Shayla+Smith

My name is Shayla I work at Rugrats Unlimited an in home childcare center type A. I work with primarily the pre-school children but I am around all ages. My e-mail is shayla99smith@gmail.com 3 Things I want to learn or gain over the next month is.....1. Having more knowledge about working with chidren with special needs. 2. Being able to exercise what I've learned first hand at work. and 3. I want to learn and understand information so that I am able to pass it along. 2 things that I can contribute to the topic is 1. Personal experiences and 2. The things I did when working with that child. One question for the group to ponder is....

Session 3 (online) Book title: The power of observation for birth through eight, Ch.4 Guidelines for effective observation.

Summary: This book was a great refresher when it comes to observing children. A lot of the information are things that I use currently at work. The book opened my eyes to other ways to observe and how important it is not just for yourself as the teacher but for the child too. This chapter went over observing over time, watching children in varied situations, keeping track of what you observed and observing in and out of action.

There was one key point that caught my attention. Watching children in varied situations. It talked about observing children in social settings making reference to how you act in different situations. You may be more comfortable in a small setting vs a big setting or vise versa. The time of day that you observe. Take into consideration a child that has a rough morning but after lunch and nap has a more productive afternoon. Individual Preferences can effect a child's comfort level. One child may like to build while other children like water play. A child may be more interactive in the block area than at circle or group time. Observing them in the area they like to be in may unveil things about that child that you had never seen like more talking, or using longer sentences when talking.

I thought the book was informative. Some of the information was a GREAT refresher while other information was an eye opener and very informative.

Session 4: CARA's Kit CARA's kit was filled with helpful ideas and activities. I put almost everything to a song. To see that as one of the activities was great. It gets the kid's to follow directions and helps them to finish the task a little quicker. Some other things I saw that I had never thought about doing was letting the kid's use beanbags for circle as another way to get them to sit. I will definitely have to use that this week during circle time. Being mindful of the length of circle time. Sometimes I have to end circle early if the kid's are fidgety. But one suggestion in the kit was to have story times throughout the day. And I think the same could be done with circle time to make sure you have gone over everything you need too. Another great idea was allowing children to stand to do a project. Not everyone likes to sit to do something. Giving children that option (when it's appropriate) is great. I have a child now who doesn't always like to sit to color. Maybe letting him stand will make coloring fun for him instead of it being emotional from making him sit down.

Session 7: What I did out of CARA'S kit. I used a few idea's that I thought were really good. One was having the children act out a book at library time instead of reading it by themselves. I used the activity during circle as a way to use movement as a transition (another activity from CK). The kid's are really into the book Five Little Sharks Swimming in The Sea by Steve Metzger. The kids enjoyed acting it out. They were all given a shark and new who they were. We difinitely will add that to the lesson plan!!! And it was great for a child we have that has an endless supply of energy. It gave him an opportunity to move around with a controlled activity.

Another activity was to introduce the word of the week and a weekly matching game to find that word. I modified this a bit. One morning we started talking and next thing I know we are adding all new words to the word wall and taking the old words off. The children were able to pick the word's they wanted to go on the word wall. It was great that the kid's felt important to see the word they picked on the word wall.

The last thing I tried was providing different seating options like bean bags, or pillows. I used our shape bean bags. I have a child who has a hard time sitting for circle. Using the bean bags he didn't move unless the activity called for him to do. He did start playing with it towards the end. But overall the activity worked great!!! Next time I'm using letters to sit on.

Session 8: The power of observation by: Judy R. Jablon, Amy Laura Dombro and Margo L. Dichtelmiller. Chapter 2: Using observations to build relationships.

This chapter was great!!! It helps you to understand how important observing is and how it can be used. Not only can it be used to plan lessons. Its also used as a tool to build a stronger relationship with your kids. A loving relationship with a child can bridge a lack for learning. This chapter talked about questions to help you get to know children. Health and physical development, temperament, skills and abilities, interests, culture and home life, use of verbal language, use of body language, and social interactions with adults and peers. Some of the questions they gave were... "what does the child find challenging?", "how is discipline handled?", "does the child use gestures?", "how does the child initiate interactions?". These questions made me think about the kids I'm currently working with along with kid's I've worked with in the past. We have child who is NOT a morning person. So having a lot of expectations of her first thing in the morning isn't realistic!!! We have another child who is very expressive with his body language. Uses hand's while talking and when upset his body language becomes how he feels! Angry!!! But observing these behaviors also helps me to learn to step in when needed and not to soon. Allowing the kids to work through the problem themselves. And doing that is hard at times because I'm always wanting to keep the peace!!! In this chapter it talks about fostering children's competence and success. Observing can help you determine the best way to help a child. Some examples from the book were step in and make a suggestion, wait and watch, and use prior knowledge to prevent a conflict. These are some of the things I say to myself while observing. All the information was great and very useful. And it makes me look at observing as more than a lesson plan tool. It's so much more than that.