Module 3 Interactions and Observations

I have observed all of the classrooms in Amity Learning Center. The center has children from birth through age five all day and then two school age classrooms that have children from five through age twelve. In the center I noticed that all of the birth through five classrooms post weekly lessons and all of the lessons posted relate to the Illinois Early Learning Standards. Each classroom maintains portfolios for each child and each teacher collects information for the portfolios on a continuous basis. Considering one of my topics of my research paper is using reliable assessments I wanted to see how the teachers were performing assessments. I also learned that each classroom conducts developmental checklists on each child and relate their planing to the goals that the children need to meet. I feel that this demonstrates exactly how assessments should be used to guide the planning. I also discussed the qualifications of the teachers with each teacher and have discussed this with the program director in a previous interview that I have posted. All of the teachers feel that while being a qualified teacher takes knowledge in Early Childhood Education it also takes continuous education. All of the teachers in the birth through three program all underwent training for Creative Curriculum last year to make a switch from the High Scope Curriculum. The Creative Curriculum is what made the individual child portfolios necessary. The teachers also are about to undergo training for the Teaching Strategies Gold On-line Portfolio System which is an outcome based portfolio system, that can be accessed by a curriculum coordinator to assure that all the assessments are being logged for each child and that all children who need services receive referrals. I like that this center continues to move forward with technology, continues to train the teachers, and finds the most reliable forms of assessment. During my observations of the preschool program I noted that the teacher has planned conferences with the parents. Iasked her what they were going to discuss, and she said that the first conference is based on goal planning for each child, that way they can base instruction off of the goals each child needs to meet. I observed the classrooms carrying out some of thier plans and conducting observations for the portfolios. I love how the assesments are continuos. For example: in one of the classrooms the children were going over letters at circle time, and during this lesson one teacher is holding up letters and calling on children while the other teacher was writing notes about the answers.  I think that this observation really allowed me to see how observation tools are used and how important it is to keep continuously updating and trainnig the teachers to provide a quality edcuation. This center is a great place to observe when I coonsider my topic of how important Early Childhood Programs are for children to be prepared for Kindergarten.