Final Blog

Reflection

I have found this assignment really enjoyable. First I had to learn how to blog this proved to be alot of trial and error and alot of fun and I am happy to say that I feel very comfortable blogging. I have learnt alot more about what technology is and what I regard as technology before this assignment I did not think we had alot of technology in our infants room whereas now regard toys as apart of that term for example pegs, and puzzles " Technology is also creative and purposeful activity aimed at meeting needs and opportunities through the development of products, systems or environments. Technology is influenced by the culture or society in which it occurs" (Smorti, 1999, p. 6). Doing this blog has also confirmed how important social sciences are in young childrens' learning and development "The skills acquired by young children in the domain of general cognition development have applications for their understanding of self and their social relationships with others, as building relationships with others is central in children's development and well being" (Talay-Ongan & Ap, 2005, p. 71). I also enjoyed that for this assignment we were to look at certain areas for example people, places, things and events and link those to technology and social sciences I felt that this gave me variety to look at the different areas to work "All adults working in early childhood education centres should have a knowledge and understanding of child development and a clear understanding of the context in which they are working" (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 41). I have learnt so much from reading and following my fellow students blogs. As I work with under two's it was nice to read blog's concerning older children and follow what they were doing. I have enjoyed reading about how they have implemented all forms of technology into their centres, their teaching practices and the social interactions between teacher/child and child/child. The feedback I have recieved on my blogs has been positive and complimentary it is encouraging to hear their views and appreciate their support. I am hoping that my cente manager will soon be allowing us to blog which would be great.

References

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te whariki he whariki matauranga mo nga mokopuna o aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Smorti. S. (1999). Technology in early childhood. Early education, No. 19 Autumn 1999.

Talay-Ongan,. A. Ap,. E.A. (Eds). (2005). Child development and teaching young children. Victoria, Australia: Thompson Social Science Press.

Blog Four

This blog is about and how 'EVENTS' play a significance on children's learning and development :). Today our centre manager brought in some new plastic buckets and tennis balls for our infant room. This caused excitiment amogst the infants because they knew it was something new. They really notice anything new that we get in the room and are always ready to investigate. I placed the buckets and balls on the floor for them to explore and sat down beside them. E was right in there grabbing the bucket to check it out. J was more interested in the balls than the buckets and A who has not quite mastered crawling yet seemed content to try and grab the tennis balls stretching out his arms to try and grab them every now and again he would let out a cry of frustration and annoyance if the tennis ball was just out of his reach and he could not get it so I would gently roll it closer towards him he would let out a scream of excitment and grab the ball and try and puts it into his mouth where he tries to bite it. Infants use their sensory system senses of vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell to find out about their environment.

In this photo E and J were trying to grab and hold on to the tennis balls in this activity they are using their fine motorskills which are their hands to hold onto the round small ball. Because their fine motorskills are still developing E dropped the tennis ball in which it would roll away therefore E and J would crawl after them around the room. Every now and again they would put them into their mouths. In this activity they are learning cause and affect cause would be dropping the ball and affect is that because it is round it would roll away (Liddle & Yorke, 2004).
M is 2 years old and ready to transition into the toddlers room he has joined E J and A on the floor with the new buckets and tennis balls he decides to put all the balls into his bucket then tips them out again. He then hands out the tennis balls to E, J and A counting as he does this "16-32 month old babies interacting with peer in a room full of toys, frequency of coordinated acts, which demonstrated reciprocal and responsive interactions between children, steadily increased" (Talay-Ongan & Ap, 2005, p. 48).

M has given E a bucket with balls in E finds it more interesting to tip the balls out just like M did previously "Modelling is a process through which children learn how to behave by copying (modelling) the behaviour of others" (McNaughton & Williams, 2004. p. 124).

R E F E R E N C E S

Liddle,. T. Yorke,. L (2004). Why motor skills matter. New York: McGraw-Hill.

McNaughton,. G. Williams,. G. (2004). Techniques for teaching young children

choices in theory and practice. Australia: Pearson Education Australia.

Blog Three

This blog is about the significance of 'places' to children's learning and development

In our infant room we have certain place's where we put activities for the infants. We have low shevles and low tables so that the infants can retrive what takes their interest and want to explore. This way they can be more independent and have access to for example puzzles, toys, books and muscial instruments placing activites this way stimulates children's curiosity and brain development (McNaughton & Williams, 2004).

E has found a muscial bus on the shelf that has taken her interest so she pulled it. She takes her time looking at in between pushing the buttons the on telephone beside her. Jean Piaget believed that children of the ages of birth - two years cognitive development happened through "co-ordinating sensory experiences (such as hearing) with physical and motor actions - hence called sensorimotor stage" (Santrock, 2008, p. 43).

Through exploring the 'wheels on the bus' E used her finger to open the door. This entertained her for ages the fact that she could open the door with her finger. She loved it!!! E also found that she could move the bus pushing it backwards and forwards.


Then it was back to getting that door open again it was a spring door so therefore it would slam shut if E let it go this she found hiliarous and would giggle and look at me and do it again.


R E F E R E N C E S

McNaughton,. G. Williams,. G. (2004). Techniques for teaching young children choices in theory and practice. Malaysian: Pearson Prentice-Hall.

