Michelles people, places and things: 2013

Friday, 5 April 2013

Final Blog - Reflection

By: Michelle Wheatley

As I sit down and write this final reflection it gives me chance to look back at how this experience has been for me and how I have seen and read the different comments that I have received from my team members. As I'm still classed as a very new staff member within my team I still see things that other staff members miss. I am a very strong believer in children learning through free-play and my philosophy states this, I am also a believer in children learning without digital technology. This leads me onto a comment made to me by one of my team members in blog three (Crayons).

As Donna highlighted in her comment in blog three she points out that through my blogs I have hinted that I believe in free movement due to writing two blogs about non-digital technology. As Smorti (1999) states "Do you associate any of the following items with 'technology'? A ballpoint pen, brick, racehorse, clothes peg, computer, corkscrew, hammer, newspaper, radio, kidney transplant, ice block stick, new variety of grass?" (p.5). To me all these items associate with technology, Why you might ask? Because they all have been developed to help solve a problem in some way. Smorti (1999) states that "Technology is about helping people and problem solving" (p.5). Because in my centre, in my room we don't have a lot of opportunity for the use of digital technology I would prefer to keep it this way so that children learn to problem solve with out technology, they are given the opportunity to develop and create ideas by themselves being creative and learning to problem solve on their own. Ministry of education (1996) states that "Children experience an environment where they learn strategies for active exploration, thinking, and reasoning" (p.88).

However moving into another area that stood out to me in blog two - movement that was again highlighted by Donna. This child who is still currently learning to walk this was a milestone that her parents have missed or not had a chance to completely see because her parents work full-time. Donna took me back to when her child was in a centre and she was working full-time and she was missing all these milestones. Donna mentioned if someone had offered her the opportunity for a blog where these milestones could be captured that she would have taken them up on that offer. This made me think our a blog would help our infants parents to capture those missed moments that happen within the centre that they miss at home. As Wang (2008) states "Edublogs have some advantages in the context of teaching and learning. They can enhance learning, motivate students and foster collaboration among learners" (p.35). A blog could also be a way for receiving feedback from our parents, and also a way for us as teachers to build and maintain relationships with our families. Yang (2009) states that "Computer users with access to the internet can access some blog sites that are open to the public and welcome viewers to make comments or post messages" (p.13).

Another point that was pointed out to me in Blog one - cell phones was by Jamee about the unaware skills and knowledge that children come into the centre with. When I thought about this it become apparent to me that she was right. When a child comes into the centre, we are given an age of how old this child is. From here we just expect this 18 month old to walk when in reality she or he may not be able to walk just yet. As a teacher we are preconceived with ideas about what children should or should not be doing at certain ages and stages in their lives, this is when we forget to take a step back and actually get to know the child and observe the child to see what he or she can actually do. Santrock (2009) states that "Each of us develops partly like all other individuals, partly like some other individuals and partly like no other individuals" (p.7).

Overall I enjoyed reflecting on the non - digital and digital resources within my centre environment. However through my blogs it has been made aware to me that we don't use a lot of digital technology within the centre. But our children still make the most of their everyday play without this digital technology and I believe this is how our centre is developing and becoming a very strong centre.

Reference List (for all blogs)

Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Death, E., Dockett, S., & Farmer, S. (2007). Programming and planning in early childhood settings (4^th ed.). South Melbourne, Australia: CENGAGE Learning.

Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2011). Foundations of early childhood education: Teaching children in a diverse society (5^th ed.). Boston, Ma: McGraw Hill.

http://main.zerotothree.org/site/pageserverpagename=ter_key_social_communication&addinterest=1157

MacNaughton, G., & Williams, G. (2009). Techniques for teaching young children: Choices in theory and practice (3rd ed.). Frenchs Forrest, Australia: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa : Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media

Santrock, J.W. (2009). Lifespan development (12^th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Smorti, S. (1999) Technology in early childhood. Early Education, 1, 5-10.

Wang, H. (2008). Exploring the educational use of blogs in U.S. education. US – China Education Review, 5 (10), 34-37.

