One of the insights I gained from my interviews is the obvious frustration seen by many of the professionals, teachers in the classroom setting. Through the years there has been an increase in children that need and require one-on-one attention or scaffolding in order to progress on a daily basis during their school day. This is an overwhelming task for the professionals within this field when the resources needed to give these children the help they need is not provided. There is a fear that children that need that extra help will become "lost" academically if there is no immediate intervention. The particular school where I performed my interviews was a private school in a mostly poor neighborhood. These schools rely on the tuition paid by the parents, which is not suffice in attaining all the necessary resources for children that require special attention. Children in these type of school settings are not receiving the consistent academic attention in order to succeed. Sadly, these children that initially entered the school environment with excitement and enthusiasm, start believing that they are not capable of learning and quickly become discouraged. This negative behavior can extend and increase, and will be detrimental to the child's continuing academic schooling performance if there is no intervention. One of the topics I would like to research more is the various ways and methods that a child can learn. These learning styles are important to be explored so that curriculums and lesson plans can be accurately created in sync with the interest of the child's individual learning styles. Another topic to be researched is how to encourage teachers and professionals to update their teaching styles and step away from the teaching methods from yesteryear where one lesson plan was for every student. Within the same context, researching how to encourage parents and families to become more involved in a child's academic progress should be investigated. Involving the families will gradually extend into parents and families taking a stronger interest in the child's personal life, which affects the child's performance in school. How can we as professionals entering the educational realm highlight our advocacy skills to make necessary and immediate changes to our school system? As a community, it is imperative to become aware of the importance of creating a forum within each of our schools, that will capitalize the emerging needs that our children are facing today. Starting within our own immediate community can impact a reaction that can lead other communities into action.
Myrna, There seems to be a need for more individualized instruction in the classroom. It also makes no sense that resources are not available in order for these changes to be made. I do know that funding will not be cut for Early Childhood education. I know that our President is very adamant about keeping funding for programs for young children. Children who do not get the needed help will eventually get lost and it takes more times to bring these children back up to speed.
I think that is a good topic. The classrooms sizes are getting bigger with all the cuts that are taking place. It is harder for the teachers to give one-on-one to the children who need the help. Teachers have to take a step back and look at the lifestyle of the child and then think about what is the best way for them to learn. Each child is an individual and when you have that many children in your classroom, you seem to forget that each child is their own person. Learning does not come easy for some children and they are left behind with no help. I wonder how many children really fall through the cracks.
Observing and Interacting with Professionals, Children, and Families in an Early Childhood Setting –
During the course of the last two weeks I had the opportunity to talk with a principal of a school, and one of the school board members. A frustration expressed by both of them is the inability to freely choose a program, that although is beneficial to the school, is not within the budget means of the school. In this specific case, the program discussed is a computer-based lesson plan that focuses on a variety of subjects. These types of programs allow the child to work on a given topic that he/she has found challenging.
The child is able to work as much as necessary until the child is able to successfully move to the next level. The child can work independently, and at his/her own pace. This program is specifically geared for children that need that repetition and review in a given subject and are unable to work in it in a classroom setting. One of the challenges with this program is that there are so many children that need this type of lesson, but their time is limited. As a result of the limited time, parents are asked to give their child an opportunity to practice at home with these games. But again, this is another challenge because some parents do not follow through, do not have computers at home, or do not take their child to the library to have access to one. This again, brings to mind the importance of strong communication with families and schools in order to continually advocate and promote the importance of an education and well-being for every child.
These past two weeks exemplified several challenges, one of them, unfortunately, appears to be more common in occurrence. In a matter of moments, while the children were in line, a little boy decided to show his private area. One of the children went quickly to inform the teacher of this incident. The little boy was spoken to, and parents were notified. When discussing this incident with the teachers afterwards, I was told that this little boy had claimed he saw this on TV. One can only decipher how exactly this happens. Children are allowed to watch programs that are inappropriate for them, the same can be said for unsupervised internet usage by younger children. It is obvious that children are exposed to more unsuitable material at a younger age. For this reason, children are losing their innocence much sooner. Another observation that I encountered was the sudden change in personality in a boy that was always being told to raise his hand before speaking, or to stop fidgeting in his seat. When I observed this change, I also noticed his sad demeanor, but still was not sure. Everything became clearer when the teacher asked each student to create their very own prayer to be displayed in the hallway later. As I collected these prayers I came along this little boy's written prayer. In his prayer he asked for God to help his mom. To please make her better. When I asked the teacher about it, I was told that his mom had a tumor that was growing in her brain. Again, I am reminded how we, as educators, must know the whole child, so that we can better understand them. They will learn better, just as we will also learn.
