Signature Artifacts
These are two (2) pieces of work and/or symbols form each completed term that I believe exemplify my growth and learning within the BELPD
Signature Artifacts Year 1 Semester 1 (Fall 2022)
Artifact 1- HDLH Presentation
Artifact 2- Observation Assignment
Artifact One (1)- HDLH Presention
My first artifact is a paper and presentation done on the early learning sector document How Does Learning Happen. While these two are different they are a part of the same project meant to expand our understanding of the early learning sector. This paper and presentation focused on the document “How Does Learning Happen” one of the most important documents in the early learning sector, a document that most of the other documents build upon. How Does Learning Happen teaches us about the fundamentals of learning, and how we can properly leverage our role as educators to best suit the needs of children. As such learning about this document is rather important, and this artifact showcases mine and my group members' understanding of the document. The artifact also does a good job at summarizing How Does Learning Happen for anyone that may need it, whether you want to read a slide show or read a 1000 word paper. This artifact also shows my personal growth, prior to starting the BELPD I did not know that How Does Learning Happen even existed, it was a mystery to me. But throughout this course we have talked a lot about How Does Learning Happen, and now feel confident that I understand how learning happens. This project connects directly to the course outcomes. More specifically it connects to outcome three (3). Outcome three is about discussing various different philosophies that influence the early learning sector, How Does Learning Happen arguably has the largest amount of influence in the Ontario early learning sector. Nearly every philosophical framework present in Ontario makes mention of How Does Learning Happen, be it emergent or montessori. It is important that we first learn how children learn before we can learn what the best way to implement that learning is.
Artifact Two (2)- Observation Assessment
My second artifact is an assignment done for my Human Growth and Development class, focusing on the early years. This paper is an observation paper, where we had to focus on one (1) child in the toddler room of the conestoga lab school and watch what they do in a 10-20 minute period. After our observations were complete we were to write a paper outline how our observations showcase development of the child. While we do observations in our field placement class those mainly focus on the classroom as a whole rather than an individual child. This paper gave us the opportunity to study how particular children develop, how one child interacts with the world. The focus was also on development rather than how an early childhood classroom is run and structured. Despite the focus not being on how the classroom is structured by watching just one (1) child we are able to see how they interact with the structure around them. Perhaps we see that the child we watch does not do very well in social settings, and we can speak to what that says about the availability of solitary spaces in the lab school. This artifact directly connects to learning outcome number four (4). The outcome is about recording observations which is obviously met by this artifact since we needed to record our observation of our chosen child. The outcome also states that we should record the interactions between individuals, which this artifact fulfills completely. Social development is a key part of development, which can be seen mostly through the children's interactions with one another and the educators. This artifact also showcases my ability to maintain the confidentiality which aligns with course outcome number five (5).
Signature Artifacts Year 1 Semester 2 (Winter 2023)
Artifact 1
Artifact 2
Artifact One (1)- Observation on Loose Parts Play
My first artifact was an observation I made in week 6 of field placement. This observation was based on an activity that I took part in, in which we had the children simply play with loose parts. This included rocks, pipe cleaners, string, paint brushes, and eventually cups of water. The children seemed to have much fun simply fiddling with the loose parts, and once the water came into play they would not leave. They spent quite a long time “painting” the rocks with water, calling over to one another, in awe at how their rocks became darker. I sat at the table with the children, asking them some questions and helping them when they wanted something tied or untied. I also took some time to tie two paintbrushes together with a pipe cleaner, which inspired a child sitting beside me to do the same thing slightly differently. This observation was about that event, but it also contains what I think are the best next steps after having done that activity, and why I think this event was important. Particularly because loose parts have become a sort of “dying art” as the educator who led the activity told me. There is much truth to that as this is the only time I saw the children playing with loose parts, yet they seem to have loved it. Perhaps we should find more time to let children play with loose parts. Looking at the course outcomes this observation and interaction fits with two of them the best. First is outcome 1 which is that we are supposed to take an observation, considering this is an observation I feel it fits with this outcome. Outcome 3 is about building responsive relationships with individual children, during this activity I was able to engage with the children, both in groups and individually. Whether it was giving a child an idea, or complimenting a child on her knot-tying skills, this activity gave me a calm moment to talk with them.
