Kindergarten Reflection Entering my kindergarten teaching experience in the last quarter of school year I had to quickly become familiar with kindergarten content standards and the school’s curriculum. To do this I observed my mentor teachers instructional time with the children and gained as much information as I could about the children’s educational standing by developing a professional relationship with the my mentor teacher and the children. I learned that the majority of my kindergarten children had not previously attended preschool and that this was their first year of school. I found that interacting with the children in social activities provided me with great insight to their literacy, math, science, and social studies development. In reviewing the children’s class projects, school displays, and an array of their work sample along with my mentor teachers year-long assessments I was able to recognize challenging, emerging and advanced content areas of the children’s core curriculum. These emerging and challenging content areas is what I centered my curriculum planning around. “Information about each child’s learning and development is used to evaluate teaching effectiveness. This may lead to changes in schedule, curriculum and teaching strategies, room set up, resources, and so on.” (Bredekamp and Copple, p. 249) This experience as a whole provided me with the opportunity to show my professional quality as an educator, a cooperative team member, and a lifelong learner. A few things that I continuously had to reflect on throughout this experience was my self-competence, my performance as well as the children’s, and of course my professional demeanor which directly impacted the effectiveness of my planning, teaching and... ... middle of paper ... ...l of mine is to request frequent feedback on my performance and lesson plans. This quarter in kindergarten my mentor teacher provided little to no feedback on my lesson plans which lead me to believe they were sound when they actually could have been tweaked a bit more to fit my mentor teachers instructional approaches and the children’s way thinking. I will also need to pay closer attention to dates, deadlines and my performance expectations. I often found myself mixed up with dates which are a critical in our short time spent in practicum. Even though I had some rough encounters with my kindergarten experience I felt I learned a great deal about professionalism, patience and working with children developing on varying levels. Overall, my practicum experiences were supportive of my course learning and greatly appreciated. Works Cited Early Childhood Expereinces
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Show MoreEarly childhood education, although constantly evolving, was actually established and practiced as early on as the times of Ancient Greece and Rome. The foundation that early childhood education is based upon is to instill in children the skills needed to succeed later on in life, while making sure young children enjoy their time in schooling. Throughout chapter 3 in the textbook Who Am I in the Lives of Children, the reader is capable of evaluating just how greatly the methods for teaching today’s youth have evolved and changed for the better.
The way the young, old, and infants look at things has been the subject of a number of studies for many years. These tendencies are referred to as visual preferences and in infants this study can be referred to as early visual perception. Though interest in the study of visual preferences has declined, significant progress has been made in this field. This study however has been very instrumental in helping scholars understand early childhood development issues. Among these issues is how visual preferences can help infants process the stimuli they come across. The issue of whether or not infants possess visual preference abilities after birth has also shown great interest among scholars. This paper seeks to cut through the arguments and delve into the factual evidence. The paper will consider how infants process as well as respond to visual stimuli in their environment. In addition, the paper seeks to establish how age and experience affects this process. These two factors will help correlate visual preference with cognition and perception in infants. The paper will mostly focus on how infants process stimuli with respect to visual preference.
I completed my final observation on October 15 at the UTC Children’s Center at Battle Academy. When I arrived to my classroom, the students were on a field trip so I quickly went down to the fire hall on Main Street to meet up with the class. At the fire hall, parents, as well as the two teachers accompanied the students. The students arrived back in their classroom around 11:10, and that is when the parents left. After the field trip the children ate lunch in the cafeteria, had a brief lesson in the classroom, and played outside. The class I observed was preschool, with most children around 3 to 4 years old. All the children seemed to be developing normally. There were 7 boys and 3 girls present in the classroom.
“If you think about the brain and the brain development if we don’t stimulate the brain then of course there is going to be lack of development.” (“Unruh”). Development is sempiternal in life, it moves through many stages into life such as learning to grasp a fork properly to grasping the thought of death. General development stages begin at birth and last till about age of 18, but the most important development stages start from birth and last till about six years of age. These early stages will affect how one will behave, interpret, and learn throughout the duration of one’s life. While bodily changes are rapidly occurring and the beginning of thought, opinion, and reason are just forming. It is important to understand as future parents or caregivers how and when their child, even if premature, is developing socially, cognitively, or physically.
Be strict. Parents love their children, but it is harmful for them if they give them too much love and accommodate themselves.
