Blog for July 2nd

Great class today. I wish we could have followed through on every question to gather the wisdom in the room. We have the same problem you will all encounter in your own classrooms someday, so much to do and so little TIME!

I must say that it is genuinly exciting to see you taking full advantage of every opportunity to engage with each other and the materials despite the flurry of information coming your way. It is impressive to watch you work! While you will all look very different from each other in the classroom, it is my belief that you will advocate for the good of your students, whatever that looks like, if you yourself have the tools, confidence and support to do so. I feel privileged to get to watch the building of all three!

You are also getting to experience first hand many of the learning strategies/stages spoken of in our readings. You are constructing knowledge by combining readings with past and present experiences. You are learning through both the process (conversation, reading, blogging) as well as the products (papers, posters, role plays). Art imitates life as real and relevant questions are explored. Your questions take on new life when they can change the focus of our conversations. As a result, your participation both individually and collectively profoundly impacts the whole class experience. The concepts you are learning are being scaffolded by requiring a time of reflection (your Take on a Voice paper), allowing for social interaction (making your cheat sheet) and experiencing a little ZPD thanks to both the support of team mates and the dedication of challengers. The classroom is becoming a place where risk is more the norm than the exception. After all, we're all in this together...

I know that many of you are in that odd but necessary state of disequilibrium where clarity comes and goes. This process is invaluable as we make all this information our own. Just think, with all of this thrashing around in theory you are beginning to create a real teaching philosophy. A flexible ever transforming one to be sure, but a framework to give your teaching a foundation in principle and heart. What are you becoming passionate about ED561?

Your next blog prompt is wide open. What is on your mind, shaping your thinking. guiding your inquiry? By the way, your thoughts could span across readings and even the other classes you are taking. I don't believe that we in Child Development have cornered the market on interesting food for thought!!

Enjoy,

I look forward to Thursday!

Zalika

Questions and Observations as They Relate to Yardsticks

Let me begin with my questions, which can all be bundled into one: Why do the powers that be in terms of our federally mandated education policies continue to miss the boat? It is that those "in charge" have no real world experience in education, and if so, why are they implementing policy without anything more than ill-informed political will? Why is that people continue to hold onto the myth that forcing children into mini-adult roles will make them better prepared for the adult world? I for one would not wish the so-called adult world on any child today. I am saddened that easy solutions that don't work are valued over theories and practices based on science and understandings that come from working with children in an environment where an adult will listen and observe to truly gain some insight into how the child brain works and interacts with its (it's kinda weird to refer to a kid's brain as an "it", but bear with me) environment. Do adults/parents/administrators not remember their own childhood and the many frustrations that we all felt in a school setting? Simply passing laws and mandates are lip-service, and that is how I feel about NCLB. True, I admit, I have a tremendous bias against the Bush Admin, so there it is, but when most effective teachers question the practices of constantly testing our kids for these three R's, why won't the powers that be listen?

From my own experience, I have been conditioned to test well. Wood refers to that "problem" (what? How is being a good test taker a problem?) in that once a child is forced into testing, they can associate their self-esteem with how they perform. I am guilty of this misconception. When I first found out that most of the classes in this program were not graded, I was a little worried. Some of my self-esteem has in the past come from my performance in school, especially on tests. Although, I didn't become that way until my high school and college years. My earliest years in school were in a gifted and talented program in which I don't ever remember being graded. So, if you treat your "gifted and talented" students in the way that shows them that testing is pointless, why would one turn around and then test the "normals"? I personally have found testing to be fruitless in my own education, despite good grades and high test scores. Filling in the blank on a test has never, never proved that I truly know a concept and understand it as it relates to me, my community, my future, or my society.

Okay, now for something more positive...

A while ago, a friend of mine with a 7 year-old son was in a bind and asked me if I could sit with Oliver for an evening. Sure, I said, I'm going into education, I've been working with kids, I'll be fine. Let's just say that my vision of a quiet evening with a 7 year old was really, really off. Instead, Oliver and I fought within about 30 minutes of my arrival. He was hitting me with these foam nunchuks, and even though they were foam, he was trying out my patience by hitting harder and harder. At first, I was a little uncomfortable about "disciplining" Oli -- which I will freely admit is my biggest weakness in dealing with kids. So instead, I simply told him that what he was doing was unacceptable (I think I said "not cool" -- unacceptable makes me sound so grown up, which I am not). And then I took the nunchuks and hid them. Oli threw a fit, and I mean a fit. I thought, great, Kelly (Oli's mom) is never going to ask me for any kind of childcare again. He told me that I hated him and all kinds of other stuff. He ran into his room and slammed the door. I sat down on the couch and turned on a video game. I didn't even talk to Oli; I just let him sulk and pout. And wouldn't you know it, about 15 minutes later, he came out of his room, sat down next to me, and cuddled up against me. I see in Yardsticks, that Oli's behaviour is pretty typical of a 7 year old. Whew. I thought maybe it was just me or the fact that Oli comes from a single parent home and craves attention. By the way, when Mom got home, Oli and I were "best friends", according to Oli, so I must have done something right, despite my inexperience.

I was actually a little worried about Oli after that night. I thought about how maybe his single parent home was faulty or he was developing some troublesome "quirks." And then lo and behold, Chip Wood tells me that Oli's behaviour was quite typical of a child that age. I guess I can stop worrying.

Also, Oli and I had a lot of fun making thumb puppets out of old gloves. And that, too, is mentioned in Yardsticks. A 7 year old's fine motor skills are becoming more precise and "microscopic" drawing and writing is normal. I am thinking about buying a copy of Yardsticks for Kelly, well, if the bookstore ever gets a copy of it.

