Children
... I value the environment and will ensure to use it wherever possible as a ˇ§third teacherˇ¨. This again bringing part of the emergent curriculum based upon Reggio Emilia into my personal teaching philosophy (Fraser, 2000), as ˇ§the wider the range of possibilities we offer children, the more intense will be their motivations and the richer their experiences.ˇ¨ (Malaguzzi, cited in Fraser, 2000, p. 52) In training to work with children, I find it useful and acknowledge that all the children at the centre are members of loving families and believe as a team of parents and teachers the child will benefit from the service provided (Farmer 2000, cited in Arthur et al 2005). Not only should a parent and teacher relationship form, but also the staff relationships should develop to ensure children being given high quality care at all times. I believe that, as an early childhood educator in this evolving world, I will continue to update my knowledge, learner and change the practices as they are formed through evaluating my own teaching skills (Farmer, 2000, cited in Arthur et al. 2005). I value the philosophy and statement of London Carriage Preschool which seems to be based on an anti-bias basis. Due to its location, this is very appropriate and I believe has been well developed to suit the centre as children will be treated equally and have a home-like environment. The different cultures that are presented will be taken and included in the environment. It seems their statement would be what I would want to include into my own philosophy: ˇ§Our centre offers a safe home-like environment which supports the individual needs of families based on open communication and provides an anti-bias curriculum which is individual, challenging, stimulating and educationally soundˇ¨ This I believe is important for me to accept, in which I do, as I am going to be part of the teaching team at this centre and will not only have to implement my own philosophy, but also take upon myself to ensure I implement the centres as well. I aim to achieve an environment that children can feel comfortable and stable in whilst they attend the setting. This will include me having all aspects of the room available for children to access, i.e. cupboards and shelving available and reachable for children unless dangerous. I will acknowledge that the children have a family and will intend to include them as much as possible and embrace that there are families from different cultures. This gives me the chance to learn from the children, they are able to tell me about their cultures and how they differ from the Australian culture. I intend to create spaces that allow children to follow their interests by encouraging them to take small risks and create new ideas, lifelong learning skills, problem solving and reflection. The challenge of creating this environment is in ˇ§ˇK developing the environment which offers support for the learner but allows opportunities for outcomes or directions which have not been anticipated by the adultˇKˇ¨ (Farmer 2000, cited in Arthur et al. 2005, p. 139). I will recognise the importance of family input towards decisions for the child/ren and aim to incorporate any suggestions by parents into the program that are able to be implemented where appropriate. Throughout the environment I will ensure that children are reminded they are capable and resourceful learners, and in turn empower children by allowing each of them choice (although sometimes limited to two or three) give trust the children by having access to all things available to them on shelves and cupboards. The above contributes to the child being deemed as competent and comfortable within their environment by the individual. I will honour childrenˇ¦s ideas, culture and families by incorporating as much as possible into the program to promote children to feel comfortable and safe and as though they are welcome at the centre. In doing this, I hope to maintain the room to be as homely as possible for the children and this will also be done by following the childrenˇ¦s interests. The environment that the children will be involved in will include open and closed activities, quiet and loud areas, soft and hard areas, large and small open spaces, large and small areas with objects in them. This encourages children to make choices about where they would like to be within reason e.g. if all staff are outside one child may not stay in the room as this would imbalance the ratio of children to staff. I believe the children at London Carriage Preschool will benefit from this environment as they are all from working middle to upper class families that are located in Bondi, Sydney. Some structure is used to ensure that children feel secure and safe, and that staff know where they are heading and what they are aiming for. I aim to be prepared for this practicum and hope the children will feel comfortable with me in a quick period of time. I endeavour to do this by providing them with information about me such as where I come from, what I am doing there, and then provide them with resources that I have or from the centre which I choose to use for particular experiences. This will also be done by following their interests through the emergent curriculum and also some teacher directed curriculum. The children have been at the centre for a longer period of time than I have and therefore I am able to use this to my advantage as they will be able to teach me things about the centre and its surroundings. I will strive to have the greatest relationships with the staff and families at the centre as possible whilst I am there. This gives me confidence in the children as I get to know their families, but also gives the children confidence in me as they will feel if their families are comfortable with me, they should be able to trust me. In creating this environment, I would need to be at the centre for a longer period of time, although I will aim to provide the centre with everything that I have stated above. My main interest for this prac will be to provide the children with the highest quality care through relationships with staff and children. I plan to ˇ§ˇK work effectively as a team both in the centre and my designated room; support other staff/team members in difficult situations; monitor my own behaviour to ensure I maintain my contribution to the team and participate equitably, actively and appropriately; work towards the same goal as other members of staff; motivate the children; contribute new ideas and approachesˇKˇ¨ National Childcare Accreditation Council, 2001, p. 41 I will treat every child with the same respect and have no derogatory values to any child (maintaining my own philosophy as well as the centres). I will not make any child feel humiliated in the chance that a child acts wrongly, I would encourage the child to apologise and then get them to help me do a specified task e.g. read a book, help bring the blocks back to the block area if no-one is using them. In programming for the children, I aim to do this with the other staff members of the room and the director, although if an obstacle occurs I will not be upset or concerned in any way as children are their own people and we as educators are not bale to predict what will happen. Malaguzzi sums my philosophical statement up with this quote: ˇ§We value space because of its power to organize, promote pleasant relationships between people of different ages, create a handsome environment, provides changes, promotes choices and activity, and its potential for sparking all kinds of social, affective and cognitive learning. All of this contributes to a sense of well being and security in children. We also think that the space has t be a sort of aquarium that mirrors the ideas, values, attitudes and cultures of the people who live within it.ˇ¨ Cited in Fraser, 2000, p. 55 I want children to have the opportunity to decide where and how the children want their work documented. I aim to provide them with this by: using photographs of the childrenˇ¦s work, written observations, audio recording, overhead transparencies of childrenˇ¦s representations, video recording, transcribing childrenˇ¦s comments and observations, collecting a portfolio of childrenˇ¦s work. (Trepanier-Street 2000, Dixon 2001 cited in MacNaughton & Williams 2004) Through implementing the above, I am to use a variety of teaching techniques. The positioning of equipment and materials which involves staff thinking if the materials and equipment are at the appropriate height levels for the children to use safely without harming themselves, placing objects around that stimulate the children, the equipment and materials are aesthetically pleasing and more; Collecting which can be initiated by the staff or the children, search for items that have a similarity and make a collection that can be use...