OBSERVING COMMUNICATION

 

I was privileged to observe an Early Childhood Setting. It's a KG 1 classroom and their age bracket are between 4 to 5 years old. The classroom teacher (Mrs Seana Gregg), was actually trying to plan her lesson for the coming week. It was an interesting thing to know that the teacher was trying to plan a lesson around what the children already knows and wat they want to learn. For me, I believe that the teacher should already have a planned out activities or lesson and then come to the classroom to just present it and give the children some activities as she has planned. But in this case, it was an open discussion for the children to bring in their own view.

During the observation, Mrs Gregg wrote "MARVELOUS ME" on the easel and read it out to the kids. Firstly, she read it as slowly as she could before she finally turned to the children to start a discussion.

Mrs Gregg: What do marvelous mean to you?

Annabelle: My mum always says that!!!

Mrs Gregg: When do she say that?

Annabelle: When I've really done a good job.

Reese: It's good

Nour: No idea...but it starts with sound we are learning "m"

Mrs Gregg: Oh great, thank you for reminding us the sound of the week.

Ryan: I think solar system is really marvelous because I love it. It is special to me and my mum just got me a book about the planets.

Mrs Gregg: I think you are right. So do you mind we sharing your book with you?

Ryan: Yes, I'll ask my mum to let me bring it in so you can read for us and I will show my friends.

Mrs Gregg: Alright, Marvellous Me (She said the phrase again, this time with more emphasis on me". She further said, when I say "Me", what do I mean? 

One of the children shouted "my body".

The teacher showed a great excitement and I think her expression rubbed off on the kids too because most of them were like "wow"

Mrs Gregg: So, if I am going to ask you to close your eyes for a while and put on your thinking caps. What do you want to learn about your body? After a few seconds, she asked to open their eyes and show her their magnetic eyes to tell what they want to learn about their body.

So many of them started answering "I want to learn about my eyes, I want to learn about my teeth, I want to learn about my hair..." and they came up with many parts of their body that they wanted to learn about.

One of the children asked if she could bring in her new panda just like Ryan because it's special to her.

So, in all of the communication, I noticed that the teacher was patient with all the kids and used a lot of positive motivation instead of calling out their mistakes. According to Dangel &Durden (2010), the teacher's language was simple, expressive, extending, motivational, positive, and above all, promoted  critical thinking among the children.

Reference

Dangel, J., & Durden, T. (2010). The Nature of Teacher Talk during Small Group Activities. YC Young Children, 65(1), 74–81.

CREATING AN AFFIRMING ENVIRONMENT

 

In my professional walk with children, I have come to understand that children bring lots of colours and light with them. The diversity they bring along is what makes them beautiful and unique. So, creating an affirming environment actually means to appreciate their various uniqueness while establishing a setting for them to thrive. Derman-Sparks & Edwards (2010) stated that an environment rich in anti-bias materials invites exploration and discovery and supports children's play and conversations in both emergent and planned activities.

In creating my own family child care home, the first thing that comes to mind is to make every child and family that steps in feel special. This begins with the welcome board and displays which has to show happy families, cultural diversities, gender, colours, etc. I believe it will give them the feelings that they could still feel the family even while away from home.

It is very normal that some children do not easily relax in a new environment. In order to curb or control incidents like crying, and anxiety, a safe cozy or play area will be created for such children to relax before they get into the bigger group. It's all about smooth transition. Adriana Castillo in the media segment suggested the welcome area is where she allows the children to play or cry if they want to and all she does is to listen to them cry, especially for mummies who are finding it difficult to separate from their kids.

I will also provide a parent board for where information for parents are displayed. Such information includes family schedules, school activities and special events where families are required to participate. This is very important because family partnership is the heart of creating a anti-bias setting. 

Another important section in family child care home is a reading corner where good story books can be displayed and also read for the children. Good stories capture the heart, mind and imagination of children and also provide a wonderful, ongoing way for children to learn about diversity and fairness (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).  Persona dolls will also be used to introduce stories related to the children's lives, in order to create awareness of various aspects of diversity. 

It will also be appropriate to create an outdoor garden where children can connect with nature. Some children love to extend their gardening activity from home to school which is another way of making their family visible in the setting.  

In addition, I will  also create cross-curricular activities and outdoor play area and activities that will support anti-bias education and learning. Above all, our daily interactions and activities will be void of any form of bias, prejudice or stereotype. Children, family and educators in the setting will be constantly reminded on the need of becoming anti-bias in every dealing in and out of the family child care home.

References

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). Strategies for working with diverse children: Welcome to an anti-bias learning community. Baltimore, MD: Author