The chapters in this weeks readings were quite interesting. It talks about the child and how we assess them on a daily basis. In chapter two, we saw a child's development through a teachers perspective. Also, there were examples of how the child grew through the years. As teachers, we use assessment tools to help us show parents what we do at the preschool and what we have observed during their time at school. Some things that happen during school may not happen at home or things that happen at home may not happen at school.
From my experience, I know that I have children who show no interest in learning letters at school, yet at home they know their letters and is able to identify and show an interest. Because there is so many things that go on at school, I am sure that a child would not want to be doing things that they do at home everyday. Children often want to play with their friends and do things that they often do not get to do. How it is interpreted is very different. Our job as teachers is to be able to assess children without giving our opinions. Which is why we have standards that help us learn if they are prepared.
In chapter two, it talked about assessments, conferences, and school readiness. How much of it is for the parents? It also gave some good pointers about things to talk about during conferences. I know that when I have conferences with the parents, I have no idea what to say because I am so nervous. Also, I am still very shy and there are things that I know I am not sure about either. But I am thankful that the parents that I work with are very laid back and understanding.
Chapter three talked about how we use assessments and documentations for our curriculums. I know that I for sure use that during my planning. I try to incorporate the children's interests and help them to learn in different ways. I use the documentation tools to help me plan what types of activities to do, if I want to see how the children use their fine motor skills, I may do a drawing activity. Using the assessment tools also help us challenge the children and figure out if the activity age appropriate and if the child is able to understand what you are trying to teach them.
Teachers as researchers is a big topic. Right now, I have a child who has some developmental delays and I know that he has made me more aware of the different types of developmental diagnosis there are. Children are often deemed "ADHD" because they can't sit still, which is why more children are being medicated in this generation. Yet how many of them are really ADHD? I know that I am not ADHD, but yet I can't sit still most of the time and I am always anxious and have anxiety symptoms too. How much of it is just society telling us that something is wrong with us? But yet, what is normal? We stress how much we want each child to show their individuality, yet we deem them something the instant we feel that there is something wrong. As a teacher, I know that I research many things for me to use in the classroom and to help parents. I know that parents often ask what we do at school to help them regulate their child's behavior, however children act differently in different social situations. Being at school, I was always the shy one but at home I was really goofy and often loud.
Hello Monica,
ReplyDeleteThe behavior that a child exhibits at school may be very different from the behavior that the child exhibits at home. This is why I think that it's important for teachers to communicate with parents and hear what they have to say about their child's behavior, learning, or interests.
Should teachers assess without giving their opinion? I think that our observations and comments about the children cannot be 100% objective. I think there's a mixture of objectivity and subjectivity.
I also feel like our society is quick to label children. How do labels (e.g., ADHD) influence the teacher's instruction and assessment strategies? Do the labels help us to become more cognizant about meeting this child's needs or do they inadvertently hinder our approach to teaching them?
-- Geena
Aloha Monica!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I as well cannot sit still for a very long time. Especially at circle time, I have a hard time leaving my legs crossed. Every child will have different personalities at home than in school. In my experience, I was always shy in school. It got to the point where the principle, teachers, and my parents had a meeting. My elementary teacher was very concerned. My dad kept on telling them that I spoke at home. When having missed signals of a child, how will it hurt them developmentally? How can we stop ourselves from misinterpreting a child?
Hi Monica,
ReplyDeleteI want to challenge your statement about how our job is not to give opinions. I often think that we do have opinions about children and why they do the things they do, and we should be able to share those opinions. However, and this is the important part, we should have evidence to back up those opinions. We should be able to say to someone, I think this because...and then be able to fill in the blanks with anecdotes, artifacts and other evidence. The other thing to keep in mind is to be open to the idea that our opinions could be biased. Dani discussed the importance of having dialogues with other teachers and family members. She mentioned the idea of a puzzle, which sounds like what you are alluding to above when you mentioned that some students do certain things at home but not at school and vice versa. What do you think of the idea of a puzzle? Is it possible to ever have a completely filled in picture, or will we always be missing pieces? Who can help us gather the pieces to get an as complete picture as possible?
Parent conferences were extremely nerve wracking events for me as well! I never wanted to hurt the parents' feelings and so was very cautious as to what I would say. However, over time, once I knew that I could back up the things I said with evidence, I became more relaxed about the process. It was no longer just my opinion, but it was my opinion with items to back up what I said. Think about how the different teachers this week painted the pictures of the children they discussed. They had a lot of different anecdotes about the children in a variety of settings over a substantial period of time. Think about how different these pictures were versus what information would have been gleaned from a standardized test. Could we have the same amount of detail with a few tests given here or there? What gets left out? How were these educators able to adjust their instruction based upon what they learned about their students over the school year(s)? Thanks!