Curriculum Intervention in Preschool Children: Nutrition Matters - Assignment Example

Teacher Final Assignment Reflection Report If there is one thing that I have learned from this it is that early childhood education is about much more than simple academics. While it is certainly important to help young children develop their early language, math, and spatial skills, it is equally important to help them begin to understand the importance of taking care of their body and their surroundings. Part of this is reflected through the need to incorporate some sort of teaching about health, safety, and nutrition into any solid and grounded early childhood curriculum. Teachers do not always have the luxury of identifying with each student’s family, so they are often left in the dark about what children are being taught at home. This means that basic health and safety education may not be communication within the family, so the teacher can play a huge role in seeing that children begin to understand, some perhaps for the first time, what they can do to eat properly and maintain their own physical and hygienic health. I, myself, learned some basic facts about nutrition that are vital to teach young children. I also learned the importance of modeling this behavior, as young children especially look to adult authority figures in regard to the behaviors that they begin to imitate from an early age. It is also important to teach young children about blanched diets from the perspective of improving their own emotional and physical health. Why young children will not often understand it at the time, the principles taught in this class, if properly implemented in the classroom, will pay dividends for many students years down the road. Often times educators, and parents, wait far too long to educate children about matters related to nutrition, health, and safety. By then, it is often too late to reverse years of unhealthy habits, and some damage is likely already done. By focusing on a grounded curriculum, such as the one espoused by this course, teachers can truly help contribute to the overall development of the whole child. It is also important for teachers to become a strong advocate in terms of promoting health, safely, and nutrition with young children. This involves taking the school out into the community. Early childhood teachers can call in various members of community organizations to come in and visit the class. By getting the opportunity to meet and interact with professionals from the health, nutrition, and safety professions, children understand that it is not just their teacher espousing the virtues of healthy living. In addition, community groups have individuals that are experts in their field and are willing to give freely of their time to come to local schools and share some concepts that they have learned through the years. Teachers can also become involved in local or national groups that are focused on lobbying for initiatives to improve health and nutrition efforts throughout the school system. One such organization is the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity. This particularly advocacy group is focused on the development of policies and programs that are designed to promote healthy eating habits and physical activities amongst school children (Black 195). The aim of such programs is to reduce incidences of illness, disability, and even premature deaths that are caused by diseases linked to dietary issues and a lack of physical activity. These include heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity. In terms of working specifically with early childhood education programs, this group is focused on supporting initiatives aimed at insisting upon healthier school lunches. In addition, they are working to help develop stronger standards relating to snacks and beverages that are sold in school, along with providing students and educators with access to helpful nutritional resources. To promote healthy living, this advocacy group, and other like it, are trying to develop physical activity wellness policies that can be implemented within the local system in a cost effective and efficient manner. All of the concepts combine to illustrate that organizations are working to make a different in terms of helping schools become effective at fostering an environment that effectively teachers health, safety, and nutrition principles to young children, and that various policies are put into practice to effect change moving forward. Children often learn by experience and example. Health, safety, and nutrition teaching can directly impact a child’s learning and development by equipping them with the knowledge that they need to make positive decisions in their life. This involves much more than just cognitive development, as it relates specifically to the child’s overall ability to choose what is good for them. As mentioned to previously, this often does not occur at home. Health, safety, and nutritional components have become an integral part of the early childhood curriculum because it is important to ensure that children are receive proper teaching in this area. There are many factors that contribute to a lack of such teaching in the home, and it is certainly not the teacher’s job to take the place of parent. For issues of such critical importance, however, research does indicate that such programs make an impact on the child (Diemoz S164). Visiting dentists, for example, can teach children proper brushing techniques that they can then utilize at home. In addition, proper toothbrushes can be provided to children that might not have access to any. This can be done in a universal manner, so as not to embarrass families that are simply often unable, or unwilling, to provide such items for their children. Nurses are able to check for a variety of hair borne diseases, while teachers are able to encourage children to make healthy eating choices at home. Because children spend so much of their formative years at school, such initiatives certain can and do make a positive impact by providing a venue at which young children can be taught in a supportive and healthy environment. This, in the end, serves to foster