Explore, Experience, Educate
Explore, experience, educate is my growing philosophy, and its primary intention is to guide and support children throughout their early childhood development. Teaching gives me the opportunity to promote intellectual, social-emotional, and physical growth to students and all children. Through educating I am able to provide and recognize the importance of happiness, wellness, and play. My performance background allows me to include arts integration and encourage students through movement, music, drama, and other art forms in the classroom. I educate, observe, and learn from children, and I flourish many of my beliefs from other methods such as Reggio Emilia, positive discipline, creative play approaches, and project / workshop / and inquiry-based curriculums. By maintaining a peaceful, positive learning environment, I will manage to guide students to their own successes.
Beliefs and Strategies
The Reggio Emilia Approach is where most of my beliefs derive, such as learning through communication, relationships, experiences, and creative outlets. In Spring 2016 I attended a Reggio Emilia conference in Italy with my Early Childhood Education cohort at Columbia College Chicago. Through the experience in Italy, I saw schools that were both visually pleasing and developmentally appropriate. The beautiful, natural environment is an aspect that I carry with me as an educator to arrange my classroom and benefit all learners. Natural lighting, alternative seating and tables, and documentation and libraries built with children are just few of the outlooks I trust to enable students to do their best learning. Coordinating with families, reflecting with children, and encouraging exploration are qualities that I believe are necessary to effectively extend learning in a classroom. Reggio has taught me that I can learn from each individual child because all children have a unique potential and way of learning, and I strive to discover and facilitate how they learn best. I believe in the technique to fully commit to activities and how learning is constructed through experiences and active engagement. Also, as an educator with a responsive classroom, I observe, positively react to children, and focus on their interests through multiple motivating activities and integration of their learning in various subject areas through play.
Classroom Management - Positive Discipline
In Spring 2017 I received training through Positive Discipline, and it has forever altered my relationship with students. Classroom management has became much easier through the use of Positive Discipline. The management style teaches courage, confidence, and life and social skills.
Why Positive Discipline?
I practice Positive Discipline throughout the school day, but specifically through the following:
Why Positive Discipline?
- Encourages emotional intelligence.
- Guides development of important life skills
- Creates a safe and caring community
I practice Positive Discipline throughout the school day, but specifically through the following:
- Scheduling weekly classroom meetings to implement and practice problem solving strategies
- Creating a cool-off space for children to have a sense of security and serenity
- Giving opportunities for classroom jobs and responsibility
- Having both independent and small group workshops for children to learn accountability and work ethics
- Maintaining a peaceful, caring environment with kind and firm language, and encouraging dignity and mutual respect
- Holding parent / teacher / student conferences
- Understanding the Four Mistaken Goals of Behavior
- Using the Teachers Helping Teachers Problem-Solving Steps
Positive Discipline = Change
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What Do You Want for Your Students?
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Significant Seven:
3 Empowering Perceptions & 4 Essential Skills
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How Students Know You Care:
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Build a Caring Learning Environment:
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How to incorporate mutual respect:
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Why do we have class meetings?
- Learn Social Skills: listening, taking turns, hearing different points of view, negotiating, communicating, helping one another, learning responsibility
- Active Participation: deeper understanding, inner motivation, commitment to appropriate action
- Learn Academic Skills: language, attentiveness, critical-thinking, decision-making, problem-solving, democratic procedures
- Exceed Curriculum Goals: social studies, language development, health and safety
- Learn Life Skills: advocate for themselves and others
- Involves students in their education
- Teaches them to think for themselves
- Eliminates most problems with students who act out
Focusing on Solutions over Punishments
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Giving LIMITED CHOICES
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Incorporating Appropriate Logical Consequences:
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WHAT and HOW Questions
to Explore Consequences of Choices and Solutions:
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The Four Rs of Solutions:
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3 Rs of Recovery from Mistakes:
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Encouragement in the Classroom
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THE FOUR PROBLEM-SOLVING STEPS
1. Ignore It.
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EFFECTIVE FOLLOW-THROUGH
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Establishing Solutions and Routines that are predictable, consistent, and respectful
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CREATING ROUTINES
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5 R’S OF ROUTINES
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ACTING MORE, TALKING LESS
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PUTTING EVERYONE IN THE SAME BOAT
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POSITIVE TIME OUT and TAKING A BREAK:
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PARENT / TEACHER / STUDENT CONFERENCES:
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