Developmental Milestones - Questions & Understandings

My blog is based on the online readings and the in class activity, since I have not received my copy of Yardsticks. Hopefully it will be in today!
After finishing the Back to School Night activity, and analyzing some of the milestones, I had a few lurking questions that I included in my journal. We are given the tools from the readings and Yardsticks to understand our students better at their different stages. These tools are helpful for planning our curriculum, classroom environment, lessons, communication styles and more. I wondered, "what do I do if I have a student who is not developmentally up to par? What if I go to their parents, and they are defensive and do not accept the issue? What if I don't have any programs for special education or instructional assistants available at my school to help these children? How can I help a student who isn't emotionally relating to other students and cannot make friends?" I wondered about these things, and how I as a teacher will be able to address these issues effectively on top of teaching the students each and every day. It made me realize that understanding these milestones is crucial, and taking into account the different places students may be at within their domain, and then finding ways to help them grow at each stage emotionally, cognitively, socially and physically will be a challenge.
I agree with several other posts from our Cohort that the milestones are a useful resource for educators. As someone that has already worked with children somewhat, in different capacities and different ages, I enjoy reading through the milestones and most just seemed to click. They made sense, and I could think of examples of children to illustrate these ideas. On the other hand, there are ages of children I have not worked with as much as others, and it has been helpful to review and practice analyzing these ages like we did for Back to School Night as well as using our observations to illustrate examples during the double circle activity.

The book Yardsticks is a great reference for teachers to use as a guide for developing curriculum. The sections are easy to follow and have in- depth but quick facts about child development at different ages and grade levels. Throughout this book I have come across many applications that I will use in my future classroom. 

I thought it was really helpful that the book was designed as a go-to guide for teachers. I agree that children need different attention in certain areas based on their age and what they are experiencing developmentally. Each age has specific domains that need to be reached through curriculum, and this book gives great insight to these domains. 

Along with the developmental domains are the strengths and interests of specific children, and that too should be taken into account. Children's education cannot be structured in a way that accommodates to only one type of learning. Each child is unique and needs a tailored instruction based on many facets, I found this book to be interesting and useful when incorporating this idea in my classroom. 

Yardsticks!

Yardsticks is definitely a great tool for educators. It reinforces the fact that observation and reflection are key components of teaching. These elements are present in all of the theories of childhood presented in the text.

One question came up as I was reading about Chip and his research. Since Yardsticks is based primarily on first hand observation I wonder how accurate it is across cultures. I would find it very interesting to see how much influence culture has on the behavior and attitudes of children at different developmental stages. Yardsticks may be completely useless to a teacher in a non-western culture.

There were definitely a few treasures in the text that I would like to hold on to. I specifically remember reading that 11 year olds like to debate. This is great information! Many times they will argue for the sake of arguing. They are beginning to form a view of the world and now have concrete opinions. Understanding that this is part of their development will prevent a lot of frustration on my part. This knowledge is also an opportunity to use the child’s interests to facilitate learning. Debating is a great way to combine many different content areas into a cohesive, meaningful unit.

Blog 1, Observations and Treasures

As I read through the introduction of Yardsticks and the summary of Developmental Milestones, I couldn't help but relate what I was reading to my own personal experiences with education. In many ways I agree with the perspective that children should be considered based off of their developmental patterns, and that it is not always appropriate to clump children together by their age in years. In agreeing with this, I wonder how the classes would be determined, especially since we have been learning about so many different strengths in learning styles. As a child in elementary school I struggled with understanding math , but was very conscientious of others and artistic. Where would I have been placed and what would I have been judged off of? I myself remember feeling very disconnected to school and literally counting down the days until summer vacation, because I felt frustrated and discouraged by my classroom environment. I feel my experiences would have been more positive, if I was encouraged in a way that was more sensitive to my developmental abilities.
As I move through this program and transition into my position as a teacher, I plan to keep these ideas of looking at each individual child and trying to facilitate their individual learning styles in the front of my mind. I am open to this approach because I remember how the traditional, cookie-cutter approach was so discouraging to me. I am thankful to have the Developmental Milestones Summary as a quick reference, in order to put specific stages of development into perspective. I absolutely agree that their needs to be an open relationship with the parent(s) or guardian(s), to create the most successful learning environment for the children. This first week of school has left me feeling inspired, and at the same time legitimized some of the memories from my own education and made me feel less isolated.

Good afternoon!

First of all, you probably got the invitation from Febe to join a cross-cohort blog conversation. I think it is a great idea especially since it is something you can use all the way through the program long after Ed 561 fades from your memories.

That said, I am going to ask you to blog here for the purposes of our class assignments. I know that is not quite as efficient for you, but it is helpful to me to have all of your responses in one place so that I can follow each of your posts and ideas.

By the way, nice job yesterday on your back to school night presentations and your discussions regarding the 4 domains. I know this is a new language and way of thinking for many and you dove right in combining experience, observation and readings in new ways. People were thoughtful about their own frames and respectfully pushed each other through both challenge and support.

I must say, what a strange end to yesterdays class. We will all remember where we were when we found out MJ died. Thanks for hanging in there with me. We are off to a great start!

Here is your prompt regarding our development discussion on Thursday. A response is due before class on Tuesday.

As you are developing your personal frames for observing and teaching children I expect you will be developing and tracking in yourself the following 5 methods of interacting with our material: Questions (that makes me wonder...), Understandings (That makes sense to me), Observations (relating to real life), Treasures(I want to hold onto that), and Easy applications( for your future classrooms).

Please pick 2 of these ways of interacting with the material that you feel you have experienced related to the Yardsticks and Developmental Milestones readings. Please post a response giving us a peek into your thinking. I do expect to see specific references to text (no need to officially cite them or anything) as well as your own reflective process.

Thanks again for your patience with all this technology stuff!

Happy weekend,

Zalika