One of the most important principles in fostering a child’s education, is my understanding of their development, learning abilities, characteristics, and needs. Children learn best through exploring their environment. The best experience is through play. This experience gives the child the opportunity to develop social and cognitive skills. According to Gartrell, (2014), we must approach the teaching of young children in developmentally appropriate ways through a central component which is play.

Every child’s individual development and learning varies in different ways (www.naeyec.org, 2017). As an educator, I want to be able to support the child in every way possible. The first step in a child’s learning environment is creating a classroom environment that is age appropriate, clean, secure, and attractive to motive their[FM1] learning. An effective learning environment will help promote a child’s development through letting them play and giving them a creative space to explore. 

 [FM1]

Through observation, a teacher can gather information about their students to help support them towards higher learning skills and capabilities (Gronlund & James, 2013). As an educator, it is important to use appropriate assessment tools and approaches to assess a child’s strengths and interests. The best way to get to know a child is through observing. This is a valuable tool along with documenting and assessments. 

When observing, there is never enough documentation and assessment that can be used for creating lesson plans, creating a classroom environment based on the students needs. Observing is a daily appropriate assessment tool that is beneficial for the teacher, child, and parents. The advantage of an educator assessing a child is discovering if the child needs any additional services in their learning development such as speech, EIP, RTI.  As an educator, I want to use documentation and assessment to analyze the strengths and weakness of the child, track their progress and set goals. 

There are different types of methods that can be used to track the performance of a child’s development and skills.  The assessments can be formative and summative. These methods would include observation, journals, anecdotal notes, teacher-student interviews, portfolios, checklists, and photographs. I can use these assessments during teacher-parent conferences and throughout the year to show the progress of the child’s learning development. According to ("Calpoly," 2017), assessments can be a reliable data on the child’s knowledge, skills and can provide the teacher richer data on the effects of the curriculum and teaching methods.

As an early childhood student transitioning to becoming a professional, I have acquired skills to be successful. During my journey from classroom to field, I have obtained a position within the public system where I have gained additional skills and knowledge. One of the most important part of being a professional is upholding the standards and ethnic codes. 

As a teacher, I am the role model. A professional who lead by example. I believe in modeling positive behavior, supporting social and emotional development, setting goals, expectations and empowering my students.  My development as a professional also include attending training, seminar and staying up to date on the technology used to help promote learning within the classroom.   

As a professional, I learn from my colleagues, attend training that provides additional learning skills, I learn from my environment and especially my students. According to (Tyminski, 2014, p. 38-45), a professional develops a lifelong learning experience, grow as a team member, dresses for success, acceptable behavior, appropriate language. 

My role as a professional is being a leader, an advocate for my students, and a resource for families.              

 

Standard 1: Promoting Child Development and Learning

This artifact shows a developmental appropriate classroom which includes print awareness, music, technology, area to explore, attractiveness, cleanliness to promote child development and learning.  

The picture shows a professional teacher. As a professional you are an advocate for the student and families and a resource.