Lesson 1: What is my Role? Attention Learning Outcomes Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able
Teaching Part One – A summary of Participation Welcome to practicum II! In practicum one you learned the basics of being present and how to connect with the children. For practicum two, you will refine those skills and participate in several opportunities to learn about partnerships with professionals. In the early childhood education field, it is never the responsibility of one to educate a child. For many reasons, (including ratios, best practices, IFSP, etc.) it is a team that takes care of young children. It takes more than one to notice the capabilities of a child, more than one to plan, more than one to implement and more than one to make a difference. By joining planning/curriculum meetings, parent teacher conferences and other important engagements, you will learn how to understand, communicate, respect and support others for the best interest of the children. Continue expectations from practicum one:
Participate in the following for practicum two:
You MIGHT
You WILL NOT
Part 2 – A Letter to the Families Picture this:
How do we make parents feel more comfortable with who is in their child’s learning environment? How do you inform families about why you are there with their child and what you are doing? Ideally, you would be able to meet all of the families but we all know that reality does not allow us to do this. However, at the very least you can write a letter. Developmentally Appropriate Practice tells us, “Excellent teachers are intentional in all aspects of their role.” Let’s be intentional about connecting with families! Part 3 – Partnerships with Professionals Being an educator is more than just playing with children and home-school connections. Who has heard, “It takes a village to raise a child.”? There is a reason that this ancient proverb has circulated for centuries. While the parent is the child’s most important and valued educator, it is the responsibility of an education team to support the child and family. For infants and toddlers this may mean several in-classroom staff working together to plan and implement, for preschoolers this could mean, classroom staff support staff and volunteers, for school staff this could mean the classroom teacher, special educator and a one on one. No matter what age or setting, it takes a village and skill to partner with other professionals. When reading Partnerships with professionals take notes about what skills are needed to be an effective partner and who you believe effective partners are. Assessment Lesson 1 Assignment Letter to Families Upon starting your practicum you are required to craft a letter to the families. This letter should include:
This letter should be crafted BEFORE your first meeting with your site placement so that it can be reviewed by the instructor and cooperating teacher. Lesson 1 Discussion A In your own words, write how this practicum experience will be different than the last. What did you learn in the last practicum that will help you with your second? What are you most excited about for this new placement? Lesson 1 Discussion B Look at the image below and take note of how many people have influence on the individual aspiring towards their career. Research shows that early childhood professionals have the MOST impact during the first five years. What kind of people would you put in the boxes that have the most impact on young children? List off 15 people and pick the top three that you believe are the most influential and why.
For full credit in the graded discussions you need to post at least ONE response to the prompt in the Lesson and reply to at leaset TWO other students' posts. Your reply posts must be substantive. Please see the grading rubric in the Syllabus for this course for more details. These instrucitons apply to all the graded discussions in this course and will not be repeated.
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