Click on any of the thumbnail images for a better look.  Just close out the image to go back.

In practicums, students apply skills with children that are learned through coursework.  It's important to learn how to supervise children in large groups. Students spend between 9 and 12 hours a week practicing these skills at sites approved by the program advisor.

 

Students are required to plan and present activities with children.  A supervising teacher evaluates each activity.  Depending on the activity and the placement, these lesson plans can be presented to large groups, small groups, or individual children.

Students also learn to interact appropriately with children during choice or work time.  Through observation, students learn how to meet the needs of  individual children.  We take our profession seriously, and understand the importance of working with children, their parents, and also educating society about the value of what we do.  We advocate for ourselves, and for the children every chance we get.

 

                                               

Another part of working with children is knowing when to step in and interact with them, guiding their way, and when to let them express creativity on their own.  Teachers need to provide developmentally appropriate materials to facilitate learning.

 

Quality of interaction is an important factor.  Caregivers should always model correct language usage.  We also want to promote vocabulary and speaking abilities in children, so we want to ask open-ended questions that encourage creativity.

 

Instructors often arrange for guest speakers to come and discuss an area of their expertise.  Speakers come from a variety of areas within the industry.  Here a speaker discusses child abuse and neglect.

Our program has many resource books with suggested ideas to help students become aware of appropriate activities that can be done with children.  Students also learn a lot by exploring preschool materials for themselves.  Here students learn about science concepts in workshops facilitated by the instructor. 

 

 

We feel children should have fun learning, and we try to model that by making learning fun for students.  Although students aren't required to actually eat moldy bread, we try to show students what children can learn by smelling and looking at it.  Just as children learn through their senses, so do we. 

                                                               

 

Back to top