Santrock,. J.W. (2008). Life span development (11th ed. International). Boston: McGraw-Hill

Blog Two

This blog is about how 'things' and there significance on children's learning and development

E X P L O R I N G T E C H N O L O G Y

E will be 1 year old at the end of 2010. She has been with us in the infant room from the age of 3 months old. E is definitely one of our more physically active infants and has been from day one. She is always happy when she is on the move and is loving her new found freedom of being able to get to were she wants to go independently and now being able to do this while standing on her two legs "The key skills in learning to walk appear to be stablilizing balance on one leg long enough to swing the other forward and shifting the weight without falling. This is a difficult biomechanical problem to solve, and it takes infants about a year to do it" (Santrock, 2008, p. 154).

I have noticed E paying attention to a piece of 'technology' that we have in our room "Assistive technology can include adapted toys, computer, seating systems, powered mobility equipment, augmentative communication devices, adaptive technology solutions to improve an individual's ability to learn, compete work, and interact with family and friends" (Pierce, n.d, p. 1).

In this picture E is exploring the 'push walker' pushing it forward while she is on her knees. She has seen it before around the room when other infants have used it but this is the first time she has been interested in touching it and finding out how it work's herself "exploration, and curiosity are important and valued ways of learning" (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 84).
During this activity E is learning how to construct knowledge cognitive development is often associalted with two concepts. "Children are believed to learn through active personal engagement with and explorations of their environment. Through involvement, children build or construct their knowledge as explanations for what they experience" (Talay-Ongan & Ap, 2005, p. 62).
E tries to stand with her hands on the handle the push walker went forward and hit into the shelf. This made E alittle nervous and she went back down onto the safety of her knees where she would try to push it along while trying to crawl as well she was alittle nervous but you could tell on her face that she loved being in control of the push walker and being able to use this piece of technology to get around the room. I could see E trying to stand up again so I went over to her and demonstrated how to use it and then assisted E in positioning her on the push walker and guiding her along "guidance and support to children moving from one level of competence to another" (McNaughton & Williams, 2004, p. 331).

R E F E R E N C E S

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te whariki he whariki matauranga mo nga mokopuna o aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand. Learning Media.

McNaughton,. G. Williams. G (2004). Techniques for teaching young children choices in theory and practice. Malaysia: Pearson Prentice-Hall.

Pierce,. P. (n.d). Assitive technology and infants and toddlers. Retrieved 11th September, 2010, From ww2. edc.org/ncip/library/ec/power_1htm

Santrock,. J.W. (2008). Life span development. (11th ed. International). Boston. McGraw-Hill.

Talay -Ongan,. A. Ap,. A.E (Ed.s). (2005). Child development and teaching young children. Victoria, Australia: Thompson Social Science Press.

Blog One

My centre is a daycare that provides care for children from the ages of three months to five years. We have four separate rooms they are infants, toddlers, pre-school 1 and pre-school 2. I work in the infant room where the ages of the children range from three months to two years of age. The majority of infants we have in the room at the moment are under one year old.

I really enjoy being with this age group as it is during these years that their learning and development is very rapid "We know that these first years of life are an exciting and wonderful time for all babies and their caregivers. Everyone should be able to have fun and experience all the joy and hope that these early years can yield" (Peirce, n.d, p. 1).

My blog today is about the significance of people on children's learning and development "Social studies is the exploration of people's interactions in and with their social and physical environments" (Mindes, 2006, p. 1). We (teachers) in the infant room have been spending time forming attachments and relationships with each infant. By having alot of one on one time playing 'peek-a-boo', singing songs, talking, and taking care of their individual needs and providing lots of cuddles "From birth she is engaged in building a relationships with the world and intent on experiencing it so that she develops a complex system of abilities, strategies for learning and ways of organizing relationships. so she is able to make her own perosnal maps for her own development and orientation social, cognitive, emotional and symbolic" (Taylaly -Ongan & Ap, 2004, p. 53). I am spending time with C he is four months old. I am talking to him about the construction happening outside next door to our centre and having a game of 'peek-a-boo' which he loves. Also important to C are his routines such as sleep time, bottles times and play times "All the play we do with our babies contributes to their development" (Liddle & Yorke, 2004, p. 11). It is through these experiences that C is learning oral language "incorporating literacy elements with regular routines of infants such as daily reading, tapes at sleep-time, singing, rhymes and finger plays, as well as talking with infants" (Hamer & Adams, 2006, p. 67). And it is important to understand that "infants are much better equipped with auddition than they are with vision" (Talay-Ongan & Ap, 2005, p. 61). All of these aspects assist in the development of children's social sciences "The social sciences learning area is about how societies work and how people can participate as critical, active, informed, and responsible citizen's (Social sciences online, 2010, p. 1 cited in New Zealand curriculum, 2001).

R E F E R E N C E S

Lidder, T. Yorke. L (2004). Why motor skills matter. New York. McGraw-Hill.

Mindes, G.(2006). Social studies in kindergarten. In D.F. Gullo (Ed.), K today teaching and

learning in the kindergarten year. (pp.107-115). Washington, DC: National

Association for the Education of Young Children.

Hamer, J. Adams, P. (2003). The New Zealand early childhood literacy handbook practical

literacy ideas for early childhood centres. Victoria, Australia: Cengage

Learning Australia.

Pierce, P. (n.d). Assistive technology and infants and toddlers. Retrived 11th September

2010, from www2.edc.org/ncip/library/ec/power_1.htm.

Social sciences online. (2010). Retrieved 18th October, 2010, from http://ssol.tiki.org.nz/

Talay-Ongan, A. Ap, E.A. (2005). Child development and teaching young children. Victoria,

Australia: Thompson Social Press.