My Journey as a Future Educator - Essay Example

My Journey as a Future Educator For weeks before my placement, I’ve nurtured mixed feelings about my new endeavour, being a teacher’s assistant to a Year 1 class of 5-7 year old children. I looked forward to being with young ones and felt ready to impart whatever wisdom I could share, envisioning that I will be an admired and respected new adult addition to their class. I read voraciously about child care and development and how children at this particular age behaved and the skills that they are already able to do. I’ve daydreamed about being the center of attention, providing the fun learning activities that would keep the children coming back for more. I knew it would be a piece of cake because I’ve always been good with kids. As my first day as a teacher’s assistant approached, my self-confidence took a huge dip. I felt so nervous, as I watched children in playground in the school I’ve passed on my way home one day. The children I’ve estimated to be in the age group I will be working with seemed so intimidating all of a sudden. The older ones would climb to the highest point of the tower in the play equipment, flailing their arms ignoring the adults’ warnings way below them on the ground. I thought these children were fearless! Suddenly, I was afraid for myself. I guess it won’t be a piece of cake after all. My initial observation inspired me to turn to more studying about children at this age and how I should deal with them. I read several theories about this stage. I learned that working with all children regardless of age involves many considerations. One is to see each child at his or her own developmental level and create activities and opportunities appropriate to their particular levels. The child needs to develop holistically, meaning each developmental area is given attention to so growth and development as a whole person ensues. The teacher needs careful planning and implementation of activities so that children under their care grow in all areas. The process of growth and maturity of an individual entails development in physical, cognitive, social, emotional and moral areas. Development in one area affects another. In children, this is very obvious, as they are in a stage in life when development occurs rapidly. Physically, a child’s body grows in accordance to the genetic structure he was born with. Logically, children grow bigger and taller and every year, their growth is obviously apparent in the clothes that don’t fit them anymore from a few months before, and the height and weight that drastically increased from their last doctor’s check-up. Physically, young children develop more strength as their bodies’ proportions become more adult-like. Beginnings of athletic skills such as running, jumping and hopping are manifested. Fine motors skills, such as writing and drawing, develop slowly Their motor skills also develop in accordance to their developmental needs. This means, the older they get, the more things they are expected to do, so they develop physical skills to be able to do such tasks. Intelligence is another area where one grows over time. I learned that by the time a child steps into the early childhood stage, his brain has attained 90% of its adult weight by age 5 (Developmental Stages, 2011). This develops faster than any other body part. Jean Piaget, among others, has outlined a remarkable framework in the cognitive development of a person and describes each stage. Five to seven year old children belong to Piaget’s Preoperational Period. This marks the time when a child becomes able to represent objects and knowledge through imitation, symbolic play, drawing, mental images and spoken language. Lack of conservation skills is also characteristic of this stage. “Conservation is defined as the knowledge that the number, mass, area, length, weight, and volume of objects are not changed by physically rearranging the objects.” (Brewer, 2001, p. 58). The seven year olds are actually in transition to the next cognitive stage which is the Concrete Operational Period. Primary school children at this age begin to think more operationally. Piaget and Inhelder (1969) described the operational thinker as one who employs “identity or reversibility by inversion or reciprocity” (p.99) in solving problems. They have moved on from being egocentric and consider that others may come to conclusions that differ from theirs. Young children think in concrete terms, but begin to use mental representations and symbols. However, fantasy and reality still gets blurred together in their minds, and ideas about the world may continue to be illogical. They hone their ideas from social interactions with their parents and playmates. Their language skills rapidly develop, gaining, on the average a 14,000- word vocabulary and extensive grammatical knowledge by the time they reach 6 years of age (Developmental Stages, 2011). They learn to adjust their communication efforts to their audience.  