EMerce*d in Learning

Mindful Monday This is where each Monday we are mindful of our pedagogy, slowly adjusting our lessons to match our theories. There are some things that are universal among early childhood classrooms.  One of those elements is circle time.  While there is no real hard and fast rules for conducting circle time, there are several guidelines that could be helpful.   1. The first thing to think about is how long should your circle time be.  If you are teaching infants or toddlers your circle time will look quite different from a preschool or kindergarten circle time.  For the youngest children you want to let them come and go as they want.  You may only be reading a book or singing a song for your circle time at this age.  If they lose interest that is ok!  As they age you can add a little time to your circle time.  Three's should be able to make it through a book, a song, and a game. Remember to include LOTS of movement, including moving around the room!  By preschool and kin

Fill it up Friday Each Friday we will look at an article to fill up on the whys of teaching. This is one of my favorite books EVER.  Seriously!  If you haven't heard of it yet please, please, please check it out! Anyone who knows me in real life knows that I frequently read books on child behavior, especially difficult behaviors.  I've noticed that the better I managed my classroom the more the children are able to learn, so I focus on behavior first.  The authors do an amazing job looking at various factors that influences a child's behavior and what we as adults can do to help mitigate those factors. The authors break the book up into manageable pieces that reference the different aspects that influence behavior and how to work around with them such as the social context, physical space, and the inclusive setting. By far my favorite part of the book is the inclusion of the functional assessment behavior chart.  This is also known as the ABC chart.  I love usi

Thursday Thoughts This is where we will collaborate on classroom issues.   "I'm doing a presentation about the connection between classroom engagement and behavior management when dealing with my students here in China (age 1-6). What are some strategies or resources you would recommend?" -Tre T. (Shenzhen, China)   Obviously I will be attacking this from an American cultural perspective since I am an American living in the states. That being said there are many developmental factors that are relatively stable. The next tough thing to tackle in your question is the age range.  Whew!  Ages 1 to 6 really encompasses a huge developmental range so we will break it up as we look at engagement and behavior management.    Infants and Toddlers When it comes to this age group I always get a mental image of herding cats.  Ever tried to do that?  It is tough ! You want them to have the freedom to leave the activity when their attention wanders.  They have extremely s

Wednesday Words We will look at the words that define us. Number sense. Does that term make sense to you? Enough with the word play already, lets define! Number sense simply refers to the ability to understand and use numbers.  This is not a topic that is taught in one lesson, instead think of it as an ongoing process that is taught directly and indirectly.  When children are young and we ask them to pass out the appropriate number of snack materials we are working on number sense.  When we ask them to identify numbers we are working on number sense.  When we ask them to show us a set identifying a specific number we are working on number sense. When we ask them what digits make up a larger number we are working on number sense. Do you see a trend here? The idea is that when children are exposed to and allowed to explore numbers and quantities from a young age (I'm talking infants here!), they develop the ability to manipulate numbers on a deeper scale.  Try infusing math

Time-Out Tuesday Each Tuesday we will take time out of the classroom to learn about each other. Just a little update on my garden.  Wow has it been workin' it!  It looks like I am going to have more cucumbers than I will know what to do with.  Do you have any recipes? My squash and tomatoes are really coming in too.  A couple of my tomatoes are turning red.  Yay!   The peppers are doing well too.  I've already picked several and it looks like a few more will be ready in about a week. I'm looking forward to the day when we can use a real backyard.  Our poor neighbors will think farmers have moved in! 

Mindful Monday This is where each Monday we are mindful of our pedagogy, slowly adjusting our lessons to match our theories. Group work.  Man that statement can elicit many different responses based on what you endured in school. As the uber control freak I hated group projects.  The other people couldn't possibly do the work "right" so I would do it all.  Or most of it and let them edit.  I had to let them do something right? I've also been part of groups where the others simply refused to do any work (obviously this was after I realized teachers didn't want my work, they wanted our work). I like trying to get my students on the group work bandwagon early.  I think it helps the ones who lean more towards control to learn to trust their peers.  It also helps those that tend toward allowing others to do all the work to learn to participate.  My favorite thing about group work for super young children is building their communication skills.  While workin

Thursday Thoughts This is where we will collaborate on classroom issues. A few weeks ago we talked a bit about apologies.  If you haven't read that post you can find it here.  We talked about how it is important to teach children to move toward giving apologies, but not forcing them to do so. Now that you've practiced that with your own kids (classroom or personal, or heck that kid at Walmart that needed a talking to), you have most likely hit the next stumbling block- how to get the "victim" to accept an apology. Just as forcing a child to apologize doesn't teach empathy, forcing a child to "feel better" now that they have received an apology doesn't teach forgiveness.  After having the "aggressor" attempt to make the child feel better I always ask the "victim" if they feel better.  If they don't I ask one of two questions: "What would make you feel better" or "Can I give you a hug?".  Sometimes a

