child and family

When designing learning environments it is important to address the multiple intelligences of young children. Evaluate your classroom by answering these questions:

Community Reflection (wk 5) Discussion (asha). Child family course

Week Five Discussion-

Heres what is expected of students.

1. Your responses for all discussions should include specific support from course materials, including any readings, videos, your own experiences, or other sources that may apply to the topic.

2. Post your response to the discussion by Sunday at 11:59pm.

3. Lastly, go back and give thoughtful, thought-out responses that reflects on something that connects what you know or just learned about child care. Help to move the conversation forward, give alternative view points and/or support.   by Tuesday at 11:59pm 

4. Check back in to see if you need to respond to a classmate again  

Time to Reflect:

This activity was presented in  Chapter 6 of Roots and Wings (York)Links to an external site. on page 154 as a simple way to begin thinking about the families within your program.  For your intial post, share your answers to both sets of questions.  You may need to discuss them with an administrator in your center.  If you aren't working in a center right now, think about where you live for the first set and how you would serve families in that community if you had your own center.   Remember to respond to make your first post by Sunday night and respond to at least 2 of your classmates' posts by Tuesday night in order to earn a 100 on the forum. 

The first questions:

· What is the racial mix of the families participating in your program?

· What is the cultural mix of the families participating in your program?

· What languages are spoken by the families in your program?

· What family styles are represented in your program (single- parent, blended, foster, LGBTQ , extended)?

· What is the socioeconomic mix of the families participating in your program?

· Do the families participating in your program have any special needs?

After you have reviewed and analyzed your first answers, consider (and share your responses to) these reflective questions:

·  To what extent do the families in your program reflect the larger community?

· To what extent do the staff members reflect the families in your program?

· To what extent does your program (caregiving methods, classroom materials, curriculum, and teaching methods) reflect the families in the program?

How can answering these questions give you some idea of where your program is serving families well and where you might start to make changes? 

Part 2

Writing Assignment 2 (Child D) 300 words

After viewing course videos through class so far, reading Chapter 4 and reviewing the Developmental Milestones document chart below, think about how infants and toddlers develop and how the different areas of development (Physical, Cognitive, Social Emotional) are connected.  Write a short one-page essay or create a PowerPoint with at least 10 slides about ways that a teacher in a classroom can support a young child's development.  What activities can a teacher do to help a child move from one developmental stage to another?  How can a teacher tie one area of development to another?  Talk about how it is important for the teacher to support the child's development through the different developmental areas.  How can a teacher be "purposeful" when planning activities to support a child's development?  Why is it important to understand the developmental milestones in a child's development? 

Developmental Millstones Chart:   5-Developmental-Milestones Chart.pdf

Part 3 Creative Child (do this in a separate document. I have attached MI Chart template for this)

Creative Representation of a Creative Classroom/Learning Environment

Assignment Overview:  This is a two-week assignment.  For this assignment, you will  create a visual presentation of your ideal classroom environment that promotes creativity.  This should be in the form of a detailed collage, Google Doc or a PowerPoint, or you could create a Pinterest page to collect images and submit an invitation to the link and include a narrative description.  Think creatively!  This assignment is worth 200 points, and a commensurate amount of effort should be given to your presentation, which should include  many images,  in order to give a complete representation of the type of learning environment that you would create.   

Part 1:  First, in paragraph form, describe who is in your classroom.  Identify the ages of the children in this classroom, the number of children in this classroom, the number of teachers in this classroom, details about the types of families, and characteristics of the children.  

Part 2: Now  think about these questions from Chapter 3 (you don't have to hand the answers in, just take them into consideration):

Creating a Vision An environment that cultivates creative thinking begins with a plan to develop a beautiful, intriguing place for young children. There are many things to consider: ›How do you want children to see the space? ›What kinds of play and thinking might be inspired there? › What feelings should be stimulated? › What options can you provide for children who are exploding with ideas? › Will there be a gathering place for a small group of learners? › Will you include a quiet space where children can slow down and incubate an idea? › How can the environment reflect the children and their families? › What features make your classroom space unique? › How can you change the environment as new interests and projects develop?

Now create your visual presentation.  You may collect photos from your own current classroom if you have one, or from Pinterest, online images, etc.  Show the different types of areas (noisy, quiet, creative, etc.) and include a description of the spaces and why you included the images that you chose.  This can be representational - it does not have to be a "map" of the room.  It should, however, give the true "feel" of the different areas and what you would include to support creativity.  How will you include beauty, nature, inspiration, light, etc.?  Focus on using natural elements and not plastic toys and materials.  

Part 3.  Once you have visualized your ideal creative classroom, evaluate it by answering the questions on this attached document:   Using MI to evaluate classroom   Download Using MI to evaluate classroom (opens in a new window).  Submit this completed document .  (MI template is attached)

Summary: 

What to submit for grading:

1. Written description of who is in your classroom (see part 1).

2. Visual representation of your ideal classroom with descriptions (in the representation if it is a PowerPoint for example, or in a separate paper if you presentation is all visual, such as a collage or Pinterest page (see part 2).

3. Completed MI evaluation tool (see part 3)