Week 12

What are my values and beliefs of education?

This week will be the last week of semester 1. Throughout this semester I have learnt many things as a pre-service teacher. I've faced some challenges along the way but managed to pick myself up and guide myself pass the difficulties. I believe that in the education society, everyone children should be a part of the classroom environment. I am passionate about the belief that every child is worthy of freedom and equality and that no one is better than the other. I think the most important thing as an early childhood teacher is to teach children how to learn and also giving them the opportunity for decision-making. It is an important aspect of learning because as a teacher we can incorporate children's interest into their learning in order to help them improve on their learning abilities.

I am excited to learn more things as the coming years are waiting for me to discover the world of teaching. So far it has been a great experience I've learnt how to interact with children through placement and I've learnt how to educate children through the work I've done which I'll be taking with me as I grow to becoming an educator in the future.

Week 11

What can I do better to anticipate place-thought into the next experience of placement?

This is week is the last week of placement. My placement group got moved to a temporary site in Sunshine Library because of some difficulties with our original site. Being able to come to a new site opened my mind on a lot of things that I saw. The way they enagaged children with place at their placement is a lot different to mine because we had limited of resources and restrictions. Though they weren't able to do the nature walk outside, they decided to collect mint leaves and bark to make a little rainforest in a cardboard box using the Bartja and mayila puppet set. I found this quite interesting because kids were able to smell and feel what its like to be out in a rainforest. I want to take upon this idea and broaden it in my next experience of placement by creating a mini rainforest with sounds of the rainforest in the background so it can really capture the experience children can of the rainforest and its surroundings. 

I wonder if there are any other ways that i can link place-thought to without having to go outside...

Week 10

Why is documenting important?

'Documenting refers to gathering and organizing information to provide a written or pictorial record of children's learning.' (MacNaughton & Williams 2009 p.296). As a pre-service teacher thinking back to my experiences at school I never knew what documents were for. I remember adding photos and writing about my experiences into a portfolio and I didn't know how this could help me with my learning. This weeks reading about 'Documenting' gave me a clear understanding on why it is important to implement it throughout learning.

Documents come in different forms such as a collection of children's work like a writing, drawing, painting etc. photographs, observations, mind maps as well as learning stories of children's play. Having documents helps make children's learning visible for educators as well as families. Children are also able to have the opportunity to revisit and reflect on their learning journey process. This helps educators to analyse children's understanding, dispositions and interests.

I think documentation is very important in the education system because it gives support to teaching and it also gives educators crucial information from which conceives goals, techniques and learning experiences for the children.

References:

MacNaughton, G & Williams, G 2009, Techniques for Teaching Young Children; Choices for Theory and Practice, 3^rd edn, Pearson Education Australia, NSW.

Week 9

What are some empowerment strategies I can do to help children?

The third week of placement had a much better vibe and organisation as more children came to the engaging with place program. Compared to the weeks before I notice the children are more confident to play with the toys and activities. They began to interact more with other children from different diversities. However, there was a little collision with two toddlers who didn't want to share their toys. One girl was playing with two toy cars and the other little girl took one off her. In this case the girl who originally had the toys threw a big tantrum because she didn't like sharing even if her mum tried to comfort her. I wondered to myself, if her mother cannot calm her down what can i do as a pre-service teacher to help her stop crying without making the other child upset?

'The aim when transferring power to children within a critical approach to education is to enable them to learn how to challenge and speak out against injustices in their own lives and the lives of others' (MacNaughton & Williams 2009, p.315).  I believe empowerment should be equal to every single child. I need to be able to help each child build the ability to have positive relationships with others as well as teaching them to problem-solve what is fair or not fair in their relationships with each other. In the event, I was able to think rapidly and gave the child that was crying another car toy. This helped her calm her down and I realised the solution to her tantrum was to give her another toy rather than just comforting her. I suppose that as a pre-service teacher I should encourage children to value eachother equally and give each child freedom and equality rather than enacting the empowerment on just one individual.