Reflection Paper

This coarse, Teaching and Learning with Competent Infants and Toddlers, has been an amazing opportunity for me to explore diverse theories and perspectives revolved around how educators view the children around them. It has also affected my personal views of children and has shown me new, effective ways to interact and teach the children in my current career. The three most significant aspects that I’ve learned from this class is how important it is to have a positive vision of children, create enhancing environments for them to learn independently and to evaluate myself and my own teaching styles. We began this coarse by first evaluating how we view children and seeing how those perceptions affected us, as educators.

This was the first significant aspect that I learned from this coarse. Having a strong image of the children we work with, is essential to how we interact and facilitate learning in our classrooms or lives. Children are strong, independent learners and by bringing forth a strong

From this essay, I have also embraced the understanding that none of these theories are the perfect theory. Just like children, it’s ok to think differently from one another. What is most important is to accept these differences and learn to collaboratively using our diverse understanding in enhancing ways. Accepting diversity in our classroom is strongly connected to my role, as an educator, to be curious or mindful of the children I teach, who they are, what they are thinking and about their families. By understanding or analyzing the child’s environment outside the classroom, and how a particular family operates within their home, I can adapt my classroom environment and curriculum to best fit each child 's needs. This knowledge can also help me to observe their familial culture and engage with them in ways that sponsor positive child