Oh no... Unsupervised internet is not a good idea for young children or even teens. The internet is so open and they could be watching all kinds of things on youtube. Thats really hard to hear that the little boys mom is sick. I have had a child in a class where his mother had breast cancer and kids can take it so many different ways. This statement is very true. "Again, I am reminded how we, as educators, must know the whole child, so that we can better understand them. They will learn better, just as we will also learn."
During these last few weeks, I was assigned to play specific concept table games with some of the children. In this instance, I was given a group of boys that needed to improve their reading skills. We played a game that consisted of sight words, along with using the memory to locate their matching pairs. I noticed that one of the boys did not seem as excited or anxious to play the game. Through the game, as each of the boys was able to attain an amount of matching pairs, this particular boy did not have any. He would look at the other boys that were counting how many cards they each had, and watch them compare and laugh with each other. One of the boys noticing that his classmate had none, offered to give him two of his. I replied, "No, (name) can do everything on his own, just like the rest of you." I knew that this little boy had to see for himself that he can "win" some cards like his peers, and not feel that the only other option was for someone to do it for him. So he did, win two cards. When he held those two so valuable cards close to him, he smiled. At the same moment one of the boys patted him on the back and said, "All right!!"
I have observed and monitored several games such as these, and there are several instances that one or two of the children do not win the "grand prize", but they take this in stride. They laugh it off or just say, "Oh, I'll get it next time". But then there are those other children, that winning is almost like a quiet moment of self-approval, they did it, they passed the test. They proved something to themselves, or proved it to others. Difficult to describe, but nevertheless, a good feeling. I did not know, of course, if this little boy would indeed win some cards, but I also knew that he had to find out for himself, no matter what the outcome. I'd like to think that he has somewhat learned to not let his personal fears control his actions, but to just take a chance in finding out, and allow these experiences to teach and discover something about himself.
I know what you mean about winning... it makes me upset how some handle it and take it. I just want to fix it and tell everyone how to be a team player. I have had the girls I watch the person that wins has to clean up the game and it kind of takes the feel of the winner and loser off. Its hard because the winner and loser feeling starts early and breaks my heart.
I understand your fear that children that need that extra help will become "lost" academically if there is no immediate intervention. This is a worry of mine too. I also agree with you that there are teachers that need to update their teaching styles for all the different learning styles out there. Nice write up. Jonna
So glad you figured this out! Now what do we do? Thank you!
ReplyDeleteOne of the insights I gained from my interviews is the obvious frustration seen by many of the professionals, teachers in the classroom setting. Through the years there has been an increase in children that need and require one-on-one attention or scaffolding in order to progress on a daily basis during their school day. This is an overwhelming task for the professionals within this field when the resources needed to give these children the help they need is not provided. There is a fear that children that need that extra help will become "lost" academically if there is no immediate intervention. The particular school where I performed my interviews was a private school in a mostly poor neighborhood. These schools rely on the tuition paid by the parents, which is not suffice in attaining all the necessary resources for children that require special attention. Children in these type of school settings are not receiving the consistent academic attention in order to succeed. Sadly, these children that initially entered the school environment with excitement and enthusiasm, start believing that they are not capable of learning and quickly become discouraged. This negative behavior can extend and increase, and will be detrimental to the child's continuing academic schooling performance if there is no intervention. One of the topics I would like to research more is the various ways and methods that a child can learn. These learning styles are important to be explored so that curriculums and lesson plans can be accurately created in sync with the interest of the child's individual learning styles. Another topic to be researched is how to encourage teachers and professionals to update their teaching styles and step away from the teaching methods from yesteryear where one lesson plan was for every student. Within the same context, researching how to encourage parents and families to become more involved in a child's academic progress should be investigated. Involving the families will gradually extend into parents and families taking a stronger interest in the child's personal life, which affects the child's performance in school. How can we as professionals entering the educational realm highlight our advocacy skills to make necessary and immediate changes to our school system? As a community, it is imperative to become aware of the importance of creating a forum within each of our schools, that will capitalize the emerging needs that our children are facing today. Starting within our own immediate community can impact a reaction that can lead other communities into action.
ReplyDeleteMyrna,
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be a need for more individualized instruction in the classroom. It also makes no sense that resources are not available in order for these changes to be made. I do know that funding will not be cut for Early Childhood education. I know that our President is very adamant about keeping funding for programs for young children. Children who do not get the needed help will eventually get lost and it takes more times to bring these children back up to speed.
Good Post!
Y Tuitt :)
I think that is a good topic. The classrooms sizes are getting bigger with all the cuts that are taking place. It is harder for the teachers to give one-on-one to the children who need the help. Teachers have to take a step back and look at the lifestyle of the child and then think about what is the best way for them to learn. Each child is an individual and when you have that many children in your classroom, you seem to forget that each child is their own person. Learning does not come easy for some children and they are left behind with no help. I wonder how many children really fall through the cracks.