Wednesday Words We will look at the words that define us. Have you ever wondered what phonemic awareness means?  It is a term used much more frequently in preschool and early elementary levels, but it has roots in infancy. First things first- what is a phoneme?  A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a given language.  Phonemic awareness then would be defined as the ability to hear, identify, manipulate, and use these sound units.  This is so important as children learn to read and write.  How can you assist your child or students in gaining phonemic awareness?  Simple!  One of the biggest things is TALKING!  Just talking to your infant constantly is important.  This will be how they first become aware of various sounds and how they fit into language. You can also play rhyming games, sing songs, and read to your child.  In the classroom you can also incorporate games where you change or manipulate sounds within known words to create real or imaginary (I always call them

Time-Out Tuesday Each Tuesday we will take time out of the classroom to learn about each other. So I've been out of school for two days. I already miss my kiddos! I NEED routine.  I NEED a summer bucket list. This place is at the top of my list. Can you believe I can bike there from my house?!?  I have a few books I want to read too, but I'm already running out of tasks.  Help!  What books or movies would you suggest?  Anything in southeastern Virginia or northeast North Carolina I should check out?

Mindful Monday This is where each Monday we are mindful of our pedagogy, slowly adjusting our lessons to match our theories. Hopefully by now you have noticed that I like to incorporate many various learning modalities and content areas into each lesson.  I wanted to share a few lesson ideas on nursery rhymes today.  Nursery rhymes are rich in vocabulary and their rhyming words are an excellent way to prepare children for reading. I had the children create art using a pumpkin cut out to relate back to the rhyme "Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater."  Some of the details they added were amazing.  Even the mutli-hued pumpkin I added near the poem was created by cutting out paper painted by the children.  Various shades of orange paint had been left out for the children to use and when they were finished I simply cut out a pumpkin shape.       During story time we read many different rhymes.  We retold the story using a story board.  This allowed the children to work on

I am moving the blog over to a WordPress template using a unique url (no worries I'll share it when it is set up!).  I want to know what features you would like to see.  Is there anything you guys already love and don't want changes (topics, etc.) or is there anything at all you'd like to see added or modified?  I am planning on adding a Facebook page as part of the new rollout so I can add random updates without an actual post.  Anything you suggest would be helpful.  This endeavor is about sharing after all!

Fill it up Friday Each Friday we will look at an article to fill up on the whys of teaching. I currently teach Kindergarten and have taught in a preschool setting as well.  One thing that is constantly being debated by fellow educators and parents is the timetable for appropriate reading instruction. I think we can all agree that there has been a push on curriculum downward.  If you haven't seen it step into any classroom and compare it to what you were learning at that age.  Have you seen 5th grade math  lately?  I mean really! In the article Reading at five: Why? on the SEEN magazine website, Joan Almon suggests that children are being required to learn reading much to young.  She implies that we, being the United States, are pushing an unrealistic curriculum due to our fear that children will not be reading fluently by third grade, a proven indicator for success.  My own philosophy is that each child is different and each child needs to be pushed to the limits of the

Thursday Thoughts This is where we will collaborate on classroom issues. "I want my class to feel like a family.  Right now all the kids seem tired of one another.  I am at a year round school so we will still be together for a little while.  What can I do?"- Samantha, VA I love using class meetings!  They are such an amazing way to build a connection with your students and set expectations.  This year I taught Kindergarten and we have two daily class meeting sessions.  The first one happens first thing in the morning as all three classes gather in one room for a morning question, the pledge and to hear any announcements.  We use that time to alert the children of any changes that may be taking place that day. The second one is more important for me as a teacher.  Before we start our academic tasks I allot about 20 minutes for sharing stories.  The children get to take turns just communicating without an agenda.  It really makes our day go more smoothly.  If for so

Wednesday Words We will look at the words that define us.   First let me apologize.  I know it is Thursday and I am just now posting for Wednesday.  We had our Kindergarten graduation today so I was at school late setting up.  Like 10:30 pm late.  It was worth it!  Everything turned out beautifully! Now onto the regularly scheduled programming... Today we are looking at another acronym, ECERS.  Have you heard of ECERS before? I hadn't heard about it until I started working in an early childcare setting and a coworker introduced it to me.    ECERS stands for the "Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale."  The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute lists the major needs that a childcare setting must provide for as: Protection of their health and safety Building positive relationships Opportunities for stimulation and learning from experience  Source   The idea with ECERs is you use the scale to ensure qu

Time-Out Tuesday Each Tuesday we will take time out of the classroom to learn about each other. Goals.... So nice to have. So hard to set sometimes. My problem is that I want to do EVERYTHING!  I'm not even sure what my next big goal should be.  Here are a few ideas I'm toying with: Another Master's- Maybe reading?  Doctorate- Early Childhood?  Ed Psych? Ed Instruction and Leadership? Pickup more TCC classes- Get online certified so I can teach online courses too (This one is in the works). Start doing trainings through my own rather than just through organizations? Get National Board Certified? Hmph.  So many ideas.  I must edit them down.  What are your goals? Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?  If you know me in the real world, where do you see me in the next 5 years? 

