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2. I observed the Oak Trees (ages 4-5) class at the Little Acorns Early Learning Center in

Potomac MD inside the Potomac Community Center at 11315 Falls Rd. Potomac MD, 20854.

Their phone number is (301) 983-4372. There was a 2:12 children ratio, and sometimes a 3:12

ratio when a teacher went on break or took turns coming to different classrooms. For example,

when the classroom teacher went on her lunch break or told the children to come to circle time,

another teacher from the older classroom would come in and help clean up while circle time

was going on. The teacher has a double major in early childhood education and child

development from Towson University, and is taking classes at Montgomery College as well. As

part of my observation methods and information gathering, I talked to the teachers in the

classroom. I emailed their administration and went on their website to find out more

information, as well as talking to some of the parents. Watching how the teachers interacted

with the parents as they came in and dropped off children.

I followed the three observation guidelines : Practice “intensive waiting”, become “part

scientists”, and engage in “slowing down.” For intensive waiting, I would see what the children

wanted to do when they took out the tape measure, and see what they would measure. For

example, at first I thought that they wanted to measure the height of the bookshelf or how tall

the easel was. Instead, the children laid it flat on the ground and each child took turns

measuring themselves and how tall they were in a group. Once the child had finished

measuring themselves and their classmates had read out the numbers, they went to a height

chart and marked how tall they were on that chart. The second observation guide line is

“Become ’part scientist’” where the children learn through touch and experimenting. Last

Friday when I was there, the children were measuring vegetables and different objects around

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the room and after measuring how long some vegetables and desserts were read me the

numbers instead of guessing how long each toy was. The third observation guideline was

“Engage in ‘slowing down’”, and I could see each teacher thinking about what station to put

each child at. For example, the children who had been measuring themselves earlier were sent

to the station to measure fruits and vegetables, those who were playing with beads were sent

to the paint station to work on letters, and a science station was opened up to see how vinegar

and salt could clean up dirty coins. At the end of the stations, the children were gathered into

circle time and asked what they had learned so far that, and reviewed letters and numbers. The

next week I went, the children who had showed interest in the arts and crafts were at the

easels and working with beads while the children who were playing with the measuring tapes

were measuring different items around the room and telling the first adult they saw how long

each toy or item was.

For each of the guidelines of being unobtrusive, objective, and confidential I did not take

part in any activity except watching the children take part in activities and talking to the

teachers when they had free time, or going to the book corner and watching the teachers. For

being objective, I saw how each teacher had their own role to play. Because there is no one

teacher for the children, there would be one teacher and two supporting teachers for the

younger children that just moved up, and they would take turns teaching. For being objective, I

would talk to the teachers privately and ask how to handle each child differently, since some

children are more playful or sensitive or act out more. Forb being confidential, I did not talk

about the students or teachers to anyone or what they had done that day.

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3. The teacher’s tone of voice towards the children was admonishing at times when they

weren’t behaving or listening to what they were doing, and at other times understanding and

explanatory when doing science experiments. Her facial expressions was always happy and

smiling towards the children, especially during circle time and when singing. She also used a lot

of body gestures-for example, when we were singing about the best part of our day so far, she

would point her entire body towards the child or adult in question and wait however long when

needed for the child to answer. If the child took a long time to answer, she would give clues

about what they liked so far, when they came in, what station they were at earlier, and so on.

The teacher would call circle time twice before lunch, once to review what the weather was like

outside, what day of the week it was and the date, and to send the child to different stations.

The first example when using body gestures was when she would ask a child to do the weather

spinner or asking them questions she would point her entire body towards them. She would

wait a few seconds to decide, and once the child had gotten the weather and shown on the

spinner that shows different weathers she would sing to “BINGO” with sign language to spell

out the weather (There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name, oh! B-I-N-G-O

(repeated as necessary).

The second example was before lunchtime, where she would question the children on

what stations they had last been at and what they had learned there. Other times, another

teacher would take half of the group outside and engage in physical activity in the halls while

the other half worked on mentally engaging activities, and in thirty minutes or s o she would

switch groups. At the end, she would call circle time and ask them what they did while she was

gone and what they learned and what parts of the body were used. When questioning, she

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would keep her tone light and respectful, and the kids would respond eagerly. All the teachers

would use a lot of body gestures when demonstrating what to do with the physical activity such

as jumping around or stretching to the children and the children would follow her examples.

However, there were sometimes where the children would not behave or listen, and she would

call circle time and explain what was wrong with their behavior and how they should act in a

manner that didn’t sound condescending or patronizing to the children. The children did learn

from her tone and the way she acted, which was sterner than they were used to and behaved

better after the talk.

4. The teacher has excellent communication skills with the children with the way she listens,

responds, and converses with the children and parents both verbally and nonverbally. One

example of her communication skills with the children was when a child started crying while

she was helping the four other children make a book and listening and responding to his words.

