times I knew my parents had to rush out and I took over whatever they were doing with their child before they left. I know it is hard being a parent and I commend people who are.

                The appropriate resources I would connect them with are articles they can read about children, my boss, housing services, food services, and intervention services if needed. It would depend on what the family needs and what articles I think would be most appropriate for that family. I think reading can be very helpful for families. For example, I read some articles my son’s teacher gave me about biting. My son was a biter and I didn’t know why, but after reading the articles I came to find out my son could not talk. After finding this out, I got him speech therapy. Next, if they need a place to stay or food, I know places where they can get shelter and food for their families. Also, these places will eventually help them get a place of their own. Also, if the children need intervention services, I would show them how to go through the process of making sure their child gets the rights services he/she may need.

                For this module, I interacted with one family. I interviewed the family to see how they liked the center and what type of resources they would like to have help with. The first family said they liked their child’s room and her teachers, but the child is getting ready to move to another room and they don’t feel comfortable. The child has been at the center since she was two months old and with the same teachers. The mom said she heard stories about the place being a great daycare, but she doesn’t trust everybody with her child. So I asked the parents what they would need to make them feel comfortable. The parents responded back by saying they would like to observe the room (the new room) on the camera and nobody know they are watching. I asked why and they said, they need to know who is watching their child. Next, I went to the director to see what they could work out and the director agreed. The director said she had confidence that this room would wow the parents. The next day the parents sat in the office for an hour look at how the new classroom was ran. After watching the video, the parents were satisfied and said their child could go in that room. I think this was a great thing that he parents got to see how the teachers work without them knowing that they were being observed. The parents got to see how it would be when they were gone and when they were there.

                A learning experience I have learned from being in the early childhood field is that it is all about compromise. I know we all love our children and we all need to feel comfortable while we are going about who is caring for our children. I felt the center really trusted their teachers to have them observed without them knowing. At first, I thought it was kind of invading the teachers’ privacy and they should be warned, but they did great. I think by letting the parents see the video it showed trust, compromise, and the real care the center has for their children.

                Two insights I gained from my observations of the families and children were that they were concerned with how the child was being treated while they were gone and what the child was learning. The parents seemed very calm and just wanted to make sure their first child was out of harm’s way. I think all parents want to go to work or school knowing their child in in the care of wonderful people and will be loved while they are gone. Also, the family was very concerned about learning. I think this was good because mom brought up some good points about what she does at home. She mentioned she reads, talks, counts, and sings with her child even if she is doing something. She said she wants her child to be taught while she is at work and not just made to sit down. I thought this was a great thing on the mother’s part because she is concerned about her child’s education and she takes steps to ensure she is providing the same educational experience at home. 

blog 3

For the past two weeks, I went to a toddler classroom. The children were 15 months to 24 months old. I interviewed the teacher of the class. The teacher of this class has been in the field for six years. She told me she loves toddlers because this is the age when their language has started or being expanded on. I sat in this class during the morning times to catch the children during activities. The day started off with circle time. The children were instructed to sit on the carpet. The teacher sat on the carpet first and the children followed. Next, the teacher sang songs about abc’s, numbers, colors, days of the week, months of the year, and names. The teacher mentioned to me that they also have a circle time at the end of the day for the children that come late and to review the morning activities. I thought this was a great experience for literacy because the teacher sings these songs every day. She expands on their verbal language as well as their reading language.

During the next thirty minutes, the children did a letter activity. The teacher called the children to the table one by one. The materials were out on the table ready for the children to complete the activity. The activity was a cut out of the letter a and some pictures of things that start with the letter a. The teacher said the letter sounds three times and had the students repeating her. Then she showed the children the different pictures that started with the letter a and said the names of the pictures. She made connections with the children by asking the children questions, such as where do alligators live or where can you find ants?

After the children were done with the letter activity, they were instructed to go to centers. The centers are centers in which they do certain things. The centers they had were writing, art, dramatic play, block, water table, library, and science center. There were two students to each center. While the children were in the centers, the teacher went around playing in each center with the students. For example, I can remember she read a book in the library center to the students. Next, she visited the water table where the children played in sand. She expanded on their literacy by asking questions and keeping the conversation going. I think all of her children talked except for two students. By how the children were talking I knew they picked up a lot of language from their teacher. Shea made sure she talked to every child even if it was to say hello and ask how their night was.

One thing that I seen this teacher made sure of was the children using their words. If the students had a dispute, the teacher would tell the students to use their words. For example, one child hit another child and the child started to cry. The teacher got on her knees and said use your words tell the other child how you feel. The child responded by saying ,”I don’t like when you hit me”. I like how she let them resolve the issue on their own by using words versus fighting.

My experience in this classroom was great. I think this teacher made literacy fun and exciting for her students. She was always talking, reading, singing songs, and telling the children use their words.