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  • ♪♪♪

  • ♪ Down came the rain and washed the spider out ♪

  • ♪ Out came the sun and dried up all the rain ♪

  • ♪ and the itsy bitsy spider crawled up the spout again ♪♪

  • That's your favorite song, again?

  • Again?

  • ♪ The itsy bitsy spider crawled up the water spout ♪

  • ♪ Down came the rain-- ♪♪

  • (Claire Knox) All of our competencies

  • with regard to understanding child development

  • and understanding dual language learners

  • and understanding mental health issues

  • for young children and understanding special needs,

  • all of these competencies weave together

  • into something that has a character in the early years

  • of life that is different than the character that it has

  • in later years.

  • All gone.

  • Oh, a little bit more actually.

  • (Claire Knox) What's important about early childhood

  • is that it's early childhood, that it is a time in life

  • when children are laying down foundations

  • that are gonna make a difference in terms of

  • their relationships with the world around them,

  • with how they learn, with how they think about things,

  • with how they handle mistakes, with how they deal with things

  • that don't work, with how they feel about working hard

  • to accomplish things.

  • That's what we're doing, and that's why it's important,

  • and that's why it's special.

  • The connection between studies of child development

  • and what we're doing with young children

  • in the early childhood setting is critical,

  • and it provides an essential foundation

  • for all the work that we do to prepare teachers

  • of young children.

  • So when you look at the areas of research

  • that are most informative for our field,

  • there have been incredible advances in terms of

  • what we know about how children think

  • and how they develop knowledge

  • and how they construct knowledge.

  • That has really influenced then how we theorize about the child

  • as a learner and the adult as someone who supports that

  • meaning-making child, so as we think about how do we prepare

  • teachers to work with young children,

  • we need a very strong foundation in knowing who the child is.

  • You notice that we need something there.

  • Will any of these things work?

  • Yeah.

  • (Mary Jane Maguire-Fong) One of the things

  • that the study of child development

  • provides us is that children are meaning-making creatures from

  • the moment of birth.

  • They arrive at birth gathering information from the world

  • around them, organizing that information,

  • constructing concepts about themselves,

  • about others, about the object world.

  • That process continues throughout early childhood.

  • What we can be mindful of, those of us who are preparing teachers

  • to work with young children, is how do we help teachers

  • think about the image of the child as a learner

  • and the image of a teacher

  • who supports that child in learning,

  • and what does it mean to teach and to learn when you're working

  • with children from birth through 5 years of age?

  • Here, would you like that?

  • (Mary Jane Maguire-Fong) The organizing principles

  • that I would hope that a teacher

  • preparing to work with young children be offered

  • include a very strong foundation in the image of the child

  • as one who constructs understanding

  • from everyday experiences.

  • (Claire Knox) And so

  • developmentally- apppropriate practice

  • has to draw not only on what we know about

  • developmental science and typical patterns and trends

  • in terms of children's social-emotional development,

  • their cognitive development,

  • their development as whole people,

  • but it also calls on us to really think about

  • who's in front of us

  • in terms of what we know about typical development--

  • Can I have that?

  • I was using it first.

  • (Claire Knox) But also the individual,

  • the culture that person is in.

  • Who is this person who's reacting this way?

  • Later I can give you, but--

  • (Claire Knox) What we know about typical pattern and trend

  • and what we know about how children learn

  • and how their behavior changes is like a reference library.

  • We use that as we're working with individual children,

  • individual families, and individual contacts

  • as a resource, but none of that answers the question of,

  • what do I do in the classroom this afternoon?

  • The circle was very, very sad,

  • and Mommy asked him--

  • Baby, why are you crying?

  • Because nobody want to play with me.

  • Why you not ask the square?

  • (Claire Knox) Because I can't answer that question

  • until I also factor into what I'm thinking about

  • the needs and interests of those children,

  • the needs and interests of those families,

  • the challenges that we're facing.

  • What's going on in our community?

  • The contacts that we're in,

  • who's gonna be there in the classroom that day,

  • what kind of caring community I'm trying to build,

  • and what the skills and competencies of the children

  • are in that process.

  • Dump it out and try again?

  • Angel.

  • Angel?

  • Yeah.

  • Are you calling Angel?

  • She's outside right now.

  • Can you see her from there?

  • Thinking about her?

  • Up.

  • Up?

  • You're thinking about going up?

  • We're gonna stay here for a little bit.

  • Do you wanna read a story with us?

  • There are lots of books here.

  • You take a look outside. You say, "Hello."

  • Early care and education is all about relationships to me.

  • That's the way I define it,

  • is that it's all about relationship building.

  • Are you gonna go get it?

  • What are you looking for?

  • (Alice Nakahata) This goes back a lot

  • to how important it is for children

  • to feel emotionally secure

  • so that then they have the freedom

  • to explore, to learn, to be self-confident,

  • and all that comes from the kind of nurturing

  • and the kinds of interactions and relationships

  • that they have had in that growing up period.

  • You went around?

  • You went around?

  • (Mary Jane Maguire-Fong) Part of our image as a classroom

  • is we've got a triangle of relationships.

  • We've got children, teachers, and the families,

  • and so how do we engage in dialogue alongside the families

  • occasionally so that they, too, can inform our thinking about

  • their children's ways of learning and thinking?

  • I think that the children want to spend time with

  • their families and their friends and their parents

  • and their grandparents.

  • Some of our children come from very extended families,

  • so there's other people in the home,

  • and I know that they are very important,

  • and they, too, are a part of the child's development.

  • So the family part, for a teacher to say to a parent,

  • to a grandparent, to an auntie, "Here's what we do together."

  • But in working with families what really came across is that

  • is a context for each child.

  • They are the primary caretakers of that child,

  • and that child will learn values,

  • will be able to do things within that context.

  • I think one of the challenges in terms of getting students

  • to be acquainted with the impact of families

  • is for them to see the differences

  • and also to be open to those differences

  • and to be respectful of those differences

  • and how much impact they have on the way

  • that people raise young children.

  • All that asphalt goes down, and the grater goes over,

  • and what does it do?

  • It flattens it out?

  • (Mary Jane Maguire-Fong) California developed

  • the foundations and the framework