Standard 1: Play Project Reflection

The play project assignment asked us to describe our placement site. It asked us to share approximately how many children attend, their ages, what the childcare facilities community looked like, etc. I also shared some photos along with the project and some information about my mentor teacher, who owns the daycare facility where I did my placement. This project required me to think critically about my placement site, its ratios, the children attending, and what it offers differently from other jobs in the Early Childhood profession.

In the future, I will know what other family daycares look like, what job prospects in this aspect of the field look like, and how to operate and work within a family home daycare. In the future, I would like to consider owning and operating my own in-home daycare, so I was lucky to gain this kind of knowledge from my placement site.

Standard 2: Family/Teacher Partnerships Reflection

The parent/teacher community connection assignment asked me to find an article regarding parent involvement that interested me and to reflect on it. It also requested that I reflect on why positive family relationships are essential and offer three strategies to create positive relationships with families. In this assignment, I learned about the HIPPY parental education program for the first time, and I have since developed my knowledge several times this semester in other classes. HIPPY helps parents who may be struggling and offers them parental education in their homes to help them feel more comfortable getting involved in their children’s education. 

This assignment was helpful and required me to think critically about how I can not create positive relationships with parents but how I can try to encourage them to be involved in their children’s classrooms and education.

Standard 3: The Power of Documentation Reflection

The Power of Documentation assignment was based on an article called The 

Role of Documentation. The assignment asked that we read the article and then discuss (1) the things that make each child we work with unique, (2) what types of experiences in the classroom focus on children’s different strengths, and how we as educators may use social media to share these experiences with parents and families, and (3) how we can use our documentation of individual children to effect our classroom curriculum and planning. 

This assignment taught me how documentation can be applied and shared with families. In modern times, it can be wise to share projects and crafts and classroom activities in a social/digital space to document development and growth and to allow parents some insight into their children’s experiences and learning in the classroom. Documentation and assessment are a crucial part of our job as early childhood educators, so everything we know will likely be used as a part of our jobs post-graduation. Since this assignment, I have started sharing more photos of children throughout the day in a private chat we created just for parents whose children attend our daycare. 

Standard 4: Understanding Behavior Reflection

The understanding behavior assignment was based on an article called Understanding Behavior, and the questions asked us to reflect on what we had learned. The assignment demonstrates why children behave as they do and what we, as teachers, can do to create more desirable behaviors and lessen undesirable ones. 

This lesson reflects our knowledge of controlling behaviors and exercising behavior management skills in the classroom space. When working with young children, you will almost always need to be able to direct behaviors, so this is a crucial skill for all ECE educators. My biggest takeaway from the assignment was modeling behavior is one of the best tools with young children, as our behavior sets a precedent for norms in the classroom, ignoring undesirable behaviors rather than focusing on scolding and discipline, rewarding positive classroom behaviors, and setting behavioral expectations ahead of time during transitions and classroom tasks.

Standard 5: Play at Placement Reflection

The play project asked that we observe and take notes on one specific child’s play and development. We were to record the child’s actions, what area of the room they were in, what materials the child used, their interactions with other children, and their communication with adults. I also included a photo of the child(ren) involved in the observation. 

This assignment was valuable because, in early childhood education, documentation and assessment are crucial to monitoring development adequately. When working as professionals in the field, we will likely need to be comfortable completing observations in real time and assessing children’s milestones based on our observations. Assignments like this have helped me develop my observation skills this semester enough that I would feel comfortable being able to complete observations in a workspace in the future.

The ethical behavior assignment asked us to read and become familiar with the NAEYC’s Ethical Code of Conduct and reflect on ethical behavior in the workplace. The assignment asked us to describe the content of the ECOC and why it is essential and gave us some tips on how to adhere to ethical guidelines in the workplace. 

This assignment taught me why it is important to behave ethically in the workplace and made me familiar with the NAEYC’s ECOC as a guideline for professional behavior. Although I have worked for many years making me aware of ethical behavior in the workplace, and even in childcare for quite some time, I had not been very familiar with the NAEYC’s ethical standards, so now I feel more secure in moving forward in ethical behavior set by educational best practices.