Melissa+Cato+Praticum+page

9/14/2011 I currently work in the center that my practicum will be held, however, I do not work with the preschool children. ‍‍‍I work with the toddler groups and realizing I will be working with preschoolers honestly is a little scary. ‍‍‍ They are very independent and I am not used to working with children that are independent. However, I am very excited to see how preschoolers are taught and how they react to certain lessons. I am a little timid because the classroom is very big and the center has two preschool classrooms in the same room. However, their schedules are not the same therefore, they are able to use the same classroom together but the teachers have a routine and schedule so that the same centers are not being used at the same time as both groups. The children are very loud but at the same time the classroom is very functional. The children seem interested in learning new concepts and they get excited over the littlest things‍‍‍. I am just hoping that the children will take to me and that I will be able to control the whole group during the time I am teaching my lessons. ‍‍‍The teacher I will be working with is very nice and she seems excited that I will be helping out in her classroom.

**The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, ****as that every child should be given the wish to learn. John Lubbo ** **10/6/2011 ****In my practicum we have two children who are very challenging. These children are twins and the mother does not want them to be in separate groups, which makes the children very hard to control because they feed off of each other.‍‍ These children do not play well with others and they prefer to play with each other. However, when one does something she should not do and is told about it the other one does it too and laughs about it. These children are also very active and like to hit other children when other children come near them. They also fight alot with each other, which is normal but they do it alot. I think the curriculum helps their self-control because throughout the day they have several chances to do what they want to to participate in gross motor activies. These two children love to do the gross motor activies. ‍‍ I am working with the teacher to try and teach the children about self control with hitting each other or their friends. We are trying to get them to use their words more and we also are introducing new ways of having them play with other children. I will take one child to a certain area in the room and try and get the child involved with the group of children interacting. Most of the children are very open to have the child to participate in the group. Then the teacher will take the other child and try to get her to interact with a different group of children. We understand that mom does not want the children seperated, however, I think having both of these children in the same group does not allow them to get to know other children and they feed off of each other. They seem to do better when they are not playing or sitting next to each other but we know we can not allow them to be seperated. The teacher said she has talked to mom about the situation but mom is adament about not letting the children to be split up. ‍‍The teacher and I will be having a meeting about some different ideas about how to get these interested in other then each other. If anyone has any suggestions it would be great! ‍‍ **

Melissa - here are some links to information about this issue with the twins: [|Twins] [|Twins 2] Here are some articles: I

10/22/2011 My practicum uses the creative curriculum. I believe it is effective in the classroom and is a good tool to use with all the children. They use the PA standards with the curriculum. This curriculum allows the teacher to assess all the children but at different stages. Not all the children have to be in the same stage. The teacher is allowed to figure out which area the child needs help in just by looking at the standards and if an individual needs more help in one area then the other students the teacher can adjust and work on this particular stage with that child but also making the activity harder for the other children that have already moved on. I personally like the creative curriculum because it does not limit a teacher to just one way of teaching. ‍Teaching is about changing and watching my practicum teacher she adjusts to things very well especially when it comes to her curriculum ‍. If the children are really interested in something for a long time the teacher is still able to incorporte wha the children are interested in. Especially, in several different ways. ‍However, I do not like the fact that works sampling does not match up with the PA Learning Standards and the fact when teachers are assessing the children they have to use work sampling. Work sampling is a good idea but they need to figure out a way to incorporate the PA Learning Standards with work sampling. The teacher has to make two different assessments one on the work sampling and one with the PA Learning Standards, ‍which to me just makes it harder on the teacher to determine if a child is good at something or if that particular child needs more help in a certain area. The practicum teacher has told me personally that they wish they could just use the PA Learning Standards to assess the children because the PA Learning Standards have more standards and ways to assess the children. She does not care for the work sampling because because it basically askes the teacher if the child can or can not do something. However, the creatvie curriculum allows the teacher to use several different options to ass the child and figure out ways to make things interested for the child.



11/25/2011  If this was my classroom I would change just a few things. First I would change how the room is set up all together. As a person this room is really big but there is a lot of empty space in which the children do not use. I would rearrange the room to still meet NAYCE Standards but I think I would like to add another quiet area for the children because that space is just a little to small and the children tend to fight over space while they are in it. I also would make sure that art materials are on both sides of the room. This room has two groups of preschool children and the art materials are on one side of the room. Sometimes it seems the teacher gets frustrated when she can not go to the other side and get art materials. So I think I defiantly would make sure art materials are on both sides. I do like the fact that they share this room they split times on each side of the room but sometimes it seems to get crazy and children are everywhere. I would like to try and set up the room for two different classrooms instead of sharing the classroom just because it does seem to get a little crazy when they are transistion either to a different side or to go outside. They children seem to be fine with the way the room is and yes the room is very open and nice to come into especially for parents but I think having two seperate rooms would be ideal for the children and it would cut back on a lot of choas. The children would still be able to visit the other side but they would not need to do it on a daily basis.