EMerce*d in Learning

Fill it up Friday Each Friday we will look at an article to fill up on the whys of teaching.   I recently read a book by Frances Carlson on gross motor activity.  I was lucky enough to have sat in a class she taught at the NAEYC convention in CA.  If you haven't heard about NAEYC yet, just stick around.  That will be one of our future Wednesday Words!     So Carlson is an amazing speaker!  She made you remember the gross motor activities of your youth in ways that made you want to jump right back on that tire swing (and why is it that we don't play on those as adults anymore?!? I so need one!).  Her goal in connecting us back to our childhoods was simple.  She wanted us to realize how important those rough and tumble activities were for us.   Now think about your center or your own home.  How often do we let children jump from things or run into things or just roll around?  If you live and work in place...

Thursday Thoughts This is where we will collaborate on classroom issues. "Nap time is the worst for me!  The kids never fall asleep quickly enough so they end up still being tired when it is time to wake up.  My littles need sleep and I need a break!  What can I do to make this more peaceful for all of us?" -Jasmine T. Plainsboro, NJ I think we can all relate to this!  How many times have you thought "Wow!  All my kids are asleep already!" only to turn around and see them playing peek-a-boo with one another or standing like a prairie dog on their cots (I can't be the only one who get the prairie dog look right?!?)?   (Source)   When it comes to nap time it is important to keep routines in place. It is beyond important to do the same thing each and everyday.  Setting up a routine that works for you can be difficult.  Like destroying a lego creation difficult. When creating a routine there are several things to think about...

Wednesday Words We will look at the words that define us.   Last week we looked at the “zone of proximal development” and I promised we would address scaffolding this week. Have you heard this term before?   It is one I use quite a bit, especially when describe how to adjust lessons to meet the needs of all the children in my room. Scaffolding refers to the assistance given to children to allow them to achieve more than they could independently. Scaffolding is what occurs within the ZPD to move the child forward.   Why call it scaffolding? If you think about it, it makes sense.  A scaffold is something that helps you get into place to work. Scaffolding instruction helps children get into place to learn.   An example of this would be to ask a child leading questions while they are exploring materials.   If you have given a child shape pieces and asked them to put the pieces together in a specific shape you can ask many questions about the sh...

Time-Out Tuesday Each Tuesday we will take time out of the classroom to learn about each other. So this post was going to be about something completely different.  Then I saw this... Yeah, that is right I saw a giant duck!  A local museum had it as part of the reopening week.  It.Was.Awesome! Pictures don't do it justice.  Everyone there was smiling ear to ear.  I was impressed with interactions of the people there too!  Normally when you begin to get a crowd of people gathered they start to push others out of the way and get cranky. This event had people in the best mood!  Everyone was moving for one another and offering to take pictures.  This was definitely one of my favorite local experiences.  From now on when I drive past that area I will think about the giant rubber duck. Be jealous.

Fill it up Friday Each Friday we will look at an article to fill up on the whys of teaching.   I wanted to share this article since I had seen it floating around on social media.   I'll give you a minute to read it.   Seriously, you go read it and I'll wait right here. Ok good now that you've read it I want to know what you think.   ADHD can be a controversial topic in general, but the assertion that there is a subset of preschoolers (or in this case 2 and 3 year olds) that not only have ADHD but are suffering enough to need medication is alarming. I'm going to start off by saying that this article does not give all the facts.   It does not give exact figures and is estimating the rate of medicating children in other areas based on one state.   Without having hard and fast numbers it is hard to know how accurate the reporting is.   It is also difficult to determine from the article why these children were prescribed the medication. ...

Thursday Thoughts This is where we will collaborate on classroom issues. “My children come to me all day to tattle on their friends.   I’m going to pull my hair out if I have to hear one more time about a friend looking at them wrong!”   -Michelle G., Virginia Beach, VA We answered most of Michelle's concerns last week.   You can see more of that post here Thursday Thoughts- Tattling Now let's tackle that sticky area of apologies.   When a child has done something that makes an apology necessary I try to lead the child in that direction without telling them that they have to apologize.  Why?  Shouldn't we be teaching our children appropriate behavior? The reason I don't force apologies is because they become inauthentic.  You create people who then will apologize without meaning it, and in young children they will often times apologize as they are hitting or snatching toys away.  Is that what the purpose of an apology is? I wa...

