Module 5 Thank You Blog to Deborah Good

A Note of Thanks to Deborah Good,

            Thank you for your feedback and suggestions throughout this class; on our discussions and blogs. Your advocacy for children with special needs and their families in great, positive, and an important one that many teachers and families need to be more informed of. I feel that I do need to have more knowledge, training, and support in this area. I plan on taking more classes in this area because unfortunately, I feel that each year we get more and more children with special needs in our program. Thank you for enlightening me more with your advocacy and continue to make positive strides with your plan. Good luck!

Module 5 Thank You Blog To Luz Flores

A Note of Thanks to Luz Flores,

            We have been in quite a few classes at Kendall and you have always provided me with enlightening feedback and support. Your advocacy on childhood obesity is crucial for our students and families to be aware of. You information is useful for teachers and parents alike. I plan on having nutrition be a bigger part of my daily routine in my class. The younger we get them to understand the importance of feeding our bodies healthy, the better, I think. Good luck to you in all your future goals. Stay positive and don’t give up.

Victoria Lopez

Enlisting and Providing Support

Enlisting and Providing Support

As I prepare for my presentation and am concerned and anxious that I will be effective in my presentation. My advocacy is on the integration of play and the arts in the classroom. I plan on speaking directly to my audience with information and facts on research about the benefits of the play and the arts, I will provide them with briefs and hand-outs with straight to the point activities that the children will and can do in the classroom, I will have a director from another center to talk about how they implement play and the arts in that center, and close with an answer and question session. Should I include or omit something? Does it seem as if it will be too long or boring?

My resources have been from co-workers, elementary grade teachers, books, and websites such as:

The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds. Pediatrics, pp. 181-192.Retrieved from http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/119/1/182.full, Parents are Forgetting How to Play With their Children. The Guardian p. 17.Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/26 /parents-children-playtime, playing with your Child: Games for Connection and Emotional Intelligence. Parenting.com. Retrieved from http://www.ahaparenting.com/parenting-                                                                            tools/connection/play-child-emotional-intelligence, Pretend Play Develops Children’s Social Skills. Suite 101. Retrieved from http://kelly-pfeiffer.suite101.com/pretend-play-develops-childrens-social- skills-a135076. These websites helped me in putting an easy to read flyer that I will hand out at my presentation.

I feel that I have found the correct and appropriate research and materials for presenting and implementing my Advocacy Plan, integration of play and the arts in the classroom. I am putting it all together now and feel a little overwhelmed because I do not want to leave anything out nor sound repetitive. Thanks for all your feedback and support. Good luck to you all and stay confident and positive!

 

 

BLOG 1 My Personal Advocacy Journey

An inspirational quote on advocacy that I chose is "Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate”- Anonymous. I chose this quote because my advocacy plan is on the integration of play and the arts into the curriculum. As teachers we are their role models and the ones to give the opportunities to explore and investigate learning as they play.

I am most excited about my advocacy plan for the children and teachers. By providing a wide variety of play, music, gross motor movement, and art, we develop well-rounded children that are interested in what they are learning. The children get exposed to different learning materials and activities that benefit each child individually and they will participate with their peers and learn to communicate effectively. I love to be with children and watch how they interact and learn with and from each other. From my own experience, when the children are provided with materials that are age appropriate and constantly throughout the day, the students tend to be more interested in their learning.

In my thirteen years in the early childhood field, I had never really considered myself to be an advocate for any one cause. As I started this process in Internship 1, I have recognized the importance of advocating for the benefit of those that need your help and support. I feel very confident, happy and proud to be able to work for some changes in the curriculum of the students of my center in an effort for them to have a more enjoyable, relatable, personal, and interesting education. I feel that in this way they will also mature their communication and social development.

I am not a very good public speaker and I feel anxious when I have to speak with the various targeted audiences. I feel that once I start speaking I can keep moving from there, it’s the worry of what their reaction might be; will they agree? Disagree? Not understand? Will they think that it’s not worth it? I really want to be prepared with as much research and information and responses to all their questions so that I can really persuade them.

