As an Early Childhood Educator we need to have self-confidence and have positive self-worth and be able to show that we believe in our ability to perform our job. By having good self-confidence and self-worth it helps us observe our children more accurately and have knowledge when we need to make a decision. Being aware of our expectations of our self and of our children helps us be open minded and it also helps us to grow as a caregiver. I believe that Early childhood educators are also to be respectful and caring to the children in our care. I feel we should remain respectful to the children even when our days may be long and difficult. By being caring with our children, families, and other staff members it helps build or relationships. …show more content…
Observing proves us with important information about the children in our care. It tells us where these children are developmentally and how we should be planning to further help our children learn. When we observe our children with their families it also helps teachers plan their curriculum to help every child in our care. As the video Look at Me states Observation leads to a deeper understanding of the child as a human being, so the more we observe them the more we are going to know about them. For an example you can observe their actions and better understand and answer the question why this child does what he/she does. According to the video, focused observing also always us to gain a deeper understanding of their ways, their goals and their intentions. With the information that we gain from observing the children it helps us as teachers to be a part of their learning …show more content…
Some examples from the reading Effective preparation and tools for professional educator preparation of the different tools to help us observe our children are running records, anecdotal record, checklist, rating scales. Each of these tools help us observe our children’s development and learning in different ways. For an example in an anecdotal record you notice one event and then write a short store about it. Anecdotal records are great to see how different variables impact the learning development and behavior of a child. Using each of these tools helps us as teachers see how the children are developing and how we need to plan the curriculum in our classroom to further help each
Observation is very important in young children because that is how you get to know a child better. While observing how a child interacts with their peers, adults, and how they behave in different settings, you are getting to know the child without speaking to them.
To conclude child observation is a method to understand the child’s world, how they react within their environment. I found it really useful to learn about the child’s development, thoughts, focus on feelings and at different ages the child goes on developing his/her capacities. Every single context can change what the observer sees because a child can have different reactions in front of his/her parents and in front of a carer. Social workers learn from the experiences and reflect within their own practice. It is an important technique for social workers, needed to develop these skills associated with being a practitioner.
Dr. Seuss wrote, “You’re off to great places. Today is your day. Your mountain is waiting. So get on your Way”. The role of the early childhood educator, while rewarding, can sometimes feel as is you are climbing a mountain. Educators have to consider how to implement curriculum, instruction, management, and technology in the classroom. Educators also have to provide an environment where all children feel safe and nurtured. When creating a course of action, educators have to consider their role as well as the role of the student, parent, and community.
While walking through the front gates of County elementary school, you see children of all ages playing while they wait for the school bell to ring. Walking to the classroom that I will be observing you see students with their parent’s line up waiting to get signed in. The students are to be signed in by a parent or guardian for safety precautions, and shows that the child was signed into school. As a visitor, I am to sign myself in, this shows I was in the classroom, at what time was I there, and reason for visiting the classroom.
Learning from watching is, in fact, hard. If you ask a not-very-deep question in a focus group, you still may get a deep and revealing answer. But if you don’t know how to think about what you’ll see when you watch normal people doing stuff, you won’t learn much from it. And in observational research, as in all qualitative research, it’s the "thinking about" that’s the key.
I observed at St. Eve’s Learning Center location in their preschool room. The center has a naturalistic feel to the environment and all of the staff is friendly and welcoming. The classroom displayed best practices, modern theories and research, and followed expected standards set by their accreditations.
Observational learning is basically learning by watching others, referred as models. There are three factors that involve modeling: the model or person being observed; the learner or person who observes the model; and reinforcement, which partially determines behaviors that will be repeated (Chance & Krause, 2009). Primary or secondary reinforcements are utilized to either decrease or increase the likelihood of future behavior(s). There are four higher order cognitive activities involved in observational learning. The learner must pay attention in order to observe crucial details that pertain to the model’s actions; the information must be memorized for purposes of being retrieved at a later time; there must be the motivation or desire to reproduce what has been observed; and then successfully reproduce the behavior (Chance & Krause, 2009). Observational learning can help learners with motor skills and hand-eye coordination such as when learning to play tennis or baseball; assist in learning effective social skills when interacting with peers or someone who represents a different culture; o...
Additionally, a high quality early childhood program highlights on developmentally appropriate curriculum. I believe an early childhood classroom should be flexible, stimulating, clean, safe and organized. It should be a place where students can be engaged in learning through interacting with things around them.
Observation is important as the practitioner can find out what the child is interested in and what motivates them to learn alongside their progress and how they behave in certain situations, additionally at the same time it identifies if children need assistance within certain areas of learning or socially (DCSF, 2008). Furthermore the observations check that the child is safe, contented, healthy and developing normally within the classroom or early years setting, over time the observations can be given to parents as they show a record of progress which helps to settle the parent and feel more comfortable about their child’s education. Observations are not only constructive within learning about an individual child, they can be used to see how different groups of children behave in the same situation and how adults communicate and deal with children’s behaviour (Meggitt and Walker, 2004). Overall observations should always look at the positives of what children can complete within education and not look at the negatives and all observations should become a fundamental part of all practitioners work alongside reflection (Smidt, 2009).
As a student who is in the process of becoming a teacher, I believe that the observation of children is necessary for any instructor. By observing these youths, teachers can ensure that they are able to include all of the students in the lessons and that they are capable of grasping the context within the subjects of the curriculum.
This observation took place in the child’s home and church. For my observation, I noticed many things that were associated with class discussions in the child. I also viewed how she interacted with her mother and other children her age. During church services, I observed her through an observation window that parents use to make sure their kids are being looked after. The observations took place on Sundays because the subject’s mother and my schedule collide and we only have that day off together.
Importance of Observations “Observation is one of the most important aspect of day-to-day professional practice when working with children of all ages” (Stearns) Observations are done in everyday life but more based ones are carried out in order to asses a child’s development in order to see how well they are doing in specific areas of development, it can often help practitioners see which parts of their develop that they may be lagging behind in. “Key functions of observations are that it helps assists practitioner in seeing areas of development where the child may need more support” (Walker) Observation can be carried out every day without the use of pens or paper, they can easily be done by just watching, seeing what the child is struggling
Observations methods such as a narrative or learning story can provide a naturalistic insight into what is happening at that moment however this type of qualitative data may provide difficulty in accuracy as the observation will be subject to the interpretation of the observer. Rolfe and Emmett (2010) suggest that observations should be recorded in such a way that if someone else was to observe, then they too would come up with a similar observation. This gives the impression that it might be useful to have more than one person observing or even analysing the data. Video observation may be a useful tool as more than one observer can analyse the data without the intrusive nature of being in the same room as the children being observed, however Rolfe and Emmett (2010) take into account that the video camera itself may
.... In addition, as I conducted my observation, I tried to blend in with students as I felt that was the only way I could observe them acting naturally. This helped me hear certain anecdotes and even language that students usually don’t say around educators. Overall, school observations are important to student teachers in that it reminds them that they should understand students’ thinking and ideologies in order to teach them without biases or hurtful ideologies.
Observations take place in different settings. Its main objective is to focus on the student performance during an activity or during classroom activities. Teachers will have to plan how to record their observations. Observations should be recorded in order to improve the student skills through feedbacks. There are different possibilities for recording information from students, the teacher has to make sure that these observations are consistent for all classroom. Some recording options include the following (Checklists, Anecdotal records, and rubrics). The question is what makes observations beneficial for students and what makes it