Reflective Practice Logs Template - Aria Ferrier-Clarke

Reflective Practice Guidance Log 1

Part 1 – Objective Observation(Clearly identify the problem. Examine the “context” of the problem)

Date: March 29, 2011 I was sitting on the red mat with S on my lap when I looked to the middle of the class and saw J was standing there. She was holding a green and yellow maraca in her right hand and shaking it up and down. R then walked over to her and grabbed the maraca. The two children were holding the maraca in their hands and J let out a little cry.

Part 2 – Decision(Clearly identify the guidance strategy and state why the chosen strategy is

appropriate for this child and the situation) (Provide Reference)

In this situation I used redirection because it is easier to redirect a young child. According to Marion (2011) “Older children can more easily redirect their attention than can younger children. When a task has a number of parts, the older child has an advantage because she is able to shift her focus from one aspect to another quickly” (page 61). This implies that it is easier to shift a young child’s attention from one toy or activity to another. For this reason, I attempted to shift R’s attention from the green maraca to another as it I believed that it would deescalate the situation.

Part 3 – Actions(Clearly discuss your actions (what you did and said),

the child’s response and the results of the guidance strategy)

I said “Reina, Julia was playing with the maraca can you give it to her.” J then let go of the maraca and I picked up an orange maraca with my right hand and said “Here Julia, you can have this one.” J then walked over and took the maraca from my hand. R followed behind her reaching out her right hand and going “Unh, unh.” I then picked up a blue maraca and gave that one to R.

Part 4 – Reflection(Clearly discuss your strengths and needs and the changes that you would

make if needed)

Strengths

-reacted quickly to the situation-used a solution that made both children happy-was at the children’s level looking them in the eyes

Needs

-offer the child the maraca opposed to telling the child to give it to the other-go over to the children instead of making them come to you-redirect them first

Discuss the changes that you would make and why you would make them. (If any)

The change I would make would be to instantly redirect the child opposed to telling them to give to toy to the other child. I would change this because J may have misinterpreted what I said and gave the maraca to R.

How would you PREVENT this from happening next time

In order to prevent this from happening in the future I would get more maracas for the classroom or remove them altogether.



Date: March 29, 2011 J was standing in the middle of the room with an orange maraca in her left hand. I walked towards her, put out my finger for her to hold and said “Let’s go change your diaper.” J put her right hand towards her chest, I took a step forward and she then let out a high pitched cry.



I thought that redirection was the best guidance strategy to use in this case as I believed it would get her mind off of having to get her diaper changed. According to Marion (2011) “Diverting or distracting the youngest children accomplishes both of these tasks. An adult can be most helpful by immediately doing something to distract the child from the forbidden activity or steering her toward a different activity” (page 133). In this situation, I steered Julia towards a different activity which was going to the change room. It was more helpful to her as is the redirection deterred her from crying and possibly escalating the situation.



I pointed to the maraca in J’s left hand and said “Julia, can you take that to Shamim for me?” J then began to walk towards the door, I

opened the door and J walked over to Shamim and rose right hand with the maraca up.


make if needed)

Strengths

-looked child in the eyes-made decision quickly-used a technique that allowed the child to go willingly-spoke calmly

Needs

-get down to the child’s level-praise the child for going to the change room

Discuss the changes that you would make and why you would make them. (If any) In this situation the only thing I would change would be how I spoke with the child. Standing up, you are a lot more intimidating to a small child which could have been the reason she reacted negatively.

How would you PREVENT this from happening next time In order to prevent this from happening the next time I will give J a focus point such as a diaper, which will encourage her to go to the change room without becoming upset.



Date: April 4, 2011 I was sitting on the carpet with J standing in front of me with a toy telephone. She was holding it with her right hand up to her right ear and said “Hello?” P then walked over and began grabbing the phone, J then led out a small, high pitched cry.



In this situation I chose to use choices as a guidance strategy. According to Marion (2011) “Over time in a supportive environment, children can learn to make wise decisions and choices” (page 85). For this reason, I believed it would be a good idea to begin providing P with the opportunity to make his own decision of what to do. It is important to allow children to make their own decisions, knowing what good decisions are eventually he would be able to make them on his own in the future.



I said “Pablo, you can either give her the toy and you can play with me or we can play with the phone together.” P turned and continued to play with the telephone.


make if needed)

Strengths-was at the child’s level-looking directly at the child-reacted quickly

Needs-ensure that I establish eye contact with the child-come up with better choices-use different solutions

Discuss the changes that you would make and why you would make them. (If any) The change that I would make would be to use redirection opposed to offering choices. It is easier to redirect an infant than it is to offer choices that they would either understand or choose. The infants also respond a lot better and pay more attention to you when you use redirection as a guidance strategy.

How would you PREVENT this from happening next time In order to prevent this from occurring in the future I would provide more toy phones for the children to use.


Self-Evaluation

What learning took place?

During this assignment, I learned how useful guidance logs can be. When reading and creating the guidance logs, you are able to reflect on how well or poorly a certain strategy was. They will help you to catch yourself, remembering what you did wrong the previous time and will allow you to improve your techniques. These logs allow you to look at both your strengths and needs, helping you learn how to improve your guidance strategies and use ones in a way that will work. It is important for ECEs to take the time to sit back and think about what they have done regardless of how well it went. There is always room to improve you as a teacher and the best way of doing so is by creating a guidance log.

What was challenging?

The challenging part of this assignment was trying to figure out what your strengths and needs are and how to use choices with infants. It is difficult for people to look at what they have done because they may not remember everything that they did. When I was reviewing myself I was unsure if I was forgetting something or if there were some needs that I was unable to identify. After reviewing the logs several times I am still unsure whether I was able to find all of them. The other issue that I had was using choices instinctively when working with the infants. After working with the children for several weeks I learned that they respond very well to redirection and used it very often as a guidance strategy. It is apparent in the logs that I had not had very much practice implementing this strategy and used questions that did not work. It is important to use different strategies when working with children and it takes practice in order to be able to use them effectively.

What was easy?

The easiest part of the assignment was coming up with a decision as to why a certain strategy should have been used. When looking in the textbook as well as the information from class, you learn a lot about the strategies and how and why that strategy should be used. I also knew that diverting and distracting was the best strategy to be used with these children in particular which provided me with several scenarios that I could have used for the logs. Strategies should be used at your discretion, as all children are different and may need modifications when it comes time to guide them.

What would you do on a similar project in the future?

If I were to do a similar project in the future I would get more practice offering choices to children. Offering children good choices takes time to perfect and I must ensure to take more time to practice this prior to completing any other assignments of this nature. When it came time for me to offer a choice to the child I used choices that were ineffective and did not make it very clear to the child. It is important for any caregiver or teacher to know how to offer choices and begin allowing children to make them for themselves in order for them to begin learning how to be independent. Therefore I would take the time to practice coming up with good choices and implementing them with the child in order for me to become a better ECE and spark a child’s need to be autonomous.

Bibliography

Marion, Marian. Guidance of young children . Eighth ed. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc., 2011. Print.

Reflective Practice Logs Template - Aria Ferrier-Clarke

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