Knowing how children learn is the main component to teaching them properly but there

is also a significant difference between the way that young children and older children learn. I
am prepared to educate your child in a way that satisfies all of their developmental domains;
social, emotional, cognitive, physical, and language, through play and direct experiences such as
John Dewey may suggest. Education should be child centered; education must be both active
and interactive; and education must involve the social world of the child and the community
(Mooney)
Learning must directly satisfy all of the students developmental domains or learning may
not occur. Young children learn through play because their need for direct experiences and trial
and error is so high. It is inappropriate to teach preschool students the information they need for
life experiences while they sit at a desk and do written work or dittos. Preschoolers absolutely
must have hands-on activities or else the cognitive domain is not being met which, in turn, will
hold the child back from satisfying the other four domains. It is also best for all age students to
have another student that is close in age, but slightly older, to guide them through their
experiences since they cant relate to them better as opposed to a grown adult such as the teacher.
Vygotsky coined the term zone of proximal development (ZPD) to refer to the context in
which the childs understanding is furthered as a result of social interactions Vygotsky
explained that play was essential to development and, in fact, the source of it (VanHoorn). Even
as adults, we are more willing to take advice from somebody who is around the same age and
who may have similar experiences so it would make sense to allow older children to teach the
younger children. My classroom will not be teacher-centered but student-centered and all of our
activities will be student initiated. This means that I will closely observe all of the topics or
themes that the students are interested in and then fit that theme into our curriculum. The
students will have decisions to make on a daily basis which will prepare them for making healthy
decisions in the future.
My role as a teacher will be to observe and guide the child if I see inappropriate behavior
or inappropriate play. Dewey thought it was important for teachers to observe the children and
to determine from those observations what kinds of experiences the children are interested in and
ready for. The thought that the educator has a serious responsibility to invest in planning and
organizing for the childrens learning activities (Mooney). Using themes that children are
directly interested in will ensure the eagerness and cognitive abilities of the children and if the
child is engaged cognitively then the other domains will follow without difficulty. Direct
engagement will also limit classroom management since the children will be far too busy
playing to create problems with others but if a problem does occur, my role as a teacher will be
to assist the childs individual needs and give them options so that the learning process can
continue.
The teacher will not be a punisher or instructor but will be an assistor, a guider and an
observer. Students should feel comfortable coming to the teacher with their individual needs or
concerns because there will be an open and welcoming energy in the room from day one. If I
hear the students talk about their interested in animals then I may center the seasons topic
around the types of animals that come around throughout the year and what makes their bodies
or fur more applicable to the different seasons so not only are the children learning about their
seasons they are learning about animals, parts of animals and what makes the difference for the
types of weather. The students will be allowed to explore the types of animals outside during the
seasons, with restrictions, and draw their own life experiences from it. At the end of the lesson,
the students may sit on the carpet in a circle and tell about all of the types of animals they saw
and why they think the animal is out in that particular season. I will assess the childrens growth
through anecdotal notes and report them to you as the parent/guardian, at the end of each
semester or sooner if I feel there may be a delay. Assessment may not always come from the
children verbally telling me what they learned about but I may also quietly observe their skill and
take a note of what I saw them doing or what I heard them saying. After observing and writing
the anecdotal note I will then interpret the information which will tell me if the student is ahead,
on track or behind the traditional milestones. Observing: purposefully gather information,
record: documenting what you have observed. Interpreting: reflecting on what your observations
might mean (Feeney). All of my teaching practices relate on one another. If the students feel
comfortable talking to me about problems then I can take notes on things that bother them in
social situations which can assess the social or emotional aspect. Social/emotional is where a lot
of teacher-centered practices may miss out on important information because of the lack of a
bond between the student and teacher.