Final Refelction

My reflection to the blog responses here

After reading the responses I got from Tegan, Tiffney and Jodine.  I have learnt a few flaws in myself like not being able to talk to staff members about what I am doing when doing a experience with children.  Because they are paid staff members and I am a student I don't feel i have a place to be verbal about not interfering with learning, but because i couldn't do this, it happened and no-one really learnt from it apart from me now understanding to actually talk to all the staff members about experiences i am creating or doing with children.  So I do thank Tegan for bringing that to my attention and i have been more vocal about different learning experiences i have been doing with the children.  I do like the idea of a transition wall, and did find out they kind of already do one but it’s the teachers putting photos of in the hallway showing parents who is going over to the over twos and what they have been doing there, and skyping hasn't been an option since they are only next door.  

For technology in the under twos area it seems teachers are very strict on not letting the children get hold of the I-pads as they are worried it will get broken.  Jane who used my cell phone is no longer in the under twos along with 5 other children, they all moved over to the over twos just recently.  Staff members have approached management about more I-pads and some just for under and over but it turns out there isn’t enough money in the budget for more.  So both sides will need to share what is there already, sadly these are booked by the overs most of the time.  As for Tiffney surprised about the cell phone use, it’s allowed as long as we are using it for education, so using it for the children to listen to songs, watch songs, we can even take photos as long as we have permission from parents.  I had all the trust for Jane to use my phone as I know she uses her parents phones all the time for you-tube and listening to the frozen songs, I like to also point out that Tiffney taught me something by saying application instead of app as i actually never knew this was the actual word for app.

I have learnt to stick up with what i believe and I'm trying to bring that into my practice a lot more, I think I got a fear of it when I have tried to do something before and got told no I can’t do that because that staff member doesn’t like that kind of thing, so it put me off trying, when I know it shouldn't of.  As for the experience with Jane she was always asking for my phone to watch videos of my daughter dancing with her hip hop group, but the interest didn’t go further than that.

Blog Responses

When you click on the link, my comments will show as "time flies" not my name :)


Jodine - Entry 5

Tegan - Entry 5

Tiffney - Entry 4

Entry Five

I have observed children interested in the family photos on the wall and the broken cameras that we have around the under twos area.  So I decided to talk to the team and get the real cameras onto the tables for the children to use, taking photos of each other so we could print and put up on a wall sharing their photos with families and friends “children develop confidence in working with others to explore the environment and make sense of the social and physical world” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 98).

The children that were really interested in this type of product sadly within 10mins of the cameras going out they went over to the over twos area for transition and couldn’t investigate the cameras.  The children that were left over I waited and they didn’t seem too interested in the real cameras, the one child that did come over to the table picked up a camera and pushed a button it turned on, as soon as the camera turned on he gave it to a teacher and walked away.  I tried to engaged a few of the children to have a turn with the cameras but it didn’t seem to work, The child that gave the camera to a teacher I tried to bring back to let him know it was okay to use, but he didn’t seem to get the idea he could have a turn.

I have observed this could be the staff fault when children don’t want to give it a go as they aren’t given the opportunity to have a turn with a camera or ipad even with supervision.  The staff that took the camera knew what I was doing but didn’t seem to support it.  I find it really hard to understand as staff use the cameras all the time to document children’s learning “educators can utilise technologies to assist with the observation and documentation of children’s experiences” (Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett & Farmer, 2005, p. 214).

Sadly with me being ill I didn’t have much more time to try again or a different approach to it and the children that were really interested in the photos and cameras had gone over for transition or were not there on the day.  It does show me that the children don’t get to use technology in the under twos area very often and I feel we need to start encouraging it.

References

Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Death, E., Dockett, S., & Farmer, S. (2005). Programming and planning in early childhood settings (3^rd  ed.). Victoria, Australia: Thomson. 

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.  

Entry Four

Entry four

While in our centre we have lots of broken technology the children use them as they are real, taking photos and then looking back at the screen to see what they have taken and then showing the teachers the photos they took.  While the children get to use the real cameras at times with a teacher holding it this doesn’t give the children their full ability on what they can do with technology.  I had my phone in my pocket and pulled it out for one of the children that were still awake (we will call her Jane and she is two). 

