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As I am reading through these stories, it makes me wonder...what are they doing differently that these children have an urge and a yearning for learning? Or is the author only showing the audience what they want to? Because in actuality, children arenʻt curious like that where Iʻm from. Could it be culture playing a role? Location? How can I, as an educator, help to spark childrenʻs interest with learning? I love to learn. I try to make learning fun for my kids at home. But at work, I feel so restricted, so confined and limited to do what needs to be done so that children WANT to learn. They are constantly bouncing from one place to another, not really engaged. They are telling us that they are bored and they donʻt want to play in certain centers. Itʻs not that Iʻm a junk teacher lol..because I provide more than enough learning material and tools for them to explore with. Barchi et. al (2018) express that, they discover that they "exist" and can emerge from anonymity and invisibility, seeing that what they say and do is important, is listened to, and is appreciated: it is a value(p.87)." Maybe children arenʻt feeling valued or important? Maybe this program, or these teachers put so much restriction and so many rules that children need to follow that they are afraid to be curious? Iʻm just a TA in the classroom, and so I play my role there. But I am growing and learning from the Teachers, and so I want the best experience I can get before I decide I would like to move up in rank.
How can I make the childrenʻs learning visible? How can I tell their stories if there are not many to tell? Or am I just not really listening? So many questions, and not enough answers. I feel incomplete where I stand, but itʻs my job. I feel like I am not being the best advocator for my students. We are a cultural-based program, and our culture is very restricted, and I guess thaʻs the choice I have to make. Is there a bigger picture that Iʻm missing?
Barchi et. al further states, "This is why we talk about a child who is competent and strong-a child who has the right to be valued, not a predefined child seen as fragile, needy, incapable." This is how I would like to view each individual in our classroom, as strong and competent, but Work Sampling tells us otherwise. We have to rate these children as Not Yet, In Process, and Proficient. From there, we create our curriculum around what they need help in so that by the end of the year, they are all in the Proficient column(this is what I was told). Why do they need to be all proficient? Donʻt children all grow at their own pace? Why should we have to force things on them? But Work Sampling tells us that they may be predefined and we have to pretty much "mold" them into little human robots?!?!! Iʻm finding everything can be so contradicting, therefore, that is why Iʻm here wondering where my place is in the classroom. I love my job and I love working with children..thatʻs my passion. But I feel like Iʻm working harder than I really should. Any thoughts?
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