Change is Coming-What does this mean for Head Start?

New Brief: Reforming Head Start | NewAmerica.net

Assessment: To use or not use the Teaching Strategies Gold?

Today I was given the opportunity to be a part of a focused discussion regarding local EC programs' assessment use. This was because many local programs have been reevaluating their use of the Teaching Strategies Gold tool. Our team was invited to share our use of the Teaching Strategies Gold as an authentic assessment tool and its online tool's capability to provide reports which we use to generate data that identifies students needing  tier one, two and three RtI support and interventions.

I'd like to hear if what anyone who is using the Teaching Strategies Gold tool finds beneficial and/or challenging?

And if you are wondering, our program does use the whole Teaching Strategies Gold assessment - meaning we take observations on all the objectives and indicators. However, we have chosen to keep our portfolios offline.

A Few of My Favorite Parenting Sites That EC Smarts Might Enjoy As Well

As EC professionals, it is so important to remember our responsibilities to not only educating young children, but also families.

By educating, I mean spreading the word about the importance of early education, play, what quality programming means and developmentally appropriate practice. Helping parents understand the relationship between classroom activities and their impact on children's development will encourage parental involvement and also their engagement at home with their child.

Currently, I've had the opportunity to research several parenting blogs and many provide great ideas for activities to do with children but also integrate concepts like the arts, science and more.

Take a look at how these parents communicate with not only one another but also are actively participating in their child's development by providing awesome activities at home. For those of us without children, its good to keep insight....we aren't good teachers if we don't open ourselves up to learning something everyday!


Play Activities
The Artful Parent
5 Minutes for Special Needs
Unplug Your Kids
Not-Quite Crunchy Parent
Thinking Outside the Recipe and The Wondershop

Now, these are just a few of my favorites...I'm sure I share more later. Do you have any favorite blogs?

Cool Mom Talking About Separation

Just wanted to share this book, I recently came about by Nancy Balaban. It's called Everyday Goodbyes. The reason? Well, its for those of you teachers or parents who have been in the same issue as Cool Mom. Separation can be tough (if you've been there, you know it). However, I and other bloggers shared our best material with her and it sounds like it has worked.

Check out the book...it's a keeper.

You've Got to Be Kidding Me!

Can anyone tell me why early childhood (and I mean all the way through 2nd grade) students should even have to worry about "homework" beyond play and exploration of their world?

Read this: Homework for Preschoolers?

Think About the Message This Sends to The Child: You've Been Kicked Out of Preschool

Have you ever been witness to a child in your class or center being kicked out? What was the reason?

I'm a firm believer that its a lack of teacher support and education that leads to preschool expulsion--its never the child's fault. Never. Read this: Kicked Out of Preschool?

The number of preschool expulsions and corporal punishment usage is a PLEA to our governments to increase professional development/education training for teachers AND create a efficient model of quality control that ensures quality in EC programs.

Where's Waldorf in EC?

During my graduate work, a woman in my class introduced the ideas of Waldorf education to me. She had mentioned that she was interested in teaching in a Waldorf school and that she really felt passionate about their curriculum.

My reaction? What in the world is Waldorf?

However, after some investigation throughout the years I learned quite a bit about the curriculum. While I stress I have never taught in a Waldorf classroom, I must say there is quite a bit to like about the curriculum in terms of its commitment to individualized lesson planning, integration of nature throughout, and rejection of high-stakes testing, negative discipline and ignoring of a child's interests and feelings.

You might be saying to yourself---"yeah, but that's not going to work where I teach." I agree, public schools (where I worked an Integrated EC classroom), child care preschools, and other early childhood programs might not be able or ready to take on such an intense of a program like the one Waldorf education provides.

HOWEVER--We can take pieces from this model to improve what is there already!

Here's just a few things I took from the Waldorf curriculum:

• cooking activities that I planned based on some of the children's interests/ideas from conversations in the classroom (and yes, they did actually cook and cut vegetables)
• domestic tasks related to the upkeep of the classroom and classroom pets (yes, I had pets), including washing the dishes after we cooked
• art activities that children can imitate (weaving, "sewing" (we used plastic needles and yarn through plastic/nylon netting), painting with tempura, fingerpaints, watercolors, mud and water, etc.)
• gardening (we planted fall mums outside and pumpkins/squash the first week of class and by the first week of october had a great patch), we also did flowers in the spring
• meditating on seasons instead of holidays--I know this is an adjustment for some teachers and some parents, but I'm passionate about this topic.

**By the way, this doesn't mean you tell children "shhh" if they mention they sat on Santa's lap over the weekend (we talked about holidays when the children mentioned them all the time). But...it does mean instead of making cut and paste Christmas trees, we made evergreen smelly jars and hot cocoa with peppermint sticks.

Does anyone else know anything about Waldorf education they might want to share? Any ideas on how to incorporate some of the ideas from Waldorf classrooms into a public school or child care EC classroom?

Obama's Plan for PK

Do you know what your candidate's plan for PK is?

Barack Obama has a full plan for the education system that includes PK-12. Although I am an advocate for Obama, I am more an advocate for everyone to ensure they really get to know the candidates before they make their own decision. Research the candidates and what their own plans are. If you are interested, below you will find Barack Obama's memo/plan for Early Childhood (PK) and a link to his full education plan (PK-12).

"Expand Early Childhood Education: Research shows that many low-income children do not enter kindergarten ready to learn. In fact, half of low-income children start school up to two years behind their peers in preschool skills, and these early achievement gaps continue throughout elementary school. Barack Obama supports increasing funding for the Head Start program to provide preschool children with critically important learning skills, and supports the necessary role of parental involvement in the success of Head Start."

http://obama.3cdn.net/a8dfc36246b3dcc3cb_iem6bxpgh.pdf