Month: June 2014

Journey continues…

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I started this blog due to the masters program that I have entered and never thought in a million years it would be something I would want to do or be good at.  I now look forward to continuing this new journey that I have embarked on!  Thank you to hayiscar, playedfilled learning, pursuetowardhappiness, josephchavis, and many others who have read my posts so far, commented gracefully and with great feedback and support.  I have enjoyed reading all of your posts and have appreciated all of your comments and support!  I hope that we will cross paths some more as we continue on this journey during this program! 

Code of Ethics in the field of Early Childhood Education

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NAEYC (National Association and Education of Young Children) has a published Code of Ethical Conduct and Position Statement that is (in my opinion) something that should be followed by all facilities and organizations that are providing early childhood services and education to children.  

“Childhood is a unique and valuable stage in the human life cycle.  Our paramount responsibility is to provide care and education in settings that are safe, healthy, nurturing and responsive for EACH child” (NAEYC, 2005).

When is comes to the Ethical Responsibilities to Children that NAEYC writes ideals for, there are two that really stand out to me as far as what I feel are most significant for myself as a professional:

  • I 1.1   To be familia with the knowledge base of Early Childhood Care and education and to stay informed through continued education and training (NAEYC, 2005)
  • I 1.2   To base program practices upon current knowledge and research in the field of early childhood education, child development and related disciplines as well on particular knowledge of each child (NAEYC,2005)

I feel that these are significant to my professional life because I feel that I can do a better job at keeping myself up to date on current trends, research and issues in the field.  I want to be able to train new and current teachers effectively and because I feel that I never had the time to stay up to date nor feel that I was ever trained properly as I worked in the field, I want to do things differently.  Children deserve to be taught and educated by teachers who are current and up to date.  By using research and knowledge that is fresh allows children to be part of an environment that is valuable.  

The DEC (Division of Early Childhood Services) provides educators with a Code of Ethics as well.  One of their ideals is that of Professional Practice and is defined as such-

      “We shall use individually appropriate assessment strategies including multiple sources of information such as observations, interviews with significant caregivers, formal and informal assessments to determine children’s learning styles, strengths, and challenges” (DEC, 2000)

 

To me this is significant in my professional life because none of the teaching that we do, based on all the current research, issues and trends, has any significance if we do not properly assess our students and evaluate ourselves as teachers.  It is critical to make sure that we are teaching based on children’s individual needs as we know that “one size does not fit all” when it comes to teaching.  In order to meet the individual needs of children, proper assessment and evaluation must be done.  I want to learn how to do this better as well so that I can teach new and current teachers better ways to do this with out feeling overwhelmed.

 

Click to access naeyc_codeofethicspdf.pdf

Click to access dec_codeofethics.pdf

 

 

17 Videos for Early Childhood Educators

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  1. Montessori Education for the Early Childhood Years: This video explains the Montessori method of education for young children. The Montessori style of educating is very different from traditional early childhood education, but it is a very effective way of teaching young children, by allowing them to be self directed and by using play as a primary teaching tool.
  2. Developmentally Appropriate Early Childhood Education: Learn about developmentally appropriate education, which focuses on playing and doing as learning activities in the early childhood classroom.
  3. Early Childhood Education in Bilingualism: Learn the benefits of having your child learn a second language at an early age, in terms of how it affects their overall education and learning ability.
  4. Early Childhood Educators are Professionals: Video about the importance of having early childhood educators who have been professionally educated in their field.
  5. Importance of Early Childhood Education: This video discusses the importance of appropriate early childhoodeducation programs in terms of making a city a desirable place to live. This video is a roundtable discussion in Houston, Texas that focuses on the needs for these resources.
  6. Childhood Development, Early Learning, the Brain and Society: This video from the Research Channel discusses the innate learning abilities of infants and young children.
  7. Wired for Life: Early Childhood Education: This video discusses the importance of early childhood education on a child’s overall future.
  8. What Children Learn in Pre-k: This video discusses the goals of pre-kindergarten. Learn how pre-kindergarten is used to take advantage of that period in a child’s life before age five where the brain is still developing.
  9. Challenging Behavior in Young Children: Learn about the challenges that early childhood educators face in behavior issues, and how they can inadvertently make the problem worse.
  10. Kindergarten Centers: A look at the use of learning centers in a kindergarten classroom.
  11. Perfect Literacy Centers: Improve your learning and literacy centers in your early childhood classroom.
  12. Modeling Guided Reading: Guided reading is an important reading support tool. Learn the importance of guided reading and how to perform it with your students.
  13. Reading Strategies: Learn reading strategies that work for children from the early days of reading through several higher grades.
  14. Early Childhood Reading Strategies: Learn the reading strategies to use with beginning readers.
  15. Reading and Writing with Preschool and Primary Children: Learn about the right strategies for reading and writing with young children.
  16. Learn to Write at an Early Age: Strategies for teaching writing to very young children.
  17. How Reading and Writing Begin: Learn the skills needed to teach writing to very young children. Many people think that children cannot be taught to write before they learn to read, but this video helps to explain how you can teach writing skills to a child even before they are reading.

Early Childhood Education Resources: books, articles, websites and organizations

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NAEYC (National Association and Education of Young Children) Position Statements

Influential Practices

 Global Support for Children’s Rights and Well-Being

 UNICEF (n.d.). Fact sheet: A summary of the rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Retrieved May 26, 2010, fromhttp://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf

World Forum Foundation: http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/about-us

World Organization for Early Childhood Education: http://www.omep-usnc.org/

Association for Childhood Education International: http://acei.org/

Early Childhood Organizations