This reflection shows that as a teacher I am willing to question the effectiveness of how I do my mat times and constantly evalute myself and the methods I use to teach the children so as to achieve the desired goals. I would demonstrate the actions by using movement, changing the tone of my voice, gesture and facial expression as we read the story together. This helped me to communicate clearly to the children and can be a particularly effective way to build toddlers language competence and to help non- English speaking children with acquistion of English as a second language.

In this learning story I demonstrated that I can support children to create an environment of respect and understanding by encouraging the other child to listen to what her friend was saying so that they could accomplish one thing.

15 February 2011

Morena Sandy,

This morning we sat down and reviewed your Teacher Registration folder, looked at how you are collating data, evidence and how you in turn are articulating your growth and development as a teacher.
Sandy you have very easily been able to complile a large number of observations, reflections and documentation that track your journey as a new teacher. These range from teaching experiences, practice and knowledge to reflections on how you would alter your practice in the future.
Collating and identifying this data is a strenght Sandy- you are able to see that all the work completed in the classroom on a daily basis can easily be transfered and this used as ongoing documentation of your evolving practice.

Sandy in order to make your journey easier to track, we talked about making your linking statements clear and precise. At the current time you tend to use alot of jargon that unfortunatley looses your voice- and the meaning you are trying to put forward.

Sandy our immediate goals for the next 2 months include tidying up your linking statements and labels. You have completed alot of work to date- a tidying up af labels and statements will allow you and your supportive network to identify those dimensions already achieved and those that are still work in progress.

We will have another meeting in April- and which time we will look at those areas that need support.

Keep up the great work.
Joann

Professional Leadership (26)- Displays ethical behaviour and responsibility.

I displayed ethical behaviour and responsibility by being honest.

07 Professional Practice-In this reflection I showed how I used Demyan's language to describe to him things he didn't understand in English so as to make him settle in toddler room. This facilitated a sense of welcome for Demyan. Early childhood education and programmes should be inclusive even for children who come from a non English speaking background. Therefore by involving Demyan in the programmes especially mat times allowed him to be involved and learn English through action songs. By using visual cues and gestures alongside words in action songs assisted Demyan to acquire English as a second language.

27 Professional Leadership- By having an environment that facilitated Demyan's learning and also the mat times supported this diversity. Demyan attended Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Mondays were my mat time days so I would use more action songs to facilitate his involvement in mat time.

Professional leadership(28)- I participated in "Personality Plus Profile",which was a professional development workshop that touched on four characteristics, mainly the powerful,playful, precise and peaceful.Coming from a different cultural background, having grown up in different environments,this workshop helped me understand and relate well with my colleagues in the context of our working environments. We also had a meeting as a team and we discussed how we can encourage each other on the good aspects of our characters. We came up with the idea of "fazzy jars" where we put good comments for each other and at the end of the week each reads comments from her "fazzy jar". I liked this idea as it serves as some kind of "reinforcement " of good personality.