How will you use the information and encouraging strategies from this course in your own practice?

Reading this book has helped me realize why I have chosen to work with young children. I have the opportunity to be in about 40 young lives each year in my building. I get to have conversations, sing, dance, play, and read with my young children. I am able to be a role model for them, wipe their tears away when they are sad, help them learn new things, and give them opportunities to excite their learning. At the end of the day, I am so happy that I work with children. The Afterforward of this book gives a lot of information on early childhood programs and projects to bring awareness of the importance of early childhood. We as teachers and aspiring teachers should be bringing awareness of the importance of early childhood education to everyone we know and meet. It's part of a package deal when you become an advocate of early learning. Looking back on the pages of this book, I have learned a lot about what it takes to be a director. Not only being a director, but a good quality educator. All the information given in this book can be related to all careers in early childhood education. One thing I will definitely take with me is that there has to be a balance in my work with children. The triangle is so important and I think it should be placed in every office at every early childhood program. Having a balance between managing/overseeing, coaching/mentoring, and building/supporting community is how a practitioner in early childhood will succeed. How will you use the information and encouraging strategies from this course in your own practice? This has been a fun class and thank you to everyone who has read and commented on my blog. See you all next semester!

-Ashley

How can we adapt visions for a program just as Sarah and Roberto did?

Thinking about my own program, considering it to be rural or urban, I think it is both. The place where the school is located is around many shops and fast food restaurants, but the whole back of the school is located on the Kapolei Park. I feel that Sarah's values resonate with me, because as a child, I too was an outside child. I was always outside playing with my friends whether it was sunny, raining, or snowing. Times have changed and it's not for the better. Children are not outside for many reasons. The reasons being that children and families are playing games (Xbox, Wii, play station), watching television, it's not safe where the child lives, the child can not go outside because there is no park nearby. It is so sad to see children not have the opportunity to play outside as I did growing up. The program I work at is actually amazing at promoting our children and families to be active in nature and feel part of it. We go on nature walks in the park every week and take field trips to many places that enhance their learning on the outdoors. The kids like to learn about nature and get their hands dirty. I feel that Sarah's ideas all were made into reality with the help of the families of the program and the staff. My program just recently won an award from Michelle Obama, because of our healthy and active lifestyle. The food we give the children were also part of the reward, because it is all cooked fresh daily by our cook and his staff and we have one vegetarian meal a week. I feel that getting families involved has helped our program thrive just as it did with Sarah's program. The children and families benefit from working together and form lasting memories.

Roberto inspires me to stronger leadership and self-empowerment by his whole momentum of thinking. He visions the center to be a place of learning and where children, families, and staff can work together. He came into the program when it was a mess and he needed to clean it up. He started doing that and in the process changed the staff's view on things for the better. Reading about his role and what he has and is hoping to accomplish made me feel that I can do anything I set my mind to. I can imagine adapting his innovating practices, such as, working in teams for accreditation focus areas, expanding my thinking about assessment, and untiming the curriculum. My next step would be to learn about the assessments my program does, so when I get my degree and become a teacher there, I will know how the assessments work.

What does a center consist of when the director has mastered all the sides of the triangle?

Involving what your program will be like through the triangle is what Lettie did. She used all sides of the triangle while brainstorming and performing the new actions of the center. Lettie made communication meaningful by involving families in interactions and storytelling, inviting families to participate in communication systems, such as the use of blogs within the classrooms. She planned meetings in which the teachers and families participated in discussion about their children and held group family conferences as well. She also had the families be part of the rebuilding of the playground by getting them and their children actively involved in the activities.

If I were to put relationships center stage in my management, coaching and community building routines, I would want to revamp the way teachers get their teachers involved in the school and in the classroom. I feel when parents are more involved in their child's schooling, the relationship between themselves and the teacher will grow and strengthen, Furthermore, the parent and child will strengthen their relationship by doing things together in the classroom, such as activities, field trips, singing songs, reading books, artwork, cooking, etc.

