Post Three - Final reflection

The feedback that I received from my peers was positive and also made me think of what I should have added into my entry 5. It would have been better if the word count could have been larger so I could add in all the important details that I had left out. One comment that was made was that I talked to the child throughout the process. I believe that it is important to talk to children throughout their projects in order to help extend their development and learning, this also can give the children the opportunity to explore new ideas while they are talking to you. With talking to the children during their projects, asking open questions is a teaching technique that I often use to get the children to extend their development and thinking.

Catering to the child’s needs is important to me, as this can help to extend their own learning while I can guide them. In this experience I catered to the child’s needs by allowing him to choose his own resources while making his boat. In my centre we do not get the chance to do projects like this so it was a great opportunity to allow the child to take control of his own learning. By allowing the child to choose his own resources to make the boat, it allowed him to have control over his own learning. This also allowed the chance for the child to problem solve when things did not work out with creating his boat.

Allowing the child to be able to be problem solve also sometimes means that teachers need to role model how to use some resources that the child may not know how to use. In this project I had to role model how to use a hot glue gun as the child did not know how to use it correctly and this could have meant that the child could have hurt themselves if not shown.

After the experience the child came back to me a week after with a pile of books for us to look through together, this then sparked other children’s interest in our centre. The centre then spent the next two weeks looking and studying different kinds of boats, including how do they float on the water? The older children then created their own boats using different resources to see what causes the boats to float. We also had a parent who makes yacht boats come in and talk to the children. As one of my peers mentioned we looked into going to Half Moon Bay Marina but could not due to not having enough parents being able to come.

In my centre we do not get the chance to explore digital technology in the centre with the children as we do not have the resources to do so but that does not mean that we do not give the children the opportunity to explore other technology in the centre. I feel that my centre gives the children all opportunities to explore new technologies in order to extend their learning and development. By allowing the children to explore new technologies, we give them the chance to extend on their social sciences and allowing the children to extend their knowledge of the outside world. We notice what the children’s interests are and extend their learning and knowledge on that topic. Social studies allow us to also take the children out into the community when studying a certain topic to extend their knowledge on that topic. 

Part Two - Contribution to other students' blogs

Jessica Kennelly's Blog
 http://peopleplacesthingsandevents-jess.blogspot.co.nz/2015/09/journal-entry-5.html

Briana Allen's Blog
http://brianayear3.blogspot.co.nz/2015/09/entry-5.html

Entry 5

In my centre we apply emergent planning during the sessions. We do emergent planning and learning in our centre as most of our children only come once or twice a week. As a teaching team we plan around what is currently happening in the community or to extend on what we have been previously learning. Most of the time we notice what the children are taking interested in and act upon it immediately, to extend their learning and knowledge on their interest (Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett & Farmer. 2012) For this experience I use the Project approach (Clark, 2007) with the child in order to get the full experience, learning and knowledge as he is an active thinker who is always thinking of new ideas to do things,

Beginning our project. What sparked our project this morning was that we had heavy rain and B had been watching a TV show about boats. B said to me ‘if there’s lots of rain we will need a boat to sail on.’ Which lead us onto making our boat, in case we needed it because of the rain.

Developing the project. After morning tea we got to work to make this boat. I asked B 'what do we need to make the boat?' B said 'hot glue gun, paper, scissors and cardboard'. We started making our boat by finding an egg cartoon to be the bottom of the boat, and B suggested that we needed sides so that babies would not fall into the water.

While we were making our boat I would ask some open ended questions (MacNaughton & Williams, 2004) that would get B to extend his thinking further but also to see what other ideas he could have. B loves to be questioned to further his thinking and loves exploring new ways that he could change or do with his project.

B asked me to show him how to hot glue the sides, then he started to use the hot glue gun himself. We added a plank, a ladder and a sail to the boat. While I was cutting out the shapes that he told me to cut out, B was using the hot glue gun to stick everything together. At times he would ask for my help when he was not sure where to glue or not wanting to get hot glue on his fingers when gluing small and tricky edges and shapes.

