Reflection

Looking back at m R2P posts, I am very pleased with how I have grown. I decided to use the blogging method the whole time, for it is what I am most comfortable doing. However, I really did try all of the methods we have learned to make a blog post great. In the beginning, I barely had any pictures, no headings, bad spacing, no connection to my audience, and a flow that could have been better. Looking at my last post, I’m very proud of how my blogs turned out. I love that I am able to connect to my audience, use pictures, use links to other good websites to refer to, and much more.

 

Looking Ahead

Moving forward, I hope to use blogging more often. I liked being able to work out hard questions by research and writing out my thoughts. I think that if I would blog while teaching I would reach a lot of people, including those a part of my classroom. I hope to keep parents in the loop on what is going on in my classroom. This could include homework assignments, important dates, schoolwide activities, and more. This would be a great idea because it can be easily accessible, and parents, guardians, and students can reach out to me by commenting on the post itself, and they can communicate with others who comment on the posts.

Overall, I thought this was a really great experience and I hope to continue blogging!

COVID-19 Hit us Hard.

Teachers, take a deep breath. This time of the year is stressful enough and now this virus has taken away our kiddos from us. While it is for the best and it is absolutely important to keep them and yourselves safe, it is a total bummer. SO much has been canceled and rescheduled. Everyone is finding ways around celebrating birthdays, prom, graduations, holidays, and more, and we are all champs for it. This may be tough, but there will be a light at the end of the tunnel, I promise!

In the meantime, I’m sure you’re wondering how the heck you are going to stay busy during quarantine, besides continuing your teaching the best you can.

Staying Busy

First, I recommend taking a lot of walks to get fresh air. My family, friends, and I have been going on walks to get out of the house and enjoy the fresh air and the beauty that nature is! You can be safe and go out and see some beautiful sights. Here are just a few that I’ve encountered these days. From Hawk Falls in Pennsylvania to rainbows in my front yard to the sunset at the park, they were all a sight to see, and I was totally safe when venturing out.

What if I can’t drive and go see new places?

Don’t fret! There are plenty of things to do at home!

Have a photoshoot with your pets! They will love the extra treats, love and all the attention they’ll get and you will have some special pictures to decorate the house with!

Try a new recipe! My mom and I made some really yummy ice cream sundaes one day and took them with us to the park to stargaze the meteor shower. All you need is leftover ice cream from the freezer and some toppings and you can make it exactly how you like it.

 

 

Binge your favorite show or watch some new movies! One way to relax is to put on a new show and get hooked on it. It’s fairly easy and most times inexpensive to set up an account on Disney Plus, Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV, etc. Most of these options have a 30-day free trial, so you can try it out and see what app works best, and then if you change your mind you can just cancel the trial and use what works best for you!

Miss visiting the museum or aquarium? Did you have a school trip that was canceled or rescheduled? Take a digital museum tour! Thanks to new technology, spending the day at a museum is still an option, even if you can’t leave the house. Travel and Leisure has a list of 12 museums that offer virtual tours. The Georgia Aquarium and the Monterey Bay Aquarium have also turned on their webcams so you can still watch all the critters without the big crowds!

Videogamers, Unite!

The Nintendo Switch has made a huge debut and flew off the shelves the minute before quarantine had been put into place. If you and your family are big into games and competition, this may be for you. There are a ton of options when buying a Nintendo game system and multiple packages to choose from. The prices vary depending on the device or game. You can look for any Nintendo system and games here.

Need to burn energy?

On your walk, you may find that you want to kick it up a notch and start working out! There are tons and tons of workout routine ideas on Pinterest and the internet. You can even workout without any gym equipment.

Youtube is a great tool when looking for inspiration on what to do when exercising. MadFit on Youtube has a collection of videos to choose from and begin an amazing fitness journey!

Read More: Exercise with these household objects for a full-body workout during quarantine

More Fun Things to Do

• Color in coloring books
• Video chat friends and family: Zoom, Google Hangouts, and Facetime are great apps for this
• Read a new book: Epic! is a website for reading children’s books online, and there is a 30-day free trial
• Fix up or start a garden
• DIY Home Improvement projects 
• More DIY Home Projects 

 

Last But Not Least

Teachers have always been superheroes, even if they haven’t always been getting the recognition they deserve. Since this crisis, teachers have been working harder than ever, trying their hardest to make sure their students are still getting some form of education. There are countless videos, pictures, blogs, and news reports on how teachers have stepped up and are doing everything they can for their students. Working from home isn’t easy, but these teachers make it seem like a breeze. So educators,

THANK YOU!

 

 

 

Welcome Back!

The head start classroom I am in seems like an ordinary head start program. The room is set up perfectly for play. The children learn through play all day long, especially dramatic playing. They have a kitchen, tons of books to look through and lots of play dough to experiment with. The teachers in the room promote racial diversity, and there is a wide range of students that attend the program. The one thought that perplexes me though is, are the students on track in their learning?

Staying on Track

The students at the head start classroom I am doing my field placement at, are 3-5 years old and very smart. They can hold full conversations and they are very curious about everything, so they are always asking questions. But, all they do all day is play with very little learning instruction. Are they really getting everything they need to move on to kindergarten?

First, we need to know what a head start program is and what it does for the children enrolled in it. “Head Start is a Federal program that promotes the school readiness of children from birth to age five from low-income families by enhancing their cognitive, social, and emotional development. Head Start programs provide a learning environment that supports children’s growth in many areas such as language, literacy, and social and emotional development (Benefits.Gov, 2020)”.

https://www.benefits.gov/benefit/616

So, is What They’re Learning Useful?

