Advocating for families

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Scholar Practitioners Who Impact Future Change

I feel that an educator is the most precious resource our country has; of all the jobs in this country, none of them would be possible without teachers. Educating children severely affects their lives and it also influences the lives of anyone who comes into contact with those children. Education provides an establishment for a child to base the rest of his or her life on. Without a sound education, it becomes impossible for an individual to provide for themselves and their families. I entered in to the education field to impact the lives of young children just as my former teachers did for me.

As a scholar practitioner it is my duty to lead evaluation initiatives in my classroom and share important information about evaluations with my colleagues. As a classroom teacher I will be sure to use a variety of evaluations for my students and ensure that they are culturally and developmentally appropriate. I will also help my school create an evaluation to ensure that we are upholding our schools mission.

Two downfalls to avoid when leading program evaluations is being unorganized and not using resources. If the leader is unorganized there is no way, the rest of the team can be organized. I would minimize this by utilizing available resources and getting myself organized before undergoing an evaluation.

Using Assistive Technology

Since the advent of computers, a revolution in technology-based learning has occurred and research on computer-based adaptive learning environments has shown exemplary growth (Vandewaetere, Vandercruysse, & Clarebout, 2012). It is important for educators to modify and use supportive technology in order to keep up with the interest of today’s students. According to Vandewaetere, Vandercruysse, and Clarebout (2012), research has demonstrated that, when instruction is adapted or accommodated to learners’ skills, needs, beliefs or knowledge, learners achieve learning goals more efficiently. When students are using technology as a tool or a support for communicating with others, they are in an active role rather than the passive role of recipient of information transmitted by a teacher, textbook, or broadcast. The student is actively making choices about how to generate, obtain, manipulate, or display information.

One supportive technology I chose is Math Bingo (itunes) is an app whose object is to get a pattern of five BINGO Bugs in a row by correctly answering math problems. There are four games to choose from Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division. Math problems are presented at the top of the game screen. Feedback is presented at the bottom of the game screen. Correct solutions to problems answered incorrectly will be displayed. This app can be downloaded on an iPad, iPod, or through iTunes. This technology tool is helpful for children in grades Kindergarten-2^nd. The only thing I would change is offering it in another language.

The second supportive technology I chose was ABCmouse.com. I have used this with my students and have seen great results. This site is available on the computer, IPad, IPod, or Smart Board. ABCmouse covers domains such as reading, math, and science and is culturally responsive, allowing students to create characters that look like themselves. It offers 10 levels with over 800 lessons available for students. ABCmouse can be used from Pre-k-2^nd grade.

From my own personal experience, one challenge with using technology is that it may not always work. It has been several times were our schools internet was down so students could not access the apps.

Reference

ABCmouse: Educational Games, Books, Puzzles & Songs for Kids & Toddlers. (2017). Abcmouse.com. Retrieved from https://www.abcmouse.com/

Math Bingo on the App Store. (2017). App Store. Retrieved from https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/math-bingo/id371338715?mt=8

Vandewaetere, M., Vandercruysse, S., & Clarebout, G. (2012). Learners' perceptions and illusions of adaptivity in computer-based learning environments. Educational Technology Research & Development, 60(2), 307-324. doi:10.1007/s11423-011-9225-2

Choosing the Proper Assessment Scenarios

Purposeful assessment drives instruction and affects learning. Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning. Purposeful assessment practices help teachers and students understand where they have been, where they are, and where they might go next (Guiding Principle 3: Purposeful assessment drives instruction, 2016). Assessment provides educators, parents, and families with critical information about a child’s development and growth. Assessment can Identify children who may need additional support and determine if there is a need for intervention or support services ("Early Childhood Assessment: Resources for Early Learning", 2017).

This is 4-year-old Henry’s first being in a school setting. During the parent/teacher conference his teacher expressed to the parents that Henry needs guidance to start tasks as well as to complete them. His parents share that they believe he is underachieving. He tends to avoid fine motor skills, particularly drawing and writing, and seems to have difficulty managing Lego blocks. He finds it hard to socialize appropriately with other children, and will sometimes have outbursts of temper, particularly when frustrated, and cries frequently. His parents were given behavioral advice from an agency partnered with the school and started in an occupational therapy program to help with fine motor and perceptual skills. Now 5 years old, Henry’s parents are reporting that things have worsened. He is not completing task and needs more prompting to stay focused.  He is continuing to underachieve and still experiences problems with socialization, but he is very interested in geography and world political events.

Sammie is a 1st grader who lives with both parents.  She demonstrates no medical problems. Sammie has attended the same school since Pre-K.  Sammie’s teacher reports she is having problems with reading; she is not meeting the district’s reading expectations.  Sammie can read most words, but struggles decoding those she does not know. Her fluency rate is low, and she struggles with comprehension. Currently, Sammie is struggling in mathematics and spelling. Sammie met all reading expectations in kindergarten, but lagged behind until the end of the year. She does well with math skills, but fails to be successful when given word problems to solve.  Simple math sheets seem to be when Sammie scores the highest in mathematics. With modified spelling lists, she is still not successful.  She struggles spelling basic 1st grade words, and at times, misspells common sight words.