Yang, S.-H. (2009). Using blogs to enhance critical reflection and community of practice. Educational Technology & Society, 12 (2), 11-21. Available online from http://www.ifets.info/journals/12_2/2.pdf

Hyperlinks

Saturday, 23 March 2013

Blog three - Crayons

By: Michelle Wheatley

Date: 23/03/2013

Here's a little video tip, great for recycling old crayons within the centre or at home. Also a great little activity to get the children involved.

In my centre we are very fortunate to have all our arts and crafts resources available to both the children and teachers at all times. Each room in our centre has an art corner where the shelves are stocked with anything from paper and paint to collage materials and resources to paint with. Each room has been given a pot of 100 crayons and we are lucky enough to have these made available to our infants.

Arts and crafts is a main interest to our children in our toddler room (2 years old) where I do spend some of my time when our head teacher is out of the centre. When I was last in this room (a little over three weeks ago) the children had been creating self portraits of their whole bodies. The permanent teacher in the room had found a roll of paper that we were able to roll out on the ground and then have the children lye down on this and trace them. After the children and I had finished cutting the traced bodies out they all spread their pictures out and used the crayons we had in the rooms to draw on these bodies. I noticed the younger group in this room used a lot of colour and mainly had little scribbles. The older children however still used a lot of colour but coloured in certain areas with certain colours. The children had made sure they had filled as much of the area they were colouring with a crayon before moving onto the next colour and the next space on the body. (I wish I was able to get a photo of the finished products before they went home to parents). We created learning stories on each of the children during this activity, we did a group learning story as well as individual learning stories for the different learning each child accomplished.

Ministry of education (1996) states that "Children gain experience in using communication technologies such as crayons, paintbrushes, pencils, calculators, books, and computers" (p.97). The children have a cupboard fill of art materials in this particular activity and they have chosen to use the crayons to draw on their own bodies. The children in this room have developed a sense of independence because they have had the resources made available and have made a choice which resource they would like to use and what colours they would like to use. I think as their teacher I have facilitate their learning by providing them with a range of resources with the space to go through with this activity and encouraged them to make decisions on their own. MacNaughton and Williams (2009) states that "As a teaching technique, facilitating refers to the process of making children's learning easier. Facilitation therefore, refers to all the things staff do to make children's learning more possible, such as scheduling, selecting materials, organising space, and interacting verbally and non-verbally with them" (p.81). Each child told a story with their drawings, even though they may look like scribbles on a piece of paper to some people, i like to take children's artwork seriously. Because the children that I happened to be working with talked full sentences I was able to ask them open ended questions. It was a great opportunity for me to get to know some of these children individually and expand on the children's language and social skills. MacNaughton and Williams states that "Asking questions to children provides them with an opportunity to think and to use language in a functional manner by allowing them to report observations, describe experiences, and make predictions" (p.153).

On a final note Gonzalez-Mena states that "A toddler's scribbles aren't just scribbles; they are age appropriate art" (p.427).

Thursday, 21 March 2013

Blog two - Movement

By : Michelle Wheatley

Date: 22.03.2013

In my centre I am currently working with children aged 0-2years old. In our care we have 12 infants who are all learning to roll, sit unsupported, crawl, walk, run and many many more milestones. Each child we have had in our room learn at a different rate and at different ages.

One little girl in particular is a little over a year old and has been crawling since she started with us at 11 months old. Over the last three weeks we have noticed and documented (and written many many learning stories might i add) that she has really taken an interest is wanting to walk. When she first started taking an interest, she used a green bike outside as her aid to pull herself up and use the bike for added support has she walked around the outdoor area. She started off slow but has the week progressed she became very confident and fearless. When it came to losing balance and falling over she would get straight back up and continue to move forward. As she became very confident within herself she starting using other aids within the environment such as our wooden chairs that we sit on for our meals, they were perfect size and weight for her to pull herself up on and push around our lino floor.

In the second week of observations we noticed her standing on her own with any support from an aid or a teacher. She would pull herself up against furniture then let go and stand for short periods at a time. At first she was very uneasy on her feet and was only standing for short amounts of time (3 - 5 seconds). Has the week continued she started standing for longer periods of time (30 seconds plus).

At the beginning of this week, dad had mentioned when he dropped her off that she had taken her first three steps at home. From here I have encouraged her over the course of the week to keep going and trying. By midweek this little girl who we had been watching develop her own way to learn how to walk was taking 10 steps all together.