Artifact Two (2)- Five Little Monkeys Book
My second artifact is the Book “Five Little Monkeys Bake a Birthday Cake” by Eileen Christelow. The picture above is a picture I took of the book that my placement center had. As can be seen the book was well used, mostly because the children loved this book more than any other. The story goes as follows. Five little monkeys wake up and try to bake a cake for their mama since it is her birthday, but they must be careful to not wake up mama. They make many mistakes that cause them to go and check on mama, and leads to an overflowing cake that causes two firemen to show up. In the end though it is not mama’s birthday after all. While the story is simple the children never tired of it, there were times where I would read it multiple times in a row because the children wanted me to. Most of the time it would just be me and one or two other children, but at times I had four or five children sitting around me just to read this one book. Of course there were other books they liked to read, and anytime I would read to the children they would bring a book after book, but Five Little Monkeys always started it. Perhaps there was something special about my moments, reading to children in a more classic way, considering how my placement has fully adopted the ipad as the primary story time tool. This fits with course outcome 3, which asks us to build responsive relationships with the children. This reading time I did with the children is an example of how to build those relationships, it gave me and the children the time to bond as I read them a book they loved so much. This book in particular was one they loved the most, and me reading it to them allowed them to share something with me, and for me to engage with them.
Signature Artifact Year 2 Semester 1 (Fall 2023)
Artifact- Log
Overview:
During my time at the Doon Campus Lab School some of the educators had purchased materials for a fairy garden. While the weather was still warm we had a little spot outside by some trees were the children could play with the figures and create their own fairy garden. The children also enjoy going into the "woods" on the Doon campus, which can be a fun small adventure for the children due to the close proximity of the "woods". These factors gave the educators an interesting idea where we would create a scavenger hunt of sorts in the forest using the fairy garden figures. I was asked to step up the scavenger hunt, one of the educators showed me where we would be doing the scanverge hunt and then went along placing figures. After a while we went and did the scavenger hunt and the children had a lot of fun. I remember one of the children saying these pig figures I had sitting on a log were "so cute" and hearing "I found some" was always a joy. When we were nearing the end of the scavenger hunt two of the educators noticed a log. this log was half broken and rotten, so natural I had to bring it back to the outdoor play area. Sadly I do not have any pictures of this log since it was so rotten it seems to have been gotten ridden of.
Rationale:
Most activities I had done up to this point where smaller. I put effort into them but they were small and in many ways I was doing the activity while setting the activity up. This was a chance to do something even just a little bit bigger. As someone who is not good at art it also gave me a chance to be creative by creating little scenes with the figures. Despite all of this though the thing that sticks with me the most is the log. One thing I love about the Doon Lab School is how willing they are to try anything if they feel the children may be able to make something out of it. It was a rotten log that had been sitting in that forest for an unknown amount of time, but the children might have fun with it so it is worth bringing in. It is spontaneous, it is a provocation, it what we have been talking about for over a year now put to action.
Signature Artifact One (1) Year 2 Semester 2 (Winter 2024)
CLD Form --->
Artifact One (1)- Parachute CLD
Overview:
One part of working in the Salvation Army PCRC that can be tricky is that on Mondays there is a very large amount of children. Our classes typically range from 25-40 children, most of whom will want to spend their 3 hours running around the gym. Doing an activity with a small group of children is difficult because you run the risk of attracting too many children, but doing a large group is risky because you have to deal with the massive string of ages in the learning environment, nearly new born infants to school agers on some days. Luckily the parachute is always a good option. My plan with the parachute was very simple: I would play a game of red-light green-light with the children, where they had to shake the parachute or not shake the parachute depending on whether I said green-light or red-light. This helps with children's listening and comprehension skills since they need to not only be able to listen for when I say red/green light but also the understanding to stop or go. They need to display self-regulation skills, since they undoubtedly want to continue shaking the parachute even when I say red-light. I will admit though, this game of red-light green-light got old fast. It was fun and worked for a bit but I simply did not plan for what to do afterwards. So I improvised, we found different games to play, I listened to what the children wanted to do and adapted. The pictures seen above were mostly of preschoolers, but when they left the toddlers and infant got a chance to experience the parachute, something I was not expecting to have happened. I feel this artifact showcases my abilities to create experiences that expand our centres curriculum in interesting ways, that help children grow and develop in a multitude of ways. I also believe it showcases my ability to think on the spot and improvise when needed
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Signature Artifact Two (2) Year 2 Semester 2 (Winter 2024)
CLD Form --->
Artifact Two (2)- Documentation board CLD
Overview:
We talk a lot about documentation, it is a very important part of working in the field, but when in a placement like the PCRC traditional documentation can be tricky. Children are not guaranteed to come more than once so creating written folders on each child’s development is nigh impossible. The parents/caregivers are also around a lot, meaning that they are seeing the exact thing that you would be writing about. This does not mean, however, that documentation is useless. Parents do not see everything, there are times when we are alone with the children, and we cannot remember everything that we see in the learning environment. This makes documentation boards like the one I have created an excellent way to capture the nature of the centre while giving a glimpse into the interest of the child and what they do day to day. For a new parent who is wondering if this centre is a right fit for them they can look upon the board, an educator can look for inspiration, and the children can see their work up on display. I have left a mark on the placement, it is something that will likely stay for at least a few months, something more grounded then memories.