I think that being fully prepared, have the information, lesson plans, activities, web site resources, articles, observations, and professional feedback will be most effective in helping me overcome my challenges and anxiety. Also, I think that once I help the teachers to implement the curriculum into their daily schedules, they will feel more comfortable as will I, seeing it all fall into place. I feel strongly and passionate about this action plan therefore I think that will also help me overcome any anxiety because I am confident that it is for the benefit of the children so that they feel comfortable in their learning environment, one that is meant for them to explore and learn.

As a team of teachers we can encourage each other by providing suggestions, ideas, and constructive criticism. We come from various different backgrounds and experience which can be helpful to those that may be new at this or just need a new pair of eyes and ears to put a different perspective to our plan for us. I always appreciate feedback and believe it to be necessary for an effective Advocacy Action Plan to happen.

EDU 412 Internship 2

Welcome everyone! I hope to continue learning with all of you, thank you for all the feedback and information. Good Luck!

Thank You BLOG

This class was an interesting one full of many realizations for me after so many years without writing a research paper as well as enjoying these Blog assignments. The many blogs I read were all educational and full of extensive knowledge we are lucky to be taking with us.

 I want to thank Elizabeth DeMarco for her information provided to us about inclusion and early intervention. I have not had the opportunity to go through this process, just observe some children in my host classroom that have EI, and I realized how much work, assessments, and resources are needed to make this a team experience for it to be the most benefit for the child. I hope that when I do face this challenge with one of my students I am prepared and able to provide the appropriate tools, resources, nurture and understanding the child needs.

Also, thank you to Nicole Carlisle. Childhood obesity is affecting many children and families now more than ever. Many teachers and schools want to do what is right and offer better foods and more large motor skills activities, however at times it is also family lifestyles that do not provide the right guidance for the children. It is a tough subject to deal with and as teachers I think we have to do the best we can to inform the children and families of the importance of living a healthy life and be the role model as well for them.

Overall, I want to thank you all for providing us with great resources, information, and keeping each other going. We all want to touch the lives of our students and I think through all these classes at Kendall we touch each other’s lives as well. Good Luck!

Blog 4 EDU 411

I got the chance to interact with the families of our center during drop off and pick up. I interacted with the parents of the prekindergarten and the infant rooms. The parents in the prekindergarten class bring their child into the classroom and sign them in. I noticed that many parents are very quick to drop off and the teacher barely has time to ask how their morning was, and for parents not even to give a kiss to their child. I loved to see how the teacher quickly went to those children, talked to them and sat with them a minute. The children all were very happy entering the room. The parents that did stay a few minutes asked the teacher questions about what they were doing that day or about the homework.

I also had the chance to sit in on an end of year parent/teacher conference. The teacher went over the assessment with the parents and some ideas and resources to use over the summer with their child. It was great interaction and positive feedback from both parties. The parents were very pleased with curriculum and the progress their child had done.

I noticed the parents in the infant room do stay longer. They have a sheet that has to be filled out every morning letting the teachers know how their child is and the last time of a feeding. One parent said that they come a few minutes earlier so that they can stay and talk to the teachers about their baby and any new things that the baby is doing at school. There seemed to be a closer bond with the families and the teachers.

This center also has a lot of parent involved activities so that parents can be more involved. There is a parent advisory council that meets every month to discuss future events and current situations in the school. Parents are invited to participate in all classroom parties, attend weekly “read to our class” sessions, have conferences whenever needed, and the school also hosts Parent Night Out once a month. The parents that I was able to talk to are happy with the center, the teachers and the care their child receives. They feel comfortable when they leave in the morning and with the care and nurturing their child is receiving.

BLOG 3

I am spending most of my time in the four/five year old classroom. It is amazing how the children know that it is close to end of the school year for them; they end on June 7^th.  They are having a hard time focusing and listening and the teacher is using incentives to get them to pay attention. She has a treasure box, surprise toys she does not take out often, a reward chart, and allows the children to take longer turns at the computer if they have had good days. This has helped, however she has center time now twice in the morning to allow the children more free choice time and social interaction at reasonable levels and this has made it better. I have noticed that this has improved because the children are now ready to move on; they learned what they had to, (they are reviewing) and now they can practice what they have learned as they play. They share, role plays, write, and communicate in all centers of the classroom. This is the area of interest for my paper and I am witnessing it live; how children learn through play and integrating the arts into their curriculum and schedule.

