1. The role of a teacher in a high-quality kindergarten is to guide student learning. The children should be allowed to make choices and guide their own learning. The teacher should be right there beside them deepening their understanding by asking questions. The teacher should give students ideas of topics they may need to explore. The role of the teacher planning lessons and setting up the classroom, make lesson plans, and instruction are still the job of the teacher, but the early childhood classroom teacher’s job is to make the classroom as student centered as possible to let children build their love of learning and natural curiosity of the world they live in.
2. A kindergartener’s environment should be set up in a way that the children
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Play is the most beneficial way for children to learn. When children are playing they are learning without realizing they are learning. Play gives children the chance to come up with complex scenarios where they have to problem solve, share, communicate, and so much more. Piaget believes that pretend play allows children to strengthen abilities and take control of experiences that they may not have a control of over in life (Copple and Bredekamp, 2009, p. 131). Vygotsky believes that dramatic play helps with children’s self-regulation (Copple and Bredekamp, 2009, p. 131). Children are motivated by play and it is one thing that they are confident that they can do well. Play helps with children’s social/emotional, cognitive, physical, and language development. Play gives children the chance to develop skills they are not going to learn from listening to the teacher lecture. Play is an important part of the early childhood …show more content…
Assessment is an important area of a teacher’s career. Assessment is the one way that teachers know that their students have met their standard and are on track with where they should be in the kindergarten year. If the student is behind in the subject area that gives the teacher a chance to either work with those children within a small group or teach the large group that topic again if many students don’t understand. Assessment is a way to modify instruction based on the students’ educational level. It can tell the teacher if the topic is too easy or too difficult for the students. Authentic assessment in kindergarten is key. The article, Crisis in Kindergarten, states, “testing of children under age eight are subject to serious errors and their use is largely invalid” (Miler, Almon, 2009, p. 19). They are not the only research article to agree on this topic that young children need to be tested using a variety of methods, not just pencil paper tests. Authentic assessment is mean to assess students learning in a meaningful way, so that they will show the teacher their full knowledge because they will not realize they are being evaluated. As a teacher authentic assessment is going to give truer results, as the student will be completing the assessment through play or an environment where they are confident and comfortable. Performance assessment is designed to be representative of real tasks in the world. The students may self-evaluate students, and students are
Based on the research, teacher responsibilities are from the standards of professionalism in early childhood education is essentially based on the Six National Association for the education of Young Children (NAEYC) which include promoting child development and learning, building family and community relationships, observing, documenting, and assessing to support young children and families, using developmentally effective approaches with children and families, using content knowledge to build meaningful curriculum and lastly becoming a
(2012). Kindergarten readiness and preschools: teachers ' and parents ' beliefs within and across programs. Early Childhood Research & Practice, 14(2). Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA324982672&v=2.1&u=azpcld&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=8987cb4097ba764c00236f670dc0c23f
The Child Development Center of College of San Mateo provides early care and educational programs for children between the ages of 3 to 5 years old. Children are divided into classrooms with a “master” teacher, a “regular” teacher, and two or three “associate” teachers. Klara attended Classroom, “A,” a stimulating and well-resourced classroom. Klara was observed for two hours on Monday from 9 am to 11 am and for two hours on Wednesday from 9 am to 11 am. During these two hours, classroom activities consisted of “free time,” “story time,” and an outside “play time.” A “master” teacher, a “regular” teacher, and two “associate” teachers were present during observations. Additionally, a total of eighteen children were in attendance during the observed days.
As a teacher in early childhood development, I believe that the teacher skills and personality influence how children understand, observe and react to the classroom environment and the world around them. Even though part of teacher responsibilities are academic, daily interactions that encourage social, emotional and physical development are important. One of a quality effective early childhood educators’ characteristic is that they should have patience.
Looking at The Kindergarten Curriculum framework,
Over the years, no other objective method has been found to identify the performance of students and teachers than the results of these assessments (Churchill 12). Also, it seems that the only way to test what children have been taught and the knowledge they have received from their teachers are these tests. This fact is important in its own sense because these examinations not only test the children, but the teachers as well. The teachers are the ones that relay the knowledge to the kids and ultimately are the cause for their success. Standardized tests also force the teachers to perform well to insure that these students keep the knowledge they are taught and in turn do well on the tests. To conclude the matter, there is no other way known that objectively and effectively tests this knowledge that the children are receiving from these teachers, which makes these test
As Popham says in his book, Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know, it is extremely important to frequently assess each students work because “you can’t gauge the student’s progress if you don’t have frequent evidence of the student’s efforts” (Popham 243). It is necessary for assessments to be frequently administered to students because the teacher needs to know consistently the amount of information and content knowledge that the students are actually retaining. Assessments can be delivered in a multitude of different formats , such as formal, informal, authentic and performance assessments. I believe that it is necessary to use several forms of assessments in the correct manner, in order to assist my students in being successful
What separates a good teacher from a great Teacher? “First and foremost a teacher must love working with children. No matter how well you teach, there is always room for Improvement ” (Killen,2009.p.100) .In this Essay I hope to show some of the key attributes, that I consider essential to becoming an effective early childhood teacher. Those key aspects are communication, building lasting relationships, engaging students effectively in the learning process, and encouraging and appreciating diversity in the classroom.
