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.