Tyrah Urie

Guided Reflection #4
2-8-18
CDC: Blue Preschool

Part 1:

1) Read & Synthesize

Time-out: Part one- Using Guidance to Build an Encouraging Classroom” by Dan

Gartell, it gave me a lot of new insights on the proper and more successful way

developmentally to talk to children while in the classroom. A lot of the things that I

read in these two articles I had no idea about, and honestly doing many of the

opposites while engagingly talking with the children.

When looking at the difference between praise and encouragement, there can be a

fine line. The more we praise kids and say “I like…” or “good job doing…” the more

they tend to and rely on our evaluations and our opinions of their work to decipher

what they think is good and what is bad, instead of their own (Kohn, 2001). When

giving children praise, it usually tends to give children negative impacts such as

becoming manipulating children, praise junkies, it steals their pleasure, interest lost,

and reducing achievements (Kohn, 2001). It is important too instead of praise a child

but encourage instead. Encouraging the child to think about their own work children

to think about their work and their ideas. Ask questions, notice what the child is

doing with simple evaluations (Kohn, 2001).

b. After reading the article by Dan Garttell, a really important concept to think about as

a teacher is mistaken behavior. When thinking about misbehavior is intentional

someone in the classroom. However, when mistaken behavior comes into play,

some may get the two confused. Mistaken behavior is behavior that is unintentional

that in reality makes us human. Behavior that we can learn from once completed.

Mistaken behavior is an opportunity for teaching and learning by both the student

and the child (Gartell, ?). When looking to create a successful behavior classroom,

Gartell gives us four guidance basics. Gartell, states that a daily schedule, room

arrangement, modifying curriculum and developing curriculum is particularly

important when building an encouraging classroom. It is important to create an

encouraging classroom, to be a guidance professional, and teach democratic life

skills (Gartell, ?). The parts of the articles that resonates with me, specifically was the

“Good Job” article.

c. Before reading this article and talking about this concept in class, a lot of the time

my first response was to say “good job” to the child when they would show me

something or do something positive in the classroom. I thought that when the child

would hear this, their confidence would go up, and they would continue to want to

do good things in the room. However, constantly hearing this invites the child to

want to do things for you, and not themselves. If they know they are going to get a

“good job” every time they make something or do something in the classroom then

most likely they will continue to do it to get that verbal reward, not necessarily

because it is the right thing to do or because they are interested in it (Kohn, 2001).

While reading the ‘say nothing’ section of Kohn’s article I couldn’t help but disagree
 some. I agree with providing feedback and not judgment but I also find that

feedback can back fire. With the example they used “This mountain is huge”, I can

find that if the child already has an idea in their head of the image they drew and

you give the inaccurate feedback it can backfire, which I have done a few times

when trying to avoid judgment and give feedback. I feel like it can be tricky, but

successful as well. Evolving from this topic it has really made me think about my

language in the classroom in terms of what I do and don’t say to the children and

how much more of a response I get from them when engaging in conversation!

2) Review and “Sketch”

and learn what is expected developmentally in all different domains for their

children in their classroom. One developmental domain in particular that relates to

child guidance and philosophy is social and emotional development. Social

emotional development for a preschool can go fairly in depth when looking where

they are at and what they need to be taught and work on.

Social development is broken down into 4 main strands that are very important to

consider when creating opportunities for social and emotional learning. Self concept

and social identity, attachment, social competence, and emotional competence (NH

ELS, 2016). When looking at the development the constructs/pieces preschoolers

are learning to do are things like their self esteem, self confidence, social identity,

relationships with primary caregivers, relationships with less familiar adults,

relationships and social skills with peers, recognition of other’s feelings, behavioral
 regulation, emotional expression, and emotional regulation. Varying based on age

these things become more complex. For example, looking at emotional expression

during birth-9 months, by 9 months the child will express enjoyment and

unhappiness in their environment, while at 3 years the child will express their

feelings verbally with greater frequency. The NH ELS are a very happy tool to look at

to see where they child is at in the development and what the child needs to create

to progress the child.

3) Interview & Summarize

a./b. After reading articles and going through the NE ELS about social and emotional

and behavioral development in the classroom, I interviewed my cooperating teacher

to see exactly what her guidance philosophy in the classroom was. When I first

asked her about it she had jumped right to the social curriculum aspect. She had said

that right in the beginning of the school year she had introduced the children to ‘The

3 B’s’ and has implemented it throughout the school year and intends to keep it

going. The 3 B’s has the children always remembering to ‘Be careful’, ‘Be kind’, and

‘Be safe’. Being safe to one’s self and others in the classroom, being kind to others,

and careful in the sense of the children’s materials in the classroom is very

emphasized in the classroom. She stated that it is very important to be mindful of

the no’s and do’s to the children and to positively guide the children to be safe. My

teacher expressed that in the classroom it was more an umbrella aspect of language.

