NAEYC Standards and Key Elements
June 23, 2019
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6b: Knowing about and upholding ethical standards and other early childhood professional guidelines
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This has been a major part of my "real world" practice the last two weeks, as I am working on advocating for a child who needs better therapy than what he is currently receiving. The challenge is with his parents wanting him to have a summer break in a disaster of a summer program setting where I have watched him regress quickly and violently in just two weeks. There are many challenges coming up this week, but a big part of the conversation I am having with my director and this child's case supervisor, centers around ethical practice.
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6d: Integrating knowledgeable, reflective, and critical perspectives on early education
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I have also spent the last two weeks applying what we have been learning in this program and in this internship towards evaluating a summer program for low-income children that is performing far below acceptable standards for early education. I may have the opportunity in the coming weeks and months the put these valuable lessons to real world practice and help improve an early childhood setting that has the resources, but not the knowledge necessary to provide these children with the experiences they need for positive development.
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June 16, 2019
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6e: Engaging in informed advocacy for young children and the early childhood profession
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Inspired by this internship and this Master's program in general, this week I successfully advocated with a colleague for an action research proposal to improve therapy outcomes for a specific client, which involved having him removed from an unproductive environment to one more conducive to active, research focused therapy. In the process, I also convinced my employer to consider a community outreach effort to improve an early childhood setting, currently providing services to children from low income families, but doing so in a way that does not support high quality development and education.
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6a: Identifying and involving oneself with the early childhood field
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This week was one of contrast for me. On one hand, I was observing and participating in high quality early childhood education, and on the other, I was observing an early childhood program setting kids up for failure and then using punitive action to try and control challenging behaviors created by the poor design of the program. I was inspired to advocate for change and, especially, identify myself as an early childhood professional seeking high quality educational environments for all children through research and creative practice.
June 9, 2019
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1a: Knowing and understanding young children’s characteristics and needs, from birth through age 8.
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This has been the topic of 583 this week and it is quickly applicable to both the internship and my work. Finding a variety of developmentally appropriate ways to to encourage literacy and language skills, while filling empty space with teachable and learnable opportunities is both fun and challenging, especially when there is wide variation in developmental level within the same classroom, which I have definitely seen during the internship. Peer modeling is a helpful resource to bridge the gap, but it takes a lot of awareness to identify needs and intervene where needed, while stepping back at times too, letting kids take charge of their own learning.
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6c: Engaging in continuous, collaborative learning to inform practice; using technology effectively with young children, with peers, and as a professional resource.
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This is at the center of my life, as I work to take what I've learned during the whole of this Master's program and find ways to implement efficiency so that kids and families can see the maximum potential outcomes they deserve. I am actively collaborating with a colleague to use research as a means for improving therapeutic practices, and incorporating ipads into my therapy and work has been a steadily, but quickly evolving process, which has the potential to transform the services kids and families receive by maximizing efficiency, eliminating dead space, and enhancing communication in a highly mobile and dynamic profession, which struggles to realize that very fact of its nature.
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June 2, 2019
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5b: Knowing and using the central concepts, inquiry tools, and structures of content areas or academic disciplines
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This week in my 583 course we've been talking about structuring lesson plans and curriculum around student interests and content standards. During the internship process we are focusing on engaging students in dynamic learning experiences in which they plan, collaborate, and engage in expansive thinking and conversations. It can be overwhelming at times trying to incorporate all elements into a single lesson of short duration. I am not a classroom teacher, but these experiences are giving me an appreciation for the concerns I hear teachers express about managing core standards, curriculum requirements, and maintaining student interest. It is also making we think more strategically and critically on my planning for the work I do in therapy.
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5a: Understanding content knowledge and resources in academic disciplines: language and literacy; the arts – music, creative movement, dance, drama, visual arts; mathematics; science, physical activity, physical education, health and safety; and social studies
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I don't find this to be a major challenge at the preschool level, but being sure to incorporate all these disciplines in the curriculum at this age could be a challenge. I have seen all of these things incorporated in the preschool where I'm doing my internship. Circle time always involves dancing and music, every days includes an art project, physical activity is incorporated in outdoor play, drama is often a free play activity, math and science are incorporated during lessons and projects, we've been working on fire drills and hand washing is part of the daily routine.
May 26, 2019
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4a: Understanding positive relationships and supportive interactions as the foundation of their work with young children
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This is the foundation of all success with young kids. It is the foundation of the work I do daily and it has been the central theme during the internships process. I am very good at developing rapport with children. I get swarmed every day in the preschool. From the foundation of positive relationships, children can be challenged to do great things and overcome significant challenges. Plus, learning is and should be fun, not only for the kids, but for the teachers too. I learn every day from the kids I work with, we have a lot of fun, even through the challenges, and in the therapy I provide, I receive at least as much therapeutic benefit back from the kids.
