Tuesday, November 1, 2011

High Expectations

            It is important to not underestimate children because they are young. Young children are creative, curious, and excited to learn. Having high expectations for the children in your classroom encourages the children to meet these expectations. If you have low expectations for your class they will never feel inspired to go above those limits you have set. Young children can discuss and debate meaningful topics such as gender roles, the environment, and advertising. Allowing children to explore topics they are interested in will create a more meaningful learning experience.

Children need opportunities to:
     
-Question events and subjects in the world around them
-Think for themselves
-Know their thoughts and ideas are valuable
               When children are thinking for themselves, coming up with new ideas to study, and exploring these ideas through literature, they are also learning basic literacy skill they will need for the rest of their life. When children are discussing new topics they are exploring vocabulary, gaining cognitive skills, and learning how to share important information with peers. Children also work on reading and writing through looking at texts that deals with their discussions and writing out their thoughts and feelings about what they are discussing. Therefore, not only are they learning but they are also exploring things that are meaningful to them. This helps create a passion and a love of learning. 

4 comments:

  1. Great point! Young children are capable of so much more than we sometimes give them credit for. One example of this is the video we watched about the kindergartners and "Fly Away Home," the book about the homeless boy. It will be important for us to remember to keep our expectations high and believe in our students' abilities throughout our teaching careers.

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  2. I think that always believing in our children is the only way we can truly educate them! If we do not believe in our children, then what do we give them? Less than what they deserve. Having high expectations for our students only allows them to challenge themselves and rise to the challenge and succeed! There is nothing worse a teacher can do for her children than do have low expectations.
    BELIEVE!

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  3. Having high enough expectations for a classroom is a key part of being an effective teacher. Teachers who know just how much to push their students are able to help their children succeed while allowing them to have fun and gain the knowledge that they need. Doing this through pretend play is a great way to implement those skills.

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  4. I love this! It reminds me of that class when one of our professors told us that, as educators, we need to truly believe that every child in our classroom can be anything they want to be- they could be the future president- and that if we didn't genuinely believe this, we were in the wrong profession. By using this core belief and making children aware of how valuable their thoughts and ideas are, we are encouraging them to set their own high expectations for themselves.

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