Research that Benefits Families

I chose an article to share the positive aspects of Home Visitors. Currently at the school that I work at we do not do home visits. The school I worked at before did do home visits and I feel that we this is a good idea to start. I appreciated a look at each child's unique home situation and the visits gave me a better perspective of the child's life. I also think some parents felt more comfortable when we came to visit.

The article I read, "Home Visits: How Do They Affect Teachers' Beliefts about Teaching and Diversity?" was written by Miranda Linn and Alan B. Bates and it reflected on the impact of 6 Head Start educators and the two home visits they participated in. The first visit took place about 6 weeks into the school year and the second visit at the end of the semester. Participants had to journal about their visits and what they learned from the visit. The visits helped educators to bring diversity into the classroom and what traits their students have picked up from their parents or other family members. It also helped educators understand their students' background and to get a perspective of the makeup of families in our society.

I did choose this article because of my own personal experience with home visits and how I believe they are important part of an early childhood educator's classroom. I also know that we have much diversity in our school and it would help us to understand what some families are made up of and what is going on. At the end of the article there was a series of questions to ask at a home visit and I thought these were very thought-provoking and would provide excellent background information.


Reference:
Linn,M., Bates, A.B.(2010). "Home Visits: How Do They Affect Teachers' Beliefts about Teaching and Diversity?" Early Childhood Educ J (2010) 38:179-185 DOI 10.1007/s10643-010-0393-1

Play in Preschool

I chose the topic of play and how it relates to child development, what types of play best support child development, and is teacher-directed play more effective than children’s free play. I am a huge proponent of play time in preschool. I taught in a three year old classroom last year and had a 45 minute free play time frame. This fall I will be teaching in the four year old classroom and I plan to do the same exact time frame. I observed my children develop fine and large motor skills, social skills, and cognitive skills during this time and then apply these skills to small and large group activities.  

Through our course so far I have learned to pay close attention to a variety of objectives while researching articles. The URL seems to be one of the most important components of researching as well as authors, dates, and legitimate resources/agencies/ etc...

If anyone has any research articles supporting play, I would really appreciate your thoughts and links. I would also like to know your own personal thoughts on play time, your time frame of play, and if you are able to still keep it in your daily routine.