Courtney's Blog

     I enjoyed reading through Vivian Paley's book because it reminded me of how significant play and observations can be within the classroom. I liked how the book gave examples of conversations and interactions between the children and teacher. Something as simple as actively listening to a child and allowing them to take control of what they're doing/talking about can be very beneficial. Educators can get to know children while building off of their interests and expanding their inquiry by having in depth discussions. I believe that this provides educators with the ability to make observations, get an idea of where a child is at developmentally and plan their classroom environment/lesson plans in order to support the children's needs.      I think that this book was selected for us to read because it supports the fact that educators don't have to use a written standardized assessment in order to understand where their students are at. There are many dif...

“He’d ask a question or make a casual observation, then repeat each comment and hang on to it until a link could be established to a previous statement. He and the children were constructing paper chains of ideas, factual and magical, and Bill supplied the glue.” (Paley, 1988) I think that this is an important thing that I have learned as an educator. We may not realize that we are expecting children to respond and react in a “correct” type of fashion. If we are searching or fishing for a particular answer/behavior, this limits the children. They may not end up saying what we expect them to which can hinder the learning process and potential ongoing conversation. “I paid attention only long enough to adapt their words to my plans.” (Paley, 1988) By doing so, it halts the discussion and keeps it within certain boundaries that you as an educator have set. I believe it takes a lot of practice, time and self reflecting for an educator to make these types of changes within their classr...

There are certain things in the world that are very controversial subjects, education is definitely one of them. With so many varying perspectives, expectations, guidelines and approaches, it’s no wonder that people clash and differ in their thoughts. I have used Pearson products for schooling in the past but I never really looked into details about the company. It’s interesting that they originally started off as a construction company and then began to branch off into many other areas. I think that making the decision to invest and expand within the education field was a very smart business move for Pearson. Things such as education, medical and food will always be in high demand by people everywhere. As the video mentions, it’s easy to sell toothpaste but education is something that people really care about and have all kinds of strong opinions towards. It’s pretty amazing that Pearson has expanded so much over the years. They have “developed a vertical” and became involved w...

One of the major things that stood out to me while looking through the WSS and Teaching Strategies website, is that the assessments have a “not yet” section for each developmental area/objective. I think that this is something important to have and makes it more user/parent friendly. This indicates that the child is simply not exhibiting the objective yet, but their skills are emerging. This is something that an educator can support a child with in order to strengthen and improve these skills. Whereas the screener testing examples have an “OK” or “Potential Delay” scoring. Using the term “Potential Delay” on a single assessment isn’t something that I would feel comfortable with as an educator. T he article Moving Forward With Kindergarten Assessment Efforts states that “ It is important, however, to understand that a single assessment instrument cannot, and should not, be used to meet all of the child, instructional, policy, programmatic, and accountability purposes a ...

Aloha everyone! My name is Courtney and I am pursuing my Bachelor's degree in ECED. I expect to graduate next semester. I am from Kaua'i and have been teaching for the past 7 years at various different preschools. I am currently a Teacher/Site Coordinator with the Keiki Steps Program (Inpeace Hawai'i). We are a free parent participation preschool program that serves families with keiki from 0-5 years old. We conduct daily observations, create child portfolio's and have assessments that differ depending on the child's age. Such as the ounce scale, P4 Standards, ASQ's and PPVT's.  I have a daughter who is almost 4 years old and I am also expecting another daughter to arrive next month! :) I am eager to see how this semester goes and what we can all learn from one another. Good luck to everyone!