I visited my fieldsite on 1-24-13.  My goal was to observe and interact with professonals and children.  I began to do my classroom observations in the Infant and Toddler classroom.  I was intersted in how the professonals in the program did assessments and where services actually began.  There are two teachers and eight children in the classroom.  I found this classroom to be very warm and relaxing.  The teachers were very pleasent with the children and the families who came in with children.  As the parents arrived with their children the teachers introduced me to each family.  As I observed I could see the routine that had been built between them. 
I came with questions and the teachers were very receptive to me.  I learned that for the most part when children came ino their room the services had already been established.  I learned that the assessmets they used were the "Ages and Stages".  In their observations of milestones if they saw where a child was not yet reaching the milestone they would use materials in the classroom to help the child reach the goal.  If that was not successful they did another assessment and then spoke with the parent.They shared with me that sometimes a parent would not believe what the teachers were concerned about.  At that point the the teachers would bring in the program director to help the parent see the concern.  There are times when the parents still did not see the concerns and some would pull the child from the program.
Some of my questions were about what can we do to find services for the students who are not qualifing for resources?  We did some brainstorming and discussed different ways that might be a possibility.  We also did some discussion about funding and different ways to look into the funding of more resources in our local areas.
I left the fieldsite feeling much better about my topic.  I did not know if my topic was enough of a concern to advocate for.  I am finding out in all of my conversations that it is much needed.  I hope that I can help find a way to bring in more resources for our children and the needs that they have.

Oberserving and Interacting in my fieldsite with Colleges

Having Trouble

Hi Girls, could someone please give me some information?  I do not know if I have any followers, I did not get my URL's in correctly and do not know what step to take to get the correct URL for our assignments.  I went back and double checked all of my postings for it.  The last part tells me that there is no match for the URL I pasted after I posted.  Has anyone seen me on here or have you seen any post that I have done. I did respond to two different posts for the first assignment.  Thanks for any help.  I think I am drowning!

Hi Classmates, I still feel so lost in all of this blogging.  I have been reading some of the posts that are up.  I want to become more familiar with this.  I am doing research on "The children who are unable to recieve services"  I have found this to be true in my area.  After the children are screened if they do not have a delay in two area's they will not qualify for services.  I am interested in finding out if that is what you all are finding also.

In my research so far I have interviewed a director and assistant director.  I was looking to get their thoughts on the issues that are current in our area of ECE.  One issue that is very relevant at this time is the Quality Rating System.  I believe that at this time it is being worked on to bring all centers into being quality programs.  I am aware of this as I work for an accreted center and we do have the 4 star rating. I do know that this takes a lot of work but I feel it is a very important issue.
Although I feel this is very important it is active and moving forward.  My personal concern that I have is in the area of services for children.  I feel that children need for action to be taken to help students receive services when they do not meet the criteria that is already in place.  I am speaking of the students who will fall between the cracks because they are not eligible for an existing program.  In expressing my concerns for this issue to the people I have interviewed, I have found that there is a need in this area.  Children are able to receive services with a very good program Zero to Three but if they do not meet two areas of delay they will no longer qualify for services.  The problem is that they may still need services.  I feel that we need to assure that all children will receive the services they need. I feel that there should be a component for children to receive services in their natural environment.
 Three topics that I am thinking of focusing my research on are:  Reliable Assessment, Resources Available, and Delays that do not meet established criteria.  In my thinking of the issue I have referred to my area of interest as Speech/Language.  I am not sure that is the big umbrella topic or if I will find it to be placed under another name.  At this point this is where my thinking has been.

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