Thank You To My Colleagues

I would like to thank each of you for the part you play in my success as I travel through this program. The encouragement and support you provide for me is exceptional. I have learned so much through your posts and discussions. You are truly an amazing group of people.I wish you the best as we continue with this endeavor.

Quotes About Children

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.

~Stacia Tauscher

Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children.

~Walt Disney

Children need love most when they deserve it the least.

~Susy Yelh

Children seldom misquote. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.

~Author Unknown

If you want your children to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others.

~Haim Ginott

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.

~ James Baldwin

A rose can say "I love you",
orchids can enthrall,
but a weed bouquet in a chubby fist,
yes, that says it all.
~Author Unknown

Assessment in Early Childhood

School readiness,  knowing how children are learning, to see if children are making progess, and to see how effectively children are be taught are among many reasons that children are assessed. After a child is tested, valuable information is provided to plan and individualize instruction. I think some assessing is required to know where the child is academically. Assessments should reflect the diversity of intelligences within the classroom. All children learn differently so one would think they would need to be assessed differently. Meaningful instruction includes singing, using hands-on activites, and other stategies. Educators could introduce assessments as a learning process and not a stressful painful event. However; I think we are assessing our children to death. I teach second grade and in the next few weeks we will start some major assessments that will last for three weeks. This is way too many! It is also unfair the way teachers are assessed and parents are held unaccountable.

When it comes to educating the whole child, many factors are present. When healthy children enter school feeilng safe, they are ready to learn. Children are more likely to stay in school when they have a connection with the school. Challenging and engaging academic programs need to be accessible for all children. Most importantly, children need to be supported by caring and loving adults. It is esssential, for educators, to know about children. What kind of environment do they live in? Do they have adequate food and sleep? Who takes care of them? Some children are raising themselves and face many issues that detours them from being successful students.


Assessing Children in Nicaragua

A few years ago I went on a mission trip to Corn Island in Nicaragua. I was able to visit one of the schools there, but I didn't know much about their testing procedures. After doing some research, I was able to find out that the Nicaraguan Govenment invests in education, but the student performance is poor. In many developing countries, children enrolled in primary school for three and as many as six years can barley read and are not able to comprehend or understand a simple text. RTI International designed a program, for International Development, to help educators in low-income countries break the pattern of illiteracy among the poor. RTI is administering the EGRA (Early Grade Reading Assessment) to first, second, and third graders across Nicaragua with the hope it will become a tool for their education system to obtain usable data on early-grade literacy. Finding out early the adjustments needing to be made is essential to overcome academic failure.