Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

Being that this class was unavailable to me until yesterday, I have been unable to contact two early childhood professionals. Therefore, I believe T need to try the alternative to number 1. I reached out to someone in Africa and in Europe. I also watched a podcast video of Barbara Jones on the World Forum Radio. I really enjoyed her story about how she came into Montesoi education which led to her opening up a school.

My Supports

• My family is the most important and supportive daily factor. My wife, kids, and mother are very supportive. My extended family is supportive as well. They push me to excel as well as challenge me to do my best no matter what I am taking part in.  I have to babies and a younger cousin who's like my son that looks up to me. I know have to set a really positive example and be a strong positive influence in their lives. I have to make sure that they don't mistakes that I made. It would be extremely difficult to live without them. These people are my life in which I am in constant contact with daily. I am there for them and they are there for me and I would not want to be without any one of them. I honestly can't say what I would do without them, but I hope that I never will have to find out.
• The challenge I would like to imagine is being a very rich and wealthy person. I honestly would like the challenge of being Kobe Bryant. He is one of the greatest athletes and teammates in the world but he is often scrutinized.  He is also going through a divorce and is probably on the downside of his career. I know my extended family would support me through this and I would like the challenge to see if I could work things out with my wife as well as become a less scrutinized athlete.  We have a close net family. We help each other in any way that we can and will always be there for each other. I would without a doubt be a lost soul with out my support system. Depression would set in and I would probably just climb into a hole so to speak and just keep to myself. 
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My Connections To Play

Play is our brain's favorite way of learning.

Diane Ackerman
Contemporary American author

Culture arises and unfolds in and as play.

Johan Huizinga
Dutch historian
1872–1945




These building blocks were very influential in my childhood. I loved to play with them and I learned from them. My kindergarten teacher Mrs. Andersen loved to watch me play with them. She worked with me every day using these blocks to teach me different learning strategies.

Today I use those same skills with my children in the classroom. They abosutely love to use the blocks. It has taught them to share as well. We had a very hard time to get them to share in the beginning. I remember back when I was younger we were taught to share coming from home, but now a days some children aren't being raised that way. Children tend to fight over things rather than share. So we have the task of breaking the stingy habit.

Overall I view play as a very useful tool in life as well as education. I learned a lot through play, it taught me how to think, share, and be independent in learning. I hope that I am being as effective of a teacher as Mrs. Anderson taught me.

Relationship Reflection

 

Hello everyone. I am going to discuss my relationship with the three most important people in my life. First off I would like to discuss my relationship with my wife. We have been together for more than 6 years (3 of them married). She has always been there for me even though I am six years older than her. I like to think of her as my soulmate, God's personal gift to me. She is wise beyond her years and I don't ever want to be without her. Next is my daughter Zamiya, she is my first born child and my only girl. Zamiya and I were very close before the birth of her baby brother. I couldn't move without her following me or holding on to my pant leg. She has branched off since she's gotten older and tends to gravitate to her mother. Zamiya is very smart little girl. She picks up on things very quickly and is really into technology. She is only three and stays on my laptop more than anyone else and she knows how to use it very well. And last but not least my son Kamrin. Kamrin is two years old. He is also very bright. Our relationshio is very close. He cries when I leave to go work. He wants to follow me every where that I go. We also share a deep passion for the sport of basketball. He actually sits there and watches the whole game with me whether in person or on the television. He sleeps with the basketball, baths with it, and takes it everywhere he goes and I do mean every where. My family is my inspiration and gives me the drive to succeed. They motivate me also. My family means everything to me. I couldn't survive without them.

 

Some of my favorite children quotes

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.  ~Stacia Tauscher


You can learn many things from children.  How much patience you have, for instance.  ~Franklin P. Jones


In a dark moment I ask, "How can anyone bring a child into this world?"  And the answer rings clear, "Because there is no other world, and because the child has no other way into it."  ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com


I brought children into this dark world because it needed the light that only a child can bring.  ~Liz Armbruster, on robertbrault.com

To my colleagues

Unfortunately some of our time together has come to an end. I have really enjoyed working with you all and I hope that we will cross paths again.  All of you have touched and inspired me in some way.  Words can't truly express how I feel about you.  I have really your company and I wish you all success in your future endeavours.

Testing for intelligence

Children learn and process information in different ways. Therefore, I believe that they should be assessed in different ways. In my school we use the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. We administer the Mississippi Curriculmn Achievement Test 2 (MCT2), which is desgined to determine whether state standards are being met and measure school achievement. However this is just one way of testing (pencil and paper). In the educational field, we always talk about how to promote learining has to be implemented using different learning styles.  If learning has to be implemented using different learning styles, why can't students be assessed using more than one test? Formative assessment is not considered a common concept in the German literature. They have more general descriptors which result in more data. There is also usage of several German journals that publish emperical studies in the educational field.

search was conducted by several means.