What activities do you use to encourage student expression in a variety of forms, including speaking, physical activity, and artistic presentations?

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Interview

Interview an early childhood teacher (preschool through third grade) who has at least one special education student in the class. Develop a 2–3-page report that can be shared with your class members in this unit’s discussion. The purpose of this interview experience is to help you get a sense of how a teacher adapts lessons using DAP to ensure all children learn, including those with exceptional needs.

Ask the following questions, along with any others that are important to you. If you like, you can share these questions with the teacher prior to the interview so they know what to expect.

Interview Outline

  1. How do you design or modify lessons based on the understanding and identification of exceptionality, challenges, and gifts? How do you support development and educational progress of the individual with exceptional learning needs?
  2. How do you analyze the different influences of a learning environment on a young child’s development?
  3. How would you create learning environments aligned to educational expectations and goals?
  4. How do you communicate and collaborate effectively with parents to best meet the child’s needs?
  5. What activities do you use to encourage student expression in a variety of forms, including speaking, physical activity, and artistic presentations?

YOUR DON’T REALLY HAVE TO INTERVIEW A TEACHER UNLESS YOU WANT TO. YOU CAN JUST ANSWER THE QUESTIONS AS IF YOU WERE THE TEACHER AND HOW WOULD YOU RESPOND TO THE QUESTIONS.

DISCUSSION 2

Comparison of Teacher Interviews

Share with others in the class the results of your teacher interview and responses to the questions you asked. In particular, how did teachers adapt lessons to make sure children with exceptional needs learn?

In the subject line of your posting, be sure to note the age range of the class your teacher teaches.

To protect confidentiality, please do not mention real names of those you observe or their school.

DISCUSSION 3

 

Demonstrating the Dispositions

Our ECE master’s program has been developed based on the following dispositions that learners are expected to embrace and demonstrate:

  • Is committed to fairness.
  • Is committed to personal and professional conduct that is both ethical and respectful of the rights of others.
  • Believes that all children can learn at high levels.
  • Persists in helping students achieve success by applying different approaches until they achieve that success.
  • Is willing to explore and use technology in the classroom.
  • Recognizes when one’s own dispositions may need to be adjusted.
  • Is committed to reflective practice, professional development, and lifelong learning.

After reviewing these dispositions and interviewing the teacher in this unit, how do you believe the teacher demonstrated her or his understanding of these? How do you currently (or will in the future) demonstrate your own understanding of the dispositions?

Describe your current educational setting, including the age of children (0-2, 3-5, or 6-8), number of children you work with, and the philosophy of your education setting.

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Grant Proposal

Throughout this course, we have been discussing becoming the Whole Teacher. One of the five pillars of becoming the Whole Teacher is to find ways to encourage child-centered active learning. As we learned through our conversations in the discussion forums this week, two elements that contribute to the development of this type of learning environment are the physical and creative aspects of the classroom. In your assignment this week, you will have the opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of how to foster a physical and creative learning environment that promotes child-centered active learning by completing a grant application.

At the monthly administrator’s meeting for ABC Early Childhood Center, the regional director shared with you a grant opportunity for early childhood centers to receive a grant of $5000 to remodel your center to stimulate physical activity and promote creativity for your students. The regional director encouraged you all to apply and you have decided to take them up on their suggestion and complete a grant application.

In your grant application:

  • Describe your current educational setting, including the age of children (0-2, 3-5, or 6-8), number of children you work with, and the philosophy of your education setting.  You can base this either on the education setting in which you are currently working or you can create a fictitious center. (.5 points)
  • Design the classroom environment that you would create with the grant money that is based on developmentally appropriate strategies and tools to promote optimal cognitive development and learning in young children.  To create your illustration you may use Classroom Architect (Links to an external site.), Scholastic Class Set-Up Tool (Links to an external site.), or Kaplan Floor Planner (Links to an external site.). Attach a copy of your classroom design to your grant proposal. (2 points)
  • Discuss how the design of your classroom environment aligns with Figure 1.1 from the text and is supported by current research about optimal classroom environments. (1 point)
  • Explain how the environment you have created would promote optimal physical development and learning in young children in each area of your classroom. Use specific examples from your illustration and research to support your decisions. (1.5 point)
  • Explain how the environment you have created would encourage development of the creative self in young children in each area of your classroom. Use specific examples from your illustration and research to support your decisions.  (1.5 point)
  • Summarize how the grant money will help you to ensure you can create a learning environment that promotes child-centered active learning and 21st-century skills. (2 points)