Jane knew how to turn my phone on (I put in the password), as I observed Jane she seemed to have very high digital literacy and knew what she was doing when she was scrolling through the phone.  Jane found the app that has the galley of photos and understood when going into that how to scroll through the photos on my phone and when she came across a video knew how to get that to play.  I kept observing Jane, knowing there wasn’t much she could do to hurt my phone she clicked out of the photos and started moving the screen to the side where she found an app I guess she recognised from home life.  Jane found the Youtube app and clicked into that telling me “bus”, so I helped her writing in “wheels on the bus” and she then found the video she wanted and started singing and dancing with the song “children use a variety of technologies for different purposes as they explore their world” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 98).

I noticed that Jane was very interested in the phone, we do have ipads in the centre but they are mainly used for the 3-4 year olds.  When we have them in the under two area they are turned onto Youtube for dancing and singing and the children can watch but can’t touch them.  We need to look into this a bit more and start letting under twos have more exploration to the ipads with the games, with so many children using parents phones, tablets and ipads at home they have good digital knowledge and with Stephen & Plowman (2013) saying this helps with children’s development learning, social and cultural awareness we should promote children in using technology instead of teachers controlling it.  Te Whāriki says that toddlers need to explore their world with what they can have access to, it says books and pictures about their everyday world but technology is now becoming part of their world a lot faster as they understand it and know how to work it faster than adults can.

With this experience watching Jane with my phone, I believe they need the ipads to be available to the toddlers to use with adult supervision but they are so competent with technology and great at exploring their world.   Having technology more accessible for them will benefit them for the world we are now living in.


References

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media. 

Stephen, C. & Plowman, L. (2013). Digital technologies, play, and learning. Early Childhood Folio,                17(2), 3-8.

Entry Three

Children experience a different world to where I was a child.  Children now have technology and this is their world, it is what they are brought up in and what they know and understand.  So children understand it better than most adults and this influences children in different ways.

Tsantis, Bewick & Thouvenelle (2003) state that using technology in childcare centres is teaching them basic computer skills before getting to school, it is about the information the children can source and along with Bolstad (2004) they say this helps with language development and when working in pairs helps them learn about turn taking and decision making.  Stephen & Plowman (2015) also states that children are developing their cognitive development learning, social and cultural awareness while using technology.  This all happens when children have good support behind them when staff have knowledge and depends on the staffs own confidence with technology and their own beliefs around technology.

Bolstad (2004) says technology has an effect on people and the environment that surround the children learning, providing collaboration, co-operation and positive learning experiences.  “Children experience an environment where they are encouraged to learn with and alongside others” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.70) this can include parents like Bers, New & Boudreau (2004) says learning experiences for parents and children together on technology and when in childcare centres children mirror home-life (Stephen & Plowman, 2013) and bring what they know into the centre.  Bolstad (2004) also states with scaffolding of a teacher technology can benefit children with special learning needs, “children experience an environment where they learn strategies for active exploration, thinking and reasoning” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.88).

So with all that said, technology has a place in childcare centres providing it is used correctly and staff have an understanding on how it works, children can develop good thinking with technology and learn to work alongside others for team work and parents for more learning.  Technology can help with language development.  Technology is a great way to help children move forward and with staff scaffolding them with what they know and what they don’t know getting them to learn more they will be up with technology that will be used at school, having those basic skills of ICT. 

References

Bers, M., New, R., & Boudreau, L. (2004). Teaching and learning when no one is expert: Children and parents explore technology.  Early Childhood Research & Practice, 6(2). Available at http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v6n2/bers.html

Bolstad, R. (2004). The role and potential of ICT in early childhood education: A review of New Zealand and international literature. Wellington: New Zealand Council of Educational Research.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media. 

Stephen, C. & Plowman, L. (2013). Digital technologies, play, and learning. Early Childhood Folio, 17(2), 3-8. 

Tsantis, L., Bewick, C., & Thornton, S. (2003). Examining some common myths about computers in the early years. Young Children on the Web, November 2003, 1-9.

