This is where I plan to share my documentation and pedagogical narrations. I plan to style these posts after the ECPN posts by trying to focus on a main focus instead of writing about everything I did. For organization, though, I will still be separating them day by day, so the post will probably look much shorter than the last practicum.
Plans for my first day
I won’t know what to focus on till I learn the classroom and the educator. I am switching classrooms, so there will be some getting used to. these are some questions and some information I have prepared to share with my educator during my first day to hopefully get the documentation ball rolling. this is a lot to read but i wanted to share my plan on here so my first day plan was visible. i will hopefully find some good documentation to focus on and write about tonight with the seminar class.
Some questions I want to answer on my first day
What rituals already exist?
How does the educator talk to the children?
What kinds of gifts are you noticing, and how are they nourished through the ways the classroom is set up?
Cultures in the classroom?
Gifts/skills/knowledge the children might have?
How will I plan with my observations and traces?
The educators have recommended we observe what is already going on in the program, as we are not there to create our own, but to learn to work in an already existing program. Once I have some concert observations and notes, and other documentation, then I can bring my ideas and the things I’ve seen to my seminar class to help build my ideas. Once I have some concrete ideas, I hope to bring these to my educator so we can work together on ensuring they work in contexts with the program.
I do have a few books I feel connect very well to my commitment. I’m hoping that once I can observe and bring ideas to my class, I can come up with a concrete way to use them in a way that matches the program and my commitments.
How will I make my documentation visible?
My “conversation board” is how I will do this. I will be looking at all my notes and really thinking about what our goal is as a classroom once we’ve chosen a focus. I hope that by adding documentation such as photos and notes of conversations, and drawings, we will be able to think more deeply about our focus.
Drawing ritual
“I recommend that you begin in your first week of practicum to talk to your mentor educator about creating a daily drawing ritual where (a small group of) children investigate their questions/curiosities/ideas and work through problems of drawing/storying together. Creating this intentional drawing space – and setting it into the structure of the day – might be a concrete way to invite the relational ways of being together that you are envisioning.” Tressa
My ideas for my drawing ritual time would be during whatever recommended time my educator feels is best, to make the ritual feel special, like we talked about in class. I plan to have a bin for my plain notebooks so they can live at the day care, and so I can document them. By having special notebooks and a special bin, I hope it will create a special ritual to build excitement towards drawing/storytelling.
Regular feedback meetings
Set up regular meeting times to discuss progress and goals with your mentor educator, and ask for specific feedback.
We plan to do meetings(this is a rough plan, we hope it will happen at least twice a week, but understand it’s not always possible, but we at least need some, so by planning, we hope it will happen a few times. Meeting times:__________
There are feedback guides we can use, or we can sit down and just have a conversation about what’s been happening, and I can take notes and ask questions, and we can produce feedback this way.
I’m planning to also be doing some self-feedback during this time, and am more than willing to share this with the educator as well as their comments and ideas on this, start a conversation and count as feedback I can write about on my WordPress.