Reflective Essay on Early Childhood Education

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While I was conducting my interview I found out many things that were to lead me to being a teacher even more than before. during my interview of Mrs. Louella Komuves, I was reassured that being an early childhood educator is what I would like to be. During the interview I learnt that to care for children, you only need certification, also that a lead teacher in a preschool required an associate degree, and that to teach in public school, one must obtain a bachelor’s degree. In the interview, Mrs. Komuves reminded me that the job of an educator is a labor of love and not one to get rich quick.

As a parent, I have found a great love for early childhood teaching. I love interacting with my daughter on a daily bases. It brings me great joy to see my daughter master something she spent time on and enjoys doing. The interview gave me a great insight on how values and the need for families to be involved in the classroom are needed. I hope to teach students through their interests, and to have fun through education while exploring their strengths and weaknesses; maintaining parental involvement. Furthermore, Mrs. Komuves stressed that early childhood education can be hard and stressful at times, and that maintaining health is important to success.

Key issues and Trends

There are three trends in early childhood education and they are: (1) Minimizing the achievement gap, (2) Technology and the classroom, and (3) Classroom principles. These trends impact young children’s learning, minimizing the achievement gap means better funding for ECE is required. Through using technology in the classroom, the achievement gap is reduced in early childhood education. Technology in the classroom is the newest resource that a teacher works with in their classroom to help with teaching young children, and is forever changing and growing. By aligning the classroom with principles, young children expand upon developing and improving Emotional Cognitive Social Early Learning. During the 2017 and 2018 school year the federal government implemented a new policy called Every Student Succeeds Act. The Every Student Succeeds Act will overturn the No Child Left Behind policy of 2002, this means that the federal government gives educational policies rights back to the states. It is said that Early Childhood Educators are forever learning, as they stand committed to continuing their education no matter what trends, changes in technology, studies and conversations take place. It is believed that if an educator is prepared with these three trends, they might find success in teacher students (Jones, 2017). As a teacher in the early childhood education field, I believe utilizing each one of these trends might help in my teaching endeavors by always learning.

Approach/model that matches

The best instructional approach/model that would best fit my classroom in the future would be that of Reggio Emilia and Montessori. The combination of approaches practices the idea of an independent learner, and that students perform better through natural curiosity, exploration, and play rather than through force of authority; furthermore confidence is built as students achieve goals that is often reflected on coursework.

In a Reggio / Montessori classroom materials are placed at the child’s level and by interests ever-increasing in difficulty. Gross motor skills is encouraged to improve cognitive skills and critical thinking skills, the teacher acts as a guide rather than a definitive authority figure, and respect to the child is an important core philosophy, with the classroom embracing a comfortable home-like environment.

Instructional Theory

In conjunction with a Reggio / Montessori classroom, Gardner’s theory seems to right choice.

Gardner’s theory expresses that individuals have unique strengths and weaknesses and that individuals learn at their own pace. Likewise, Gardner’s theory mentioned that individuals learn through a variety of styles, and that the use of media and multimedia geared toward a particular individual could see success in an otherwise labeled student.

Gardner’s theory believed that individuals learn through a domain of one or more intelligence ranging from Visual-Spatial Intelligence, Linguistic-Verbal Intelligence, Logical-Mathematical Intelligence, Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence, Musical Intelligence, Interpersonal Intelligence, Intrapersonal Intelligence, and Naturalistic Intelligence. Through this theory, I believe a teacher can adhere to the Reggio / Montessori approaches in that songs, puppet plays, and hands-on experiments can be conducted to teach the needs and interests of multiple students. On another note, Reggio’s approach focuses on evaluating students and taking notes, through Gardner’s theory a teacher can begin to understand what interests an individual, what works, and what their strengths and weaknesses may be; it is my belief that Gardner’s theory closely aligns with the respect of the student, in that they are viewed uniquely and individually.

Developmental Domains

In the world of early childhood development, there are seven developmental domains and they are: (1) Gross Motor, (2) Fine Motor, (3) Language, (4) Cognitive, (5) Social/Emotional, (6) Self-Help/Adaptive, and (7) Morals/Values. Each of the seven developmental domains are thought to be taught at home by mom and dad through modeling them for the children. Commonly, in a child care center or school of any type it is up to the teachers and educators to model each of these domains to children of all ages. It is important for these domains to be taught at all stages of developmental growth throughout a child’s life. Each one of the seven domains have a pacific way of learning and it is up to family and teachers and educators to try and keep teaching them daily in a child’s life. (Miller, 2014)

Families/Early childhood

In early childhood development, it is a necessity to include the family in the learning of a young child. The approaches of Reggio / Montessori both believe strongly in family involvement and align with these models. Since young child learns and models a lot of things from their parents and siblings, it is important to have parents involved in the child’s life of learning. A teacher or educator’s role is to assist parents through learning to nurture the young child or children in their home. If a teacher can model love and nurture to a child, then a parent should be able to follow that role model and keep teaching.

Future in Early Childhood Development

As a new person to Early Childhood Development, there is a lot that I need to learn. The qualifications for the field of Early Childhood Education that I plan to pursue is: (1) Earn a Bachelor’s Degree, (2) Complete a Training Program, (3) Pass Certification Exams, and (4) Apply for Certification. Each of these steps are all to try and help me get my teaching certification. For my future I would love to become an elementary school teacher, namely teaching kindergarten. I understand that I have a long way to go, and may face challenges such as mixed views on male teaching students. My first goal is to get my Bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and maybe even special needs. I hope to either work as a teacher’s assistant or substitute to obtain more experience rather soon. This is the last course I will be attending here at Ashford, as I will be switching to Western Governors University, in which they are TEACH accredited and certification ready upon completion. I may continue to get my master’s degree later, I am not too sure now as to what may happen in the future. My love for teaching comes from loving children, my sisters, nieces, nephews, and cousins

References

Annie Jones, (2017, February 28), 3 Trends in Early Childhood Education that You Should
Known About., Rasmussen College, Inc. Retrieved From: http://www.rasmussen.edu//degrees/education/blog/3-ongoing-trends-early-childhood-education-impact-you/
Estes, L. S., & Krogh, S. L. (2012) Ch. 4.5. Pathways to Teaching Young Children: An Introduction to Early Childhood Education [Electronic Source]. San Diego: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Funderstanding, (2017), (2011, April 26)., Jean Piaget: Cognitive Development in the Classroom. Retrieved From: Funderstanding.com
J. Miller, (2014, November 9) The 7 Domains of Early-Childhood Development. Retrieved From: http://blog.novanatural.com/2014/11/09/the-7-domains-of-early-childhood-development/

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