Essay 2

To reflect on my professional career path as an Early Child Care Teacher, I have gain

several unique views on how children develop, and the skills needed to assist them. In this essay,

I will describe my standpoint on what I believe to be true about child development and why I

chose to work in this profession.

I chose to work in this profession because I believe this was my calling to care for

children. I always knew that I wanted to be a teacher, even as a little girl. I have a younger sister

and I always taught her things that I knew or learned from school. As I got older, I realized that

this was something I could see myself doing in the future.

My philosophy is that if you teach and shape children early on it will have a major

influence on their development and adulthood. Children are natural learners and given the right

tools and support from teachers is very important. For example, children learn through

exploration and observation. The fact that a childs brain is like a sponge and grows rapidly

interest me. Childrens early years of life is the most crucial because their brains capacity

develops 90 percent before they reach age 5. (ECE Degrees, 2013) What I am looking for out of

my experience with teaching is more effective strategies to ensure that the children are learning

things efficiently as possible. To do so, I will use my knowledge of assessment to improve my

skills in teaching and to get to know the children I am supporting. This will help determine the

decisions made in the learning environment that I provide for the children. I will make sure that I

can carefully assessing each child individually, to find their interest and to help support

development. I will plan and implement lessons based on my finds and results from the

childrens assessments.
 As a teacher, it is my duty to make sure that I make the classroom a positive learning

environment for the children to feel comfortable and supported. Something in the reading that

stuck out to me was the topic on culture. It stated that as a teacher, it is easy to assume that your

way is the right way and when it comes to culture there are many right ways. (Jablon, Dombro,

& Dichtelmiller ,2013) Culture and diversity is a topic that I plan I really want to teach my

classroom. I believe that children learn best when they have materials available to them that they

can observe, explore, and ask open ended questions about. For example, materials from different

cultural backgrounds. I think teaching children at a young age how to respect and understand

different culture can really make a difference in the world. This is something I feel strongly

about, and would like to have in my classroom. I want to have an anti-bias classroom. I want my

children to feel as if they can accomplish anything no matter their race, economic background,

gender etc.

There are many qualities that I feel that a teacher must have in order to effectively care for

children. Teachers should be understanding, comfort children, patient, open-minded, and

compromising. One quality that I feel very strongly about is the ability to listen and respond to

children. No matter how overwhelming the classroom can be, I want to make sure the children in

the classroom know that they have a voice and it matters. Sometimes listening is more powerful

than speaking. We often think we know how children feel or what they are thinking just from

watching them, but children can be an amazing source of information if we just take the time to

listen and ask questions. (Jablon, Dombro, & Dichtelmiller,2013)

So, its safe to say that every teacher isnt perfect but making sure that the children are

learning things and really getting something out of the experience is the main goal. I want my
children to feel like they really have someone on their side that cares for them, and want them to

achieve their goals. Teaching is a working and learning progress not only for the children but for

the teachers as well. Im open to learning new things and expanding on ideas to improve my

teaching style and the way I care for the children.

References

Jablon, Dombro, & Dichtelmiller (2013) Chapter 2. Using Observation to Build Relationships

Early Childhood Education Degrees (2013) The Milestones of Your Little Rocket Scientists
Development