While walking through the front gates of County elementary school, you see children of all ages playing while they wait for the school bell to ring. Walking to the classroom that I will be observing you see students with their parent’s line up waiting to get signed in. The students are to be signed in by a parent or guardian for safety precautions, and shows that the child was signed into school. As a visitor, I am to sign myself in, this shows I was in the classroom, at what time was I there, and reason for visiting the classroom.
Early childhood Education has always been a vital part to the nation’s prosperity and achievement. However, many schools started without early childhood teachings. Teaching usually began around the time a child had reached six or seven; about the age of a first or second-grader today (Vinovskis 18). Instruction to early adolescents was not contemplated as crucial for brain development until the 1800s. After the Head Start program, early childhood education spread like wildfire throughout America. In 1840, 40 percent of all the three year olds in Massachusetts alone, were attending school. Yet, the reactions from many states, and the overall populace of the country at the time were still negative and contradicting towards early childhood development and education (Vinovskis 19).
Dr. Seuss wrote, “You’re off to great places. Today is your day. Your mountain is waiting. So get on your Way”. The role of the early childhood educator, while rewarding, can sometimes feel as is you are climbing a mountain. Educators have to consider how to implement curriculum, instruction, management, and technology in the classroom. Educators also have to provide an environment where all children feel safe and nurtured. When creating a course of action, educators have to consider their role as well as the role of the student, parent, and community.
What that I have learned about myself is that I feel that I am a patient and kind person. Whenever I am talking to the children with a warm and soft voice and they are more likely to listen and follow direction. I know you can’t reach every student, but I think I have a responsibility to give every child a chance to succeed.
As a teacher in early childhood development, I believe that the teacher skills and personality influence how children understand, observe and react to the classroom environment and the world around them. Even though part of teacher responsibilities are academic, daily interactions that encourage social, emotional and physical development are important. One of a quality effective early childhood educators’ characteristic is that they should have patience.
There are many theories surrounding the application of early childhood education. There have been many theorists and researchers whom have submitted factual information and strategies that has helped educators over the years. I believe that my personal beliefs about early childhood education is a combination of several theorists. In the world that we live in, not all people or children are created the same. There are several factors which make up a person’s mindset. People learn and process information differently depending on several different factors.
Regardless of how the curriculum is organized, administrators must assure there is a balance of content areas addressed in the curriculum so that children develop a broad foundation of skills and knowledge that will prepare them for success in kindergarten and beyond (Gadzikowski 2013). Everyone has a role to play and giving children the opportunity to learn is the main reason why the education field has set standards and guides to help plan a high-quality program and effective curriculum. Make decisions based on the learning and developmental needs of children, focus on their cognitive, affective and physical domains, use classroom management techniques and daily schedules to enhance their experience and pay attention to your programs philosophies,
Each year education becomes more and more important in the United States. With the demand of a formal education people each day choose a career path in order to get a good employment. (Formal education is classroom-based, provided by trained teachers.) Many Americans believe that education is the only path to getting a rewarding job in which they would be able to live a comfortable life. But other believe that being employed is not as important as having an education because that makes them different from other people and makes them wiser in life. There are many careers that are very important in America, but one of the most important career is “Early Childhood Education” because it is where the foundation of a child is set to help them become
The modern early childhood curriculum refers to the experiences gathered throughout a child’s infancy and beyond. It incorporates everyday interactions with family members within a wide spectrum of environments. Such interactions can be spontaneous or structured however, it is important that they are established within a supportive, safe and nurturing setting in order for the child to flourish in terms of their mental and physical ability ( O’Hagen,and Smith (1998). We refer to such a curriculum as Child centered as equal emphasis must be made on the child’s learning through out infancy as it is within a formal education setting.
“Early Childhood Education is a term that refers to educational programs and strategies geared toward children from birth to the age of eight. This time period is widely considered the most vulnerable and crucial stage of a person's life.”(Early Childhood Education). When one child goes to school, when she is younger, she can develop some skills faster than another child who start lately the school. This happens why your brain is not developed yet, to understand better, one kid with 2 years old can, walk alone, kick a ball, imitate others, with 4 years old they can, know first and last name, eat by themselves and sing a song from memory. So, how is possible to imagine when you put a child at pre-kindergarten they can understand easier a new information than kids who started to study older, they will receive a better instruction about health, social emotional development, and they will have a better chance to have a better social outcome.