Thank You!

Class,

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Blog. I know I have enjoyed reading yours (at least the one's I could pull up)! I hope you all enjoyed my two cents as well. Good luck to everyone in the futre!

My Quotes:

Babies are such a nice way to start people.  ~Don Herrold


Every baby needs a lap.  ~Henry Robin

My passion is infant development (although I love working with many different ages)! I love learning about the impact the early years have on children as well as adults. Love on those babies and watch them grow.

Josie

Michele's Room: Assessments

Thank you for sharing. I agree that there is more to know about children then what we find out from a standardized test. I think there may be a place for them but when they interfere with a child graduating or not it is a problem. I wish public schools would focus more on individuality and different ways children learn. Teaching to different learning styles is crucial for the academic success of all children

Josie

Testing for Intelligence

I think it is important for early childhood educators to assess children however not in the same fashion public schools test children. Young children have short attention spans and grow rapidly and have times of rest as well. Standardize testing does not take in consideration family structure, individualization or cultural background. I found an article that covered the topic of assessments. The article titled Assessing Young Children covered 8 types of assessments used in early education (some more appropriate than others). The eight assessments include observations and checklists, anecdotal records, running records, portfolios, home inventories, developmental screenings, diagnostic assessments, and standardize assessments. I believe teachers can use observation, running records, anecdotal records, portfolios, and home inventories as assessments to guide their planning or “instruction” to better serve the children in their care. I think developmental screenings are useful to detect any developmental delays. I do not think diagnostic assessments are reliable for the classroom and standardized assessments are for policy makers.

I looked up assessments for school aged children in Ireland. It seems as though teachers or parents observe children and if either feel as though a child needs a formal assessment the process begins there. The articles I read listed reasons for assessing children are either for delays or for gifted children. I did not find actual tools for assessing children I found more about the process deadlines. For example if a principal informs parents of a developmental concern he has 3 months to administer the assessment.    

Josie Zbaeren

Case, B.J., & Gudderni, M. (2004, February). Assessing young children retrieved from

http://www.pearsonassessments.com/