I showed B how to use the hot glue gun correctly when gluing small shapes, I asked him how we could hold the cardboard while gluing so we did not get glue on our fingers. B suggested we used tweezers to hold the cardboard, which was a great idea and worked for him. This gave B the chance to problem solve (MacNaughton & Williams, 2004) when he did not want to get the hot glue onto his fingers.

Concluding the project. By the time we had finished building our boat, the sun had come out and we could go outside again. But it was not over yet. B carried on his project at home with his older sister to see if his boat would work in the bath. And on Friday morning he told me about how it floated for a while then got wet and ruined. B came up with another idea that that on Monday morning he would bring in some plastic to create another and better boat.  

I cannot wait to see where we will go with our extension of this project in the next few weeks with B and to see if any other children want to get involved as well. One of my favourite reasons why I love being in a small centre is because we get to do small projects with the older children.

Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Death, E., Dockett, S., & Farmer, S. (2015). Programming and planning in early childhood settings (6^th ed.). South Melbourne, Australia: CENGAGE Learning. 

Clark, A. (2004). Changing classroom practice to include the project approach. Early Childhood Research and Practice, 8(2). Retrieved from http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v8n2/clark.html

MacNaughton, G., & Williams, G. (2009). Techniques for teaching young children: Choices in theory and practice (3rd ed.). Frenchs Forrest, Australia: Pearson Prentice Hall.  

Entry 4

I noticed H looking at my phone on the desk in the office. After noticing this I handed him my phone. He looked at the phone, then me and laughed. With that he pushed the phone back to me. I told him that he was allowed to play on it and handed it back to him two more times and he just looked at it and pushed it away. This suggests that he might not want to play on the phone or that he was being cheeky, as he has a cheeky personality. I spoke to his mum and she said that he probably did not want to touch the phone as he knows that his older brother is not allowed to touch her phone at home. She also said that she does not believe that children under 3 should be allowed screen time.

C saw H and I playing with my phone and asked if he could have a turn. C asked me to out the camera in and looked at the phone. He asked me to put the camera on to face him. He took three photos, told me that 'mummy and C take photos like this' and handed the phone back to me. This could be because he is an active child and does not like sitting for long periods of time.

CT saw C taking photos on my phone and asked for a turn. He had the camera facing him and locked the phone. He tried to unlocked the phone but when he could not figure out the passcode, he asked me to do it. Once the phone was unlocked CT went around the crèche showing everyone that they were 'in' my phone. After showing everyone the phone, he started to swipe left, right, left. He looked at the apps and 'called' his mum. 'Hi mummy, CT' he kept saying. CT carried on playing with the phone by taking photos of the crèche. This suggests that CT watches his parents on their phones and possibly plays on the phones. I spoke to his mum and she said that he loves playing on their phones and pretending to be his dad on business calls. She also said that she limits his screen time as she does not want him to become obsessed with being on screens all the time.

All three of these boys who I used to evaluate their skills with ICT were all different and surprisingly what they did with the iphone matched their personality. But at the same time they all showed that they were not 100% sure what to do with the phone nor did they really want the phone expect CT who wanted to keep the phone but would hardly touch or move the screen around.

When I brought out my phone it started the three children to be interested in why i was givin them my phone. Not only did it interest the children that I gave it to but also the children who were watching them have a go. This started to spark questions about my phone with the other children as ICT can make children critically think and ask questions. (Archard, 2013)

As well as this it does show that all three boys’ parents spend time with them and do not use digital technology as a babysitter a lot. After doing this evaluation on the children and how they would use the iphone, my centre manager decided that she was going to put out a survey to see how many parents allow their children to use digital technology in their homes and how often.

Archard, S. (2013). Democracy in early childhood education: How information and communication technology contributes to democratic pedagogy and practices. Early Childhood Folio, 17(2), 27-32.  