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Signature Artifact One (1) Year 3 Semester 1 (Fall 2024)
Artifact One (1)- PD Day Camp Plans (Nov 1st)
My first artifact for my level 5 field placement is my PD camps, particularly my November 1st PD Day Camp. These camps are intended to give parents a place to put their children during PD days, but they are also places where kids can go and continue to learn and be creative during PD Days. The city defines these PD days camps as places where children will “help…develop friendships, learn new skills, and celebrate creativity!” (City of Kitchener, 2024). These camps run from 9:00 am to roughly 4:00 pm and are filled with games (both indoor and outdoor), art activities, and learning opportunities. The camps are mostly run by high school and university students across multiple centres. My job as a placement student was to create the plans for the two PD Day Camps that occurred during my time with the city. Posted above are the plans I made for the November 1st PD Day Camp. Typically, the city likes to ensure each PD Day camp has a unique theme, for the November PD Day Camp I tailored it around World Children’s Day. This meant giving children more choice over the games they play, and informing them of their rights as outlined by the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child. This was a massive project for myself, before this placement, I had never planned something as big as these PD Day Camps. On top of having the fill nearly seven (7) hours of activities for the children to participate in I also had to make sure the activities were fun, developmentally appropriate and varied. This meant I had to design activities that I had very little experience in. For instance, I designed many art activities despite my lack of knowledge of art. Despite this, I feel that I created a good and workable program plan that was successfully implemented across four community centres. The biggest issue I faced with these plans was how to connect them to literacy since they are not traditional learning environments; as such I had to get creative. We did have storybooks delivered to the centres so that leaders could read to the children during lunch but it was not a requirement, most of the literacy I focused on was non-reading-based literacy. The active games I listed for leaders to pick from offered a look into physical literacy. For example, I gave the leaders the option to play human knot with the older group, a game where the children all grab onto each other's hands and try to untangle themselves without letting go. This game promotes the literacy of one's body. Of course, the entire camp was based on the children’s rights, and by introducing them to their rights we have begun to teach them an early form of political literacy!
Signature Artifact Two (2) Year 3 Semester 1 (Fall 2024)
Artifact Two (2)- Stats Sheet
My second artifact is a (heavily redacted) stats sheet. The City of Kitchener runs summer camps and collects a lot of information on those summer camps. When I started with the city they wanted to take all the data they had on the camps and move it to a readable, simple two-page sheet. I had expressed interest in the background of the city bureaucracy and so the task of making a stats sheet fell to me. I was given a lot of information on the summer camps, and had to sift through what was useful and what was not. I first made an Excel spreadsheet to gather all the useful info and to create test charts. Afterwards, I started moving it over to a Canva, dedicating one page to the camps and another page mostly to the waitlist. This sheet was then presented to the Children and Youth Services department via my supervisors, to give the team a look into what succeeded and where the camps can improve. I learned a lot about the backend of these camps through this stats review. For instance, more children were left on the waitlist than I would have expected and there are a lot of people from Waterloo who put their children into Kitchener summer camps. I am already someone who likes looking at statistics, but being able to build a stats review that is used to possibly better the services in my community is a great opportunity. As well, I loved the chance to see how our work in both childcare and program planning comes together, and creates something successful. While seeing the front-line work proves why our profession is needed, seeing the number of people making use of the work, and seeing how much money these camps brought in, shows a side to our practice we as students rarely get to see.