Amanda Liew

The ability to seek new solutions and ideas to make one's teaching more effective and reflective is a constant necessity in our field of Early Childhood.  For this standard, I have chosen to include the action research which I had done as a final year project in my diploma course.  My team and I had chosen to investigate thoroughly the effects of learning corners and how the activities provided would enable a child to engage in fruitful and fulfilling independent learning.    The action research strongly displays my knowledge in terms of content pedagogy and what I have done to improve the learning experiences of children.  What was truly fulfilling was that I had been able to yield positive results through the activities and rules which we had created for the children.  Through the experience of carrying out an action research I have been able to see the importance of well designed learning corners and how it will be able to impact children positively.  I have also learned to create interesting activities for children which are not only age appropriate but at the same time, varied according to different readiness levels.

The artifact included for this standard is a self-illustrated and self-written storybook which I had completed as part of a course requirement.  As reading is an essentiality in the learning of all children, we had then come up with a book that was age-appropriate and engaging for the children.  The book is about a group of farm animals putting together what they have to create a fine Christmas.   I have included this artifact as I feel that it strongly portrays my creativeness to put together a big book as a varying form of communication with children.  Similarly, it displays my ability to use and integrate media into my teaching; and that I recognize the increasing importance of technology as a tool for learning.  In turn, this shows my advocacy for supportive interaction during learning in class.  Through creating the book it had provided me with firsthand experience in seeing how media can be an effective tool in children's learning.  I have also been able to appreciate the use of technology and how it can be use to incorporate their interest and what they are required to learn.

Assessments are an integral part in teaching to help determine a child's readiness level and the rate of which they are progressing.  This would then enable a teacher to decide the appropriate plan of actions of carry out to reinforce the child's learning.  For this particular standard, I have included a detailed reading assessment I had conducted with a child.  Lessons included were planned and tailored to reinforce her strengths and to improve her weaknesses.   I have chosen to include this artifact for this statement as it clearly displays my ability to understand individual development of children and how I can make a difference in their learning.  It also shows how I am able to provide learning experiences which are connected to prior knowledge that the child has.  From this, I have been exposed to planning individualized lesson plans tailored to the needs of a particular child.  I had also learned how to carry out reading assessments which would be effective in determining a child's readiness level in terms of reading.  Thus, it had then led me to understand how assessments are established in place to enhance the learning of children.