Education & Teaching Question

Directions

Read the scenario below. Then, write a 2-3 page reflection answering the questions regarding the environment, routines, transitions, and schedules to foster growth and positive social interactions.

Routines: Why is it important to have routines within a learning environment? What kinds of routines could you implement to this classroom to help bring order to it? What kinds of changes would you expect to see in the classroom once routines are in place? Why?

Transitions: Why is it important for children to transition from one activity to the next? Will you add transitions to this learning environment? What will your transitions look like? What are your expectations after implementing these transitions? Why?

1. Schedules: Why is important for early childhood educators to utilize schedules within their classroom? What might you include on the schedule and why? How will you make children aware of the schedule? How will the children read the schedule?
2. Environment: What kinds of environmental changes would help reduce some of the more challenging behaviors? What might you change or add? How will changing the environment help to reduce challenging behaviors?
3. Inclusion and Diversity: What changes would you make to this classroom concerning diversity? What might you change or add? Why? What impact might this have upon the children’s play? Give examples.
4. Conclusion: Explain how managing items 1-5 above can help to foster growth and positive social interactions.
5. Scenario:
6. You walk into a classroom of 3–4-year-olds. There are 16 children in the class with one teacher and one teacher’s assistant. There are eight girls and eight boys. Two of the girls identify as Hispanic and one is learning English. Three girls identify as African-American and three are Caucasian. One of the African-American girls has a hearing impairment. Two of the boys identify as African-American and one of them is also on the autism spectrum. Two boys are of Indian descent; one is fluent in English while the other is learning English. There are two children who identify as Hispanic, one who is learning English. There are two Caucasian boys in this classroom, one who has anger-management control issues.

There is a long open area where three of the children are running back and forth and screaming. One of them trips and falls and begins to cry. You notice that there are no labels in the room and no depictions of any children of color anywhere in the classroom.

In the dramatic play area, you see four baby dolls and they are all Caucasian. No one is playing with them. All the play food is also American and while real containers are used, they are all in English.

In the blocks area, one boy is building quietly by himself. Two of the other boys are arguing about what each other is building. One of the boys smashes the other boy’s creation, causing him to cry loudly.

Three children are playing with playdough and making food. One of the children who identifies as Hispanic tells the others that he is making a tortilla. The other two children look confused. They tell him he is making a pancake. An argument erupts over the subject.

There seems to be a lack of cohesion among the children and chaos reigns in the classroom. You don’t see any schedules for the children to follow, so the children are roaming around the room, taking toys from one center to another and from each other. You notice that none of the children look happy and the two teachers are talking to one another.