Socially, Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages propose that in each stage of a person’s life, he encounters various conflicts that pertain to their developmental stage. For children aged three to six, they fall under the Initiative vs. Guilt stage. In this stage, preschoolers are so into doing things on their own and showing everyone how much they have grown in many ways. Thus, they initiate help. However, at this stage, children may be awkward, and their good intentions may backfire as in destroying some things in the process. When this happens, they are overcome with guilt (Brewer, 2001). The next psychosocial stage for school-aged children, which includes the six and seven year olds in class may already belong to the Industry vs. Inferiority stage. Children at this stage juggle multiple tasks to meet their goals: expansion of understanding of the world, development of appropriate gender-role identity and learning basic skills required for school success. Their task is to achieve a sense of industry. Their failure to setting and attaining personal goals in these areas results in a sense of inferiority or inadequacy (Erikson, 1963). Children’s emotional development is also linked to their moral development. A man named Kohlberg (1984) even came up with a theory of moral development based on a hypothetical moral situation calling on children’s decision-making skills, and his theories attracted much attention from moral philosophers. It was theorized that young children conceptualize morality in terms of obedience to adults’ rules and regulations. They know that it makes them good children. This is so because they think in concrete, physical, egocentric ways and their social worlds are dominated by adults. On the other hand, older children think of morality in terms of cooperation with peers because they are cognitively able to comprehend the views of others and already understand concepts such as reciprocity and cooperation because their social worlds consist mainly of interactions with peers. Kohlberg based his work on this theory of cognitive development and emphasized reasoning as the key to moral development. My readings and conversations with my colleagues have also taught me that children’s play at this stage, either alone or with others, becomes increasingly complex and imaginative. They develop a great initiative to do things, especially if they receive praise for these actions. Their increased energy makes them more daring to try out novel things. Such desire to be independent in pursuing these new discoveries and controlling their environment increases, making their parents more supervisory towards them. I’ve learned the basic things I needed to know about young children but by the time I integrated myself in the class, I felt very nervous. I never thought that some 5 – 7 year olds did not match the expectations I held of young children. On my first day, a little girl, Deanna, approached me and showed me her tied shoelaces and announced that she did the “bunny ears” all by herself. She came without any introduction and uninhibitedly talked to me. I was pleased with that, as I think it was her way of welcoming me to their class. Immediately, I was called by my supervising teacher and briefed me on the tasks I was supposed to do. She shared with me some information about the children in class that I think I needed to learn so I could deal well with each one. Sofia’s mother is expecting a baby and Sofia has been prone to crying spells lately. Randall is a picky eater and we need to work on expanding his taste in food. Nathan had special needs and has a shadow teacher that comes with him to class. As the teacher lovingly described her students, I felt that she knew each and every one of them very well. My first day went very smoothly. It was very tiring as I passed around materials, constantly answered questions of curious children, supervised children’s play in the playground during recess and told a story to two children with puppets. I was rewarded for my efforts by a little boy named Chester when he handed me a drawing of a car that he said was mine so I could drive it home. I’ve kept that child’s drawing to remind me of how much joy teaching little children is no matter how difficult it may be. The following days were more challenging. Sofia got into fights all the time and when she did not get her way, would burst into tears. I would take her in my arms and comfort her and choose a specific story that she may like. It was amusing how she loved “The New Baby” by Mercer Meyer. I think she related to the character who suddenly became a big brother because of his new baby sister. I believe she found a way to understand some feelings she had inside through the story. I guess she felt that pretty soon, she will not be the star in the family anymore and will be “dethroned” by the new baby in her mother’s womb. Leon figured in an accident that resulted in a big gash on his knee and a bump on his head. He cried for a while but then stopped when one teacher handed him an ice lolly. I actually panicked! First aid and dealing with physically hurt children were things I was not able to read about in my job preparation! His very able and experienced teacher took over and administered first aid while cooing some words of comfort while instilling a lesson to be more careful next time. The lesson I learned for myself was not to panic or to show that I was out of control with fear or else the children would do the same. Over the days, I’ve encountered ups and downs but I consider them all learning opportunities. I realized that teaching is not at all easy, and requires much passion, dedication, creativity and patience. Relating with children is just one aspect of the work. The teacher does so much more than just play with them. She prepares a developmentally-appropriate curriculum to suit their learning needs and to ensure that they grow and develop in all areas and in all subject matters. My supervisory teacher is very efficient and inspirational. I am fortunate to be working with her and learning heaps from her example. She would direct me to helpful material when we come up with curriculum for the children. