Thank you to all of my classmates!

I would like to thank all of you for helping along this journey.  It has been a long and tiring road and all of your help has been greatly appreciated.  I do not know if I would have been able to push through this final class without your support.
I wish you all the best of luck in the future, I am sure that you will all do well in whatever area of early childhood education field your choose!!  GOOD LUCK!!

EDU 455 Blog Post 2: Enlisting and Providing Support

First of all I would like to thank you for your responses and suggestions to my last blog.  I appreciate the suggestions you made, they have made me take a closer look at some of my ideas and given my ideas that will be helpful if my plan is put into place.

I have been having a difficult time understanding what the professor is looking for on my applications, which is making me even more nervous about my presentation.  Have any of you been having a hard time understanding the requirements?  I am having a difficult time putting my ideas into a presentation because I am constantly second guessing my goals and the way that I plan on presenting my plan.

I have worked with may of the people that I will have to present my plan too and I think I know what they are looking for as far as information and how it needs to be presented.  I am planning on providing them with a fact sheet and presenting my ideas in a power point presentation.  This is how the preschool typically looks at new ideas and the people that make the decisions prefer to have visual aids.  I also know that this group of people are only the first step into getting a new idea implemented because the preschool is part of a church and there are several committees that need to approve any sizable change in the preschool curriculum.  

I guess what I need from my colleagues are any suggestions you may have to enhance my presentation with power point or any suggestions about how design a professional information sheet that is concise and to the point so that the main ideas of my presentation can fit on to one sheet of paper.

I have been working with the administrator and a couple of the teachers at the preschool to help with how I present the facts and the wording.  That has been helpful.  

ONCE AGAIN, if you have any suggestions I would love to hear them!

Thanks so much and good luck on your presentations!

Internship II:  Blog 1 (cont):

~sorry forgot to add my quote:

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The secret in education lies in respecting the student."

My Personal Advocacy Journey for Internship II

My advocacy project is getting a bilingual classroom up and running in the preschool center where I work.  I have been working in the early childhood education field for over 15 years.  Each year it seems that there are more and more children entering our programs that are learning English as their second language.  If these children do not receive the educational support they need before they reach Kindergarten, they are at risk for academic failure.

I am anxious about trying to get this classroom up and running.  I am not worried about setting up the actual classroom, I am worried about finding the right person to teach the class.  It will need to be someone that is bilingual, has the right experience and qualifications to teach children that are ELL students.  I also am feeling anxious about presenting my advocacy project plan in front of a group of people that I am not familiar with.

I think that in order to overcome my fear about presenting my ideas, I will have to make sure that I am prepared and that I research my topic well.  This way I will be able to present my ideas and make my argument in a professional and effective manner.

I would like to ask my colleagues to share any ideas that they think may help.  I am open to any and all suggestions.  Good Luck with all of your projects!

This is my blog post for my very last class at Kendall College.  I am so excited to be finishing up my degree, it has taken me forever!  I cannot wait to get to know all of you.  Hopefully we will be able to provide support and encouragement to each other throughout the course.
Good luck to all of you!

Blog 4: Observing and Interacting With Families of the Children in Your Settin

This week I observed in the three's classroom.  There is a little guy in the room that has some language delays and is also having difficulty interacting with his peers.  His social interaction or lack there of is concerning to his teachers and his parents.  He seems to be in his own little world and goes from area to area without truly engaging in any activity.  He will go and work with one of the teachers when he is called but other than that he simple wonders around the room.  I asked his teachers about this and they stated that they have had several conversations with the parents about his behavior.  The parents are saying that he is just behind in his language development.  The teachers are not sure this is the case and have asked the Preschool Directors to observe him and see what their opinion is.
The Directors have also noticed his behavior and feel that it is more than just a language delay.  They had spoken to the parents about their concerns at the beginning of the year but the parents wanted to wait and see how his behavior progressed.  The teachers and directors have now decided that they will watch him and make sure to write down what they are observing so that when conferences come up in a few weeks they will have some more information about his behavior for the parents.  They are also going to suggest that he be screened by the local early childhood development center to see if they can see any concerning behavior.
I was glad to hear that they had discussed their concerns with the directors and his parents.  This way all the people involved in his care were aware that there were concerns.  His teachers are truly concerned that his behavior has not really changed throughout the year but because his parents wanted to wait, they kept working with him and keeping his parents informed if something happened that was out of the ordinary.
The preschool directors and teachers although they felt that he needed to be assessed earlier in the year chose to respect the parents wishes.  They are quite confident that at the next conference which is in a few weeks that they parents will be able to see that he needs further assessment and set up a time for him to be seen by the early childhood specialist that deal with behavior issues and social/emotional development that may be outside the realm of expertise of the preschool staff.
There have been many different times during my observations at the preschool that I have heard teachers and parents working together to be advocates for the children.  I have witnessed it with a little guy that was having a difficult time with social interaction and the teachers suggested a speech evaluation because they thought the behavior might be stemming from frustration.  He is now getting speech once a week at the preschool.  
As far as the atmosphere for advocacy in the preschool I see it all over.  The teachers are planning and implementing lessons that are developmentally appropriate, they observe and assess as they are interacting with the children.  They are also very good about interacting with the parents and discussing any concerns they may have or just let them know about something their child had done that made them smile.

Blog 3: Observing and Interacting with Program Directors and Other Administrative Staff in Your Setting

In the preschool where I am observing, there is a strong focus on advocacy and working with the families.  I have been working closely with the Assistant Director, who is also the curriculum coordinator.  She has stated that they have very specific goals when it comes to developing their lesson plans.  They are required to meet several of the Illinois State Learning Standards every day in the classrooms.  Their lesson plans even have the standards listed on the side so they can highlight which standards they are working on.  This allows them to see if they are missing any or if they are particularly heavy in one area over another.
There focus is very much academic and they know the importance of literacy development.  Each day the teachers read a book that correlates with theme for the week.  They then plan the activities around that theme.  As I was walking through the different classrooms, I could so many different examples of literacy.  The rooms had many different things labeled, in one classroom they were labeled with English and  Spanish words.  The bulletin boards had many art projects that linked literacy to their work.  For example: one classroom had made dinosaurs and then completed the sentence, If I had a dinosaur I would ____________.  Let me tell you there were some really funny ideas.
I also learned that in the center they have a lending library where the children get to check out a book and take it home in their special school library bag.  It was really fun to see how excited they were about taking the book home.  They also have a lending library for their parents.  It contains books on many different subjects including child behavior, arts and crafts and even cooking with children.
The center used to have a children's librarian come in twice a month and read to the children, however due to budget cuts in the library she is no longer able to go to private schools and must focus solely on public schools with high at risk populations.  They do however get to have her come back once a year to help them out with their literacy night.  This is a family night where children get to hear stories, do some crafts and even make a snack that goes along with the story.
I feel that the administrators, teachers and families are very strong advocates for their children.  They seem to be very involved in their children's education.  I have picked up quite a few tips that will help as I write my paper that will help me to provide information about how to advocate for literacy development.