“Preschool teachers educate and care for children younger than age 5 who have not yet entered kindergarten.” Preschool teachers have a very big responsibility because they are trying to educated kids that have never gone to school. They have to have an excellent technique to help the tutees make a great progress in there learning skills. “Preschool teachers educate and care for children usually from the age’s three to five who have not yet entered kindergartner.” The tutees need as much education possible in order to succeed in their first years of learning.
Teachers lead the children in a more structured way that design to prepare children for kindergarten. Teachers developed instructional strategies to have children engage in the learning process by introducing a rich environment of language, ideas and concepts. Children engaged in learning at their own pace and were given multiple ways to respond. Children have the opportunities to talk about their reflection and better understanding of earlier experiences. They shared their thought of what they learn that stresses about cultural respect, values of the family, community and
As an early childhood educator my job is not to simple play with children. I must plan, provide and supervise all while “playing” with my students. The classroom serves as the physical environment for the children for most of their waking hours. These classrooms need to be attractive and function effectively. Concerns for any early childhood educator should always include space, equipment and materials used, outdoor space and the daily schedule to ensure that all students are provided ample opportunities to learn and grow within a safe and secure environment.
It is important that teachers give children a fair chance to show their knowledge when assessing. “The purpose of assessment is to provide feedback that can be used to improve student performance” (Orange 2000). Teachers assess children to ensure that they are understanding the material, and to make sure they are learning. For young children, tests should never be the only criteria for assessment. Instructors should always make sure that their assessment is fair.
In spite of the importance of assessment in education, few teachers receive proper training on how to design or analyze assessments. Due to this, when teachers are not provided with suitable assessments from their textbooks or instructional resources, teachers construct their own in an unsystematic manner. They create questions and essay prompts comparable to the ones that their teachers used, and they treat them as evaluations to administer when instructional activities are completed predominantly for allocating students' grades. In order to use assessments to improve instruction and student learning, teachers need to change their approach to assessments by making sure that they create sound assessments. To ensure that their assessments are sound they need include five basic indicators that can be used as steps to follow when creating assessments. The first of these indicators and the first step a teacher must take when creating a sound assessme...
Entering my kindergarten teaching experience in the last quarter of school year I had to quickly become familiar with kindergarten content standards and the school’s curriculum. To do this I observed my mentor teachers instructional time with the children and gained as much information as I could about the children’s educational standing by developing a professional relationship with the my mentor teacher and the children. I learned that the majority of my kindergarten children had not previously attended preschool and that this was their first year of school. I found that interacting with the children in social activities provided me with great insight to their literacy, math, science, and social studies development. In reviewing the children’s class projects, school displays, and an array of their work sample along with my mentor teachers year-long assessments I was able to recognize challenging, emerging and advanced content areas of the children’s core curriculum. These emerging and challenging content areas is what I centered my curriculum planning around. “Information about each child’s learning and development is used to evaluate teaching effectiveness. This may lead to changes in schedule, curriculum and teaching strategies, room set up, resources, and so on.” (Bredekamp and Copple, p. 249)
Through assessment students and teachers are able to determine the level of mastery a student has achieved with standards taught. Both formative and summative assessment should be purposeful and targeted to gain the most accurate data to drive further instruction (Ainsworth, 2010). While this syllabus does a good job of identifying the need for both formal and informal assessments, the way in which this is communicated does not provide enough detail for understanding. Simply listing assessment types does not give any insight into how these assessments fit in the learning process of this course. While some of the assessments mentioned could be common assessments chosen by the school or district to gain insight into the effectiveness of instruction, the inclusion of authentic assessments is most beneficial to students and demonstrates learning in a context closer to that of a work environment (Rovai, 2004). Unfortunately, this particular course, according to this syllabus, relies heavily on quizzes and traditional tests and essays to form the bulk of assessment opportunities. While other activities, such as formative assessments, journaling and discussions are mentioned as possible avenues for scoring, they are given a very low percentage of the overall grade. This shows that they are not valued for their ability to show progression and mastery. If this is indeed the case, this puts the students as a