Standard 4
NAEYC Standard:
STANDARD 4. USING DEVELOPMENTALLY EFFECTIVE APPROACHES
Candidates prepared in early childhood degree programs understand that teaching and learning with young children is a complex enterprise, and its details vary depending on children’s ages, characteristics, and the settings within which teaching and learning occur. They understand and use positive relationships and supportive interactions as the foundation for their work with young children and families. Candidates know, understand, and use a wide array of developmentally appropriate approaches, instructional strategies, and tools to connect with children and families, and to positively influence each child’s development and learning (NAEYC 2010).
Brief Description of Evidence:
As part of my EDED 243 Cognitive Curriculum course during the Fall semester of 2017, I completed my Invitation to Learn and a documentation panel and implemented them in my preschool classroom at Little Bloomers. The Invitation to Learn required me to get the children involved in the activity and explore what they are supposed to do. When asked what they were interested in, the students responded with houses. I made a web on the board about houses. I collected the needed materials (markers, pencils, crayons, paper, rulers, and blocks) prior to creating my lesson. I then used my knowledge to locate a theorist and included the Reggio Emilia Approach. The Reggio Approach is an innovative, inspiring approach used in Early Childhood Education. Reggio's theory explains what students are capable of. Every child brings a curiosity that drives their interest. I set this Invitation to Learn up to help the children comprehend what they are supposed to do in an inviting way. The final part I had to create was a documentation panel. This had all of the pictures I had taken when they were all exploring my Reggio Approach activity about building different types of family houses.
Analysis of What I Learned:
Through completion of my Invitation to Learn, I was able to use positive interaction and social skills to work with a small group of preschool children. I know the importance of Early Childhood professionals working together and helping children to succeed. I have learned how to talk with a group of children and help them understand if they have any questions/concerns. This project helped me to think outside of the box and to incorporate a fun activity that had children explore, rather than having myself tell them what they should be doing and not having fun. I learned that using the Reggio Emilio approach will help me, as a teacher, learn and will teach my students to know how to explore and use nature and become creative while exploring. Being able to watch my students learn about something they were interested in was great. The students were very engaged in the lesson by asking many questions and communicating with their classmates. At the beginning of the project, I had no idea what a graphic web was or how to put one together, so I researched it on Google and Pinterest. I found out that I knew more about webs and documentation boards than I thought.
How This Artifact Demonstrates my Competence on the NAEYC Standard:
My competence in this standard is proven by the web we made, the documentation panel and the pictures I recorded while observing the children in my preschool classroom. This helped me get a better understanding of what a web was and how to incorporate the pictures/dictations into a documentation panel. This standard helped me grow as a teacher. It taught me to think of activities that included a Reggio Emilia Approach and looked fun and exciting for the children. The students were able to explore at their center to help them learn. It helped me grasp and understand how to get the families involved in my Invitation to Learn. The documentation board in the classroom allowed parents and families to be engaged in what their child was learning. The resources I used for this project were Google and Pinterest. I used them to help me research some ideas of how to set up my documentation board and to help me understand what exactly a web is. This project helped me, as a teacher, see that children need to explore, and that curiosity helps them to learn.