References

Early Childhood Assessment: Resources for Early Learning. (2017). Resources for Early Learning. Retrieved from http://resourcesforearlylearning.org/fm/early-childhood-assessment/

Guiding Principle 3: Purposeful assessment drives instruction. (2016) Retrieved from http://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/cal/pdf/guiding-principles3.pdf

Policies and National Regulations and Standards for Early Childhood Education

North Carolina has an office known as the office of early learning which focuses on grades pk-3. This office supports children by promoting other linkages for reforming early education for North Carolina's children. The standards used for early childhood is Foundations which describes goals for all children’s development and learning, no matter what program they may be served in, what language they speak, what disabilities they may have, or what family circumstances they are growing up in. Foundations provides age-appropriate goals and developmental indicators for each age level (infant, toddler, and preschooler). The link to this information can be found at http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/earlylearning/

NAEYC believes that policy makers, the early childhood profession, and other stakeholders in young children’s lives should “construct comprehensive systems of curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation guided by sound early childhood practices, effective early learning standards and program standards, and a set of core principles and values: belief in civic and democratic values; commitment to ethical behavior on behalf of children; use of important goals as guides to action; coordinated systems; support for children as individuals and members of families, cultures,1 and communities; partnerships with families; respect for evidence; and shared accountability.” (p.2) Foundations and one of NAEYC positions align in the belief of using goals as guides. Foundations has goals in areas such as literacy, mathematics, social-emotional, cognitive, and physical. The goals set for each age level serves as a guide for activities and lessons. As someone who has used Foundations I feel that all those teaching early childhood should use this to serve as a guide for planning activities and lessons. Everyone in the early childhood community should be using the same guides to ensure that everyone is one the same page. Guides should be research based.

1.      How can teachers use assessments to enhance cooperative learning?

2.      How can assessment in early learning be enhanced?

3.      What are some ways to create portfolios using assessment information for parents and next year’s teacher to see?

4.      What are some things you can do to ensure that all children are being assessed?

References

Akers, L., Atkins-Burnett, S., Monahan, S., Carta, J., Wasik, B., & Boller, K. (2015). What Does it Mean to use Ongoing Assessment to Individualize Instruction in Early Childhood? (1st ed.). Retrieved from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/what_does_it_mean_to_use_ongoing_assessment_to_individualize.pdf

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). (2003). Early Childhood Curriculum, Assessment and Program Evaluation. Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/CAPEexpand.pdf.

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). (2012). Early childhood generalist standards. (3^rd edition). Retrieved from http://boardcertifiedteachers.org/sites/default/files/EC-GEN.pdf.

Office of Early Learning. (2016). Dpi.state.nc.us. Retrieved from http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/earlylearning/

Scholar Practitioners as Program Evaluators

I am exciting about the course Evaluating and Supporting Early Childhood Programs because I would like to help my county form or complete evaluations. The county that I currently work in seems to always be adapting the latest curriculum in some subject area. However little to no evaluations are done to check the effectiveness of the newly adapted curriculum.  This course can also show me how to evaluate my effectiveness in my own classroom and ensuring that what I am doing is aligning with my programs vision. One question I have is with some evaluations already being in place within certain program how do you go about having those tweaked to become better?

After completing this course I believe I can impact the process of evaluating program quality by creating a well-planned and carefully executed evaluation for my county’s Pre-K program. This course will show be how to create an evaluation that is inclusive and replicable.

Fostering Classroom Communities

The title of the dissertation is Preschool Teachers’ Perspectives on Caring Relationships, Autonomy, and Intrinsic Motivation in Two Cultural Settings.

Explanation of the study

This qualitative study explored prekindergarten teachers' viewpoints on caring relationships and how these relationships affect children's independence and enthusiasm in prekindergarten in two cultural settings: one city in China and another in the U.S. Data was collected from prekindergarten teachers in both locations using a qualitative interviewing research strategy (Tian, 2012). Tian’s (2012) study asked the following research questions (1) how do preschool teachers in each cultural setting understand and construct caring relationships with and among children in their classrooms? (2) What are preschool teachers’ understandings of and experiences in fostering autonomy and intrinsic motivation in preschool children in each cultural setting? (3) How are teachers’ experiences in caring and their relationships with children influenced by cultural and social contexts? There was a total of 20 participants, 10 in Portland and 10 from in Shenzhen. Each participant participated in an interview. Data was collected and evaluated based off of the information given in the interviews. This study helps the education world because an improved understanding of independence could help educators expand their practices and accomplish the shared goals of education, for example meeting the developmental needs of young children.

Resources

Some important resources for this study was the actual interview questions used for the participants. The 20 participants also served as a resource. Bowlby was another resource that created a solid foundation for the conceptual framework which was attachment theory.

Supportive learning environments

Tian’s (2012) study is significance because it offers opportunities for educators to learn from one another as well as reflect on their own beliefs about education for young children. Teachers’ opinions about learning and teaching are affected by their increasingly global knowledge and changes in each society because of the influence of global trends in education.  In order to accomplish the common goal to advance education for children, it is vital to be aware of the role of culture in teachers’ viewpoints and beliefs on education.

References

Tian, X. (2012). Preschool teachers' perspectives on caring relationships, autonomy, and intrinsic motivation in two cultural settings (Order No. 3503047). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1000524245). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/docview/1000524245?accountid=14872