Interacting with Professionals in childcare

I observed Jenny W. Jenny is a 2 year old teacher, she has 6 hours in early childhood along with 1500 clock hours of experience which makes her teacher qualified. She has worked at the center since 2006.

I observed Jenny welcoming families at the beginning of the day. Jenny talked to each parent and they communicated about the child's night and morning. I observed her washing hands as the children arrived, they washed their hands and sang row, row your boat 2 times. I also observed her having informal conversations with the parents at the welcoming time in the morning. I also observed free exploration for the children before they went into their classroom at 8 a.m. I also observed Jenny singing the ABC song with the children. As they sang she pointed to the letters on the wall. I also observed her reading books at story time. While she read the story she pointed to the title on top of the book, and she began to read and pointed to the words in the book. I also observed the 2 year olds singing color songs and spelling out the color words by clapping their hands. These children are also learning words and there meaning such as door, window, snow, penguin, seal, etc. through everyday conversation and class time.

What did your observations reveal about the needs and efforts of these professionals working with children? It revealed to me that by observing Jenny she was able to have an informal conversation and find out things about the child's night and morning routines. By finding out how the child's night and morning was going, this was a determination to how the day would go in the classroom for these children. She also communicates what the child did the day before in class and what they really liked or did not like. Jenny was making an effort to get to know the child and family and she shows that she cares about them.

The strengths and challenges of these professionals? The strenghts for Jenny is that she is able to communicate informally with the parents and find things out about the child's routines. By doing this, she is creating a  bound with these families and getting to know them better and then she has a better understanding of the child. A challenge for this professional is dealing with children that are out of control. She really does not like to talk to the parent about these situations. She has one child who does throw fits and take toys away, but will never really tell the parent this. I see this as her challenge.Another challenge that I see is keeping the children interested, they are 2 and have a very short attention span.

This obervation broaden my understanding of my research topic and advocacy programs of early literacy and how important it is for these children. In the 2 year old room they are already learning letters, words and their meaning, and that by putting letters together they make words. I found this very interesting that they can do this at a very young age. Jenny is giving these children a very good start with letter recognition and phonics.

Here is a summary of some research that I found on Early Literacy. An early start in learning the letters and sounds enables every child to arrive in kindergarten ready to learn to read. If the children are unprepared then they will lack reading readiness and are more likely to develop reading problems later on in their school career. By third grade children are expected to learn to read, by fourth grade they are expected to read to learn.

"To help all children succeed and to compete as a nation, we must strat early and finish strong; we must ensure that every American child becomes a reader. Families can help by maximizing the benefits of parent-child communication from birth. Caregivers and preschool teachers can be given training and resources to stimulate emergent literacy. Children deserve a well-trained teacher who understands reading development, who can pinpoint problems, and who can address them
effectively. "

http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/startearly/intro.html

Interacting with professionals about early literacy

I spoke with a 2 year old teacher, Jennifer, about early literacy the other day at work. She told me that she thinks early literacy is very important. In the 2 year old room they sing the ABC song and when they sing she points to the letters. So at this early age they are being exposed to the letters by song. This will give them the opportunity to find the letters in their enviornment. They also read lots of books. When they read the teacher points to the title and points to the words, so now the children are being exposed to words as well. The 2 year olds also are singing their color song and spelling out the color words as they sing, so they are also learning that puting together letters makes words. In the 2 year old room they are also learning words and what they mean, such as door, window, etc.

My 3 year old teacher, Janice, also felt that early literacy is very important. In the 3 year old room the teacher introduces 3 letters a month. She reads a story about the letters, the children learn the sound the letter makes, learns words that start with that letter and they also find things in their environment that start with that letter, as well as trace the letter with their finger. The 3 year old teacher will also have the children find the letter of the week in the books at library time. All of these things are building early literacy skills for the child which will be added on in pre-k. Janice will also read to the children and point to the title and the words, so now they see words and how letters together create words.

My quote to share is: Pre-k teachers lay the foundation for all learning, which will be built upon in the child's school career.

BernitaJenkins411

BernitaJenkins411


I think your topic for childcare would be good especially about finding funding. I work in childcare and am trying to get a grant for the center it is not easy work.

Interviewing two professionals in EArly Childhood Care and Education

The insights that I gained from the interviews regarding current advocacy efforts and need in our area of interest within the field of early childhood.
Early Literacy is a current interest in early childhood. I interviewed a 1st grade teacher and a prek teacher. The 1st grade teacher thought that reading is a big issue. The issue is how early should they start reading? What should you use to teach them?
The pre-k teacher said that it helps emergent readers become fimailar with different types of text and print. That's when they begin to notice words and sounds and the shape of the letters. They also pick up on the way print is read from left to right and top to bottom. I feel that both of these things are big issues when it comes to early literacy, because both teachers have concerns about early literacy. I feel that they should start to read by 1st grade, but I know that there are kindergarteners reading by the 2nd month of school. I don't know if every school has their own timeline for this or not?

These interviews have influeced my decision about this interest area becasue it is a very important one.
My interest areas were early literacy, getting help for children with suspected learning disabilities, and how does having a preschool education benefit the child in a K-8 school and life.

What area do you think I should pursue for my paper? I think that they are all good areas.

The first week of class

I feel a little overwhhelmed right now. I am taking Teaching Social Studies and the Arts and Internship 1. On top of working 40 hours a week at the center. Does anyone else feel the same way?

Reflections on teaching

I love teaching and have taught Pre-k for 20 years or so. This year I have 6 Pre-k students and they are very challenging. Their behaviors are very challenging.