healthier communities in which children can be raised. Summaries of Assignments Reflection Report Reflection reports are a great way to encourage students to internalize the information that has been taught in class. Too often students are so focused on grasping the material and trying to perform well on requisite exams that they fail to stop for a moment and consider the relevance of the material in the first place. Reflection reports allow for just that. At the end of a unit, for example, students can be encouraged to take time to think about the importance of the concepts covered in the class and to consider various ways that they can be able to utilize the information in their daily life. For some topics, this involves reflecting, for example, how various historical events and people have shaped who we are as a culture today. Reflection reports are a valuable tool in helping us understand how we have come to this point in history and where we are going in the future. Teachers can use reflection reports to ensure that the proper message is being communicated to the students. If, after looking over the reflections reports it appears that nothing has truly been gained by the students, then the teacher can work to better tailor their instruction in future units to help ensure that the proper message does get communicated. Journals and Observations Journals and observations are another great way to get students considering the environment around them and how various elements of society come together to foster positive development. They also provide the learner with a written record of what they have observed so that it can be available for recall at a later date. Many times, we view an event only to quickly forget about. Writing down what we have observed enables us to go back at a later date and pick out new pieces of information that we perhaps did not consider the first time. Teachers can also use journals to help encourage students to develop their creative writing skills in a way that is not threatening and that they do not feel the pressure to perform. Journals allow the writer to express themselves in an informal manner that truly capture the essence of thought in a way that few other forms of writing can do. Resource File A resource file can prove to be an invaluable tool for educators in a variety of ways. It is a way to plan ahead for those times when time is really of the essence and information needs to be gathered quickly. By planning ahead and recording various organizations and contact people that relate to certain topics, teachers can later access the information quickly in an effort to get access to data that they require. Such information can include key people in the organization, website information, email addresses, phone numbers, physical locations, the types of resources available, and a plethora of other information. In addition, when a teacher is in needed of a guest speaker, for example, the resource file can be a great source of ideas that direct him or her in the right direction. Consider a resource file that contains information related to health, safety, and nutrition. In planning for the unit, the teacher can go to the file and locate organizations that have been willing in the past to provide information, resources, and even guest speakers to the school. Such a unit is more effective when there is actual real-world information and people to showcase to the student, and the resource file can provide the teacher with an easy way to access this information. Teachers should not try to remember every item of information that they come into contact with over the course of a school year. Instead, they should strive for organization and keep such information in a file that they can easily access at a later date when such information would be useful once again. Parent Pamphlet Parent pamphlet’s are a great way for a teacher to extend the classroom to the home. Parents generally would like to be involved in what their child is doing at school, but for various reasons many parents are simply unable or unwilling to do so. Parent pamphlets are created to help educate the parent and give them some creative ways that they can be an extension of the teacher within the home. Within the area of safety, nutrition, and health, for example, such pamphlets can inform parents of various resources that they have access to in order to promote healthy living within the home. In addition, teachers can use such material to inform parents of reading programs taking place in the classroom and at school that they can then incorporate into the home. This same concept can apply to other core academic areas such as math and science in order to truly enable learning to take place almost anywhere the child is at. Activity-Activity Plan Activity plans, like any other plans, provide a guiding framework by which a unit is carried out. In the area of promoting physical fitness, for example, such a plan will incorporate objectives that encourage students to become physically active both at school and at home. Various activities will form a part of the unit, and children will be encouraged to continue these activities even after the teaching period is over. Activity plans can be utilized in nearly any discipline. They form a way to take what is being taught in class and formed into a practical and real world exercise. Young children, especially, need to see such activities modeled so that they can develop healthy habits that they will be encouraged to continue as they progress in life. Teachers can also use such plans to ensure that their students properly understand how to complete certain activities. They do this by first modeling, then practicing, and then allowing students to complete them on their own. By having such a plan in place, the unit becomes alive and the students are more engaged in the learning process. Works Cited Black, Maureen. “Education Early Childhood Teachers about Nutrition: A Collaborative Venture.” Childhood Education, 83.4 (2007): 194-198. Diemoz, Lisa. “Curriculum Intervention in Preschool Children: Nutrition Matters.” Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 43.4 (2011): S162-S165. Read More