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS, 2007) is a resource for early childhood care and education practitioners to support the needs of young children under their care. It sets standards for learning, development and care for children up to five years of age. Although we handle children in Year 1, it is helpful to refer to EYFS because it provides a wide variety of information on child development to help practitioners understand how children grow and what they need to help them optimize their potentials. The use of this resource will effectively enable educational settings to meet the key outcomes outlined in Every Child Matters and to ensure that high quality service is provided to the children. As I have learned early on, caring for all children regardless of age involves many considerations. One is to see each child at his or her own developmental level and create activities and opportunities appropriate to their particular levels. The child needs to develop holistically, meaning each developmental area is given attention to so growth and development as a whole person ensues. The specific areas of learning and development, as identified in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) are: Personal, social and emotional development; Communication, language and literacy; Problem-solving, reasoning and numeracy; Knowledge and understanding of the world; Physical development and Creative development (EYFS, 2008) These are all linked together, as in development in one area affects the others. The practitioner needs careful planning and implementation of activities so that children under their care grow in all areas. This is very much like Gardner’s (1983) multiple intelligences. For teachers, knowing the special intelligences of their students will enable them to adjust their teaching methodology accordingly. EYFS’s theme of positive relationships enables children to grow up in environments that make them feel love and security from their homes or learning environments, making them grow up to be self-confident, self-propelling people. The theme of provision of enabling environments for children play a key role in helping and guiding children in growing to be capable individuals. This entails a practitioner’s keen observation of each child, as to his or her interests, skills, personality traits, etc. and get cues from the children themselves as to how they would like their learning to be structured. Play offers many benefits that foster children’s learning. It engages the mind to actively imagine various scenarios for fun or for problem-solving. Children learn better in play-like settings because they retain concepts better when learned in the spirit of fun. They enjoy competitive games in testing their stock knowledge and even simulate game shows they watch on television in reviewing certain academic concepts. Such cognitive benefits extend to their real lives as they make decisions, compare and contrast things, use their imaginations and thinking critically and creatively. In the matter of addressing the key outcomes identified by Every Child Matters, EYFS (2007) is likewise very much concerned in the well-being of children and attempt to pursue its goals of keeping children healthy, safe, happy and capable, and being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and achieve economic well-being by not going hungry, unclothed or unsheltered. That is why its advocacy is to uphold the best interests of children. These five outcomes go for all children regardless of their background or circumstances. The outcomes are mutually reinforcing, as when one outcome is met, the others are more likely to follow. For instance, young people learn better when they are healthy and safe. Also, education is the best route out of poverty (HM Government, 2007). My most unforgettable experience with the children I work with was our trip to the zoo. I was in charge of looking after 4 children. At first, I expected it to be stressful since out of the 4, the 3 may be considered some of the most rambunctious children in school. However, gaining confidence from my experiences as a teacher’s assistant, coupled with my studies in child development, I was able to manage them well that our small group was the most engaged and cohesive group in the trip. They would point out to some animals or some quirky behaviours they found funny, and I would try to explain to them what they observed. We joked a lot and playfully walked together, never getting distracted by other misbehaving children. All in all, my colourful journey in learning to be a teacher of young children helped me arrive at my decision of pursuing a career in education. On top of all the hard work and stress that comes with the job, is the fulfilment of helping parents raise children to the kind of persons they could be, as they are so full of promise at this young age. Touching their lives has been so rewarding, as they have touched mine so much more. References Brewer, J. (2001) Introduction to early childhood education. Allyn & Bacon. Developmental Stages. Retrieved on November 27, 2009 from http://www.learner.org/discoveringpsychology/development/13_15.html Gardner, H.,(1983) Frames of Mind: the theory of multiple intelligences London: Heinemann HM Government (2007) “Statutory guidance on making arrangements to Safeguard and promote the welfare of children under section 11 of the Children Act 2004” Every Child Matters Change for Children. London: Department for Education and Skills Kohlberg, L. (1984). Essays in moral development: Vol. 2. The psychology of moral development. New York: Harper & Row. Piaget, J. & Inhelder, B. (1969) The Psychology of the Child. New York: Basic Books The Early Years Foundation Stage, (2007) Effective practice: Play and Exploration © Crown Read More