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4c: Using a broad repertoire of developmentally appropriate teaching /learning approaches
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This was the subject of my 583 course this week, and it has gotten me thinking a lot about the different approaches I use, both during the internship and my daily work. Learning is accomplished best when students are engaged. We can find many different ways to teach content and skills, but learning won't take place without engagement. I love how much preschoolers love to learn, but then I am saddened by how often that love for learning is drilled out of kids through an overemphasis in "teaching to the test," when kids could not only maintain that love for learning and perform better on achievement tests by teaching them through complex and engaging processes, instead of through simplistic drilling of material through worksheets, quizzes, and written tests.
May 19, 2019
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3c: Understanding and practicing responsible assessment to promote positive outcomes for each child, including the use of assistive technology for children with disabilities.
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I work at this daily, both at work and during the internship. I use an ipad for both assessment and instruction. I collect a ton of data each week, organize, and assess it for areas for progress, as well as new areas of concern. I have a growing collection of apps for working on a variety of skills with students. I assess my performance daily, solicit feedback from supervisors and colleagues constantly, as I believe this is the most important step towards maximizing student outcomes.
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4b: Knowing and understanding effective strategies and tools for early education, including appropriate uses of technology
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This has been a central topic this week in my 583 course and it has me thinking about ways to incorporate technology in my internship videos in the coming weeks. I have incorporated my ipad some in the previous weeks with the preschool, but to a limited degree. I have brought technology into my daily work in a major way with exciting results, both in terms of assessment and instruction/therapy. I have found it very useful in promoting engagement and reducing "educational fatigue." I find most kids are happy to do almost anything on an ipad, even the educational stuff. Learning is as much a game to kids as Fortnite is, as long as we present it that way, instead of in "ditto" form.
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May 12, 2019
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3a: Understanding the goals, benefits, and uses of assessment – including its use in development of appropriate goals, curriculum, and teaching strategies for young children
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This has been a significant part of the internship process, as we have been repeating the same instructive or interactive processes, updating and adjusting our strategies and techniques based on both self and external assessment. It is fun to watch how children's responses and performance changes as our process for interacting or instructing changes. It is clear, both through the experience of this internship and my work experience, that how we teach is critical to the success of children, because they respond to us, for better or for worse, and by improving the processes of our instruction, we can directly affect the learning outcomes for children. Continued assessment is the key to making this happen.
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3d: Knowing about assessment partnerships with families and with professional colleagues to build effective learning environments.
During the internship I've watched parents assess their children during drop-off and pick-up, and one thing is clear, parents have high expectations for their kids, which is great. As educators it is important to understand the expectations parents have for their children and work to encourage a positive balance between challenging their kids to succeed and pushing them too fast. Kids need just the right amount of challenge and supportive reinforcement to thrive. Assessment between professional colleagues is an excellent way to build effective learning environments, as we all see things a little differently. I tend to be very good at self-assessment, but throughout this process of video assessment, I have received feedback that I hadn't considered, which is great, because it pushes me to expand my thinking and improve not only my process of instruction, but my process of future self-assessment.
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May 5, 2019
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2c: Involving families and communities in young children’s development and learning
This week the preschool focused their learning on pets, and at the end of the week, the kids had the opportunity to bring their own pets in for show and tell. This meant a lot of parents were coming in to help their kids show off their awesome pets. Some came and left, while others stuck around. It gave me the opportunity to meet some of the parents I hadn't yet met, which is one of the most enjoyable parts of my job. Interacting with parents is something I look forward to, as their participation is crucial to their child's success. I love showing them all the amazing things their children are learning to do, things they thought they'd never see. It's been fun getting to know some of the preschool parents as well and seeing the how invested they are in their child's learning, something this preschool is very good at fostering.
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2a: Knowing about and understanding diverse family and community characteristics
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This last week in one of my courses we learned about the 30 million word gap by age three. That number shocked me. I had a difficult time believing it. Then I started to pay closer attention to the kids in the preschool, some of which have lower income parents with limited education, while others are middle income with high education. I could clearly see that word gap. The children whose parents I know have higher levels of education (because I work with them) have much stronger language skills than the kids whose parents only have high school diploma's. They are multiple grade levels apart in many cases. I have started placing a bigger emphasis on encouraging conversational turns, both in my therapy and in the preschool as a result of these striking differences.
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April 28, 2019
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4d: Reflecting on own practice to promote positive outcomes for each child
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This has been a big part of the internship process, and it also forms a major part of my current professional practice. Recording short videos of instructive interactions in the preschool, followed by writing a short reflective response has been valuable tool for considering the intentional and unintentional aspects of each interaction, which in turn, allows me to approach the next interaction with a greater degree of intentionality. I also tend to reflect as I work and make adjustments midstream, which is easier to do during individual instruction, but a bit more challenging during group instruction. In any case, the process of reflection is essential to constantly improving the outcomes for students by improving the process of my own practice. I find this to be a rewarding process, as I actively witness how improvements to my methods result in improved learning outcomes.