When the child was crying she called him over to her, knelt down and hugged him while

listening to his complaint about what happened at the center he was at. At the same time. She

was telling the students at the round table what book they were making today. Since they were

learning about the “-ug” family they made books with words that end in “-ug” and would

converse with them about how many words end with “-ug” and how often we would see them

in life. After teling the children what they would be doing with the books she would converse

with the other adults in the room while watching the children and plan out what they were

going to do after centers. She will communicate with the children nonverbally as well. One

example of this is when a student is misbehaving she will turn her entire body towards the child

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and point her finger at him and tell them to go to her, and then talk quietly and ask why they

misbehaved, and what would happen if they were caught misbehaving again.

She also has good communication skills both verbally and nonverbally with the parents

as well. One example of verbal communication with parents is when they drop off their chidren

and then she will talk with the parents about what their child was like during the week or what

they did during that week after being dropped off. For example, one of the fathers who

dropped his son off was wearing flip-flops, and she joked that he was ready for summer while

his sons were ready for winter. After dropping off his sons, they started talking about where

they would like to go on vacation or what they would do during the summer. The teacher also

communicates nonverbally with the parents as well. For example, when parents are dropping

off their children and the children sometimes forget to bring things home, she will get the items

and hand it to the parents, silently telling them that they need to take it home, and what that

particular item was used for in class.

5. The teacher would interact and play with children through science experiments,

reading to them and asking them to sit down on a specific spot during circle time. One example

is that last week we experimented on how vinegar and salt could clean dirty coins up. Once the

vinegar, salt, and dirty coins had been set up at the station, she had the children sniff the

vinegar, describe its smell, and asked them why the vinegar had such a strong smell. She also

had the children guess what the vinegar was, and would keep on giving them hints until they

got it. She also gave each child a chance to say what they were thinking about the vinegar,, and

once she had gotten the opinions of each child, she would tell the group that the liquid was

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called “vinegar” and its many uses in the kitchen and around the house, and how it can help

clean dirty coins if salt was added to it.

Another example of how the teacher interacts and plays with the children is during

circle time. She would have the children sit on a specific place on the mat, and talk about

animals native to that country. For example, when she wanted a child to move and sit on

Australia on the map, she pretended that she was a kangaroo and hopped from Africa to

Australia, and then had the child copy her movements. Once the child had done what she asked

them to do, she would reward them with a high five or a pat on the back, and made the child

feel special when they do something right, and had them pick out a book that deals with that

country. Another example is when they learned about seasons. During circle time she would ask

them what they had learned that week, and what season it is .Once the children got the correct

season, she would pick out a book that deals with that season and then read it to them. For

example, today she asked them what season it was now, and once the children answered that it

was winter, she held up a book about a boy playing in the snow, and read it to them.

I did observe the teacher’s interactions with the children during the free play time,

which was center time. She would spend 10 minutes or so at each center and talk to the group

at each center and ask what they were doing, and if there were any problems. I would watch

how all three teachers interacted and helped the children at the different stations, and how

they would gently reprimand them if the students did something wrong or if a child had started

crying.

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6. One appropriate practice according to the NAEYC Criterion for Interactions among

Staff and Children is that “Staff help children deal with anger, sadness, and frustration by

comforting, identifying, reflecting feelings, and helping children use words to solve their

problems.” (NAEYC Early Childhood Classroom Observation, A-8b). An appropriate practice

related to this criterion is where the teacher’s classroom has some sensitive children that cry

easily and some younger children that also cry easily if they do not get their way. For example,

today during center time one of the children that was building a block bridge accused a more

sensitive child of knocking his bridge over and both children started crying. The staff quickly

reacted by holding the crying child, asking what was wrong, and solving the problem by

promising the first child that because it was time to clean up he could re-build his bridge again

next week and that he did not have to accuse the second child of knocking it down. The child

was placated by this, and soothed the second crying child by making sure to separate them and

that they would not be in the same center again.

NAEYC’s criterion A-4b states that “Staff provide children of both sexes with equal

opportunities to take part in all activities.” (NAEYC Early Childhood Classroom Observation A-

4b). This criterion is not evidenced in the classroom when she tried to be not fair and didn’t put

equal amounts of both boys and girls at the different centers. She tends to put the girls towards

the art center where they do easel painting or playing with play dough and more boys in the

block center to build and measure each other using blocks. One suggestion for improvement

with the inappropriate interpersonal practice is that she could take turns and ask them which

center where they want to go. For example, if a boy asks to go to easel painting or the art

center they could go there with a few other boys while more girl go to the block section and

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measure each other with the blocks. One suggestion for improvement is that sometimes the

teacher would bring in something to show the children and the children will not listen because

they don’t know what it is, and get too close to look at it. To improve that, I would suggest

bringing in something that is sturdier and that they would not see every day. Another

suggestion for improvement is to treat all students equally. There is a student who speaks

Chinese and usually listens to the second teacher more often than not, and won’t listen to the

other teacher, so the second teacher often takes her in hand. She could remedy this by having

some more one on one time with her to understand why she behaves this way, and how to

make sure that she gets treated equally during circle time when they are all together.