ReplyDeleteObserving and Interacting with Professionals, Children, and Families in an Early Childhood Setting –
ReplyDeleteDuring the course of the last two weeks I had the opportunity to talk with a principal of a school, and one of the school board members. A frustration expressed by both of them is the inability to freely choose a program, that although is beneficial to the school, is not within the budget means of the school. In this specific case, the program discussed is a computer-based lesson plan that focuses on a variety of subjects. These types of programs allow the child to work on a given topic that he/she has found challenging.
The child is able to work as much as necessary until the child is able to successfully move to the next level. The child can work independently, and at his/her own pace. This program is specifically geared for children that need that repetition and review in a given subject and are unable to work in it in a classroom setting. One of the challenges with this program is that there are so many children that need this type of lesson, but their time is limited. As a result of the limited time, parents are asked to give their child an opportunity to practice at home with these games. But again, this is another challenge because some parents do not follow through, do not have computers at home, or do not take their child to the library to have access to one. This again, brings to mind the importance of strong communication with families and schools in order to continually advocate and promote the importance of an education and well-being for every child.
These past two weeks exemplified several challenges, one of them, unfortunately, appears to be more common in occurrence. In a matter of moments, while the children were in line, a little boy decided to show his private area. One of the children went quickly to inform the teacher of this incident. The little boy was spoken to, and parents were notified. When discussing this incident with the teachers afterwards, I was told that this little boy had claimed he saw this on TV. One can only decipher how exactly this happens. Children are allowed to watch programs that are inappropriate for them, the same can be said for unsupervised internet usage by younger children. It is obvious that children are exposed to more unsuitable material at a younger age. For this reason, children are losing their innocence much sooner. Another observation that I encountered was the sudden change in personality in a boy that was always being told to raise his hand before speaking, or to stop fidgeting in his seat. When I observed this change, I also noticed his sad demeanor, but still was not sure. Everything became clearer when the teacher asked each student to create their very own prayer to be displayed in the hallway later. As I collected these prayers I came along this little boy's written prayer. In his prayer he asked for God to help his mom. To please make her better. When I asked the teacher about it, I was told that his mom had a tumor that was growing in her brain. Again, I am reminded how we, as educators, must know the whole child, so that we can better understand them. They will learn better, just as we will also learn.
ReplyDeleteOh no... Unsupervised internet is not a good idea for young children or even teens. The internet is so open and they could be watching all kinds of things on youtube.
ReplyDeleteThats really hard to hear that the little boys mom is sick. I have had a child in a class where his mother had breast cancer and kids can take it so many different ways.
This statement is very true. "Again, I am reminded how we, as educators, must know the whole child, so that we can better understand them. They will learn better, just as we will also learn."
During these last few weeks, I was assigned to play specific concept table games with some of the children. In this instance, I was given a group of boys that needed to improve their reading skills. We played a game that consisted of sight words, along with using the memory to locate their matching pairs. I noticed that one of the boys did not seem as excited or anxious to play the game. Through the game, as each of the boys was able to attain an amount of matching pairs, this particular boy did not have any. He would look at the other boys that were counting how many cards they each had, and watch them compare and laugh with each other. One of the boys noticing that his classmate had none, offered to give him two of his. I replied, "No, (name) can do everything on his own, just like the rest of you." I knew that this little boy had to see for himself that he can "win" some cards like his peers, and not feel that the only other option was for someone to do it for him. So he did, win two cards. When he held those two so valuable cards close to him, he smiled. At the same moment one of the boys patted him on the back and said, "All right!!"
ReplyDeleteI have observed and monitored several games such as these, and there are several instances that one or two of the children do not win the "grand prize", but they take this in stride. They laugh it off or just say, "Oh, I'll get it next time". But then there are those other children, that winning is almost like a quiet moment of self-approval, they did it, they passed the test. They proved something to themselves, or proved it to others. Difficult to describe, but nevertheless, a good feeling. I did not know, of course, if this little boy would indeed win some cards, but I also knew that he had to find out for himself, no matter what the outcome. I'd like to think that he has somewhat learned to not let his personal fears control his actions, but to just take a chance in finding out, and allow these experiences to teach and discover something about himself.
I know what you mean about winning... it makes me upset how some handle it and take it. I just want to fix it and tell everyone how to be a team player. I have had the girls I watch the person that wins has to clean up the game and it kind of takes the feel of the winner and loser off. Its hard because the winner and loser feeling starts early and breaks my heart.
ReplyDeleteI understand your fear that children that need that extra help will become "lost" academically if there is no immediate intervention. This is a worry of mine too. I also agree with you that there are teachers that need to update their teaching styles for all the different learning styles out there. Nice write up.
ReplyDeleteJonna