Wednesday Words We will look at the words that define us.   Do you ever hear an acronym and have no idea what it means? There are many acronyms thrown around in education and sometimes their meaning can become lost or overlooked.   One such acronym is ZPD. Any idea what that means?   ZPD stands for "zone of proximal development."   This is a term that was developed by Lev Vygotsky.   Vygotsky is a psychologist and developmentalist who strongly believed in social learning.   He looked at the way that interactions with others aided the child in learning. Essentially the ZPD is the area where a child can learn through interactions with others more than they can learn independently.   This area of possible learning is referred to as the ZPD.   When creating lessons think about ways to stretch a child's learning by providing assistance through peers and instructors.   Often times we equate ZPD with scaffolding.   ZPD is act...

Time-Out Tuesdays Each Tuesday we will take time out of the classroom to learn about each other. I love to (attempt to) grow my own veggies in the warm months.   I look forward to it each year.   This year was no different.   It was a rough winter in more than one way and I was so happy to have the warmth finally return. Last year I housed my container garden on my Grammy's porch.   She passed away this past November and the garden has come to be yet another reminder of her.   I'd like to think that it is doing so well this year because she has been watching over it from afar. We planted two types of tomatoes, green peppers, banana peppers, yellow squash, cucumber, spinach, and lettuce.   They are all doing so well this year!   Last year we had a rotten start and didn't near harvest until mid-June.   I think the lettuce and spinach will be good to go soon!   Banana Pepper Lettuce Tomato Bell Pepper Spinach ...

Mindful Monday This is where each Monday we are mindful of our pedagogy, slowly adjusting our lessons to match our theories. I just love working on sight words with my Kindergarteners!   In my classroom we lump sight words and high frequency words together.   We (being the Kindergarten teaching team I work with) feel like it is easier to tackle them at the same time and in the same ways.   I absolutely stink at remembering to take pictures so I'm sorry that many of my ideas don't have pictures to accompany them.   Here goes: Using Scrabble letter tiles to add how much their word is worth (I usually add this when the children are in the portion of the year where we are tackling addition in math).   How much is your word worth?   This activity was a gem I found on TpT How Much is Your Word Worth? Sight word writing on the windows.   This one was one of my kids favorites this year! Rainbow writing sight words. Stamping sigh...

Fill it up Friday Each Friday we will look at an article to fill up on the whys of teaching. So I have to give a shout out to one of my parents (I lovingly refer to the parents of my students as my parents) for sharing this one with me.   She is an OT and did an ah-mazing training at my school for handwriting.   I was blown away by the how much of handwriting has nothing at all to do with handwriting.   As a Kindergarten teacher I wanted to know more and have attended classes put on by OT, PT, and teachers at various conferences to learn more. Here is the article she shared: What's Wrong with W-Sitting?   It is a really short one so I recommend heading over there for a quick read. Basically i t is on the hazards of W-sitting.   Have you heard of a W-sit?   I hadn't until my parent shared it.   This is a sitting position where the child has their legs splayed out to the sides of them, slightly behind them.   Don't even think abou...

Thursday Thoughts This is where we will collaborate on classroom issues. “My children come to me all day to tattle on their friends.   I’m going to pull my hair out if I have to hear one more time about a friend looking at them wrong!”   -Michelle G., Virginia Beach, VA This is something that I think all of us have dealt with at one time or another.   This can be particularly frustrating when you are trying to balance the desire to curtail aggressive behavior or bullying while maintaining your own sanity.   I always start this dialogue with my children at the beginning of the year.   I want my children to know there are big differences between tattling and informing.   We revisit these definitions many times throughout the year as needed. I define them this way: Tattling- Telling me what a friend has done just to get them in trouble. Reporting/ Informing- Telling me what a friend has done because they will not stop (you have attempted to stop ...

Wednesday Words We will look at the words that define us.   Chances are if you have read any research studies or even reviews of studies you have heard the word correlation.   Correlation is one of those words that can get us in trouble if we overlook its meaning. Correlation simply means that there is some sort of relationship between two things.   This DOES NOT mean that one thing causes another, only that they relate in some way.   Dictionary.com puts it this way: " mutual relation of two or more things, parts, etc.: Studies find a positive correlation between severity of illness and nutritional status of the patients. Synonyms: similarity, correspondence, matching; parallelism, equivalence; interdependence, interrelationship, interconnection. " When reading a study that shows a correlation between two items try to remember that this really only tells us that further study is needed to understand how the two topics rel...