I would describe Lettie's disposition to be a real relationship advocate. She really enjoys building and having relationships in the classroom the school, and in the community. I feel that I should strengthen building relationships with families. That is one of the most important aspects of a teacher and a director. To be able to have a good relationship with the family it will give you, the child, the school, and the community better opportunities to learn new things and develop. I really enjoyed reading about the journaling Lettie had brought up. It seemed really interesting and a good way to communicate with families.

I feel that Michelle trying to better her center by having the teachers become advocates in learning and planning with other teachers and mentors is how she brought leadership to the school. She made the decision to invest in her teachers right from the start, which is a great thing to, especially when trying to get preschoolers to have higher education. These new teachers are receiving the information needed to run their classroom and to be mentored by other teachers in the school. My own director does this in my center. For the first week or so she pairs new staff up with a mentor teacher and they learn and follow them.

I think having the interview with other potential hire-es was too over the top. That would make me so nervous, because it would feel more of a competition between other applicants. I wouldn't do that. Putting that type of competitive pressure on someone is not a good idea. I can see her disposition on this, but in my opinion, I wouldn't do it. I would conduct a regular interview and maybe have a series of interviews for potential hire-es, but I wouldn't put someone on the spot such as Michelle did.

I feel that when she invested in her teachers right from the start and providing side-by-side mentoring appealed to me, because they work. You want your teachers to know what they are doing from the start and learn the new procedures and how the school runs. Having new employees learn from regular staff can build relationships and new things can be learned by both the mentor and the new employee. I think I could imagine myself developing teachers as thinkers not technicians. Just like Michelle said, "Who is the self that teaches?" Having teachers reflect and think about questions and things that go on in the classroom will help teachers become more positive thinkers and will be able to contribute their knowledge with the rest of the team. 

How can early childhood programs make a classroom of multi-aged children a success, such as a lab preschool?

When reading chapter five, I came across a paragraph talking about expanding the age group for preschool rooms (pg. 190). It seemed the book was pro for having directors consider in placing multi-aged children in the same classroom. I have mixed feelings in this strategy, because I have experienced two classrooms in which the children benefited from having multi-aged children and have had problems in multi-aged children in a classroom.

The program I work at has one classroom that has three and four year old. I am not going to lie, this classroom is not my favorite class to work in. I feel that it is one of the hardest classrooms in my program. The children are very loud and obnoxious. There is very little discipline and the building has a hard time working with the assistant teacher in the classroom. There seems to be little communication between the regular staff, which is a negative. Who am I to judge and say these things as an aid/substitute? It's what I have observed while working in this class and many other subs has experienced the same as me. Over the past year a new teacher was hired and honestly I think she has turned around the class in a positive way. I feel this new teacher has done a lot for the class and the building likes her, but the assistant teacher still has a lack of communication which affects the whole outlook of the building. Don't get me wrong I really like the assistant teacher and I think she is a good teacher, but she may be a little outspoken which causes conflict with the other teachers in the building.

During my lab at the LCC Children's Center last semeste, I was very apprehensive in working in a multi-aged classroom. As time went on I actually started to like it. Although, lab preschools are very calm and collect when being there, it's a very good opportunity for children to interact and learn from each other at different ages. They did separate the three and four year olds during group time to do their own special activities which are suited at their development. It made me believe that multi-aged classrooms can beneficial to teachers, children, and the community of the school. Of course, the program did have a lot of staff for one-on-one engagement with the children, which made the ratio really good. The teachers, student workers, and lab students all communicated with each other and had a planning session every week and discussed activities and the children's development which was very interesting and made me wish we did this in my own program and classroom. A question that arose was, how can early childhood programs make a classroom of multi-aged children a success, such as a lab preschool?

Would you need a balance between Yolanda and Becky's approaches to be a successful program director?

