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.
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While reading about the different theorist in Theories of Childhood my jaw almost dropped when I reached the chapter on Maria Montessori. I cannot imagine having young students supplied with sharp knives and tools. In my experience working for Head Start this would never fly; there is practically a guideline on everything including how to sneeze. Sharp implements would not be allowed in the classroom. But, there is a lot to be said my Montessori's views that children are very capable and with the correct instruction are very able. I understand the importance of teaching children how to use tools the correct way in order to be safe. And, I am sure it is very frustrating for a child who wants to cut thick paper for his or her project while this or her dull scisssors barely cut through tissue paper. I wonder how we could give young students more opportunities to work with real tools. Like Montessori, I do believe that kids learn by doing and it would be better to teach children how to work safely than having them experiment by themselves.
ReplyDeleteI really like Yardsticks. It is a very practical manual that can be applied easily in the classroom. I really appreciate how Chip Wood's chapters are a not cut and dry view on stages of children development. Wood describes what behaviors to expect more on a flowing continuum than on a hard-set ruler. I love the easy set-up and how you can read a general guideline on what you may expect through the different stages.
In a response to what Adrienne was saying about the real tools in early childhood ed. I have had some experiences that relate in my previous job. We had this massive sand box on our playground, and in it we use to have all these plastic tools that could barely get the job done, eventually we upgraded to real metal child sized tools including a two rakes, a shovel, and a hoe. This may not sound as dangerous as a knife, but if you saw these tools it would make your heart skip a beat. Especially because there were a few aggressive children in the program. As fearful as I was, the children used the tools in a very responsible manner(although I always felt I was shadowing when an aggressive child was using them) Another activity we did was cutting up strawberries with serrated plastic knives,(not the small plastic knives you buy in bulk)it worked great, and once again the children impressed me with responsible use of the real tools. I think that the Montessori's view on the topic might not be so far fetched after all. Still a little nerve racking though.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Yardsticks book, it sounds like a great resource for our program and when we get out there in the real world. I am unfortunately still waiting for it to arrive in our bookstore. So I'll have to comment more on Yardsticks at a later date.