Early Childhood Professionals and Quality

Ms. May-Ie Tan's answers to questions related to early childhood professionals as well as her own goals are stated below:

1. What issues regarding quality and early childhood professionals are being discussed where you live and work? 

Current issues:

One of the many perks in working in an international school is that my classroom does not depend on public funds, therefore as a classroom teacher I do not have to worry about replying on standards, testing, and accountability rule to get funding.  Elsewhere, in the United States, federal and state mandates are pushing academic skills and testing down to younger children, even preschoolers.  Here at M’KIS, I am working hard to put more emphasis on promoting child development, active, play-based learning, and hands-on exploration for my students.  For us here at M’KIS, we discussed the importance of active play-based learning and how we are balancing this with our academic learning.  

2. What opportunities and/or requirements for professional development exist?

I am very fortunate that each teacher here at M’KIS has a substantial amount of P.D. funds which we may use towards our professional development.  In addition, our school provides in-services on campus for teachers who wish to take them.  Our school focus is on technology and reading this school year.  Therefore, there were weekend in-services for Google for Educators and Reading Comprehension Workshop.  Teachers are also encouraged to attend the EARCOS Teachers Conference in Spring.

3. What are some of your professional goals?

My professional goals has to tie in to the school's Action Plan.  This school year, my professional goals are:

Goal #1

Growth Goal: The KPA grade level team will have completed 3 curriculum maps and have these published on the CMS (Curriculum Mapping Service) website by December 20th, 2013.

The goal ties to the 2013/2014 School Action Plan 1.1 Utilize Multiple Measures of Assessment to Drive Instruction, Resources, and Planning 1.1.3 Consistent with the published Curriculum Review Cycle, continue in the Monitoring and Adjustment phase for all aspects of the following curricula: Health, Math, PE, Science, Social Studies

Goal #2 

Growth Goal: To apply the three ring application and other Google for Educator Applications to better analyze and use student data to implement effective interventions/instruction.  This will allow me to use assessments and frequently monitor academic progress to develop effective lesson plans, using instructional strategies that will focus on student weaknesses and use their strength to achieve their academic goal.
The goal ties to the 2013/2014 School Action Plan 1.1  Utilize Multiple Measures of Assessment to Drive Instruction, Resources, and Planning 1.1.4       Develop a compendium of student assessment tools commonly utilized in the school including standardized measures formative assessment types, summative assessment types, portfolios, presentations, digitized presentations and the plethora of other measures in use.

4. What are some of your professional hopes, dreams, and challenges?

I would like to be able to better challenge my students and continue to help them learn and fulfill their life dreams.

The conversation with Ms. Tan provided me with the reinforced understanding that not all issues relate to all schools similarly and that some aren't affected by various problems that stem from, for example, standardized testing. It also gave me the realization that professional development and reaching individual goals are often limited to a school's funds because many rarely take, or have the chance, to receive additional development stemming from one's own funding.