All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
~by Robert Fulgham~
Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.
These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work some every day.
Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup. The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup ~ they all die. So do we.
And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation, ecology and politics and sane living.
Think of what a better world it would be if we all ~the whole world had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and clean up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.
I chose to post this quote because it describes my day as a Pre-K teacher.
I would like to take this opportunity to say "Thank You" to all of my classmates for participating in great discussions and for the positive comments on my blog. It has truly been a positive experience and I look forward to the next class.
Sheila,
When I started this class I was looking for familiar people and then I ran across your name. This is our second class together. Thank You for sharing your insights and points of views. I wish you well with your educational journey. Hopefully I will see you in future classes.
Sara Lynn and Maryam,
Thank you both for your positive words of encouragement. Thank you for taking the time to read my posts. Thank you for sharing your information in your discussions and blogs. Thank you for being a part of this class. I wish you both well in your future classes. I hope to see you in the next class!
Friday, June 22, 2012
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Testing for Intelligence?
My school district has an assessment test for preschool that is given in the beginning of the year. The results are based on the child's age. If the child falls below a certain score the child is retested or referred. I have to admit there are questions that I do not expect the children to know the correct answer to. I have a hard time marking the children answer wrong when in my opinion they don't know the answer because they were not exposed to it yet.
I understand if there are obvious signs of a disability such as Downs Syndrome or Cerebral Palsy but on a whole I am not sure if an assessment is needed. Unless that assessment is going to be used by the teacher to guide his or her lessons. Which most are not unless the child fails.
In completing this assignment I looked up assessment in Africa and I came across an assessment used in the country of Malawi. This portion of the assessment is used to determine cognitive growth. I found this interesting because the article states that they developed an assessment tool based on their own culture.
In developing countries, poverty, poor health, and malnutrition are responsible for millions of children failing to reach their developmental potential. But because developmental assessment tools have mainly been designed and validated in western, developed countries, they contain many items that are alien to children in non-western cultures (for example, the use of knives and forks for eating and the use of specific gestures). They cannot, therefore, accurately assess whether a child living in, for example, a rural area of Africa, is developing normally. In this study, the researchers describe the creation and testing of a culturally appropriate developmental assessment tool for use in rural Africa—the Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool (MDAT)—from a 162-item draft tool (MDAT Draft I) that they previously developed from Denver II, an assessment tool widely used in developed countries.
Example of assessment.
Everything seems to be now based on an assessment of some sorts. However, we as educators know that sometimes children are labeled disabled and classified in school and it has an adverse effect on the child. So I have to honest I am not sure if all assessments are appropriated.
I understand if there are obvious signs of a disability such as Downs Syndrome or Cerebral Palsy but on a whole I am not sure if an assessment is needed. Unless that assessment is going to be used by the teacher to guide his or her lessons. Which most are not unless the child fails.
In completing this assignment I looked up assessment in Africa and I came across an assessment used in the country of Malawi. This portion of the assessment is used to determine cognitive growth. I found this interesting because the article states that they developed an assessment tool based on their own culture.
In developing countries, poverty, poor health, and malnutrition are responsible for millions of children failing to reach their developmental potential. But because developmental assessment tools have mainly been designed and validated in western, developed countries, they contain many items that are alien to children in non-western cultures (for example, the use of knives and forks for eating and the use of specific gestures). They cannot, therefore, accurately assess whether a child living in, for example, a rural area of Africa, is developing normally. In this study, the researchers describe the creation and testing of a culturally appropriate developmental assessment tool for use in rural Africa—the Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool (MDAT)—from a 162-item draft tool (MDAT Draft I) that they previously developed from Denver II, an assessment tool widely used in developed countries.
The Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool (MDAT): The Creation, Validation, and Reliability of a Tool to Assess Child Development in Rural African Settings http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000273
Example of assessment.
Everything seems to be now based on an assessment of some sorts. However, we as educators know that sometimes children are labeled disabled and classified in school and it has an adverse effect on the child. So I have to honest I am not sure if all assessments are appropriated.
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