Research and Resource Expectations:

  • Source Requirement (.25points): 
    • At least two scholarly peer-reviewed sources
    • At least one professional credible source

Writing and Formatting Expectations:

  • Title Page: Must include a separate title page with the following:
    • Title of paper
    • Student’s name
    • Course name and number
    • Instructor’s name
    • Date submitted
  • Academic Voice (.25 points): Academic voice is used (avoids casual language, limited use of “I”, it is declarative).- please follow direction for this?
  • Purpose and Organization (.25 points): Demonstrates logical progression of ideas.
  • Syntax and Mechanics (.25 points): Writing displays meticulous comprehension and organization of syntax and mechanics, such as spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
  • APA Formatting (.25 points): Papers are formatted properly and all sources are cited and referenced in APA style as outlined
  • Suggested Assignment Length (.25 points): This assignment should be four double-spaced pages in length (not including title and reference pages).

Explain how you could use each of the measures of central tendency to better understand the criminal justice research topic you chose in Week 1.

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Measures of Central Tendency

One of the main goals of data analysis is to describe data in a succinct manner so that it is easily understandable; this is called data reduction. To succinctly describe data, measures of central tendency (that is, mean, median, and mode) can be used. For example, suppose you collect data on the arrest records of inmates in a particular region. From your data, you might want to determine the most common offenses committed by inmates. If each offense is measured nominally (for example, armed robbery = 1, murder = 2, and aggravated assault = 3), determining the mode would show which offense is committed most frequently. You might also want to determine the number of offenses typically committed by inmates (ratio level of measurement) prior to being sentenced to prison. To do this, you could calculate the mean, or the average number of offenses committed by inmates. You also could rank the number of offenses from the highest to the lowest to determine the middle number, or the median number of offenses committed by inmates.

Before choosing which measure of central tendency to use, it is important to consider the level of measurement that applies to the variable. For instance, it would not make sense to find the mean or median of a variable, such as gender, that is measured nominally. As you complete the following Discussion, keep in mind that not all measures of central tendency are appropriate for all levels of measurement.

Post a response to the following:

  • Define the three measures of central tendency including mean, median, and mode. Include the factors that must be considered when using each measure of central tendency and explain why they are important.
  • Explain how you could use each of the measures of central tendency to better understand the criminal justice research topic you chose in Week 1.

How do you assess the overarching significance of the opening of the Atlantic in this period?

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Benjamin, Thomas. The Atlantic World: Europeans, Africans, Indians and Their Shared History, 1400-1900. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

  • Chapter 1: Antecedents: The Americas, Africa and Europe in the Fifteenth Century
  • Chapter 2: Commencement: The European Opening of the Atlantic Ocean

Fassnacht, Max, Stephanie Fink, Robert Jackson, and Michelle Warn. “The Anatomy of a Discussion Board (Links to an external site.).” Accessed February 15, 2016. https://sites.google.com/site/anatomyofadiscussionboard/home.

Fassnacht, Max, Stephanie Fink, Robert Jackson, and Michelle Warn. “Critical Thinking: A Guide to Skillful Reasoning (Links to an external site.).” Accessed August 15, 2016. http://www.criticalthinkingandreasoning.org/evaluating-critical-thinking-1.

Reflect: Each of the three geographic zones touching the Atlantic—Europe, Africa, and the Americas—were home to vast cultural, political, social, economic, religious, biological, and ecological diversity. While connections had existed for centuries between Europe, Africa, and Asia, early contact with the North American Atlantic coast by the Norse did not contribute to European knowledge of transatlantic exploration. Furthermore, centuries of raiding and trading along the Atlantic coast of Europe and the shores of the Mediterranean had not produced more far-flung ventures. All the while, Chinese and Arab traders plied the Indian Ocean, yet neither sought to move into the Atlantic. Only over the course of the fourteenth century did sustained expansion into the Atlantic by Europeans begin in earnest. Consult “Critical Thinking: A Guide to Skillful Reasoning (Links to an external site.)” as you formulate your response.

Write: In an initial post of at least 250-300 words, explain why and how Europeans pursued expansion into and across the Atlantic Ocean during the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries. How does this impetus represent continuity with the past? How does it represent change over time? Cite specific examples from the required and recommended readings and address the following points in your response:

  • What factors motivated and enabled expansion into the Atlantic?
  • What elements of this expansion can be identified as part of previous patterns?
  • What elements of this expansion were unique or new?
  • How do you assess the overarching significance of the opening of the Atlantic in this period?