The Harris Early Learning Center

I believe that supporting early learning and development is my major focus in my exploration. With this said, I still think that two other competency contests will be addressed. Planning and guiding early learning and development, along with creating and maintaining program policies and practices are super beneficial and will be incorporated into my exploration as well. I say this because I believe that you cannot support early learning without being able to plan and guide as well as following the correct protocol and policies. All three of these topics all correlate with one another, therefor; these three topics will all be tackled when exploring my topic.

All children are teachable and all moments are teachable moments. Much of the brain’s significant development occurs in utero which makes prenatal and maternal health services vital to children. The brain develops best in the context of loving relationships, play, opportunities to explore their world, and engaging things to learn about. It takes more than just the education system to improve the learning experience of children, early childhood care is crucial for successful learning experiences. It takes a collaborative effort between the many adults in a child’s life. Environments need to be safe, peaceful, and happy in order for the children to learn and develop to their fullest potential. The impact early educators have on the children and their families can equip them for success. Genuine relationships between early educators and families build trust and respect, this trusting relationship among parents and staff members is key to an effective experience. As caregivers and educators, we must continue to update, revise, and expand our teaching and care practices to best meet the needs of our diverse

Chapter eight is about promoting communication and language development in early childhood education. Early communication is mostly non-verbal. Communication goes beyond the words we use; it develops with the use of gestures, facial expressions, hand movements and positioning of our body. Some of the first displays of communication by infants include, smiling, fussing and looking at an area, person or object. Later, communication extends to give signals such as pointing, reaching and body movements to indicate a want or need. The primary functions of early communication are behavior regulation, social interaction, and calling joint attention. Students with visual impairment and other disabilities are at risk for developing communication and

In today's society, early childhood education programs have become an almost expected first step in every child's life. Studies have shown that when children attend they children who attend a preschool program are exposed to numbers, letter, and shapes on a daily basis. They also begin to learn many life skills, like how to socialize, share and separate from their parents. These first steps of learning are so important that now forty states in the U.S. now offer state funded pre-k programs (Kanter, 2016). With some many different preschools and early childhood programs, how do parents know if the programs are being held to a certain standard? The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) is one comprehensive assessment tool available. Using this tool while quietly observing a preschool classroom, will help to define areas of strength as well as areas needing to be strengthened. The scale has thirty five different areas that are divided into six subscales, that will be observed. Each question is yes or no answer to a specific question and example.

My centre, HeadStart Early Learning Centre is located at 6-8 Wattle Street, West Ryde, NSW 2114 Australia, north-west of the Sydney Central Business District (CBD). It is built on a quite suburban street surrounded by houses and apartments, as well as a park across the road. The community in the suburb of West Ryde consists of many cultures ranging from Chinese to Lebanese and Italian backgrounds.

Ms. Penn’s Kindergarten class consisted of 9 boys and 7 girls. This was the last hour of the instructional day, and as I walked in I noticed that the students were already working in centers in groups of 3-4. This class was a little noisy and unorganized as compared to other kindergarten classrooms I have observed so far at Krahn elementary. The students seemed to be enjoying their time in centers and were eager to pack-up after cleaning up in the end since it was close to dismissal.

12 boys, including 1 special Ed, 2 dislectic boys, 8 girls including 2 dislecitc girls, and not including the female teacher.

Early childhood is a time full of curiosity, exploration, creativity, excitement, and rapid development. During these formative years, children develop attitudes about education that remain with them for the rest of their lives (Kostelnik, Soderman, & Whiren, 2011). High quality early childhood education programs and highly effective, passionate teachers or care providers will not only promote young children’s development and academic achievement but will also foster a lifelong passion for learning. ECE programs and educators utilize learning centers to contribute to young children’s acquisition of literacy, numeracy, creative thinking, problem solving, and motor skills as well as a number of other skills and knowledge (Jarrett, 2010).

In the book Early Childhood Education Today 11th Edition, we read that “Family-centered practice is one of the cornerstone features of early childhood special education. This follows the fundamental notion that children’s development is influenced by their environment: their family, teachers, school, town, media, governmental systems, and so on.” (MORRISON, 2009) The first thing we as teachers must do is acknowledge that the children’s families are the first and most important teachers of their children and recognize the long-term effect families have on the attitudes and accomplishments of their children . For the edification of today’s youth there are potential positive responses to be obtained through working with a child’s parents as

The center in which I am conducting observations at is the Metro Gateway Child Development Center. The director of the center is Kelly Magallanes and the assistant director is Kristen Krauss. The child development center serves about seventy students; public center. I will be assessing the toddler room for the ITERS observation; the lead teacher of the classroom is Ms. Rose and the assistant teacher is Ms. Sonia. There are eight toddlers in total.

This research report presents an analysis of and conclusions drawn from the experiences and perspectives of two educators that work in the early childhood setting. The main objective is to identify key elements and issues in relation to the families, diversity and difference. In particular how an early childhood educator implements, different approaches to honour culture and diversity, and to advocate for social justice in an early childhood settings. As such, it allows an insight into the important role that families and their background plays in the everyday lives of the children and educators within early childhood settings. In today’s ever-changing growing society it is essential for educators to be flexible to the

1. My niece fits into the infancy stage. She is not even a year old. I can see the oral-sensory mode with her. She is constantly taking in the world around her by trying new things with her senses and trying to put things in her mouth. At this stage she is experiencing basic trust vs mistrust. She is trying to trust the world and the people around her. I see this as the basic issue. Hope is another issue that is present. I believe with the help of her supportive parents she is being to develop hope and not withdrawal. She is very open and not withdrawn in any setting. Understanding her basic concerns of trust and mistrust helps me better understand her needs. Although she cannot talk yet, I can use this information to better connect with her

Education has come a extensive way from the times of Plato and Aristotle, but from each new era came a person with a concept that effected the world of education eternally. Sisters, Margaret and Rachel McMillian influenced education through their development of the Open-Air Nursery School in more way then one. Not only had they introduced the idea of starting education at a younger age then the fledgling kindergarten program, but their school was devised for kids from low- income areas that needed the extra care as well. A unique concept of the time that grasped my interest and made me want to discover more about their program and it’s effect on Early Childhood Education.

Parents and society as a whole are realizing the importance of the first five years. They are realizing that “school readiness” is important and that we can do better for our children. As an industry, that has given early childhood the opportunity to grow both in a business sense and in an educational sense. It has given schools, like Lily Academy, the opportunity to grow the brand and has also forced all early childhood educators to reevaluate their mission and their vision for what they do and how they do it. Because of the demand for early childhood education by parents, the industry continues to grow.

During my observations in the different classrooms at “The childcare Center”, I learned about the proper environment, the fundamentals of the teachers lesson plans, their health and safety regulations, their approach to guidance and discipline, and overall quality childcare. The center has eight different levels of age groups; each of them has their own curriculum based on their age and developmental needs. This curriculum changes and has a new theme each month that helps the lead teachers to be able to start their lesson plans each week. From infants all the way to pre-K the lesson plans include fine motor, gross motor, art and sensory, math and manipulatives, music and movement, language including both signing and Spanish.