 I find this to be a challenge myself in my classroom because my students are also acting up a bit and I think they are bored. We have been on the same schedule for the whole year. I too am changing things up a little and making things more unpredictable to keep the students interested and wondering what will happen next. Having discussions with them about their likes and interests keeps them wanting to hear about each other’s story.

As I spent time with the director, there were many things she was tending to at once. She has been working as a director for twenty years. Her main concern are the students, however she deals more with the parents and the teachers. There are always parent concerns or complaints. The teachers need help with students, getting supplies, or cleaning the room. The director has a lot to manage such as, payroll hours, children’s safety and health, sufficient food and supplies. The director is involved in the classrooms; she always walks around observing the activities in each classroom and since she brings tours throughout the days, loves to see the children learning in areas of the classrooms through play. After speaking with her, she says that the majorities of the parents care about their child being happy, safe, and respected above all and wants the education and learning to happen alongside that. It was great to see the school and classroom through her vision and to have play be such an acceptable part of every classroom, from infants though pre-kindergarten.

Blog #2

I feel lucky to have the opportunity to interact daily with a great group of teachers, staff, parents, and great children. I work at a private preschool for ages six weeks to five year olds. My topic for my research paper is integrating play and the arts into the curriculum; therefore I spoke to two teachers about this topic. They are lead teachers at the school, Ms. Jessica a three year old teacher and Ms.Yaky a four year old teacher. They both have different styles of teaching yet the teachers believe that play is a major part of implementing their lessons as well as a part of their daily routines. As I observed their classrooms, it was clear that the children were interested in what they were doing as well as making their own choices to where and what they wanted to play with.

They each had great ideas for me as to how to integrate play in the curriculum; through music, dramatic play, and acting out stories, aside from the regular playground fun and games. We also all agreed on the importance of play in the classroom for the child’s socio-emotional development, to learn to express their feelings, to share, and for building their own sense of responsibility.  Ms. Jessica says that she assesses her three year olds best as they are playing because she feels that she gets “the whole picture as they play”.

I especially enjoyed seeing how enthusiastic the teachers got as they would tell me their ideas or how they implement a certain lesson. Ms. Yaky the four year old teacher said “I see play as a valuable piece of their education, through play they learn at their own pace and level”. This year I had several different learning styles in my classroom, I really implemented play and the arts into my lessons. In this way I was able to reach each child as well as offer various activities that would keep each child interested. I think that the children will benefit from this type of learning because it provides them with a comfortable feeling of confidence to learn in their own way.

Module 1: Becoming an advocate

I interviewed two teachers of early childhood education. They were both concerned as teachers about the lack of resources they have. They feel that with more materials and manipulatives they can provide a greater variety of activities and support to their students. They have been proactive about this and share materials with other classes, ask for parent donations, bring things from home, and recycle items. The kindergarten teacher has concerns that many children she has taught are coming from either low income households or divorced households and it affects the children greatly physically, socially, and in their education. This teacher works very close with the school and tries to help each family as much as she can.

I think that these issues are of concern from the teacher, parent and child perspective. I think that choosing to be an educator I have chosen to be an advocate for all children because I want the best for all of them, every child deserves a chance and voice. It is not realistic to think I can fix all issues; I want to be a supporter and advocate in every way possible.

I am thinking about doing my paper on the integration of play and the arts in the classroom and curriculum. Related topics would be, the social awareness impact on the child, different ideas of implementation of play and the arts, and different styles of learning or development of each child, needs different approaches such as from play and the arts.

Is it too broad of a topic? Did I make myself clear as to what my concern is or my advocacy issue is?Any suggestions, thoughts, and/or ideas about this topic would be appreciated

My first blog

Hello everyone!