According to ECLKC, in a head start program, it is required that all agencies establish school readiness goals. They are defined as “the expectations of children’s status and progress across domains of language and literacy development, cognition and general knowledge, approaches to learning, physical well-being and motor development, and social and emotional development that will improve readiness for kindergarten goals”

According to Reading Rockets, being ready for kindergarten means having well-developed preschool skills, and being academically, socially, and physically ready for the transition. These are the signs that your child will be ready for kindergarten:

Academically (pre-reading skills)

• Can retell a simple story
• Speaks in complete sentences of 5-6 words
• Writes name or recognizes letters in their name
• Has good reading conventions such as how to hold a book, reading left to right, knows where the cover is, etc.
• Counts to ten

Socially

• Feels comfortable in a group
• Asks for help when needed
• Knows personal information like their name, age, and gender
• Follows simple instruction
• Recognizes authority
• Can share with others

Physically

• Exhibits fine motor skills such as; holding a pencil, tracing shapes, buttoning a shirt, etc.
• Exhibits motor coordination like riding a bike with training wheels, hops, skips
• Manages bathroom needs

So, is my head start classroom having the students do all of these things? 

The answer is, yes. The teachers that work with the students do a wonderful job of preparing them for kindergarten. The school-age students demonstrate a complete understanding of social skills. They are comfortable in a group, ask for help when they need it and they can share well with others. As for fine and gross motor skills, they have had ample time to practice those. The teachers provide many crafts and activities for developing their fine motor skills. They cut out paper for projects in their small groups and they can hold and use a pencil the correct way. Gross motor skills in these children have developed well too. The students do a gross motor activity every single day. They go out to the playground and run around and do a specific instructed activity before they’re allowed to run and play.

Academically, the students are thriving as well! When asked about a story they read, the students are able to recall the information fairly well. They can speak in full sentences, most times even more than 5 words per sentence. I have seen good reading conventions from the students as well. Also, they know how to count past 10. Most of them can count to 20 because there are about 17 students in their class. Each day they count the number of students they have by answering a question posed by the lead teacher, and they answer by writing their name on their name cards and putting it under their answer choice. Then, the whole group discusses the answers and counts how many students answered which choice.

Overall, I think that a head start program is a great choice for children. They learn mostly through play, but there is instruction built into their day. Children need to experience playing and learning with others at a very young age, so they can have a better chance at success in kindergarten and on. Enrolling your child in a head start program is very easy! The link for an application in the Lancaster Pa area is here!

My Inspiration

If anyone ever asks you, “who inspired you to want to do your profession?” do you have an answer ready on hand? I do. As a future teacher, I am always asked who made me want to be a teacher, because it makes sense, right? For me though, it isn’t a person. I remember that in second grade I had made up my mind to be a teacher, but I don’t remember why. To me, that is super difficult to admit because typically teachers have someone who inspired them. The reason I wanted to become a teacher is that when I was going through elementary school, I was severely bullied. I tried getting my parents, teachers, and principals involved, but nothing ever worked. So from first grade until sixth grade, I was on my own to deal with the kids who were not so nice to me. I realized that I never wanted any of my students to feel the ways that I did each day when going to school. I never hated school, I was always happy to be there. It was just because of the other students that I had such a hard time learning. It was in then that I realized I was going to be different than my teachers. I will never be too busy to listen to a student that is dealing with something personal inside or outside of school. I will always make sure I check-in with every one of my students, because building a good relationship and having that one on one is important.

Reassurance is Key

My mom is the one person who is always pushing me to do better and achieve all of my goals. She is my best friend, I tell her everything and I am also the one person who is pushing her to do better as well.  Whenever I feel like I won’t be a good educator, she’s right there reminding me why I was chosen to be accepted into the education program here at Millersville University. She teaches me a lot about discipline, building relationships, time management, preparation and a lot of things that they don’t tell you in school. She teaches me to be an overall good person, which I feel is essential in any field of work, but especially the field of working with people and their children.

 

Shaping My Path 

There are many theorists who have shaped the education world and everything we believe. Thankfully there are many to incorporate into my teaching style, but here are just two I like in particular.

Gardner– His theory was that children have multiple intelligences. I think that is so true and that every learner should not be restricted to one type of learning. Students need to explore what they are good at doing and that no intelligence is the same as another and that is perfectly normal.

 

Piaget- The Nature Vs. Nurture debate is one every preservice teacher has heard about. I think in every education class, we all debate about it. In my opinion, you need both, just like yin and yang, you can’t have one without the other. As a teacher, we should be prepared for any type of need a student may have. We need to be equipped with snacks, cleaning supplies, hygiene products, extra school materials, a helping hand, and listening ears but most importantly an open heart. We will never know what students will walk into our classrooms one day. We must be prepared for anything those children may need.

 

Why and How in the Field

Every professor I have had the opportunity to learn from at Millersville University has had a strong impact on my early childhood education career. In the field, I am able to see everything my classes have discussed. From classroom management to where the students are in their development, I can finally apply it. As a student, I can say though that I am still learning and growing. I will never be perfect, but I do try my best and try to be calm and confident when out in the field. The professors I have this semester are really doing a wonderful job of teaching us more of how things work when you are teaching. I am very thankful for the experiences they are giving us.

Speak the Truth 

Who speaks the truth for me and shares their insights? Again, my professors are very real with us. They tell us what it’s like to be a teacher. One of my professors is an elementary school principal and she tells us all the details she looks for when hiring teachers. She tells us about what her job is like and how teachers affect her and how she affects her teachers, and so on. I think having that experience is really helpful because it becomes more real for us. It isn’t just an idea anymore, we are given the cold hard facts about what teachers do and how they teach.

Overall, I can say that having mentors when studying a profession is essential. They can teach you things about the field that no textbook can prepare you for, and they can help you when you stumble and fall.