Professional Experience in Early Childhood Education: Building Relationships - Essay Example

College Building Relationships Professional experience is a continuous learning process that involves improvement of skills instudents by making them more knowledgeable and influencing their behaviors and attitudes positively. Early childhood education requires professional experience by a student. There exists competence for high quality work when it comes to interaction with the children on different levels in the centers. Therefore, it is rather important to visit centers and acquire skills that equip a student with the necessary skills on early childhood education. Those teaching in the centers require experience and credentials to verify the education offered is of quality. Other members of the society whose occupations at some point involve handling children require professionalism in dealing with children. To learn these skills, it requires students to get ready for the fieldwork involved. The age difference of the children influences the type of interaction used as there are those who are very young and others are older than they are. Early childhood involves infants to the age of eight. General education for professional experience in early childhood education is important for all those who that deal with children directly and indirectly. They include the administration of the center, the guardians of the children who play a major role in shaping the kids, the teachers found in the institutions, other staff like drivers and cleaners require equipment with the required skills. Cooks and casual workers found in the childcare institutions also require professionalism in handling children of all ages. Interactions with the children are gradual and slow to ensure they gain one’s trust before getting used to handling them professionally. Different children in terms of their ages, require different forms of interaction. Infants for example require more non-verbal forms of communication than verbal. They are delicate and require warmth in their handling and teaching. Others, who know how to communicate, require verbal communication hand in hand with non-verbal. At the end of it all, the most essential thing is to build a relationship with the children so they can feel protected and trust the teacher’s skills and knowledge imparted to them. A visit to (Center A) helped me acquaint myself with skills necessary for early childhood education, the learning was much more than I expected. I interacted with different ages of children. It is important during interaction, to say hello to them with a smile to ensure they do not shy away and to be warm and welcoming to them. When dealing with the young kids of ages one to three when approaching them for the first time, one lowers to their level where in this case the most preferable is to squat and stretch out ones hand to them for a greeting. Speaking positively to them is very vital at all circumstances no matter their behavior. Children require positive words and comments in all the things that they do that are especially moral behaviors. During learning and classes in center A, a welcoming strategy in interaction includes congratulating the children for their efforts no matter how small. For instance, if a child draws or moulds something correctly, others feel encouraged to do the same and most times, the professional dealing with them, urges the rest to clap for the child. In my interactions, I also learnt the value of molding the children’s behaviors is by giving them examples. Proof shows that children emulate very many ideas and behaviors in their early childhood depending on whom they interacted with then. With this, I ensured to do only positive things that the children could copy. For instance reading aloud of words, playing games during their free time and generally correcting them when they do wrong. All these strategies, proved successful. Understanding Children Understanding children’s wants and needs is an important aspect in building them in all aspects of their young lives. The children engage in different activities during the day that enhance their learning and behavioral improvement. Daily there exists certain routines followed that a child adapts to and in the end become part of them. They engage in both outdoor and indoor activities with fellow children of their age and interact in these groups to facilitate learning and character building. A professional groups the children according to various issues except age. The intellects of children vary. Some prove slow than others in learning while others are fast and understand things within no time To avoid intimidation of children amongst themselves, the teacher groups them according to how fast or slow they learn. This enables them to flow with each other and motivates them to keep learning. During outdoor activities like games that do not involve much of thinking, the teacher groups them according to their ages. This is because some games can only be handled by older children while simple games are available for the younger ones to keep them playing. It also prevents young children from getting hurt or confused due to age difference. The teacher facilitates most learning experiences of these children but mostly in outdoor activities, children initiate experiences such as sharing a ball or swings. During my visit, (center A) I observed keenly one child’s activities and routine for two straight hours. The first thirty minutes, the child, a five year old, was in class learning with others of her own intellect. She enjoyed reading letters pointed out to them by the teacher and was not at all distracted. With time, her excitement of learning new things caused her to be more interactive than at the beginning. She seemed interested in learning and as the teacher kept encouraging them and congratulating them for their efforts, the child became better in the reading without fear. The next half an hour, they moved to a room drawing and molding things that the children saw around them on a daily basis. The teacher in this case wanted to see their creativity and skills. The child seemed excited to begin and from the look of things, she had an idea of what to draw and mould. She began drawing and coloring her work using crayons. On seeing, she had drawn a house and the yard outside it just as it appeared in her mind. She then molded a few things that I assumed were a car, cat, pen and book from observation. The next hour, the children had their lunch and she ate her food while interacting with others and discussing about the food. During the final minutes of my observation, as she played with fellow children, I learnt the importance of positive words to the children as it was what drove her to trying harder to reach the ball as they played. I concluded that long hours of a day become fun for a child when broken down into short periods of interactive learning sessions to ensure they acquire maximum skills. Facilitating learning A professional’s main aim during interaction with children is to facilitate learning. There are many plans and takes to learning by the teacher. During class, the teacher uses several techniques to teach the children. These techniques must be enjoyable with each taking short periods to avoid boredom that in the end results to no or minimum learning. These include use of diagrams, repetition of words after the teacher, interaction that involves all children where they speak and share ideas and many more. All these ensure a child learns much without feeling pressured, bored, lost or confused. A teacher ensures that each child does not feel frustrated during the short periods of learning engaged in, rather enjoys and participates fully. All rooms that serve as classes for children’s early development have materials that the children use to learn. These include charts that have drawings and writings, drawing books, colors, stationary, crayons, balls, materials for molding and playing material. Only a profession