[Scion]

There are several ways one can help a child recognize and regulate their emotions as outlined in the module are the following:

1. Use a visual manipulative like a feelings chart to show how emotions vary in intensity.

2. Using a body check; describing their body language in the moment to them and tell them what that body language tells me.

3. physical play that incorporates striking, kicking, catching, and environmental exploration.

4. Self calming breathing practices!

[Scion]

In all honesty, I haven’t figured out what to do that works for me quite yet. I don’t believe I’ve experienced enough stress at work for it to be able to count as ‘compassion fatigue.’ If I have and just haven’t identified it as such, I think talking your feelings and thoughts out with a coworker or your Director can be very helpful. They can help provide you the space/leeway to recharge at least a little while at work, and then it’s up to you to finish taking care of yourself when you get home.

[Scion]

To be completely honest, I pray. When I’m feeling overwhelmed or stressed while at work, I just funnel my emotions into silent, mental prayers to God and I try to focus on what I’ve been taught and what I know instead of those said emotions. When I’m at home, guided Christian meditations and laying on my bed with the lights off and listening to music really helps, too. When I have the energy for it, journaling/writing about my feelings really helps as well.

[Scion]

A single child crib with a firm mattress that fits snug to the frame of the crib. It should have a fitted sheet unique to the child on it, and ideally the crib should be against the wall with no gaps. I think the baby should also have access to a blanket if need be, but perhaps that is unnecessary.

[Scion]

At the preschool I work at, we do pretty well by teaching the kids new dances and little aerobics/stretching videos incorporated at the end of our screen time activity. We don’t teach new dances all the time, but we do play familiar and new songs in the form of zumba dances or other types of videos that have the watcher mirror the activity of the person leading the activity in the video itself.

[Scion]

At my Preschool, we include a good amount of healthy and reasonable opportunities for the children to make voluntary decisions about what they want for themselves. We let them choose whether or not they want to brush their teeth after every meal, and we provide meals with a variety of different foods to try. They are welcome to eat what they want out of what we offer, and if they change their mind about wanting to try something, we give it to them! I noticed that we don’t do a lot in trying to make healthy habits fun. We just have them do it and explain how important it is to take care of yourself and why. We do have a cute bilingual song we sing for cleanup time, but that’s kind of it!

[Scion]

I would point them out as we went along. We have two open floor planned rooms at our facility, each having their own emergency exit. I would most certainly point those out and tell them how we would use them for fires and in the case of intruders. In order not to make the parents paranoid by talking too much about safety procedures, I would probably ask them at the end if they wanted (extra) information about safety procedures, maybe pertaining to power outages, lockdowns, and earthquakes.

[Scion]

I would first go to my lead teacher and then my director to ask and/or verify that what I’m seeing is viable and completely possible. I would then ask my director what the best course of action is, and call into CPS and make a report. If I had more flexibility in the things I was able to do, I would personally want to ask the child what’s been going on or how they got the injury, but maybe that’s not something we’re supposed to do. I know one of our handouts states “Do NOT press for details, you do not need to prove a case”, but that doesn’t seem to cover whether or not we can ask the child at all about how they may have gotten an injury. Do we wait for the child to come to us about it? That doesn’t seem right because the handouts also stated that the child often can’t or won’t speak up about what’s going on with them, in the case of abuse.

[Scion]

My biggest worry is not being able to ultimately ‘control’ their decisions. I can tell them and tell them not to do something, or to PLEASE do something, but in the end, it’s up to them how they answer. And that goes for so many different things; whether it be that they don’t pick their nose, put things in their mouths, to go put a jacket on, to go to sleep during nap time, and so on. I feel like the facility I work at is a rather safe place, but there is a large homeless population where I live, and I worry about intruders or trespassers walking around or trying to get in, and them having a gun or a weapon of some sort.

[Scion]

My advice would be to remember to be objective and not subjective about the situation. Don’t read into tones or attitudes or intentions that are likely not even there. You are there as the professional and are expected to act as such. I always give most of the ‘floor’ to the parents/ family members, and let them do most of the talking while I merely just listen and try to be as affirming and helpful as possible. This all, of course, is coming from someone who is only a Center Aide, and I have been told to bring all conflict and issues to my lead teacher or director whenever possible. So more than anything, just be level-headed, polite, understanding, and open-minded to what the parents/family members have to say. They have so much more on their plates and going on in their lives than we could imagine, and we need to be there to support them! Not to solve all their life’s problems so to speak, but to provide input and aid.

[Scion]

If I were the parent of a young child, I would want trust more than anything. Trust that they would teach the truth, that they would keep my child safe from harm, and that they would love and nurture my child with the same level of care that I would myself. Three fears I would have would be teachers ‘teaching’ opinions and baseless beliefs instead of hard facts, not watching my child closely enough, and my child having a teacher who isn’t dedicated and passionate about their job. I would want my theoretical children to have a teacher that cares about them, their job, and about teaching real truth over anything else.

[Scion]

I think a potentially powerful way to get children engaged in meaningful learning is finding a means that is relevant and accessible for all of them, something that as many of them as possible are interested in or have prior knowledge about, whatever the capacity it is in. I like the idea of involving them all in a song or dance that they all know that we can all sing and dance to, or perhaps reading a book together or going on a walk together and asking simple, open-ended questions about what’s going on and/or what we’re observing as we go along.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by  Scion.

[Scion]

I personally struggle a lot when it comes to creating schedules. I am only a Center Aide, who has no real control of the curriculum or scheduling; but someone else in this forum made the great suggestion of scheduling around meal times. I really like the idea of blocking times out around meals, since that’s something everyone is doing all at the same time in the same place.

[Scion]

Are there any components of a good early learning environment that you think are especially important? Considering the fact that we’re working with early learning here, I think it’s very safe to say that each component of an early learning center is critical. I think another way to answer this question would be to see what can be lumped together or incorporated together, such as a the library and literacy/writing area sharing a space, or creative art, music, and dramatic play sharing a space. I answer this specific question the way I do because, again, I strongly believe that young children need to be exposed to as much edifying and integral parts of life as possible. So in turn, we should have as many interest centers available as possible in order to help shaped well-rounded individuals.

[Scion]

Overall, I think it’s important to remain factual and logical about the information you’re about to share, while ensuring you are being as polite and accommodating to the family’s frayed emotions as possible. Before you go to the parents and/or family of the child in question, you need to have done good and thorough documented objective observations of the child– data that is based on evidence, and not opinion, as the module puts it. You want to come to the meeting or discussion with the family prepared and with resources. We don’t want to give the families reason to feel as if they are backed into a corner and need to get defensive or deflective. We want to come to them with a well prepared discussion as well as some options and referrals for moving forward. Everything we do and say is supposed to be for the best of the child, after all.