Friday, October 3, 2014
Assignment #4
While analyzing the two scenarios presented in the previous exercise I feel that I was more comfortable with generating responses for building and supporting community because I personally haven't been in a situation were I was able to gain experiences in mentoring people under your lead. How do you gain that sort of experience before entering the classroom? Who is it you see for mentoring when facing crossroads at work? My goals is to observe the directors in my work setting and learn from the strategies they use to implement the three sides of the triangle.
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Aloha Johnathan,
ReplyDeleteI too had an easier time with creating responses for building and supporting community, why do you think it was easier for you? Does your upbringing and preschool experiences relate to this aspect? How important is building and supporting community to you?
As for me I am from a tight knit community and I believe that is why I had an easier time creating responses. I too am observing my director, what do you see that they are doing? Are they meeting expectations? Are they coming from all angles of the triangle? What will you use to build your repertoire that you see them doing?
Hi Maika
ReplyDeleteI was the complete opposite of you. I had a much easier time coming up with issues and strategies for the other two sides of the triangle and building and supporting the community was kind of a struggle. It is hard to gain insight from something that you don't really have much experience in. I have never had any mentoring or supervisory experience so I can't say, "From experience I would..." But I do have experience of being managed by directors and I do know what I would like to have from a director. A lot if it comes from having directors that did not quite fit the bill some of the qualities that I would like in a director that I would strive for would be to follow through on things that I say and talk about with staff, treat everyone equally, no favorites, be organized, and advocate for my teachers whether its for materials in the classroom or support. Do you have a strong director to mentor after? What are some qualities that you believe are needed in a director? When you do come to that crossroad and you need advice, who can you turn to besides your director?
I understand why you had an easier time creating responses for building and supporting community. Even though you may feel like you do not have that much experience as a director, I would also observe the ways the director deals with situations. How would you deal and solve the situations? Starting to problem solve in any situation is a great way to develop that habit if finding the problems and locking for the solutions.
ReplyDeleteHi Maika,
ReplyDeleteI can easily see your view when you say it is easier to generate the responses for building and supporting the community. Afterall in the school, this is what we do. We build and support each other as staff members and co workers. We also do this by working with families and supporting them as well. As far as mentoring, it doesn't have to be just in the classroom or in the school. I feel that if you're helping anyone and everyone around you and offering advice, you are mentoring. It may not even relate to ECED but when you offer your help, in my opinion you are mentoring. It's not as hard as you think. I'm sure you've helped and mentored tons of people already.
Hi Maika,
ReplyDeleteI just wrote a response that just seemed to disappear! So if more than one response appear - so sorry. Hopefully I can re-construct my response now :)
In your response, you discuss how lack of experience with certain sides of the triangle can limit your view on being/acting as director. Yet, I wonder how your experience as a teacher with young children could be the experience a director needs. As you work with children, do you mentor and coach? Oversee and manage? Build and develop community? And in what ways does your teaching practice evidence these ideas?
What I wonder about further - is the power dynamic within the relationship between child and teacher. Does teacher hold the most power? Is there sharing of power between child and teacher? Do children ever hold more power than teacher? Now considering the power dynamic and the relationship between child and teacher, how might a director define his position? How is power defined? What is the relationship between teacher and director? Can a grounded, deep, power sharing relationships between teacher and director influence the relationship between child and teacher?
Cheers,
Jeanne
Hi,
ReplyDeleteHow do you plan to build a community? Have you built a community before? How easy do you think people would take to participate in events etc? I think this would be the hardest part for me. I'm not sure how to get people involved or motivated. I hope to learn this from this class.
Katie
Maika,
ReplyDeleteI thought your question about how to get that type of experience before entering a classroom was interesting, i also think it would be difficult to be able to see these perspectives if you haven't yet dealt with them. I guess as you are building yourself as a director you would use allot of trial and analysis to see how things are perceived by your employees and if they are effective or ineffective.