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5c: Using own knowledge, appropriate early learning standards, and other resources to design, implement, and evaluate developmentally meaningful and challenging curriculum for each child.
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I have enjoyed the opportunity to do this on a small scale so far during the internship, by implementing short instructive interactions based on the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes, then revising based on my own observations and those of my professor and trying again. I enjoy seeing the different results that different approaches elicit in the same children. In a short few weeks, I am already seeing just how important varied instruction, along with environmental manipulation, is, as each student responds differently to different instruction under varied circumstances. Providing static instruction would always leave some students behind. It is interesting to try and strike a balance between individual and group instruction, as different children benefit in different ways.
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April 21, 2019
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1b: Knowing and understanding the multiple influences on early development and learning:
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This week I've learned a lot about the importance of rich early language experiences prior to preschool and about the drastic difference in child vocabulary between children from families of high and low socioeconomic status. The preschool where I am completing my internship serves families with a variety of income levels and education levels and I have noticed substantial differences in vocabulary, speech production, and overall language fluency and confidence among the children. One child, whose family I know is highly educated, because I work with them, has a very high level of fluency and language confidence that stands in stark contrast to many of the other children, whose family's educational and economic conditions I am not expressly aware of. This weeks readings, along with internship experiences, have made me more aware of the importance of high quality early childcare and educational opportunities, especially to lower and middle income families.
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3b: Knowing about and using observation, documentation, and other appropriate assessment tools and approaches, including the use of technology in documentation, assessment and data collection:
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The process of video recording myself during this internship has already been an invaluable tool for self assessment. Although I tend to be highly reflexive, even in action, it is still useful to be able to observe from a distanced perspective and potentially see things that were unintended, both good and bad. There is also the potential, through video recorded documentation, to share with others, useful strategies, where direct observation is not possible or practical. I see a lot of potential for this at work, where we provide therapy in teams, with one child receiving one on one therapy from two or more therapists throughout the week. Although we occasionally have meetings or exchange emails to share struggles and strategies, it is one thing to describe with words and another to see in action. Where direct observation is not possible or practical, video documentation could prove a very useful tool for team based professional development and training, as well as a tool for assessment and evaluation.
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April 14, 2019
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1c: Using developmental knowledge to create healthy, respectful, supportive, and challenging learning environments for young children:
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This week I have been going through the Head Start Early Learnings Framework, Ages Birth to Five, to determine specific learning outcomes to plan preschool activities around. I have also been looking ahead to the first grade achievement standards and core competencies for the State of Idaho to specifically help prepare one of my therapy clients for that transition next year. This has been an exciting and new process for me, and although I don't work in a classroom setting, I am preparing the children I work with to be successful in those settings, which is easier to do if I am aware of the requirements and expectations for a developmentally "typical" child at each grade level. It is always my goal to help the children I work with reach their maximum potential, which means challenging, not limiting them.
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2b: Supporting and engaging families and communities through respectful, reciprocal relationships:
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I have been working on this, not through my internship, or even my work, but through an issue my father is having with my first grade nephew (for whom he has custody). He has been experiencing issues of bullying at school, possibly race related, for which the school has been reluctant to successfully address. The school has taken some vague steps towards remediation multiple times, while the incidents have continued. My dad emailed me frustrated after the school shut him out, declaring the incident resolved and referring him to the district. He was prepared to consult a lawyer, but I first suggested some steps he might take to deescalate the situation and work towards developing a positive relationship with the school that might encourage more productive action, while ensuring the immediate safety of my nephew. These steps included volunteering in the classroom and at recess, as well as at an upcoming school event. I also sent him some resources he could pass along to the school to address bullying, as well as implement lesson plans that work towards teaching cultural and racial sensitivity, along with conflict management strategies. He has had at least one meeting with the school since that was more productive, and we'll see what happens moving forward.
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April 7, 2019
Early Childhood Field Experiences
Becoming a Professional
This first week has been about observing in a preschool setting in preparation for applying knowledge content from early childhood coursework to an actual educational setting. This particular setting provides the opportunity to practice inclusive education as this preschool also works with its neighboring agency that specializes in early intervention services. The mentor teachers have a wealth of experience working in an inclusive preschool, providing high quality educational opportunities, incorporating creative use of technology to improve the learning opportunities to the students, while collaborating with behavioral specialists to maintain positive inclusion with benefits to all. This week has also gotten me started on child advocacy, both through my coursework and my daily practice as I work towards improving my professional practice.