Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Planning The Children’s Program

Chapter 9 / Planning and Administering Early Childhood Program

Aloha Everyone!

Planning a children program is a big responsibility for teachers. Curriculum is a plan for learning, this helps the teachers think about their students and help organize their experiences in the program setting. (pg. 211) “Curriculum activities must be organized in some manner. Children want to make sense of their physical and social world and to do so must build on their prior knowledge and skills.” But before we implement a curriculum we need to consider other aspects like adult-child ratios. On page 235 Table 9.5 is a recommended adult-child ratios within group size. This is an awesome table to follow but due to low funding in the D.O.E. system I can’t see us following this table 9.5 figure.

Also, due to political interest teachers need to think about standards too, which is expectation for learning and development. Here are four specific terms used to refer to standards: Program standards, content standards, benchmark, and performance standards. (pg. 215) It is so important to follow these standards.

I believe that having a good curriculum and standards is the core to a successful children program. This helps us as teachers to be more effective in working with our students.

But here’s my question to you all: “How do we plan a children program to be successful with low funding or no funding?” ;-(


ExchangeEveryDay

Getting Your Message Across / September 29, 2009

I like reading this article! It opens my eyes to different situation that I might experience while getting my message across. Like Helen Keller said:

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable”.

I’m a man of faith and if I want to get my message across to my students, I can’t worry about the big picture (Hawaii’s bad economy). I’m just going to do my part as a teacher with funding, low funding, or no funding. Technology (internet, wide world web sites) now, there are so much recourse out there for teachers. I’m going to use what I have and somehow make it work. As a teacher I’m not in it for the money, I’m in it for our children the future generation. ;-D

8 comments:

  1. I do agree that having a good curriculum is a very important part of a preschool, but I also believe that it's the staffing that makes a program a success. A preschool can have a good curriculum, the best of supplies, and want for nothing but if the staff isn't qualified by having education in early childhood, experience, and understanding of the curriculum I don't think the program could be a success as it could be.

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  2. Hi Gary,
    I wonder about your posting could expand after reading the other reading from this week -http://www.educate.ece.govt.nz/learning/curriculumAndLearning/TeWhariki.aspx - about the curriculum in New Zealand. You may want to even check out the elementary curriculum as your interest is in older early childhood children.

    You mention the political interest and its tie to the standards. Is it ethical for standards to be the driving force behind curriculum? Should teachers and administrators advocate against decisions like these which chose an outside agencies' rhetoric like standards to guide curriculum rather than children and community?

    Jeanne

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  3. I am the assistant teacher in my classroom and have been the temporary teacher for a few weeks now while the management waits for the new teacher to go through clearance. One of the biggest problems that I've had is that I cannot spend any money from the budget so I've had to seriously get creative with making activities for the children. I have used a lot of recycled items to create new learning toys and activities for children. It's been going great so far but you're right that funding eventually becomes an issue.

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  4. You are right; planning a curriculum is a big responsibility. Just thinking about it sort of overwhelms me, I know that I am not capable of doing something like that right now and there is so much to think about and consider. I like how you understand the importance of a good curriculum to provide a quality program for young children and you are right that it can be very difficult without proper funding. I do not think that the importance of early childhood education and care are always realized. Young children are so important and deserve quality care that often has necessary costs. I guess for now it is just very important to use some imagination and try to make the best with what you have and not to give up trying to obtain necessary funds.

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  5. Hi Gary,
    I too agree that planning children's program is a big, big responsibility for all teachers. Without the curriculum we are not fostering children's development. In addition, teachers must be knowledgeble of children's development or interest in order to plan a curriculum. I'm an assistant teacher at my work, and I do plan activities for my small group once a week. Also I love to borrow books from the public library and bring them to work.

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  6. Gary,

    I definitely agree with you when you talk about having a good curriculum and standards as being the core of a successful children's program. I feel that the curriculum is very important because that's where the children get to engage in the activities that will be beneficial to them as they develop and also very beneficial to their futures. You also bring up a good point when you ask, how do we plan a children program to be successful with little or no funding. That's a great question, and also one that's very hard to answer. It can be very difficult to have a successful program when you don't have the right resources, but I guess you would just have to do the best with what you do have.

    -Jaychelle

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  7. Hi Gary,

    I agree with curriculum being a big responsibility for teachers. Teachers need to really plan out a curriculum that will benefit the child as a whole and for each individual child. But when planning your curriculum, there are all the different standards attached to it that needs to be met for funding or licensing. And teachers need lots of time to plan their curriculum because it's a timely and thoughtful process that takes place.

    Have a nice week,
    Ashley

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  8. Hi Gary,
    Yes it is very important that we make sure our children fit with the curriculum and it's happenings. You made a good point about the teacher-child ratio, and what is recommended from the table in the book. I agree that yes, in today's circumstances with the economy not at it's best, it is hard for centers in ECED, and in the DOE to meet the required teacher (adult)-child ratio. I feel that the children lose out by having less teachers in a classroom with many kids because they have less one-on-one time for interaction and support from the teacher. Looking on the bright side, I'd rather have the children have less teachers then have no class at all. This situation can also be super stressful on the teacher because they have to do double the work.

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