She wanted the children to take responsibility and ownership of their actions and

was more invested in having them take care of their problem.

guidance philosophy she implements in the classroom. It is crucial to explain things,

your reasoning’s for your decisions, what they may be wondering about why they

may or may not be able to do something, etc. Materials like social books and social

stones tend to have a great impact on children as they can see the characters in the

story shouldn’t and should be acting sometimes in the scenario that may have been

copied in the classroom.

Using the environment as a ‘third teacher’, relationships, diversity, and development

is the CDC’S curriculum philosophy and the last words my teacher expressed was

how important it was to keep a positive guidance in approach to helping children in

the classroom.

4) Observe and Reflect

a./b. After observing the classroom and seeing how the teacher facilitates and manages

her large groups, transitions, and challenging behaviors that occurs in the classroom, I

noticed a lot going on at times and sometimes what I thought not enough going on until

the situation worked itself out.

i. When looking at how transitions are handled in the classroom from observing I noticed that

typically the teachers in the classroom will always give the children a heads up 5 minutes

before the children need to go somewhere or before a activity/choice time is coming to an

end that way they have time to finish what they are working on, play for a little longer

without and immediate stop, or even start to clean up if that’s what they would like. There

has never been a time that I have seen where the teachers have been like “ok time to pick
 up, stop what your doing” right then and there without giving the kids a heads up. Before

the children are told to go to the bathroom, one of the teachers will say 5 more minutes

and ill have you go to the bathroom before you go and make a new choice. The only time I

didn’t see a transition was when a child was being out of hand in a situation to the point

where they immediately needed to leave an area that they were at, which I find to be

extremely appropriate if they are in harms way of another child or themselves.

ii. In the classroom, to prevent challenging behaviors the teacher/teachers will warn the

children that they will need to make a new choice, if they can’t handle/control/deal with

the one that they are currently at. The teacher seems to be redirecting behavior while doing

so reminding the children with appropriate behaviors but also giving the option of an

alternative activity in an alternative spot in hope to prevent or extinguish the problematic

behavior that may have been going on. I find this child guidance to be very successful in the

sense that instead of banning the children of play all together, using the time-out technique

they are just re-routed to a new area of the room and having to pick something else to play

with because at that time being their bodies aren’t ready to be in the area that they are in

at that specific time,, which is totally ok for children.

iii. The situations that seem to challenge me in the classroom are when two students are in a

argumentative, verbal situation, I am not sure when to step in and intrude or how long I let

them go back n forth, in hope that they problem solve and figure it out on their own. It is

easy to step in when it starts to get physical and harmful, but I know that as a future

teacher, you can’t always be the one to step in and solve the problem. Always solving the

problem will lead to children who will never try and problem solve on their own and will
 always look to you to defuse all the problems. With more experience and comfortability in

the classroom, I think deciphering when to jump and when to let it go will come more

natural to me and wont be such a constant back and forth struggle. Going along with always

wondering when I should step in and when I shouldn’t, an important thing in the classroom

as a teacher is the language we use when talking to the children. I find myself a lot is “what

is your message, tell so and so your message”. Saying this all the time to the children when

they come to me with an issue involving another student, I find successful but sometimes I

wonder if I am over saying it, it seems like I am brushing it off, or if I should be having the

children solving and working out their own problems that are child/child solvable.

Part 2

After reading and hearing about child guidance, I think it is something every classroom

must have when try to a have a successful learning environment for both the children but the

teacher’s as well. Before being placed in the CDC I had no knowledge of what child guidance

was. However, I will make sure that as a future teacher in the making, it will be something I

can’t, not have in my classroom. To develop a caring respectful environment, considering

classroom guidelines, community building, responsive care giving, interacting with children

experiencing challenges, and the over ‘feel’ of the classroom it it is crucial to make those

relationships with both the children and their families. Knowing what a child is about inside the

classroom but also outside in the familial setting is crucial when getting to know your children

and being able to adapt and work with them.

I feel as though it is a learning experience for everyone, the teacher, the child and the

families. In my opinion the drop off in the morning can be the most important part involving the
child/parent and teacher ourselves. The ability for the parent/adult to drop their child off and

feel comfortable enough to let you (the teacher) know what is going on at home, or even inside

the classroom that the child has brought home to share that we have missed. To know if there

is anything going out side the classroom that may effect the child’s day it is important for the

teacher to be let known of it so they have somewhat of an idea to expect throughout the day

with the child, behaviorally and emotionally and it’d make that child guidance on the teacher

that much easier.

Knowing how to adapt to each individual child, understand, and then work with them is

crucial. Always knowing that dealing with a child in certain way, may work with one but not

another child. Being able to be diverse and flexible I think as a teacher are very important. To

create a respectful, caring classroom, it starts with the teacher opening up that particular

setting. If the children are comfortable enough to come and talk to you, listen to you, open up

to you, an d receive feedback and your able to do the same and bring that onto the child/child

perspective your classroom is already ½ successful in my eyes.