This project gave me a great insight to
the world of observation and how important it will be in my future career.
At first I was groaning about how much work it would be, but, since I am
babysitting so much with many different kids, it was actually a fairly
uncomplicated assignment, and I realized I was more mindful of watching the
children, interacting with them and learning about their growth and
development. I even tried the Sally Ann Test (although I did not include it in
my observations) and it was super cool to see the difference between a 3 year
old and 5 year old theories of mind.
When I first made the outline for the
project plan, I had chosen some very different observations than the ones I
actually conducted. I had planned to visit ice hockey practice (I actually went
to gymnastics) and go to the park, but I ended up conducting most observations
within the home of the child, or a familiar situation for them (such as the
horse barn or my house). My portfolio shows a collection of ages,
activities and abilities. I show well-rounded examples of child observation and
working towards fully understanding the various processes that are required in
observation. Although I did focus on ages 3-11, I wish I had done some
observations on infants and toddlers as well as adolescents. I think that these
age groups are harder to observe as adolescents may not want someone who is but
a few years their senior to be observing them, and babies may not have as many
interactions with their world, and only exhibit very simple behaviors. I tried
to focus my observations on child-child interactions, and how they learn with
and from each other. I was also especially fascinated with each child’s
interests so that I can tie it all back to my future classroom and obtain ideas
on how to make class more engaging using student-based interests.
I worked with several families and childcare centers (although I
did not end up conducting my observations in them because I ran out of time to
complete them). I was also given a job opportunity in a school as a substitute
teacher for showing initiative and my hard work in this project. This is also
such a great chance for me to continue learning about child development
and will also help to build my resume. In my impending career in
education, observation will be one of the most important skills because it can
help a teacher to understand behaviors, assessment, understanding of knowledge and
development.
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