Mindful Monday This is where each Monday we are mindful of our pedagogy, slowly adjusting our lessons to match our theories. After reading about how important grow motor activities are in this post Big Body Play, I thought it would be fun for us to share some ideas on gross motor activities being worked into everyday lessons.  While planning I try to think about my lessons in terms of the whole unit.  I want to ensure that the overall unit incorporates many different features, one of the most important for me being gross motor.  While planning a unit of the wild west I wanted to come up with something that the kids could revisit while playing on the playground if they wanted. After eliminating horse riding and snake wrangling I decided on steer roping. I had to think about who would clean the playground after the steer had visited so I opted for the chair variety of steer! The children tried to lasso the "runaway steer".  Luckily the steer (a chair) played ni

Fill it up Friday Each Friday we will look at an article to fill up on the whys of teaching. Let's talk music.  Do you use music in your classroom? In many early childhood classrooms it is something that is used in many areas.  Transitions and learning new material are two of the major ways music is incorporated in the classrooms I have seen. In the article The Importance of Music in Early Childhood Dr. Lili Levinowitz pulls in a wide array of research that suggests music in the early childhood arena should be viewed through many various facets.  The first she suggests is in terms of multiple intelligence theory.  I love using Howard Gardner's perspective on the multiple intelligences when crafting lesson to ensure balance.  Dr. Levinowitz references Thomas Armstrong's work that indicates that intelligence develops through participation in the activity beginning in early childhood. The paper goes on to state that all children are born with the capacity to learn

Thursday Thoughts This is where we will collaborate on classroom issues. "There are many times throughout the day where my kids have to sit.  I end up getting so irritated that they won't sit still that I end up yelling. By the time we start the activity that we were waiting to start none of us are having a good time. What should I do?" -Samantha, Illinois Waiting is extremely hard for young children.  The part of their brain that would tell them to sit still is not yet developed.  That same area is what controls their ability to plan and think of alternatives.  Again, this area is not done growing.  Asking them to sit quietly is like asking me to get the last package of something off the top of the grocery store shelf (I'm 5 feet tall, not gonna happen!). As teachers it is our job to teach children the coping skills they need to survive.  One coping skill is learning to wait. I however cannot wait.  Take my morning routine.  Each and every morning you will f

Wednesday Words We will look at the words that define us.   Have you ever found that store, restaurant, or whatever that you just love and want to share with everyone?  I feel that way about NAEYC! So what is it?  The National Association for the Education of Young Children.  There are so many resources put out by this group that you should have their webpage bookmarked.  Don't know their webpage?  Here it is http://www.naeyc.org/ So what can they do for you?  There are so many benefits to being a member. Here is a short list: Discounted books. FREE books and journals sent to your home. Automatic membership into state and local affiliates. Discount admission to conferences. Our local affiliate here puts on continuing education classes a few times a year for FREE for members.  They also have a yearly conference. Personally I love that they have created a standard of excellence for early childhood educators.  Centers (even home and faith based providers) can earn an

Time-Out Tuesday Each Tuesday we will take time out of the classroom to learn about each other. So this weekend I found yet another reason to run.  It is a place called Duck Donuts.  One just opened in Virginia Beach. All of my Facebook friends have been posting pictures of boxes of donuts.  I'm thinking "what's wrong with these weirdos I'm friends with?!?" So I had to try them.  Of course I snapped a pic before I tried them (because apparently we all like to look at what we ate later as if to explain the extra two inches). The picture does it no justice.  I may have tried a bite in the parking lot and decided to sit in front of a closed business, on the ground, with a box of donuts in my lap, eating half the box.  As I exclaimed to strangers as they pulled up how good they were.  And the were delish! My favorite was the chocolate frosted.  Yummy!

Mindful Monday This is where each Monday we are mindful of our pedagogy, slowly adjusting our lessons to match our theories.  We use each spring to teach children about plants.  I bet I could enter any school from infants to fifth grade and see something about plants in a lesson during the spring.  It is almost as predictable as saying "look, they've fallen asleep" and waking half the class. While I'm not crazy creative when it comes to plants, I'd like to share a few things that we've done over the years.  I like to start with talking about different kinds of plants.  We read several books about plants and even make and label a diagram to keep at the children's eye level for their reference. This particular diagram is of the beanstalk from Jack and the Beanstalk.  My children were really into the story that particular year. Then we take a trip to buy plants from the local hardware store each year.  When your kids are cute you sometimes get