Important Codes of Ethics

1.  The Division for Early Childhood's #5 under Professional and Interpersonal Behavior:

  "We shall use individually appropriate assessment strategies including multiple sources of information such as observations, interviews with significant caregivers, formal and informal assessments  to determine children's learning styles, strengths , and challenges."

This code is important for me because often times people forget about individual appropriateness and become wrapped up in developmentally appropriate practice.  Although, DAP is extremely important, each individual; their experiences, culture, etc., must be considered as well.

2.  NAEYC's statement within their Preamble:  "When the issues involve young children, then these provisions also apply to specialists who do not work directly with children, including program administrators, parent educators, early childhood adult educators, and officials with responsibility for program monitoring and licensing." is also very important for me.  This one specifically involves those who should follow the code of ethics including those who may not work directly with young children.

3.  NAEYC's 1-3A.4:  To accord co-workers due recognition of professional achievement.

This is a tough field!!  We often work around the clock with NOT phenomenal pay or benefits.  Teachers accomplishments need to be celebrated!!

Additional Early Childhood Resources

Here are a few more great resources:

 First, I chose this resource because it is important, and particular, to my state - Montana
http://mtecp.org/

I have used this website frequently in my work with training in the CDA program and working with in-home child care providers:  
http://nafcc.net/

And this one...., I know it may seem a bit strange, but I have found that while working with parents in child care they have lots of questions about common childhood illness' that arise.  I have found that webmd.com is easy to use and offers some great synopsis' of common illness as well as pictures that can be helpful to answer parent's questions.

Dr. Susan Bredekamp on Developmentally Appropriate Practice.

"Developmentally appropriate practices are ways of teaching that vary for or adapt to the age and experience of the individual learner. So fundamentally the definition has not changed. Instead, it has been expanded to include the fact that not only do you have to consider children as individuals, but you also have to consider children as members of groups with their own cultural identities."

Dr. Bredekamp has been very significant in defining DAP!  In this 2006 adaptation of the statement she includes all aspects of a child's environment; including micro and mesosystem's.  Read the full interview at:

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=11922&FullBreadCrumb=%3Ca+href%3D%22%2Fbrowse%2Fsearch.jsp%3Fquery%3Dneuman%26c1%3DCONTENT30%26c2%3Dfalse%22%3EAll+Results+%3C%2Fa%3E 

T. Berry Brazelton

 Dr. Brazelton states:  "Touchpoints can give parent and caregiver common language." 
 This is a powerful statement that bridges families and schools!  Hear more by watching this video in which Dr. Brazelton describes his Touchpoints program:

https://touchpoints.box.net/shared/jrf0h6yhy6#/shared/jrf0h6yhy6/1/7067725/185989242/1

A Great Children's Book

One of my all time favorite children's books is; The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear by Audrey & Don Wood.  For one thing, you just can't beat those beautiful illustrations!  They are vivid, intense, colorful and contain full page detail; providing a large variety of items to spark discussion in any classroom or child.  The story is also wonderfully, subtly interactive allowing plenty of time for children and narrator to have open-ended discussions about what is happening in the story, what the Little Mouse should do and what the children think will occur next.  The story also demonstrates a small variety of emotion which is always beneficial to discover with children.

One Great Quote!

I found this quote and feel that it speaks volumes!  There is so much at stake for children in the very early years and the subtle powers of everything around them should not be ignored.


"The conscience of children is formed by the influences that surround them; their notions of good and evil are the result of the moral atmosphere they breathe."
                                            ~ Jean Paul Richter ~

Introduction

My first blog!  I created this blog as the result of a class that I am taking.  I have heard much about blogs but never used them and I was terrified - but it was so easy!!