Entry 3

One issue that surrounds the impact of technology in children's lives is that ICT is taking away the valuable accepts of learning in an Early Childhood centre (Brooker,2003). When children in Early Childhood centres use ICT in the centre, it takes away the chances to socialise with children and getting the chance to get outside for physical activities. The traditional resources are also taken away by multimedia resources, such as libraries (Archard, 2013).

In my centre we do not have a lot of ICT or digital technology for the children to use themselves. The only digital technology that the children have control over is the radio. We also have a range of audio books that the children love to listen to while holding and looking at the physical book. The children are allowed to listen and read the audio books whenever they would like to. We also let the children use the teacher’s computer if they want to research something of their interest if we cannot find it in a book.

Although the children are allowed to use the teacher’s computer, I do think that it would be better if the children had their own computer to use. This would mean the children would not have to ask to go onto the computer in the office and that they would have free access to look up information to extend their knowledge. With saying this I know that having a computer for the children to use could also mean that they start to look up everything on it and not respecting or using books to look information up.

 I believe that it is important that children learn the new ways of getting knowledge through technology as well as keeping with the physical resources such as blocks, books and pencils.  For myself I love using books, blocks, pencils and CDs with the children as they physically get to touch, use and handle the object rather than using an iPad app to draw, read, listen or build.

Tsabtis, Bewick and Thouvenelle (2003) also agrees that having interactions with the computer cannot produce the same result as physically handing and constructing a tower made out of blocks or measuring water. Classic activities like these makes the children use multisensory experiences to develop skills and concepts.

A teachers computer ability can have a direct impact on how the children’s learning needs and skills are meet (Tsabtis, Bewick and Thouvenelle. 2003).  These days everything is done by using a computer such as emails, eBooks and even the children’s learning stories. Computers can help teachers to learn need skills or activities to do with the children but when the teachers do not know how to use a computer it can mean that the teachers may not be able to research new activities that could extend the children learning.

This can also lead into the impact of a child not being taught correctly how to use a computer safely if the teacher does not have the skill or knowledge on how to use one. It is the teacher’s knowledge about how to use a computer not the computer its self that makes the difference to both the teacher and the children using it. (Tsabtis, Bewick and Thouvenelle.2003) In my centre we have all been taught how to use the computer but when other staff needs help then we can help them. This also helps when we are working on the computer with the children to show them how to correctly use it, as well as how to use it safely.

Archard, S. (2013). Democracy in early childhood education: How information and communication technology contributes to democratic pedagogy and practices. Early Childhood Folio, 17(2), 27-32. 

Tsantis, L., Bewick, C., & Thornton, S. (2003). Examining some common myths about computers in the early years. Young Children on the Web, November 2003, 1-9.

Entry Two

In the New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) for Social Sciences, one of the achievement objectivities is Identity, Culture and Organisation.  This is when the children learn about society and community; it focuses on teaching the children about different cultures and identities within the community. In my centre we teach the children about different cultures and diverse families. We do this by bringing in all the languages that the children may speak at home, talking about what they do on significant events such as Christmas, birthdays and Easter and trying different ‘home’ foods when we celebrate a culture or country’s own event.  I feel like we allow the children to see that everyone comes from a culture and a diverse family. One thing that I have noticed about the children is that they are accepting of everyone that walks through the crèche door.

Linking to Te- Whāriki, one of the links with the Social Sciences Essential learning area is that “children’s understanding of themselves in their family and community is affirmed when children know that their families and cultures have a place and are respected.” (Ministry of Education, 1996) I can fully say that in our centre the children know who they are, and that their families and cultures have a place in our centre. An example of this is that we have a family who is diverse and has two mums instead of a mum and a dad, the child knows that their family is not the same as the other children who have a mum and a dad but they do not care. This child talks about both mums and if they are questioned about having no father then they feel comfortable to explain that they do not have a dad.