This one little girl has become a very confident young girl who others and myself have spent a lot of time encouraging to continue her further development with her confidence within her self and abilities and her gross motor skills. MacNaughton and Williams (2009) states that "Physically helping a child with a task may involve holding their hand as they enter a situation about which they feel apprehension, or helping them to use a piece of equipment by holding it steady" (p.69). By helping this little girl and encouraging her, she has learnt to walk and I have Incorporated simple strategies into my everyday teaching. This little girl has become very aware of how far she can push her body. She has developed a sense of no fear at all. When she falls she gets up and continues to move forward with no tears at all. Ministry of education (1996) states that "as they explore their world, children gain confidence in the control and use of their bodies" (p.98). I have continued to observe and document all the learning that is happening and turning these into learning stories. These have all started with one simple observation and I have continued to write learning stories and add these to her portfolio has well as display these on our wall with more stories on movement with other children in the room. Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett, & Farmer (2007) states that "Learning stories help to make children's learning visible for families and encourage educators, families and children to discuss learning together" (p.60).

KEEP ON WALKING!!!

Cellphones - Blog One

Blog One - Cellphones

By: Michelle Wheatley

Date: 22.03.2013

I have been working at my centre for over 18 months now and slowly we are getting a little more technology throughout the rooms within the centre. The older two rooms, preschool (4 year old children) and the kindy room (3 years old) have a lot more digital technology than our infant (under 2 years) and toddler (2 year old) rooms. However very slowly we are gaining a little more technology throughout the rooms.

Recently an LG technician has come into our centre and given us a little under 100 LG smartphones(These are only display models from stores around Auckland). The phones were distributed between the four rooms in the centre. Our infant room was luckily given 12 of these phones, so that each of our infants were able to have one each and not fight over these new toys. I gave one cellphone to a little girl who is just under 18 months old. She took the cellphone from my hands and instantly slid her thumb across the phones screen just like she would be unlocking an iphone. I was a little overcome that an 18 month old knew how to unlock a working phone. Then she placed the phone to her ear and starting talking to someone on the other line. As I kept handing out these phones and eventually looked at all the children they were either talking to someone on the phone or taking photos of others or themselves.

The children have continued to use these cellphones over the last week and a half. As I watch the children they started with only some children taking photos of themselves but all using the phones to talk to someone. But now they are all using phones to take photos of themselves or of others in the room. They have been used in family play situations, carried round in little handbags and pockets, used to play games on like an iphone or ipad. I am loving watching the children learn how to use these phones in their own unique way. At first I wasn’t sure as when I was a child phones weren't readily available like it is these days for our young children. Ministry of Education (1997) states that "Children use a variety of technologies for different purposes as they explore their world" (p.98). The children are developing a sense of exploring their world through the technology of a cellphone. Talking to one another , talking to us through the cellphones or even talking to their parents to help a child settle within the centre.

The children have been using the phones to communicate one on one with us in the room. Because some of our children are very quiet, I have found this to be a really good tool when settling a child or when we are role playing with children. The children have been able to express how they might be feeling or what they might need. "Children often express themselves more freely when they're pretending. It may feel safer to talk about how a teddy bear is afraid of the dark, than how the child is. Pretend play is also a chance to take on different roles and to act out what different people might say, think or do" Early experiences Matter, Communication skills. (No Author, No date). Retrieved from http://main.zerotothree.org/site/pageserver?pagename=ter_key_social_communication&addinterest=1157.

After the children have seen us on the phone they usually copy us and try to attempt to repeat what we may have said on the phone. The children's language has increased since receieving these phones. I think that because we have been role modelling to these children how a phone is used, and what language we are using on the phone it has become a big interest in our room. Mac Naughton and Williams (2009) states that "The ways that you communicate, solve problems, and relate to others form a powerful model for how children and others...will behave. Children tend to do what adults do regardless of what adults say" (p.129).

I am looking forward to continuing to watch these children grow and develop through using the technology that has been provided to us by LG.

Thursday, 14 March 2013

Hi all,

So ive finally set the blog up. Please comment if i have added you correctly.

Michelle