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This is me

My name is Amanda Rich, I am college graduate pursuing the career of Early Childhood Education. What I hope to do is show you my journey to becoming an early childhood educator by providing my learning experiences from my practicum/ internship.

Why I am an Excellent Teacher

This is based on NAEYC’s 5 Guidelines of Effective Teaching. What that means is that I follow the guidelines for developmentally appropriate practice that will help promote young children’s optimal learning and development. What you will see on this page are my experiences I have had with children in my program, lesson plans I’ve created, and experiences that I have had throughout the program. These samples of work and my shared experiences will show why I am an excellent teacher.

Assessment System used in the classroom

In the classroom we use Teaching Strategies Gold (TSG) as our assessment system. According to the Teaching Strategies web page, it is an “ongoing observational system for assessing children from birth through kindergarten. It helps teachers to observe children in the context of everyday experiences, which is an effective way to learn what they know and can do”(TSG). This system is easy to use, it helps you get a better understanding on how to collect and interpret assessment information, and it’s easy for parents to use. TSG makes it easy for parents to access their child’s progress throughout the year, parents can also see pictures and videos of their child participating in classroom activities. In the classroom we use a tablet, I-pod, and our own cell-phone to access TSG to document observations, this makes it easier to collect in the moment observations. I think it’s a great tool to use in the classroom, but I feel at times that it’s better to not use your personal devise because it can be easy to open other items and get distracted, it can also be a distraction for the children and distract them from their own experiences.…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. https://www.buffalo.edu/content/dam/www/ubccc/Documents/Teaching%20Strategies%20-%20GOLD-Touring-Guide_5-2013.pdf

Teaching to Enhance Development and Learning

Developmentally appropriate teaching provides the best possible experiences guided by the children and adults. Adult-guided experiences are based on the teachers goals and shaped by the children’s engagement. Child-guided experiences is based on the children’s interests and actions along with teacher support. In the end, its the teachers who are responsible for stimulating, directing, and supporting the children’s development and learning. What I do to enhance children’s development and learning is providing them with physical, verbal, and emotional support during moments that are challenging for the child. An example of enhancing children’s development and learning would be when we were at the playground; child M was watching other children climb the monkey bars, I asked her “I see you’re watching the other kids climb the monkey bars, do you want to climb them?” She looked up at me and said “but I’m scared”. I told her “If you really want to climb the monkey bars I can help you if you want, do you want help to climb the monkey bars?” She said “I want to climb the monkey bars but I’m scared, can you help me?” I told her I could help, and she walked up to the monkey bars and I assisted her by having her watch the other children climb them and see how they do it. I then stood right next to her for her safety and used encouraging and supportive words as she climbed the monkey bars. I assisted enhancing a child’s development and learning through this interaction which helped them build their confidence, practice their climbing, and use their observational skills to complete their goal of climbing the monkey bars.

Building Reciprocal Relationships with Parents and Families

Building relationships with the parents/families are very important because parents are a child’s first teacher, makes communicating information about the child easier, helps the child feel comfortable around the teacher and in the classroom. Having and building these relationships with parents and family can allow the child to feel more comfortable with the teacher, which can lead to more participation in the classroom that can result in the child getting a well rounded education. An example of building relationships with parents and families would be my communication. When I first started my practicum I knew I would have to interact with parents, I also knew it would be a challenge for me because of my lack of experience with parent communication. I first started out by greeting parents at drop-off, and again at pick-up; saying things like good morning, how are you, etc. After I chose my focus children, I started to talk to their parents at drop-off and pick-up, I would initiate these conversations through greetings and then ask them about their day, how they are doing, what activities they enjoy doing with the family, maybe talk about personal goals. I did this to not only build these relationships for the benefit of the child, but to also make the parents and I feel comfortable with each other.

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