A Fight over Childhood Obesity

I recently found this article pertaining to a fast food restaurant chain by the name of "Jack in the Box."  They have announced that they will do away with toys in the children's meals.  This is to promote a healthier eating habit.  They have also had healthier meal choices for children's meals.  I believe this is one way to eliminate the childhood obesity battle.  However, I do believe it should start in the home first, parents make the choices of what their children should eat.  It is easy just to feed a child what they want because you know that they will eat it but the encouragement of new foods needs to be introduced.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43483446/ns/business-consumer_news/t/jack-box-stop-offering-toys-kids-meals/from/toolbar?GT1=43001

A Fond Farewell

This class has been quite adventurous in the aspects of Early Childhood Development.   I have enjoyed learning and developing thoughts from my colleagues.  It goes to show that it does not matter what aspects of ECE we come from.  We all have the same common goal of educating young children and their parents.  I hope to see many of you in my upcoming class Effective Programs and Practices.  Again, this is a fond farewell not goodbye for I will see some of you in the next class until then Happy Learning!!!!

"Unity" a poem for Child Development

Unity

By Cleo V. Swarat

I dreamed I stood in a studio
And watched two sculptors there,
The clay they used was a young child’s mind
And they fashioned it with care.

One was a teacher:
the tools she used were books and music and art;
One was a parent
With a guiding hand and gentle loving heart.

And when at last their work was done,
They were proud of what they had wrought.
For the things they had worked into the child
Could never be sold or bought!

And each agreed she would have failed
if she had worked alone.
For behind the parent stood the school,
and behind the teacher stood the home!

Assessment in Canada

I was curious as to what Canada did for standarized testing in their classrooms.  While doing research, I found an interesting website with article debating whether standarized testing is right for elementary children.. Even though I do not know what kind of testing they do I found this information to be interesting since we are discussing whether standardized testing is appropriate or not. 

The article talks about a teacher organization in Ontario wanting to halt standardized testing for elementary school children.  They cite that standarized testing causes children to miss out on information pertaining to curriculum subjects.  I actually agree with this to a certain extent, I believe that in elementary school children should focus more curriculum subjects.  In my opinion,  let our children learn as they grow, do not stress them out at an early age.  This could have adverse effects on children they could have behavior issues or serious emotional stressors.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2010/08/16/standardized-testing.html

The Assessment of Young Children

In my classroom, we use the assessment tool DIAL-3 on our children.  The DIAL 3 assesses the four early childhood educational domains cognitive, physical, social/emotional, and language skills  it also includes self-help skills.  I like this assessment because it gives me an insight as  to what the child needs to be worked on.  I do the test at the beginning of the school year and that is what I  use to develop my IEP's in the beginning as well as observations. The DIAL-3 can be done in a day whereas other assessments take awhile.  I have used the Lap-D, but I feel as though it takes to long for testing and the children can lose interest in it.  I believe that we should test children, that is how we learn from them.  This is a way we can help them progress in school.  The whole idea for early childhood education is teach the child at an early age and that is what the assessment are there for.

http://psychcorp.pearsonassessments.com/HAIWEB/Cultures/en-us/Productdetail.htm?Pid=PAa13700


I know in the public school system they use the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System or CATS because it is mandated by the state. CATS provided statewide test results as percentages of students scoring at any of four performance levels: novice, apprentice, proficient and distinguished. Kentucky's goal under CATS was to reduce the number of students performing at the lowest of these levels (novice and apprentice), while increasing the number performing at the higher levels (proficient and distinguished).  I do not know much  about CATS testing because my daughter just started in the public school system.   I can not pass judgement on this testing system yet but I will as soon as I learn more about it.

http://www.education.ky.gov/KDE/HomePageRepository/Proof+of+Progress/Commonwealth+Accountability+Testing+System+(CATS)+Results.htm