NAEYC
I-2.2—To develop relationships of mutual trust and create partnerships with the families we serve.
It is so important for us to have relationships with the families we work with. These relationships will only make a child’s educational experience more successful. I think that it is important for both teachers and parents to recognize that they are partners in the lives of our little one’s. Children spend more hours a day with teachers, but their family sets their foundations, so the families and the teachers have to work together to help the children achieve every developmental milestone necessary.
P-3C.1—In decisions concerning children and programs, we shall draw upon the education, training, experience, and expertise of staff members.
I think it is common for administration to take on the role of decision making and planning. But we often forget the strengths and expertise of the staff who also have a lot to offer. Specifically for my center I would love to see staff called on more to give their insight and professional opinion on issues that directly effect their students. The staff we have were all hired because they have special talent and many in different areas, I would love to see this standard implemented so that they can work to their fullest potential.
I-1.3—To recognize and respect the unique qualities, abilities, and potential of each child.
All of our children are different, they learn differently, they play differently, and often communicate differently. It is our responsibility to learn how to work with all of our children and their differences. We have to respect the fact they they are all going to progress at their own pace. We have to make sure that we are not comparing them to anyone else and that we respect them for their own individuality.
DEC
We shall empower families with information and resources so that they are informed consumers of services for their children.
Offering families information about the services we provide their children is important. It is also important to make sure that we share information that is specific to their children. Many times we see behaviors in our students that parents may not see because their child does not have an opportunity to show this behavior at home. It is important to share these things with parents and also resources if available on how we can work on them. For example, it is common for toddlers to bite, but parents may never see their child bite because their child is not around other children at home. Parents may become frustrated with hearing that their child is biting and not know how to deal with it, especially because they are not there to see it. Sharing information on biting and ways to work with biters may help ease the parents frustration. They will also see how much you care about working on this issue as a team.
We shall demonstrate our respect and appreciation for all families’ beliefs, values, customs, languages, and culture relative to their nurturance and support of their children toward achieving meaningful and relevant priorities and outcomes families’ desire for themselves and their children.
We will learn about several different cultures while working with young children. While this is sometimes difficult, it is important for teachers and staff to work with those who are different from us. We want to make sure that our students are learning at their fullest potential. Sometimes this will require extra research, but don’t forget that our parents can offer some help in how to get our students to progress academically and developmentally.
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.
Taking extra steps to learn children’s learning styles is important. We have to know how our students learn in order to give them our best. It can be very frustrating, knowing that a student is struggling in the classroom, but the others are picking up on the lessons being taught. Before giving up on this child we have to make the extra steps to see if this child is not learning or is just not learning the way we are teaching them. I think the first few weeks of class should be based around learning students different learning styles and how to develop our lessons based on the several personalities.
References
NAEYC. (2005, April). Code of ethical conduct and statement of commitment. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from
I liked how you included the ideal from NAEYC about including all staff in decisions concerning the children and the program. I have been in situations where adminstration values the thoughts and opinions of the staff concerning the children and the program as it helped the staff to feel valued. However, I have also been in situations where adminstration did not value many if any thoughts or opinions shared by the staff and they actually demonstrated via body language negativity towards any person that offered suggestions. As you said in most cases the staff is hired due to his or her expertise in the field and therefore they should be allowed to offer input in situations concerning the children or the program.
ReplyDeleteI would love to be able to draw upon my staff’s expertise, but for some reason they seldom bring new learning ideas to the classroom. I want to learn how to draw out their knowledge and encourage them to avoid getting into a rut. I need to ask them if I am hindering this or devaluing them professionally.
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