Becky seemed to have goals towards the curriculum being based off of the themes of the month, like many programs do. She has a goal for her teachers to have all of their plans and observations/checklists done by a certain date. She plans staff training workshops and provides criticism when needed to her employee. Yolanda had goals towards her employee's thoughts and ideas that came about during their staff meeting. They made goals for the children's development individually and as a group. Some strategies Becky used to reach her goals were to use checklists, give feedback, offer praise and assistance in addressing her employee's weakness, and to have a private meeting with her employee. She also was very clear that rules and regulations were extremely important. Some strategies Yolanda used to reach her goals were to keep herself attuned to the activities that was going on in her program (observing in the classroom), to understand where the development each child was at, and to create activities based off the children's weaknesses. She was clear about the standards but allowed conversation among the teachers about different topics.

I think Becky was more of a managing and overseeing part of the triangle. I feel that part of her practice undermines in supporting her teacher, because there was no room for Juanita to discuss with her the problems she was facing in her classroom with the curriculum. There should be open communication between the director and teachers and it seemed that Juanita was too scared to talk to her director about the concerns she had. There was no real dialogue between Becky and Juanita, it was more of Becky telling Juanita what she is doing well in and what she needs to improve on. While, Yolanda's practice encourages in supporting her teachers. Yolanda allowed the teachers to dialogue with each other and express each others concerns, feelings, ideas, and activities done or to be done in the classroom. She also observes the children and teachers in the classroom, which she then brings ideas to the teachers.



I am not a director, but I do work in a four-five year old classroom every morning.
Current Approach:
- Listen to what I am told to do by my program director in terms of meeting standards and rules/regulations.
- Understand what to do in the daily routine of the classroom.
- Observing children in the classroom during activities in groups and individually. Reporting back to my lead and assistant in what I observed.
- Working closely with my lead and assistant in creating activities and going over the children's documents and things that need to be done in the classroom.
New Things to Try:
- Discussing things with my director more often in terms of some challenging behavior of a child, obtaining more songs and fingerplays, and reflecting on my practice and what needs to be improved.

How do we as teachers support our director?

The Golden Rule Revisited: Treat Adults as You Want Them to Treat Children. When reading through the first couple of pages of this chapter, I came across this statement. I kept coming back to it and thinking about it. How do we want others treating children? Of course how we would want to be treated. We want others to treat children children with respect and guide them in their development as a young child, just like how us teachers do. We treat other adults with respect and help them when they ask for it. Viewing teachers as competent thinkers and learners is an important part of being a director, because teachers do have some insight while being in the classroom with the children. The have hands on experience, but may need to ask questions at times and learn new things as well. When reading Susan's story on page 131, it gave me an insight on why teachers should be viewed as competent thinkers and learners. Five words that describe my view of this teacher is a risk taker, brave, supportive, thoughtful, and respectful. Five things this teacher needs to learn is the framework of building a philosophy, taking action based on the reaction of the teacher's answers and responses, understand the learning standards, and defining the role of the teacher. She had some really great ideas in creating the program's philosophy, but other factors need to be addressed, such as, the community the school's are located in. The community plays a huge role in the school's philosophy and they should be accounted for in the philosophy as well. We are learning about a lot how a director supports the staff, children, and community, but how do we as a teachers support our director? - Something Revisited.

Specific Blog #7

What am I?

 As an Architect I would use their designing skills to build my indoor and outdoor area. Being able to visualize something and making it real. As a weaver I would make be very creative and good with my hands. As a sculptor I would also have to visualize what I’m modeling. As a mediator I would take their patience and knowledge. As a horticulturist I would take their skills to take something small and help it grow to its full potential. I choose each skill to help me as a director. As a director we must take on different roles and aquire different skills. Being able to design my environment to its maximum potential as a architect builds a building. Creating new works of art as the weaver and sculptor will do with their art. It’ll take patience and a clear mind as a meditator to teach others. A horticulturist using their ability to care for something as flower (child) and help them reach their full potential.