Time-Out Tuesdays Each Tuesday we will take time out of the classroom to learn about each other. I wasn’t always a runner.   I wanted to be a runner in high school, but I spent so much time with NJROTC that I didn’t have the time to join the track team (not that I would have made it!).   I always felt a strange desire to run despite my life-long inability to even make the mile run in school without stopping.   Flash forward to the fall of 2009.   I had recently lost 80 pounds and decided I wanted to try something new.   Then in my mail I received a letter about a charitable organization, Team in Training.   As a participant you raise money for the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society and they provide you with a running coach and support while you train for an event.   They will coordinate and pay your way to the event as well.   When I signed up for TNT I couldn’t make it half a mile without stopping.   I would be completely winded and...

Mindful Monday This is where each Monday we are mindful of our pedagogy, slowly adjusting our lessons to match our theories.   Is matter in your curriculum?   We get to touch on it in my Kindergarten program.   I always seem to have a few kids who have difficulty understanding the concept of molecules making up the things around them.   While introducing how the molecules behave in each state we used our bodies to illustrate.   Here are the kids pretending to be a solid:   I had the kids all fit into a hula hoop and try to move around.   We looked at how being so close together helped us to move together and keep a distinct shape.   We still moved in small increments as individuals, but the shape remained. Here they are as a liquid:   We used a jumpy rope that had been tied together to create a shape.   Our molecules moved and our shape changed form.   It was hard to retain a circle, square, or any ot...

Fill it up Friday Each Friday we will look at an article to fill up on the whys of teaching. Today we are going to look at an article that touches on a subject that impacts all of us- screen time.   I am shocked by the amount of time the average child in my school is sitting in front of a screen.   They not only watch television at home but now there are shows and games on phones, televisions mounted in the car, tablets, and computers that are accessible nearly 24/7. In the NAEYC publication, Beyond the Remote-Controlled Childhood , Dianne Levin addresses some topics that we encounter daily with our children.   One of my favorite terms that she puts forth is "age compression."    This is a term that labels something that many of us have been watching for years. Levin states, "age compression is a term used by media professionals and marketers to describe how children at ever-younger ages are doing what older children used to do (pg 33)."   WO...

Thursday Thoughts This is where we will collaborate on classroom issues. “I have a child who does not stay in time out.   I get so tired of chasing him down.   What can I do” –Olivia C., Roanoke Let’s first look at how time-out is being used.   While there are many variations on time-out I prescribe to Positive Discipline techniques.   Through that lens time-out should be a positive, preventative tool.   The downfall in using time-out in a punitive manner is that we are not providing the child with an alternative behavior.   Children often misbehave because they do not have the inner tools required for a more appropriate alternative behavior.   It is our jobs to show them those alternatives.   Using time-out in a positive manner is unfamiliar for many of us.   What would that look like?   The physical appearance of a time out center should be pleasant.   You want to make it look inviting and relaxing.   I recommen...

Wednesday Words Where each week we will look at the words that define us.     DAP- Developmentally Appropriate Practice.   This is a term you will hear frequently in early childhood education.   This term means that the actions you are taking are within the appropriate developmental range for the children in your care.   The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) wrote a position statement on DAP in 1987 after noticing the trickle of expectations to younger children that is inappropriate for their developmental level. NAEYC set forth to establish these guidelines and continue to reevaluate them for those in the early childhood field. You can find out more about your specific age group and their expectations by searching the NAEYC website.  http://www.naeyc.org/ How does this influence your classroom?   With each action you take in your room you should evaluate whether it is DAP or not.   While this sounds li...

Time-Out Tuesdays Each Tuesday we will take time out of the classroom to learn about each other. Hello Friends! My name is Elizabeth Merce (sounds like nurse).   I started this blog to share my love of all things related to education. I earned my Bachelor of Science from Old Dominion University in August 2008 and my Master’s of Education in May 2009, also from ODU.   Go Big Blue! I have taught age 3 to Kindergarten.    I was encouraged to teach continuing education courses at my facility which led to my relationship with non-profits in my area where I now teach for early educators in my region.   I am active with my local NAEYC chapter, SEAEYC.   I have taught at our SEAEYC conference, Raising the Bar every year since 2010 and at VAECE each year since 2011. Looking for new challenges I began teaching at Tidewater Community College in Fall 2013.   I love looking at the connection between brain development and classroom practice and I ho...