can handle these children well and ensure that learning takes place for each individual. Children learn best when in groups and not individually, as they share ideas and help each other out. During my visit (center A), I entered one of the classrooms where most if not all the children, were four year olds. The members of staff who interacted with the children ensured that they served as the best examples for the children. They showed their support to the children by helping them out where they did not fully understand. When teaching the children something new, the teacher was very patient with them as she repeated the same thing repeatedly to ensure each of the children repeated it correctly. Patience is therefore an important virtue when teaching children, a virtue that all professionals of early childhood education require. Critical and Reflective practice As an emerging teacher, I realized that becoming a professional in early childhood education is a daily learning procedure. Children are different and do not have the same behaviors. My main goal as an upcoming teacher is to develop the sense of understanding for the children. It is a crucial virtue since a Childs way of thinking is very different from that of an adult. I myself failed to determine what most of the children wanted but with time, knowing the behavior of all children will help a great deal. My other goal is to instill displine positively when dealing with all the emerging issues that arise during my interaction as a teacher in schools or other childcare centers. There is a big difference between instilling discipline and punishing children. Punishing does not help in changing the morals of children as they take it negatively and some start loathing a teacher. It is natural for children to hate teachers therefore to avoid this kind of tension; my aim is to use proper methods of ensuring children are well behaved. During my next professional fieldwork study, my goal in building relationship with the children is to spend more time than the usual allocated time in order to strengthen the bond between the children and myself. Children in childcare centers need more attention than those in schools since they are in the centre through out and have no family. However, those in schools share their personal life with the teachers and when the relationship is strong with their teachers they are free to tell the teacher open up to the teacher. I will therefore come up with strategies to help me deal with the issue of building good relationships during my next professional experience. My objective when understanding the children is to help them open up and speak to me on any issues. Children are different and some are more talkative than others are. Those who talk too much need someone to listen to their stories and interact with them as they talk. Shutting down a child can result to withdrawal of the child as he or she will feel unwanted. My aim therefore is to understand and tolerate their character traits positively and correct them when they go wrong although it takes time for a child to know what is right or wrong. My aim while facilitating learning is to come up with more interesting activities for the children, both indoor and outdoor. Organizing for trips and retreats with the institution every term is my set goal. Children love going out with their friends and feel appreciated when teachers give them what they love most. My next self-evaluation report will include all my achievements and experiences in the childcare institution. I plan to do more and succeed in giving the children the quality education they need. Focus will be more on the growth of the child in all aspects of life. These include social, academic and spiritual values. A child regardless of the religion needs knowledge of the existence and importance of the Supernatural being. Working professionally is the main reason persons interested in early childhood education pursues learning. My goal is to acquire all the necessary skills and documents that verify my qualification in this field. This field is a continuous process and as the world evolves, acquiring new skills will be important. Working Professionally (Center A) is an institution founded by one of the main universities nearby under the faculty of human sciences. The management includes a chairperson, teachers and representatives from the founding university, parents and the community members. The institution management holds a meeting annually to elect their director. The members of the management conduct division of roles especially taking care of the sick children and babysitting. The management creates a number of social events annually for instance dinner for parents and picnics that include the children and fundraisings to finance the institution since it is a non-profit organization. All members of (center A) set the policies that fun the institution. Members share their view on making policies and their implementation in the institution. The policies are many, for example, admission policy, which only allows enrollment of children between, ages three to five, a nutrition policy whereby special meals are tolerable to children with different allergies. Another policy is the child protection policy whereby only a registered guardian can pick a child in the evening from the institution. Parents can raise issues of concern to the management, which follows a procedure to handle the issues. The type of service in (center A) involves preparing young children of age’s three to five before they officially join school. The children learn in the childcare for about six weeks before leaving to join school. The members of the staff have qualifications that allow them to work in the center. Some have certificates while others hold degrees in early childhood. Their level of education determines the teaching position they hold in the institution. The management ensures they conduct interviews to assess the qualifications of all job seekers in the institution and only hire professionals. The institution has a structure in which they conduct the events of the day. The day starts early in the morning with the arrival of children at around seven. After arrival, teachers teach literature and simple arithmetic for about an hour. The children then engage in group work which involves arts like drawing and molding. Thereafter, the children shift from class work to outdoor activities such as games. They then clean their classes and prepare for lunch at noon. The whole institution goes for lunch and cooks help in serving especially the children. In the early afternoon, children go to sleep for an hour or two then later in the evening wake up to dress for home. They engage in relaxing exercises before they leave the center. The day ends after all parents pick their children from the center. (Center A) works according to a schedule, which all staff follows diligently. References Gordon, A. M., Browne, K. W., & Cruz, J. (2008). Beginnings and beyond: Foundations in early childhood education. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar Learning. Robinson, K. H., & Jones-Diaz, C. (2005). Diversity and difference in early childhood education: Issues for theory and practice. Berkshire, England: Open University Press. Blake, S., Izumi-Taylor, S., & IGI Global. (2010). Technology for early childhood education and socialization: Developmental applications and methodologies. Hershey, Pa: IGI Global (701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Hershey, Pennsylvania, 17033, USA. Gonzalez-Mena, J., & Stonehouse, A. (2008). Making links: A collaborative approach to planning and practice in early childhood programs. New York: Teachers College. Honig, A. S. (2010). Little kids, big worries: Stress-busting tips for early childhood classrooms. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Pub. Co. Steinberg, S. R., & Kincheloe, J. L. (1997). Kinderculture: The corporate construction of childhood. Boulder, Colo: WestviewPress. Read More