Entry one

When I think about people, places, things and events, I think about what can affect children’s lives.  The different people that come and go in a children lift can cause a lot of distress and lack of understanding causing children to blame themselves or blame others around them.  As a young child I never understood why my dad was sent away until I was much older in my teenager years.  With my situation now with my husband and I splitting; I watch my children go through this spilt with lack of understanding on what is happening and blaming me for everything they are going through.  As I know it’s just a feeling for them explaining to them over and over again that’s its no-ones fault they seem to be making better adjustments but don’t like me leaving or going anywhere overnight as this starts setting off a feeling I won’t be back.  This can affect children’s behaviour according to Bronfenbrenner’s (Berk, 2003) microsystem on the ecological system.

Places can have an impact on children, new places can scare or worry children along with things; I class things as items that don’t move items you can’t see like a pregnant mum (the unborn child).  At the moment we have a child who developed a fear of others coming into the centre he used to be fine.  A few months later mum told us she was five months pregnant and we started to understand he was getting those feelings, something was different and started to cling to mum not wanting to let her go, he will cry most of the day by the door wanting his mum and his days at centre have since been cut.

I believe myself events whether good or bad have a huge impact on children, as growing up I had a bad experience in childhood which held onto me for years and still does, it’s the reason I became an early childhood educator, but in saying that it taught me I’m strong and I can get through anything that is thrown at me.  “A child’s mind at birth is like blank slate and it is shaped by forces of nurture and experiences faced after birth” (Talay-Ongan, 2005, p.2), this to me gives me the understanding of no matter the experience, negative or positive it shapes who you are, of course you can change that with learning more things and understanding the world.

Popular culture now is about technology the devices like tablets, I-pad, phones, and computers.  Children now days know how to work these items faster than an adult learning about this world where as children now days are brought into this world with devices all around them.  Technology has creative a new way of communication for children and this gives them a different type of play, they have their play off devices and then adult world which is on devices, children seem to know more than adults when on these devices (Fleer & Jane, 2011).  I believe devices can be a good education tool as for my son who races BMX loves going onto youtube to watch other BMX riders so he can learn more about his bike and how he can get a better racing stance.

References

Berk, L. (2003). Development through the lifespan (3^rd ed). Boston, New York: Pearson

Fleer, M., & Jane, B. (2011). Design and technology for children. Frenchs Forest, Australia: Pearson                Australia. 

Talay-Ongan, A., & Ap, E. A. (Eds.). (2005). Child development and teaching young children. Southbank, Australia: Thomson Social Science Press.  

Entry Two

My centre is a Reggio Emilia centre where more natural colours and items are being used each day.  I don’t know much about the planning that happens for the children in the under twos area as I am not part of the planning part of the week.  But when I am sitting down with the children they are learning so much with lots of different skills, as they are under two they are learning new skills at a very fast rate.

I support children’s learning in the area of social sciences by teaching them that there are different cultures in our community by using different languages around the children with the English word as-well so they learn that there is more languages out there in the world not just English and Te Reo since we are a multi-cultural centre.  While out in the garden we learn that pulling all the plants out isn’t good for the environment but if we water them enough for them to grow and with the sunshine we will end up with yummy vegetables for lunches, we have a few children in our area that love the hose and to fill that love with the hose we let them water the plants, not only do they feel accomplished that they got the hose but they are also helping the environment and feeding the plants (Ministry of Education, 2007) “Working together helps children develop confidence in their ability to develop relationships with others” (Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 94).

In our centre we encourage children to be a part of different culture celebrations; we celebrate Matariki for Māori week with art work, and words of the week teaching staff, parents and the children simple words each week.  They participate in the cultural settings that we are doing such as lights of festival, when we bring in holi power and paint each other’s faces “children are helped to participate in social and cultural settings, demonstrating consideration for others through qualities such as caring, fairness, tolerance, and generosity” (Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 95) the children learn to also take turns when we are doing painting of faces.


With learning alongside the children and using Te Reo in the centre we have a board up for a word a week which can last a couple of weeks, this word is changed when the children start saying it and understanding what it is they are saying.  This started with the word pātara which is bottle and an important word for toddlers when asking for their bottles.  Nāpu for nappy which we have noticed children saying nāpu and tapping the back of their nappies which tells us they understand the word we are using this gives them another way to communicate with staff “as children’s abilities to communicate develop, they are able to form good relationships with others and participate constructively in a range of social and cultural settings” (Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 97).

References

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media. 

Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning                Media