Myself as a teacher feels that in our centre we could be promoting the Treaty of Waitangi a little bit more, such as when the Treaty of Waitangi day comes around then we should be talking more to the children about it as it is part of New Zealand’s history.  As a teaching team I believe that we do promote and allow the children to explore New Zealand’s unique bicultural nature (Ministry of Education, 2007). We do this by incorporating Te-Reo in our centre both verbally and in documents. Both the parents and teachers talk to the children about events and the nature that is important to Maori.  

Place and environment is when the children learn and understand relationships that exist between people and environment.  I feel as if my centre is lucky as we over look a great huge park, that gets a lot of people in and the people who are regulars now come and talk to the children. It is lovely that the children get to outlook the park to see the interactions between people and the environment.

 As a teacher I love to sit with the children and we observe what is going on in the park then talk about what we can see and our thoughts about it. Our teaching team uses mat times as a time to talk about what they have seen in the park and how people treat the park when they are observing. We also allow the children to go out into the park to interact with the environment themselves, the older children seem to take in what we have seen and talked about and often I have noticed that they will not be impressed by the amount of rubbish that is left there.

 One example is that one day we went out into the park for a walk and two of the older children put gloves and plastic bags into their pockets so that we they were walking and saw rubbish, they could pick it up. I asked them when I saw them doing this ‘why are you picking up the rubbish?’ one child turned to me saying ‘we need to look after our park because the ducks might get hurt by the rubbish.’ The other child said ‘my grandpop said that we need to respect our environment.’

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media. 

Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.  

Entry One

People, place, things and events, all go hand in hand with a child’s experience or learning about something that is happening or happened to the community, family, and friends or in their centre. An event would not happen without a place or people to attend, nor would an event happen without objects such as a rugby game would not happen without a rugby ball.

The significance of social studies in a child’s life is to help the children to develop the ability to make decisions for themselves, family, friends and people around them. (NCSS,1994) People, place, things and events are all under the curriculum that is called ‘Social Studies’. Social Studies is just as important as mathematics and literacy, as social studies teaches children to learn more about the outside world and what is going on around them in the present, what could go on in the future and what has happened in the past.

In the New Zealand curriculum Social Studies is taught from the Early Years until High school then even some people go on to study in more depth in University. Although my school journey, every year we would have been taught about at least one significant world event. When talking about this world event we were taught about the people who were involved or affected by it, where it took place, what things were involved in order for this to happen and why was it such a significant event in history. Social studies also covers important areas that include children in assisting to their emotional/social growth, making and understanding values and helping children to foster their development of reliability when working in a group or on their own. (Mindes & Donovan, 2001)

One example of a significant world event that impacted on a child that I knew was when Barack Obama was elected to be the first African American president of the United States of America. The child who was affected by this event loved and knew everything about the presidents of the United States of America and one day wants to become the president of the USA. It affected this child because he is African American and was worried that he would not be able to become president because of this. This did not only have an impact on him but everyone in the world as it showed that America does not define roles by ethnics.

Popular culture is when something is in ‘fashion’ and everyone is wearing or doing it. For children in Early Childhood this could be all the children wearing harlem pants or wanting to be Elsa or Hulk. These are just a few examples that are popular culture in my own centre.

The impacts that popular culture can have on children are huge, especially to the children who play, watch or read about violence.  We cannot ignore that violence comes under popular culture or that it is impacting children’s lives. Parents can be exposing their young children to the violence by allowing toddlers to play on an iPad which could not have any advert blocks or safety blocks. If the child is not being supervised then the child could simply click a few times then be watching a violent video clip? (Helfgott, 2008) And the parent may not even notice that the child is watching a violent clip because iPads are in popular culture now not only because the child may want it but also parents love to use it as a ‘babysitter’ for when they need some time out.

Helfgoot, J., 2008. The Influence of Technology, Media, and Popular Culture on Criminal   Behavior. SAGE Publications. Seattle University, USA.

Mindes, G., & M.A. Dovovan. 2001. Building character: Five enduring themes fir a stronger early childhood curriculum. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

NCSS (National Council for the Social Studies). 1994. Expectations of excellence: Curriculum standards doe social studies. Silver Spring, MD: Author.